According to surveys done by CareerBuilder, Job Vite, and Execunet, over 50 percent of recruiters and hiring managers conduct online research on job seekers, before ever calling them in for an interview. Yet it can be challenging to be found online, especially if you share your name with dozens of people or even one well-known person.

If a hiring manager searches for you online, how can you be sure they will actually find you and not confuse you with someone with the same name? Becoming “digitally distinct” is now easier than ever thanks to Vizibility. I recently interviewed founder James Alexander to learn more about this valuable tool.

What is Vizibility?
Vizibility helps people take control of their personal search results in Google. Our research shows that only 12 percent of search results are actually about the person being searched, which can lead to poor decisions and missed opportunities.

We help people make a killer first impression. With Vizibility, our users avoid mistaken identity and they easily get found online. When someone clicks a Vizibility SearchMe button, created by one of our users, we show accurate search results about them in one-click. And because we display the results right in Google, the person doing the searching can be confident the information displayed is authentic.

How does Vizibility work?
It’s hard to control what appears online, but with Vizibility, users can create the perfect, most accurate search for users in minutes. Through a simple wizard, users provide their name and an employer or two, and from this information we create a customized SearchMe link or button. This button or link can then be added to online profiles, bios, resumes, business cards and other places someone would like to be seen. We also offer a feature that allows users to select and rank their five most relevant results.

As someone changes jobs or gets promoted, they no longer have to worry about changing everything about themselves online, with Vizibility. SearchMe buttons and links always return the most up-to-date search results, without a user having to lift a finger. Every month we tell you exactly how your search results have changed so you can quickly address any issues.

With our premium service, we notify users instantly when they are Googled and from where, helping them stay on top of any interest in them. We also offer the option of buying an individual’s name in Google that will ensure a SearchMe link will get top placement.

What was the inspiration for Vizibility?
The inspiration for Vizibility hit when I couldn’t find myself in Google. I’m a guy with two first names, which makes my results difficult to find. I spent a great deal of time learning how the engine worked and experimented with the advanced search features (which fewer than 5 percent of people use because it’s so hard). Ultimately, I was able to create the perfect query for me that returned the right set of search results every time. The query was long and used a lot of Boolean jargon, but it worked. In an unintended tribute to the movie ‘Minority Report,’ I started calling this curated query a “PreSearch” because I built the search in advance of someone actually needing it.

I posted my PreSearch on LinkedIn — and the light bulb went off!
In going through this process, I was struck by four things: First, using advanced search is just too time-consuming for most people; second, the ability to easily post or share searches didn’t exist; third, even if someone could share their PreSearch, they would need to be able to change it from time to time (when they changed jobs or got married, for instance), and; fourth, a user also wants to know when their search results change and when they’re being “Googled.” All the ingredients were there for a new approach to people-based search.

What’s your favorite feature on the site?
The ability to choose and rank the top five most relevant results to display first, is one of my favorite things that we offer our users. This feature is great not only for our users, but for those doing the searching. It’s reassuring to see someone’s top five verified search results before you see all their Google results. My second favorite feature is receiving text message alerts whenever someone Googles me through my SearchMe button. It’s a wonderful feeling knowing when people are interested in learning more about me, and what I’ve done.

Can you share a success story about someone who used Vizibility?
Today when you Google my name, my Vizibility SearchMe link is the No. 3 result on the first page. Seeing as I couldn’t find myself in Google before I started Vizibility, I’d say that’s a fantastic success story in its own right. Of course it’s gratifying to know that we’re helping thousands of people solve a painful problem that can help them get that dream job, and deliver peace of mind knowing that people are finally seeing the right search results.

Vizibility user Larry Zimbler told us, “I find my Vizibility SearchMe link provides me a simple way to have potential clients learn more about me.” Vizibility helps Eyad Khlaifat get more Arabic language students, because as Eyad explains “Vizibility helped me with getting found in Google.” And Barbara Findlay Schenck thought her name was unique until she Googled herself and discovered, as she explains, that the “results [were] weighted down with links to people other than me. What’s more, my last name is difficult to spell, which means many people use guesswork or make typos as they try to find me online. Finally with Vizibility the problem is solved with one easy click.”

