Online Reputation Management for Job Seekers

Online Reputation Management
Unlocking a
Successful
Job Search
Susan P. Joyce Job-Hunt.org
WIND South, July 29, 2010
© 2010 Copyright, NETability, Inc. All rights reserved.

“ Google is the new resume.”
Richard N. Bolles, Nov. 2009

If Google doesn’t know who you are, you’re in trouble.
However -
What happens in Vegas, stays in --- Google, Bing, Facebook, YouTube…

Agenda:
Online Reputation Impact
Your Online Reputation :
1 - 10 Steps to a Stronger Online Reputation
2 - 3+ Primary Reputation Venues
3 - How to Monitor Your Online Reputation
4 - 6 Ways to Bury “Digital Dirt”
Resources

Online Reputation Impact
Employers:
44% - “ always ” research candidates online
35% - research “ most of the time ”
9% - research “sometimes”
5% - research “rarely”
6% - never research
© 2010 Copyright, NETability, Inc. All rights reserved. * Source: Microsoft-funded research reported in Dec, 2009.

Online Reputation Impact © 2010 Copyright, NETability, Inc. All rights reserved.
Job seekers:
11% - are “very concerned” about their online reputations
18% - are “somewhat concerned”
28% - are “not very concerned”
37% - are “not concerned at all”
* Source: Microsoft-funded research reported in Dec, 2009.

The Online Reputation Mismatch © 2010 Copyright, NETability, Inc. All rights reserved.
Employers:
Almost 80% of employers conduct online research always or most of the time.
Around 30 % of consumers are at least somewhat concerned about their online reputations.
Consumers:
* Source: Microsoft-funded research reported in Dec, 2009.

And the Missed Opportunities
48% of employers saw the positive impact “to a great extent”
38 % saw a positive impact “to some extent”
86% of employers saw positive impact
10% saw “a little” impact
1% saw “no impact at all”
© 2010 Copyright, NETability, Inc. All rights reserved. * Source: Microsoft-funded research reported in Dec, 2009.

Reputation Management Case
For example:
Highly-qualified job seeker.
Professionally-done résumé.
Submitted to dozens of appropriate opportunities.
No response. Not one. In 4 months.

Google “vanity” search found:
Person with exactly the same name involved in a US Supreme Court obscenity case.
Another person with exactly the same name was a disbarred attorney in the same state.

Reputation repair:
Chose a “clean” version of his name.
Updated:
Résumé
LinkedIn Profile.
Google Profile.
Interview invitations from new submissions.

1: 10 Steps to a Stronger Reputation
1. Google yourself.
Are you at the top of the 1 st page? the 5 th page?
How many of the results on the first page are about you?
How many of the top 50 results are about you?
How many of the results are about others?
Any bad stuff there (digital dirt or a doppelganger)?

2. On GoDaddy, research the variations of your name available as [yourname] .com :
Skip the .net, etc. if someone else owns the .com
Domain registration is ~ $10/year at GoDaddy.com
Website NOT required, but perfect for your blog.
Cool email address: [you]@[yourname].com

3. Pick a unique, clean name.
(E.g., “David Meerman Scott” & “James Earl Jones”)
Choose a variation you can live with for a long time.
“ James” vs. “Jim” or “Sue” vs. “Susan”
Add a middle name or middle initial
This is your “brand name” – it could be the name
you’ve always used (if clean) or a new version.

4. Purchase the clean, unique name as a [yourname].com domain name.
5. Implement the name consistently.
Social media profiles
Your resume
Your professional email

6. Grab all the “vanity URL’s” for your name.
Linkedin.com/in/yourname
Google.com/profiles/yourname
Facebook.com/yourname
Twitter.com/yourname
Optional: yourname.blogspot.com
Optional: yourname.name (domain)

7. Participate meaningfully in social media.
Contribute at least 3 to 5 times a week
Limit your venues to the manageable
Stay on-message
Stay positive (don’t burn bridges)
View reputation management as a long-term activity
1: 10 Steps to a Stronger Reputation © 2010 Copyright, NETability, Inc. All rights reserved.

8. Keep profiles updated.
Focus on 2 or 3 venues
Be detailed
9. Buy Google AdWords ads for your name.
Not expensive for most people
10. Blog weekly (or more), IF you have time, ideas, energy, & skills.

2: Venues - LinkedIn Is # 1
Job seekers MUST have a LinkedIn Profile:
80% of recruiters are using social media
95% of that 80% use LinkedIn
Often top Google search result on your name
Not a popularity contest, but… the bigger your network the wider the reach of your free search.

