Chapter 10
Assess Your Online Identity
In the new millennium, if your ears are burning, it’s not because people are talking about you. It’s because they’re Googling you. And they are the people who matter: Hiring managers. Executive recruiters. Colleagues. Clients. Business partners. Indeed, the Web has now replaced traditional research resources and is often the first place people go for information on individuals of interest to them—putting the phone book and the reference librarian on the endangered species list. How you are presented on the Web can therefore make or break your efforts to communicate your brand, express your differentiation, and achieve your career goals.
In this chapter, we take a close look at this development and explain how you can use the Web to further enhance and communicate your brand to your target audience.
Eighty-two percent of candidates expect recruiters to look them up online.
— BusinessWeek, June 26, 2006
The Age of Google
It’s no secret that Google is the world’s leading Internet search tool. People in virtually every country in the world use it more than 200 million times a day. But we’re not talking about the noun Google; we’re referring to the verb. One of the world’s newest verbs, “to Google,” has become part of everyday vocabulary and activity. Many people Google more often than they do any other task while at work each day.
Googling: v. The act of learning about someone or something by performing a Web search.
The first time we heard someone use Google as a verb, we were on a conference call with a group of colleagues discussing a new offering we were about to launch. Someone explained that a competitor of ours was “certainly the perceived leader in delivering this type of offering.” But another colleague jumped in: “Apparently not. I just Googled her, and almost nothing came up.”
Perhaps one of the more visible examples of this new trend came with the popular HBO TV series Sex in the City. In an episode during the last season, Sarah Jessica Parker’s character, Carrie Bradshaw, spoke with Charlotte about “Googling the Russian” to get more information about him. Regardless of pop-culture or business-world events that fuel this new trend, Googling is far from a fad. It’s here to stay. This type of search provides crucial information that people use when making judgments about those around them. The box that follows, “Startling Facts,” sheds additional light on the phenomenon of Googling.
As personal brand strategists, we are intrigued by the power of this new phenomenon to help people build and manage their personal brand. Think about it: Being Googled reveals how visible you are on the Web, and visibility (at least among your target audience) is critical to successful career management. Your Google results powerfully influence those seeking to make decisions about you. So the prospect of being Googled brings up some interesting questions if you are building and nurturing your personal brand:
- If you don’t show up in a Google search, do you exist? In this age of online searches, you are “somebody” if your Google results cover multiple pages. By contrast, you are an unknown brand if an online search engine can’t find you, or worse, if it finds your name only in a list of obituaries. So if you don’t show up in cyberspace, will the person researching you simply dismiss you?
- Will being Googled replace reference checking in job interviews and client bids? After all, online search engines provide a much more objective view than those whom you select to serve as references for you. Will your Google results be the determining factor in whether you get to see a new client or are considered for a job?
We don’t have all the answers to these questions. But we do have valuable ideas for how you might use, strengthen, and express your personal brand online. First, however, you need to determine your current digital profile—your assessment of how well information on the Web communicates your personal brand.
Accenture included the total number of relevant Google results as one of three measures they used to develop their list of the Top 50 Business Gurus.
—Accenture’s website, Outlook Journal, January 2003
Determine Your Current Digital Profile
What does your current online identity reveal? Right now, open a new browser window, go to Google.com, type your name into the search box, and see what the world’s most popular search engine says about you. Surprised? Delighted? Depressed? Embarrassed? Do you have digital dirt—that is, information about you on the Web that could negatively impact your career? If Googling your name results in inaccurate or inadequate information about you, you’re going to have to correct the situation by creating a Web presence that communicates your personal brand. And you need to get your website to rank higher in the search engines than information that you don’t want people to see.
Perhaps your Google results don’t convey the image you want to share with the world. That was the case for Susan, a marketing executive who had been fired by the board of her company. Her company posted the meeting minutes detailing her firing on the Web. When anyone performed a Google search using her name, the first item displayed was the summary of those meeting minutes. She didn’t understand why she couldn’t get any job interviews—until an executive recruiter told her about her Google results. Before that, she had no idea she had been “digitally dissed.”
The moral of the story? Google yourself regularly. To those who don’t know you personally, you are your Google results—no matter how inaccurate or unfair those results may be. Finding out what Google says about you (also called ego-surfing) is important and influencing what Google reveals is essential. According to BusinessWeek, 33 percent of job candidates have never Googled themselves. Maybe some of them are having the same unpleasant experiences Susan had. If you’re looking to advance in your career, you’ll want to proactively manage your online identity to ensure stellar online-search results.
