Does Google Hurt or Help You?

As the father of daughters I can only hope that time drags, but inevitably the dating years will come.  Before one of my daughters even leaves the house on any sort of “outing” I plan on navigating a few of the major search engines to see exactly what type of person my daughter thinks she is leaving the house with.  I do not plan on being the overbearing crazy parent, but there is a difference between trust and ensuring those that you care about most are safe.  

There may be those that find this a little much, but a university recruiter or hiring manager that plans on having any sort of success in their job is going to do likewise.  It would be naïve to think that you as a prospective candidate wouldn’t be researched as part of the interviewing process.  An application and brief discussion being sufficient is a thing of the past.  There is too much data out there that is too easily accessed.  Companies know a bad hire will cost them thousands of dollars in separation costs, replacement spending, and lost productivity during training. (Williams, 2013)  Before committing to a salary and benefits, or admittance to a program due diligence will be taken to ensure an individual meets the necessary qualifications and will be a good fit from a values and culture standpoint as well.  

As indicated by the video your web presence can be a positive influence to your personal brand.  How can you use the internet as a tool rather than a hindrance?

Develop a Strategy

The first step is to identify the channels that are out there and what the purpose of those channels is going to be.  

For example I limit my Facebook connections to…friends.  My plan is to use LinkedIn, Twitter, and Google+ for a broader but more professional focused intent.  I still try to be mindful of everything that gets uploaded to the internet that has my name attached to it.  I know that whatever I post while logged into Facebook to a degree is now Facebook’s property.  What I mean is that data is now on their servers and out of my immediate control.  However with LinkedIn, Twitter, and Google+ I plan, even hope that complete strangers will view it and it will shape their perception of me for the better.  Customize this to your purposes, just be mindful of what settings are in place on your social media accounts.  

Social media is not the only way to develop your personal brand.  Getting involved in specialty groups and extra-curricular activities will get your name out there.  Even if the group has nothing directly to do with your career goals employers enjoy knowing what you do in your free time.  Universities want to know how you contribute as a citizen in your local community.  (Shaevitz, 2013)

Part of that strategy may involve damage control.  Performing a search on yourself may help you identify content that you may not want on the internet.  If you are lucky you can take steps at getting that removed.  An extreme example can be found by the founder of the company BrandYourself, Pete Kistler.  He googled his name to find that others with the same name were ranking high on search results.  The problem was one of these individuals was a convicted criminal and the other was a registered sex offender.  

Demonstrate Knowledge and Skills

Now it is up to you to show the world what you know and how you can bring value to an organization.  There are plenty of articles on sites such as Mashable, Inc Magazine, etc. that will help you understand how you can maximize social media.  A personal website is the ultimate online resume and portfolio that far too many professionals are still not taking advantage of.  There are countless free and convenient options that allows even the most novice web user to create their own site.  Make a tutorial.  Review a book.  Share an applicable YouTube video.  The key is to be a voice among the noise. 

 

 

References

Shaevitz, M. (2013, April 11). What College Admissions Offices Look for in Extracurricular Activities . Retrieved from The Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marjorie-hansen-shaevitz/extra-curricular-activities-college-admission_b_3040217.html

Williams, T. (2013, August 9). Why You Can’t Afford to Hire the Wrong Employee. Retrieved from Intuit: http://blog.intuit.com/employees/why-you-cant-afford-to-hire-the-wrong-employee/

Will Our Professional and Personal Online Identities Merge?

Many feel that lingering fear that someday their boss is going to somehow get access to their privacy-protected Facebook wall, and all the associated content that may or may not be critical of company leadership. Currently, privacy mechanisms are in place that can prevent this from happening. Social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Google+ all have privacy settings that limit what non-connections can see; and forums such as Reddit, 4chan and others have the benefit of complete anonymity. But what if all of your personal online activity was bundled together with your professional identities managed through email, Linkedin, and other professional online activity spots? Some fear this may soon be happening.

The silent battle being fought in enterprise software is pitting Google against Microsoft. Google Apps for Business, once a freemium tool, is the fastest growing email, documents, and cloud storage enterprise software suites in the world. Two out of every three new enterprise software companies are choosing Google Apps for Business instead of Microsoft Outlook and Office[1]. In fact, according to both Forrester Research and Gartner, Google is expected to control 50% of the enterprise email market in 5 years![2] So with the compatibility and ubiquity of Google products continuing to proliferate, the question becomes – what does this mean for Google products users?

Below is a quick snapshot of what the Google Apps for Business market looks like:

Two Identities Collide

One concern with the growth of Google Apps for Business is that Google will be able to track both your personal and professional identities, and merge them into a single online persona. This has already been done to a small extent with Google+, where if you have both a personal and professional account Google will push recommended people to circle from both your personal and professional contacts. Further evidence of this change happens when you sign up as a new user with the Google Signup tool, which will give you the option to choose your personal or professional account to sign up for a service. But Google is not the only company to be doing this. Facebook is working diligently to make your FB profile the only one you need online; and Linkedin started this shift with their groups, where individuals mix professional and personal interests.