2: Venues - LinkedIn Profile
Be here or be invisible :
Do a public, not private, profile
100% complete (photo + 3 recommendations)
Make your email address visible
Update & participate daily
Positive future-focused Personal Headline

LinkedIn Professional Headlines
120 characters for marketing & SEO:
Environmental, Health & Safety Professional - Available "immediately" for a full-time job in the Chicago area! (95)
Strategic and Product Marketing Leader : Market Assessments, Competitive Positioning, Go-to-Market, Launch. (107)
Bestselling Career Author, Career Coach, Motivational Career Speaker / Career & Job Coach Trainer Who Transforms Lives! (119!)
Unemployed (10 useless letters)

2: Venues - Google Profile is # 2
Free!
Google!
Visible to all (caution!)
Google.com/profiles /you
Unlimited space (vs. LinkedIn)
Unlimited visibility (vs. LinkedIn & Facebook)

2: Venues - Your Google Profile
Login to your Google account.
Type http://www.google.com/profiles into the browser’s location bar
Complete the form:
Include all the information relevant to your job search.
Add a photo.
Verify your email address.

2: Venues - Twitter Is # 3
Choose your username carefully - @username
Complete the Bio! 160 characters
Link to your best URL
Don’t leave the header blank
Add marketing with your name or username

2: Venues - Twitter Power
NOT a popularity contest!
Participate carefully, on-topic for you
Share good information.
Don’t expect many Followers until you have done some Tweets.
Retweet good stuff generously.
Follow accounts that interest you.

2: Venues - More Twitter Power
Use a desktop tool like TweetDeck to organize your Tweetstream
Twitter Lists
Twitter searches e.g. #jobsearch #jobhunting
Find:
Employers Tweet job postings
Job boards Tweet job postings

2: Venues - Blogs
Blogs are effective, powerful, long-lasting brand builders.
Good blogs are a lot of work.
200+ million blogs exist, est. 15 million are “active”

2: Venues - More About Blogs
A blog can become a business.
With sufficient traffic, they can make $$$.
With sufficient revenue, they become a marketable asset.
It ain’t easy or common, but it is do-able.

2: More Reputation Venues
LinkedIn
Google Profile
Twitter
Facebook
Amazon Profile
YouTube
Scribd
Spoke
Business Week BX Profile
Fast Company Profile
VisualCV
ZoomInfo
Personal Website or Blog?
Guest posts on other blogs?
Google Knol
SlideShare

3: Monitoring Your Reputation
Google & Bing yourself weekly.
Google Alerts (google.com/alerts)
Easiest to set up & manage from a Google account.
Structure like a Google search:
Quotation marks around phrases
Plus & minus sign to add or subtract words
Set up Alerts on your name(s), your nickname(s), preferred employers, recruiters, competitors, etc.

4: 6 Ways to Bury “Digital Dirt”
Remove from your own blog/account.
Request others remove it.
Ask Google to remove it.
Push it down in search results by being active in the right places (see 3: More Venues).
Present your side of the story.
Hire help (ReputationDefender.com)

Think of The Possibilities…
Growing market for people with “social media” skills in corporate America.

Your assignment…
Get started today!
Stay in touch, let me know what works for you: wind@job-hunt.org

Resources
Microsoft “ Privacy Study ”
Job-Hunt: Social Media & Job Search
Dan Schawbel: Personal Branding Blog
Steven J. Campbell: Social Branding Blog
Jason Alba: ImonLinkedInNowWhat blog
Darren Rowse: ProBlogger.net blog

Resources
learn.linkedin.com/new-users/
learn.linkedin.com/job-seekers/
ImonLinkedInNowWhat.com
Free Job-Hunt Guide ebook: Branding & Your LinkedIn Profile
Free ebook: Job Seeker’s Guide to LinkedIn

Books
New Rules of Marketing & PR (David Meerman Scott)
Me 2.0 (Dan Schawbel)
Book (& DVD): I’m on LinkedIn. Now What??? (Jason Alba)
The Twitter Job Search Guide (Whitcomb, Bryan, Dib)
Radically Transparent (Beal and Strauss)

Job-Hunt.org © 2010 Copyright, NETability, Inc. All rights reserved.
Job-Hunt.org :
US News & World Report Top Site for Finding Work
Forbes Best of the Web for Job Hunting
Over 15,500 carefully-selected links, including 8,000+ links to employer recruiting pages
Follow @JobHuntOrg on Twitter
Friend us at facebook.com/JobHuntOrg
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Online Reputation Management for Job Seekers

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