Footprints in the Digisphere

Should you be concerned about your digital footprint?

I came across this hilarious video clip whilst researching content for a presentation I was invited to give recently about managing your online identity. The presentation was primarily pitched at university students but it occurred to me that this is something of interest to anyone who is active online. After showing the clip, several people in the audience whipped out their tablets and starting searching for their privacy settings!

Enjoy! (And beware…)

“I know what you did five minutes ago” by Tom Scott (5min 30)

Here are some tips on cleaning up your online act:

• See how your Facebook profile looks to other people and check your privacy settings so that your personal networks don’t appear in an online search. http://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/tools
• Regularly do search engine checks on your name and don’t forget to check out google images too! Although you can control what you write online, you can’t always control what other people say about you.
• Look yourself up on people search engines:
  www.peekyou.com
  www.social-searcher.com
• Use TweetReach to see who your tweet may have reached: http://tweetreach.com
• Try http://namechk.com/ to remind yourself which sites you may have signed up for.
• How much do you know about keeping within the law online? Take the Accidental Outlaw Test: http://accidentaloutlaw.knowthenet.org.uk/

A lot of people think of their online CV as their LinkedIn or Facebook page, but actually, if you google your name – THAT is effectively your online CV. Go ahead… google yourself. What did you find? Is some stranger or famous person with your name stealing your limelight or bringing you down? In that case, you need to work harder at building your platform to push your own (clean) content to the top of the list. Your digital footprint is your online marketing tool.

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