2. OWN YOUR SOCIAL PROFILES

Facebook, Linkedin, Google Plus, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram the list goes on. Owning your social profiles means filling out your bio completely, having a professional profile picture, and most importantly securing any vanity URLS these platforms provide such as Facebook.com/yourname or your Twitter handle.

It’s also a good idea to stay up to date on new platforms being released so you can be one step ahead of your competition in securing your name.

If you’re already established on these channels and have been for some time, go back through to make sure it’s cleaned up. There’s no telling how deep a recruiter will dig to find dirt.

There are several services out there that can secure the available profiles for you, but some of them will cost upwards to $500 . The fact is, not every profile is important. It is important for you to secure, but not every profile will be active. There is simply no way to remain active on every social network without neglecting another – unless you get paid by someone to “socialize”. I would say, claim the major ones, then work gradually on claiming ones you might have future interest in using to some degree and one that plays into your social media marketing plan.

Remember, your name on these social profiles will also rank highly in search engines as most of them have high authority.

** this is part 2 of a 5 part blog series on assisting you to better understand you online “Brand” and the value it speaks if you don’t take measures to be aggressive in claiming search rank **