It’s been a while since I visited my blog, but here I go taking a stab at it again. When it comes to digital marketing, everyone knows the importance of your web and social media presence, but have you ever taken the time to consider your online footprint? It’s important that you do! Here are five reasons why you should check your digital footprint every so often.

1) Manage your online reputation
Every day, you’re crafting a digital footprint. And while that footprint doesn’t directly affect your actual physical being, it can have a direct impact on your career and well-being. A social media presence without negative connotations has become increasingly important in today’s age of networking and long-term career planning. So if you don’t already have a basic handle on how to manage your online reputation, it might be time to take action.

2) Protect your privacy
There’s a lot of talk about privacy these days, and it’s a good thing. If you do a quick google search with your name, you might even be surprised at the amount of personal information about you that is freely available online. Your addresses, your phone numbers, any past issues with the law… even who you are related to! The secret? By requesting to have this information removed, you can make sure you have control over the amount of personal information there is about you online.

3) Use Google alerts
Google Alerts is a free tool that lets you monitor your name, brand, product or business name, as well as any other topics of interest. Whenever there’s a mention of your chosen terms online – from news stories to tweets – Google will email you each time new results appear. This is an easy way to stay abreast of what’s being said about you and your company.

4) Clean up old social media posts
Twitter has a bad habit of allowing people to tweet away for years before forcing them to go back and clean up their profile. While you’re cleaning out your account, take some time to go through any old tweets and remove anything you wouldn’t want a prospective employer or client seeing. While you’re at it? Go through Facebook and Instagram and do the same. It’s never too late (or too early) to clean up that digital footprint.

5) Don’t forget to review Google Images
You can’t control what goes up on Google, but you can’t forget to look for the pictures of you associated with your name. If you need a picture of yourself removed – some people need help with removing a mugshot from Google, for example – from the internet, you’ll need to request for the picture to be removed from the website that is hosting it and then submit the updated URL to Google to review that the photo was, in fact, removed. It’s a little time-consuming, but not impossible, to get these pictures removed. If you need help, let me know!