What’s on the horizon for Vizibility?
A. We have many new features and partnerships on the horizon. One new feature I’m very excited about, is the introduction of personalized QR codes in conjunction with a mobile version of Vizibility. Imagine being able to scan someone’s business card or resume with your smartphone and instantly see their top five verified search results to learn more about them.
You’ll also see Vizibility integrated into many more social networking and employment oriented websites. Our users can already easily add their SearchMe links to thousands of profile sites like LinkedIn and Facebook. But we’re finding that these sites also want to proactively offer Vizibility to make it even easier. We’re currently part of the offerings on 6 Figure Jobs, BlueSteps, RealMatch, MyLegal, Accounting Jobs Today, Bragfolio and others. By the end of the year, we’ll be integrated into hundreds more.

Online networking has revolutionized the way people build and maintain relationships and search for jobs. Imagine being able to go into the offices of everyone you know and search through their Rolodex or have a conversation with dozens of people from all over the world, all from the comfort of your keyboard. That is the power of online networking.
Here are some tips on how to maximize your online presence, build meaningful relationships, and connect with people who may be able to help you in your search.

1. Create profiles on business and social networking and online identity sites to make it easier to be found by hiring managers.
2. With traditional networking you can only be in one place at a time; with online networking you can interact with multiple communities simultaneously.
3. Put your name in quotes into a search engine and see what comes back. Do you exist online and is your online presence distinctive?
4. Networking sites are not just for socializing; they are robust searchable databases full of critical information on people and companies.
5. Every online community has its own culture. Spend some time observing the culture before you jump in.
6. Nix the “I’m looking for work” status updates when chatting in online communities. They make you sound desperate and don’t show your value.
7. Online networking does not have a “build it and they will come” mentality; work your online network daily.
8. Spend about an hour a day working your online network.
9. Hiring managers conduct online searches on candidates before the interview and may reject candidates based on what they do or do not find.
10. People who don’t think online networking is relevant to their job search will become irrelevant to the hiring managers who think it is.
11. Add a professional headshot to your online profiles. When the photo is missing, people wonder why.
12. When inviting someone to your online network, be authentic and write a personal message. Nothing screams “lazy” like a canned invitation.
13. Take the time to create a robust profile on your networking sites; a complete profile is more searchable by recruiters and hiring managers.
14. Create a public profile with a vanity URL on your networking profiles, with your first and last name, to maximize your exposure.
15. Commit to adding at least five new contacts per week and reconnecting with at least five people in your network each week.
16. Reconnecting with someone you haven’t spoken to in years by calling them is awkward; reconnecting through social media platforms is not.
17. Online networking is a great option for shy job seekers because unlike live networking, you can craft or edit a message before you hit send.

My three closest friends don’t participate in any form of social or business networking. You’ll never find a business profile, status update, family photo, or even a poke from any of them on any online networking platform. While I ponder a “social media intervention” I continue to reach out to my friends on their terms which includes email and phone contact and an annual snail mail holiday card. I have to admit, it’s a lot more work to keep in touch this way and it takes more thought and planning on my part. But since these three friends mean the world to me, I try my best to stay in touch.

But what if I weren’t as close to these people? Would I bother? Where’s the threshold between making someone’s life easy and too much work? What if you are a job seeker? During a search, you need a lot of contacts…both strong and weak networking links. Remaining top of mind with the weaker links is tough when you solely rely on email, a phone call, or a holiday card. With those limited means of communication and interaction, will your network bother to stay in touch? I often hear people complaining that social media is a frivolous waste of time. I disagree. I think it’s a time saver and an efficient way to keep up with people and let them know what’s going on in your world. This makes people feel connected. Feeling connected makes people more likely to offer help and advice.

I talked to one of my closest friends this week. It’s been a long time since we spoke. Long enough for major events to occur in both our lives without the other one having a clue about it. I must admit that I was a bit sad when I realized that 300+ virtual friends know what I did last weekend and one of my dearest friends hasn’t known what’s been going on with me for much longer.

Imagine sending your resume to a recruiter and letting it sit in his database for years versus reaching out to recruiters on LinkedIn or Facebook to actively network with them. Think about the implications of sending a resume into the job board black hole versus building engagement with a company via their Facebook fan page. Contemplate leaving a weak networking contact 10 unanswered voicemails versus including them in an online dialog. Social networking works. Whether it’s for maintaining friendships or managing your career.

