Experiences and involvement within Leicester Award

Leicester Award has been an enjoyable and helpful experience allowing me to identify my own personal brand and encouraging me to set goals that I wish to achieve thought social media usage. To begin with by attending the webinars and by completing the various assignments of the Leicester award I have developed a clear understanding of what a “digital footprint” is while, at the same time, I was provided with tools in order to increase this online presence of mine.

To begin with, I was asked to google myself to check how strong my existing “digital footprint” is. My online presence was really strong, as the first three pages were directly related to me but most of those pages were either dead links or out-dated profiles, which I removed immediately. Moreover, I have completed the personality test in order to check whether the already perceptions I have about myself are verified in this test. After considering my personal brand and identifying what makes me unique I had to find a way to let future employers know about me. This can easily be done by creating a “personal statement/ career objective” section within my CV in which I could summarize my personal brand in 2-3 sentences. What is more, I have been called to give specific examples on where and when I have demonstrated certain skills. This allowed me to organize my CV better and helped me prepare for future interviews or assessment centres.

Later on, I was asked to think how I am using the various social media and how they can help me enhance my employability. Through webinars, powerpoint presentations and a couple of exercises It was give straight to me an online presence allows me communicate with employers directly, gain commercial awareness, job-hunt actively and creatively and develop an effective personal brand via the web to pull employers to me. I was given a description on how each social media platform can be utilized and what it can offer to job-seekers. After recognizing the importance of social media in enhancing my employability I have started to actively microblogging (twitter), updated my profile in Google+ and LinkedIn and tried to get more involved into the Marketing industry by following some organizations and employer pages directly related to the wider Marketing domain. I have started to actively participate in discussions and ask Marketing related questions and tried to keep most interactions professional. Besides, I have created myspace profile just to strengthen my online presence.

What is more, I have created a blog in order to develop and promote my personal brand to the people that I want to communicate to. The blog would also allow me to reflect on my experiences, creating a portfolio of my skills. The blog is easy to read, includes links to all my social media profiles and contains an online CV and a personal interests section. Meanwhile, the results that were appearing in google while searching for my name started becoming more relevant to what an employer might want to see.

I have made a list with all my skills, values, beliefs, interests, aspiration and tried to include to my CV all those that will help me make it look better. I have identified my weaknesses and tried turning them into strengths and marked down my Unique Selling Proposition. I made sure all my profiles are clear and I have set privacy settings to those that I did not wished to be viewed by employers.

All my social media profiles are now presenting an individual highly interested in Marketing, knowing how to handle social media and actively involved into the Marketing industry following news and participating in conversations.

How to Quickly Build Your Online Presence

A recent poll found that 30% of people have surfed the net to research people at work or potential business contacts. The reasons varied from simply looking up an address to researching a potential boss or preparing for a business negotiation.

The implications of this statistic are huge for anyone looking to advance their career. If you’re searching for a new job, it’s safe to assume that at least some employers are running an Internet search before they call you. If you’re currently employed, you can bet that some of your employees, peers, and business associates are looking you up online. Do you know what they’re finding? (If not, go do a Google search right now!)

Now, you may think online search results are pretty arbitrary but that’s just not the case. Savvy businesses don’t leave their web presence to chance … so why should you?

Here are just a few reasons why managing your online presence is crucial for career advancement:

• Your employees, peers and superiors will research you online
• Recruiters and HR executives may look you up before deciding to interview you
• Former colleagues may try to find you in order to offer you a great opportunity
• Headhunters may use the Web to find potential candidates for a new vacancy
• Journalists may be looking to interview someone with your expertise

There is little doubt that someone, somewhere will look you up online during the next 12 months. The only question is what will they find, and that’s really up to you.

How I built a positive online presence (and how you can do it too …)

When I started my business, I was an unknown entity in a busy and fragmented industry. I knew that I had to use the Web to start building a viable business. So, I developed a four-step plan to do just that. It has worked exceptionally well for me and it can work just as well for you.

