Sanity searches - see yourself as others do
When powerful search engines like Google first began to become part of everyday life there was an unfortunate phrase coined for the act of searching for your own name: “ego surfing”, also known as “vanity searches”.
How very English, I thought, to pretend not to be concerned with what was said about you.
A more appropriate phrase these days would “sanity searches”. You would have to be mad not to want to see what the world was saying about you online.
As we mentioned yesterday, the web is becoming our public face - not searching for yourself regularly is the equivalent of never looking in the mirror before set off for work in the morning.
Dig deeper.
Searching for yourself in Google, LinkedIn and Facebook will give you an impression of what others see when they look for you online (remember to sign out of your Google account first, otherwise you’ll see personalised results).
If you have a name that you share with a lot of people think about what a prospective business partner/employer/client might do and add keywords like your industry, role and companies you have worked at.
Next up is the idea of Sanity Searches - in other words: see yourself as others do.
When powerful search engines like Google first began to become part of everyday life there was an unfortunate phrase coined for the act of searching for your own name: “ego surfing”, also known as “vanity searches”.
How very English, I thought, to pretend not to be concerned with what was said about you.
A more appropriate phrase these days would “sanity searches”. You would have to be mad not to want to see what the world was saying about you online.
As we mentioned yesterday, the web is becoming our public face - not searching for yourself regularly is the equivalent of never looking in the mirror before set off for work in the morning.
Dig deeper.
Searching for yourself in Google, LinkedIn and Facebook will give you an impression of what others see when they look for you online (NB: remember to sign out of your Google account first, otherwise you’ll see personalised results).
If you have a name that you share with a lot of people think about what a prospective business partner/employer/client might do and add keywords like your industry, role and companies you have worked at.
NB: This How To is written by Antony Mayfield and summarises his latest book, Me and My Web Shadow, published by A&C Black and available for £6.99 from Amazon UK.