Hi Everyone,

Thanks so much for joining me again on the Career Couch! Today, I want to discuss something that's often overlooked, but can play a major role in your job search. Your web presence.

Let me start out by asking for a show of hands. How many of you have ever plugged your name into an internet search engine to see what comes up? A lot of you. Great! Now, how many of you saw something related to your personal life in the search results you received?

I'm sure many of you all have LinkedIn accounts and a lot of artists and production folks have web sites to showcase their resume and portfolios. Good for you!! That's great! And recruiters do use LinkedIn and they do look at your professional websites, so both can be very important marketing tools for you. Now, how many of you use social media sites in your personal life? Did you know social media sites are searchable? Yep, that's right. If you plug your name into a search engine social media accounts such as Twitter, Facebook, or even MySpace will come up in that search.

OK, so right about now I'm sure many of you are saying, "So what? Everyone uses social media these days," which is absolutely true. Also, everyone uses social media and search engines to find out information about other people, including recruiters and hiring managers. Wait for it…wait for it… Ah, there it is. ;-) Yep, that's right. When considering a candidate for employment, recruiters want to know all about you, so in addition to background searches, many times recruiters and hiring managers will plug your name into an internet search engine to see what pops up. Recruiters want to know as much as they can about a potential new employee, so if they are strongly considering you for a role, they will use whatever means they have at their disposal to see if you are someone they wish to hire.

So, what does this mean? Well, it means that anything you have on your Facebook wall or anything you've tweeted or retweeted can and will be seen by anyone plugging your name into a search engine…including a recruiter or hiring manager. Now, as I said, most of us have LinkedIn accounts. That account was created by you for business purposes, so it shows you in your best, most professional light, right? Well, what about your other social media accounts? Do they show you in a good light, as well?

I think Chris Rock put it best when he said, "When you go out on a first date, you aren't introducing yourself to that person, you are introducing them to your representative," meaning that you aren't completely revealing yourself to that person, but instead you are putting your best foot forward and showing them the best parts of you. So, that's pretty much the way it is with job seeking…you always put your best foot forward when presenting yourself as someone looking for employment. So a social media account like LinkedIn that you opened to showcase yourself professionally will do a nice job of making you look great, but the place where folks are really going to find out what you're all about and what type of person you are is from looking at your personal social media pages. So, if a recruiter or hiring manager wants to know the "real" you, your personal social media accounts are the best places for them to look.

Right about now, some of you are saying, "So what? I have nothing to hide." and that's absolutely true for most folks. No one expects you to be perfect and professional all the time. You have lives outside of your career and family and friends and it's expected that personal messages will be found on your personal social media accounts. However, I'm sure there are some of you who are thinking right now of things that are on your Facebook or Twitter accounts that might not be the most favorable presentation of who you are, as a person and as an employee. So, think about it for a second…do you have pictures from your cousin's bachelor party, or have you been hashing out a personal problem with a few close friends via your Facebook account? While this is what most social media sites were created for, it doesn't mean that this is what you want recruiters seeing when they are searching for information about you.

So, what should you do? My advice is to take some time and do a little research on yourself. Plug your name into several different search engines and see what comes up. Go to your personal social media accounts and either clean them up or make them private to everyone but those you friend or those who subscribe to your feed. It might not sound like a big deal, but when your next gig hangs in the balance, what seemed innocent and in good fun at the time, might be the difference between being passed over or actually landing the gig!

So, the moral of this tale is that when you are applying for jobs and papering the town with your resume and creative work, pay attention to your web presence, too. Be sure your web presence is just as complimentary to you as the marketing tools you are sending out. Give recruiters the picture of a candidate they want to hire. It might not sound like a big deal now, but down the road you will be glad you did!

Until next time…Stay tune! ;-)