Kristen Jacoway

I have to admit--I'm hooked on Website Grader by HubSpot (www. websitegrader. com). The information I get on optimizing my website is pretty cool. I had never configured a 301 redirect (so if someone types careerdesigncoach.com instead of www.careerdesigncoach.com, they end up on my website and not get an error message) until I submitted my website for a grade. For a free website, the advice you receive on optimizing your website is pretty fantastic! One of the items they grade are your inbound links to your website. I learned the importance of this in my certification as an Online Identity Strategist. Currently, I have 316+ inbound links. Part of Google's algorithm for ranking your site (this algorithm or secret sauce changes, so I'm not sure how much weight it is given), is to assess how many inbound links you have for your website. photo credit: Mathieu Ramage ... (more)

I Have Digital Dirt, Now What?

What is digital dirt? It is anything on the Internet that is unflattering about you. Run a Google search on your name and put your name in quotation marks (i.e. "Kristen Jacoway"). What did you find? Are the results consistent with the personal brand story you want to portray? What if you have the dreaded digital dirt? A study done by iProspect shows that most people (92%) will not go past page 3 on a Google search. So, the first question is what page is the digital dirt on a Google search? If it appears on pages 1-3, this could be problematic for career management and in a care... (more)

How To Use Social Media in Your Job Search

Are you struggling to figure out how to best leverage social media into your job search marketing plan? My upcoming book, "I'm Job Searching, Now What???" will delve into using social media as one of the multiple strategies in your job search. I wanted to touch on a couple of ways you might use social media in your job search with Twitter. photo credit: woodleywonderworks LinkedIn, ZoomInfo, Jigsaw, etc. all provide a great research platform. I use LinkedIn many times when I'm researching a company because not only does it give me the company information, key statistics, news art... (more)

To Tweet or Not to Tweet?

I recently read an article about "How Social Media Can Hurt Your Job" by Rachel Zupeck and it gave me pause. Why? Because I have had people ask me who can read their tweets. If you have your tweets on a public timeline, then everyone can read your tweets. Companies have taken proactive measures to "listen" to their brand being discussed on social media platforms. It's really quite easy for them to know if you are talking about them or not. Tweetbeep, Google Alerts, Radian6, Company Buzz (LinkedIn application), etc. makes it very easy for them to "hear" when their name has been me... (more)

Are You Listening for Your Personal Brand?

Personal Branding on Ulitzer We've talked about how easy it is to create digital dirt, but are you "listening" to make sure that your personal brand isn't tarnished? I'm going to talk about three free tools you can use to monitor your own name, and if you have one, your company's name. 1) Google Alerts - make sure to set up Google Alerts to email you when your name or your company name is used. The best way to create these alerts for clean results is to put your name or company name in quotation marks (i.e. "Career Design Coach"). If I don't put "Career Design Coach" in quotation... (more)