online ID

Finance Executives, Branded Visibility, and their Career

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Two weeks ago in my Online ID re-cert class, I heard this astonishing statement … talented high school kids were not getting accepted into their college of choice because of the lack of a branded online ID.

One very smart FENG member recently connected the dots …

“I heard the NPR report on college admitting committees and wondered if there was applicability to us. They are receiving historically high numbers of perfectly qualified candidates, between whom it is hard to distinguish. According to the report, they make the biggest distinctions among them based on 1) distinctive or unusual backgrounds 2) passion for subject areas, business or personal, both covered or not covered in the program, just intellectual passion in general.”

If I might answer the opening statement. Yes! This is precisely about branded visibility. If you can’t stand out from the competition, then you will be lost among them. And if you look like every other Chief Financial Officer or Finance Executive, how will the company distinguish that you are the best qualified for the position?

Branded visibility. CFOs need it. And their high schoolers need it. Branding is no longer an option. To stand out from the competition, it’s now a necessity.

And it is branded visibility. you can be totally on-brand but if no one knows about you, will it matter?

If you want to learn how to use branded visibility to advance your finance career, join us for the CFO.com webinar on April 12 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern.

Online Reputation Management

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One hundred percent (100%) of Chief Financial Officers 

and Senior Finance Executives have an online reputation to manage 

Not everyone loves statistics, but I do. There is something about having a factual basis for acting that resonates with my brain and propels me forward. So of course, as my Online ID re-certification course began, the stats had me saying WOW! My clients definitely need to know – from a facts and figures perspective – how critically important it is to manage your online reputation. Because whether or not you are proactively managing it, you do have one … even if that reputation is MIA.

Here are some of the stats that jumped out at me …

— … an executive can increase the amount of his or her compensation by increasing one statistic; the number of CEOs and decision-makers in a sector that are aware of the executive’s accomplishments. Howard Nestler, CEO of Executive Options

— 79% of US hiring managers and recruiters reviewed online information about job applicants. 70% rejected candidates based on what they found, with poor communication skills, lying, and sharing confidential company information among the reasons cited for rejection.

— Conversely, 18% of companies found social networking profiles as a positive influence because they offered a good feel for culture fit and added credibility to the candidates’ resumes / interview. I believe this number is only going to continue to grow.

— 76% of executives expect to be Googled yet 22% have never Googled their own name to see what companies and recruiters will find. 

— While there are no measurements on the influence of a CFO’s reputation, 87% of respondents to a Hill & Knowlton survey believe the CEO’s reputation is key to the company. I would venture to say the CFO’s reputation is equal or greater to that of the CEO, particularly during tough times.

— According to a Career Builder study last year, the top industries most likely to screen job candidates using social networking sites and search engines include those who handle sensitive information. 

Bottom Line: If you want to be among the hunted, you have to be able to be found.

(Sources: Reach Online ID Certification 2010, Microsoft 2009, Career Builder 2009, Execunet 2007)