Still think you shouldn’t be concerned?
Read more about your online identity part 1 and part 2
Tags: changing name on facebook, drunk pictures on facebook, employers checking you out on facebook, facebook, Gen Y, online identity, party pictures on facebook
Taking a page out of numerous social media sites, this blog post has the sole intention of asking you to subscribe to my rss feed so you can get content delivered straight to you, and never miss a post!
If you have no idea what an rss feed is, I have a nifty little guide to get you started (complete with images). If you’re already subscribed, do you have a friend who’s into social media? Facebook? Vimeo? Twitter? Plurk? Or just trying to figure out this whole Web2.0 space? Why not recommend this blog to him/her?
Here are a few posts which generated some interest recently, if you’d like to pass them along:
Finally, if you do add me to your rss subscription, do leave a comment to let me know, and so that I can check out your blog too! Thanks!
Tags: dirty word, facebook, networking, online identity, party pictures on facebook, Plurk, rss demonstration, rss guide, rss howto, social capital, social media singapore, subscribe by rss, twitter, unique frequency, web2.0
You might have noticed on the extreme right of my theme, there’s a new widget which has my profile picture, a short “about me”, my twitter stream and links to all the services I’m on. This is from Retaggr, which I read about a long time ago, but only got down to using now.
Essentially Retaggr allows you to let everyone know what you’re up to online (if you want that), and you can attach this to your email signature as well (I’m having a little problem with Gmail because it doesn’t accept html signatures, but I’m sure I can get around it).
The benefits of Retaggr are pretty obvious. You don’t have to manually add links, people see it at a glance and know intuitively it’s almost like a digital name card, and it really helps show people where and how to contact you online. I’d definitely recommend it to anyone who is serious about building their presence online.
Tags: digital name card, online identity, online presence, online services, retaggr
I’ve talked about this before and have had varying opinions from both sides of the argument. Of course, a topic like this isn’t going to be put to rest that easily, and I’d like to share with you something said in class today.
It was mentioned that something like 77% of employers screen their prospective employees on Facebook. I can almost hear the groaning now, but get this: the audience (aka the class) was given the opportunity to ask the rest of the class questions, and one of the questions was “If you were an employer, would you use Facebook to screen your prospective employees?”
Now we have these clicker remote devices that work as a polling device, and the result?
More than 75% of the 450 people attending the class said yes.
I don’t think we’re all from the same field, there are people from commerce, nursing, film, arts and science and many other places taking this course. But I think people of this generation know how things work. My point is even if you think the 40 or 50 year old boss isn’t checking our your Facebook profile, the newest member of the HR department is.
Still think you should leave your drunk pictures up there?
Tags: drunk pictures, employers checking facebook, facebook, online identity, online reputation, screening on facebook
So on Sunday night I was talking to Rubin and said “Very disturbing. If I Google you, I get your Facebook profile and your profile picture is that of you at a party”. So we had a long conversation where we generally had opposing views. I said it mattered, he said it didn’t.
Monday I came into the office and found (to my surprise) Pauline here, starting a five month internship. Somewhere in the middle of the day she said something to the effect of she has to watch her Facebook pictures now that she’s at work.
That got me thinking, is this caution over ones’ online identity and online reputation restricted to us in the communications field? Or should it apply equally across the board? Are employers in the banks less likely to Google their prospective employees than communications professionals?
I don’t have empirical evidence for this, but my gut says no, they should be equal. As much as you want a proper resume that indicates your prospective hire isn’t an ex-murderer, you’d probably want to run a search to make sure your wealth management employee doesn’t have a history of being in the press for the wrong reasons, or that the lawyer you’re going to hire for your firm isn’t being slammed online for bad legal advice by disgruntled people online, or that the last house your prospective architect designed for another client didn’t cave in on itself. You get my point.
I’d say that at at best, when someone Googles you, something positive comes out. At minimum, something neutral that doesn’t indicate you’re a poor performer. At the very least, finding something about volunteer efforts is better than pictures at a club. Rubin thinks differently, ie that not even appearing in a Google search is good. No news is good news?
What about you? What do you want your prospective employer to find on you when they Google you? Or do you think they won’t Google you? Is your online identity an important part of your resume to manage? Are Google searches on prospective employees more likely to occur in one industry over another? Share your thoughts!
Tags: online identity, online reputation, reputation management
