1. TIPS
FOR MANAGING YOUR DIGITAL
FOOTPRINT & REPUTATION
ONLINE
Christina Moore, EdTech 543-Social
Networking

2. What is your digital footprint?
Activity online; such as internet searches,
social media interactions, online profiles,
and online accounts all leave an archive of
your activity online.
Some digital activity, or “footprints”, can be
documented and retrieved by a simple
search for your name using online search
engines.

3. Is your digital footprint valuable?
YES!
Personal information that is revealed by
your digital footprint can be used to make
judgments about your professionalism and
could impact your career or potential jobs.

4. Managing your online reputation
The following are ten (10) steps I have
done to manage my personal digital
footprint and ensure my online reputation is
protected:

5. Search for your “footprint”
I was able to search for myself using internet search engines, like
Google and Bing. Because I have a common name, many of the
results from these searches revealed other people that share my
name.

6. Set up an alert
I set up a
notification system
with Google Alert
to notify me of
postings related to
my name.

7. Personal vs. Professional
To maintain an additional level of privacy, I have created separate
social media accounts for personal and professional use.

8. Personal vs. Professional
≠
By creating separate profiles, I can better manage and monitor
postings and tags of myself in my professional and personal life.

9. Shhhhh…privacy counts!
The privacy controls on my social media accounts have been
modified so that my personal accounts cannot be found by a simple
internet search. Alternatively, the privacy settings associated with my
professional accounts have been relaxed so that the content related
to my professional social media activity is easily viewable.

10. Connect with social media.
With so many social media tools available on the web, I have linked
many of those accounts to one another by using either my Facebook
or Twitter login.

11. Cross link new content
As I create new content, I share that content across social media
profiles.

12. In the future….
 To ensure a positive, online reputation I will
begin to create a professional “brand” by
purchasing my own url to host my blog.
 Maintenance of online reputation is ongoing.
Continued monitoring will help ensure that my
positive reputation continues to grow!

13. References
Kawasaki, G. (2011, November 15) “How to start managing your online
reputation.” Retrieved from http://www.openforum.com/articles/how-to-start-
managing-your-online-reputation
Roth, C. (2012, May 22) “Four steps to managing your online reputation.”
Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carol-roth/4-steps-to-managing-
your-_b_1532639.html
Wallen, J. (2012, June 11) “Five tools to monitor and manage your online
reputation.” Retrieved from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/five-apps/five-
tools-to-monitor-and-manage-your-online-reputation/1432
Warden, C. (2012, May 17) “Using social media to manage your online
reputation.” Retrieved from http://social-media-
optimization.com/2012/05/using-social-media-to-manage-your-online-
reputation/