• Are employers searching for you online?
• What will they find out about you?
• Do you know the latest fashions for LinkedIn profiles?

Increasingly, Recruiters and Human Resource professionals research potential employees online via their LinkedIn profile. Thus, your reputation or personal brand is an essential career management issue. If this it hasn't yet impacted you, just wait until your next promotion or job search. What is your online reputation?

In order to maximize your strengths and promote a strong personal brand, check out this article using the Business School concept of SWOT Analysis. What Are Your Strengths And Weakness – SWOT Analysis? What is your Unique Selling Proposition? Why Should Employers Hire you?

There aren’t any consistent statistics on how many companies are checking out candidates online; estimates vary from a low of 20% to a high of 50+!' The writing is on the wall and this level of 'snooping' or candidate research is on the upswing. At GSU, our career counseling team has spoken to many HR professionals and recruiters about this. Off the record, the majority admit that they do check out candidates' LinkedIn profiles and online reputation, especially before calling candidates for interviews and when recruiting Business professionals for key roles.

This trends is already in full swing. Job candidates are being recruited based on the '”online,” LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter contacts' they can bring to a company! This is no different than the 'book' or Rolodex of contacts from our father's generation - just that now the contacts are online. In fact, Best Buy pre-screens job seekers for social media roles, based on a having at least 250 Twitter Followers! This contagion is spreading beyond the borders of IT, CIS and Social Media jobs.

Thus, I advise my business clients and graduate students to include their LinkedIn URL address in the Header section of their resumes. (see my post on Resume Fashions: What’s Hot, What’s Not! (Part I). An online, LinkedIn address is becoming as important an 'address' as a home address.

In Accounting circles we refer to the top employers as the Big 4. In Social Media, Personal Branding and Career Management circles we now refer to the top online, Social Networking sites as the Big 3: LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Companies are analyzing whether you are who you say you are and if your online image fits their company image. Your professional image is largely determined by what’s on your LinkedIn profile. Employers will Google you and vet your LinkedIn profile. Google yourself and find out@! What is your current online image? Don't have one? What does this say about you?

LinkedIn Fashion Tips and Faux Pas: What's hot and what's not!

1. Not Hot or Faux Pas: Many, many profiles still have spelling, grammar and punctuation errors on the main page. Also, people are still creating their LI page by copying and pasting their resume content. This is not recommended. LI has it's only style conventions, norms and protocols. Also, proofread your professional recommendations, before you accept and post them on your LI page. If there are errors, email the corrections to the "referral source" and ask them to resubmit it.

2. Not Hot, in fact useless. The standard, LI Profile completeness score is an empty statistic! Most people are easily fooled when they see a high percentage % of completeness score. This score reflects quantity, and shows that you have filled in some of the blanks. It is NOT a score which accesses quality. It is equivalent to turning in a 10 page book report after the instructor specified it should be 10 pages long. Do you deserve an A or 100% because it is 10 pages in length? Or is the content and quality more important than the length? I use a special LI assessment tool with my clients to really analyze their profile strength, identify weakness’ and build their site. This is essential.

3. Newly Hot: In the early days of LinkedIn 2-3 years ago, the majority of people didn't have photos on their profile page. The tide has turned, and most people have a head shot. An Avatar is not advisable and can be viewed with suspicion. Get a fresh, professional head shot and post it. If you are a brand, you want people to relate to you and without a product image - you - this is much more difficult.

4. Very Hot: under the ‘Websites section,’ you can include custom titles and custom URL links. The standard titles: “My Company” and “My graduate school” are okay. You can create custom titles using the "Other” category of URL and provide more details. Again, this is all about standing out in a crowd and differentiating yourself.

5. Smokin' hot: create a Vanity URL for your LI address. This is just like a custom license plate for your car - only it's free! This will show people that you are in the know and are social media savvy. Don't just keep the random jumble of numbers, letter assigned to you. Pay attention to your online, personal brand!

Find a career counselor who is versed in using social media for career managment, personal branding and job search. Used correctly LinkedIn is a fabulous research tool for gathering intel about companies, employers, industry trends or individuals. LinkedIn and other online, social media are continually evolving, so should you.

For the remainder of this article, I will use LI as an abbreviation for LinkedIn.

1. Not Hot! Inconsistent format, grammar and style. Do not just copy and paste your resume onto your LI page! A LinkedIn Webpage has its’ own unique style conventions, norms and idiosyncrasies. Each section and subsection should flow seamlessly. Use action verbs. Use consistent tenses – ie: past tense for past jobs. Do not use past, passive verbs. This shows a lack of confidence. Conduct a people search and check out how other professionals in your field style their LI pages.

