An Ah-Ha Moment

A week or so ago, a colleague came to me asking how to control what comes up when someone searches for her name.  We did a search and she showed me what she was questioning.  I then did a search on my own name.  This is something I used to do quite frequently, but it was done with the idea of making sure there weren't things that came up that I didn't want people to see.  It was never with the idea of controlling what they did see.

For just over a year now, I've been the social media coordinator for our school district.  I've been  constantly encouraging teachers and staff that we need to be in charge of sharing our own story.  If we don't put the information out there either someone else will, or we'll go totally unnoticed.  Neither is a good option in today's School of Choice world.

Until I did that search last week though, I never really considered what story I was creating about myself.  I know, I know.  There are dozens of posts and blogs talking about personal branding, but it wasn't something I'd put a lot of thought into.

I wasn't entirely displeased with what came up.  My Twitter account, my LinkedIn page, the webpage I maintain for my band and music program.  There's room for improvement, but it wasn't awful.  It was the story I was sharing, and I'm not totally unnoticeable.  I have a visible and positive digital footprint.  My next goal is to try and get this idea across to both staff and students so that maybe they won't take as long to hit an "Ah-ha!" moment about their online presence.

Have you done a search for yourself lately?  What did it look like?