_Many senior executives even those in the technology sector are dubious about the value proposition of building a and extending their brand online. I typically get strong push-back articulated as “What’s the ROI?” and “Prove it to me.”

Remember the world as we knew it 5 years ago?  Executives said to me then, with good reason, that they have a great network, and they find all their positions though a close circle of contacts and executive search firms.   This is no longer the case.

Times Have Changed

In the current economy, employment is like musical chairs. If you are left without one when the music stops, you may be left standing a long time as fewer chairs remain and more are removed. The choice for the remaining chairs may go to the younger, up and coming candidates, or those willing to relocate, or take a level and pay cut. Further, you may be in an industry so small that there are limited options within it.

The contraction of job opportunities especially at the highest levels eliminates the recruiter calls and renders your network fallow. Companies are doing far fewer, quiet, cautious searches if any at all. The search business in general is down 40% year over year.  You contacts are looking out for opportunities as well.

At the C-level you now have to work to make opportunities happen. Consider the fact that every opening posted receives hundreds of responses even at the executive level. With those kinds of numbers, job boards are useless at the senior level.

The Networking Job Search

The value of connections, contacts and access in an economic downturn cannot be underestimated and that includes cultivating relationships with search professionals.  All opportunities move to word of mouth and referrals during a contraction. Those that have worked hard to build and cultivate a large quality network are in immensely better shape as more connections means more open doors. In a downturn you cannot have too big a network. 

The problem with networking is that after you have made the initial rounds of all your contacts letting them know you are looking is that there is no “what’s next”. You make the rounds again and come up with even fewer prospects. What is missing to answer “what’s next” is a strategy and methodology to expand your network.  This is typical.

After running through their contacts, most professionals soon realize that they need more contacts and an expanded network. In short, they need to turn strangers into networking connections starting with introductions through their immediate contacts.  

They are many ways to do this but the easiest and most efficient way is online using, initially, email, but, better still, social networking sites. Why social networking sites? They act as a repository of your background and experience for all to see. Think about it, do you want your resume circulating among indiscriminately among all your connections? Not good form really.

 

Opportunity Management

Herein lies the ROI for extending your brand online.  You want new connections to find you and think favorably of you?  The simplest way to do that is with a well branded presence online through social media tools, social networks, and even a website which is basically an online brochure where you control the marketing message instead of Linkedin et al.  They happen to be very inexpensive, simple, elegant and easy to do with a more professional presentation than the social networks. 

Given the inordinate competition for every opening and opportunity, doing making an effort to market, position and differentiate yourself online is a necessity. How else can you make a great first impression when you aren’t even there?  How else can you reach out to new connections in tangential industries and sectors and show then that your abilities would be of value and your background would not be incongruent to their products and services. 

By providing your existing network with a link to your beautifully branded social networking profiles like Linkedin, Viadeo, Facebook, etc , or your website or blog,  you have provided an online marketing brochure not just a resume.

Reputation Management  

A further case for extending and managing your brand online is if you don’t do it, others will do it for you.  You must build your brand online for reputation management.  If and when you are introduced to new potential connections by your connections, almost 50% them according to Fortune magazine statistics, will Google your name to get more information and background on you.

What shows up? The company you have been buried in for over ten years? If you are good, at personal branding and marketing perhaps a couple conference papers or presentations will surface. But are they in the sector where you were or where you want to be?

Your online visibility could be as innocuous and empty as one of my clients where absolutely nothing about him showed up except for a 12 year old paper he wrote at university about insects and crop rotation. It didn’t help his search cause at all since he is in the mobile telecom sector now.

Managing your reputation online is crucial to a search or career transition.  Networking connections need to see you branded for your future position not where you have been.  You cannot leave your contacts to their own devices as what they say about you. Using all the sites and tools mentioned above to create visibility and exposure is a given for a networking job search.

And the Music Plays On

 I have heard some people say that the economy is not correcting it is reset. They say that the world that we knew before 2008 is nevermore.  If that is the case then the musical chairs will continue with maybe a few added or more taken away. But the network you grow and the branded self-marketing you do will be the mainstays to see you through it all.