This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

New Year - Time For a Review of Your Online Profiles

Have you Googled yourself lately? You should. Others are. Whether you are a student, professional, entrepreneur, or business owner, your online profile affects you. Schools, associations, employers, and potential customers are using the internet more frequently to check up on you.

First, you should Google yourself and see what you find. Address anything negative immediately.

Next, you should make a list of all the accounts you have. Delete any accounts that you do not use. Change the passwords frequently and keep a record of your usernames and passwords in safe place. If you have accounts for business use that you allow others to manage, make sure you have an up to date list of all the users.

Find out what's happening in Yorktown-Somerswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Now you need to decide what types of profile(s) you will have. If you only want accounts for personal use you need to make sure that the privacy settings are up to date. Your personal accounts should never be public. You also need to keep in mind that even though the account may be set to private, others CAN often still see your activity. This can be through a friend of a friend, a retweet, a repost, tagging, etc. NEVER post anything online that could come back to bite you later.

If you decide that you want accounts for professional use, you need to separate your professional profile(s) from your personal profile(s). This may not seem important - but it is. Surprisingly, most people do not do this. If you are connecting for networking purposes you should be giving out your professional profile links. These links can also be part of your email signature. Make sure that you keep the information accurate and up to date.

Find out what's happening in Yorktown-Somerswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Professional profiles should not include posts about relationships, drinking, politics, etc. These profiles are your opportunity to present yourself in the best way possible. They should include a brief bio, a professional profile photo, links to relevant content, and appropriate posts. Use spellcheck and have someone review it if you aren't sure about something. You may not think your personal profile negatively affects your professional image but it does. Even one rant about a bad day can affect the impression that you make on others.

The internet is filled with endless potential. By presenting yourself appropriately online you can make sure that the potential is used successfully.

=====

Cheryl Sanchez

Founder, President, & CEO

TheNetWorks Organization, LLC

& The Maxcess Group, LLC

www.TheNetWorks.org

www.TheMaxcessGroup.com
We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?