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Jewish World Review Dec. 9, 2011 / 15 Kislev, 5772 Using ‘Vizibility’ to enhance your online image By Mark Kellner
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
About two years ago, James Alexander, a tech industry executive who'd spent seven years at Adobe Systems, couldn't find himself.
It wasn't amnesia, or the first stirrings of a midlife crisis. Instead, Mr. Alexander was searching online, specifically using Google Inc.'s search engine, and came up with "about 22,200,000 results," as a Google search declares. Needless to say, not all of these were about him.
While that could be a search engine problem related to having two first names as your full name -- "James" and "Alexander" -- it's not limited to that circumstance. In an interview this week, Mr. Alexander said research found about 2,000 members of LinkedIn, the popular, business-related online networking site, "with the same name as someone on the FBI's 'Ten Most Wanted' list."
In an era when Google searches related to job applicants are very common, that's not a good place in which to find yourself. Nor might you want a potential employer to search for you and instead find your doppelganger's Facebook page, complete with photos of massive beer infusions at a frat party.
How to rise above the online confusion? Mr. Alexander suggests Vizibility.com, the two-year-old online firm he founded, where he's the chief executive officer. As he describes it, "Vizibility is like a 'Google Me' button for career professionals providing one-click search to the results they want others to see first." Having set up my own Vizibility account rather easily, I now have a link which directs people to the Google results I'd rather they see. My full search results remain available on the main Google site, and Vizibility.com's "profile" includes a button visitors can use to view those results.
A basic account is free; the firm also sells various "premium" items and services that might appeal to small business and professional people, among others.
So far, so good. But how do you get this link out to the people who may be interested in this information? For that, Mr. Alexander suggests two things: a "search me" button you can place on Web pages, in e-mail signatures and elsewhere online, and a QR code, which is short for "quick response code," a multidimensional bar code that can pack a lot of information into a small square. Print the code on your business cards, resume, or letterhead, and you can be "found" easily. A user just scans the QR Code, which they can do using an app for most smartphones including the Apple, Inc. iPhone, and more information appears, including a link to one's Vizbility page.
You can now give someone a business card with you name, phone number and the QR Code; they can scan the code and then find you. Did you move last week? No problem: update your Vizibility info and your new address is available instantly.
Mr. Alexander said research shows 50 percent of hiring managers have looked up applicants on Google and either eliminated candidates based on what was found -- or on what was not found. If you say you were a product manager at a major firm, for example, it's expected your name would be on news releases from that company announcing new products. If those announcements aren't easily found, it might raise questions about what your job really was.
Using Vizibility, however, you can link to a key news announcement, trade magazine profile or whatever you desire; the "quick search" shows five Web links of your choosing.
Most important, Vizibility can let you stand out as you, and not as someone with your same name. Julie Walraven, a career marketing strategist and owner of DesignResumes.com in Wausau, Wisconsin, likes the concept.
"I know job seekers who have common names and they have struggled with identity issues," Ms. Walraven wrote in an e-mail. "I could see this as an excellent tool to review and keep results that fit your profile and diminish other people's influence on your results."
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JWR contributor Mark Kellner has reported on technology for industry newspapers and magazines since 1983, and has been the computer columnist for The Washington Times since 1991.Comment by clicking here. © 2011, News World Communications, Inc. Reprinted with permission of The Washington Times. Visit the paper at http://www.washingtontimes.com |
Arnold Ahlert | |||||||||||
