Online personal profile primarily includes social media, your own and others affiliated with you. As mentioned in this research: 73%of recruiters are hiring candidates usi
ng social media. An online professional profile would definitely boost the chances in your hands to land a job of your dreams. For it to be authentic, however, takes time and proper management.
It is often emphasised that all pseudonyms and handles should be consistent for you to be easily identifiable. That is the first step for you to be recognised as an “authentic” person because you have so many profiles of various networks, it is difficult to miss you and wont be contradicting yourself or confusing future employers with different names. Getting it verified would be an added bonus, perhaps pay the extra amount to do so. If you are a celebrity online or even a You Tuber, being verified would help you out.
To be authentic you have to be interactive with everyone. No one is going to hire you if you have a boring profile that lists your skills sets and interests, add personality, go beyond that. Actively follow various people/organisations, leave comments on posts and be as appropriate as possible.
On the topic of being active, this article, has given insig
ht on how blogs can contribute to an online professional profile. Having a blog on your topic of interest and providing opinions arguments even talking about controversial topics can definitely paint a better picture of who you are as a person. Your online profile would be authentic if your blog posts do not talk about “my skill sets” or “my strengths and weaknesses”. Even talking about similar things over and over again would be boring. Instead, punctuate your blog posts with relevant articles to your job scope. For example, if I would like to apply for a marketing job, I would create a blog with posts such as “Apple vs. Microsoft” “where did MySp
ace go wrong?” and even “my thoughts on the latest Snapchat privacy policy”. It is also important to maintain the blog and reply to comments. This way your employers can see how are you in handling interactions at work that might not support your stand.
Last but not least, to maintain an authentic online profile, avoid saying inappropriate things ESPECIALLY if you are being/are a professional. Notice how a few comments that were posted jokingly by Justine Sacco ruined her life and chances of every getting employed. Sure freedom of speech has to be compromised if you are being professional but at the end of th
e day, which do you choose? Getting a job while being professional OR saying what you want to say with a job that you are forced in to? You can choose both by having separate online identities but then again there is the whole argument of having multiple online identities!
Image Source: http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j179/photocrap3000/are_you_legit.jpg
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Answers and more.. 
Hi Renu! I’d like to say that I am entertained with your frank and direct writing style in your post. The instructions to create an online profile are directed with specific examples.
I love how you mentioned that authenticity of an online profile would be proven when the user writes job-related blog posts, demonstrating that he is actually of substance and of good ‘fit’ to the job. If he were to state ‘My strengths’, it would look bad on him if it were a case of overselling. Letting employers sample work done by candidates could increase their chances of getting employed, as we learned in our HRM module.
You got me thinking about authenticity VS professionalism. It seems like a tradeoff between getting a job and freedom of speech that encouraged the formation of multiple online identities. Though, how great it will be to be truly authentic, saying what we want in a job we love?
I certainly hope to be LEGIT! ☺
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Hello Crystal! Awh, you are too nice thank you for those kind words! Yes, the overselling issue, might be a huge problem so to counter it blogging about issues can showcase your talents! Yes don’t worry you are legit 😀
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Hi Renu! Before reading up on this topic, I use to only think that social medias like Facebook and Instagram are primarily for entertainment purposes, never have I thought that it could be used as a recruiting tool to hire candidates. I do agree with you on managing a blog to stand out from other candidates because it shows and individual’s dedication and interest towards the related field of job. It definitely helps recruiters to have a better measure of the individual, which may increase the chances of getting hired! The actions of Justine Sacco were apparent she is not a professional, and I’m sure it has made everywhere aware of the things they are posting online, regardless of private or professional.
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Yes, before I looked at the article, I didn’t think this would be possible! I mean we always thought it was all fun and nothing else but turns out it can be used for serious issues like getting a job OMG! thank you for the comment 🙂
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Hey Renu!
Thanks for all the insights in your post! It was really fun to read. You title was very eye-catching as well. 🙂
One question though, you mentioned that it is important to use blogs as another way for us to express ourselves and showcase our personalities to potential employers. I agree with the fact that we should blog about topics related to or job scope and constantly update with new content to keep things fresh.
At the beginning of your paragraph you outlined how people should talk about our topics of interest as well as to possibly provide opinions or arguments about controversial topics. Undoubtedly, this will show different faecets of our personality but will it be conflicting? Should we even be talking about such things on a career blog? Some employers would not hire certain types of people, for example if you have opposing political views.
I strongly believe that we should talk about we feel for but certain topics may be a sensitive issue. What do you think?
Cheers~
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Hey Nicole!
Oh, I didnt put it in context hahah! Oh yes, the conflict of identity again, hmm, I agree that it might come across as showing different facets of personalities. It makes sense!! Perhaps we can blog about controversial topics in a censored way. I think avoiding it completely might lead to employers thinking that there is no colour in personality. But to be on a safe side we should not blog about controversial topics then
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Hi Renu!
Thank you for the thoughtful insight!
I agree with you that – “to be authentic you have to be interactive with everyone”. However, we must be conscious of what we are talking about as we do not wish an incident like Justine Sacco to happen again. It’s true that our profile cannot be boring as people will get bored and change to another profile quickly. To catch their attention, I guess that we need to be creative in what we put online – to capture their hearts.
Would you agree that we need to have multiple or single online identity to help us be consistent? Since we have a lot of online profile, I would think that there are pros and cons to it such as multiple to separate work and social life while single to remain authentic which also is being part of honesty as we do not have anything to hide.
What do you think?
Cheers!
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Hey WanChyng
Yes, I am a huge supporter of the concept of multiple identities.SO yes! That is one way to tackle it 🙂
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