Melneka Parker | Online Career Planning: Build Your Reputation!

Melneka Parker | Your online reputation is an important factor in any job search. And it doesn’t matter what field you might be in.

For every job you apply for, and the prospective employer has an interest, you can be assured your name will be Googled. What will the employer see when they find you?

Here’s what happened about six months ago; a friend lost his attorney position with a public agency. In starting his job search he Googled his name and found two others with the same name as his on the first indexed page-a physiologist in another state and a convicted bank robber in Florida. His name did not show up. On the second page he saw his face book page and on page 3 his LinkedIn profile showed up. He looked for his name with his full name including his middle initial and got the same dismal results.

Melneka Parker

Melneka Parker | In addition there were six or more relatively negative blog comments that he had made scattered among the first five pages of Googled results. He also checked pipl.com to gather more information. Recruiters make consistent use of this resource.

It was clear he needed to get on the first three pages of Googled results reflecting positive things about him and his career. He understood there is a process to be followed to get his name properly ranked on the first three pages. So his career plan was to build on his online reputation.

The process takes time, his career plan goal was to drive down the negatives by adding more relevant positive content associated with his name and moving the information up the rankings. The more pages your name appears or links to sites that Google indexes the better.

Melneka Parker | Here’s what he did to build his online reputation, but first some principles to understand.

1. Search engine optimization (SEO) principles show that the more times your name shows up on highly regarded websites it will translate to higher rankings on the results page.
2. In order to make the negative things less pronounced you have to build up the positive references to your name.
3. Rankings do not have to be restricted to written material but can be video and power point presentations.
4. Helping your ranking should be links between various media containing your name.
5. Change and postings should happen over time as Google may not rank you if it all happens unnaturally in a few days.

First my attorney friend contacted the webmasters of the various blogs and had a number of questionable comments removed. Next he made it a point to make positive comments on two legal related blogs every day.

He then updated his LinkedIn profile, and secured three relevant recommendations. He also established online portfolios on VisualCV.com, Xing.com, Plaxo, Bisnik.com and several others. In addition, he rewrote the information on the Facebook Fan Page and Twitter.

He started a WordPress based blog. Twice a week or more he made blog posts on legal matters of interest. In addition he wrote two articles a week on items of interest in the legal field and posted them on EzineArticles.com.

He rewrote the articles and posted them on his blog. All the blog posts and articles were grounded in a list of 20 or so keywords. The keywords identified his legal specialty and his location.

Melneka Parker | He linked the articles to his blog. The blog was also linked to his profiles.

Previously he had developed several Power Point presentations to be used in explaining a number of legal principles. He posted them on Slideshare.com. His name was prominently displayed on the slides and the short written comments. Again he linked the slides back to his blog.

YouTube was used to post several videos he had done for the training of paralegals. The videos were linked to his blog and to the power point slides.

Melneka Parker | He is active in the local Chamber of Commerce and two local service clubs. On each his name is listed as a member and he is chairman of several committees. On several occasions he spoke before the groups, and he issued a press release prior to each speech. A press release was also issued when he started his blog.

After six months, he has over 40 articles posted on EzineArticles.com, he has made over 50 posts on his blog (some are rewritten from his articles), he had made over 35 comments on other blogs, he has six power point presentations posted along with two videos. He has issued three press releases and his name has appeared in three articles in the local business journal.

Melneka Parker | Google his name now and he has six positive posts on the first page, with an additional seven over the next two pages.

He is now considering two job offers. Over time his career plan is to continue building his brand and his online reputation.