Getting face time with networking contacts and hiring authorities just got easier. Facebook recently announced the launch of Skype-powered video chat and I’m predicting that this will be a huge boon to job seekers and hiring managers alike.

Facebook claims collective usage of over 700 billion minutes per month and more than 700 million users and this presents a goldmine of opportunity for job seekers. With the new video chat feature, not only will you be able to find people and be found, but you willl be able to have a conversation (aka interview) quickly and easily without ever leaving your desk or your Facebook account.

Networking, sourcing, and hiring could be significantly streamlined with this new functionality and I’m excited to see where things go from here.  Right now the chat feature will only be available for one on one conversations, but I’m hoping that this evolves to group video chat which would make group interviews a snap. Google’s recently released Google+ Hangouts product currently  allows up to ten people to video chat at one time, but it would be great to see something similar offered on Facebook’s platform

I’ve been writing about employers who Google candidates prior to interviewing them or hiring them for some time, but the stakes on using information found online to make a hiring decision just got higher.

AOL recently reported that the Federal Trade Commission recently granted background check company Social Intelligence permission to search information from people’s social networking sites as part of routine background checks, stating the checks are in compliance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

What this means is that any information from a social networking site posted in the public domain is fair game for a hiring authority to review. Soon a prospective employer may have a report containing your social media footprint… the pictures, the Facebook “likes”, the tweets, the blog comments, and whatever else they can find. If they dig up anything that suggests questionable behavior, poor judgement, racism, or illegal activity, you could find yourself off the employer’s “short list” very quickly.

But it’s not all bad. A social search can also reveal information on a candidate’s charitable or volunteer activities, positive participation on industry blogs, and professional recognitions and distinctions. And services such as these may help regulate social media searches. Information that is Federally and State protected is redacted from the reports and the employer is never exposed to anything that is not legally allowable or not relevant for the hiring process. This makes the service enticing to employers since it makes them less vulnerable to discrimination charges and other legal risks.

So now’s probably a good time to review your social media profiles and either remove or make private anything you don’t want an employer to potentially find. Maybe it’s time to stop tweeting with the #thingsthatirritateme Twitter hashtag and rethink the Facebook group you joined called Another Farmville invite and I will kill your animals and burn your crops. Just a thought.

Monster.com just launched a new Facebook application called BeKnown that lets users create a separate professional identity profile while on the Facebook platform.

You may be thinking, “I already have a LinkedIn profile for professional networking. Why do I need another one?” While it’s true that most professionals have been using LinkedIn as their main professional networking site, LinkedIn only has one million users compared to Facebook’s seven million. In addition, users tend to spend a lot more time on their Facebook accounts than their LinkedIn accounts. This means that your chances of gaining an introduction through a strong or weak tie could be significantly higher via a Facebook platform than through LinkedIn.

Some of you may have recently heard about BranchOut, another Facebook application that allows you to connect professionally by leveraging the power or social networks on Facebook. I like BranchOut a lot, especially because of its ability to easily show you how you are connected to people at other companies, but BeKnown has some features that neither BranchOut or LinkedIn offer including:

• The ability to claim and manage company profiles.
• The option for employers to make referral payments for hires.
• Specific skills endorsements rather than the generic “Bob’s an employer’s dream.” type of endorsements you sometimes see on LinkedIn and BranchOut profiles.
• The ability to access Monster.com job postings from inside Facebook including jobs posted at friends’ companies.

In addition, the BeKnown app is supported in 19 languages in 35 countries as opposed to LinkedIn (6 supported languages) and BranchOut (1 supported language.

It will be interesting to watch how LinkedIn, BranchOut, and BeKnown compete for users (or even collaborate to build a better platform) and where users’ loyalties will fall. You can learn more about BeKnown here and here.

I try to follow social media trends and the impact it has on the world of work as best I can but lately I’m finding it hard to keep up with all the career-killing mistakes people are making due to inappropriate tweets.

