There are a number of things to consider when assessing your online presence. First and foremost, you have to determine your goals in establishing your identity. If you have a webpage that you are trying to promote, your goals are going to be entirely different than that of a person trying to establish an online portfolio for perspective employers. Having said that, realize that there is no one stop cure for all Internet users to establish their individual online presence. Another major factor to consider in today's world is the security of your identity. It is imperative that you maintain your personal identity security above all else in your efforts to establish your online presence. Lets take a look at some of the more common situations in which you might find yourself in need of establishing a prominent online presence.
For starters, lets address something that is near and dear to all of our hearts... a career. The digital age has provided us with the tools to spread the word about capabilities and match our desires with the needs of companies the world over. A resume in digital format is clearly a must for the online career search. Using Google, you can locate a number of resume templates to modify with your skills and past experiences. Be sure to save your resume in the most common document formats used today (Microsoft Word (.doc), Plain Text (.txt) and Rich Text Format (.rtf)), this will ensure that all employers are capable of viewing your resume. Another item that goes hand in hand with your online resume would be a personal website. Developing, or having a website developed, a personal website provides you with a number of opportunities that a resume itself simply cannot offer. For example, you can include a personal portfolio of your work, a more detailed work history highlighting your past reviews and accomplishments in great detail, you can offer your employer an insight into your life and therefore yet another reason that you are the perfect candidate for the company in question and the list continues. Having said that, don't forget about networking sites that are available for you to help spread the word about your skills, www.linkedin.com, www.myspace.com, www.facebook.com, www.monster.com, etc.
So, having discussed the advantages of having a personal website now is a perfect time to discuss the methods of getting your site out there for people to find. Of course, you can always create business cards and hand them out, but you are now limited to those that you come in physical contact with. A better, more comprehensive method, would be to make your website so prominent that people are able to happen across it by chance. At this point it is important to note that this approach works to websites of all types, not just personal websites. With modern web crawlers, the best way to get the word out about your website is to talk about it on the web. If you participate in any forums, ensure that your signature contains the URL to your website. The same holds true for email signatures, be sure to include your URL here as well. Along those same lines, post up useful information from your website in the forums you participate in. Say www.yourwebsite.com/programming contains a useful write up on developing a counter for websites, if you participate in a web masters forum include a link to the article where applicable. Modern web crawlers will crawl throughout your webpage and establish references to all of your pages so the more you can get out there the better. If a person finds the link useful, they may pass it on to a friend or in another forum, now you are starting to spread across the web in an essentially autonomous way (at least as far as you are concerned). Speaking of web crawlers, register your site with all the common search engines (www.google.com, www.yahoo.com, www.dogpile.com, etc). Along those same lines, make use of websites like www.spicypage.com that allow you to get information about your website out. Keep in mind that the more links you can get out to your page across the web the higher your page will appear in user searches on sites like Google and Yahoo.
Having mentioned signing up for various websites such as Monster, MySpace, Facebook, Spicy Page, etc. now would be a good time to broach the user name subject. Each time you register at one of these sites you must declare a user name. Shoot for a unique user name that you can reuse over and over. Each time you register for a new website, use that user name. This has the advantage of establishing your "virtual name" online and soon people will begin to associate that name with you. Users from sites you are registered at and participate in might recognize you at other websites and strike up a conversation. This essentially expands your network web in a rather dramatic way. Another advantage here is that you only have to remember one user name from this point forward at all your websites. Keep in mind that now that you have established a name, you must behave as you wish to be thought of with that name. If you are rude and arrogant with that name, you will be known for that online. If you are helpful and friendly then you will be known for that. You decide which approach is best for you.
As you can see, establishing your online identity takes a lot of work. However, it can be quite enjoyable. As illustrated, the deeper you get into establishing your identity the more interlinked the entire process becomes. The deeper the web gets, the more prevalent your online presence becomes. Pretty soon, your name will be spreading like wildfire and you can simply sit back and reap the benefits. That being said, I would leave you with a final word on security. Your personal identity is one of the most valuable assets that you have and you must protect it in a proactive manner. Now that you have a common user name and an online identity take head of a couple of security considerations. NEVER include personal information that you would not want anyone to know. This can include items such as phone numbers, credit card numbers, social security numbers, addresses, friends and family names, etc. Part of this seems to contradict the search for employment since employers will clearly want to have your contact information. This is true, however most reputable websites will have a method of concealing personal information. For some, even that is not enough. If that is the case, simply provide a contact email address and indicate in your search that personal contact information will be provided upon request. So what are you waiting for? Get out there and let the world know who you are!