The Digital Era offers new opportunities for those looking to hire as well as those seeking jobs. Digital savvy and Digital Strategy can help the hirer and the seeker alike
Job listings are tantamount to the keyword Olympics. HR departments will pay for keywords to have better results in job listings or search categories. The more competitive the field, the greater the value is in strong search results.
Companies have a digital presence, via their websites and through social web outposts as may befit the category or field. Individuals should also have a digital presence. Beyond the more casual social tools (Facebook, Google Plus, Pinterest, etc.), there are opportunities to create a businesslike digital presence. LinkedIn is the obvious choice. For recruiters and HR people, it is the go-to tool, the obvious place to begin looking. References and mini resumes populate the profiles. Keeping those updated is essential.
Other tools can be put to good use. about.me offers a personal page, easily customized and perfect to create an individual showcase. An http://www.about.me/JaneDoe page can be highlights of Jane’s career with outbound links to a resume, videos, picture and anything of value for HR or recruiters to see.
Alternatives to About.me include DooId and Flavors.me.
Twitter offers a profile area into which a link to a resume page can be out, or to a blog or site that would help prospective employers learn about prospects. Some jobhunters create a special Twitter account purely to tweet about professional issues and to place a link to their resume or about.me page.
Presenting an attractive professional image online is an important task. Beyond the obvious (eliminate those embarrassing college days revealing or drunken photos!), it is wise to take a personal inventory. But to properly do this, do not use your own computer. Due to search engine methodologies, the personal graph and machine-cached data, your computer knows too much about you.
The wise move is to engage a friend, preferably in a different city, to help you. Using a screensharing program such as join.me or zoom.us, or the screen share utility in Skype, search your name from your friend’s machine. If you have a friend in the same market where you are looking to be hired, all the better. Geographic issues come into play, making it sensible to ask yet another friend across the country to also search your name in Google and Bing.
Discover what shows up and how you appear when others seek to learn about you. Then update your blog and Twitter accounts so you show recent activity on Google. Treat it as a personal digital work assignment, to become known and seen in the best light. Recruiters and HR will see it, and it will pay off handsomely.
Dean Landsman is a NYC based Digital strategist with extensive experience in Broadcast, Internet, Blogging, Site Development, Findability, Data Analysis.
For more on Dean Landsman follow our link to his press kit.