Job Seekers: A Web Presence From Scratch

From the Wall Street Journal.

By ELIZABETH GARONE

With
unemployment at a 23-year high, job seekers need to expand the ways in
which they search, say career and workplace experts. These days setting
up and maintaining an online presence is often critical to finding
work. But for an accomplished professional, it might seem daunting to
build up a social-networking presence from scratch. Here's how to do it:

Getty Images

Claim your name.
Before someone else does it, you'll want to "claim your name" on
Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, says brand strategist Catherine Kaputa
and author of "U R A Brand." You'll also want to try to purchase the
domain for your name -- they typically are priced starting at less than
$10. This way, you control how you will be perceived, says Ms. Kaputa.
If your name is taken, use a slight variation, such as a middle name or
initial, suggests Ms. Kaputa. Then begin developing a Web presence,
starting with basic information like your résumé and then add to it as
you go.

Practice prudence. Sree
Sreenivasan, a professor of digital media at Columbia University
Graduate School of Journalism, made the decision early on to limit
himself to three social-networking sites: Facebook, LinkedIn and
Twitter. "There is just not enough time," he says. "Pick two or three,
then cultivate a presence there." If you only manage to join one site,
most experts agree that it should be LinkedIn. "It is the one crucial
place to be if you are a business executive, professional or
entrepreneur," says Ms. Kaputa. It might help you land a job. For
example, more than half of the candidates in Salesforce.com
Inc.'s recruiting process are connected to someone at the company, says
Scott Morrison, director of recruiting programs. Many of those
connections come from the 98% of the company's more than 3,500
employees who have LinkedIn profiles. "It's a tremendous resource for
us and our recruiters," says Mr. Morrison.

Choose connections wisely. You'll
also want to choose your network carefully; only add people you
actually know or with whom you've done business. Whether it's on
LinkedIn, Facebook or any other networking site, "it's much more of a
quality game than a quantity game," says Krista Canfield, a LinkedIn
spokeswoman. A recruiter may choose to contact one of your connections
to ask about you; make sure that person is someone you know and trust.

Consistency is key. You'll need
to update your profile regularly. "Curate [your online profile] the
same way you would curate your one-page résumé," says Mr. Sreenivasan.
And remember, many recruiters Google candidates before the interview,
says Ms. Kaputa. Google yourself to see how you stack up on the Web
compared with others and whether your "personal brand" is compromised
in any way.

Write to Elizabeth Garone at cjeditor@dowjones.com