There's been a lot of publicity recently regarding the actions of one Mr. Alec Brownstein. This very clever guy took out some ad's on Google so that when the creative directors that Mr. Brownstein had identified as those for whom he wanted to work googled themselves, his ad would appear. The picture below sum's it up nicely and there is a nice video explaining the whole "Google Experiment" here.
Obviously, it's very clever and while Brownstein probably isn't the first, it is certinaly the most highlighted incident of this nature. It raises a question in my mind - do we maximise, or at least use, our online presence for potential employment? How could we do it better? This is clearly one answer for the later question.
Perhaps, this will see a small shift in how the recruiting industry operates with a new Facebook app or Linked-In equivalent offering targeted google ad's? The rise of social networking sites has probably led to the demise of people managing their own domain, like "Alecbrownstein.com" - I say probably because I don't have any facts to back that statement up but it seems reasonable to assume there are more Facebook, MySpace and Bebo users than there are owners of their own, personal domains.
However, merely having a presence on one of the aforementioned social network sites may not be enough. Like in "real" life, most people like to keep their social and work lives somewhat seperate. There are countless tales told of a Facebook entry or a shared picture which has cost the friend of a friend a job. This leads, of course, to the privacy and Facebook discussion but it also raises another point - Do we need a number of online persona's? While we choose to use Facebook, will we HAVE to use another for professional matters? If so, what is the relationship between those, if any? Is there, or should there be, some glue holding all of these together and, perhaps more importantly, how can we ensure the right people see the right content?
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