With attention spans shortening and everything moving to the internet having an online profile is becoming a necessity in today’s world. Making your profile “authentic” and “professional” can bolster your chances of getting a job in today’s increasingly competitive environment.
Definitions courtesy of google.
Where previously companies screened employees face to face, nowadays 73% of companies screen a candidates social media channels (Jobvite, 2014) in order to learn more about them. This can lead to candidates gaining or losing a job before the process has even started!
Over the past 10 years LinkedIn has become the prime spot for employers to screen employees with recruiters viewing 94% (Jobvite, 2014) of candidate’s profiles. So having a great LinkedIn profile can make you stand out from the crowd. My infographic below shows a few steps to getting a strong LinkedIn profile with further links to develop your profile properly.
//www.thinglink.com/card/763771852614008832
To truly develop your online profile you need to brand yourself (Entrepreneur, 2013). Much like Cadburys does with the dairy milk you need to make yourself stand out online and advertise what you excel in and what differentiates you from everyone else. A good starting point is giving someone a page that shows off everything you do. An about.me page is the perfect place to set one of these up and through this can link to all your different accounts, blogs, work, etc.
Perhaps most importantly you need to show people examples of who you are and what you do in order to create an authentic and professional image for yourself. For some lines of work this is easier than other such as a designer can showcase their portfolio online, whereas an economist may have more difficulty. To overcome this blogging (TheEmployable, 2014) and sharing things that are both interesting and relevant can show people that you have a genuine passion for what you do and will portray you in a better light.
Finally always maintain caution when posting online as once it is in the public domain there will be a copy of it for everyone to see, no matter how few followers you have as the infamous Justine Sacco found out back in 2014 (NYTimes, 2015).
Here’s a somewhat authentic and not quite professional example of what you could do if you wanted to truly stand out!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuLcxg5VGuo
References
Entrepreneur, 2013. How To Brand Yourself To Live a Happier Life. [Online]
Available at: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/228569
[Accessed March 2016].
Jobvite, 2014. Jobvite Social Recruiting Survey Results 2014. [Online]
Available at: https://www.jobvite.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Jobvite_SocialRecruiting_Survey2014.pdf
[Accessed March 2016].
NYTimes, 2015. How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco’s Life. [Online]
Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/magazine/how-one-stupid-tweet-ruined-justine-saccos-life.html?_r=1
[Accessed March 2016].
TheEmployable, 2014. How blogging can help you get a job. [Online]
Available at: http://www.theemployable.com/index.php/2014/10/28/blogging-can-help-get-job/
[Accessed March 2016].
Jumping Into The Internet 
Hi Sam,
I really enjoyed reading your views on this topic. You included many forms of media that kept me engaged, especially the video, which brought a light and comically end to the post.
Moreover, the use of an interactive Piktochart was extremely innovative and the information within it allowed me to gain a much deeper understanding of how to create a professional LinkedIn profile.
The fact that 73% of companies are using social media profiles to screen candidates is rather shocking. Do you believe this is a good thing or should individuals take advantage of their privacy settings to prevent this?
Furthermore, you mention that a way to overcome difficulties in expressing who you are and what you do on LinkedIn is to start blogging. While this is a good media platform to do so, how do you propose these individual publicise their blogs in order for them to be seen by potential employers?
Again, thoroughly enjoyed your opinions on the topic and look forward to hearing more in the future!
LikeLike
Hi Alice
I think that companies viewing a candidate’s social media profile can open up many issues that can be positive or negative and it is down to the person. Personally I have taken steps to make my Facebook profile private and remove it from search engines while removing some old accounts and cleaning up my twitter feed.
To publicise your blog to an employer a person should link it to their relevant sites such as LinkedIn or twitter and have your blog under your own name if possible so employers can believe that it is you. Furthermore you can set your avatar/picture as a photo of yourself to link it back to you.
LikeLike