The other day I had a meeting with a fellow we will call Jose who wants to help us with an aspect of our marketing. When I got there he had opened a screen on his computer with my name. He Googled me!
I started sweating a little because I have not Googled myself recently. Here is what Jose found:
On the right side of the screen in a little box is my name, picture, my business tag line, that I attended Northwestern University and live in Canton, OH and my phone numbers and email addresses. I was horrified to discover some confidential information listed there too. Must fix that.
On the left is a list of places with information about me. My LinkedIn profile is at the very top. That makes sense because I use LinkedIn all the time. Then we find some pictures of me from various places – my publicity photos and photos of some people who are closely aligned to me like my business partner Dan Toussant and my business coach and friend Sherry Greenleaf. That makes sense.
Included in the pictures was a real surprise. There is another woman with the last name Burik who goes by Kathy. Isn’t that funny? I haven’t been called Kathy since college. I pulled up her profile and saw she lives in Erie PA. I made a note to connect with her just because.
The next listings are my Amazon author’s profile, my Pinterest account (surprising since I don’t use Pinterest much), a few slide presentations I posted, my Facebook account, and finally some blogs I wrote recently. The last listing on the first page is the link to our books, The Job Seeker Manifesto. Great! I am glad that is on the first page.
So what happens if we are not pleased about what Google says about us? A friend was haunted for years when details of his messy divorce appeared on Google. I do not want certain confidential information to be revealed.
So I Googled the answer to this question to share with you!
- Go to Google support “Manager your online reputation”: This support site contains instructions on how to remove unwanted content and control what people see. Check out the section on “Remove unwanted content and the associated search results” for instruction on how to remove personal information from Google.
- Fix social media profile information: Most of the details listed in Google come from the profile information you have listed in your various social media. If that information is correct then you have no problem. But if that information is not correct or for some reason includes too many details then you have a problem.
Go to each social media site and double check to be sure your profile shows only the information you want to share. Edit the information until you are satisfied. Then Google yourself again to see what changed.
- Double check Google-related products: The confidential information I did not want revealed was picked up on my Google+ profile. When I opened Google+ I saw that information clear as day in the “contact” section. It took me a while but I finally saw the little pencil at the top that allowed me to edit the contacts. I went in and erased the offending information. When I Googled myself again, it was gone. Thank goodness.
- Make your name unique: If you have a common name, consider including a middle initial so people Googling you will differentiate you from the other John Jones’ in the world. This will reduce the incidents of getting mixed up with another John Jones who might have a less than sterling reputation.
- Consider setting up a website with your name: It is not hard to set up a simple website plus it is a good way to include information about yourself that you want other people to see.
- Create a Google+ profile: You can customize your Google+ profile with your picture and other information that you want other people to see. You can post comments and blogs here. It is also a great place to network and connect with other people.
- Get notified when your personal data appears on the web: Google support gives the instructions on how to get notified when your personal data appear on the web. This can be useful for reputation management and for job seekers who want to track who is checking them out.