Why does your Digital Footprint matter?
It is as simple as when you walk in the mud or a sandy area; you will leave signs of your shoes on the ground.
Now, when you enter online and do your normal activities such as browsing, posting, commenting, etc., you leave a special type of footprint, which the internet tends to collect all of them and store online. While we can erase our steps on the sandy area, unfortunately, there’s no easy mechanism to erase our digital footprints. Once the internet collects them, they will be there forever.
Strange right?
With the digital transformation, most companies tend to use this information collected by the internet to share different advertisements and pop-up ads. The small information collected by the internet tends to make them learn about us and our habits. Hence, it’s easy for them to share things that will more likely get our attention.
But this is harmless, right? Especially when you choose to ignore the pop-up ads on your feed. However, do you know the same information can sometimes lead someone to figure out your account’s passwords, date of birth, bank account details, and many others? That usually influences things like; digital engineering attacks, blackmailing, the spread of misinformation, bullying, or even online harassment.
Do you see how it is getting worse now?
Now let’s look at what you have been following, posting, commenting, liking, and sharing. This plays a huge role in presenting your behaviors to people.
Today, most young people don’t care how they use their social media accounts; they pretend to think their pictures, comments, likes, and who they follow are private. But aren’t.
Hiring managers and other experts find it easy to know about their candidates via Google or social media. They use the internet information to describe people’s characters and morals. Now imagine they found an inappropriate picture of you posted four years ago or maybe a negative comment to someone; which impression will they have about you?
So it’s vital to control and take care of your digital footprint as it plays a huge role in supporting or destroying your personal brand. Here are six tips to follow at least to have control of your digital footprint.
Post less of your social life and inappropriate pictures or videos;
Consider making your social media accounts look professional or even inspirational. Say no to pictures of you drinking alcohol, club dancing, wearing half-naked, smoking, or picture showing any discrimination. And instead, post pictures of you volunteering, attending training and events, traveling, playing sports, meeting friends or new people, or celebrating your team achievements.
Control what you like, comment, share, view, and tag.
We often forget that one negative comment on someone’s page can destroy your whole reputation. Or liking and sharing on pages or pictures that promote social crimes such as harassment, bullying, violence, discrimination, the spread of misinformation and misbehaviors, and others will make you considered directly part of such things.
Never spread false information or support one.
Mind what you’re sharing or supporting. Spreading false information is a crime by itself. Still, there’s consequences of that piece of information might affect someone else negatively.
Always before sharing, liking, or supporting by any means a piece of information, cross-check the content and ask yourself: Is this a trusted source? Is this accurate information? How does it make me feel? What are the consequences of me sharing? What do other sources say about this piece of information? Does society accept this kind of info? Every time you better ask yourself this question rather than just absorbing and start sharing.
Sometimes you have to use your real identity.
Building a professional brand online sometimes requires you to put your real name out there so that the search engine can recognize and optimize your profile. This will ease the process for people looking for you either to be inspired or any opportunity, but this does not count for those who prefer ghost profiles and hide their identity for personal or professional reasons.
Delete old accounts and posts.
“Yesterday’s craze might be out of favor today.” Since you want to grow professionally, it is usually disappointing to see people, especially friends, making fun of your ten years ago picture or video or people using your past to describe your present or future. So it is crucial sometimes to delete old posts and save them on gallery or drives for memories. Also, the accounts which you no longer use you can retrieve and delete them permanently.
Keep on checking/Google yourself.
Usually, Google tends to update our information every time we are putting our data online. By using solid pages like LinkedIn and Twitter, which have strong search engine optimization, we can describe our professions there and can be displayed on Google search.
Try frequently to search your name and see what it presents, however sometimes your name can be common, building a strong presence online can make you stand out from others.
We are in a Digital Transformation era where every piece of information matters. Building a strong personal digital brand it’s crucial in achieving career goals. We are always responsible for our actions; the only way to win this battle is by taking action today and start controlling our digital footprint.
Thank you for reading this! Let me know if you have any questions or input via my email: bihaki.articles@gmail.com, or you can dm my LinkedIn account here:
Check my next article: How to Build an Outstanding LinkedIn Profile.
