Personal Branding and Your Online Presence: Cleaning Up Digital Footprints

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Welcome to Jon Michail’s Personal Branding Masterclass. Jon is the founder and CEO of image group international, an award-winning image consulting and personal branding pioneer established in 1989. This podcast will bring you old-school wisdom, inspiring ideas, strategies and hacks for the new tech world. Here you will learn everything about personal branding: the system, the techniques and the right mindset to have a successful personal brand, image and reputation.

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Hello, everybody, and welcome back to another episode of my podcast. I'm John Michael, your host. And today we're diving into the crucial aspect of personal branding and how you are managing your online presence by cleaning up those digital footprints. But before we delve into today's topic, a quick reminder to connect with me on social media, you can find me on acts as John underlined Michael on LinkedIn as John Michael, and on Facebook is image Group International. So let's get straight to the heart of the matter. In an increasingly digital world. Your online presence, of course, we all know is a significant component of your personal brand. It's your digital footprint, it's your reputation online. So what appears online from a social media perspective profiles search results contributes to the perception of us m m u. And this is very, very important. Remember, perception is reality in the person's mind. So if that's the perception, it's up to us, if we like it or not to either change it, you'll expand on that, or even transform that to something specifically that fits more with our identity. And of course, who we really are. So remember, we all make errors, but we can also correct them. This is about having a mindset that says you know, you're gonna have a girl, but if you're gonna make a mistake, there's no such thing. You just got to basically read, correct, realign, repurpose, et cetera. And of course, show the real you specifically to the marketplace, in this case, the digital will. So I will explore the ways on how to manage your digital footprint, and of course, how it impacts your personal brand. But first things first, what exactly is a digital footprint, your digital footprint is the trial on all the data you leave behind as you interact online. And it includes, of course, your social media activities, online searches, comments, shares, and the articles or content you publish. And of course, this is important to look at this specifically, from a holistic point of view, because even the search aspect of what you do online is of course, a digital footprint that potentially can create problems down the track, especially anything that's too controversial political, and against the official line, there is censorship going on, we all know that let's stop living in denial around that it happens and will continue to happen. So it's up to us to take responsibility for that. Now, the information collectively sort of shapes your online identity, and it's accessible to others who might be searching for you. And what I mean by that, so what I'm saying is, you know, everything all online activity creates a pattern that specifically gives a lot of information about you. And what that means is they'll Of course, that information is used for different reasons. And part of that, of course, is for marketing back to you know, different to if you're running a business, you're probably marketing to your clients in the same way. So you got to treat this with respect to deserves, after all, remember, all of this is all about your name. 

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So before you publish, ask yourself, Am I proud of this content that he represents me? So am I just doing ad hoc posting for the sake of activity and being busy? Okay. And as opposed to specifically does it represent your brand, your reputation? Is it your identity? If not, that's fine, but that's not the world I mean, you're not from your authentic perspective. This is about you presenting to the world who you really are, as opposed to some fake online profile so are your online presence is a vital part of course of your personal brand. As we've already noted numerous times, some potential employers, clients collaborators offer turn to the internet to learn more about you we all know that you have done that I have done that we all do that. So well managed digital footprint can enhance your credibility. While a messy or inconsistent one might rise eyebrows or damage your reputation. So we will discuss strategies to ensure that your online presence aligns seamlessly with your personal brand. Now let's talk about cleaning up some of those digital footprints. And what you do there is you know, treat this as type of digital audit whether you're a seasoned professional, or just starting your career taking control of your online presence is a proactive step in managing your personal brand. Start by reviewing your social media profiles, start with all of them, check privacy settings, review content, and ensure that your posts are aligned with the image you want to present, remove anything that might be inconsistent with your personal brand and thus happened over the time, something that you might have posted a few years ago might not be relevant anymore. So you might want to bring that down outdated content, of course, controversial comments that you now no longer agree with, and the images down name, Congo and your personal brand. These are all things to consider, so you can remove them. The second action you should take is to conduct a quick Google search on yourself as well typing your name, and of course, your company name as well. And there's so many results that will come up. And of course, what's important is what appears on the first page of the results. And part of this also is going to some people you might search for that don't even exist, right? And there could be many reasons for that. I'm not going to go into that today. But that doesn't mean specifically that they don't exist, they just don't exist digitally. And we know that the old site, if you don't exist on Google, you don't exist. Although, of course, people do exist might be for numerous reasons is a reason why the not update. This is often now the first impression people get when they do search for you. And if you don't exist, of course, it's like it brings up question marks. That's the point. 

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And I'm not talking about necessarily anything nefarious, but I am talking about question marks. And the last thing you want is people have question mark, that takes them away from who you are as a brand and starts to create confusion for them. Because if they can't find you, it's like, in the year 2024, if they can't find you the something that's just really questionable, around that, unless you've been living sort of in a cave for a long time, and you're happy doing that, that's fine. But of course, most people today would have some sort of information about them online. So ensure that the information is of course, accurate, positive, and aligns with your personal brand. And with that, it's important because again, if it's not called Roland and this is a key word here, if it's not congruent, you're creating inconsistencies that gets people to question from a perspective of maybe not positive, they're thinking what's you know, what's going on here, as opposed to when they do find exactly what they're looking for, and your brand represents who you say you are, then of course, people feel comfortable with that. And of course, trust is built dramatically. So like I said, you can't afford mixed messages. So make sure that it all speaks with the same voice. And this is important. Now, this is essential for individuals. And of course, small businesses, specifically, because big businesses have got a lot of resources, they got a lot of teams, they've got a lot of them know how in managing their brands, and of course, their images. And of course, they stuffing up as well. But when it comes to small business, medium sized business and individuals, this happens all the time. So next, what you should do while you're done your little audit is update your professional profiles. So if you have a professional profile on platforms like LinkedIn, for instance, make sure that we're up to date. So showcase number one, your results, your skills, and experiences that reinforce your personal brand. And what you want to present our results is the key here, you get a lot of what I would call his motherhood statements. And the results are sort of not really questionable, you want to really go and see the results. And of course, what also proves results is definitely testimonials from real people. LinkedIn is a perfect example of that, because you can go into the testimonials, and they're not fake, like, for instance, other potential media like you know, especially Facebook, Instagram, and so on. 

