People are searching for your name online, like it or not.  Translation: If you don’t own your name when someone searches for you, you are behind the curve.The days of first impressions beginning with a handshake are over. Three quarters of companies search for job applicants online prior to meeting them in person.  How you manage your online presence is critical to your personal brand and future success, especially for job applicants.

How do you own your name online?  Below are six steps you should actively take to ensure that your name online is marketable and professional.

1) Google yourself. Do you already own your name?

If you are like most people, you do not. Nearly everyone falls into one of three categories:

1. The “undesired” category: The results are less than flattering. Social media use exploded so fast that the line between our personal lives and our professional lives began to blur before most people had a chance to pull back the reins. By the time many people realized everything online is permanent and that “private” isn’t exactly a reality online, it was too late.
2. The irrelevant category: Sure, the results are about you but do they really back up your qualification and align with your career goals? Do they make you more hirable? Unfortunately, at this point no one cares about your high school track times or the award you received in middle school.
3. The “hey, that’s not me” category: In this case, somebody else with your name shows up. They may be famous, or worse, they may be someone you’d rather not be associated with. For example, before owning his name, when you googled our CEO Pete Kistler, you were greeted by an ex-convict from writeaprisoner.com. We’ve heard plenty of horror stories along the same line, people being mistaken for having a criminal record and strip dancers showing up first when a colleague Googled them in the office. Whatever the case, you do not want to be misrepresented when you are searched.

2) Own your domain = own your name

Now that you know where you stand in Google, it’s time to take action. Owning your domain name and creating a compelling personal website there  is the quickest, most relevant way to get listed higher on Google, not to mention a great place to direct employers online. This will be the central hub where you link to all your other profiles, and it only costs about a dollar a month, well worth the investment.

3) Create a personal site around your name

The best way to really own your name is to include everything that makes you YOU.  Be articulate and precise with your language, and emphasize accomplishments you would want employers to see.  Identify what you do best, what differentiates you from your peers and know your audience when crafting your personal brand.  Write in the third person so that Google recognizes the site is about you.

4) Own your name on professional & social networks

Create profiles on high ranking networks, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Brazen Careerist, Flickr and Ziggs.  Joining these networks allows you to increase your presence online and protects you from others creating accounts using your name, resulting unwanted irrelevant results.

5) Create more content and links to rise to the top of searches

When it comes down to it, to own your name, your content needs to show up at the top of Google. One of the most important factors in getting to the top, besides your domain and keyword density, is inbound links. The more links you have pointing to your name, the higher you show up.  Join free directories and profiles, such as DMOZ, Yahoo, Web World Index and Zeal.  Make sure every place you exist online links to every other place you exist online.  For example, link your YouTube account to your Facebook account and your Ziggs account to your Twitter account.

6) Own your name on news-wires

A quick way to highlight your accomplishments in Google results and create powerful links for your profiles is write press releases. Write a press release detailing any of your latest accomplishments. An award you won, your graduation, launching a website, etc.  and submit it to free newswires, such as i-newswire and Article Circulation.

Like a job search, managing your personal brand is an ongoing process that evolves and grows over time.  Your personal brand is not stagnant.  You must be diligent and continue to tweak and update your online content to own your name online, especially when job searching.

Jim Armstrong is a senior advertising management major in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.  He works in the Tina Press and David Rubin Career Development Center where he reviews resumes and cover letters.

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There are countless books available on a number of social networking or personal branding topics, with more and more hitting the shelves every week.  When I am looking for my next book, I look to my network for recommendations.  Sometimes I just take a risk and make a purchase based upon either the author or the material covered.

Over the past 6 months, I found myself reading more than I ever have before, trying to keep updated on the latest trends, technologies, and their practical applications.  The energy of the authors and topics discussed certainly keeps me interested.

I wanted to share with you a few books that are strong in both the personal branding and social networking spaces.  I am not ranking the books, just sharing five that I believe are very much worth reading.

Crush It (Gary Vaynerchuk) – It is all about following your passion and Gary is an absolute leader in following your passion.  Be passionate about you and what you choose to do with your life.  If you follow your passion and put everything you have into whatever that may be, success will come.  Translate this into your personal brand and become even more passionate about you.  Gary also provides great suggestions on ulterior sites to consider which may help you expand your presence into niche or emerging networks.

Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success (Dan Schawbel) – I am not a Millenial or Gen Y but I was able to learn quite a bit from this book.  Dan provides great insight into the “whys” of personal branding and, as you would expect, a “how-to” plan.  This is an excellent resource for anyone who would like to gain a better understanding as to where to begin or to further enhance your personal brand.

Trust Agents (Chris Brogan & Julian Smith) – Chris and Julian get straight to the point of social networking: build trust.  Everything you do online starts with building trust and engagement.  Before anyone will respond to you, you need to add value to your network before you ask for anything in return.  Same with your personal brand, establish your authenticity online (do not pretend to be someone you are not) and develop your brand into something that others will trust.

