Are you digitally extinct or distinct?

Today, first impressions are gained online. Though you may not be aware of it, people are likely to be making judgments about you based on your virtual self and may choose to either interview you or do business with you based on what they find. Before a job interview or client meeting you are most probably Googled. Now, more than ever, people are using the Internet as a way to find out about the people they are about to engage with in business matters. Managing your identity in the online world is essential, however, not many people do it and many do not do it well.

You may feel retaining your anonymity by avoiding online channels is the best course of action, but, if a situation arises where you are compared to someone with three Google pages filled with links to papers and opinions demonstrating their professional expertise, they’ll probably be the one invited to the conference – or to the job interview.

First you need to know if you have a virtual image and, if so, if it is a good one.

Assessing your virtual image – it’s about quantity AND quality

1. Google your name (using “,”)
2. Now scan the first five pages, which should be 50 results in total if Google is set to default
3. Determine the % of quantity of information: y-axis
   How many times do you appear in the results? Work out the percentage of results that are about you of the total number of results returned (usually 50).
4. Determine the quality of information: x-axis

This requires qualitative interpretation of what the results say about you. Are they saying what you want them to say? In some cases it may be completely wrong to or even negative! Score the results according to this scale:

• Impressive = 1, the results project your unique attributes and the value you bring. The information is structured to provide relevant information to that particular audience.
• Common/Vague = 0, the information about you is relevant, but it communicates nothing unique about you and/or is unclear.
• Negative/Confusing = -1, the information about you is negative/confusing.

Now rate the quality of information according to the key audiences who will use it. Think about their information needs and ask yourself:

• Do your results deliver the information they require?
• Do you project your unique value?
• Is it consistent between sites?

Then add the total of all the boxes.

The figure below shows four potential scenarios: They axis represents the quantity of information about you in Google; the x axis depicts the quality of that information to your personal image. Google your name, how many times did you appear in the first five pages? How accurate and up-to-date was this information? Now think about which quadrant you would sit in.