Afraid of being cataloged online? You’ve just lost.

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I’m sure many folks don’t have anything to hide, but don’t want to share more online. I understand that, but still believe that there is something missing if you can’t find out something about someone online - information is just too pervasive not to be able to find things out there.

hey thanks for this nice post, i found your blog newly.

I tend to shy away from giving too many opinions online, not because
of a fear of being categorized, but rather, because my employer has
fairly strict policies that govern what we can and cannot say publicly.
For example, the policies prohibit me from providing recommendations
on LinkedIn and other social networking sites for current or former
employees. I've been with the same employer for a long time, so
giving or receiving recommendations is very difficult.

I occasionally participate in discussions on LinkedIn, but even then I'm
not sure if I'm really supposed to be doing that or not.

@Deb - I guess my one question for you is 'why do you need to post only as your business entity?' What about your personal brand, and your opinions? Isn't there a venue for those thoughts and opinions out there on the 'net? Is it wrong to be yourself?

I know there is a lot more to each of our circumstances and what we do or don't contribute online, but I think that there are more opportunities for those that take the risk that some folks or organizations won't understand and will have issues with. Those organizations aren't forward looking and will probably have difficult times adapting to changing norms.

It's ok, I agree with your views but what i believe is that Don't care about folks & do your best.

@boxing supplies - Not sure I totally understand what you're saying, but I do agree that folks just need to take a little care and do their best.

Andy, these are fantastic and very relevant points! I don't have the time to answer correctly at the moment, so I'll do that later this evening.

I really like the questions you have on the topic too - I'll try to answer them to the best of my abilities.

Regards,
Rick

I have a lot of thoughts on this, hope you don't mind. :) As you'll probably gather, I'm actually pretty pessimistic on the whole concept but I'm here asking questions because I care.

I presume you are getting at that people may pass over you for positions or promotions if they don't find anything about you (both personal and professional) with internet searches, and that's "losing", am I correct?

How do you predict how people will search for you?

For example, google doesn't find much about me by name, but I'm active in many online arenas. I've nurtured many significant relationships and have been very influential both work- and non-work-related, but I doubt that a potential employer will find any of that.

Along the same lines, how do you protect against confusion / mistaken identity?

If they find something that may be you and they judge you on that and it's either not or they don't get the whole story behind it, what recourse is there? What good did that do for either side?

Can you quantify how many employers for what kind of openings are actually filtering candidates on the basis of non-results from internet searches?

It seems more likely that you'd be filtered if they find something clearly negative, or misinterpret something they do find. My personal opinion is that less is more in this case.

I'd say that, at least for positions I look for, online search results have more of a downside as opposed to an upside. Certainly there are positions ("evangelist", sales, marketing, etc.) or companies where what they find can be extremely important, but, from where I stand, I'd happily live and die by my resume, my references, and my interview skills; keeping the rest of my life "off the record" until it becomes relevant. Ask around, I don't have much to hide, but to be frank, it's not exactly anyone's business.

@Andy S - Yes, 'if they don't find anything about you with internet searches, that's losing' is what I was getting at.

You can't predict how people will search for you - that's part of the art of the brand. You simply have to brand yourself in anticipation that anyone will search for anything.

When searching for yourself, do you search by your real name, your brand, or by the handles you may use on various online sites?

Regarding, confusion or mistaken identity, that's a bit harder, however straightforward. There is always going to be someone with the same name as you doing really smart, great things, or really dumb, embarrassing things - it always seems like it anyway. To combat this, you just have to work harder to get your sites higher on the results of those searches. This boils down to "Google Juice", or knowing honest SEO tactics, and more importantly, being prolific. You have quite a bit of recourse - prove it. The online record is there, you need to point them in the right direction. Anyone that takes things at face value is ignorant in the ways of the web anyway and wouldn't be someone I'd strive to work for.

Quantify # of employers... since I don't have the time to do a lot of research for this question, I can speak from experience. Past, current, and my next employer have found my work online. In fact, the firm I'm talking with right now found me soley based on my online participation and personal brand. This led to face to face interviews about a position. And it was all because of the quality and volume of the work I've done online. Very powerful, and I know dozens more who have had similar experiences. That doesn't prove anything, but does demonstrate, at least to me, that there is quite a bit of change on this front.

You're probably right, as the term YMMV (your mileage may vary) does come into play. Since we are each unique in our approach, our abilities, and our desire to participate, it can drastically vary from one person to the next.

If putting yourself online and building your brand isn't your thing, I'm sure you'll still be successful. After all, we all can define success to meet our views. I'm sure many folks don't have anything to hide, but don't want to share more online. I understand that, but still believe that there is something missing if you can't find out something about someone online - information is just too pervasive not to be able to find things out there.

Cheers,
Rick