Step 1 – Create Online Profiles:

When I started out, I established profile on several high traffic and high-ranking social networking sites. This meant that when people googled my name, they quickly found me on page one of the results.

What you can do: Set up profiles now! My personal favorites for search engine visibility are:

LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com): This site will get you on to page one of Google if you set up a strong profile. But your profile must be keyword rich and also fully complete in order for this to happen.

ZoomInfo: (www.zoominfo.com): Another free site that ranks very highly in search engines. This site pulls from data freely available on the web, so search for yourself before starting. You may find they already have a profile and you can simply claim it and then edit it for accuracy.

Google Profiles: (www.google.com/profiles): This is a no-brainer. Google allows you to create a profile for free and then shows you at the bottom of page one when someone searches for your name. Do it now!

Step 2 – Promote your Profiles:

I included the URL for my website and online profiles everywhere – on my business cards, on brochures, in the signature line of every email I sent. I didn’t tattoo it on my forehead, but did pretty much everything else!

What you can do: You can promote your web portfolio in the same way that I promoted mine. Include the URLs on every resume and cover letter you send out. This will tell employers that you are web savvy and also allow them to learn more about you.

You can also include the URLs in your email signatures.

And once you have a strong online presence, consider adding a line to your letters and emails that says ‘for more information, feel free to google my name.’ This is a very powerful statement because it conveys a great deal of confidence!

Step 3 – Establish yourself as an expert in your field:

I was able to quickly establish a strong online presence just by writing short articles about career advancement and resume writing. I gave them to career-related websites in exchange for a Bio and a link back to the company website. Within 6 months my name was all over Google. My strong web presence now brings other opportunities such as speaking invitations, interviews with journalists and offers to write more articles.

What you can do: Website editors are in constant need of new and fresh content. Most are thrilled to publish articles and will publish a short bio at the end of the article. This is a great way to gain a reputation within your industry. If you don’t like to write, pay someone to put your ideas down on paper. There are many excellent freelance writers who can do this for you. Provided that you write articles about your area of business expertise, you can be sure that potential employers who research you online will receive an immediately favorable impression. (And don’t forget that link back to your web portfolio!)

Step 4 – Start Blogging and/or Tweeting

My blog gave me a great platform to prove that I knew what I was talking about. I was able to quickly establish a reputation as an ‘expert’ and, because blogs naturally rank highly in search engines, I quickly became more visible.

When I started my business in 2003 Twitter didn’t exist, but I couldn’t live without it now. I use it mainly as a way to learn and connect, but it’s also an excellent way to demonstrate expertise – and especially useful for those who don’t like to write. On Twitter, you don’t need to have a blog as long as you link to blog posts or articles that are useful.

What you can do: Blogging is easy to do if you like to write. For as little as an hour or two a week, you can establish yourself as an authority on your chosen subject. Two great options are www.blogger.com andwww.wordpress.com. Both are free and easy to use. Once you’ve opened your account and chosen from some design options, you can start typing.

Twitter is even easier. Just join and start connecting with other people.

In both cases, the key thing is to have a strategy. What is your goal for your blog/Twitter page? How do you want people to think of you? I wanted people to see me as an expert on resume writing and job search, so I keep my blog and Twitter page focused on those.

In Summary

If 30% of people use Google to search for business associates, imagine how many more will do so a year from now. That’s why it is crucial to start establishing yourself online. As my experience shows, anyone can do it with some hard work and a clear plan. Using my four-step strategy, I was able to build over 30,000 references my company on Google within one year. 7 years later, there are 771,000. You can do the same if you work at it.

Written byLouise Fletcher

How important is your digital footprint?

Your digital footprint includes the pictures, videos, social media posts, emails, tweets, and other content you share on the Internet.  The media and words you post, the people you follow and “like”, and the places you visit can all have an impact on your future opportunities.  Remember, once you post something it is no longer under your control.

