Most of my CFO clients recognize the importance of social media as a career management strategy. Since networking today is about “who knows you,” being visible and “known” to a target audience is incredibly powerful for long-term passive positioning.
But what about when the power of social media is reversed? When recruiters and HR use your digital footprint to “more accurately predict” your “likelihood to succeed in a particular job”? So says an article by Kristin Swagman on “The Degree 360.”
This shouldn’t really come as a surprise to anyone. For candidates, it’s in large part … “personal branding.”
Let’s look at how a couple of scenarios that your branded positioning, visibility, or lack thereof, can impact that predictive analysis by a recruiter.
Branded Positioning … The best possible positioning because you are playing from your strengths to a targeted audience. Because your message is so rooted in who you are and how you deliver, clear, and compelling; it is much easier for a recruiter or HR executive to understand not only what you’ve contributed but how you’ve contributed.
Placeholder … You’re on social media, but you’re not in social media. There’s a big difference between showing up and engaging. It’s the difference between showing up at a networking event and doing the wallflower thing versus the verb thing … actually raising your visibility among people who need to know about you. Are you a social media wallflower? If so, what is the message that is being sent to recruiters on your likelihood for success in a particular role they are trying to fill? Is it the message you want them to receive?
Invisibility … Your message is moot. You’re invisible. There is no way to assess your success factor for a specific position. And that, in and of itself is a message. I blogged about this a couple weeks ago. If you haven’t read it, you might want to. Here’s a snippet from Dorie Clark …
… lacking almost any online presence — they strongly suspected he had fabricated his background …
Branded visibility is one of your best career tools for winning the competitive edge. If you would like to know the other tools executives should have in their career tool boxes to ensure a competitive advantage, please join the Proformative webinar on Friday, May 4 at noon Eastern.
Your points are well taken, advice I try to follow. I do know that “Googling” my name points to me at least six times on page one. An unusual name doesn’t hurt.