By Chandlee Bryan
You know it’s important to have good street cred, but do you know your G cred? Short for “Google Credibility,” G Cred is defined by the Urban Dictionary as “What someone sees when they Google your name, business, product, organization or whatever. It’s an increasingly important measure of legitimacy and how seriously someone will take you.”
Today, your G cred may be more important for your career than your resume: 90 out of 100 executive recruiters surveyed by ExecuNet say they do online searches on candidates.
“Even Dick Bolles, author of ‘What Color is Your Parachute’ says that Google search results are the new resume,” says Donna Sweidan, a Stamford, Connecticut-based career coach who works with a national client base. “Most people don’t realize the information that is available about them online—from political contributions to real estate transactions. What people see in the first two pages of your Google search results can make the difference between getting called for an interview or not.”
Most employers say a positive online reputation influences hiring decisions, but if search results cast doubt on your candidacy, you’ll likely never hear about it. In fact, a recent survey from the Society of Human Resource Management found that only 27 percent of companies give candidates for employment the opportunity to explain adverse findings.
Fortunately, there’s a lot you can do to control your Google Search results. Here’s a quick three-step process you can use to manage your online reputation:
1. Know what’s being said about you. Vizibility.com andOnlineIDCalculator.com offer free assessments of your Google search results that take less than 30 minutes. These tools can help you benchmark your current online presence—and set goals for how you want your search results to be seen.
2. Be visible. One easy way to do this is to build a strong, clean presence on sites with a high level of traffic. Google, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn all rank in the top 15 global sites for traffic as measured by web metrics firm Alexa. Maintain a strong presence on these sites and you’ll instantly influence your search results.
“Building out a strong presence on LinkedIn is a must-do,” says Sweidan. “87% of employers responding to a recent JobVite survey on social recruiting say they use LinkedIn to find candidates, yet most of my clients come to me with an incomplete profile. LinkedIn says completing your profile increases the likelihood you’ll be contacted about potential employers by 40 times. It’s an easy way to put yourself out there.”
Do you share your name with someone else? Use your middle initial or name—and keep that name and your message consistent on your resume and across social media platforms. “If you work in the biotech industry, you want to make it clear that you are in that industry on every site you maintain a presence on.” says Sweidan. “Using consistent language helps you look focused and conveys a message that you know what you’re doing. It makes it easy for employers to scan your search results and feel confident about hiring you.”
3. Know—and control—what’s being said about you. Setting up a Google News Alert on your name can help you stay informed on any information that hits the wires. You’ll get an e-mail with search results so that you can follow-up. Receive a good hit or two? Share it in your LinkedIn status update. Share your name with a Nobel Prize winner? A serial killer? Another guy in your field? You can make share that news, too. Just say, “Hey, I’m not that guy, but…”
Follow these three simple steps and you’ll be well on your way to establishing and ruling your own online search results. As they say at Staples: “That was easy.”
Photo Courtesy of “Man of the House”
