So much alike!

What is Personal Branding? 1. Make a clear, specific, and consistent image of yourself on the internet that reflects who YOU are. 2. Make people care about who you are and your brand by being likable and building credibility. 3. Your personal brand is a business; YOU are an entrepreneur.

So… audience, huh? What’s that supposed to mean?

| Social | Everything Nearly 2.5 billion people in the world use the Internet (almost all of these people have addresses). About half of the people who use the Internet also have a Facebook account. About 500 million Facebookers are active users. 50% of them access Facebook from a smartphone. Over 225 million people are on Twitter. Over 300 million people are on Linkedin. About 50 million people are on Pinterest (as of this number has surely grown). ~75% of all mobile phone users in the US have smartphones.

Exhausted yet?

Even MO’ Statistics! 500 million new tweets are tweeted every day. More than 30 billion pieces of unique content are shared on Facebook every day. There are over 42.6 million blog posts published every single day billion s are sent every day.* Sources: KISSMetrics, Mashable* (2012), Twitter Blog, WordPress KISSMetrics Mashable Twitter Blog WordPress

OK, Liz… so what’s with all the statistics?

BEFORE YOU POST… Do I feel comfortable having these words copied and pasted, forwarded, shared on Facebook, or retweeted?

Facebook Privacy Walkthrough

Your Photos Matter Too Audit yourself. Find any photos you don’t want printed 1000x. You can change your privacy PER album. Under “Settings,” see the “Download Your Information” section?

What Employers Think… About 50% employers use Facebook/Twitter to screen applicants. Of this group, over 40% of them admitted they turned down a candidate for one of these reasons. 20% of the recruiters admitted that they chose one candidate over another for having a professional social media presence.

Amazing Social Media Blunders (Businesses) { click to see them }click

Eeeeek!

Yeah, these are awkward. WeKnowWhatYoureDoing.com – an online privacy experiment PeekYou – most comprehensive search results on people I’ve ever found online StopDataMining.Me – list of companies (big names too) that sell your information unless you ask them not to

(and most of these tools are free!)

Privacy Tool Roundup SafeShepherd pro-actively removes your personal information from the Internet and marketing databases (about $45/year). MaskMe masks your , phone, and credit card as you browse and shop on the web. Free with an option to upgrade. Disconnect.me is used by over a million people – free with a donation option. DuckDuckGo is search engine that doesn’t track your searches! Google Alerts (

Amazing Privacy Tips When checking your bank account or paying a bill online use incognito mode or private browsing. Put a passcode on your computer and smartphone. Get in the habit of signing out of Facebook, Gmail, Twitter, and other social networks when you're done using them. If you use Gmail, sign up for 2-step authentication. (Under Settings > Security) Use difficult passwords and keep them in an encrypted password locker. I use one called “Keeper”. Clear your browser history and cache at least once a month. Source: BusinessInsiderBusinessInsider

BEFORE YOU HIT SEND… Do I feel comfortable having these words copied and pasted, forwarded, shared on Facebook, or retweeted?

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