If you are under the age of 70, you have a digital footprint. Throughout the years, we have posted pictures and videos of ourselves online. Maybe they are cute selfies or maybe they are of you and your bestie on the trip to Ibiza taking a shot with no hands. This is all well and good when you are younger but, once you start looking for jobs, you may want to tidy this up a bit and manage your professional online presence.
What Are You Currently Doing?
The first thing you need to do in order to be able to manage your online presence is to see what is already there.
Nowadays, when you apply for a job, they simply google you. They will want to see what kind of person you present yourself as through your digital footprint. So, you want to make sure that what they deduce from your online presence is a positive thing.
One way to do this is by googling yourself. This will show you what your possible employers will see. You can see what comes up in the first few searches and figure out if you like the results.
If your social media accounts are first to pop up, make sure to go through them and delete, archive or private any untoward material.
Of course, you are going to have personal photos and videos online, however, you want your employers to see you in a more professional light. The way to do this is by creating a secondary online presence that is tailored more towards your employability.
Create A More Professional Presence
You want your could-be employers to find examples of your work, if possible, rather than your personal accounts.
The best way to do this is by creating a website. Depending on your field of work, you can post images, blogs, links to previous work or references on the site. You can also use it as almost a second CV. It is another opportunity to tell people about who you are, what your skills are and why they need you.
This can also be a great tool when networking. You can then direct people to your website rather than giving them your Instagram handle or such.
Additionally, you need to start creating profiles on professional social networking sites such as LinkedIn. Future employers can then be steered away from your personal accounts and are more likely to look at your professional accounts.
