Over the last few days I’ve read a lot about people who are concerned with their online identity when it comes to their social, private and business lives. Some people tend to think about their online lives as a private affair, but as Justin suggests, reality isn’t necessarily on the same page. He points to a comment on his blog that Samantha left talking about how students should be thinking about what they put online. I have to agree with Samantha, but I also disagree (in part). The reason why I disagree really has nothing to do with personal branding so much as it has to do with the identification of talent. While there are career counselors out there telling young (and old) people to hide their online identities, I would suggest something entirely different: HIDE YOUR PERSONAL DATA. Yes, the stuff that always ends up getting lost or stolen at the wrong times. In fact, a big part of the problem as I see it isn’t that people are expressing themselves online or that they are experimenting with the web (not always a bad thing), it is that not enough people are. If more people were putting themselves out there on the web they might be introduced to new opportunities that they didn’t even know exist.
Now here is the dirty secret that the executives behind big job boards like Monster.com don’t want you let in on: if you can master the web as a career promotion tool then you don’t need to use Monster.
So what I’m suggesting here is that you hide your data. That means that when someone says jump onto this hot new web property you do, but that you don’t give them all of your personal data. It can be cool to be anonymous, and you can even let your friends in on the inside story as to how you are gaming the system.
And for all of the employers out there that are thinking about not hiring someone who uses Facebook, you should think twice. Compare the academic stats of the people on Facebook to the people on Monster and you will see what I’m talking about.
Happy social networking!
