Social Networking: How Findable Are You?
June 9, 2008 by Darlene McDaniel
Filed under Jobs
If you were to do a Google Search on your name, what would you discover? Would your name come up as the first option? Here is an assignment for you – go to Google and type in your name. What did you discover? Scroll down and leave a comment. Here is an opportunity to win 101 Great Answers to the Toughest Interview Questions, by Ron Fry. In order to win the book, you have to leave your name, and what you discover from your Google Search. Make sure you leave a comment about the exercise.
Back to the post – How findable are you? And what does it have to do with Social Networking and your job search, which is our theme this month. Based on your discovery about the strength of your name on the internet, should help you answer the question of “how findable” you are. If Social Networking will help you find your next job, then it should become a high priority to position yourself to be found by hiring managers looking for someone with your skills and abilities.
How do you increase the likelihood that you will be found? I found a great article, How to Web 2.0ize Your Job Search? This is a great article for you to read.
Here are the key points that will you be found through your networking efforts.
- Continually Update Your Resume – The resume is no longer something that is updated once every few years when you’re looking for a job. Make sure that it is always current.
- Web 2.0ize Your Resume – That means you need to figure out the most important keywords that employers are using to find people with your skills. Then spread those keywords with the appropriate frequency throughout your resume text.
- Use Your Community Profiles To Your Advantage – Have you got a Facebook account? A LinkedIn profile? How about a MySpace page? Even a free Wetpaint wiki? Whatever it is, place your Web 2.0ized resume there. Not a link to it, the actual text. This will create more instances of your name / skills / keywords for employers to find.
- Get The Word Out – If you’re using Twitter, get out the word to your community that you’re looking for a job. Got Jaxtr? Throw a (professional-looking) picture on that puppy and record your VoiceBlast with a quick note about why you’re great (try to stick to job skills, though…) and put it up with your resume.
- Get Ready For Response – Here’s a recruiter’s dirty little secret: often the difference between getting / getting submitted for a job is the quickness of your response. This explains why people without your mad skills get the job and you’re left wondering what happened. (More>>>>)
These suggestions will help you be found within Social Networking sites. Feel free to leave a comment with your success stories. We are interested in hearing how Social Networking is helping you in your job search. Also, feel free to leave questions you may have on any of the Social Networking sites. If we don’t know the answer, we will get one for you
Board of Adjustment Public Hearing Minutes – 12-14-2006
i’m an assist leader for an Elsberry basketball team, cool i used to play basketball.
and i won a ‘Trouble In Mind’ LP from screenhead.com, which i received a few days ago.
I don’t find much about ME, since I share the same name Dean Koontz decided he needed for his pseudonym…lol
I discovered there’s a folk singer who shares my name, and he’s much more famous than I am, because a majority of the hits on the first few pages of my Google search were about him and his recordings and concert schedule. Fun exercise!
Love the prize; however; many different spellings for sarah woods; rather the the conventional spellings; many thanks
I discovered that there is a person with my name in my city that is a leader in the Nazi party. Based on the zip code, the person obviously lives in another part of town, but I am afraid that someone googling for me will mistake that idiot for me.
The first thing I see is my membership in the Manga Cum Laude Honor Society, then a review I wrote for a musical instrument. Other than that, there aren’t too many other people out there with my name to fight with! For some reason, all of my research must not be searchable yet, but maybe in the near future
Googling oneself is interesting. Used quotes to narrow down the listings and came up with 144 hits. My LinkedIn, Classmates and current job was listed. There is also a doctor with my name… No, I’m not related to Mike Piazza of the Padres. However, sadness goes out to the family whose daughter Danielle Piazza was murdered by an ex-boyfriend.
The first result was for someone else with my name (which is a fairly unique name) who is a model. I came up second and it was a classmates.com listing.
I looked up my name on Google, and there were approximately 1,290,000 hits. There are very many men with the same name as me, but they’re more successful, and some of them more popular than me. I also found some websites than I found very familiar.
Not too surprising that my name came up since I’ve registered for class reunions and my name is listed on some professional sites. However the site for the actor named Buddy Garrett was new. There are several of us named individuals across America. Here in Georgia there is another guy named Buddy Garrett in Hiwassee Towns County.
I found myself…a hedge fund manager.
I found out that there is a stripper with a name close to mine . Yikes!
Thank you to everyone of you who took on my challenge to do a Google Search on your name. I have selected the winning comment. Check out the post: http://www.interviewchatter.com/social-networking-are-you-findable/
I also shared a few other comments that I found interesting. If you are really in the job search, take a moment and read some, if not all of the posts written about Social Networking.
Here is the link: http://www.interviewchatter.com/category/social-networking/
Thank you again to those who were here to win the book! Have a great night!