Small business owners find Google search a fast free tool to check their job candidates. Most large businesses now require a search for the same reasons. Moreover, the Google search links to your Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn profiles (and more), so if you are involved in a job search, you need to see your social media life the way employers can and do. For more tips to help with your job search, resume writing, personal branding and career marketing, visit www.distinctiveweb.com or follow us at: Twitter: http://twitter.com/distinctivedocs Facebook: http://facebook.com/DistinctiveDocuments Google+: http://plus.google.com/+Distinctivewebofficial LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/michelledumas

1. Googled
Yourself Lately?
Why Your Online Image Is Critical
To Your Job Search

2. Small business owners find Google
search a fast free tool to check their job
candidates. Most large businesses now
require a search for the same reasons.
Moreover, the Google search links to
your Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn
profiles (and more), so if you are
involved in a job search, you need to
see your social media life the way
employers can and do.
Googled Yourself Lately?

3. Googled
Yourself Lately?
Vanity searches occur
regularly for some and
obsessively for others. People
who use social media heavily
find identity and selfaffirmation in the comments
and threads produced by their
entries. If you want identity, it
does not take much.

4. But, if you are looking for a
job, that social identity can
make or break you – mostly
through your own doing. For
starters, as soon as you
create a Google profile, your
name, occupation, location
and photograph are public.The
information should coincide
with your resume, and the
photograph should be
flattering and professional. A
full profile also links to your
other social media profiles.

5. If your do not maximize privacy settings, your
profiles will link you to all your social media
venues. On the other hand, if you make
your Google profile totally private, why are
you setting it up in the first place?

6. Go ahead and try it now. Put your name in
quotes and Google yourself. For example, I
would Google “Michelle Dumas.” If I tended
to use my middle initial (which I don’t), I
would search both ways.
Now try Googling your name plus some
keyword related to your profession (for me,
that is “Michelle Dumas” + resume). What is
on the first three pages of results? What
comes up for you? Is there anything
positive? Anything negative? It is important
to know as this is what employers and
recruiters will see.

7. Who are you?

8. You may disagree, but you are the sum total
of what you put into social media. When you
brag, flirt, gossip, or trash talk, you create
your public identity. You may regret it, deny
it, or wish it away, but it is you that you put
out there.

9. • Sharing trade secrets about previous
employers
• Revelations of criminal behavior
• Boasting of alcohol or drug use
• Postings that appear racist, sexual,
discriminatory, or otherwise inappropriate
• Posting inappropriate photos or images
• Displaying poor communication skills
• Revealing data that conflicts with application
information
• Using unprofessional screen names or links
• Criticizing former co-workers or employers
• Exchanging extreme positions on current
news

10. When you launch a job
search, you ask
employers to hire the
candidate you have put in
front of them. So, fit
your internet profile and
online identity to that
presentation. Your digital
footprint is all your
own doing.

11. What’s a person to do?

12. The best piece of advice is to use social
media in your own self-interest. That is not
an easy task, but if you are in a job search
or expect to be soon, you have to clean up
your trail.

13. Create odd identities for other public
profiles that you prefer to keep
private. Use a nickname,
manufactured, or clever identity for
your friends, family, and
acquaintances only. Use that ID for
your timelines, chat, and fun.

14. Vacuum your public ID.
Delete any embarrassing
thing you can. (You will
have to get your contacts to
enable the removal of
history they posted.)

15. Maximize use of LinkedIn. You can post
your resume, references, videos,
multimedia presentations, and links to
previous work. It has become the first
choice of recruiters. If Monster and
CareerBuilder are part of your job search,
make your profiles consistent with each
other and with your job search goals.

16. Use the many tools and sites available
to fortify your online image. For
example, create an About.me page for
yourself, create aVisualCV, or start a
Twitter account that you use solely for
professional communication.

17. To generate more positive and professional
content that will appear when others
search for you (and that have the added
advantage of “burying” older, less flattering
content), write and publish a few articles
related to your profession as a guest
blogger, on your own blog, or on one of the
many article marketing sites. You can also
post book reviews of professional books
you have read or leave comments on other
blogs. In all cases, make sure the post or
review or article includes your name.

18. If you are technically savvy and
really motivated to improve your
online image and brand, consider
making videos, audio podcasts, or
PowerPoint slideshows related to
your profession or industry that you
post to sites like YouTube or
Slideshare. Not only does this help
your Google results, it will
dramatically boost your credibility
when you link back to all this
content from your LinkedIn profile
or other online profiles.

19. The internet and social media
can be your servant or your
master. As its servant, you are
the victim of every stupid,
unthinking, knee-jerk comment
that ever popped into your
head. As its master, you can
help shape and direct your
identity.

20. After all, if someone Googles you and finds nothing, you may have a problem with
invisibility.
Finally, here’s a suggestion:
If you do not want the digital
profile to be a too perfect
match to your resume, add
some flattering links on the
profile to your church work,
volunteer experience, or your
military service record.

22. Copyright © 2013, Distinctive Career Services, LLC