Your online résumé is the information that can be quickly found
and skimmed through a quick search using a general search engine
like Google, a social site like Facebook, a photo-specific site like
Flickr, a professional site like LinkedIn, or a people-specific engine
like Pipl.com. In short, it is the first blast of content that a curious
Internet user could find when looking for you or your business.
Within your online résumé, some content is more important
than the rest. Content that is more prominent online makes up a
larger part of your online résumé. For example, content found at the
very top of a search engine search for your name will make up an im-
portant part of your online résumé. Content that is less prominent is
a smaller part of your online résumé. Content that cannot be found
by an average user in five minutes or less is not part of your online ré-
sumé at all; for example, information about you that can be found
only through a detailed query in a very specific government database
might make up some part of your online reputation, but it is not part
of your online résumé.
The metaphor behind the term “online résumé” is simple: in a job
search, your professional résumé provides a summary of your quali-
fications. Hiring managers quickly flip through résumés and weed
out résumés with obvious flaws; someone with a bad résumé is un-
likely to get an interview or a job. Similarly, your online résumé pro-
vides what appears to be a summary of who you are, and it is used to
quickly make a judgment about you and your character. Web
searchers quickly flip through your online résumé, looking at the first
few items that come up. They may investigate some items further, or
they may simply make their final judgment about you on the basis of
the limited information available at first glance.
Unfortunately, you don’t have the same control over your online
résumé that you have over your professional résumé. It is easy enough
to update your professional résumé: just fire up a copy of Microsoft®
Word™ (or any other word processing software) and add or delete
whatever information suits you. But control over your online résumé
is much more difficult; it is not entirely up to you what appears in a
Wild West 2.026
Google search for your name. You can exert some control over your
online résumé, as will be described in Chapters 10–13, but it takes
careful planning and detailed execution.
If all online résumés were always accurate, then it would be easy
to have a positive online résumé: just live a good life, achieve great
things, be kind to others, and clean up after your own messes.
13
But,
unfortunately, your online reputation often does not reflect the
complete truth about you. It might be incomplete. It might reflect in-
accurate statements or distortions. It might be obsolete or outdated.
It might focus on only one event, rather than on the entirety of your
life and career. Or it might contain outright lies and nasty attacks.
These distortions might be accidental—the result of a similarity in
name or a computer error—or might be caused by malicious users
with their own agendas.
In short, your online reputation does not necessarily reflect the
truth. Instead, it reflects the “Google Truth.” The Google Truth looks
like the authoritative truth, but it is often incomplete, inaccurate, or
just plain wrong. It is what happens when computers try to guess who
you are and what you do. But computers cannot always tell what is re-
ally you and what is truly important. And if there is inaccurate infor-
mation about you online, all too often the Google Truth will reflect it.
There is an old adage about computer algorithms, and it applies fully
to the output of search engines like Google: “garbage in, garbage out.”
Chapter 9 covers, in great detail, the way to measure and analyze
your online résumé. It gives you step-by-step instructions how to un-
derstand your online résumé by carefully analyzing who is looking
for information about you or your business, where they are likely to
search, and what they are likely to find.
Your Total Online Profile Is
Everything About You Online
In contrast to your online résumé, your total online profile is the sum
of what people can learn about you or your business through detailed
Your Online Reputation Is Your Reputation 27
online research. It includes everything in your online résumé, plus
everything that would take a more substantial search to find, in-
cluding information that can be found only indirectly or only
through proprietary data services.
Your total online profile can be vast. It can include everything
from news articles to blog posts about you, to photos of you, to in-
formation in phone-number and address databases, to criminal
records, to land deed records, and much more.
In many ways, your total online profile is like a painting. Much
like a painting, it is a stylized interpretation of reality—you hope
more like a Renoir and less like a Picasso. Because not everything
you have ever done is online, it does not include everything that is
part of your life; instead, it represents only one angle or perspective
on you. And, also like a painting, it is composed of hundreds of tiny
details that add up to a larger image. Just as paintings have small
brush strokes that add up to a scene, your total online profile is the
sum of many small bits of content that add up to a snapshot of your
life. The content that is most readily available to someone searching
your name makes up a big part of your total online profile, whereas
content that is hard to find is a small part. Someone just glancing at
your online profile will see only the big picture and will not see most
of the small details, but a dedicated searcher can find and examine
each individual brush stroke.
Chapter 9 explains how to take inventory of your total online
profile, and Chapters 10 through 13 help you improve your total on-
line profile by painting over the worst content and drawing attention
to the best content.
Notes
1. Weber Shandwick, “Safeguarding Reputation,” at 2. Go: http://wildwest2.com/
go/201.
2. For example, his “fan page” on Facebook. Go: http://wildwest2.com/go/202.
Wild West 2.028
3. Justin Wolfers, “More Expense = Less Pain,” Freakonomics (blog), in New York
Times, March 6, 2008, via nytimes.com. Go: http://wildwest2.com/go/203.
4. Dan Lockton, “London Design Festival: Greengaged,” Design with Intent
(blog), September 18, 2008, via danlockton.co.uk. Go: http://wildwest2
.com/go/204.
5. Gene Weingarten, “Pearls Before Breakfast,” Washington Post, April 8, 2007,
via washingtonpost.com. Go: http://wildwest2.com/go/205.
6. E. L. Thorndike, “A Constant Error in Psychological Rating,” Journal of
Applied Psychology 4 (1920): 25–29.
7. Perhaps a grain of salt is outdated. Internet users should be issued burlap
sacks of salt.
8. Chadwick Matlin, “The Way We Beg,” The Big Money (blog), February 5,
2008, via thebigmoney.com. Go: http://wildwest2.com/go/207.
9. Brian Phillips, “Fictional Moldavian Soccer Player Tells All,” Slate, January
23, 2008, via slate.com. Go: http://wildwest2.com/go/208.
10. Martha Brockenbrough, “First Impressions: How Much Do They Really
Matter?” Encarta, via Encarta.com. Go: http://wildwest2.com/go/209.
11. Ibid.
12. Martha Brockenbrough, “First Impressions Count for Web,” BBC News
(online), January 16, 2006, via news.bbc.co.uk. Go: http://wildwest2.com/
go/210.
13. If it really were that easy, the authors would simply direct readers to a popu-
lar self-help book, such as The Purpose Driven Life, by Rick Warren (Grand
Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2002), Go: http://wildwest2.com/go/211; or
Living a Life That Matters, by Harold Kushner (New York: Knopf, 2001).
Go: http://wildwest2.com/go/212.
Your Online Reputation Is Your Reputation 29
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