CareerBuilder’s Rosemary Haefner hits the nail on the head in her article More Employers Screening Candidates via Social Networking sites.  Rosemary reminds us that even though resumes and cover letters are staples in promoting our personal brand that Social networking is a new but formidable tool to be reckoned with.

In June 2009, CareerBuilder conducted a survey regarding social networking and discovered that fourty-five percent of employer’s screened potential candidates using social networking sites such as Facebook – 29%, LinkedIn – 26%, MySpace – 21%, Blogs – 7% and Twitter – 11%.

Eighteen percent of Employers, who screened candidates via social networking sites, said they were encouraged to hire candidates whose profile supported factors such as character, qualifications, creativity, communication skills, good references and awards and accolades. Likewise, thirty-five percent of employers reported disregarding candidates after online screening due to provocative or inappropriate pictures and information, posts about alcohol or drug abuse, posts bad-mouthing previous employers, co-workers or clients, poor communication skills, discriminatory comments, mismatched qualifications and the sharing of confidential company information.

Haefner suggests that we clean up our online image by:

1. Clean up digital dirt before you begin your job search by removing any photos, content and links that could work against you in the employer’s eyes.

2. Consider creating your own professional group on Facebook or Brightfuse. This is a great way to establish relationships with leaders, recruiters and potential referrals.

3. Keep gripes offline. Instead post positive content whether professional or personal and do not be afraid to highlight accomplishments inside and outside of the workplace.

4. Be selective about whom you accept as friends. Remember that others can see your friends when they search you. Monitor comments made by others and consider using your block comment feature or set your profile to private so only certain friends can view it.

5. If you’re still employed, don’t mention your job search in your tweets or status updates. People have gotten fired for this or a potential employer might assume that you’re willing to search for a new job on your current company’s time, why wouldn’t you do so on theirs?

Being experts on social networking tools ourselves, we would like to highlight the power of social networking. By creating a positive online image you have within your reach a tool that can assist you at developing a palatable extensive social network and allows you to market your best product, yourself.