The latest Twitter “whoops” I just heard about belongs to Scott Bartosiewicz, an employee at New Media Strategies, the marketing firm representing Chrysler. Frustrated about being stuck in traffic, Bartosiewicz tweeted:

“I find it ironic that Detroit is known as the #motorcity and yet no one here knows how to (expletive) drive.”

The tweet was meant to appear on his personal account, but Bartosiewicz mistakenly sent it to the Chrysler brand’s feed. So now Bartosiewicz is out of a job and New Media Strategies is down one account.

This actually happened a few months ago and since I missed this one I did some research to see if I’d missed anything else. I came upon this great post from Mashable on Ten People Who Lost Jobs Over Social Media Mistakes. Read this and you’ll have practically every career-killing social media mistake covered.

According to a recent LinkedIn networking survey, globally and in the U.S. men are savvier online professional networkers than women. LinkedIn defines online professional networking savviness as the ratio of connections that men have to connections that women have and the ratio of male members on LinkedIn to female members.

Some of the survey results may surprise you; according to their data men in the cosmetics industry are better networkers than their female counterparts but women in the ranching industry are better networkers than their male counterparts. Maybe this is because both of these groups are the minorities in their respective fields, so they feel they need to network more to make the right connections and get ahead. You can read more about the survey here.

I don’t believe that networking is a gender-specific activity and I think both men and women can be great networkers. But LinkedIn does offer some great tips for how to leverage the power of LinkedIn to better manage your career, so be sure to check these out.

Be prepared
Before you attend any business event, use LinkedIn Mobile to see where people work, what position they have, how long they’ve been there and if you have any connections in common. Make sure your own profile has your full work history, education and skills so other professionals can learn more about you.

Mingle
Your LinkedIn network should be made up of at least 50 connections you know and trust, but you should also actively look for new connections and move out of your comfort zone. If you only talk to people you know, you’re less likely to find new opportunities. Find new connections by joining LinkedIn Groups focused on topics you’re passionate about. Look for working parent groups or groups related to the environment so you can meet professionals who share your interests.

Put your scorecard down
Great networkers don’t have a “gimme gimme” mentality. They focus on connecting and helping new people. Opportunities often arise when you reconnect with people you’ve lost touch. Look at your LinkedIn Homepage like your own professional dashboard chock full of useful reasons to reach out to your network. If you see that a connection just got promoted or landed a new client, shoot them a note to say congratulations and ask them what they are working on.

Representative Anthony Weiner has fessed up and admitted that he was the one sending lewd photos of himself on Twitter and that his account was never hacked. I write a lot about managing your online presence and digital dirt during a job search but the same rules apply for people who are trying to hold on to the jobs they have. Here are 5 tips for Weiner and anyone else out there dabbling in social media or even just corresponding via email.

1. On Twitter, when you only want a message to go to one person (a DM or direct message) double check your messaging options (best to do this with both hands on the keyboard).
2. Don’t assume a private DM on Twitter is really that private. After all, it is the Internet.
3. Don’t put anything online that could be sliced and diced, misinterpreted or taken out of context.
4. Don’t put anything online that you wouldn’t want your grandmother (or your wife!) to see.
5. Don’t jeopardize a career that took years to build with one stupid picture or 140 character message.

Feel free to post additional tips for Weiner here.

Office team recently surveyed 500 HR managers at companies with 20 or more employees and asked the following question.

“In your opinion, how likely is it that profiles on networking sites, such as LinkedIn and Facebook, will replace traditional resumes in the future?” Their responses are below.

I think the survey is interesting, but I wonder if we are asking the wrong question. Is it that online profiles will replace the traditional resume or simply allow them to evolve naturally? I tend to think the later. Social media offers another platform for sharing information and marketing yourself…two things that are critical during a job search. Social media and online platforms facilitate the process of matching candidates with employers. It doesn’t need to be one versus the other. Whether your resume is on paper, online, or somewhere else is not the point. What’s important is that the information that describes you is clear and compelling with quantifiable results and that people know who you are. Having a profile on LinkedIn will be no better than having a resume posted on a job board if the job seeker is doing nothing to facilitate the relationship. Relationship trumps resume and LinkedIn profile. Use LinkedIn but go past building a profile. Build real relationships…with real people. And once you start the relationship, take it offline. People hire people, not resumes or profiles.