Be Findable

Consider these questions as you review the examples below. Try the quiz from the left menu: What Have You Learned? after you’ve spent some time with this section.

Allie Osmar publishes a blog on the transition from college into life in the big city, looking at how students can prepare for the ever-changing roles in communications, marketing and public relations. To make sure she is findable she invites other ways of connecting to her by posting her Twitter feed and publishing a feed to her blog. When she writes, she makes a point of linking to others (who will know she has done this and likely visit her blog) and responds to comments. She takes care of her networks by sharing what she knows in the content of her posts!

Creative Career Blog

Keeping in mind that employers search for candidates online, here are some tips to ensure that it’s easy and quick to find you on the web. The key is to build your public online profile so that potential employers find positive and professional information about you:

• Update your profile (and privacy settings) on your existing social networking site or consider creating a profile on a professional networking site such as LinkedIn or Jobster. Companies use these websites to search for candidates who match their needs.
• Consider developing a e-portfolio – include your resume and showcase any impressive projects you’ve worked on
• Create a thoughtful, well-written blog about your career goals or interests. Comment on recent news in the field. Post comments on others’ blogs and use your full name.
• Buy your own domain name if you can. Here’s some advice to get you started.
• Use your full name in the title, header and photo tags on any webpage you create to showcase your professional self (assuming you know HTML code).
• Link to and from various pages within and outside your own website – this will increase your “page rank” (a system search engines use to decide which pages should come up first on a given search query).

Remember that the strategies and approaches you use to build and contribute to your online professional network, need to be right for you. Learn more about Professional Networking.