Developing an authentic online professional profile #UOSM2008 Topic 3

Topic 3 : Discuss the ways in which an authentic online professional profile can be developed.

Google yourself. This is you as seen by the world. Everything that you find is what current and potential employers can and will see. According to Jobvite’s latest statistics 94% of employers use or plan to use social media for recruiting, this represents an increase of over 10 percent since 2010 – infographic here.  Also able to see what you get up to online are any potential customers, collaborators, employees, well basically anyone who you might ever want to have a professional relationship with. So what can you do to make your online profile both authentic and professional?

The first step is to try to ensure that there is nothing documented online that could be perceived to reflect negatively on you. There are the obvious culprits such as inappropriate photos of alcohol fuelled antics, however, even something as simple as an offhand rant on a social network might be enough to put an employer off as they might deem it suggestive of a bad attitude (Cooper, 2011). Other staples making up the list of things employers don’t want to see are exaggerations, intolerant comments and extreme opinions. My personal strategy is to try to develop a clear distinction between my personal social media presence (protected by privacy settings) and my public professional identity as spoke about before. Some great tips for cleaning up your online presence for the professional world can be found here. Also if you’re someone you often feels the temptation to type or upload before thinking you could check out this useful Google Chrome extension that adds privacy reminders to Facebook, Twitter, and Gmail – Internet Shame Insurance. Make sure you trace back past activity too, last year a Youth Police and Crime Commissioner had to resign from her post, because of tweets sent up to three years before she was appointed.

The second step is to cultivate a positive professional online presence. The first thing that has probably popped into your head is a Linkedin profile, correct? Linkedin is a great place to start. One of the key attributes employers look for is evidence of a presence on a business network such as LinkedIn (Cooper, 2011). However, while you may already have a Linkedin account, you may not be engaging with it as fully as you could be. I have been guilty of this, uploading my CV, completing the basics but not engaging further until recently.

First, some tips for the basics – remember to keep your personal summary short and snappy and relevant to what is you do or are looking to do. Link you LinkedIn profile to your other social media profiles as well as other services such as blogs to create a brand for yourself. Finally make-sure that your profile is complete, keyword-rich, typo-free and that you are representing yourself honestly and in a positive manner (Hyams, 2012).

Now it’s time to take your professional online presence to the next level – engaging with your professional interests. Through LinkedIn you can connect with professionals in your chosen industry. By commenting in discussion boards, linking out to blogposts or articles of professional relevance and following articles posted by companies in the relevant field you can demonstrate a genuine interest. In this way your profile will develop authenticity and you will improve your job prospects.

However, don’t just use Linkedin, use other social networks and web services that best showcase your skills. For example, if you are trying to get a job in the film industry consider signing up for video services such as Vimeo and using them to exhibit your material.

Another option is to use social media to find a way to stand out from the crowd. An example of this is The Twitter Job Hustle experiment, a clever campaign by Bas van de Poel and Daan van Dam to try to land themselves a job at a leading advertising agency and they succeeded.

What is vital is that you do have an authentic professional online presence as the power of social media in the recruitment process is becoming undeniable. In February 2013, Enterasys, a Boston network-infrastructure firm, decided to exclusively recruit for a social media marketing position using Twitter. The success of the process caused their chief marketing officer to announce “I am fairly certain I am going to abandon the résumé process, the Web is your CV and social networks are your references.” (Silverman and Weber, 2013). In fact right here in Britain a study this year has shown that more than a fifth of 18-34-year-olds are now recruited on social networks (Haggerty, 2013). So developing an enduring authentic online professional profile is fundamental to finding and keeping the job you want. The bad news is that the only way that this can be done is with care, commitment and dedication-it is a time-consuming process as authentic interactions have to be developed over time- there are no shortcuts, but it will all be worth it when you land the job of your dreams.

 

REFERENCES

Jobvite, (2013), Social Recruiting Survey Results, [Online], Available at: http://blog.jobvite.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/2013-Jobvite-Social-Recruiting-Survey-Results.png [Accessed: 9 Mar 2014]

Cooper, C. 2011. You’ve been Googled: what employers don’t want to see in your online profile. [online] Available at: http://careers.theguardian.com/careers-blog/google-online-searches?intcmp=239 [Accessed: 9 Mar 2014].

Haggerty, A. 2013. Evidence mounts in favour of social media job hunting as survey reveals one in five are recruited on social networks. [online] Available at: http://www.thedrum.com/news/2013/04/17/evidence-mounts-favour-social-media-job-hunting-survey-reveals-one-five-are [Accessed: 9 Mar 2014].

Harris, L. 2013. Building online professional profile. [online] Available at: http://www.slideshare.net/lisaharris/building-online-professional-profile# [Accessed: 9 Mar 2014].

Henry, A. 2014. How to Clean Up Your Online Presence and Make a Great First Impression. [online] Available at: http://lifehacker.com/5963864/how-to-clean-up-your-online-presence-and-make-a-great-first-impression [Accessed: 9 Mar 2014].

Macleod, I. 2014. Sociability: How recruiters use social media to check applicants, and tips from LinkedIn and Facebook. [online] Available at: http://www.thedrum.com/news/2013/04/12/sociability-how-recruiters-use-social-media-check-applicants-and-tips-linkedin-and [Accessed: 9 Mar 2014].

Silverman, R. and Weber, L. 2014. The New Résumé: It’s 140 Characters. [online] Available at: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887323820304578412741852687994?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424127887323820304578412741852687994.html [Accessed: 9 Mar 2014].

Snowdon, G. 2011. The rules of social recruiting. [online] Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/money/2011/aug/19/rules-social-recruiting-linkedin-twitter-facebook [Accessed: 9 Mar 2014].