While this may seem like common sense: if you have a very common name in relation to the world wide web you have an entirely different challenge compared to someone with an absolutely unique name.
To help understand the basis for why digital reputation and your name is so important, think about all of the resources and business models that need to confirm who they are working with. For the past few decades, background checks have been integrated into hundreds of industries. The internet has provided EVERYONE with the ability to do free background checks.
Common Names: while many people have the belief that common names are simply a social element, Google and Yahoo have proven that common names create substantial roadblocks to how people perceive you as a professional. The more common your name is, the harder it is to separate yourself from the hundreds or thousands of similar names. This has both merit and flaw associated to it: the people sharing your name hide damaging remarks, but also drown out the positive accomplishments you have had. In worse case scenarios, people with damaging remarks may be mis-identified as you, subjecting you to negative impacts in the professional world.
With Uncommon or Unique Names: you are left to your own content. When someone searches for Sylvania Corensa, the rarity of the name means that ANY piece of information regarding the person (good or bad) will quickly populate top search results. This type of name has the most opportunity and risk associated with it, as it takes little effort to control what people see for this person in the search results for the name.
A mixture of the two: most people are somewhere between these two extremes.
To fully understand how this affects you, professional groups and experts working in this niche have been clustered into the reputation management industry. These professionals understand the relationship of how professionals are found online, managing reputation issues by coordinating sales funnels and personal inquiries into proper communication channels. This allows them to coordinate the source of inquiry, match it up with the proper brand message, and increase the chance of conversion or retention for a business goal.
To take advantage of how your name works online, here are three elements to take action on :
1. Know the purpose of your brand, know your history
Some people think that having an online brand is the way to a new career. This usually means that the online brand sounds more like a resume pitch instead of an honest representation. You need to realize that most of us have “digital breadcrumbs” left all across the web. These digital breadcrumbs not only attract all sorts of people to our information, but they also stay online forever.
This means that someone looking to do work with you may examine elements from your past that are months or years old. The web enables these searches quickly and easily, and sometimes often mislead a researcher to believing very old information is actually current.
2. Support your strengths
When people are looking for information about you, give it to them.
Take the time to place five to ten additional resources up about you. This could be in the form of additional articles about you, links to your own viewpoints on important industry topics, or content that highlights some of your personal skills. Make sure to utilize several content types that include microblogging, document, and video formats (Twitter, Slideshare, YouTube, etc.)
3. Support your opportunities
Take the time to analyze your strengths and apply them to some current situations. Keep in mind that your strengths as a professional and business are directly linked to opportunities in the marketplace and industry. While it may seem brutally apparent to you that specific skills you have create specific opportunities, not everyone researching your information will have the depth of knowledge to make the same conclusion.
Bonus step: if you haven’t done so already, purchase your own domain name. It is the best $10 a year you will ever spend. Simply use any domain registration service to puchase “firstnamelastname.com” and keep it as a professional asset. If you want to step up your results, place a free blog or mini-site that contains your resume/bio and links to additional information about you online (perhaps your Facebook, Linkedin, or Twitter profiles.)
Keep it simple.
As an industry professional, never delve too deeply into your understanding without linking it into real world examples. If you don’t know how to simplify things: read this article on how to write a resume. The quickest way to separate a reader from being interested in your services is to use terms that are completely alien to them. By using the proper language, you demonstrate a superior expertise and the ability to communicate that expertise to people outside of your niche.