Is your Google identity helping or hurting your career?

Published On: July 26, 2016 09:09 AM NPT By: Republica | @RepublicaNepal

Your first impression is more and more likely going to be formed online. That’s thanks to the new phenomenon, Digital First, a term that was coined by Mitch Joel in his book, ‘Ctrl Alt Delete’.

Your Google results paint a picture of who you are and reveal how visible you are on the web; and visibility (at least among your target audience) is critical to successful personal branding. Your Google results also become useful data points for those who are looking to make decisions about you.

That means you need to know what Google says about you and proactively manage your digital brand if you want to expand your success.

With that in mind, here are some easy steps you can take to enhance or establish your digital brand:

Write your bio
You want people to get to know you. That means you need to be clear about who you are, and you need to be able to articulate it with the 26 letters of the alphabet. The process of writing your bio helps you distill your brand into an important tool that you will use in various places on the web. With your bio written, you’ll be able to easily create content for your profiles – like your LinkedIn summary, Twitter bio, etc.

Update your LinkedIn profile
If you don’t have one, create one. Your LinkedIn profile will likely show up in one of the top three spots in the Google results of a search on your name. When working on LinkedIn, start with the big three: Your headline, headshot, and summary. They are the most important elements. Then, work on your skills/endorsements, experience and education.

Buy your domain name: yourname.com
Even if you have no plans to create your own website, this is important real estate to own. You can point your domain name to your LinkedIn profile or to other relevant pages on the web.
Digital branding is no longer a nice bonus to have. It is now an essential must-have for career minded professionals who seek to impress and engage with decision makers and influencers.

Forbes