You and You and You and You!

It's a bit of a transparent move really.

Time Magazine tried to make themselves seem trendy and cutting-edge by naming 'you' the person of the year. Their theory is that we have all taken over the media because of self-publishing tools like blogs, video and photo sharing sites, and social networking tools.

But self-serving desperation aside, they do have a point and I've been going on about it all year. There has been a revolution, and that revolution allows me to write this blog and communicate directly with job seekers rather than attempting to place an occasional article with established media sites. I can build my own audience and don't have to rely on others to allow me access to theirs.

We all have a chance to share what we know. We all have an opportunity to build communities around what we are about. We all have a voice.

That's the exciting part. And also the scary part.

Everything we say and do online is recorded forever. Every action we take. Every site we visit. Every screen name we adopt. Every book we pan on Amazon. Every opinion we espouse. Every blog we start and then abandon. Every MySpace or Xanga profile we create.

For those who are conscious of what this means for career management, there is a huge opportunity. You can carefully and knowingly construct a personal brand online through the right blog, and well-placed comments on forums, and a well-constructed MySpace profile.

Or can you?

Because the person of the year isn't just you.

It's also me.

And her.

And him.

What are we saying about you? Because whatever it is will count for just as much as what you are saying about yourself - maybe even more.   

Careers have ended this year because of Youtube. Neither Michael Richards or George Allen could control their online brand. Or rather, they couldn't control their online brands by being careful about what they did online - the damage was done because of what they did in the real world.

And it seems to me that we have not even begun to understand the ramifications of this for job search and career management. Now that social networking and blogging (and whatever is next) have entered the mainstream, it will be harder and harder for any of us to "spin" our online personas. Information about us will be widely available. Manager and recruiters will glance at the name on your well-constructed resume, and then type it into Google to get the real story.

This is not to say that you should not carefully manage your online persona - you must and you should.  But   Michael Richards and George Allen determined their own futures when they made racist comments in public because so little of our behavior is truly private anymore. If you live your life and manage your career in the way you would like to be perceived, then your online presence will, by and large, reflect that.

Something to reflect on as we approach a new year.

Cross-posted at the Blue Sky Resumes Blog