The importance of being visible

Not only can job applicants research potential companies on the internet, but people making the hiring decisions can – and do – research the applicants. A name search on Google will bring up an instant wealth of information – whether comments on a forum, a facebook page or team sporting results.

Obviously, it’s in everyone’s best professional interests to make sure that the sort of information that surfaces puts that person in the best possible light. There are plenty of stories of people losing their jobs because they boasted about pulling a sickie, or posted questionable content about themselves.

But almost as damaging as dodgy photos or bravado comments of fiddling company expenses, is not having any internet presence at all. What thoughts would run through a hiring manager’s mind if she could find no trace of you? No LinkedIn profile, no comments on industry-related blogs, no twitter account – nothing? Possibly that you’ve never used the internet before, or worse, that you have no interest at all in your particular field.

And the same is true if you’re a freelancer applying for your next project. If you haven’t helped people out on a forum, or contributed to a discussion in your area of expertise, there’s no clear or objective evidence to show a potential client that you’ve got the skills and experience to do a job.

If, on the other hand, someone researches you on Google and a whole series of links comes up showing your involvement in your sphere of professional activity, you demonstrate interest in your career, as well as personal expertise. In short, by making yourself visible, you’ll be putting yourself ahead of the pack.

Here are seven tips for increasing your professional visibility:

1. Join LinkedIn if you haven’t already.
Create a full profile, and keep it updated with your most recent work details. Then, find LinkedIn groups focussing on your specialist area, and contribute to their discussions.

2. Join Twitter and follow people who may be able to help you in your career.
Make sure you create a profile, and put in a url to your blog or site, or your LinkedIn profile, to allow people to find out more information about you.

3. Consider setting up a blog that will showcase your expertise.
Blogs are hard work, so you’ll need to commit yourself to updating it regularly. If you don’t have the time to do this, your blog may appear “abandoned”, even leading visitors to think you’re the sort of person who can’t commit to something in the long-term.

4. Contribute regularly to other forums and blogs
If you don’t have the time or interest in launching your own, make sure you’re visible on others. Participate in discussions, or answer questions others may have. Enhance your image by making sure your contributions are in standard English, with correct punctuation, spelling and grammar. Don’t write negative, angry or sarcastic comments, as they can be easily misunderstood and end up harming your image.

5. If you’re actively looking for work, get your CV in as many places as you can.
As well as uploading your CV to job boards, also consider creating a multimedia CV on Visual CV. Visual CV is free, and allows you to create your own page, where you can add documents (word, excel, powerpoint, pdf), images (charts, photos, graphics), video, audio and links. You can then email it to recruiters, save it as a PDF, or forward the URL.

6. Get a Google profile
Launched in April 2009, Google profiles are personal profiles which appear at the bottom of the page when you put in a name search. They’re useful not only if you share the same name as someone else (so helping you to avoid a case of mistaken identity) but also because you can upload your photo, bio, contact information (if you include it) and links to your blog and profiles on other sites.

See some sample profiles here.

7. Separate the professional from the personal
If you use Facebook to keep in contact with friends and family, consider changing the profile and search settings so that your page is only visible and accessible to friends. Obviously, this means that you won’t be accessible to recruiters, so you’ll need to decide whether you need this level of privacy, or whether it’s more useful for you to be visible everywhere online.

Photo credit: pdbreen