We’ve all heard the stories and realize the importance of building your online brand and presence. I think a fair question would be how do you measure what this really does for your career and your job search? If you are looking at this from a business point of view, you may wonder what is the ROI, or more accurately, ROTI (Return on Time Invested) in building that online presence. Why do it?

For clarification, I’m not talking about your XBox 360, WoW or PS3 presence. I’m talking about your online persona as it relates to your job search and your career. We all have the same 24 hours in a day. How do you use it and does what you do really matter? I’m sure there are folks that have several hundred first level connections on LinkedIn. Maybe some of you have thousands of followers on Twitter and a FaceBook list that could fill a phone book. The key is how these people view you. Are they willing to help you get to where you want to be and put in a good word for you? Will they refer people that are the decision makers in the hiring process? If not, you need to give them a reason to.

Your online image needs to convey the appropriate level of professionalism for the job/jobs you are interested in. If you aspire to be a chef highlight those aspects in your background that push that agenda. If your career has been rooted in investment banking, and this is the direction you want to continue in, be sure folks that connect with you, follow your tweets, look at your pictures, all know you are excellent in that field. Drop hints, send pertinent links and information, be a go to person as it relates to that field so that people know you know your stuff. The other part of this is your image needs to be consistent. Don’t be one thing in FaceBook, something else in LinkedIn and another person in your tweets. You must make it a point to keep a consistent message across all of the different platforms. You and I know that employers/hiring managers are doing Google searches. Let’s not be naive and think they won’t have questions. On the other hand, if your message is not consistent, be prepared to discuss why that is the case.

The bottom line is you need to take control of who you are online. Maybe you should buy the url for your name. Maybe you need to add your info to wikipedia. Maybe we need a web clearinghouse for personal profiles that is managed by … (well I don’t know who would manage it but you get my point). You know who you are. You know what you’ve accompolished. You know where you want to be. Take control of who you are online. You’ve only got one you. Make you the you you want. (Or something along those lines.)