layout: post title: Not on the web? You won't get hired created: 1098558247 categories:

• Social Media
• Search Engine Voodoo

Scoble asserts that having a presence on the web is becoming q requirement to getting hired:

I wouldn't hire anyone who can't be found in Google or MSN or Yahoo (or, better yet, all three). If you don't care enough to put at least some information about yourself on a website or a blog and get a friend who has a blog to link to you, why exactly should I hire you? Robert Scoble: Mark gives advice for getting his attention

So, wither the poor introvert/technophobe? Well, that's where I see some of these hosted services coming in. And I even have some specific examples (not that I necessarily think that either one is an introvert or a technophobe).

What kind of hosted services? Ones that offer member profiles and blogs. That are structured in a Web 2.0 fashion -- search engine optimized, clean (and memorable) URLs, and social networking features built-in. Anyone can run a service like this, and people will gravitate to ones that represent an interest or community they feel a part of. It could be regional (like Urban Vancouver), it could be a hobby, like fishing, or restaurants and food.

Now my examples.

First, Stewart Marshall. Search for him and you'll find his member profile on my site here plus his Ecademy profile. Stewart is writing at his Moose Hat Blog about (mainly) personal things, and he hasn't figured out what he wants to do with his professional site. So, these community profiles show up higher.

Next is the search for Ian Bruk. The entire first page of search results are profiles for different communities! And this is a good thing, although difficult to manage for Ian. He controls each of those profiles, so can manage the information there, manage the view that people have of him when they type his name into Google. But it's difficult to keep all these different profiles in sync, to remember to update them.

So, profiles are a good thing. Associated with different communities, communities that have high ranking, they will help you "appear" in Google -- even if you're not an A-level blogger, even if you're not a technologist. Do the things you are interested in, and you'll appear appropriately (and realistically) online.

But this mass of unconnected profiles has to stop. That's why we released the foaf.module for Drupal. It's a step in the direction of managing and connecting all those disparate profiles.