The basics of your digital footprint are probably pretty obvious. You might have a few social media profiles, have a brand page on a website or networking forum, be a professional body or online group member, or participate in group chats or discussions on Reddit or Quora.
A key fact is that your digital footprint isn’t limited to your social media activity – you’ll find more information about your social media footprint through our earlier article.
Instead, the data that makes up your digital footprint is drawn from numerous sources and databases, some of which you’re less likely to be aware of. That might include your shopping activities online, your presence on a commercial or private database, old photos you might have been tagged in, local news articles or events you’ve attended, and even your educational history.
From a foundational perspective, it is essential that digital marketers know how digital footprints work and the impacts that they can have on individuals, especially professionals, from a work point of view. If you’re representing a brand or working on a campaign for a business, you may be asked to advise on reputation management or using content marketing to reposition a brand or sector leader.
If they have an existing digital footprint that butts against the reputation they want to foster, it could be a tougher challenge than simply creating some slick marketing content.
However, it’s also crucial that you recognize your own digital footprint and know how recruiters will access and use this data when deciding whether you are a great fit for their team.
What Is a Digital Footprint?
Everything you do online, through any device, website, app, or channel, creates an invisible footprint – and one that you may have little control over and could exist in the world of technology forever.
In short, your digital footprint is like a trail of your activities and interactions, including information about the websites or newsletters you’ve signed up for, the searches you’ve performed in search engines, retail sites, or social media channels, and products you’ve purchased, the tickets you’ve booked, and almost anything else.
Part of the difficulty is that while some online activities, such as leaving a review, are inevitably in the public forum to some extent, others aren’t, and yet they are still collated as part of the footprint you leave behind.
That happens because millions of websites track consumer behaviors and activities using cookies.
If you have deliberately or inadvertently given a company permission to collect your data, there’s a good chance they’ll share, save, or sell it. That’s disregarding the potential for data breaches to capture private information about you that you’d assumed would be confidential.
Understanding the Varied Types of Digital Footprint
Without delving too deeply into the technical aspects of data collection, there are several types of digital footprints, from active footprints that include the information you’ve freely shared to passive footprints that incorporate data you may not have meant to provide.
As a brief snapshot:
- Active digital footprints include social media posts or photos, forum comments, and other intentional activities. Other data, such as newsletter sign-ups or consenting to have a cookie installed on your browser, are also active.
- Passive digital footprints refer to data collected about you without your knowledge. This data can be stored by a website you visit, which records the number of logins or purchases you make, the types of information you read, and your IP address.
- There are also private and commercial digital footprints, which refer to restricted access data, such as posts in password-protected forums and data collected for business purposes.
Regardless of where and how your digital footprint is shaped, it is often complex to have that information deleted, and most people have minimal control.
We’ll look at why digital footprints can be problematic shortly, especially when searching for a digital marketing job, but the key factor is that your digital footprint might not represent you as you’d wish – and can be seriously harmful.
Why Every Digital Marketing Job Applicant Should Be Conscious of Their Digital Footprint
Much as you might curate a brand image through website graphics, tone of voice, styling, and brand messaging, your digital footprint also precedes you and can be instrumental in helping an agency, recruiter, or employer form a first impression.
Needless to say, you want that impression to be overwhelmingly positive – but your digital footprint could potentially get in the way.
Although the vast majority of us wouldn’t share or post anything we aren’t proud of or would want to conceal, it’s not always that simple.
Job candidates commonly set their social media accounts to private or delete compromising photos of a wild holiday with friends or a night out. Still, other aspects of your digital footprint aren’t so easily managed or removed.
- Some types of content that were intended for private use are fairly easily accessible, such as a photo you’ve been tagged in that appears next to your name in a search engine, even if you deleted it from your own account months ago.
- Data can and is misinterpreted or misconstrued, meaning a sarcastic or jokey comment between friends can be visible to a third party with zero context – leaving them to make of it what they will.
- Cybercriminals and hackers commonly target data as a valuable resource, meaning confidential information can quickly reach the public domain or be stolen. While identity theft remains relatively uncommon, it can also be catastrophic, with the chance that a profile, identity, or account exists online using your name and photo—which have nothing to do with you.
Digital footprints are largely permanent, and the more data about you there is, the more vulnerable you are to theft and exploitation. From a personal security position, it’s wise to be cautious about what you share, the permissions you grant for collecting your data, and how you manage profiles and accounts.
