It seems like everyone’s online these days, including potential employers. With that in mind, it’s extremely important your online persona portrays you as a marketable member of the workforce.
Keep reading to learn how to effectively build your online persona so it’ll take you much closer to your goal of scoring a job you genuinely love and are proud to have.
Consider Sharing Guest Posts You’ve Written Across Social Media Feeds
One of the most important things your online persona can demonstrate to employers is that you’re a voice of authority about particular subjects. Ideally, the things you know most about will align with the kind of career you hope to have, and your background.
For example, if you’ve just graduated, now is an ideal time to approach bloggers associated with your field and pitch ideas for guest posts to them. Even better, maybe you’ve already been guest blogging for a while and are steadily building a portfolio of engaging content.
Once you have some guest posts under your belt, waste no time promoting them naturally across social media. Twitter and Facebook are two great places to start. Not only could this technique increase the posts’ reach, but it could help you get noticed by people in your respective social media feeds who may know of job opportunities that would be a good fit for you.
Tweak Your Photo Privacy Settings
Because the online world is so fast paced, embarrassing pictures from the party you went to last night could surface quickly and without your knowledge. That’s why it’s so important to adjust privacy settings across the social media sites you use and make sure undesirable photos are only visible to you.
It’s also wise to set things so you’ll receive notifications if people tag you in Facebook photos. Then, you can approve photos before they appear on your timeline. If you don’t like the pictures people tag you in, promptly and politely ask them to take off the tags so you’re no longer associated with the images. You can also remove the tags on your own.
Flesh out Your Profile
All your online profiles should contain enough information so visitors can get an accurate picture of who you are and what you offer. Not many people use Google+, but that doesn’t mean it should be left out when building up your online presence. Take a look at this Google+ profile created by Rob Mericle and notice how it contains a substantial amount of content about his industry, commercial real estate. Follow that lead and make sure as many sections of your profile are filled out to the best of your ability, and include information that encourages others to have a favorable view of you.
No matter which social media sites you frequent, they probably only give you a limited amount of space in which to compose your bio. Instead of getting deterred by that reality, ramp up your determination and start crafting the ideal blurb that’s concise, relatable and original. Don’t forget to include often-searched hash tags within the text to make it easier for like-minded people to locate you.
When mentioning your name in the bio, or anywhere else online, always use the same version of it, and preferably the same moniker used on your resume. That shows consistency and could cause examples of your web presence to rank higher in search engines if employers look for you.
Showcase Yourself as an Avid Internet User
If you have a blog, online portfolio or other website you’d like possible employers to see, make sure it includes prominently displayed social media badges. Not only do those additions indicate you’re covering all your bases, but they make it simpler for people to see all the components of your online persona in one place.
Regularly Update Your Profiles and Websites
Some people might argue it’s better to not have an online presence at all if you’re not going to keep all the associated websites and social media feeds current, and they have a good point. If a potential employer navigates to your LinkedIn page and finds you haven’t been active on it in nine months, that doesn’t give a good impression.
Once you reach the point where you feel you’re no longer able to update all your pages and feeds as often as necessary, that’s a good time to take a serious look at the websites you’re featured on. If you determine some of them are harming, rather than helping, your quest to land the job of your dreams, delete all evidence of those pages.
You now have some actionable ways to enhance your online persona so you have a much stronger web presence. As a result, an opportunity to accept a job offer from your most-admired company may be closer than you realize.
