If you didn’t know me and did a quick Google search for my full name, “Danielle Beauchemin” you might be surprised to know that I may have been on the TV show “Naked and Afraid“.
The truth is… I was NOT on the show Naked and Afraid. But it was actually another young woman named, Danielle Beauchemin.
The series aired a few months ago now but I decided I should write about it after Googling my name again today. As an online business owner, it’s important to Google yourself and your business occasionally. We need to protect our reputation. You never know what might come up when you Google your name, but hopefully it won’t be something strange like my situation.
If you aren’t familiar with Naked and Afraid, it is a reality show where two strangers have to survive in the middle of nowhere with no clothes, food or supplies for 21 days.
Quite some time ago I came across some interviews of Danielle and how she was going to appear on Naked and Afraid. Like I mentioned previously, I Google my name occasionally to see what comes up. So that is how I found out…
About a year passed and one morning I woke up with a ton of Facebook friend requests from strange men. I was like hmm that is weird. When I clicked on the profile of one of the guys they had a post about Naked and Afraid. I was like… oh no, it’s happened.
Over the next few weeks, I continued to get friend requests. I’m sure I would have got several people following me on Twitter too but at the time I didn’t have my full name on any of my accounts.
It’s definitely a funny situation and my family and friends still bug me about it. What are the chances that another blonde girl around the same age as myself, named Danielle Beauchemin would be on a show called Naked and Afraid?
What I find even more strange is that probably 10 years ago I was friends with this same girl on Facebook. I think one of us added the other one cause we had the same name. I wonder if she remembers that? Cause I do, which is odd.
I personally have never watched Naked and Afraid, have you? Did you see ‘me’ on TV?
Hey Danielle,
This story was funny! Although probably not so funny when strange men were sending you friend requests on Facebook. :/
After reading this, I realized I hadn’t Googled my name in a while, so I went ahead and did it. While I do rank on Page 1, I didn’t make the top 5 listings. Someone else has the same name but runs a fashion blog for tall women. So, although we share a name, we don’t have too much in common–I’m short! Lol!
Yes, I still get a few here and there and wonder if it’s related cause they never have any mutual friends. That’s neat about the fashion blog, reminds me of my other blog ImLovingThis.com. It’s probably good that it is a completely different niche than anything you are doing. Anything to do with my name used to be at the top too until this show aired. Now it’s been pushed around.
Embarrassing !
Like most people online I too used to do a search on my name and my own name site always came at the top. Then came algorithm changes and now I find an American singer there instead!!
I had not heard of him but looking on youtube he has a good voice.
I get tweets all the time for him.
And a friend of mine had her name domain grabbed by a minor American actress. Ugh!!
The issue is that search engine give “Celebs” far too much authority and the rest of us are treated as details however valuable our products or efforts. They pushed aside by trivial stuff in gossip columns.
Without doing some seriously Blackhat SEO I think we have to just ignore this stuff
🙂
I looked Alex Newell up and haven’t heard of that singer either, but I don’t watch Glee. That’s funny that you get tweets all the time, people probably just type it in Twitter and don’t even pay attention.
I’m lucky and have my domain name DanielleBeauchemin.com as my Mom bought it years ago.
Hi Danielle,
Thanks so much for this post, it got me to google my name and realized I’m still be known as a nurse blogger when I haven’t blogged in nursing for over a year and a half now. I sold that website and started in a new niche- outdoor adventures, but I see now why brands are not taking me seriously, I think they still think I’m a nurse blogger.
I didn’t realize how many articles I wrote in the nursing space, not just on my own site but others that I guest blogged on. I have some cleaning up to do. I think I will start by asking those that I guest blogged for to change my bio and website address.
I also need to change some of my social media sites like LinkedIn.
I do still work as a nurse but I’m transitioning to becoming a full time freelance writer/blogger and retiring from nursing in the next 3 years (been in nursing for 30+ years now, time to get out) although I have been thinking of starting a nursing site about my nursing adventures, all the crazy things that have happened to me over the years as a nurse, boy do I have stories to tell!
Anyways, thanks so much for this post, it got me to take action on how I want people to see me online.
Great story! I didn’t run into anything like that, thank goodness 🙂 although I do get weird guys trying to friend me on facebook at least once a week, not sure what that’s all about.
Best,
Tina
Funny what you can find when you google your name. I took a look at your outdoor blog and really like it. Right up my alley!
Once again, I am *thrilled* to have a very unusual name. As far as I know, I’m the only Cindy Bidar there is.
Haha Cindy, it was an interesting thing to come across one day.