The internet has a far wider reach than small town or campus gossip, this can be both positive or negative depending on how you manage your online reputation.
Nowadays, your digital footprint is the mirror to your personal and professional success. Simply avoiding an online reputation actually appears to be more suspicious than having one.
Almost everything you do and say online is easy to track and can have an impact on your reputation, both online and offline. The internet has a vast catalog of details and you may be surprised at just how much information on you can impact how you are perceived as a person and professional. 
We are all well aware of the fact that many, if not all, recruiters and human resource professionals do basic searches, explore personal websites and check social media sites of potential hires.
Now that we’ve ‘grown up’ and are considering crucial steps to our careers and futures, it is definitely a good time to re-evaluate the content about us that is available to everyone via the internet.
Show off you best side by managing your online reputation with these starter tips:
- Start by doing a basic google search on yourself and continue to check every so often
- Deactivate unused accounts and remove yourself from unprofessional groups
- De-tag yourself from inappropriate facebook or online photos, or if possible request the owner of the picture to remove it
- Update your emails or aliases from the old "hot_sexy@hotmail.com" or "@hotsexy" to something basic and professional like your first and last name
- Don't let someone else create your reputation--from now on control photo tags and
- discriminating or false information on you
- Use the online world positively to create a desired presence and to counter any negative information about you- ensure there is more good than bad
- Make sure all online account are secure by having strong passwords or regularly changing them
- At all costs continue to manage your online reputation
Starting to manage your “whuffie”, or online credibility, now while continuing to keep an eye on it can save you some embarrassment and ensure there won’t be anything to hide in the future.
Have you begun to tackle this? Do you have any online reputation management tips to offer?
