How DoYouBuzz Can Help You Create & Maintain A Positive Online Presence – Interview with Evy Wilkins – Part 2

Earlier this week, Evy Wilkins, the COO for the US Operations of DoYouBuzz, shared with us the idea behind creating DoYouBuzz, a new innovative and effective approach to online resume creation.

In this Part 2 of the multi-part interview series, Evy tells us about the added value that DoYouBuzz brings to regular professionals like you and me and how DoYouBuzz can help us create and maintain a positive online presence. She also touches upon how DoYouBuzz, with it’s sophisticated search / keyword algorithms, is well positioned to bring your online resume up on top in relevant search engines results.

Then we learn that it takes less than 5 minutes to get started with creating our free online resumes on DoYouBuzz.com. Later, Evy talks about the Facebook integration that is built into DoYouBuzz and how you can network very effectively using all these services of DoYouBuzz to land that next job or gig that you have been dreaming about until now!

Interview with Evy Wilkins of DoYouBuzz – Part 2

So what is DoYouBuzz and what value does it provide to someone like me?

Okay, DoYouBuzz is about creating personal professional spaces for people on the web.  We offer a next-generation online resume to professionals.  That means it is a resume website.  So, each professional is equipped with very simple tools to create an entire website dedicated to their professional offering—their personal brand, for example.

The value that it brings to professionals is that there’s two major benefits: one is that you increase your visibility, both online and off, and secondly, you are much better able to promote yourself and your skills.

And why do I really need an online resume?

That’s a great question.  You know, today most resumes are still created on Microsoft Word, and they’re sent around as files.  And if you look at how people recruit today and where people are meeting, and where you are networking—sure, offline networking is very important, but a lot of what we do and a lot of what people think of us happens online today.  So, it might be your behavior online: how are you commenting on blogs and things like that, which networks are you active in?  All of this stuff creates an online identity, and so it’s important to manage that identity and control what people find.

So one way of doing that is to very attractively present your resume or your professional experience, or who you are online.  And what DoYouBuzz offers is a search engine optimized resume-website so that when someone looks you up, they find your resume immediately.  And that’s the first impression they get.

It’s like, when you meet someone, you want to shake their hand firmly.  Online you want to have a place where people can go and get the right information.

Yeah, because I noticed that a lot of employers are Googling and searching for people, potential candidates, on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn?

Yeah, definitely.  I believe about 77% of recruiters say that they will Google a candidate at some point during the recruitment process.  And they’re not really looking for bad pictures of you on Facebook and things like that; they’re trying to just get a better idea of who you are, which is easy today, because online, you know, we leave our opinions and our activity online so that people can learn more about us.

And so, while that might seem scary that people are looking us up, what’s interesting is that most recruiters say that a positive online presence is a big factor in a hiring decision.  So that could be something that you’ve done or created online could be that thing, that element that tips the balance in your favor.

That’s true – that makes sense.  So how do I go about creating a profile on DoYouBuzz?

It’s very simple, and in just about five minutes you can get set up—less than that.  You come to DoYouBuzz, create an account – DoYouBuzz.com – create an account.  We just need your e-mail address and a password.  And then you just start filling in the information.

If you already have a LinkedIn profile you can import it and kind of fill out the basic information on your resume, and then you can just go from there.  You can add video, you can add images, you can add documents.  And one thing that I really like to tell people: the benefit of an online resume is that you are no longer limited to that one page.

I think a lot of people, especially when they’re starting out in their career, they’re like, you know, How do I fit it all on one page? I have a lot to say, or I want to demonstrate what I’ve done.  On a online resume you use your first, your homepage, like your one-page resume, keep it short and to the point, and then you can build up your arguments – you know, explain a lot more in those secondary pages.

Okay, great.  And how much does it cost, and what are the different types of accounts you offer?

Sure! So, DoYouBuzz- it’s free!  We have a free account that gives you one resume that will also give you access to almost all of the features.  And that is free forever.  We also offer a premium account for 49 dollars a year.  And with this account you get, most notably, your own URL.  So you can have yourname.com, for example.  You can also have a larger portfolio and access to some of our more premium design templates.

Okay, which probably makes it more professional looking?

Well, the personal – you know, that URL, that is very professional.  That can surprise people.  But otherwise, you know, with a free account, you’ll have a URL that’s http://DoYouBuzz.com/your-firstname-lastname

Okay, great.  And I noticed a Facebook feature or link in you site.  So, can you tell us a little bit more about that?

Yeah, it’s a really exciting feature, because Facebook is definitely a place to meet people and network.  Some people use it personally, some use it professionally.  If you do want to have a professional image on Facebook, which is a great idea, you can actually export your resume to your Facebook profile and we’ll create an extra tab, so you’ll have your wall, you’ll have your photos, and then it will say “Resume“.  And if you click on that, then you’ll see the homepage content.  And then if someone is looking at that, they can click on the link and go to your full resume as well.

Oh, that’s awesome.  Another way to network.

Yeah, it’s another way to network, it’s another way to just ensure that people are getting the right image—you know, that you’re projecting the right image, or at least the image you want to project.  And the other thing, too, is that resume is then synchronized, so you don’t have to update your Facebook resume; you just update your DoYouBuzz resume.

That’s great for lazy people like me!

The idea is to make it very simple.

Further Reading.

This ends Part 2 of our interview with DoYouBuzz COO for US Operations, Evy Wilkins. In the last of this series, in Part 3, we will learn more about the technology that powers DoYouBuzz, and in turn powers your postive online presence.

Meanwhile, do check out these articles in the new media that raise awareness about the importance of creating and maintaining a postive online presence using an online resume service like DoYouBuzz.

1. More Employers Use Social Networks to Check Out Applicants (NYTimes Blogs – 2009)
2. Job Applicants BEWARE: You’re Being Googled (Monster.com – 2007)
3. 45% Employers use Facebook-Twitter to screen job candidates (Oregon Business Report 2009)
4. Job candidates getting tripped up by Facebook (MSNBC – 2007)
5. For Some, Online Persona Undermines a Résumé (NYTimes – 2006)