MUST-HAVE 2020 Resolution For ALL Men

The new year is a time of setting goals and intentions, mapping out future plans, and the beginning of a new and improved you. If you're like me, you're always concerned with how to continually make personal improvements and discovering what can be done to strengthen your personal brand, but it doesn't stop there. As professionals, students, and/or business owners, there is one resolution for 2020 that we ALL should have and it's to manage/monitor our digital brand - regularly. We all have a brand whether we like it or not; it's not enough to only cultivate our brand, but it's important to also intentionally monitor it.

For those who have been following me a while, you probably already know how much I talk about personal branding - I've written and shared articles, created videos, and delivered a number of lunch & learns/presentations covering the topic; mainly with a focus on how to cultivate your brand. However, one tip I haven't spoken a lot about is how to manage and monitor your personal brand, which in this case I am referring to your digital brand. For 2020, I encourage you to not only work to further cultivate your personal brand but to also manage and monitor it. Here's how!

Google Yourself!

One of the best ways to manage and monitor your personal brand is to simply Google yourself! When you Google yourself, you're given a ton of search results in return - are you happy with the results? Whether you're happy with the results or not, the search results that Google returns is essentially the first impression that your personal and professional contacts will see should they choose to Google your name. The Google results will be even more important when it comes to someone who doesn't personally know you, such as a recruiter or hiring manager, because the only thing they'll know about you is based on the search results returned by Google. I'd even argue that recruiters may take the results they find on Google more seriously than the info on your resume because the online results will display the unfiltered, candid-you whereas your resume will only depict the filtered, polished-you. So, this leads back to ensuring that you're only sharing what you are okay with potentially the entire world seeing or having access to.

First Page Reputation

When you Google yourself, you really want to pay close attention to the results on the first page of Google as they are most important since 90% of users don't click to view the second page...unless you're a desperate college student urgently trying to uncover hard-to-find information on a lesser-known topic to complete your research report before midnight on Friday (can't say I haven't been there LOL). For me, I always Google myself at least once a month just to see what's out there. I also tend to check pages two and sometimes three just out of curiosity to see how much information Google is returning. In 2020, I'd recommend to Google yourself at least once a month to manage and monitor your digital brand, however, if you are a public figure or a business owner, I'd recommend searching yourself or business name more often to keep a close eye on what's living out on the world-wide-web.

Google Alerts!

Doing a self-search on Google isn't as indulgent or "full-of-yourself" as it may sound; it's a necessary tool and strategy to closely monitor your digital brand. If you really want to take it a step forward, I'd recommend for you to set up Google Alerts with your name, business, and/or any other name that you'd like to stay in-the-know on. Once set up, Google Alerts will send you an email when it finds new results—such as web pages, newspaper articles, blogs, or scientific research—that match your search term(s) (which are set by you). For example, I've set up Google Alerts with the terms "Daryl Layson" and "dapperdaryl", so whenever any of those names are used or mentioned in new content, I will receive a notice to my email with a link to the article(s) where the name(s) are mentioned. This is a great, free tool to use to closely monitor your personal brand, especially online.

Google Alerts is easy to set up, simply:

1. Go to google.com/alerts.

2. Enter a search term/name for the topic/name you want to track.

3. Click the edit pencil icon to narrow the alert to a specific source, language, and/or region. 4. Specify how often, how many, and how to receive alerts.Select Create Alert.

Cheers to easily and successfully managing/monitoring your personal brand in 2020!