Your Blog and the Internet You

There is no such thing as an eraser on the Internet.

Search engines provide endless opportunities for ego surfing, Google bombing (influencing traffic so it spikes a particular site) and Google juicing (enhancing one's "brand" in the era of micro-celebrity).  Overshare and follow yourself too closely: Google narcissist.

But Googling people is also becoming a way for bosses and headhunters to do continuous and stealthy background checks on employees, no disclosure required. 

Google is an end run around discrimination laws, inasmuch as employers can find out all manner of information--some of it for a nominal fee--that is legally off limits in interviews: your age, your martial status, the value of your house (along with an aerial photograph of it), the average net worth of your neighbors, fraternity pranks, stuff you wrote in college, liens, bankruptcies, political affiliations, and the names and ages of your children.

"There is no way that in the next couple years people aren't going to Google you before they hire you---or invite you to a party," says Debbie Well, author of The Corporate Blogging Book. 

How to take control? Start a blog and put your name on it.

You should expect modest results from your blog---an estimate that the average blog has one reader is "probably generous," says Derek Gordon, a vice president at Technorati---but the 12 million Americans who blog don't seem to care.

After you've polished your thoughts in a slick looking blog, don't mess it up with a silly Web address like http://coachingtip.blogs.com/so_baby_boomer/ Instead, get a vanity address that expresses the nature of your blog, like: www.SoBabyBoomer.com.  It's never been easier or cheaper to get an Internet domain name, the .com or .net address that you type into a browser to find a website.  For as little as $9 a year, you can make it easy to land your own address and point it to your blog.  You can also use the domain as a permanent email address, with the mail sent automatically to any mailbox you choose.

Here are some tips to clean up your digital dirt:

1.  Register with a free online profile manager such as LinkedIn.

2.  If you must MySpace, refrain from posting the risque; consider cloaking or using an avatar.

3.  Order a background check and then contact vendors if you find incorrect information.

4.  Think before you blog.  Anything personal that you post may come back to haunt you.

5.  Fight fire with fire: Drive traffic with your own blog or by hiring a search-engine optimization outfit.

A Closing thought:

35% of executive recruiters, who use the Internet to check out prospects, say they have eliminated candidates based on what they have found online (up from 26% in 2005).  Although 82% of job candidates expect recruiters to look them up online, 33% of job candidates have never conducted a Web search on themselves.

Sources: BusinessWeek, June 26, 2006 and March 27, 2006, U.S. News & World Report, December 25, 2006