Figure 10.1 shows four potential scenarios for your online identity. The y axis represents the volume of information about you on the Web. The x axis depicts the relevance of that information to your personal brand. (Specifically, does the information say what you want it to say? Is it consistent? Does it help people understand who you are and what you stand for?)
Figure 10.1 Online Identity Matrix
How do you determine the volume of information generated by a Web search on you? First eliminate results that are not about you. To do this, count the total number of entries on the first three pages of your Google results. Then count how many of these results are actually about you. (Some of them may be about other individuals who have the same name as you.) Divide the number of results that are about you by the total number of results on the first three pages. Then multiply this number by the total results Google yielded (in the upper-right corner of the results page). This gives you a good approximation of your volume of accurate results—those that are about you. For example:
Of 20 total items on the first three pages, 15 were about me, so:
In researching thousands of professionals—including CEOs, independent consultants, celebrities, entry-level job seekers, thought leaders, and university students—we’ve developed the benchmarks in Table 10.1 so that we can help you evaluate your search results volume.
In addition to having the appropriate volume of accurate search results, you need to ensure that those results are relevant—that they clearly communicate your personal brand and position you to achieve your goals. Obviously, you want your results to communicate your unique promise of value. Table 10.2 shows how to rate the relevance of your results.
What’s your volume of accurate results? And how consistently do those results communicate your personal brand? Based on your evaluation of these two criteria, determine which of the following profiles best describes your current online identity:
Table 10.1 Evaluate the Volume of Your Search Results
| If You Are … | Number of Accurate Results You Should Have |
| A professional with 0-5 years’ experience (e.g., you’re a very recent university graduate). | 5-50 |
| A professional with 5-10 years’ experience. | 50-500 |
| A director-level people manager with over 10 years’ experience, an independent consultant, or a small business owner. | 500-5,000 |
| A vice president, acknowledged thought leader, highly regarded consultant, or subject-matter expert. | 5,000-50,000 |
| A corporate-level executive at a major company, a highly acclaimed consultant or expert, or a best-selling author. | 50,000-500,000 |
| A celebrity, an internationally acclaimed guru, or a politician. | More than 500,000 |
Table 10.2 Rate the Relevance of Your Search Results
| If … | Your Search Results Have … |
| Most/all of the results are not about you (but are about someone with your same name), or they refer to things that have no relation to your area of expertise. | No relevance |
| Most of the results are not about you or refer to things that have no relation to your area of expertise, but some do communicate your area of expertise. | Little relevance |
| About half of the entries are about you and express your area of expertise, and there are many references to your website or blog. | Some relevance |
| About three-quarters of all entries are about you and express your personal brand. | High relevance |
| Almost all of your results are about you and are very consistent with your area of expertise and how you want to be known. | Complete relevance |
- Digitally disguised: There is absolutely nothing about you on the Web. Your search—“firstname lastname”—did not match any documents. It doesn’t mean you don’t exist, but it means that you remain hidden from those who may be researching you.
- Digitally dissed: There is little on the Web about you, and what is there is either negative or inconsistent with how you want to be known.
- Digitally disastrous: There is much information about you on the Web, but it has little relevance to what you want to express about yourself. The information may also include Google results about someone else who shares your name.
- Digitally dabbling: There is some on-brand information on the Web about you. Although the volume of results is not high, the material that’s there is relevant to your personal brand. This is an easy fix.
- Digitally distinct: There are lots of results about you and most, if not all, reinforce your unique promise of value. Though this is nirvana in the world of online identity, remember that your Google results can change as fast as the weather in London. The lesson? You need to regularly monitor them to see if they need correcting.
The [past] 10 years have seen everything from the rise of online Job Boards to the Brand Called You, the birth of blogs to offshoring. All of these developments have had a significant impact on the way we manage our careers— and the next 10 years promise to be just as dramatic.
— Fast Company, March 2006
No matter what your digital profile is, you can always improve it. By steadily expanding your online presence and increasing your visibility and credibility, you put yourself directly on the path to digital distinction—and you remain distinct even as information about you changes in cyberspace. Of course, you can’t build an online reputation unless you first articulate your unique promise of value—your brand. And communicating your brand is especially challenging online, since your presence will be among billions of other Web pages and people click away from sites quickly—the moment they decide that it wasn’t what they were seeking. Therefore, before you attempt to build or reshape your online identity, make sure you’re comfortable with and confident about the work you did in Chapters 4 through 7, the Extract phase of our 1-2-3 Success! process.
Promoting yourself online is the best, easiest, fastest way to build your personal brand.
—Boris Mann, “Web 2.0 and Personal Brand Development”