Socialnomics (Erik Qualman) – Erik provides interesting case studies into people and companies and how they leveraged social networking.  There is a heavy dose of Barack Obama and his use of social networking during his campaign, which is fine (though just a little redundant), but he includes other case studies as well.  Erik’s insight into using social networking for business, or elections, is highly useful and you are able to pick up techniques to use in your own branding strategy.

The interesting fact is that all of these books are not specific around personal branding but absolutely incorporate similar concepts in business as in your personal brand.  When you read a social networking or marketing book, always think of how you may incorporate it into your strategy – either for business or for your personal brand.

There are exciting things happening every day, take an active approach and try new techniques.  Absolutely nothing to fear while exploring new opportunities and creating a niche while you continue to brand yourself.

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Keith McIlvaine is a Social Media Strategist within HR and Recruiting for a Fortune 500 company.  When he is not focused on leveraging social media and networking, Keith is also a personal branding coach and social media mentor.  He is passionate about his family and is a major soccer fanatic.  Follow Keith on Twitter or connect on LinkedIn.  The statements I have posted on this site are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.

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As I watched President Obama give the State of the Union Address tonight, I thought about some important advice for your personal branding efforts. You need to promote yourself if you want to find a job or improve your career, but you have to be very careful about what you say.

Start from the realization that anything you say on the Internet – any picture you post – is effectively there forever. You simply can’t “unsay” something that you once felt strongly about, even if you change your mind. We’ve all heard stories about people who lost jobs or job opportunities because they had unwisely posted pictures or comments on their social networks. These are the obvious cases, though, and we probably all know better.

When you post your political or religious views, you may be thinking that you’re well within the bounds of proper social discourse. After all, our country was built on the very concept of free speech. But the world ain’t that simple. Whenever you apply for a job, you have to realize that the recruiter and/or hiring manager will probably search your digital footprint.

Simply put, what you may think is your absolute right to discuss – perhaps even a trivial statement of your beliefs – can (and probably will) be misinterpreted by somebody at some time. You could argue that you wouldn’t want to work with somebody who has vastly different values than you have, but the tripping point is hard to predetermine. So be safe – express these views privately.

Have you checked to see what the others will see in a search your digital footprint? Most of you have looked your name up on Google, but have you tried sites like Pipl, 123People, or Spokeo?

Did you know that your Amazon wish list is public? Your Pandora stations? It’s not just those drunken party photos on Facebook, it’s your entire digital footprint that you have to be concerned about.

If I’ve scared you out of maintaining any digital presence, that wasn’t my intention. You have an online presence whether or not you are active in social media. Increasingly, public records are going online (after all, they are public, right?), so there’s a very good chance that you’re already on the Internet somewhere. Your best strategy is to manage that presence to optimize your digital footprint.

We talk a lot on this site about how to put good stuff up; that’s what Brand-Yourself.com is all about. But be careful about the bad stuff too. And if you have negatives in your digital footprint, the best way to hide these gaffes is by putting more and more good stuff on the Internet, on popular topics and popular sites. The good stuff will eventually rise to the top.

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More often than not, when meeting with a new client I am asked questions surrounding Social Media Return on Investment (ROI). Potential clients who are unfamiliar with social media as a form of lead generation, brand awareness, networking, research, or customer service platform are extremely skeptical and quick to ask the ROI question.

While I understand that numbers are used to determine business success, social media is extremely hard to measure, mainly because social media is in its infancy and has become a recognized form of business marketing only within the last year or so.

Much like in business, there are qualitative, or soft, benefits to social media. These include loyalty, trust, passion, interaction, and brand awareness among the clients, colleagues, and customers you interact and engage with.

Business owners understand that you can’t put a price on things like the smile on a customer’s face, and social media is no different. These qualitative factors, in addition to the fact that social media is extremely fragmented, makes it difficult to provide tangible and measurable results.
Measuring quantitative success starts with business leaders having a clear and specific strategy with metrics in mind, and that starts with business leaders having an understanding of social media.

When determining these metrics, I recommend that business professionals consider the following:
• Define your metrics and what success looks like with many stair-stepped goals along the way.
• Ignore metrics like number of followers.
• Focus on relationship building with influencers and buzz marketing.
• Keep detailed records of touches and brand mentions.
• Record web traffic, retweets, and number of mentions or links.

Keep in mind that driving web traffic on social media is only half the challenge in selling a product or service. How you determine your social media success largely depends on your organization’s culture, industry, and ultimate goal within the space. Creating value and differentiating your product or service using online marketing and social media can help.

Photo Credit Fancy Jewels.

Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR is an author, new mother, and human resources professional with a passion for recruiting and all things social media.  She has over 10 years of experience in human resources & recruiting.

Her company, Xceptional HR provides businesses with social media, recruitment, and human resources strategy and consulting.   Jessica’s book, Tweet This! Twitter for Business was released January 2010.  Follow Jessica on Twitter, LinkedIn, & FaceBook.

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