Have You Googled Yourself Lately?

Let's face it: the internet moves at such a fast pace that it often feels difficult to keep up with everything going on that could possibly concern us or our business. However, you definitely want to keep up with all things related to what is being said about you and your business. Why? You have a silent mirror reflecting your image around the clock: The Internet. When people either search anything about you (either you or your business) or something that may be connected to you, they are going to make a judgment about you based on what they are looking at (a judgment that may ultimately negatively impact your reputation and revenue stream). While you can't control all content on the Internet that people are writing about you, you want to be "public relations-minded" when it comes to information published about you online.

Sometimes when I inform people that they need to keep track of their online persona, they often respond that it's not a big deal for them because what they are posting is "private" (in a private forum or social media site with a private profile on Facebook or Twitter). However, we currently live in a social media environment where information gets shared and hacked in various ways within seconds of it being published, and those who want to access, release or even possibly sell your information for whatever reason will try to find a way to do so (and are often successful). In other words, it is not a wise move to assume that your information is completely safe from prying eyes on the Internet.

That said, don't become paranoid about what information could be circulating online about you that you may not yet know about. Just get proactive. Set up a variety of "Google Alerts" with different word combinations that reflect the specific information that you want to track (e.g., "your name", "your business name", "your online username", as well as a variety of different keywords that will most likely pull up information published online about you in your alerts).

Another easy thing to do is spend a few minutes once a week googling yourself on different major search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing and take notice of the information that comes up within the first several pages of your search. Also take notice of images and videos that may come up as well (a lot of people search themselves but don't bother to look at the images or videos that come up with the search). While few people do this, you want to also seriously consider contacting websites that published information about you that you don't want publicly available and ask them to remove that information as soon as possible.

While you can't control everything said about you online, you are definitely in control of what you publish about yourself online. You can also get more proactive about tracking what others are saying about you and your business. Ultimately, people are making judgment calls and decisions about you on a daily basis based on what your online mirror says about you. These decisions could easily cost you money if you have information out there that negatively reflects on you or would stop someone from wanting to do business with you (in other words, "bad press"). Stay on top of your online image and you will be able to have a lot more say and control over your reputation on the Internet.

Here is a great infograph for you to check out, called "The Google Yourself Challenge" (click here to see it on a larger scale):