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Your
Digital Footprint is the data and information about YOU that you leave online intentionally or unintentionally.
Fix what you can.
“Dead” Social Media Sites: Still have a Myspace page? Not using it? Delete it. An old blog that you do not update? Delete it.
Poor Privacy Settings: Did you come across old pictures of you from college? Change your privacy settings so that pictures and posts are private (unless they have been specifically crafted for your public persona).
Ancient Information: Are you listed as the secretary of Campus Group A from 1999 or the manager of the local ice cream shop from 2008? If you can’t change the information yourself, contact the organization and request that they change it for you.
Improve your online self.
Now that you’ve taken out the cyber-trash so to speak, you can work on building an online presence that is professional, current, and impressive.
Make sure LinkedIn and other online professional profiles are up-to-date and complete.
Join professional sites and actively participate.
A Note about Removing Online Data:
Some online information can be quite difficult to remove. For instance, see Google’s Removal policies.
Visit the Department of Defense (DOD) Social Media and Education Training site for additional information about online security and presentation concerns.
Check back in.
Periodically, complete a search for yourself to make sure that you are controlling what you can of your digital footprint.