Why You May Need an Online Persona

March 28th, 2007 (6:00am) Anne Zelenka 97 Comments

Employers are realizing that what people do online can actually prove their value as potential hires, not just rule them out based on drunken photos or revelations of other past missteps.

Last year we saw articles like Overexposed in the Blogosphere warning how people’s online behavior and misbehavior might ruin their careers. This year, thankfully, we see the other side in articles like Computer World’s Web anonymity can sink your job search:

In a 2006 survey by executive search firm ExecuNet in Norwalk, Conn., 77 of 100 recruiters said they use search engines to check out job candidates. In a CareerBuilder.com survey of 1,150 hiring managers last year, one in four said they use Internet search engines to research potential employees. One in 10 said they also use social networking sites to screen candidates. In fact, according to Search Engine Watch, there are 25 million to 50 million proper-name searches performed each day.

In today’s job market, turning up missing on the Web may not be a fatal flaw, and it’s probably better than having a search result in a photo of you in a hula skirt. But over time, the lack of a Web presence — particularly for IT professionals — may well turn from a neutral to a negative, says Tim Bray, director of Web technologies at Sun Microsystems Inc.

Many web workers know that if you build your professional profile online, you might be able to skip resume writing and interviewing when looking for a new job or new clients. A strong online presence can sell you better than any one page summary or one hour meeting.

Computer World offers five tips for building your online professional presence including checking search engines like Google and starting a blog. Marketing Pilgrim Andy Beal adds four more good tips:

Buy your domain name. Even if you don’t do a lot with it, you should own a domain name that matches (as close as possible) your name. Your online brand is important, and guess what, despite how many employers you may ultimately have, you’ll likely keep that same name for life!

Understand your Google profile. Most potential employers are going to use Google, so you may as well focus on the search results there. What’s being said about you, what pages are indexed? Don’t just look at stuff that is about you, look at listings that are about someone with the same name, yet maybe negative. You should be prepared to explain that the person convicted for 3 counts of armed robbery, is not actually you.

Own your brand. When someone searches for your name, you should try and make sure you have as much control over what they see, as possible. Set up a Flickr account, LinkedIn profile, blog, user-group profile, etc. While you may need the talents of a search marketer to ensure these pages appear in the top 10 of a search engine, you don’t stand any chance if you don’t actually take the time to create the profile in the first place.

Destroy the evidence. Ok, so while most stuff you put online is there for eternity, that doesn’t mean you can’t try some damage control. That blog post you uploaded – the one where you went on an all night drinking binge and broke into the local Krispy Kreme – remove it! While it may still exist somewhere on the web, it is less likely to show up in the Google search results, if you’ve removed it from your own blog/social network.

Unfortunately, the downside to having a very public professional or personal presence online can be having to deal with rudeness or worse. The vast majority of netizens are polite and friendly, but the few who aren’t can make online work intolerable sometimes. Still, on balance, we are better off having this additional way of showing off our talents and connecting with those with whom we might work productively.

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97 Comments Post your own comment

Rex Dixon says: March 28th, 2007 6:54am

I think I have so far accomplished branding my name, as well as getting a presance out there. The only issue that comes down, is when it’s time to get paid “Rex Dixon” can’t cash any checks! SO…. that is why we have – Nuclear Inbox, LLC – who can cash checks.

The real “legal/bank name” vs your online name comes to bite you here. Also, when applying for jobs, you have to let people know early on – your “real name” ie.. Real Name aka Rex Dixon.

So far, I have had issues – landed me a gig at VentureBeat as well as a French company called Criteo.

Rex

Rex Dixon says: March 28th, 2007 6:55am

haha — that should be “so far has caused me NO issues”… duh..

Anne Zelenka says: March 28th, 2007 6:57am

Rex – I have the same issue because Zelenka is my married name but I never changed it legally. It’s a real hassle, especially when I register for conferences and then need to prove who I am. I want the badge to say Zelenka but my driver’s license says something else. So I carry around a mini-copy of my marriage certificate. In the next month or two I’ll probably change my name legally just to avoid the hassle.

Andrew Flusche says: March 28th, 2007 7:57am

I don’t have a name situation like Rex and Anne, but I have a potential solution for your online page. I have LegalAndrew.com. My legal name is all over it, so when you search for “andrew flusche,” you come up with my site. You can also help come up with alternate names (married v. legal) by putting those names in your meta-tags. Also, be sure to think of common misspellings of your name for your meta-tags.

