Do you Google your name?

Do you Google your name?

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I do. Not because I’m a narcissist, rather because sometimes I miss things that are published.

Here’s an example, in December 2015 I’d written a letter to the editor at the Richmond Times Dispatch. I didn’t see anything post and it slipped away into the archives of my brain pain. I would never have known it posted when I received a random Facebook message thanking me for my letter to the editor.  It took me a minute to remember. After a quick Google search I found it had been published in the Times Dispatch on December 13, 2015. AND, it was placed at the top of the selected letters.

Yes, I did a very small happy dance while sitting at my desk at work. It is always a thrill to see my name in e-print or regular print.

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Google is a funny thing. If you were to search my name (Leila Gaskin), you would find things written by me, about me. and things I’ve liked in social media. Fortunately, you’d never confuse me with the very successful barrister living in London.

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While we share the same name (and might possibly be related in a distant sort of way), our Google profiles are very different.

You have a couple of options when it comes to understanding where your content or name is used on the internet:

• Use the search bar for Bing, Google, Safari, or any other search engine – Type in your name and see what comes up. Once you have results, you can refine the search under the search engine tools.
• Use Google Alerts –  You can set up basic alerts for mentions of your name, Twitter handle, personal website, Facebook posts, and any other hashtag or topic you’d like to keep track of. You set up the parameters and Google delivers the summary to your inbox.

If you are an active blogger, author, or social media user, your name is out there. People can form an opinion about you by what they find. Let people find the best of you.

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Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.