Branding 101: Your Google Search

As future PR professionals, we need to begin to understand the rules of personal branding. Let us start with our personal Google search, shall we? How others see you in a simple Google search is the first step in understanding your personal brand. It is imperative to see what is associated with you and your name BEFORE you establish a personal brand. If anything on the Internet contradicts your values as a PR professional or your image, it is a misrepresentation of you and your future.

A recent Ragan article, "5 Simple Steps to Improve Your On-line Presence” sheds a bright light on how you clean the slate to establish a personal brand.

1. Google yourself regularly- Google your name, with quotes, and see your various results. My first result is my personal Twitter @swann824, which I keep professional but some are not so lucky. It’s important to Google yourself multiple times a month because of the updated algorithums Google conducts. Its also important to go pages deep in your search. Unfortunately for me, my Xanga still haunts me on page 12 of my Google Search.

2. Remove/hide negative content related to you- If there is any content control, like on Facebook, change your privacy settings to private or unsearchable. Its important to reset your Facebook privacy every so often because with every update Facebook changes its privacy terms and conditions, sneaky.

3. Highlight your achievements- Google has the ability to push your most searched content. So if you are extremely proud of your one blog post, try to find it on Google by associating yourself with the article and simply click on the link, i.e. "Samantha Wanner" AND "Organization in Writing."

4. Communicating your unwanted content- If there is unflattering content associated with your name ask the owner of the domain to politely take down the negative content. This also goes to Facebook, if there is an unflattering picture of you on Facebook, ask the owner to delete the picture from the album DO NOT just remove the tag, people can still find you.

5. The ultimate protection- The ultimate protection is buying your own domain. Spend the few dollars to have your content controlled under one name controlled by you. Another advantage of owning your domain is the ability to read your own analytics, like how many people view your blog posts through Facebook or Twitter, which channel is better for reaching certain audience.

Look out next Wednesday for more tips on how to coin your personal brand.