So as many of my readers know, I’m currently looking for a new job, since I don’t really make any money off of this blog and I still have a mortgage to pay, and a little boy’s college to save up for. While performing my search, I’ve been to a number of workshops, meetings, and events where people talk about the importance of having a digital footprint. Now, I’m a computer guy, I mean, this is what I do and what I love doing, so I have an enormous digital footprint. That said, however; I’ve noticed that not all of my little pieces of the Internet contain the same information.
For example, I use LinkedIn for 99% of my professional networking, yet I also have profiles with Plaxo, Naymz, Ning and Jobster. Not to mention the profiles on Monster, Dice, CareerBuilder, and other job boards, and even YouTube and Twitter. I also have a couple of what I would classify as “personal” profiles on Facebook, MySpace, and Orkut. So many spaces, so little time to keep them all up to date!
So what’s the plan here? Why do I have all of these little billboards all over the Internet? Simple: I want them to help me get a job! Now, it’s true that my personal networking sites haven’t been strictly for this purpose. I connect with a lot of personal friends from school, church, and life in general. But can’t they help me in my job search too? Isn’t that what networking is all about?
So my plan is simple. I’m in the process of developing all of my online profiles with the express intent of helping me land a new job. This means that all of the profile information is being re-tooled to highlight my professional expertise. Of course, not a lot of employers look at your Facebook page for professional information, but they may look at your information to get to know a little about you, so why not use these forums to your advantage and present a unified, consistent message?
Another thing I’m doing is making it easy to find me on many of the most popular social networks and solidify the “Gary Drumm” brand at the same time using canonical domain names and forwarding them to the appropriate site. For example, to find me on LinkedIn, one need only type in linkedin.garydrumm.com, you’ll be taken directly to my profile. The same is true for Facebook, MySpace, Plaxo, Ning, and Twitter. I even have a VisualCV version of my resume at resume.garydrumm.com.
So, over the next few days, I’ll be making changes to all of these sites and profiles in order to take full advantage of my online digital footprint and present a more consistent message to those who find me out there on the Internet. When you Google “Gary Drumm”, I want you to be able to get to me and I want you to be able to know what I do, and that is the real power behind managing your digital footprint.