How can you bounce back from being publicly shamed? Does your social media profile(s) give off the wrong image of you? Do you think that your online presence block you from certain opportunities? If you believe your online presence is unflattering, then it may be time to clean up your image. The half-naked bikini photos or twerk videos from your college days may be haltering your success. Companies, for instance, use the internet to search an applicant’s background. According to CareerBuilder, nearly 48% of these employers said that what they found online, persuaded them to not hire a person. As for a celebrity, your online presence can influence fans opinions of you and also major brands. There are big dollars awarded in endorsement deals and who would want to mess that up. Although most celebs believe that “all news is good news,” that’s not always true. Maintaining a clean online presence is very important in any industry. Therefore, if there are details out there on Google that may cause harm, then it’s time to erase them from the internet. Here are several ways to get that done: 1. Conduct a search of your name on all search engines (i.e. Google, Yahoo!, Bing, Facebook, etc). First things first, you have to find out what all is out there. At this point, you have no idea. Therefore, it is smart to shift through thousands of pages or images to see what is online and what needs to be removed. 2. Set up a Google alert. Every time your name shows up online, you will receive a notification email. The notification will show you the url link/website that your name has shown up on. From there, you can take steps to remove the information, photos, or videos from that page. 3. Make your profile private. This is will prevent employers (or any unwanted visitors) from accessing your page. No one will have access to your information, thus preventing strangers from copying/sharing your photos, for example. 4. Delete your profile. You can delete your social media profile(s) all together, however, that will not delete whatever images that are floating around on the internet. Friends or family may have re-posted a photo or shared it on another website. This causes that photo to be saved on several servers. If the photo is derogatory, then you will have to contact the hosting company (or person that owns that server) to delete the photo for you. 5. Get professional help. There are companies out there that specialize in cleaning up your professional image. It may cost a pretty penny, but it’s well worth it. Also, hiring someone to do this is great when you don’t have time to do it yourself. If you are an individual who’s popular, you’ll have thousands of search result pages to comb through. Who has time for that? 6. Start over. Once everything is deleted, all accounts gone, now you can start over. This gives you the opportunity to showcase your image/persona exactly how you want it to be. Unfortunately, we live in a world where everyone is criticized personally and professionally. To stay ahead of the competition professionally, at least start with a clean slate of positivity. Not only will you feel better about your online presence, but others looking at you will be acceptable of who you are as well. Photo: AFP/Getty Images
