You’ve heard the stories before. Somebody posts something really stupid online–a tasteless joke, a profanity-laced insult directed at their boss–and they get fired. While the concept of getting canned over something posted online didn’t exist 20 years ago, most of us simply roll our eyes at the stories and assume that a little common sense will keep us safe. Unfortunately, this kind of thinking is a big mistake.
In an age of cyber-bullying, revenge porn, hate sites and inadequate online privacy laws, every professional needs to understand and protect their online reputation on the web. The facts are clear: how we look online matters (1 billion names are Googled every single day, and 75% of HR departments are required to research a candidate online before making a hire). Common sense alone simply isn’t enough to keep you in the clear.
Even if you operate online with absolute responsibility, you need to be proactive. Comprehensive guides about Online Reputation Management make it clear that every professional should pay attention. Here are three simple reasons why:
- Anyone can say anything about you online without getting in trouble, whether it’s true or not. Think about it. If you upset anyone–an ex, someone you had to fire, someone you get a promotion over–they can go virtually anywhere online and trash you, even if it isn’t true. It happens all the time and it can completely ruin your career. Think the law is on your side? Think again: more laws actually protect the publishers in these situations. While the EU is trying to take some measures with the Right to Be Forgotten, it’s still often ineffective. The result being that victims of a vindictive poster are followed around forever by a single Google result.
If you think this can’t or won’t happen to you, look at the stats and think again: 73% of American adults have witnessed online harassment, and 70% of young Americans say they have been victims themselves, according to Pew Research Center. Experts predict that as many as 40% of all Americans will be digitally shamed, according to the book Hate Crimes in Cyberspace.
Frighteningly enough, it’s not always someone you know who ends up hurting you. One recent story involved an American family who had their entire life uprooted by a Finnish teenager they never even met in person. So, what happened? The child got in a fight online in a chatroom–something millions do daily–and that person decided to make the family’s life a living hell. At its worst, he would hack the family’s emails and social media accounts, posting material so inappropriate that both parents eventually lost their jobs. While this is an extreme case, it just goes to show you a difficult situation can happen to anyone.
- Everything we do is now recorded online forever and constantly scrutinized, which means we need more tools to make sure this doesn’t harm us.
The next reason we all need to think about our online reputation is because we do everything online, and now have the technology to track and store all that activity. That means every Facebook post, every search query, every website visit, every transaction and every conversation we have exists somewhere.A Facebook status update you made year ago may eventually get you fired. Even more worrisome is the fact that a private email or message you sent to a friend—even if you deleted it—could come back and bite you. We’ve seen hackers invade the privacy of everyone from celebrities on Snapchat to major politicians running for president. But, it isn’t just hackers you need to worry about. Outdated laws that have not kept up with technology—like the ECPA—make it easier than ever for people to access information you thought was private.
Think about it: Everyday we upload 57M images on Instagram, publish 100M blog posts, send 500M tweets, make 5B Google searches, watch 9 billion videos on Youtube, send 300B emails and 300B messages. We spend 80 days a year on our phone and rising. The majority of employers now use social media to screen, a tendency which has grown over 500% in the last few years. In 2009, almost 20% of employers have had issues with employee social media use, and almost 10% had to fire someone over it. That was in 2009.
There’s a famous story of a teacher who was forced to resign over a single picture of her holding alcohol while on vacation. Sure she was of age and sure she was on her own free time, but it didn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if you agree with this or not–the point is a simple photo the teacher didn’t think twice about cost her her job.
One of the flagship stories in Jon Ronson’s best selling book, So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed, was that of Justine Sacco. In her case, a poorly executed joke ended up ending her long PR career over the course of one airplane flight. Some people thought this was a huge overreaction while others thought it was just. That’s not the point. The point is Justine Sacco never thought a quick tweet before getting on a flight would completely change her life.
It isn’t always as controversial as an edgy joke or inappropriate photo. Sometimes it comes with the best of intent: A CFO tweeted about having a great board meeting, a violation he never expected would send him packing. It goes to show that in the new world of social media it’s hard to keep up with what’s appropriate or risky.
- Having good content online helps, but most people don’t know how to do it.
In an increasingly competitive economy, more and more companies, schools and customers are looking for positive information about you on the web. However, most people don’t know what they can do to increase the positive footprint they have on the web. That’s why our Online Reputation Management Guide has been viewed millions of times. Positive footprints won’t prevent any of the above from happening to you, but they will soften the blow considerably by letting you take charge of your narrative.90% of executive recruiters Google candidates before making a hire, and 82% report candidates’ job prospects improve when positive information is found online. Of those that screen candidates’ social media, many will choose to make a hire when candidate’s site conveys a professional image, when their personality comes across as a good fit with company culture, when they appear well-rounded and show a wide range of interests, or demonstrate great communication skills.
I could provide hundreds of stories, because this is what BrandYourself does: advises and creates positive, accurate, relevant web content to make our clients look good. Obviously, it doesn’t make the news when someone’s reputation is saved or when someone gets hired because of their superb online presence, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a happy story.
This article is not meant to scare–it’s meant to help you be proactive and thoughtful in your online activity. For better or worse, we now live our lives online and need to make sure that we’re treating it with the same professional cautiousness we do with everything else.
By: Patrick Ambron, BrandYourself
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