Today I want to talk to you about figuring out who people are, using simple tools like search engines online. Always a good first step to start building the image of the person you are trying to figure out.
First I want to tell you that all the things you find are clues to build the image of the person you are trying to figure out. Try to see it from an as objective place as you can, it will help you get a better idea.
Many years ago I got divorced. When I was looking for an attorney to represent me I did some digging on them before making my choice. When I googled the lawyer I ended up working with I found a hate blog dedicated to spewing anger and hateful rhetoric about him. I went further down the rabbit hole and found that the person writing the blog was a guy whose ex wife had been represented by the lawyer in their divorce. In this case, negative publicity helped me make the decision to hire this guy. Negative information isn’t always bad, it helps paint the picture.
So when you google someone, look at all the information. When I look at review sites to find a hotel or a restaurant I always read the bad reviews, because I want to know if what people don’t like matter to me. Slow service is not something that bothers me, but a dirty kitchen is. It might be the same for you, or it might be different. It’s the same with people.
So if you are looking into someone, a nanny or a family that you are looking to work with you want to figure out what your priorities are, what is important to you, and when you start looking into the information there is to find, weigh them there.
Look at the sources, who are they? What are they saying about the person.
When my daughter was in preschool in California there was a teacher there who had a criminal record for years and years ago being in possession of pot. We were all informed about it when we applied, to make our own choice. If she had a violent record, it would have been an entirely different choice to make.
It might be helpful to make a visual, either a graph or a visual representation you relate to with the information about a person, about the gist and gesture you get from different sources. How are they presenting themselves on social media? What do their non fans say? What do their fans say? Their records?
Add it all, objectively, to make a clear picture that you can use as a base for your evaluation whether you want to collaborate with them.
I think with intention and some sleuthing skills, google is your friend. You might want to reverse engineer this and look into yourself to see what other people see and tweak accordingly. Your online presence is a part of your image, take charge of making it work in your favor, whatever that is.
