How confident are you about your online reputation?
Have you ego surfed your personal brand online recently?
Recently published research indicated that nearly one-half of US adult Internet users surveyed have used a search engine to look for information about themselves.
That is more than twice the 22% of users who did so in 2002 according to the December 2007 Pew Internet & American Life Project's "Digital Footprints" report.
The report states that Internet users are becoming more aware of their digital footprint with 47% having searched for information about themselves online.
However, not many people monitor their online presence regularly with just 3% of the respondents reporting that they regularly check their online profile in the search engines and 74% of respondents having checked their profile only once or twice.
From my own research, the results in Ireland and the UK are far less than 47% of people having checked their digital footprint - typically when I ask this question of a group between just 5-10% of people have actually admitted to "Self Googling".
The report also identified that more than half of US adult Internet users had looked up information about someone else (not including celebrities). This number is a significant increase of the number of people who were thought to surf the internet looking up other peoples profiles as reported by Business Week in 2006 where they reported that 35% of people check the search engines for other peoples profiles.
So as the year comes to a close, why not invest a little time to ensure that your personal brand online represents what you stand for. Enter your name into the search engines.
- What shows up?
- Are you suprised?
- What actions can you take to ensure that you do not leave to chance your online reputation and personal brand?
And if you are looking for some assistance in building your personal brand online, don't forget you can contact me for a private consultation where we will develop your strategy and action plan for building a compelling digital footprint that showcases your expertise and does not leave your online reputation to chance.
Source: Pew Internet
Tags: digital footprint, personal brand, online reputation management
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