What is Your Online Identity?

Have you Googled yourself? Do you know what the internet says about you? You don’t have to be a famous to have an online presence. I remember for my 16th birthday my mom got me my own phone line and my name was in the phone book. I was excited! If anyone wanted to find me they could look me up. For the younger generation this was the equivalent of getting your first cell phone in the late 80’s. Times have changed but the purpose has not. Today Google is pretty much the world phone book and controlling your online identity has never been more important. If someone Google’s your name what do you want them to find? Who the internet says you are or what you say? For some, tackling the internet may seem like a daunting task, but it’s pretty simple to start a blog, setup a Facebook profile, or register a domain name.

Everyone should own their own domain name (yourname.com). Employers today are definitely Googling the people they hire and employee's currently working for them. Sites like 1and1 and Yahoo domains offer some great deals on your domain purchases. Once you get a domain you’re going to need to point it somewhere. You don’t have to do anything fancy you can simply point it at your facebook profile. So when someone types in web address (yourname.com) it will redirect them to your facebook page. In the facebook settings there is an option to make yourself searchable. Make sure that is on if you wish for people to find you.

Maybe you already have an online presence and just want to organize what you already have. This can be done with unhub.com (previous post ). They allow you to make a profile bar that can display all of your websites or profiles that’s easy to set up and free. They also provide url shortening as well.

Another great service you can point your web address to is Flavors.me . I use this as Flavors for my blog and twitter stream. You can try this for free, but to add your domain it’s $20 per year. I think it's well worth it though. We can’t talking about online identity without talking about Google. Google allows you to create a free profile and a personal page. They also provide a great feature by allowing people to contact you without revealing your email address. These are just a few resources you can use to jump start your web presence. Whether your the average Joe or a super blogger in the making controlling your online presence is the first place to start. Do you have any services you like? Let me know I’d love to hear about them.