Ten Ways to Increase Your Online Visibility and Grab the Attention of Executive Recruiters
Whether you're in an executive job search or trying to build business, if you want the attention of an online audience, you have to position yourself right in front of them. Most executive recruiters and hiring managers are Googling candidates and making decisions based on what they find before they'll even consider talking with you. The key to getting noticed by executive recruiters is to proactively take charge of your online identity.

Following are some of the best ways to do establish your own personal online brand. These efforts have the added benefit of exponentially building your executive career network, boosting your credibility, and positioning you as an expert in your field. Remember to keep all of your communications and efforts on-brand and relevant to your areas of expertise, keeping in mind that your mission is to put yourself directly in front of the people you want to know about you, whether they are headhunters, employers, or others you wish to network with.

1. Regularly self-Google. Keep track of how many results come up when you search your name, and what the results look like. The number of results and relevance can literally change from one moment to the next. As you start incorporating the following suggestions, monitor how they affect your search results and keep doing the things that work.
2. Set up a Google Alerts account for your name and other relevant search terms. Google sends you an email whenever your name or other terms you provide are newly published online. Find out when, where, and how people are talking about you.
3. Purchase the domain name for "yourname.com" (or as close as you can get to your actual name). This one costs almost nothing – about $7-10 a year. You may not know what to do with your domain name now, or use it right away, but you'll need it in the not-too-distant future.
4. Create an on-brand e-signature for email, business cards, etc. Write a brand-charged tagline to briefly describe you. Along with your contact information, include your website/blog URL and links to your online social networking profiles. Lead executive recruiters and others directly to your accurate, branded online information.
5. Join appropriate online social/business networking sites (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.). Executive recruiters and hiring managers routinely troll LinkedIn membership for candidates. Brand and power-up your profile to attract attention. Cut and paste chunks of your branded executive resume into appropriate spots. Start connecting and tapping into the hidden job market.
6. Start blogging. This is easily one of the most powerful ways to increase search results and visibility, cultivate community/networking, and build credibility. Search engines love blogs because the content is relevant and ever-expanding. Contribute several times a week to your own blog, guest blog and/or comment on relevant blogs. To build community and your network, refer and link to other relevant blogs in your posts. To direct more eyeballs to your own blog, remember to include a link to it in your other online marketing efforts wherever you can.
7. Launch your website and online executive career portfolio. Make it easy for executive search firms and others who are researching you to find out everything you want them to know about you, in just one click. Include all your career marketing materials – executive resume, case studies, achievement summary, leadership initiatives, career bio, etc.
8. Write book reviews for Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc. Set up an account and create another online branded profile to attract attention. Your reviews immediately begin spreading and popping up on other online bookseller's sites, further increasing your search results and visibility.
9. Get involved with professional associations. Choose to be part of sites that attract the people you need to get in front of. Participate in their online forums and blogs; present teleseminars/webinars to position yourself as an expert, and/or publish articles, tip sheets, white papers, etc.
10. Share your expertise on major online forums. Yahoo! Answers, Yahoo Groups, Google Groups, LinkedIn Q&A, and Wiki Answers are just some of the possibilities. Joining discussions is a great way to make connections and position yourself as a niche expert.

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BlueSteps is the exclusive service of the AESC that puts senior executives on the radar screen of over 6,000 executive search professionals in over 70 countries. Be visible, and be considered for up to 50,000 opportunities handled by AESC search firms every year. Find out more at www.BlueSteps.com.