Your online reputation walks into the interview before you.

Common sense, find your style, your comfort zone.

Forget trying to be popular. It’s not a race to 5,000 followers. Choose your friends wisely. Our philosophy has always been "Friend's not followers", so be careful which friend requests you accept. Today, more than ever, always assume your interviewer has checked you out online, especially your social media. Remember, once you get the job, you still need to be careful as the internet destroys careers every minute of the day.

Social Media, not Anti-Social Media

It is called social media, not stranger media. Social media helps build friendships, allows you to be social, to be positive and gives meaning to your online experience.

Be real, be nice and be yourself. If you have nothing to post, don’t post. 

Having 5,000 followers will not get you the job, being the same online as you are in the interview will. Leave being fake to someone else. Everyone knows they're fake.

Think before you react and click back. Give yourself a chance to think. If you don’t like the content or the nature of a message, take a breath before responding, think, and then decide.

Review your posts

An online reputation is hard to build. Sit down and see if what you have posted over the last 5-years would pass the ‘Grandmother test’. Would they impress your Granny? Did you shock yourself? Book a talk

Do you allow comments? Why? If so, what do they say? You can disable and delete comments later. 

Remember Life’s fun, but do we all need to know?

Being a teenager is great. Nothing else matters to you, but it does to others. You are creating your digital imprint online that will last forever, building an online reputation. Do we all need to see those nights out, the fights, vomiting, arguing with the Police? The fake tan, short skirts, all the flesh, all the tattoos. Booze-fueled fun, the up-yours messages. It’s only natural for us to share this online with friends, but do we all need to see it?

• Switch to Private now!
• What will you think when you are 32, sober and looking for a bank loan?
• ​Is there anything else you could post to paint a different picture, creating a better impression?

Don't post when high, drunk, aroused, emotional, angry, or upset. The internet vomits back hard.

Teachers, coaches, employers, parents, and Colleges will be looking too. 500 nights out and nothing else, is that it? That won’t impress the coach, employer, family, potential boyfriend, or girlfriend. 

The relentless pursuit of followers is toxic.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's boss, told us that Facebook has done the maths, and people with lots of followers, as opposed to friends, will get bullied. A Facebook fact.

Is happiness an ever-increasing social media base to flaunt in front of? Facebook warned that a followers-only approach is toxic. Influencers and celebrities complain their social media accounts are nothing more than a drenched cesspit of vile.. 

• Don't dribble online
• Vomit online and it vomits back twice as hard.
• If you are female, or of colour, or if you are a little unusual, be careful. (through no fault of your own). Remember, the internet is not kind to the unusual.

Active on Social Media?

Social media — Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok — influence your online reputation. Make your presence online balanced.

Keep profanities to an absolute minimum or better yet, don’t. ‘F*** you ma bi**h, f*** I*g gre8t nite, all the bi***es were f***ed up etc, etc”. Once or occasionally, can be ignored, but NOT every weekend. 

Google records your 500 #bitch hashtags monthly. Post several times a week on social media, not just Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. Learn to take advantage of the Internet. Don’t let it take advantage of you. Employers will take note that you over-post socially at weekends. This is a red flag, they won't admit it, but it is.

Why is this important? Google, Social Media forgets nothing. Google doesn't forgive or forget, (despite your right to be forgotten). Google controls 95% of all European searches and mobile phone operating systems. In their way, Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok and Instagram are just as bad, heartless money bots.

All employers, banks, and colleges will check your social profile before meeting you because they can, and it’s the easiest way to see if you are reliable. In our internet safety talks to 16,17,18,19-year-olds. We make this very plain indeed with examples of real impact. Nurturing your online reputation is a big part of your internet safety.

The Police

If the police take your phone off you, they'll send it off for a 'digital strip' which might take up to 2 years but normally 6-weeks. They will break down everything on the phone, including deleted images, videos, text and messages. Most teenagers seem surprised that the police can take their phones off them. Police worldwide are looking to expand their powers in this area. Where either paedophilia or counter-terrorism is suspected, the cops will confiscate your phone on the spot. That's the law.

Border Control. Dozens of countries by law can request passwords on request and reserve the right to refuse entry. Powers that their police colleagues jealously covet. A good reason to never sext.

How not to do it | 15-Year-Old Girl on Porn site

We spoke to a 15-year-old girl who wanted advice;  

• Her friend's boyfriend posted a video of them to a porn site. 
• He won't take it down. His face does not appear in the video.
• He roasts her regularly online about this video, sharing the link.
• She doesn’t want to go to the police or tell her parents. It is only a matter of time before her parents see the video. 

So what to do? They want to approach the friendliest teacher in the school, hoping the teacher will explain the situation to the parents and help her deal with the trauma. The police will try an informal approach to the porn site, seeking an immediate takedown and permanent block on the up-loader. Adult-content sites are very uncooperative, but Pornhub, for example, will usually comply. 

A good online reputation is priceless and will give you fantastic opportunities. Maybe even win you a big job, for which you interviewed badly. It is much easier to overlook a poor interview than a poor online presence. A positive online reputation opens doors, fact!