With the development of technology, it is difficult to find someone who has never used the internet in their lifetime. Not only that social media has become an essential part of our day-to-day lives. But how many of you have an idea about the footprints you leave on the internet. Social medial & online presence can affect you in either good or bad ways. It depends on how we use them. It can create or break your identity. Google your name and check the results. Are those give a good impression about you or not?
Why is Online Presence Important?
- If you are waiting for a job, your employees will directly search you through the internet
- If you are already an employer, it will directly affect your name as well as the company you represent
- If you are a freelancer, customers may check your background before hiring you
- The online footprint is today's word-of-mouth
- It is difficult to come out from a bad review or a comment
- Maintain social media responsibly and respectfully.
Social media is an one way to measure the character of a person by looking at his/her profile. Groups they have joined, shares, likes, comments reveals that person's interests, creativity, talent, view about the society, political views etc... This dosen't means Facebook or Instagram should use as a Linkedin or Twitter. It has it's own sub culture, but you should use it responsibilly.
- Have an updated LinkedIn profile
If you are waiting for getting a new job or work as a employer of a company it's better to have a well maintained LinkedIn profile. It shows the professional working culture of you. It will definitely create a good impression about your self.
- Be active in online communities
Online communities, forums, platforms is one of the best ways to get new knowledge as well as to share your knowledge. Thorugh online communities you can make contacts with others and it will definitely help you in your future career. If you are a person who is seeking for a job opportunity you might contacted by companies because of your activeness in these communities.
- Maintain a personal portfolio website
Personal website is a great method of showcasing your talents. You can inclued details about you in a one place. Your blog also can be included in this site. It will attract more and more poeple to you as well.
- Maintain an active blog
There are many online platforms can be used for blogging. Blogger, Medium, WordPress blog site etc... Blogging can be done as a hobby and it will improve your subject knowledge as well.
Blogger: https://www.blogger.com/
Medium: https://medium.com/
WordPress: https://wordpress.com/
- Maintain an active YouTube Chanel
Having a YouTube channel is a fun thing to do. At first it may difficult to start but with the time it will be developed and you will have more creative and quality contents.
- Share your work
There are many platforms you can share your work. The can be used as portfolios for userself as well. This is more suitable for developers as well as UI developers. Behance, Dribbble, GitHub etc...
Behance: https://www.behance.net/
Dribbble: https://dribbble.com/
GitHub: https://github.com/
These are a set of things you can try to make your online presence better. You can use Google Alerts to track your name if someone searching your name in Google. If you have a not-so-good history in the online world, you can still make it change by trying to do something to cover the bad or unwanted footprints. As a first step, you can change the name people can search for you on the internet. (If you used your first and second name earlier now, you can use first and last or second and last names) And then try to build up a good brand for yourself.