How to Create A Powerful Online Profile

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If you’re looking for a job, you must create a thorough and strong online profile. Why? Before a meeting or interview, 80% or more of the people considering your application will Google your name. You want to influence those results, and the best way to ensure they find information you want them to know is to create it yourself.

In 2014, Jobvite (www.jobvite.com), a company that surveys organizations regarding their hiring practices, discovered 93% of companies use social media to help identify new hires. They found 73% of employers surveyed planned to spend more money on social recruiting in the coming year. Clearly, having a powerful online profile is a big step in the right direction if you are trying to attract employers.

How can you take to create an exceptional profile that will encourage potential hiring managers to want to know more about you? Follow these steps and you’ll be on the right track to your next opportunity.

Create strong headlines.

Identify your value proposition. Every social network includes a short headline, or mini bio. Make sure yours makes a strong statement about who you are and what you offer. For example, your LinkedIn headline is 120 characters long. This isn’t a lot of space to showcase how you can help employers solve their problems, but it can be done.

First, decide what you want employers to know about you. What skills are most important to showcase? Once you choose these skills, keep the following questions in mind and answer them in your headline:

  • What problem do you solve?
  • What impact do you have?
  • What results do you create?

In other words, what value do you provide that makes you special or unique? If you don’t know, review past recommendations or work evaluations. Consider asking people familiar with your work what they would point out as your best skills.

Choose keywords.

In addition, keep in mind that you want to make it as easy as possible for people to find – and hire – you. Include words in your bio that people searching for someone with your skills would use in a search query. These are called “keywords.” It’s easy to identify them by reviewing job descriptions. Choose the words that appear in every description and incorporate them in your headline or bio.

Combine information about your best skills and use keywords to describe yourself. For example:

Business Analyst: Develop and implement systems to bridge gaps between HR and IT organizations.

All of the bold words may be considered keywords, and there is a “promise” of the candidate’s value, “Develop and implement systems to bridge gaps between HR and IT organizations.”

Create a headline that describes you in LinkedIn, and reuse it in the various other networks, such as Twitter and Google+.

Complete your profiles.

A headline is important, but so are the other pieces of your online profiles. Any place that requests professional information, fill it out and make sure it is publicly available. For example, be sure to fill in all of your job descriptions in LinkedIn. Copy the same information into your Facebook profile in the “Work and Education” section, and select those sections to be searchable by choosing the “globe” dropdown icon, indicating public information.

When you include complete information, you make it easier and more likely for people to find you when they search for a candidate with your skills. (Yes, they do search on Facebook, too!)

LinkedIn gives a boost in search to anyone who earns the distinction of having an “all-star” profile. These are the requirements for an all-star (complete) profile on LinkedIn:

Add a profile photo.

List all the jobs or positions you’ve held, along with descriptions of your roles.

Include five or more skills on your profile.

Write a summary about yourself.

Fill out your industry and postal code.

Add where you went (or where you are going) to school.

Have 50 or more connections.

Don’t “set it and forget it.”

Social networks are called that for a reason; they are interactive and engaging. Once you set up your profile in the networks that appeal to you, find opportunities to join groups and virtually meet new people to add to your network. On LinkedIn, look for groups to join. On Twitter, investigate “Twitter chats” to find like-minded people interested in discussing professional topics. Facebook hosts many groups, and Google+ is a good place to find various communities, which are similar to groups, as well as “Hangouts,” which are opportunities to engage with other people via video.

When you use social media well by creating a magnifying, complete profile, and take some time to engage in the networking communities (most of which you can do on your own schedule), you’ll expand your network and attract potential opportunities to you.