Great post,
Andrew

andre taliercio says: March 28th, 2007 8:04am

This post is right on: online brand management and identity control are becoming a pure necessity. Search engines might return information we don’t want or it is someone else with the same name who is showing..
This is what we realized and why we created Ziki. Ziki aggregates content and user profiles for promoting a cohesive a personal brand online. In other words to control your identity and manage your brand efficiently you need first to aggregate your content in one place.
But we took Ziki to a further step: once you control your brand and your identity, you are in a position to promote yourself and your content; Thus you become pro-active on search engines. This is the right behavior to have in a crowded and busy online environment..
Right now and for a limited period we sponsor for free first+last name, but soon members will choose through our interface their own keywords to promote themselves along with their content.

Andre
PS: Yes I am part of the Ziki team

GigaOM » What’s on GigaNET says: March 28th, 2007 9:54am

[...] WebWorkerDaily: Why you might need an online persona. [...]

Tony Wright says: March 28th, 2007 9:54am

Great post. I’m in a battle to the death with some UK member of parliament, but am happily in the #2 slot in Google.

If you want to set up a profile for SEO purposes, you might want to check out Here’s a blog post (not mine) on personal SEO, where the author actually does some fairly systematic testing.

chriskelley.org » Blog Archive » This is one of th reasons I started chriskelley.org says: March 28th, 2007 3:23pm

[...] good article over on Web Worker Daily shows exactly why I started chriskelley.org. Yeah, sure it is somewhat of an exercise in [...]

bradlinder says: March 28th, 2007 3:58pm

I’ve had my eye on bradlinder.com for a while now. Unfortunately it’s registered to someone else (who I assume has my name). Even though it’s had a “coming soon” message on the front page for the last 2 or 3 years, it doesn’t expire until 2008. *sigh*. I might just have to buy up bradfordlinder.com at some point, even though only my mom and brother call me Bradford.

Stephen says: March 28th, 2007 9:47pm

I’ve found that it’s not that hard to clean up your web persona. It turns out, and this is not widely understood, that you own the copyright on anything you’ve written. This includes Usenet, comments on blogs, posts to forums, etc. You can ask that your stuff be removed, and if the site operator balks or misunderstands the law, a DMCA notification to the ISP, Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft can make the site disappear (the lawyers at ISPs and search engines are familiar with the law).

Personally, I’ve found that ISPs overseas (UK and Canada, in my case) will also help you enforce your copyright.

Some possible pitfalls:

– A browsewrapped or clickwrapped terms of service might include terms to the effect that you license your content or transfer copyright. This sort of thing may not hold up, but if the site in question invokes it in a DMCA reply, the ISP or search engine will end up saying, “Take it to court and let us know when you get an injunction.” At this point you’d have to sue. One tactic at this point is to spend a few hundred dollars and bluff by having an attorney begin a lawsuit by filing a complaint (with no intention of pursuing it beyond that). When the site owners thinks he’s looking at thousands of dollars in legal fees, he may back down.

– Quoted sections in replies are harder to get rid of. For instance, Google won’t remove Usenet stuff from Google Groups from others that include short quotes from your message.

– Depending on the context and topic, fair use or newsworthiness exceptions might be claimed.

And finally, anyone who has a web site should include in the :

This means that when you take your web site or blog or any content in it off the internet, it’s gone, for all practical purposes, since both Google and Alexa (Wayback Machine) will obey these. Make sure you have your own backup solution for your, however.

Stephen says: March 28th, 2007 9:48pm

One more try:

And finally, anyone who has a web site should include in the \:

\
\

Stephen says: March 28th, 2007 9:49pm

Third time’s the charm (square brackets should be angle brackets):

And finally, anyone who has a web site should include in the [head]:

[META HTTP-EQUIV="CACHE-CONTROL" CONTENT="NO-CACHE"]
[META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOARCHIVE"]

joyfarm6 says: March 28th, 2007 10:05pm

Graceful Flavor has a great essay I think fits with your post. http://gracefulflavor.net/2007/03/28/virtual-life-and-real-life-share-the-same-dark-underbelly/#comment-5235 He talks about the harassment Kathy Sierra has been going through, maybe having an online persona (my idea) could bring civility back in check. I do like the idea of a web persona and I have started with a url, LinkedIn and openid. Thanks for giving me an even better reason to do this.

Dempsey says: March 29th, 2007 12:41am

My online profile is screwed. My name? Patrick Dempsey

To differentiate from the actor: G. Patrick Dempsey (yes, I’ve always gone by my middle name and no, I won’t change to my first name) Google that and you won’t find me either. You get a lot of: “… rated G. Patrick Dempsey stars…”

No clue how to communicate to potential employers how they should google me.

