I guess I dropped the ball on this one. When I switched from Remax to Century 21 earlier this year I had to scramble to change all of my websites, internet profiles and virtual business cards. It took quite a while, and I'm sure there are still dozens of places on the web where I'm still listed as a Remax agent. When I first started building up a web presence I didn't realize that it should be done with such a disciplined approach and I just haphazardly signed on to any site that would allow me to link back to my websites without paying too much attention. Consequently, I have no idea where my mug will show up.
One of the most important profiles that I should have kept my eye on is my Google business profile since it shows up on Google maps and Google queries related to real estate in Trenton. I just use my gmail account as a gateway to access all my Google products such as my blogger blog, Google documents and my profile. Needless to say I haven't paid a lot of attention to it lately and just assumed that everything was alright with it. Well you can imagine my surprise when I stumbled across my own business profile and it was sporting another local agent's mugshot.
I have no idea how someone else was able to access my Google Business Profile and upload a picture of themselves. I can see why someone would want to though, it places very high in local Google Queries related to real estate, and since it was apparently dormant (mea culpa), I guess it might have appeared ripe for a takeover. It's the cyber equivalent of a hermit crab switching shells. No harm done really.
In my spare time I'm going to have to browse around and see if anything else has been hijacked. This is one excellent reason why people who are building an on-line presence should take a disciplined approach to the job and keep an eye on things.
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