How to create a good online image

Marketing isn’t just for marketers – in fact, every day we get up and leave the house, we’re engaging in some form of marketing. The product and service we’re putting out there however is encapsulated in flesh and bones – you! From the clothes you wear to the way you style your hair to how you speak and heck, even the pictures you put up on your facebook profile – you are in the business of marketing yourself. But why do we do it?

Personally, we market ourselves in an effort to connect with old friends and in the hopes of making new friends. We want to be associated with people who enjoy the things we do and like the things we like – think high school but at a much more “adult” level. Professionally, we market ourselves to create better career opportunities, to project our strengths and accreditations and to build stronger more productive career-centric networks. Personal marketing, intentional or not, can prove to be very effective and when done correctly, can bring you closer to your goals.

There are however several pitfalls when it comes to marketing who you are and what you’re about. Simple, preventable mistakes can spell ruin for you career and personal life and let’s be honest; you can’t un-ring a bell. When some mistakes are made they become indelible blemishes on our lives. Specifically on the internet, rumors, bad reviews and misinformation can spread like wild fire. So what do you do to prevent this kind of online catastrophe? Check out our tips below and start using them today:

1. Consider splitting your online personalities:

Whether we’re playing online or working online, we leave bits and pieces of ourselves all over the internet. With every email address, user login and subscription, we are creating a long line of open, traceable and vulnerable portals through which people can find us and our information. It would be a good idea to attack the internet from a semi-schizophrenic perspective. If you’re going to use it for both work and personal purposes keep these presences separate and apart from each other, with no links possible. For the professional portion of your online life, have contact information that is general enough for you to be able to share openly: a dedicated email address, a Skype account specifically used for business networking and a standard profile picture that you’re pleased with, to name a few examples. On the personal side, use a pseudonym and email address that cannot be associated with your real life info. Still a little confused or overwhelmed by it all? Why not use online reputation management services to help you keep track of who you are and where you are online?

2. Leave positive trademarks:

When it comes to shopping on e-commerce sites like eBay and Amazon.com, create accounts that use your real name. Through this account you should leave well constructed reviews on books and materials that are central to your career. Surprisingly this is like creating positive SEO for your name.