Your digital footprint can:

• Influence your admission to colleges. An article in the Huffington Post from February 2011 suggests that 80% of college admissions officers use Facebook to check out students.

• Influence your potential future employer’s decision to hire you. According to a CareerBuilder survey, as many as 37% of employers are checking out prospective employees on social media before they make a final decision.  A Search Engine Journal study suggests that the number is closer to 53%.  Both studies show that the numbers are increasing every year.

• Lead to criminal charges against you. An August 4, 2012 USA Today article shares how Facebook and MySpace posts were used in a court case.

• Lead to school discipline. The digital environment you learn, work, and play in can be a very public space.  Your digital footprint follows you everywhere and can impact you and other students while in school.

Your digital footprint is IMPORTANT, so make it a positive one!Here are two videos on the http://myfootprintsd.com/index.html website from a brave high school student willing to share a couple of her real-life stories.  Please don’t put yourself in a position to have these situations or situations similar to these happen to you.

Please remember that each of you signed an agreement that requires you to be a good digital citizen.  You are being held to a high standard and are required to do the following:

1. Respect Yourself

1. Protect Yourself

1. Respect Others

1. Protect Others

1. Respect Intellectual Property

1. Protect Intellectual Property

Here are some additional resources related to digital footprints:

• Common Sense Media: Digital Footprint Intro

• SchoolTube: Protecting Your Digital Footprint

• Digital Footprints - Your New first Impression

Thank you for taking the time to read this, for keeping your digital footprint positive, and for thinking before you post.

Source:  Mr. Weinert, Director of Technology, Leyden CHSD 212Mr. Weinert
Direct Link to the source

Reflection on employers use of social media

Employer’s Use of Social Networking Sites

Millions of people are, nowadays, using social networking sites to connect with others and employers are using these sites as a source of background information on job applicants. Employers report making decisions not to hire people based on the information posted on social networking sites.

Despite the infancy of social networking sites, surveys by various entities over the last few years have found a growing trend of employers conducting online checks using social networking sites for information on job applicants. An employer can type an applicant’s name into a search engine such as Google to see what he or she finds. Some social networking sites allow Internet search engines to search the names of its users and make public profiles available. Some employers have their own Facebook accounts and may be able to see more than the public profiles, depending on the friends-of-friends links and privacy settings. In this way, an employer can get a quick ‘‘character’’ picture of an applicant, depending on what is available online (Campbell cited in Clark and Robers, 2010).

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Business leaders are increasingly investing in internal social networking platforms to spur informal or casual employee learning, to communicate programs or policies, or to build a sense of community among virtual employees. Private, cloud-based networking services such as Yammer, Chatter or Jive are supplementing or replacing e-mail, intranet sites or wikis in some organizations. They give employees an outlet to make collaborative decisions across distances, to share lessons learned or simply to feel more connected to colleagues. Employers gauge value from these networks by measuring whether they are achieving faster organizational problem-solving, more-efficient communication or cost-effective learning. Interactions on these networks can also offer advantages of scale, because the solution to one person's problem is visible to many (Zielinski 2012).

But what actually bothers employers while looking at our social media profiles?

They want to see memberships in professional organizations. Volunteering and charity work also work positively in your favor. If you have blogs or find articles about the industry you’re trying to break into, those are great posts. Be wary when posting overtly political, religious, or sensitive issues- you don’t want to engage in debates or offend anyone. As a recruiter for a staffing firm, you want to make sure your candidates put their best food forward. Caution them to take full use of all privacy settings. All sensitive content or doubtful pictures should be removed or hidden from view. Make sure to review all your social media profiles periodically to ensure the content is appropriate and is an asset rather than a liability (click here for more info).

Indeed, 44% of recruiters said that trashing an employer on social media is enough to land an applicant in the reject pile, according to a Corporate Executive Board study, in 2012, of 215 recruiters. Just 26% said they view a résumé typo the same way. Inappropriate language was considered unforgivable by 30% of those surveyed; 17% looked at excessive personal information that way.