2. Hot! Attention to detail and thoroughness will win you points! Provide detailed summaries of your work history. Listing your job titles alone – is not enough. Also, similarly to a resume, no one wants to read a “shopping list” of what you did. Instead describe the highlights and how you went above and beyond your stated role. For your education section don’t just list the names of schools you attended. List your professional associations, positions of leadership in school clubs/teams/sports. Show that you were an active participant. If your schooling is more than 10 years old and you have been in industry the whole time, don’t list dates.

3. Very Hot! Quantify what you did, show the ROI *(return on investment). You should always be earning more for a company, than what you are paid. Beware if you are in an inverse situation; higher salary, but your division/company is earning less/losing money or if you are in a cost center rather than a revenue generating center. You could lose your job. Employers want someone who is valuable, who brings skills that other workers do not have and who can save them money. When helping my clients craft custom LI pages, I ask them to add the size, scope, staff, scale, cost savings etc for each section of their profile.

4. Double Hot! Use LI as a cornerstone for your online, personal brand. Use your LI address and custom URL on your resume, business cards, brochures, e-zines, blogsites etc... If you are on other social networking sites but don’t have a blog, use your LI address as your main web-page. Each time a site is linked to another site, your Google page rankings increase.

5. LI Apps are Hot and Free! There are many applications on LinkedIn which demonstrate your value. I particularly like the RSS feeds, Blogger and Wordpress feeds. Your network can see your weekly posts and you will position yourself as an expert. Upload and attach documents, upload your blog, recommend books, update your status regularly. No one wants a stale LI page. Keep it fresh.

6. Not hot! Forgetting to link all of your Social Media together. Save time by connecting your LI to your Twitter to your Facebook. Once they are all connected a single comment or update will post to all 3 sites. Twitter founder and CEO and LI founder and CEO are best buds and have just signed an agreement for auto posting from both sites. Twitter and LI reciprocity is the easiest type to set up.

7. Very Hot! Advanced LinkedIn. Become an SME Subject Matter Expert. Get and answer Q & A for the general, LinkedIn population and for individual group discussions. People will rate the quality of your answers and this will greatly boost your profile and brand! Build your brand. Don’t be the neighbor who always asks to borrow ladders, tools, lawnmowers, but is never there to return the favor. You will get a bad reputation as a spammer or a “taker” if this is your approach to LI. Provide value to other LI members by posting answers to discussion threads within your groups. Create your own discussion threads. Read blogs about LI and learn about trends.

8. Hot, posting recommendations on your LI page. If you are good at what you do, people will recommend you on LI and/or ask you to recommend them. Determine your personal rules for requesting or writing recommendation. I always recommend quality of recommendations over quantity. Post selective recommendations which are detailed, relevant and substantive. If you have a dozen+ recommendations, I’d wonder how many jobs you have had and/or delve into your recommenders’ LI profiles to verify legitimacy. Remember, once given a LI recommendation can hang around for years.

9. Molten Hot! Remember, unlike a resume, LI is a Social Networking site. You will need to be “social” and contribute to the community. Join industry and trade groups on LinkedIn and become an SME, Subject Matter Expert. Group membership is as valuable if not more so than network connections. By joining industry groups, you can directly email most people in the group without introductions!

10. Not Hot, spamming and incorrect use of groups. This is an ongoing, educational process and we have all been guilty of this at one time or another – usually due to ignorance. Mea Culpa. Read the groups' rules carefully, before, during and after joining. Does the group fit for you? Use the subgroups and group pages tabs correctly. Currently the group membership limit is 50, but there isn’t limit to subgroups. Do not spam your groups with marketing materials or endless self promotion – strike a balance. Use subgroups to post jobs, events, promotions etc. The main discussion sections for most groups are just that, a forum to ask and answer pressing industry questions. This is not where you post “buy my widgets for $19.99! This may be posted under the “related services” tab or subgroup section.

11. Hot and may save your reputation (&*%*^@#$! Educate yourself about LI privacy settings and permissions. Beware: if you have set up an RSS Blog feed and your posts are rants about your job/boss! If your boss is in your network – (s)he will get your weekly rants, err blog posts delivered into their inbox as member updates! Do not list “looking for a job” in the title under your name, if coworkers, boss’ are members in your network. I have had several clients who did this, without understanding the privacy implications.

12. Bonus Hot Fashion Tip. Employers love to list “lifelong learning” on their job-descriptions. When I interview candidates, my favorite question is “how do you stay current in your industry?” I am looking for a very detailed answer. If you are part of LI groups, list the groups, mention the latest trends, bring up a “hot topic” – show that you are truly passionate about your field.