Today, we’re focused on digital footprints and their impact on employment prospects and reputation, but being mindful of your personal security is equally important.
How Much Do Digital Marketing Agencies and Employers Rely on Digital Footprints?
The latest stats indicate that a huge proportion of employers will search for an applicant’s name before they even invite them for an interview. This is typically because a company won’t want an employee working for them or representing their business if their character and trustworthiness are in any doubt.
Research by Harvard Business Review indicates that 70% of employers will Google any job applicant before an interview and that 54% will turn down a candidate based on what they find.
It’s also possible that some recruiters will simply pick candidates they feel share their values or interests – even if your digital footprint isn’t particularly negative.
Other organizations will run background checks, which might be relevant if you want to apply for a professional accreditation, a travel visa, a new passport, or a role in a sensitive corporate environment. This is also standard practice for some colleges and universities, which use online searches to correlate the facts or data provided on application documentation.
The big issue for job applicants is that any conflicting data or compromising information about you or that purports to be about you can impact your credibility.
We’re all familiar with the media circus that erupts when photos of celebrities, public figures, politicians, and royalty emerge, showing them in controversial fancy dress or seemingly behaving in a way perceived as unacceptable.
You and I might be less likely to feature on the front page of a tabloid, but the same reputational damage is still very much possible.
What Data Sources Contribute to Your Digital Footprint?
We’ve already discussed some of the main data sources that make up your digital footprint, but have listed below some of the other places you might be sharing information about yourself that anybody can find, even a recruiter without any technical skills:
- Using online devices: Mobiles, tablets, laptops, PCs—and even smart TVs—all have an IP address, which indicates your location. When you use the internet or log in to anything through your device, that data becomes part of your digital footprint.
- Online banking habits such as applying for a mortgage, loan, or credit card, purchasing products or crypto assets online, selling or transferring stocks and shares, or signing up for banking newsletters can all be stored online.
- Wearable devices that track your activity or location, like fitness watches or even a tablet you use to read books, means that device stores data about you – and can provide information about your location, hobbies, and habits.
- Emails, online messages, and texts become part of your digital footprint as soon as you send them. Data is stored about who you communicate with, the words or phrases you commonly use, and the devices you use to send messages.
Other content attributed to you, such as profiles, comments, reviews, blog posts, and news pieces, can also feature your name and be easily linked back to your identity.
How to Manage and Review Your Digital Footprint
One of the first things to do if you’re planning to apply for a digital marketing job is to run your own search. It might seem indulgent, but it is also a fast and easy way to see what information might exist about you and what a potential employer will see when they search for your name.
Here are a few tips:
- Search using two or three search engines, including your first and last name, any nicknames or abbreviations you use, and online profile names you’ve had in the past – this will ensure you find all the information about you, even if the exact name differs, or uses your initials.
- Run a search using an image since some photos or graphics associated with your name will still exist online—as we’ve explained—even if you believe these photos to have long been deleted.
- Check for old and new social media accounts, verifying whether accounts set to private are indeed confidential. If you have previously had a public profile and have since changed your security settings, any older data will likely be visible.
You can also set up a Google Alert to be the first to know when any new content appears online or use a free or paid-for service to run a more in-depth search.
While it’s impossible to delete your digital footprint entirely, you can certainly take steps to clean up any information you’d like removed—whether that means scrubbing your content by submitting a formal request to a site administrator, completely deleting online content you’ve posted yourself, or shutting down old accounts or email addresses you no longer use.
Remember – anything you can see, an employer can too.
Researching Your Digital Footprint Before a Job Interview
There are plenty of preventative measures you can take once you’ve cleaned and organized your digital footprint, as a safeguard that you won’t find that a new job application turns sour because a recruiter reads something about you that has since appeared.
Reviewing your security settings and location-enabled apps on your phone and other devices, installing high-quality anti-malware programs to prevent data thefts and breaches, regularly resetting your passwords, and clearing cookies are beneficial.
Finally, if you have a digital footprint you can’t delete or conceal and are concerned about old information or data coming to light; it’s wise to be prepared to address this if it comes up during the interview.
While that good first impression remains crucial, you can also showcase your knowledge of digital footprints to clarify how data can be managed and controlled and ensure that an employer isn’t left in any doubt about your professionalism, transparency, and suitability for your dream digital marketing job.