I sign online post like this:

Patrick Dempsey (not the cute actor, but cute all the same)

DirkGently says: March 29th, 2007 2:22am

Is it just my eyes, or is the choice of text / background color VERY hard for others to read too?

DirkGently says: March 29th, 2007 2:23am

Ignore that post, for some reason my browser snapped the white background on, so it’s fine…it wasn’t there before.

Daily Cup of Tech Tumblog » What You Do Online Matters says: March 29th, 2007 4:05am

[...] Web Worker Daily » Blog Archive Why You May Need an Online Persona «: Employers are realizing that what people do online can actually prove their value as potential hires, not just rule them out based on drunken photos or revelations of other past missteps. [...]

Getting the ball rolling « oldephartteintraining says: March 29th, 2007 7:41am

[...] Getting the ball rolling Why you may need an online persona [...]

magicsenses says: March 29th, 2007 9:52am

Great post, Anne! Very informative! Thank you! Gotta go now! I have some web cleaning to do :))
hugs,
Betty

Rex Dixon says: March 29th, 2007 9:54am

Wow — this took off nicely for you Anne! Comments, are always good.

One thing I did want to say – Ziki – it is a great service. Has me ranked right where I need to be on Google – search it – Rex Dixon — 19 pages and growing. :)

Plus when you look to the right – you will see the branding done nicely. Ziki – if you are not on it, you should be — and I do *NOT* work for, or get paid by Ziki — although gifts/donations are encouraged and accepted! :)

Rex

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Craig Vidler | Weblog » links for 2007-03-29 says: March 29th, 2007 11:19am

[...] Why You May Need an Online Persona Web Worker Daily article on the importance of a presence on the web when job-hunting (tags: business jobs) This entry was written by Craig and posted on March 29, 2007 at 6:19 pm and filed under Bookmarks. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL. « links for 2007-03-28 [...]

mattgunn says: March 29th, 2007 12:21pm

#1. Own your own domain name.

- Check! … http://www.mattgunn.ca :-)

Orlick says: March 29th, 2007 1:29pm

I have been thinking lately, is it better to have the common names – untrackable, anonymous, like Tony smith. or a unique name like my own, where I am either famous or infamous in my own name world. There is a google double somewhere, but Im not as worried.
I also want to be the number one entry when someone enters in my last name. I’m number 7 now, just behind a charles dickens character.

In the future, we will all be very tolerant of politicians and coworkers/employees and what is written about them online. The market will be so oversaturated with info that negatives will be normal to find. Everyones laundry will all over the neighborhood, and we will care less. maybe

grandiosa12 says: March 29th, 2007 1:43pm

nice article.. it inspires me to rebuild my online persona

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engtech says: March 29th, 2007 4:45pm

I wrote my thoughts on this here:

http://engtech.wordpress.com/2007/03/27/pseudononymous-blogger-web-identity-job-search/

friend says: March 29th, 2007 5:05pm

beware the ‘wayback machine’ which will happily cough up your college web page. ban the ia_archiver bot from your pages, or pay the price. ;)

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Crustybum says: March 29th, 2007 8:23pm

What? There’s reasons to be anonymous?

You know what? While the main jist of this article is trying to point out why one might need to have a half decent presence online, I derive amusement from the qualifications scattered about – all the “if you act at all like a human, or a dumb ass, o…

Chris says: March 29th, 2007 9:25pm

About the first tip, my name is too common until most of the domain names that I can think of are already taken…
And I totally agree with you that building a professional profile online is imperative.

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Joel Toe says: March 30th, 2007 12:40am

I agree that online persona is necessary. The suggestions given in this blog post are good.

Harshad Joshi says: March 30th, 2007 12:56am

You are right. But non-expensive and convinient domain & website hosting isent available easily. Please guide on this issue also.

Thomas Hamburger Jnr says: March 30th, 2007 3:05am

An interesting article. Made me think of the merits of writing my blog under a pseudonym (which I’m doing at the moment) or of ‘coming out’. As I’m writing a work of fiction via the blog, I guess the jury is out!

Kind Regards

THJnr

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I’ll dugg this. GJ WWD!

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David Raho says: March 30th, 2007 9:17am

Some excellent advice here. There are pros and cons of establishing a traceable online prescence. The pros definitely outweigh the cons. What many potential employers don’t want to see is poor judgement that might reflect badly on their own branding. Fortunately for those people with some foresight and good judgement the reverse is also true and a positive web profile can be of great benefit particularly if it extends back for several years.

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Archaeogeek says: April 17th, 2007 7:58am

So, what’s the consensus here- surely if you happen to have a fairly common name then no amount of google-searching will help potential employers.

