Lighthouses don't Fire Cannons to call Attention to their Shining. - Dwight L. Moody
Dan Schawbel is the leading personal branding expert for young professionals. Read full contour
People you know or have never met nevertheless are googl'ing you. Let's face it, you're even google'ing yourself! At the end of 2007, the Pew Cyberspace Research Squad found that 47% of people search for information about themselves online (Cocky-Googling), which was more than than double v years ago. Information technology's a pretty safe bet that percentage has climbed to over 50 or 60% by this year.
Some people might can it ego-surfing, but it's really a good practice to run into what results come up for your proper name. Your teachers, friends, family unit, boyfriends and girlfriends and coworkers are google'ing yous either for fun or because they desire to learn more almost y'all. Hiring managers want to see if you have a clean record in Google, which is your permanent record because every move y'all brand (yep even a blog comment) is stored in that location forever. Before I went on a second engagement in one case, the daughter Google'ed me. If she hadn't liked what she saw, the 2d date wouldn't have happened. Effort doing information technology correct now and see what you lot get.
In that location is no hiding from Google!
Google keeps runway of just about everything you do on the cyberspace. It patrols and captures your online behavior, such every bit when you mail on your weblog, tweet using Twitter, join social networks, comment on other blogs, write articles for online news sources and more. Aside from the content you create and distribute over the internet, other people are talking nearly you, which means that Google has a complete picture (nearly like an autobiography) of your life. In the digital historic period, Google is your resume, your permanent tape and a journal of your life. Your children and children'south children volition be able to find out everything well-nigh yous when they grow older. "Mom, await what I simply plant out about Dad in Google." Your personal brand can't hide from Google. In that location is one major exception to this though.
Common names
If your name is mutual, such as Mike Smith, then it will be very hard to own your Google results. There are over 54 million results for "Mike Smith" in Google. You won't be able to compete with the athletes and musicians on the first few pages. If your life goal is to rank in the top ten results, that may exist achievable, if you lot either become very famous or work extremely difficult at building content each and every day for your unabridged life. At the age of 60 you lot might observe out that Google changed their algorithm and you'll lose all that hard work. The point being is that you'll have to differentiate your proper name in lodge to rank high. I typically recommend you utilize your middle proper name or a nickname in this instance. The worst case scenario is that you lot change your name completely ;).
Celebrity names
Celebrities are very fortunate because they get mass media attention, which means traditional media sources (NY Times, ABC News) write articles about them. These sources rank extremely high in Google. We're talking Google PageRank's of viii and higher! Your weblog posts well-nigh these celebrities will never end up on the height twenty results for their name unless y'all are Perez Hilton. If your name is the same as a celebrities, yous are in big trouble. Try searching for Christina Aquilera (21 million results), Britney Spears (88 million), Lil Wayne (40 million) and other major celebrities. Personally, I don't have any friends with these names, but even with C-level celebrities, y'all don't stand a chance. If you lot are stuck with a glory name, I suggest that y'all build your brand around an area of your expertise or interest and connect information technology to your brand proper noun.
Unique names
While growing upwardly, you might have been fabricated fun of people of your unique name considering it was "dissimilar." Although you were ostracized and fabricated fun of, right now you get to laugh at anybody else! With a distinct name, you lot are able to hands manipulate the results for your name on search engines. When you get to your loftier school reunion and see your friends, you lot'll get the last laugh considering you lot tin can exist visible and control perceptions, while they simply cannot. When you Google your name, whether yous have results that reflect your brand, you'll come across how hard it volition be to rank high for information technology or non. Depending on the contest, it may take you a few days or a few months. Over fourth dimension, if you piece of work very difficult, you'll own the top ten results for your name.
In my next post, I'll talk about what you tin can do to gain control over your Google results and let your personal brand shine through.
Featured photo credit: Adam Winger via unsplash.com
Source: https://www.lifehack.org/articles/work/lighthouses-dont-fire-cannons-call-attention-their-shining-dwight-moody.html
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