Managing your Digital Footprint

Have you ever thought about the impact of what you put online? Are you aware of your digital footprint? If you're not, start digging now.
Managing Digital Footprint
Managing Digital Footprint. Source: aesta1
Your Digital Footprint
Has a job interviewer asked you yet to open your facebook site or your twitter account? Is your boss or whoever wandering through your social sites?

Are you concerned that future employers will pass you over for a job because of what you put out there in the ether world? Or, worse still, has someone posted that picture of the night you had too much fun?
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There is indeed cause for careful thinking. Everyone around you has a phone that can record everything you do within their shooting range and instantly post these online. And what seems outrageously cool and funny in one context can be a career ender in another! You may not even know about it.
Online Brand
Online Brand. Source:aesta1
There is so much out there that it is tough to keep up with your own stuff sometimes. But if it's public, the whole world can see it and your left cheek tattoo may not have the same impact on all viewers. But does this mean you should not be online? Does this mean you have to erase every digital footprint you have? You need to be online. Employers search online. Your presence online is important. Just learn to manage what you're putting out there and here are a few tips.

1. Build a positive digital footprint
How do we build a positive digital file? Here are some things you can do:
  • Start Now. Hiding away and pretending you have no footprint online is dumb. You have. Unless you don't go into the internet or live in a cave. Accept this as a given and start your search so you get to know what is out there and you can control it.
  • Start your brand. Establish a brand you can be proud of. Move from being in a permanent phase to be embarrassed, to building a positive image of yourself. Not a fake image, just a personal branding that elevates you above full doofus status. 
  • Consider presence on the internet as your own resume online. Tell people who you are. Tweet your thoughts on key topics in your discipline. Vision the things in yourself that you want people to know. Highlight these each time you post something. Enhance this with pictures as images are more powerful in conveying the image.
  • Have Fun. But, DON'T TRY TO OUT-SMART YOUR FRIENDS IN A PUBLIC FORUM!

2. Recover your digital file
Have you searched your name online? If you have, a digital file is there. It is important that you know what is there. Retain only the ones you can be proud of. This is one reason why the young flock to sites where their comments and pictures are erased after an hour of visibility.

There are other files we are not even aware of. Friends tag us or just post without our knowing it or they let us know but we just ignore them. There are more than we can handle. Still, this is no reason not to do this.

3. Take control of your digital footprint and tend to it
Yes, find out everything people posted about you. If some of these make you seem an arch-dork or basically a high maintenance unit as a potential employee, or do not enhance your personality, ask that these be removed. If this is not possible, counteract with messages with your own denial or more intelligent comment.

Do you actively manage your digital footprint?
Remember, what you post online is not a phone call to your friends on a cell phone. Think of this as talking to the world over a loud speaker. Everybody can hear it, everybody can read it. Here are some tips to manage your digital footprint:

Top 5 Tips in Managing your Digital Footprint 
  •    Exercise caution around information you post online.
  •    Use Google Alerts to let you know what people post online about you.
  •     Untag yourself in damaging pictures
  •     Craft your online image. Be present in popular social media or blogs that enhance your image. Make comments and participate actively in these circles.
  •     Remember, everything you post online becomes part of your paper trail so think before you put out that tweet.
We often toss off neat comments or somewhat fringe opinions in some of our social media accounts thinking that it is just intended for our friends as in a phone call.

What you put out online is public information. What you don't want the public to know, don't post online. What you think is private today could be unmasked tomorrow depending on the path taken by the site managers. They want to make money with your information and they nip around the edges of fairness and even the law to do this.
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