On the Internet we often discover more cards than we should. We participate in discussions on political issues. We share pictures of loved ones on their feast day. We rate and criticize – sometimes a movie and sometimes a specific person. Who remembers and cares about this?
Until the moment when we want to change the job, interviews and CVs are no longer the only way recruiters use to find the best candidates for work. Google and Social Medias are also the “sources” they look at.
For a long time, there is a discussion about how to deal with hate speech on the web. The Internet is full of screenshots with at least controversial comments from people who have not been afraid to make their opinions public. Politicians and public figures look for entries from the past that diverge from what they are preaching. All this should lead to thought that we leave many traces, on the Internet, which can form a doubtful reputation.
Few clicks
Just google your name to see some photos from Facebook and Instagram. It is also easy to find reviews that we provide on publicly accessible sites of various service providers and public profiles that we have created on some sites without being aware that they are public. Americans, as they are customarily, even set a special term for everything that can be found about you in web: “shadow resume”.
We recently wrote that the job of a recruiter is not just reviewing CVs and motivational letters, but also our Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter profiles, they are not fully private.
Proposal? We should have control over the image of our person in the web space. We never know what content is coming from our private sphere to the public, so we create a short list of tips – what to do to regain that control over the online image. Here it is:
Start with research
Find out if the content or photos are circulating on the Internet, which may adversely affect your reputation as a good employee. Enter your name in the search engine and see what appears in the first 4 results pages. Check how your potential employers see you. Do you see what attracts you or rather frightens you? Check which opinions are negative or positive. If you have any concerns – see Tip 2.
Google offers some clever tool that can inform us regularly about new events or content related to us – try to use Google Alerts.
The time to act
If the vast majority of opinions are negative voices, answer them before they permanently take root in the minds of your audience.
Ask the portal or Google to remove a compromising photo or information. It’s not an easy task, it does not always work, but it’s worth a try. Such a request should be duly justified – if the information about us is untrue or offensive to us, it must be emphasized.
Hide what’s bad or compromise
You cannot remove anything from the web, but you can make it difficult for someone to find a compromising photo or video. How? Create more content that will “cover” the older ones. Make sure that what you create and put into the network is valuable. If possible publish your work in respected sources. Google’s robots will know what name to combine these content with.
