When MySpace was big, did you have a profile on the site? (Don’t be shy…I’m sure a lot of folks did!) But then Facebook came along, and a few years later, Twitter reared its head—so you probably left that old profile out in the dust.
Did you ever go back and delete your MySpace profile? What about your profiles on other websites, such as an old blog or photo-uploading site?
Here are a few compelling reasons to spend some time deleting those old profiles:
- Avoid inconsistent information. If you signed up for a blogging platform in college, you probably weren’t too concerned about the information you shared on it at the time. But now that you’re a career professional looking to maintain your online brand, you probably want to take a second look at those profiles and delete ones that convey an inconsistent image of you. Even if your interests have just changed or your career path has gone in a different direction, you should either update the information (if you plan on using the site for the future) or delete your presence on it altogether. You wouldn’t want to confuse anyone looking for information about you.
- Get rid of inappropriate or unprofessional content. Before your professional online presence was an important part of your job search and career, you might have signed up for sites based on your interests that don’t exactly share your most professional side. For example, in the beginning days of MySpace, many people had public profiles with pictures of partying—probably not something you want a potential employer to see (no matter how old the pictures are).
- Tighten up your online brand. A lot of us are quick to sign up for a new website or platform without knowing how much we’ll actually use it in the future. By deleting inactive or inappropriate profiles, you can focus your online brand to the few sites you actually use on a daily basis and direct your followers to those.
So, when you have some downtime in your day, search for old profiles you might still have lurking around on the web and try to remove content that may not line up with your existing online brand. After all, you wouldn’t want an employers’, clients’ or potential networking connections first impression to be from one of those profiles, would you?
