Go on. I dare you. What will you find? Will it be good? Will it be bad? Or will you not show up at all?
As a project manager, communication is my job. First impressions set the tone for that communication. While you can recover from a bad first impression, it is more desirable to benefit from a good first impression. I dress appropriately. I think before I speak and I search for myself online periodically to make sure that nothing unintended shows up. So, what could I possibly be missing?
The answer came to me this past spring while I was prepping to call the primary stakeholder for a new project. I did my usual due diligence before the initial phone call. I checked LinkedIn and Facebook. I Googled her name and skimmed through the first couple of pages of the search results.
If I am lucky, I usually find a couple of profiles that give me an idea of the personality of the person I am about to work with as well as a vague assessment of their experience. If I am really lucky I can glean a common interest or two to help me build a rapport early on.
This time I found a beautifully crafted and polished web persona. There were multiple profiles and lots of participation in online discussions. I quickly assessed that she was an expert in her field. The few personal items I had found about her family and interest also made her feel approachable. I found myself actively looking forward to working with her.
Before this, I thought my web persona was ‘good enough’. This gave me a whole new standard to measure against. In this day and age of technology, many first impressions are made online. I had been taking steps to ensure that I did not make a bad impression online but the benefit of making a good first impression had somehow never occurred to me.
At this point most everyone knows that you can get fired, or get excluded from the interview list for that new job based on inappropriate things that might show up in an internet search, but preventing the bad from showing up is no longer good enough. Your online profile is your brand. You have to present yourself online the way you want to be perceived in your professional life.
What is the best way to do this? Be honest, be personable (which means it is OK to show a glimpse into your personal life or interests), but also be polished. Even when you are not looking for a job, you need to keep your profiles updated, participate in discussions, and be active in your profession online. If you want tips on how to better communicate or present yourself, I recommend listening to The Public Speaker Podcast.
This active participation in your profession online also keeps your head in the game. Day after day of only dealing with your own projects up close, you start to lose perspective. Online participation is a valid way to gain that perspective back. It also gives those you work with, or are about to start a project with an idea of who you are and what your strengths are. Projects are always on a tight deadline. If you can skip the process of convincing your stakeholders that you are an expert in your field before the project even begins, then you are ahead of the game…and ahead of schedule.
Once you have all this good stuff out there it is time to make sure you can be found. Maintaining a beautiful online presence is no good if you cannot be found. Use photos, job position, or location where appropriate to indicate to anyone doing searches that they have found the right person.
Present yourself to the world in your social network outlets as if you are marketing your brand because you are. Presentation is everything and perception is reality.
Elizabeth Ross Towles, PMP