I would hope that if you included a link to your personal web page (whatever the domain) in your application, that would be enough, assuming that was professional looking and non-incriminating!

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rick gregory says: April 21st, 2007 3:26pm

“You should be prepared to explain that the person convicted for 3 counts of armed robbery, is not actually you.”

No. Employers need to start learning that Google reveals multiple people for most names. They need to learn the limitations of searching for my name and, dammit, they need to allow people to be human. As far as I know, I don’t have any embarrassing incidents on the net, but that’s because I was a kid and 20-something before the web existed. Frankly, I would not trust anyone that has never done something silly or embarrassing.

I’m looking to trade my skills, time and effort for some compensation. Yes, you should know if I have shady business ethics or have a felony conviction. No, you should not care if I drink on the weekends or not, or if my ex-girlfriends love or hate me. That’s not germane to what an employer is hiring me for.

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JF Ruiz says: June 18th, 2007 2:32am

You should also check Ziki.com to manage your online personal brand and be ranked first on major search engines.

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Ashutosh says: September 13th, 2007 3:23pm

I mean had an online persona that created problems

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Dempsey says: October 1st, 2007 2:48am

Follow up. Using the Google-branded search engine for “G Patrick Dempsey”, now the first hit is my LinkedIn profile, the second is MY COMMENT ON THIS STORY!!!! (click my link above)

I think that is hilarious. Maybe Google saw this article and added something to the algo? Yeah, right.

Music says: October 5th, 2007 4:14pm

seems it is becoming increasingly important that you build an online persona for yourself

Julia says: October 9th, 2007 8:58am

I enjoyed reading the original article and all the posts that followed. One additional source for creating an elegant online profile quickly and easily is at Ziggs.com. Ziggs hosts free online profiles for millions of people, helping people build their web persona. A Ziggs Profile helps you be found online by colleagues and recruiters alike. The Ziggs Profile is also one of the most elegant and comprehensive, while remaining easy to complete. Feel free to visit Ziggs and give yourself more visibility on the Web.

Ziggs also offers an inexpensive service that ensures your name with a link to your profile is high on every search engine for $4.95 a month. Small price when you think of the guaranteed global visibility you get as a result.

Yes, I work at Ziggs. Couldn’t help but share my enthusiasm with you all.

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Colin Greig says: January 21st, 2008 9:05am

this article has inspired me to grab a domain in my name, something I’ve shied away from for over a decade! Thank you

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Web Worker Daily » Archive Creating Your Visual Online Identity « says: May 14th, 2008 11:00am

[...] 14th, 2008 (11:00am) Mike Gunderloy No Comments We’ve written before about the importance of personal branding for the web worker. But there’s one piece of that brand that’s been growing in [...]

Web Worker Daily » Archive The Social Media Resume: Making Your Mark in a Web 2.0 World « says: May 28th, 2008 7:00am

[...] However, if I were to simply copy and paste my MS Word resume, I won’t be taking full advantage of what the web has to offer. After all, today’s Internet landscape involves more networking, connectivity, and collaboration. Then, I heard about the social media resume – which is more than a collection of dates and job descriptions. In fact, a social media resume could be a vital part of one’s web persona. [...]

Pharmaceutical Layoff » Blog Archive » Personal Branding and Developing an Online Presence says: June 10th, 2008 9:27am

[...] Employers and recruiters research prospective candidates online to get more information about them before an interview is scheduled or an offer is extended. This can work against you if your MySpace page is filled with “party” pics (or worse), but it can work for you if you have an effective online persona. [...]

WebWorkerDaily » Archive Which Domains Do You Need? « says: August 6th, 2008 11:00am

[...] for your site is only half the battle: the other half is choosing the name you want. As we’ve recommended before, one thing you should do is lock up your own name, even if you let it lie fallow for a bit; if you [...]

WebWorkerDaily » Archive WWD Roundup: Surviving the Coming Shakeout « says: November 17th, 2008 12:08pm

[...] Why You May Need an Online Persona [...]

Modesto » Standpoints says: December 13th, 2008 3:56pm

[...] http://webworkerdaily.com/2007/03/28/why-you-may-need-an-online-persona/ [...]

Kay Zwayer says: February 22nd, 2009 2:11pm

Excellent advice. I just ran across (2 years later :-)) this on a Tweet in Twitter. This information is second nature to my college-age daughter and my techie hubby, but many baby boomers like myself never really think about this.

Real estate blog| A real estate agent blogs | Real Blogging| » Blog Archive » Before lashing out on the global stage, step back. says: March 3rd, 2009 2:37pm

[...] Consider these timeless snippets from a March 2007 post on Web Worker Daily: [...]

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