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By Meg Guiseppi

How Useful Is Google Plus for Personal Branding and Executive Job Search?

Google+ profile and personal branding

 

Many of the c-suite and senior-level executive job seekers I encounter are not familiar with Google+.

I suggest they create a Google+ profile, along with a LinkedIn profile, to form a base for online personal branding and building a diverse online presence.

Because they’ve often never heard of Google+, they don’t understand its value.

Read what digital marketing strategist Jon Parks, owner of Dijital Farm, had to say in a recent article at Marketing Pilgrim:

“One of the commonly cited benefits of being on Google Plus is the ability to impact organic search results (though I would argue there are many other benefits just as important). Public status updates on Google Plus are indexed by Google and can be displayed as part of organic search results through the Search Plus Your World (SPYW) feature.

This means that it is possible to get your content to rank organically for ultra-competitive search terms, at least as it relates to your social connections within Google Plus. And, since your Google Plus profile photo is displayed as part of the search engine listing, it increases the attractiveness of the listing and the likelihood that someone will click on that result. Few, if any, other social networks can provide that kind of benefit.”

My strategy for building personal branding and online visibility for my clients using a Google+ profile includes writing keyword-rich, biography-type content that is different from their resume and LinkedIn content.

A biography lends itself more to storytelling, making it easier to highlight personal attributes, and therefore communicate one’s personal brand better than a LinkedIn profile, which is typically resume-driven.

The idea is to continuously build more search results for “your name”, so that executive recruiters and hiring decision makers at your target companies will find plenty of diverse information about you, when they’re sourcing and vetting candidates.

People with more relevant search results are more attractive to them, than those who are invisible or have minimal presence in search results for their name.

Even if you don’t take advantage of the social networking aspect, Google+ provides a powerful platform to differentiate your thought leadership, areas of expertise, and value to your target employers over candidates competing against you.

It can become your homebase online if you don’t have a personal website – to which you direct links from your other online activity. People clicking on that link won’t need to log in to fully view your Google+ profile, as they have to do with LinkedIn.

© Copyright, 2013, Meg Guiseppi. All rights reserved. The content in this post, and elsewhere on this site, may not be reproduced, republished, reprinted or distributed without written permission.

Related posts:

Google Plus Profile, Personal Branding and Executive Job Search

Social Proof: Where Online Presence Meets Personal Branding

Self-Google or Doom Your Executive Job Search

photo by Magnet 4 Marketing dot Net

Filed Under: Executive Job Search, Online Identity & Online Reputation Management, Personal Branding, Social Media Tagged With: C-level Executive Job Search, c-suite branding, Google Plus, online presence

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. John Peltier says

    October 31, 2013 at 7:18 pm

    Good post! I am also finding that Google+ is increasing in importance. I think it’s one thing to say it’s worth using, but the problem quickly becomes a matter of which tool(s) provide the best ROI for an individual based upon their goals and their area of specialty.

    At a minimum, I think it’s worth giving another look at. Thanks for the post!

    • Meg Guiseppi says

      November 1, 2013 at 7:18 am

      Thanks for commenting, John.

      You bring up a good point. A personal brand communications plan will only be effective if it’s one that can be realistically embraced and managed. It’s better to keep one’s activity to only a few channels, than to spread oneself wide, and not be able to keep up, leaving activity on some platforms stale.

  2. Walter Akana says

    October 18, 2013 at 6:53 am

    Excellent post, Meg!!

    I agree, Google+ is truly a powerful online presence builder. I’ve been using it increasingly since the beginning of the year, and am glad I did!!

    Besides the ability to present oneself in a fresh, story-driven way, the additional benefits of Google+ communities and Hangouts are a great way to interact with others!

    • Meg Guiseppi says

      October 18, 2013 at 7:49 am

      Thanks for your kind words, Walter.

      I agree that the story-telling aspect of Google+ makes it a great complement (or even contender) to a LinkedIn profile. That’s why I consider it to be a biography-driven platform, vs. LinkedIn’s resume-driven constraints. Together, the two profiles offer a fairly well-rounded online snapshot of our value to our target(s) . . . if they’re well-written, brand-reinforcing, and contain different content from each other.

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