There’s a great post on Dan Shwabel’s Personal Branding Blog about managing online identity. These recommendations are also important for job seekers who are trying to stand out from the crowd by using business and professional networking and identity management sites. If you are a job seeker, here are a few of my thoughts on how to create a compelling online presence quickly and easily.
- Work with a professional to craft a value-driven resume and biography that stresses your core competencies and key accomplishments. Much of the content can be retooled for an identity or networking site. Including strong keywords on these sites improves the likelihood of being found through a keyword search done by a hiring authority or recruiter.
- Get a professional headshot. You don’t need to spend a lot of money on this. Just make sure you have a picture that focuses on your face rather than a full body shot and dress in a style that best conveys the image you are trying to project to your audience.
- Add a link from a professional identity or networking site to your email signature line. This is a great way to deepen the relationship with someone you are corresponding with online. The link allows your reader to quickly connect to your online identity profile if they want to learn more about you. Many of the identity sites including Linked In, Ziggs, and Plaxo allow you to do this.
- Create a plan for keeping your profiles up to date. Unlike a resume, which is static, an online profile is in real time so you can always showcase your most recent professional persona. Be sure to perform frequent “tune ups” on your profile to make sure the information on your employers, education and professional affiliations remains current.
The above are great tips for manaing your online identity. In particular, having a professional headshot included in your online profile is extremely important today. If you think about your online profiles at Ziggs and LinkedIn as an online business card, then your professional photo is the equivalent of your personal logo. And with the google image search growing in popularity, you should be aware that people will both google your name for web links and for image results. So by including your photo in your online profiles, this increases the chances that google images will display your photo in image search results for your name. Ziggs even allows you to include up to six photos of yourself in your profile…such as your current professional photo, plus you could include a photo of you receiving an award, or a college graduation photo. When deciding which photos to include, think about what will help the viewer connect with you more easily and leave with a professional impression of you…and go from there.