Take the Time to Assess Your Web Presence

By Catherine Iste, MultiBriefs

What does 2016 look like for you? Are you up for change or are you looking forward to something more routine? Either way, the best time to take stock and make any subsequent updates is when you do not have to.

So take a few minutes now to do a little assessing.

Where to start

I asked a table of recruiters at a luncheon last week what the three facets of your professional persona that can most impact your job search are. They all agreed: Web presence, network and professional edge.

But, before you Google yourself, the most senior of the group advises you take two minutes to answer this question: What three words describe you? Specifically, when you think about how you want to appear professionally, what words do you want to jump to the forefront of anyone’s mind? Professional? Punctual? Team-oriented? Thoughtful? Innovative?

Once you have those three words, she says, then go check out your Web presence. Start with Google, but do not stop there. HR professionals and recruiters will look at your LinkedIn, Twitter and of course Facebook pages as well. It does not matter if those pages are personal; they still contain information about you and that is what hiring professionals need to help them create an image of you — and possibly weed you out of the candidate pool.

A different perspective

On the other hand, as a private investigator, I am often asked to create a profile of potential candidates. Unlike my colleagues in recruiting, the first place I start are the personal pages.

Twitter feeds are a fast and easy way for me to quickly ascertain what is important to you, how much time you spend on the Internet tweeting, how current you are and, of course, how articulate you can be. Depending upon the job you are seeking, not having a Twitter feed says something about you, too. And Facebook is just a wonderful gold mine of personal information.

Take a second and look at yours from the perspective of someone who has never met you. I am not advocating that you make it a sterile version of yourself — what’s the point of social media if you are going to do that? However, that does not mean you should put everything out there.

Triple-check your settings to make sure you know who is allowed to see what information. And while none of the information out there can be used to discriminate against you, I would still advise you to consider the opinion an outsider would form based on your pages.

If that is tough to do, think of it from this perspective: Imagine the information you provide to the public is the information a lawyer provides to a jury. The jury sees all of it, but after they see it, the lawyer tells them to ignore certain sections because they are not supposed to be considered.

With that in mind, now look at your pages. How easy is it for a stranger to form an opinion of you —and what would that opinion be based on all of the information you have given them?

Next steps

The best and easiest place to start ensuring your Web presence reflects the image you want is LinkedIn. Begin with your connections.

Is the number where you want it to be? Are the people in your network reflective of who should be in your network? Are you in groups, following companies, people and trends that are consistent with your three words?

And what about the resume content under your name? Does your online skill set and experience level look like it should? Is it up to date and accurate? Does it reflect the ideal you?

LinkedIn is easy to update, and it is usually the first place any hiring professional goes to get either a first or reinforcing impression of you. Take a few minutes and make sure it is the right one. Then, move on to your personal pages with the same enthusiasm and three words you used to update your LinkedIn.

Remember, it is a lot easier to do it now than when you are in the midst of a job search.