Out of Site, Out of Mind

 A Strong Online Presence is Critical for Job-Seeking Success!

It can be difficult to remember life before terms like Email, the Internet, Social Media, and thousands of other terms that are now all part of the daily vernacular of most of the world it seems. There is little that is done these days without utilizing an online platform or resource, and increasingly companies and jobs are being done 100% on line. It has been an amazing period of technological growth in the last few decades that has brought a new way of working, communicating and living across the globe.

Today more than ever, having an online presence is not just a feather in your cap or a ‘nice to have’, but 100% is a Must-Have for companies and for professionals everywhere, if not most everyone else. If you are a company looking to establish yourself in an industry and have no only online presence, no great website, ties and messaging on social media, you are ripe for being overshadowed by competitors who may not do what you do as well as you do it, but have dedicated the time and resources to establish a solid presence in as many corners of the internet as they can. It can be an expensive proposition and time consuming at first glance, but a savvy company even on a small scale can do quite a bit for low cost with a level of care and maintenance that does not take away from the primary functions of the business. However you figure out how to implement the digital component to your business, feel free to stop reading here and get on it!(but then come back and finish, please!).

For the individual it is no less important. You could even say it is more important when you think about the reach and advertising many small and mid-size companies directly and indirectly as you consider the company’s work and as their clients post reviews on line, which is essentially free advertising-good or bad. For the individual, it’s not often you’re going to get a shout-out on Yelp or Twitter for the world to see, so you’ve got to invest the time to get yourself On-Line. If you are in the market for a new job, whether unemployed, looking to make a career change, or perhaps casually looking to see if there may be greener pastures just around the bend, the place you go first is online. Within minutes you can get the full scoop on a company, find out who is running it, their track record, get reviews from clients and employees, current and former, to quickly give you a sense as to what life may be like there. The ability to gather that information in such a timely but comprehensive way is what helps a person to decide which companies to apply to and which they may opt to avoid. Companies looking to hire approach finding the right fit the same way.

If you are in the market for a change, actively or passively, prioritize who want to be from an online presence perspective and carefully cultivate that persona so anyone interested can quickly size up who you are and what you are about. A few thoughtful steps will get you healthy online:

• Does the Carpet Match the Drapes? Before this interior-design question was stolen for less wholesome reasons, it would quickly help you to understand the reason for symmetry and flow. Your online presence in every facet and form should follow a similar strategy. The resume you put forward and send to a company should line up with what a potential employer finds about you online. Stating you work for one company for 3 years, yet your online profile tells a different story, that will cause you to immediately lose credibility with that employer. Having symmetry between all modalities and sources of information about you online is critical as it gives companies confidence about who they are considering and establishes a high level of trust well before they call you in to meet.
• Risk and Reward – You have been a professional your whole life, you take your work, family, relationships seriously, and live your life the right way. You need to examine whether all of your social media and information about you online reflects the same. Is your online persona one filled with pictures of drunken episodes, a little too much partying, and not enough of the good, productive endeavors you’ve been involved in far more than the parties you’ve been to? Probably so, and why it’s important to show some balance. If you’re the party guy, that’s fine, be that. But if you’re serious professional looking to move your career forward, you can strike a balance that shows you are serious about life and work and still know how to have fun. No one wants to hire someone who never has fun, or is too robotic. Be purposeful about the message your online persona sends.
• Visibility is Key – We can’t all be a Kardashian with hundreds of millions of followers ready to hear and take action on our every word and recommendation. But we can still make ourselves available and visible online. Be sure you have created the right presence in the style and content of message that you want to represent you, and make it available for others to see. Don’t make it difficult for people to find you or to access the information you know it will be critical to share and that you’d want others to know when it may help you make the right connection that brings you to the next phase of your career.
• Don’t be Shy – Introverts are people too! So, it does not mean that if you are not inclined to post updates of your awesome life dozens of times each day that you will never have a chance at catching the attention of the right people in your job search. You don’t need to be that. But you can show that you have a personality, are easy to work with, and don’t take yourself too seriously. Go ahead an post an update, some pictures, something light-hearted that shows that you are part of the world, interested in what is going on out there, and are willing to also share a bit of yourself. That shows a level of self-confidence and pride in who you are and what you do, and that confidence is something that a hiring manager certainly wants on their team.

You have done all of the hard work to this point in your career. You studied hard, worked even harder, took your work seriously and delivered results year in and year out for one, or two or maybe more companies over your career. That is the Real Work that should matter most to get you to the next level or next phase of your career. However, if you don’t implement a strategy to build an online presence that lines up with the achievements and successes you have had, it can cost you. When you are unable to find a company’s reviews or substantial feedback on line even though you’ve talked to them and they’ve told you, even shown you a full portfolio, does it make you more or less confident in them? The answer is obvious. We look to back up what we are told by finding supporting feedback, testimonials, other corroborating evidence that validates what we are being told. When we can’t find anything and have to simply takes someone’s word for it (or as a hiring manager, only the resume), the chances of that getting it done dramatically decreases for a job seeker. Many other candidates with comparable qualifications are likely to have built a strategic, even powerful online presence that aligns with their resume and interview and will set them apart from those who don’t prioritize this aspect of networking as a key factor of career building, hiring and job-seeking. Take out the guesswork and get yourself online – you’ll be glad you did!