{"id":9418,"date":"2015-03-12T15:20:45","date_gmt":"2015-03-12T20:20:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hostgator.com\/blog\/?p=9418"},"modified":"2019-06-05T09:07:20","modified_gmt":"2019-06-05T14:07:20","slug":"why-your-online-presence-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hostgator.com\/blog\/why-your-online-presence-matters\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Your Online Presence Matters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You\u2019ve just setup a new company, and you think it\u2019s going to be big. It\u2019s got everything   all the bells and whistles that you could ever possibly want. It addresses all of the concerns that you\u2019ve ever had in regard to the jobs you\u2019ve held in the past. No questionable benefits for your employees! A great vacation plan! Flexible schedules and a sick day policy that works to address all of the gripes that you\u2019ve had in the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"float: right; padding-right: 0px; padding-left: 5px; padding-top: 0px;\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Woman Sweeping Her Home Jean Francois Millet\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hostgator.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Woman-Sweeping-Her-Home-Jean-Francois-Millet.jpg\" alt=\"Woman Sweeping Her Home Jean Francois Millet\" width=\"234\" height=\"310\"><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You\u2019ve got a winning product, one that\u2019s sure to make your company an overnight success, and a marketing plan that\u2019s guaranteed to ensure that the product you\u2019ve created catches the attention of the masses. You\u2019re pleased. It\u2019s taken years of hard work and dedication, but nothing could possibly go wrong, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Your Social Media<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Over the years you have amassed profiles in a variety of different places. Your long-ago MySpace account hasn\u2019t been touched in almost a decade, though it\u2019s still out there. You\u2019ve got a G+ profile that you don\u2019t use much, a Facebook profile, and a LinkedIn profile, and you even, if you\u2019re old enough, may still have a profile floating about in AOL land somewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You may not use any of these accounts anymore, but they still exist, and with them so does all of the information you posted. That time with the tequila and your friends out on the beach, that time you ranted about your boss and how much you hated his guts, and maybe even that time you streaked down the football field back in college is documented somewhere. This information may be about to come back to haunt you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Cause And Effect<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Picture this: Your company\u2019s marketing campaign is a huge success. Your product has just taken off, and people are clamoring to get a hold of you to find out just what your secret is. Then someone pulls up Google. Thirty seconds later and *BAM* you\u2019ve just gotten some of the worst publicity of your life. All that stuff you put up on social media? It\u2019s now a part of the daily news. This may seem far-fetched, but today we truly live in a digital world; after all, that\u2019s why you\u2019re reading this online, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Fact Of The Matter<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The truth is, I\u2019ve seen not one, not two, not even three, but five news articles within the past two days from legitimate online news sites that have utilized information in an individual\u2019s social media profile as legitimate sources, linking those profiles to the readers of the article for all to click through and view. The fact of the matter is that no matter how 'private'\u009d you set your profile up to be, there is still information that can be gathered by others and used as a means of making a determination or judgment against you just because you\u2019ve placed it on a social media site. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What To Do?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Social media can be a beneficial tool for businesses, allowing them to connect with their customers and their target market in ways that were not possible in the past, but it\u2019s a two way street. Before you launch that product of yours, before you start up that company, go to the old social media sites that you don\u2019t use anymore and delete your old profiles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Set everything to private that you wouldn\u2019t want that nice little old lady down the street from you to read or to see. Make sure to untag yourself from all those pesky photos of that time you went to Vegas. Ask your friends to take down embarrassing photos, explaining that it\u2019s nothing personal, but that your online reputation could suffer as a result. Don\u2019t stop doing the fun stuff, just don\u2019t broadcast it for the world to see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I was a part of the generation that received in-home Internet access for the first time as teenagers   most of the embarrassing stuff that we did never made it online   primarily because these social media sites didn\u2019t exist at this time. I\u2019m now a part of that first generation of parents whose children are growing up with the Internet and technologies as a part of their everyday lives; the best bit of advice I can give you is the same thing I tell my kiddo: 'It\u2019s okay to keep your personal life personal; the whole world doesn\u2019t have to know what you do all the time. And if it\u2019s something you know you would get in trouble with me for doing, you darn sure don\u2019t want strangers knowing about it either.'\u009d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Think of it like that   if you don\u2019t want your mother, or your grandparents seeing you do something, there\u2019s a good chance you don\u2019t want your potential customers seeing it either. Clean up your online presence and then launch the product. Trust me; you\u2019ll be glad you did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You\u2019ve just setup a new company, and you think it\u2019s going to be big. It\u2019s got everything all the bells and whistles that you could ever possibly want. It addresses all of the concerns that you\u2019ve ever had in regard to the jobs you\u2019ve held in the past. No questionable benefits for your employees! A [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":135,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[98,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-startup-small-business","category-web-and-hosting-tips"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Why Your Online Presence Matters - HostGator<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hostgator.com\/blog\/why-your-online-presence-matters\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Your Online Presence Matters - HostGator\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You\u2019ve just setup a new company, and you think it\u2019s going to be big. 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