Companies are also using social media to pick up on more subtle clues about job applicants' work styles. Pete Maulik, chief strategy officer at Fahrenheit 212, a New York-based innovation consulting firm, says he was close to hiring an "excellent" candidate last year when he decided to check the man's LinkedIn profile as a final precaution. That's when he realized the candidate probably wasn't a team player, he says (The Wall Street Journal Online, 2012).

"He took credit for everything short of splitting the atom," Mr. Maulik says. "Everything was, 'I did this.' He seemed like a lone wolf. He did everything himself."

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Another promising job applicant used his Twitter account to disparage just about every new innovation in the marketplace, he recalls. "It became clear he was much more comfortable as the critic than the collaborative creator," Mr. Maulik says.

The company didn't hire either candidate, he says.

Likewise, ProProfs, a California firm that specializes in online testing tools, was close to signing on a freelance writer when a LinkedIn check showed the candidate was freelancing for another company, says CEO Sameer Bhatia. The candidate confessed to omitting that detail, saying the existing employer had demanded exclusivity (The Wall Street Journal Online, 2012).

"We saw this as a sign of dishonesty and lack of loyalty," Mr. Bhatia says, adding that the company didn't hire the writer.

While some employers may be willing to overlook the occasional rowdy photo or off-color tweet, it goes without saying that any post linking a job candidate to illicit activity such as drinking and driving or illegal drugs, or to racist or sexist behavior, won't go over well.

Surprisingly, some job seekers have yet to absorb that message, recruiters say.

Max Drucker, CEO of Social Intelligence Corp., which screens job applicants on behalf of companies, estimates that 5% to 10% of Internet background checks for clients turn up red flags, even though each job candidate must give consent in order to be screened. "You cannot believe the stuff we see," he says. "You'd be surprised how many people still keep their Facebook profiles public."

What are hiring managers looking for on social media?

Hiring managers are using social media to evaluate candidates’ character and personality outside the confines of the traditional interview process. When asked why they use social networks to conduct background research, hiring managers stated the following:

· To see if the candidate presents himself/herself professionally – 65 percent

· To see if the candidate is a good fit for the company culture – 51 percent

· To learn more about the candidate’s qualifications – 45 percent

· To see if the candidate is well-rounded – 35 percent

· To look for reasons not to hire the candidate – 12 percent

However, some companies are reluctant to add social-media checks to their hiring process, saying they believe the negatives outweigh the positives. "It's very difficult to defend yourself when you reject a candidate," says Neil Sims, a managing director at executive search firm Boyden.

By going online, employers expose themselves to all kinds of information that cannot be legally considered in the hiring process, such as religion, race, gender and health status, says Social Intelligence's Mr. Drucker. Some factors could sway the employer, even if only subconsciously. It might be difficult for an employer to hire a pregnant woman, for example, knowing that she might soon take maternity leave, he says (The Wall Street Journal Online, 2012).

Still, with so much information available online these days, when it comes to social media screening, "employers are damned if they do, damned if they don't," Mr. Drucker says.

It is my firm belief, that companies and employers should stop spying on employees' social media profiles, except those of course that have initially been created for job-seeking purposes  (e.g. LinkedIn, glassdoor on Facebook). The data that is uploaded to each user's profile concerns only the individual that has upload it and his so-called "virtual friends". However, since we are now seeing the age of Digital Information, meaning that online data can be viewed by millions at the same time, all social media users should make themselves comfortable with the creation of private profiles and limited profile viewing options. All profiles should be private and accessible only to each user's "friends". On the other hand, employees should understand that depending on their position within the company they have to act accordingly. For example, a Senior Marketing Manager in a multinational company, should try and adapt solemn profiles in most of his social media accounts, especially if it is accessible to his colleagues. 

To sum up, I believe that it is unfair for employees to be judged because of their digital profiles. Employers will continue to do so, so all users should seek information on how to create private profiles, implement different visibility settings on different friend groups and on how to use social media to their advantage by allowing employers see the information they want to see.