It’s 2027. Do you feel good about the search results for your name?
Do people discover an impressive, well-crafted personal brand? Or a scattered mix of outdated posts and abandoned projects? Your online presence is your digital calling card. Write your own story before the internet does it for you.
Over the holidays I had a chance to spend a good amount of time with my cousin. We’re close. We were the only two kids in our family for a long time. He lived across the street from our grandmother, and in many ways we’re more like brother and sister.
He’s a UC philosophy professor working on a variety projects. Some are readily understandable to the average person, like his book Gaming Cancer: How Building and Playing Video Games Can Accelerate Scientific Discovery.
Other aspects of his work, like Naturalized Phenomenolgy and Consciousness, or his writings on an the work of (obscure to most) German philosopher Edmund Husserl usually elicit interested but confused head nods from friends and family members, illustrated by our recent Twitter/X exchange:
He’s recently become more active on social media and had some questions. I realized he needed to ask the first and hardest question:
‘What do you want?’
As a prompt I asked: What happens when someone Googles your name in three years?
‘Good question’ he responded.
I could see his philosopher mind cranking into gear.
Why Your Online Presence Matters
You have a personal brand (whether you like it or not)
Whether you’re an academic, an author or an expertise based business owner, you have a personal brand. Sometimes clients flinch at that term. I get it. It can seem grandiose, self serving or ego maniacal.
It doesn’t have to be.
Marty Neumeier, in my opinion, one of the best thinkers on branding out there describes a brand as simply being:
‘A customer’s gut feeling about a product, service, or a company.’
For a personal brand, just adjust that to:
‘A persons gut feeling about you.’
My extended description is that your personal brand is an inchoate sense that people have about you. If someone was put under hypnosis what words would they spit out when asked about you? Smart, winner, knowledgeable, competent, fraud, sneaky, honest, hard working, genius?
You have influence over this, and it’s important that you exert it. What people come across about you online is a significant component of your personal brand.
Attract More Opportunities
Your personal brand, and how it’s communicated via your online presence directly impacts the opportunities that open up for you. How many of us have Googled someone to check them out before hiring them or reaching out?
Influence, Clout and Street Cred
Is your website up to date? Does your messaging reflect what you do? Have you been interviewed? If yes, by whom? What social media platforms are you on, how many followers do you have?
Yes, follower count is a vanity metric, but it does say something about your level of credibility, especially on platforms relevant to your work. At the same time, sometimes quality — who is following you, not how many — can be just as, if not more, important.
Your online presence, and by extension, your personal brand communicate whether or not you are a person of consequence in your field. Someone with clout, credibility and influence. Simple as that.
People of consequence get more opportunities.
What to do once you know what you want
Back to the difficult question of what you want. Or, if you prefer, your objective. The answer need not be ‘fame and fortune’ (if it is, that’s fine too!)
It can be as simple as being invited to be on a panel at a critical conference, getting your next book published or commanding higher workshop fees.
When you know what you want, ask yourself these questions:
What does my current online presence say about me?
Are there gaps in my online footprint that I need to address?
What is my personal brand? Is it aligned with my professional goals? Does it feel genuine?
Am I actively controlling my narrative, or is it being shaped by random bits of flotsam and jetsam on the internet?
Real-life example: Embarassing, out of date LinkedIn Profile
Some years ago an influencer in a field I was familiar with had a very popular blog, and was big on Instagram. She had done a good job positioning herself as an expert. I looked her up on LinkedIn, a platform she was not active on at the time. Her profile as half finished and her most recent employment was a retail job. There was a old, blurry picture of her.
Don’t misunderstand me. I am NOT throwing shade at working retail. The issue here was she didn’t intentionally work this digital asset into her story.
She actually did at times mention this phase of her life and how it impacted the work she was currently doing, but having that oldLinkedIn profile floating wasn’t doing her any favors. It made her look like a phony and/or an amateur (which she wasn’t)
Instead, she should have either deleted the profile or integrated her current work, leveraging it as another digital asset.
How to take control of your search results
Run an audit of current search results for your name
Don’t just run a Google or Perplexity search. Search for your name on platforms where you’re active or where you’ve had media hits; LinkedIn, Twitter/X, Substack, Spotify - don’t forget to look up @mentions.
Craft a content strategy that highlights your expertise
Publish on platforms like LinkedIn, Medium, or your own blog. You can also consider pitching publications (or podcasts, or YouTubers, etc.) in your niche or industry. The key here is to make sure it’s a channel that reaches the people you want to pull into your orbit.
I like to work with my clients natural talents, temperaments, rhythms and workflows, not against them. If you hate blogging, don’t blog. If you’re uncomfortable on video, don’t go on podcasts that insist you appear on video (though this is becoming increasingly difficult).
The point is to find a long-form medium you are comfortable with and can stick to. If it’s tweeting twice a week, also fine.
Regularly keep tabs on your online reputation
Set up a habit or mechanism to check how you’re showing up online. That can be anything from running a monthly or quarterly search mentioned above, or setting up a Google alert.
Your online presence is your CV
The fact of the matter is, the only way to control how your perceived; that inchoate (or after a search, not so inchoate!) sense about you is to be very intentional about your online footprint.
The first step is running the search audit, mentioned above. Set aside an hour or two. Take screenshots of what you find. If you don’t like what you see - or you don’t see anything at all, commit to changing that.
Want help crafting a personal brand and online presence you can feel good about? Get in touch.