By Lucy McCarthy, Operations Manager at Hive Business
When we get a new client, the team will always Google them to see what they look like and read any articles that may be associated with them. It’s all in the name of research and to cure the curiosity, of course.
More and more online influencers are used to sell products for “faceless” companies. It also appears as though dentists are also coming out from behind their practice logo to become the personality of their business too. It’s great to see so many great Instagram stories and posts that let me get to know you all but it’s not for everyone and should be approached with the same strategic thought as your business marketing.
If you’re not actively promoting your business through your personal profile you may be portraying a persona online you hadn’t realised.
Take a look at your Facebook page – if you’re in my age range you probably used it at University but now it’s just a tool for stalking people and you rarely update it. It’s important to revisit it and ask yourself if you appear professional on it. To find out what others can see (and what you may want to hide), from your phone, go onto your Facebook profile and click the three dots to ‘view as’ to see how non friends see your profile.
If you need to, there are some simple ways you can tidy up your online presence.
PRIVACY
I appreciate that Facebook and other channels update their policy on privacy fairly regularly and it is a minefield trying to figure out what is private or public. However, to make sure your profile doesn’t display all of your pictures and personal information to anyone outside of your “friend” list you can tailor the settings. On your phone, go onto Facebook, click the stacked horizontal lines in the corner and go to ‘settings & privacy’ then ‘privacy shortcuts.’ I advise setting most of your information to ‘only me’ or ‘friends.’ Once you get a handle on how to hide things from public view, make sure you do this for anything you upload going forward.
DELETE
If you’re not worried about removing your pictures and have them saved somewhere else perhaps, delete them. It’s a quick way to get rid of anything you don’t want friends or otherwise to see. If you had a personal account and have switched to using it for business you should consider doing this if your content isn’t appropriate.
UPDATE
If your profile picture is from a night out 10 years ago and you’ve not updated it because you don’t use that platform anymore – consider updating it to something appropriate. People will still see the profile unless you delete your account completely.
Consider any platforms you use, make them private or tailor the content to make sure you’re portraying your best self. This isn’t just for your patients, if you’re applying for jobs or trying to network, people will certainly be searching for you online to find out more about you – it’s up to you what you tell them.
