Parlor Talk: Online Presence
Jose Luis Pelaez Inc
70% of employers believe employers should screen all applicants’ social media profiles, a survey conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of Express Employment Professional found. While in practice, the majority (67%) say they use social networking sites to research potential job candidates. For those using social networking to research candidates, more than half (55%) have found content that caused them not to hire the applicant. With these statistics in mind here are some tips on how to maximize your online presence, clean up, and optimize your social media profiles.
Fully optimize your LinkedIn profile
With over 800 million users and over 57 million companies listed, according to internal data from LinkedIn. LinkedIn is one of the top professional social networking platforms in the world. 87% of recruiters will evaluate potential employees on LinkedIn compared to 43% on Facebook and 22% on Twitter, according to a survey done by Jobvite. Make sure your profile is updated and your profile picture is up-to-date. Make sure that you go beyond your resume and add some personality to your ‘about’ section. Be active on the platform and build more connections.
Build your personal brand
A good thing to keep in mind for all social media profiles is to be consistent in the way you interact on social media. You want to be easily recognizable in your posts. You don't want recruiters guessing which kind of person you are. A personal brand in simple terms is just being yourself and establishing your voice and personality on your social media. You already know this but in building your brand to be professional, stay away from profanity and controversial topics, if you feel these limit your self-expression, make a separate profile for family and friends and a separate profile for business and work.
Personal Website/Blog
One of the best ways to optimize your online presence is to make your own personal website or blog. You can easily make a webpage using Wix or similar software, you don't need to build the website with your own code, although you can and should if that's your specialty. Most people will find one of the website building platforms to be the best option. Most of them also offer custom URLs, this is a need for your online presence, it will cost you a fee but googling your name and your website popping up will maximize your online presence.
Google yourself
A good practice to add to your arsenal is searching for yourself on Google or any search engine and seeing the results, going past page one, and seeing where your LinkedIn profile or personal website might pop up. Remember that you are in control of what people can see. If you see an old party photo pop up that might not look good to any recruiters, make sure to delete it from popping up and keep that in your personal photo album. A good guide for searching yourself would be to do it maybe two or three times a year because unless you added something major like a YouTube channel or Instagram page, the results won't change too rapidly.
Search Engine Optimization
This is where you can reach further in optimization through the use of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Put simply, utilizing SEO just means using certain keywords or techniques to start popping up more in search engines like Google, which is huge. Good use of SEO can move your website up from the third page to the first, which is vital and will impress any hiring manager. Most website-building platforms have their own SEO tab where you can add keywords and specifications. If you are building a website alone, make sure you use keywords that should be easy on your personal website. If you are a computer engineer, make sure you include that and all other keywords that will help in the search engine. For example, if you specialize in a certain software including its name, including the computers you are most comfortable working with, things like that. The computer example was used because of its clarity but no matter your occupation, you should be able to use SEO to your advantage.
Make content and be active
If you want to stand out and make your social media work for you, you should work to become an active user of these platforms. Now you don't need to be posting pictures and elaborate tweets every day, but at least a couple of times a week like something, quote tweet/comment on something of your interest, and be interactive on your social media, don't be a social media ghost. Because while not being active won’t get you fired, not being active will put you down in a recruiter’s mind, since there is less information out there about you. Simple posts that can help you establish your personal brand further are best practices.
Conclusion
In order to optimize your online presence, remember to prioritize your LinkedIn profile and put your best self forward. Google yourself and build that personal website to stand out from the competition. Be active on social media and make sure your posts are consistent throughout to preserve your personal brand. Utilize SEO techniques and strategies to pop up earlier on search engines and to be the leader in your field.
