Why You Should Always Google Yourself
- Jessica Yeh
- Apr 10, 2018
- 3 min read
Why is it so important to look into your brand reputation? I.E - why spend time Googling yourself?
Image vs. Reputation
Your perception of yourself is skewed. Narcissism and ego play into this. Typically, your company will try to make it appear that you are doing better than it really is. As humans, we only have one main point of view - our own. But to get a real idea of what people think of you, you cannot look into brand image. It’s biased and comes from your internal group. You must look at your brand reputation - what the public thinks of you.
As an Individual
You represent the company that you work for. Your social media account may not be linked to the company, but if someone knows you as a contact of your company, your reputation online will influence the business’s reputation. This is why a lot of “scandals” occur when a public figure is associated with a certain brand and does something the public finds inappropriate. As a result, the company suffers a hit to its reputation because of an employee’s poor choices or misjudgments.
So what happens if you have the same name as someone else who has a criminal record? Those search results could unintentionally damage your credibility, even if you aren’t the same person.
How do you fix this? A good way to audit your entire social media footprint is to use the BrandYourself tool. It allows you to look up people with the same name, differentiation, tainted image, drinking/inappropriate photo, can find the swear words you use, and keys into the major target areas that your current or future employer might be concerned about. It finds things that could influence client perception and makes sure that you take them down or modify them so that your online persona is clean and wholesome. It also has additional tools to help appeal to public courts and federal institutes to remove the tag when searching for your name.
As a Company
If anyone ever told you that “all press is good press,” they were lying. Your corporate reputation can make or break you. Take the Chipotle boycott, simply because of a small e coli outbreak. Or the more recent Facebook data collection scandal. Facebook’s stock fell 6% in just one day as a result.
When it comes to your company’s status, you need to know the trends. See what you’re being associated with and read reviews and criticism to get a clear grasp of your strengths and weaknesses. Take the things that pain most customers and improve them so that the customer can have a better experience in the future.
Another reason to utilize a steady brand reputation plan is for public relations. When things hit the fan, being able to foresee a crisis and properly handle damage control can be a billion dollar lifesaver. Get your customer service team involved. If you see a complaint or negative review, reach out. Make sure there are no imposters from a competitor creating fake accounts or bots trying to taint your brand. The same goes for ex-employees. Make sure no disgruntled ex-employees go rogue after being fired or let go. Depending on your network, great sites for this are Glassdoor, Amazon, and Yelp.
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