Job hunting online? How to get your profile the most visibility
When you're looking for a job, you're looking for ways to stand out. Social media can help you do that, but doing it correctly to push your profile to the top can be tricky. I spoke with search-engine-optimization strategist Elisa Adam, who has 15 years of experience promoting online visibility for brands, products, causes and people. Here are her tips:
Choose a strong profile-building platform like LinkedIn and make your profile as complete as possible.
Use a head shot of your face -- no cats or other faces to compete with yours in the picture.
Name all your image files, presentation files, and documents with descriptive keywords before posting them.
Follow, circle, and "like" professional peers, thought leaders, industry related associations, groups and potential clients to your social profiles.
Share a few personal thoughts (thoughtfully), show interest in other people, make new friends, make inquiries about opportunities, and be as real and true to yourself as you can. Don't assume you are being a fraud if you minimize your weak points and emphasize your strengths. If you can't do that for yourself, how will you be able to do that in moving forward the interests of another person or company or product?
Share images and other content that will shape perception of who you are and what you are like. Title or headline using the keywords that matter most to you and your potential client. What do they need? What is affecting their business, presently and in the future? How does what you do best fit into the success of their business? Natural language used in generating these kinds of professional social posts and comments will do the rest in search.
If you need an extra profile visibility boost and are willing to do extra link-building, you can create free professional micro-sites that contain your bio and links to your profiles. Remember to vary the wording of your bio, creating a new version but staying consistent with the facts you present about yourself. Try: quora.com, worky.com, tumblr.com, professionalontheweb.com, pinterest.com, netvibes.com or visualcv.com.
Finally, ensure that you address recruiters in some fashion by sharing content that is about them and relevant to them: this will increase their chances of finding you during their hunt. Remember, they and their clients are the audience you are addressing and or publicly discussing with professional peers. In your contact info, invite recruiters and companies or individuals who are interested in your work to specifically view your LinkedIn profile.