Managing the Change

So there’s this sea change coming that is being driven by large forces. One solution is to stop providing companies with data inputs – something that is nearly impossible at this point. Another potential solution is a dedicated web service to help manage your various online personas – but this hasn’t quite achieved this. So it is up to you to figure out how you are going to manage, and benefit from, this major change. With that context in mind, the following is what you can do to better manage this movement toward combining your online identities:

• Determine and build your brand – Very few internet users think about their online brand. Most use their social and professional outlets in an unstructured, directionless fashion. However, there are many people who use their various profiles to express themselves personally, and develop their credibility and brand. One great thinker in this area is Dan Schawbel[3], who has used very effective methods online to brand himself as one of the foremost experts in online personal branding
• Create your online “10 Commandments” – If our personal and professional online identities are indeed moving closer together, it is important that we have rules of engagement. Users should begin to establish their own guidelines by which they will manage their online brand and craft an identity that serves a productive purpose. These could include avoiding political commentary, eliminating cursing, and abstaining from negative comments; but these rules also include positive actions like expressing gratitude, giving praise to people, and sharing interesting information. 
• Use personal analytics – In my previous post about knowing and managing your social graph, I provided several tools you can use to see how people find and search you online[4]. As you dive into the data, you’ll notice that people that look you up on Linkedin for professional purposes will also visit your Twitter feed, and try to access your Facebook wall. Furthermore, with tools like Klout you’ll be able to find out if your activity is truly building the brand you intend.

---

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/26/technology/google-apps-moving-onto-microsofts-business-turf.html?_r=0

[2] http://www.shorewebtech.com/blog/google-apps-gaining-market-share/

[3] http://danschawbel.com/

[4] http://dauofu.blogspot.com/2013/01/understanding-your-social-graph.html

Will the rise of Personal Branding create a need for Personal Analytics?

“This is America, we don’t just make things you want, we make things you didn’t even know you wanted” – Larry the Cable Guy via Prilosec OTC Wild Berry Flavor Ad

This quote isn’t just true about products anymore; it’s true about your social life in the ‘Age of the Individual’. Since ‘social’ is now productized, YOU are also productized. To take this thought one step further, there’s a saying on the web these days, it goes, “if you aren’t paying for it, you are the product.” So what better way to take advantage of being the product than to market yourself effectively? A stretch? I don’t think so. 

Your personal information is captured and sold as a part of your tech life everyday. Your social “status” can be viewed, reviewed, and scrutinized without your knowledge and behind your back by your friends, social connections, and even your employer. There are dangers to haplessly posting your life online that you may not want to flirt with. Enter ‘personal branding’.

Online behavior has been studied and restudied since the Internet went global in the late 80’s and 90’s. Researchers realized and validated that people tend to over-inflate and over-exaggerated who they proclaim to be in virtual environments. This changes somewhat with the advent of social platforms, where people who really know you can keep you in check, but does it change that much? 

By the way, the average person may have hundreds, even 1000+ ‘friends’ on Facebook, but researchers say most people only have 3 confidants, and that’s even trending downward to 2. So, let’s say there are only a handful of people who can keep your tendency to over-inflate your virtual-self and your accomplishments in check, but the rest of those hundreds of online friends? No way. They can only believe or not believe what you post. So many of them take what you post at face value. They see your life like cookie crumbs, never the whole cookie. It’s parsed into one-liners and photos and system generated factoids. The point? If you create a profile by design, you can dramatically impact the way hundreds, even thousands of people perceive you. And, perception, perception is reality.

So what is “Personal Branding” really? In one line, personal branding is not selling the steak, it’s selling the sizzle – I know, I know. But, that’s what it is. In personal branding you take a ‘design’ approach to telling the world about who you are and what you do. So what about that picture you shot with your iPhone, and put on Instagram, that updated your Pinterest Board? Or, that FourSquare ‘mayor’ badge you Tweeted, that pushed to Facebook, that updated your Google+ and your Tumblr blog? All that can be one giant marketing effort – telling people in bits and bytes, and slices of information, who you want them to think you are. It doesn’t have to be fabrication or over-exaggeration. In fact, it should be absolutely true – that brand you create. But for the people to clearly ‘get’ you as a brand, it must be simple and easy to understand. To be an effective branding effort, it has to be crystal clear.

While I'm on the topic, here are some other tools to help with the effort:

·      https://about.me

·      http://vizualize.me/

·      http://www.linkedin.com

There are many more out there and even more coming. In fact, this begs the question, if you’re doing all this work to brand yourself, shouldn’t you know the impact? Shouldn’t you know your key metrics? Things like reach, hits, visits, views, shares, re-shares, comments, likes, followers, un-follows, and so on. All of this is important. Even if you’re not branding yourself, don’t you ever get curious about the people who may be ‘trolling’ your Facebook profile or viewing your posts but not liking or commenting (e.g. reach)? Even better, wouldn’t you want to see who is paying Facebook/Instagram for your posts? According to TechCrunch, the technology is not only out there to do these analytics, it’s only a matter of time before you’re downloading it and/or registering for the sites. 

Now, I know this highly coordinated effort is not for all, but if you want to conduct a really interesting experiment, and use yourself as the subject, post about only one subject, say, the subject you know best, for the next few months on one or more of your social platforms. Pay attention to how people respond to you, treat you, and communicate with you both online and in person. You’ll be surprised how, even your closest friends, will perceive you differently.

Oh, and while I'm at it, you can follow me on Instagram: http://instagram.com/jordan_is

Here are some of my sources for additional context:

http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/30/wolfram-alpha-launches-personal-analytics-reports-for-facebook/

http://mashable.com/2009/02/05/personal-branding-101/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/dailymuse/2012/02/14/the-first-step-to-building-your-personal-brand/

http://www.businessinsider.com/10-ways-to-build-your-personal-brand-2010-4?op=1

http://www.fastcompany.com/28905/brand-called-you