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So it's very important that you show your testimonials as well, because that's proof of work from people that you've actually worked together with. And if there is no testimonials, you got to ask that as well. This is a very important question. But obviously, you're questioning around that. Let's assume you're searching somebody in there is none of that. That's then up to you to start asking, you know, Where is the evidence that proves that what you do is actually true. So think thought leadership, as I mentioned before, from the point of view of no motherhood statements, because motherhood statements are vanilla, and it's easy to be vanilla online. But to have thought leadership is another thing. I mean, you could even try to fake it with AI but the reality is in the real world, if you had to respond and answer questions around that, you're most likely going to be lost if you don't really understand the subject matter. So I suggest instead of trying to fake it, get good at really what you love. Get really knowledgeable and wise from the perspective of What really is it that drives you, that lights you up, and you're not in the same way from a passion perspective as well. This way you make yourself memorable and memorable is key for most people. Otherwise, you're going to disappear out there because no one's going to remember you. And of course, from a branding point of view, you don't want that. Next, review any articles, blog posts content you've published online and decide if you will keep them or discard them. And another that earlier, including images, images that might have been from the past and no longer serve, you always ensure that the messaging aligns with your current personal brands strategy. And remember, what a strategy the strategy is the umbrella, okay, the content is the little spokes. So basically, if you haven't got the covering of the umbrella, and you're looking at the bits and pieces of the spokes, that's just part of content. What you want to do is get your strategy right first, and most people don't get strategy, right. What they do is concentrate more on tactics and well on tactics that's posting for the sake of posting, I strongly recommend you don't do that, I think you should sit down, get really clear on your story, why you matter? Why should people care, and basically create the story that serves people from the perspective of dealing with a lot of the challenges, if you can't do that, and you're just posting stuff for the sake of posting, including for SEO reasons to sort of try to circumnavigates the algorithms and so on, I think that is just what I would call a race to the bottom, you don't want to do that. And most of the population is doing that. So that automatically says, You've got an opportunity, if you want to play the game differently, because you'll be one step ahead, a you will be able to make yourself come across as different. 

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So if need be also make updates, as I previously said, Because removing any content no longer serves you is actually a smart tactic, because then it fits in with your overall strategy of where you want to go. So what I mean by that further is, you got to get really clear on what your destination is why you're doing this. And there could be many reasons it could be to get known, it could be to be respected, it could be to be seen as a thought leader, it could be so many, many, many, many reasons. It could be to get from a practical point of view, or your position, or a promotion, or get onto a board or sell yourself to another position and another corporation, from a business point of view, it could be very simply creating the thought leadership, so clients would see you as the leader in your space. So there's many, many reasons why you want to be doing this. But I will tell you this, if you're not in that competitive world, if you're not operating in the competitive world, and one of the things that I say, will not matter to you, if you're in a very safe, what I would call public service position that you've got a job for life, you're gonna probably think a lot of this is like, doesn't matter for you, that's okay, as well, on talking to people with an entrepreneurial spirit, people that are in business, and people that want to have always the best face moving forward, presented to the world. And if you're not interested in that, most likely, my work would not be of any interest to you. So it's about you, maximising your value, not your worth, we already know your worth, it's your value.

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And remember, value is a perception. And this is where branding comes into play it. And last but not least, stay proactive by setting up Google alerts in your name, and also your company name. This way, you'll be notified whenever new information about your peers, allowing you to address it promptly. And the important aspect of that is especially example if from a crisis management point of view, if something does come up, especially around your company, or any particular subject that you're interested, then at least you've got some data to deal with. And at the same time of your name as well, if somebody's using your name, let's say in a way that really doesn't fit in with what you're on about, you will be able to find that because a lot of that happens online, people create all sorts of fake accounts. And specifically, you'll be at least one step ahead of the game. And also you can do this for your competitors. You know, you can set up a Google as a fleet, I get competitors brand, where do you think you'd like to keep your eye on, of course, keywords on leadership articles, for example, you know, so you get some really great data. And it's very, very important you stay on top of this because from a thought leadership point of view, you're either going to be an authentic thought leader, or you're going to try to fake it. Now if you're going to try to fake it online. You don't want to go down that track. Why? Because there's already so much of that happening right now. You know, so then you're just contributing to what I would call is a mess, online pollution, because that's what you're doing. Would I need more articles out there? What we need is definitely more thoughtful articles that make a difference to people. Is lives and of course at the same time build credibility for you. So it's all part of being awake to new possibilities that can elevate you and your personal brand in the digital space and this I would support tic tic tic. Well, that wraps up today's episode. Remember, your online presence is a dynamic aspect of your brain and taking control of it can positively impact how others perceive you. And perception is a big game. We all know that. So if you found this episode helpful, please write us on your preferred podcast platform and connect with me on social media. I thank you again for tuning in. Until next time, keep crafting that remarkable personal brand. Cheerio.

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Jon Michail’s Personal Branding Masterclass Podcast is sponsored by Image Group International, a global team of practical, digitally savvy personal brand and image strategists based in Australia, committed to maximizing your impact, influence and authority in the business world. To learn more and apply for your personal coaching, seminars and group workshops, please visit imagegroup.com.au or call 1800 631 311.