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I have to say that I fundamentally disagree with your premise that "it is necessary to have a profile".
Such a "profile" is, for the first part, the first ch i nk in your armour against scammers and worse. The security of these things is, in general, beyond abyssmal.
I may be a dinosaur, but I have watched the development of the Internet since I was involved in ARPANet and in the long term I can see only unkillable dragons and monsters in what you suggest.
As in most walks of life it is probably better to "say nothing at all".
[quote=dgilmour51]
I have to say that I fundamentally disagree with your premise that "it is necessary to have a profile".
Such a "profile" is, for the first part, the first ch i nk in your armour against scammers and worse. The security of these things is, in general, beyond abyssmal.
I totally disagree with what you have said above. If people Google you and you cannot be found then this immediately puts doubt about you in someone's mind. The world has changed and you have to be Googleable. At least if you create a profile you can craft it how you want to. If others speak about you, you have no control.
Have no online presence and would not want any new clients from such a presence.
Could not give a "flying fox" as to whether I am Googleable or not
Only take new clients on by recommendation and then only if I like them.
Took on perhaps two or three new clients in the last eight years, but have got rid of a fair few.
I guess I'm lucky in that I've reached the stage where I could care less about what others think about me or what they think they learn about me from my 'social media' profile. I am quite opinionated and not very PC. I am also very good at what I do and having a strong personality certainly helps in dealing with HMRC enquiries and investigations.
It's equally possible to create entirely fake persona on these media to fool any prospective employers, etc into believing something that isn't true. Just refer to any program about online dating, scamming, catfishing, etc to see how easy it is and how hard it is to detect.
If people look at these things and try and judge you, then maybe they aren't the sort of people you want to work for anyway!
Rule of thumb: believe nothing you see or hear on social media, everything can be clipped, altered, amended, dubbed over or completely faked, unless you are 100% sure about the source.
Other rule: EVERYTHING on any social media platform, sharing site, etc that you have ever shared, commented on or posted including holiday snaps, candid snaps, sexting, and media you thought was private can potentially be seen by everyone. There is no such thing as complete cyber security.
Many years ago I had a call from a prospective client who said that I had been recommended by an existing client. When I replied 'no' to the question 'do you have a website' he asked how he was to know if I was any good or not. I told him to stop wasting my time - the fact that I had been recommended should have given him the answer. Coming forward in time I now have a website - most of the contact is from people who want to improve my ranking. I don't want to improve it, I have more than enough work from client recommendations and am currently turning down new client requests.
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