How to spring clean your professional online profile

How to spring clean your professional verbunden profileHow to spring clean your professional online profileIts not often a trend becomes so viral it becomes a verb - but this spring, Kondoing became a thing. Thanks to the Netflix success of Marie Kondos Japanese method of decluttering, many households are taking on the challenging of determining which things bring em joy - and which ones fall short.Though the strategy doesnt apply perfectly to your career, its smart to give your professional online presence a once over. After all, unterstellung days, Googling is usually step-one in the hiring process for most managers.And if your online profiles no longer reflect your recent work experience and current goals, career expert for Top Resume, Amanda Augustine says it sends mixed messages.If your LinkedIn profile hasnt been updated in some time or an old version of your resume is still displayed on a job board, chances are you wont be considered for the right types of positions, she con tinues. Even if youre not actively hunting for work, its good to know what relevant opportunities are available, should you decide to make a move.So how can you tidy up - and landsee results? Here, leading career experts share their best organizational hacksMake sure your profile is keyword optimizedYouve heard about search-engine optimization before, even if it isnt directly part of your role or industry. While you probably dont need professional training on research and development - utilizing keywords can upgrade your professional profiles. Specifically, on LinkedIn.Career branding expert Wendi Weiner says more than 94 percent of recruiters source potential job candidates on LinkedIn - and if you arent using the right language to attract them, youre missing out. She suggests focusing on three or four key areas of focus within your industry that mirror the work you are doing. She explains this will help you to brand yourself as an expert within your field.If you are in ausverka uf and marketing, digital communications, client relationship management, and business development are core skills that are often found in job descriptions and keywords that recruiters would be looking for, she gives as an example.Be mindful of privacy settingsPop quiz when was the last time you checked your privacy settings?This goes for most all accounts you have online - from Facebook and Instagram to Twitter and beyond. Career expert Elizabeth Whittaker-Walker reminds, anything and everything that has your name associated to it will appear in searches, whether you like it or not. Each account, for instance, should serve a different purpose and thus, have a different protocol.If you are job seeking, you may want to make all or part of your professional profiles public, so that potential employers are able to see your amazing accomplishments. If you lead sensitive work and are connected to high profile clients, you may not want your connections to be visible to the publicor peopl e outside of your network, she explains. If some of your online profiles are purely social, make sure the public only has access to photos and posts you wouldnt mind being posted in a newspaper or in your companys conference room.Create new contentYou by content, Augustine means get creative. While you dont have to start a blog or build a personal website, those are some time-consuming measures thatll definitely have all-eyes-on-you. If you dont have time - or youre not in a field that requires this type of work - consider updating LinkedIn in the same way you would Facebook.LinkedIn allows its members to publish articles on their profiles. There is also an option to add multimedia - videos, images, presentations - to your profile, which allows readers to get a more comprehensive view of you as a professional, Augustine recommends.This sends the message to employers and recruiters that youre listening and youre engaged, and more importantly, ready to hear from them.Obtain new co nnections and recommendationsHey, wintertime is when we all hibernate - but as the sun comes out, so should your appetite for networking. Weiner notes if you havent grown your reach in a while, now is the time to put effort into fostering connections. She suggests digging deep into the target companies that interest and intrigue you, and touch base with people at a lateral or higher level.From a best practice standpoint, this can lead to effectively building relationships with key persons of interest that will open more doors in the long run for your career, she explains.On that note, for anyone that youve worked with in years past - from managers to clients and colleagues - ask if theyd write you a digital recommendation. This adds character and validation to your LinkedIn profile, making you that much more attractive.Make your profile action-oriented.Whittaker-Walker says the more detailed and results-driven you can be on your online profiles, the better. Since this is what you r potential future boss could read to see if they want to interview you or not, you definitely want to make sure its impressive.She urges professionals not to merely say what you did - but describe the impact on your team, your company, your industry and so on.If you were responsible for training and managing 3 new team members last year, describe the impact of your training and management on their performance and how both impacted your companys success, she continues. Make sure you also update your profiles with the work you accomplished on major new projects and describe its impact.