What Is your current digital footprint?

In our world today, countless individuals navigate daily life as though trapped in the Stone Age, rarely pausing to deliberately record or curate the moments, achievements, and insights that define their personal and professional journeys.

By “Stone Age,” I mean a prehistoric era before the advent of writing or systematic record-keeping, where human experiences largely vanished without a trace, much like how many people today fail to document their lives digitally, leaving no lasting footprint for reflection, sharing, or legacy-building.

As long as you choose to remain indispensable, you can easily be ignored if not forgotten without a footprint. Stop hiding your work under the table. Give it visibility. As the saying goes, whatever is not written didn’t happen.

I appreciate how Alvin Toffler puts the words in the right perspective, “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”

Learning and improving your craft is the first step you can improve and increase your digital footprint, irrespective of what your industry is. No one denies a really good product.

What is digital footprint?

According to IBM, a digital footprint is the unique trail of data that a person or business creates while using the internet. It can be referred to as a “digital shadow”. Digital footprint is also the way a stranger can know important things about you or your company without asking you a question. It can be shaped by you or others. While you may not have control over everything, you can control what you want the world to know about you.

What can someone searching for you see about you today?

Is it just your social media account(s) with your friends and family, vacation or birthday celebrations that they can see about you?

Digital footprint is not just you posting on your social media accounts but being deliberate about other platforms that could be of help to you and increase your level of credibility. Imagine being featured by a national or international news network? That is part of a digital footprint but not all there is.

What are others saying about you?

What platforms have you been invited to speak since your last career promotion? Did you accept the offer or did you decline due to the low reward system? Immediate gain shouldn’t be the only thing you should look at. Think of yourself as a brand. Are you visible enough for someone to order for what you have to offer?

Do you volunteer to speak at conferences, workshops, either online or in person?

Are you mentoring the next generation of leaders? How active are you as a citizen in national development? What issue are you addressing and passionate about?

Do you talk about what you do? If not, you can start today. You do not have to break the bank before you establish a sustainable electronic footprint for yourself.

As a professional with a background in History and International Studies and currently gaining insight about marketing, branding and enterprise management through Harvard Business School Online, I understand it is not everything that happens to you that you need to document, but there are significant events that you cannot afford to ignore or underrate. Everything you do today will count tomorrow.

I am not suggesting you go overboard, but rather blow your own trumpet in the right way. Only you can allow the whole world to hear you if you choose to or you are lucky to have two other ways; friends or colleagues who know what you’re capable of and they recommend you for it or you get contacted by an established organization who wants to tell the world about what you are doing.

If you sit down and wait for the third option, you may wait forever. Design your path. Curate your footprint. Your content can reach places you may need to be on a long queue for a visa before you reach it without paying a dime. Use the tools you have at your disposal positively.

Can you focus on making one digital print at a time. Be intentional about it, it will help your career and redefine many things you are chasing after.

Here are three practical ways to improve your digital footprint even if you’re an emerging digital nomad, veteran or an early career professional.

Firstly, you can optimize your presence online. Start by checking what is currently available online when anyone searches for your name on Google and see what others in your field are doing and work towards it. You can ask them relevant salient questions from.

Start by building relationships first. You may be surprised by how they got their nominations or career opportunities. Build genuine relationships with people. You can have media visibility that may seem impossible if you are patient enough.

Success is not overnight but built overtime. It will require time. Do not rush your process. Speed is useless when you are on the wrong route to an impossible destination. The earlier you identify a problem the better for you. In all your moves, be on the right track.

Secondly, surround yourself with people who know the value of what you do in your chosen field and consider some of their recommendations, you may be having access to free media consultation without knowing. Ask questions when and where necessary. Do not assume you have arrived or you know it all. That’s the easiest way to dig a pit for your career. The world is evolving faster than you can ever imagine. The quality of the people you surround with could help you to reshape your digital footprint.

Lastly, accept invitation to speak if you know there is value you can offer to the organization and it would increase your visibility as well. Talk about program you attended and what you learnt. You can tag some you connected with as well to create engagement. One of the best places you can do this and get the right audience is on LinkedIn. If you do not have a profile yet, you can set up one today.

I have an exception to these three rules. You may say you do not have two out of the three ways I mentioned but I want you to know you can nominate yourself for an opportunity either internally, locally, regionally or internationally. You can send an enquiry mail to a team member or organization you would like to feature you. There are two outcomes; you can get a yes or a no. If you get a yes, it’s a win-win, if you also get a no, it’s a redirection.

Tell three people to send you screenshots of what they can see about you online.

What action would you take today to make your footprint different tomorrow?

.Popoola, a 2018 BusinessDay CEO Apprentice alumnus, is a globally recognized Nigerian entrepreneur, multi-published author, global speaker, leadership coach and trainer with the passion to get young people out of their limiting mindset. He is fondly known as “Gen Z Coach” and he provides guidance for Gen Z to kickstart the journey to personal development with strategic paradigms. James is a Sam Adeyemi Leadership Certified Coach through the Daystar Leadership Academy.

He serves a Summit of the Future National Champion where he represents Nigerian youth at the United Nations as a young diplomat. You can reach his team on [email protected] and connect with him @thejamespopoola on all social media platforms.