Manage Your Online Persona

It's important to manage your online persona
You can find anything on the internet, and that means you can also be searched for and found. Much of your online persona is voluntary, such as the information you provide on MySpace or any other social networking community. Other results may be less of your choice such as showing up in the public records or being featured as the top blogger of the week.

Prospective employers, relatives, old classmates, and even potential romantic interests are searching the web to learn more about you. In most cases they aren’t specifically looking for dirt, but if you're not careful, that may be what they find. For instance, if you write a raging blog about how horrible your past employer was and disclose all of the trade secrets, you might be denied your next interview, and fully disclosing your most embarrassing habits may make the interest level of your new girlfriend plummet to zero. From damage control to finding new opportunities, here are some suggestions to effectively manage your online persona across the most popular channels.

Social networking for fun

Keeping in touch with friends has become dependent on things like MySpace and Facebook. It used to be suggested that web surfers avoid these arenas, but with people using them to communicate daily, as an invitation board for social outings and to get in touch with old friends, you almost have to have one. And once you do, it's extremely important to manage your online persona properly.

As with anything, you should only go on record with pictures and content that you don’t mind going public. Most of us have had feelings of rage that we want to write or have been photographed in a drunken state at a local establishment, but that doesn't mean the rest of the world wants to read about it or see you puking after a long night of boozing. Keeping your profile private can help, but that will not preclude the information from getting out. You never know who might be watching: a potential boss, a future employer, overbearing parents, or a potential lover. You can certainly enjoy keeping up with your friends and having some social networking fun all without totally spilling the beans for everyone to see.

Social networking is not limited to fun with friends. There are some very active professional social networking applications out there such as LinkedIn.com and you should consider these types of profiles as a type of online resume. It's very important to manage your online persona if you are networking professionally; you should be honest and do not embellish the importance of your job responsibilities, as doing so may be even more damaging than on a resume since your current employer or coworkers might actually see it and take it out of context.

If you are gainfully employed, use the profile to discuss your function within your company and how you are seeking to network in an effort to accomplish your job within the organization. You would not want to give your current employer the idea that you are looking to fly the coop.

Generally speaking, reflect on the value of your privacy. You may want to establish an alter ego, which is an extreme measure for managing your online persona, for your crazy nights out on the town or job-hunting efforts. Additionally, in the realm of these social networking applications, you are often disclosing information about yourself that you typically would not; remember that anything you post can be seen by anyone, which might work for you or against you.

Blogs

Blogging has become an immensely popular activity and there is no reason why you shouldn’t partake in this activity -- and in some cases, make extra money. Just like social networking, anything you write is out there for the entire world to read. Consider how viral blogs can be read via RSS feeds and other trinkets -- you might think you are just posting to your blog, but it can end up on thousands of sites without you even knowing, which exponentially increases the value of knowing how to manage your online persona. Since a blog is a reflection of you, be sure to always read what you write before hitting that post button. Regardless of the subject, you should always adhere to proper grammar and spelling.

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