Online Reputation

Having a good reputation is very important, especially if you have an online presence. Now-a-days people can type your name into any search engine and find almost anything about you. It is very important to be careful about what you put on social media sites because by default your social media platforms will be some of the first things people may see about you.

I have been assigned to do an online reputation search of a person in my social media and communication class, Blake R. Anderson. Let me just say that I thought this assignment was going to be easy and it is the furthest thing from easy. Blake Anderson is a very common name so it has been very difficult to find the exact Blake Anderson that is in my class. When I type his name into Google, the first thing that comes up is the American actor, producer, comedian, and screenwriter. Who also happens to have the same middle initial of the kid in my class. You can only imagine my frustration, as it took me about an hour just to find Blake’s Linkedin profile. I have had to base all my information solely off of his Linkedin profile. He has a Twitter but the only tweets he has posted are the ones we were supposed to do for this class, so I could not find any solid information on that platform.

I know Blake pretty well, as he has been in many of my communications classes and we are majoring in the same thing. He is expecting to graduate in 2015 and is from the greater salt lake area. Just from talking with him I can tell he is a very intelligent and easy going guy but trying to find online information about him has been pretty difficult.

The best information I could get off of his Twitter was from his profile picture. He is wearing goggles so I would assume he loves to ski or snowboard just like everyone else that lives in Utah. His Twitter name is Balakie, which is unique and original. I believe he knows that he pretty much needs to have a creative name because of the other MILLIONS of Blake Andersons in the world.

From his Linkedin profile it looks like he has just changed jobs and is now working as a production specialist at Thermo Fisher Scientific. Thermo Fisher Scientific is an American multinational, biotechnology product development company. He leads a group of employees at his job on a daily basis so I would assume he has good work ethics and communication skills. Blake has also worked as a Greens-keeper in San Diego, California over the summer which means he must have some type of interest in Golf. He has also worked as Direct Sales Representative in Columbus, Ohio the summer before that. This tells me he is very willing to relocate over the summer to get the job he is looking for.

When I type most names into Google the first thing that comes up is their Facebook accounts but that was not the case with Blake. This leads me to assume that he is not extremely active on Facebook or other social media sites.

It is very interesting to see the different information you can gather about a person just by seeing their social media sites. It is of the utmost importance to be careful about what you put online, as it is accessible to anyone willing to look.   

https://twitter.com/balakie24

https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=312225019&authType=NAME_SEARCH&authToken=7Zfp&locale=en_US&srchid=3958180741424889829542&srchindex=1&srchtotal=249&trk=vsrp_people_res_name&trkInfo=VSRPsearchId%3A3958180741424889829542%2CVSRPtargetId%3A312225019%2CVSRPcmpt%3Aprimary