Your brand cannot hide from Google (The Cover Story of Personal Branding Magazine last month). Every move you make online is kept in search engines and the only one’s that can be removed are those that you create yourself. Your blog, website, LinkedIn profile, Facebook profile, Twitter profile, Ning profile and a few others that rank high are in your control because you can take them down and they will be tossed out of Google (aka there will be no url for the crawlers). You CAN’T remove information that others post about you, even if it’s your own work that has been cited in a blog, published in an online resource or one of your comments from another blog. Of course, in certain situations you can ask an author to remove your name or article, but that doesn’t always work, especially in a content driven “World Content We
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So where does this all go? When someone searches your name in a search engine, any website that lists your name will be queued up in the search, based on how well the site is optimized. Your goal is to have everything about you support your overall personal brand. You don’t want negative publicity, but you do want a lot of hits for your name, on the top resources. This doesn’t always happen and when you become a micro-celebrity of sorts, your goal may change. Your new goal will be having the first 3 pages speak highly of you or be informative in some form or another. Everything else will remain, in what I call your Personal Brand’s Permanent Record. It is the virtual and transparent you kept for life. If you compare this to the longevity of a blog, think of it as a journal. A journal that is kept in conjunction with how people feel about you, and how you feel about yourself. Remember that self-impression = perception (listen to my Boston College talk on this) when deciding and capitalizing on your brand.
Example: Heidi Fleiss
In the early 1990’s Heidi Fleiss held and created some of Hollywood’s most coveted and (envied) sexual secrets. Her knowledge and understanding of the male and female psyche was gained by becoming the most well-know Madam of all time. Her rise and fall captivated the world and sent shivers down the spine of all who participated and pardoned within her empire. After the smoke had cleared both the state and federal jury trials, Heidi served three years in Federal prison for tax evasion. Heidi, now lives in Crystal, Nevada where she is opening Heidi’s Stud Farm, The first luxury brothel where women can pick and choose the man of their dreams.
The green means a positive brand ranking, while the gray means neutral and red means negative.
Note: I had to edit her results because the images that showed up first were inappropriate for this blog.
Results Analyzed
- 1: Her official website.
- 2: Her wikipedia entry comes off clean in Google, just like all other terms, but if you read it, you will quickly pick up on the fact that she’s been arrested for illegal possession of drugs and driving under the influence.
- 3: “Heidi Fleiss grabbed headlines in the 1990s after she was arrested for running a high-priced prostitution ring serving Tinseltown’s rich and famous. Now, the former “Hollywood Madam” is capitalizing on her notoriety — legally.”
- 4: This is her new project where women can buy the men of their dreams. It’s legal in the state where she’s doing it, but it’s still absurd.
- 5: This one is tricky because it reviews her entire life, which is mostly about her crime spree. I’m leaning more to negative publicity for her brand on this one.
- 71: She was arrested on prescription drug possession charges and her mug shot photo was not a pretty picture.
- 72: Same as 71.
- 73: Same as 2.
- 74: When a personal brand aligns themself with a bad brand, it hurts their image as well. In this case it’s the ear bitting Mike Tyson.
Conclusion: Unless someone really wants to do a full throttle background check on your brand, they will not go past the first few pages. That is not to say that the rest is not fair game. Protect your brand by making the right moves over the duration of your life. Perform self-checks so you can be prepared and react.
Note: Your permanent record in this way is also a good thing because you can reflect on your life when you are older.
