About Fabulizr
G'day!
This is a blog about how to create a web presence, manage your online reputation, "fabulize" your online life.
Intimidated by big words like “user-generated content”, "microblogging", "social networks",...?
Concerned about your privacy? You should. This blog is about putting out what you want to be out, while keeping privacy and online security in mind.
Where does it start?
Do a vanity search. Search your own name online, full name (“first+last”, “last+first”), last name only, or abbreviated (“abbr first + full last”) – first tip: put your name in quotes to get an exact match. Or if you have a nickname, try that too. What do you find?
Wha? Nothing? OK, keep cool, stand up, and quietly back away from the keyboard... This is a good thing. No one knows you online. If you want to keep it that way, then unplug now.
Still here? Great!
Again, if you don't want your name online, then don't do anything online. Be passive. Just read. Don't interact.
Sure, you can do your banking online. Your bank doesn't spill the beans on you online.
But be sure not to get caught in a phishing trap (or hook rather) when reading your email. "A what?"
And you may not be online, but your employer may be, and your friends certainly are, your hobby club, the fitness center,...
At one point in time they might spill the beans on you (the office party pictures, the trivia night results, ...)
Most likely your name did turn up some results.
Are these results indeed about you, or someone else?
If they are someone else, is it obvious they are someone else?
If the results are you, did you put them online?
Are they what you expect them to be? Is it good? Or is it baaaaad? Worse than bad...?
Or you couldn't care less. That's cool. You can do the exercise again next year, see what turns up then. In the mean time, break up with your friends, go live in a tree house in a forest and ignore the fact that the Internet exists and is here to stay.
Why should you care?
The Internet has become part of every day life, on every level of life. Government, banking, employment, shopping, social interaction,… Looking for a new job? You would probably set up a CV online, and look for potential employers on job sites. But the other way round, an employer might very well look up any potential employees too. Again, on job sites for CV’s, but whenever an employer receives a CV, they can easily search for your name too and see what gets returned. Now, they can either find nothing (but find positive things for another candidate), they can find less favorable things or they can find whatever you put out there (the volunteer work you’ve done, your insightful comments on blog post or forums, short articles you wrote on one of your pet subjects,…).
Take control now. Build up an online presence, at all the right places. Start using the Internet to your advantage. Make yourself look a little bit better. Bury any dirt that’s around to the back of any search results, manage your online reputation! It’s about looking good, online.
Geekredentials
I believe in each of use there is an inner geek, big or small. Want to find, and release, your inner geek? You are reading this blog, god knows how you came here. Actually, Google knows (in fact) how you came here. The fact that you did find this page, is your inner geek trying to break out... This blog will improve your geekredentials.
Fabulizd - fabulized?
- To fabulize
- 1. To improve something. The Simpsons, Lisa: "Can't a girl fabulize herself before the big dance?"urbandictionary.com
- 2. To invent, compose, or relate fables or fictions. thefreedictionary.com