Your digital reputation

Our online profiles have become a digital resume — anyone can google your name or check out your social media accounts, including potential employers, universities and others. 

This means it’s really important that you know what your online reputation looks like and how to fix it if you need to. Here’s some quick things you can do right now to check out your social media self and change it if you need to. 

WHAT TO DO

• Google yourself 

Google yourself and see what comes up. Put your name in quotations and add the city you live. For example, ‘Tom Smith’ + Sydney. Check things out from the perspective of a potential employer and ask yourself, ‘do I want these things to remain public?’ 

• Check your privacy settings 

If you find a few random photos or posts that are publicly available and you didn’t think they were, it’s a good time to change your privacy settings. Check out the eSafety Guide to find out more about the privacy settings for particular social media platforms and how to change them. 

• Say no to posts or photos 

You may have heard the saying ‘if it isn’t on social media it didn’t happen’ but we know that this is not true. Opt out of photos or ignore tag requests if you want to protect your digital reputation. 

• Get posts/photos/videos taken down 

If the posts are from someone else and you’re tagged in them — try to un-tag yourself or ask the person who posted them to take them down. 

• Think before you post, like or follow something 

Make sure that the pages, groups, photos, tweets or videos you like, follow subscribe to or comment on, are true reflections of you and actually things you want to be associated with. Remember, a potential employer may not know that you’ve liked a page or uploaded a photo as a joke or understand its wider context. 

As the saying goes, if in doubt, don’t post it! 

Source: https://www.esafety.gov.au/young-people/your-digital-reputation