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In my last post for this blog, I emphasized the critical importance of professional networking, particularly in this challenging economic climate.  Effective networking can occur in person, as well as online, and a variety of online social and professional networking tools are available to help you make connections.  It’s absolutely essential, however, to proactively manage your online identity, regardless of whether you decide to use online networking tools. 

In a previous position, I was responsible for interviewing and hiring, so I can tell you with confidence that employers do use search engines to learn about potential employees.  What will an employer discover about you if they conduct a search on your name?  Try it and see.  You may be surprised at what you find.  What kind of impression do you make?  Does your online identity reflect what you want potential employers know about you?

A recent CareerBuilder.com survey (September, 2008) found that 34% of employers who use the Internet to learn more about candidates discovered information that caused them to dismiss the candidate from consideration.  However, 24% of the employers said they had also experienced finding online content that helped to confirm their decision to hire a job candidate.

Online tools can be leveraged in highly effective – or extremely damaging – ways.  On the positive side, tools like LinkedIn, Facebook, or Plaxa can be used to connect you with other professionals and cultivate beneficial relationships in your desired field or organization. 

On the other hand, if used improperly and unprofessionally, the information posted online about you can damage your reputation and make it difficult for you to get hired.  Online information can spread quickly and it lives forever; web pages may be permanently accessible via special search programs that can locate archived or cached pages, even when no longer publically available. 

If you have control over the information posted (in your own Facebook page or LinkedIn page, for example), you may want to edit the content that is viewable by the public.  If you haven’t updated your privacy settings in your Facebook or Plaxa page, make sure to manage your profile.  Change the settings to limit access to personal information to those you’ve identified as family or friends.  If you don’t have control over the information (such as in an uncomplimentary newspaper article), give some thought about how to address this directly with a potential employer.  Assuming or hoping the employer won’t discover the information is not a good strategy. 

You’ll also want to work on balancing any negative information that may be posted online about you with positive references to professional articles you’ve written, presentations you’ve made at conferences, and participation in other activities that help you to build a positive online personal brand.  Of course, the best way to increase your positive web presence is to get involved in those types of professional development activities!

While online networking enables communication and the development of relationships, it does not take the place of in-person communication in a job search.  The most effective use of online tools will facilitate continued discussions offline, possibly through informational interviews or even job interviews.  For additional networking resources, visit the Connecting With Others section of the Capella Career Center, where you’ll find information and instructions for joining the Capella Group on LinkedIn.  This would be a great way to start building your online presence and connecting with other learners and alumni who have similar interests and career goals.

I also recommend the following selected resources for more information about online networking and managing your online identity:

Smart Networking: Attract a Following In Person and Online by Liz Lynch (McGraw-Hill, 2009), which includes several excellent chapters on online networking, including: Blog for Business, Publish Your Perspectives, and Leverage Online Communities.

Online Identity Management (OIM), Wikipedia entry: OIM is a set of methods for generating a distinguished Web presence of a person on the Internet.

How Not to Lose Face on Facebook, for Professors, Jeffrey Young, Chronicle of Higher Education, February 6, 2009.