Social Networks
If you use any of the major social networks, start your Web cleanup there.
1. Updated: Check for accurate and updated information
2. Keywords: Insert keywords that will be important
to the new job you seek. Make sure they
are presented prominently and frequently to
attract recruiters searching the Web.
3. “Contact Me”: Check the “Contact Me” option.
Many recruiters search LinkedIn only for candidates
willing to be contacted.
1. Updated: Check for accurate and updated information.
Complete your work history.
2. Keywords: Insert keywords that will be important
to the new job you seek.
3. Search: Go to the “Privacy Settings” section.
If you want to be found by recruiters on
Facebook and are comfortable with what they
will find, set search visibility to “Everyone on
Facebook.” If you want to reserve Facebook
for your personal life, limit it accordingly.
4. Public Search: Also in the privacy settings, check
“Public Search Listing” which will create a
public search listing for anyone searching on a
search engine outside of Facebook.
5. Friend Lists: Set separate networks for private
and professional contacts. Add new contacts to
the appropriate network.
6. Photos: On the Privacy Settings page, change
the “Photos Tagged of You” setting to “Only
Me” and “None of my Networks” so that you
can untag yourself in any embarrassing photos
or ask friends to delete them.
7. Facebook Applications: Check to see which
applications are visible on your profile page and
which publicize information about you. Alter
settings to limit who sees what information.
8. Wall Posts: Alter privacy settings to limit who
can write on your Facebook Wall and who can
read posts to your Wall.
Online Profiles
1. Profile Check: There are other social network
sites, such as MySpace, on which you may have
a profile. Check to make sure they’re accurate
and updated or deleted.
2. Rapleaf: If you can’t remember which sites
you’ve joined, Rapleaf can associate your various
email accounts and reveal all the sites you
have profiles on to check the content. Make
sure none are embarrassing or outdated.
1. Google Search: Search your own name on
Google. This is something a potential employer
will do, and it’s a good idea to check to see what
they will see.
a. Don’t settle for the first 10 results.
Check multiple pages of search results.
b. Search on terms associated with your
name (i.e. Your name + past employers,
partners).
c. Check the referring pages themselves
for inaccurate or embarrassing information.
2. Google Alerts: Establish Google Alerts for
your name and any of the terms you would
check in Step 1. As Google finds new information
with those terms posted on the Web, you
will receive an e-mail or RSS feed.
SEARCH ENGINES
PeekYou and Yasni: These targeted search engines will scour Web sites for your name. Of course, the
relevancy of the results will vary depending on how common your name is!
PHOTOS AND VIDEOS
1. Flickr: Yahoo’s photo-storage and social-network
Web site is open and searchable. Search
friends’ pictures and “tags” of your name to
find pictures of yourself. You must contact the
owner of the photo to remove a tag or delete a
photo.
2. YouTube: Google’s video-storage and socialnetwork
Web site is similarly open and will
appear in search-engine results. Search friends’
pictures videos and “tags” of your name to find
footage of yourself. As with Flickr, you must
contact the owner of the photo to remove a tag
or delete a photo.
3. Facebook: Facebook is fast becoming one of
the largest storage and sharing sites for photos
and videos, but it allows more control than
Flickr and YouTube. Follow the steps above in
the above Facebook section to fix any problematic
issues.
4. Additional photo and video sites: There are
many other sites to store and search photos
and video, such as Kodak Gallery, Snapfish,
MySpace, Hulu, Photobucket and
Yahoo!Video. Review Google search results;
for a deeper clean, ask your friends which sites
they use and ensure they’re presentable
BLOGS
1. Industry Blogs: Check blogs associated with your industry for references to you.
2. Google Blog Search: Google Blog Search will search sites it identifies as blogs.
3. Backtype: Similar to Google Blog Search, but it will search for your name in comments left on blog sites,
which are not always indexed by Google.
4. Clean up: You can ask a blogger to remove unfavorable information or images, but in case they are uncooperative,
be prepared to defend yourself.
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