Online Reputation and Your Career

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Previously, people used printed CVs to apply for jobs by posting them to companies advertising vacancies. It is much more common now for companies to advertise positions online and find individuals online using social media profiles. This has made it even more important to portray a positive online image of yourself in case potential employers view your profile.

Social media profiles allow you to advertise your skills and experience online and some, such as LinkedIn, even allow you to post a resume/CV online. People have gone to further extremes in trying to grab the attention of potential employers by creating video CVs and posting it on video sharing sites such as YouTube and Vimeo. Remember to set privacy settings so that you’re in control of comments and whether the content is public or private. By creating a professional personal website, potential employers can view written content highlighting skills, experience and aspirations, leaving them with a professional impression of a potential employee.

Create Professional Profiles

Social media sites offer great potential for networking with influential people. Social media can be used to broadcast the type of work you’re looking for, and some of your connections may have connections working in related fields. Create professional profiles and ensure your content is professional to project the right personal image. It’s best to set up a separate account for friends and family.

Network with People Online

Career profile websites and groups on LinkedIn offer the opportunity of networking with influential people helping you get your foot in the door. Use social media to broadcast the type of work you’re looking for. Remember, some of your connections working in connected fields may have connections. LinkedIn allows you to join professional groups and connect with business professionals within the same field. Twitter allows you to have direct dialogue with future employers – just make sure that your tweets are professional.

Check Online Job Boards

Many social media sites have online job boards and pages listing job vacancies, making it easier to look for work and more important to publicise your profile online.

Develop a Blog

A blog is a perfect place to showcase your knowledge of specific industries and provides the opportunity to syndicate content out through your social profiles. Write posts a couple of times a week and link up with your Google+ profile (as explained in the Author Ranking section). It’s important to create good, informative and up-to-date content. Use current stories in the news and in trade magazine as a basis for your content. Link your blog to authoritative sites such as newspapers and government websites. The Google algorithm leaves space at the top of page 1 for related URLs, so it’s advisable to purchase a URL and link it to your blog – this is easy to do on Blogspot or WordPress.

A homepage of a website www.yourname.com will usually rank for a search term of “your name” as long as the website is optimised and there aren’t too many other people with the same name who already have optimised assets. Optimised websites usually have updated content appearing regularly, but there’s no need to make your site complex – stick to 4 to 5 main pages and a blog section.

See A Guide to Managing Your Reputation Online for advice on the various platforms for building your own website or blog.

For those further advice on online reputation and careers please contact me here.

Useful Links

Igniyte is a UK based Online Reputation Management company with clients across the world. Working since 2009 to help individuals, companies and brands to replace negative press articles, reviews, blogs and comments with positive content.

BBC Webwise offers knowledge and learning including helpful tips and advice about how to get your CV seen online.

The BBC Blog explains what the BBC does and how it works. We link to some other blogs and online spaces inside and outside the corporation.

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