Second thoughts about an online presence

Blogging has not landed me back on a payroll. Nor has social/professional networking, a YouTube page or a Twitter account helped me find a job. As the jobless months drag on, I wonder whether all of this online stuff has actually prevented me from being hired.

The drill for most laid-off journalists is this:

Day one: Join LinkedIn.com
Day two: Get on Facebook
Day three: Start blogging

Then let it all simmer a bit and wait for the phone to ring.

Actually, there is more to it than that, but you get my drift. We're becoming a cliche and the results are the same. The phone rarely rings. The e-mail replies from employers are scarce. The job sites, like LinkedIn.com or CareerBuilder.com, yield tons of spam but no job offers. Employers who want to hire me can't. Just not enough pennies in the pot. The new online-revenue streams aren't very deep and advertising remains flat. Hiring, particularly for newspaper companies, is spotty at best. I sense some editors and publishers wanting to capitalize on my experience by bringing me on board, but there just aren't any positions available.

There is some evidence, more so in my gut than in any scientific poll, that suggests that life on the Internet isn't a cure-all and can actually do more harm than good when searching for work. Yes, all the media and some career experts say modern-day journalists need to be tweeting up a storm and posting text, photos and video on their blogs regularly to show they are progressive and tech savvy. I can do all of that with relative ease, but it's never set well with me. I feel it's self indulgent. I think it reveals portions of myself that may not come across the way I intended. It's too easy to be misunderstood here.

For instance, I am politically independent. Yet, someone reading this blog, particularly lately, might think I am leaning towards the radical left. If that someone is in a hiring position, I am potentially screwed, depending on their political views. One edgy post in a blog of well over 200 could lead to a snap judgment. The only snap judgment I want to hear at this point is "you're hired."

Is it better to put yourself out there and run the risk of being misread? Or is it safer to remain relatively anonymous and not interact in cyberspace? These are questions job seekers wonder about.

There is no foul language or bikini-clad women in this blog. But there are opinions. As a native-New Yorker, I believe debating issues is a good and natural thing. As a one-time newspaper columnist and editorial writer, I guess this stuff is in my blood. I would think that would be a positive quality to project, especially to media companies, but I can also see how one's image could be skewed through a simple Google search.

After many months of being relatively well connected online, I've never felt so disconnected from the working world. Unemployed journalists need to find a delicate balance between being engaged online while not blogging or tweeting themselves right out of a job interview. My blog posts, LinkedIn.com and Facebook profiles, rock 'n' roll YouTube pages or anything else that comes up in a "Mick Calvacca" Google search are not the total summation of who I am. In fact, my professional personality and sensibilities are considerably different than my online persona might indicate.

There is a lot to mull over about the value of blogging and other online activities. I blog to keep my brain working and because that's what unemployed journalists do, I guess. It helps me keep up with the news and I have learned a few technical tricks along the way that might come in useful at some point. Those are good things. With that said, there is very little evidence that there are any job-finding benefits to having an online presence. What I need to figure out now is whether I am doing more harm than good by sharing some of my thoughts and interacting in such a public fashion.

Watchful eyes on an obscure blog

I wonder who is out there reading, watching, listening? My blog audience is limited, but I do appear to have a few loyal fans. They aren't official followers/subscribers, so I don't know them by name. Some folks just don't like signing up for yet another online service, I guess. Nonetheless, their site visits are appreciated. They are anonymous. The information I have on them is limited to country, city or sometimes place of business. They literally are dots on a map. Sometimes those dots are in Asia or Europe. Most of the time the hits are coming from the states, according to the free blog-traffic reports I receive.

Who is watching me in Miami? Do I know them? Are they a distant friend or just a stranger who stumbled upon my blog and became curious enough to click on it a few times a week? The only information I have is that they are somehow associated with something called Gadjraj & Sons Imports. I assume that is a business in South Florida. I would be thrilled to hear from them and to ask what it is that draws them here. I would be even more grateful to hear from them if they are a long-lost friend.

Who do I know in Manhattan, Kan., Queens, N.Y., or Potomac, Md., who checks in now and then? Of course, in my situation, I am always hoping that someone will find me through this blog and offer me a job or at least a spot in their garage band. However, that doesn't seem likely. In fact, even sites geared towards that sort of networking -- like LinkedIn.com -- produce very few tangible results for job seekers. I joined a musicians site that has yielded a grand total of one query in three months. All the hoopla about having to connect online in order to find jobs or like-minded hobbyists seems to be more myth than fact.

How often does a personal blog like this come up in a search? When I comment about President Obama does the FBI or Secret Service take note through some sort of Internet wizardry? Do I get on some agency's to-be-watched list? Doubtful. They can't even keep track of who is on the White House party list.

When I made a remark about Jerry Lee Lewis a few weeks ago my blog traffic went way up. In fact, that week's numbers were the highest I've recorded so far, leading me to think I should abandon this blog and start up a Jerry Lee Lewis site.

There are other people I don't know who come here regularly. And, unfortunately, there are some folks who visited frequently at the start of this blog but apparently lost interest, which just leads to more questions about the true value of blogging, social and professional networking.

Reconnecting more important than ever

I have spent a lot of time in the last 10 months reaching out to old friends and colleagues. And some have reached out to me, which is always nice.

One of the silver-lining results of the dismal unemployment situation is that folks are trying to stay connected or are reconnecting. These online reunions are bringing people together who haven't been in touch in a decade or longer. People are either out of work or fear they or someone they know will be jobless very soon, so they are networking online. Trying to stay in the game. As one columnist friend from The Washington Post wrote to me today, "We have to watch out for each other."

Surprisingly, some of the folks who are now in touch the most frequently are people I haven't worked with or seen in many years.

There are many ways to reconnect. Of course, there is always e-mail and phone calls. Receiving personal notes from old friends and colleagues improves my spirits much more than a one-line message on Facebook. But even the social-networking messages serve a purpose in this highly connected world, particularly for those of us who are out of the workplace loop.

Electronic reunions also take place on professional-networking sites like LinkedIn.com. Just today I wrote a recommendation of a fellow who I worked with 15 years ago. He returned the favor by posting some nice words about me, his former boss, on the LinkedIn.com site.

These reunions remind me of where I have been, who I have touched and help me continue to fight the good fight. It's not so much the practical benefits of these reunions that are important. After all, I am still looking for work. The reconnecting has not solved that major problem. But these reunions do provide a sense of what I have accomplished in the past, even if current circumstances aren't yielding positive results. It's important to feel something other than rejection and hopelessness in this recession.

A good site for professional networking

For those who belong to LinkedIn.com, you know that there is a section on the home page that tells you how many people have looked at your profile. It changes every few days to reflect updated numbers, but reads like this:

"Your profile has been viewed by 11 people in the last 7 days. In the last 30 days, you have appeared in search results 11 times."

As a non-paying member, you aren't told exactly who has examined your profile. When you click through to the list, it will only show five or so various organizations or companies that these folks belong to, but won't name the exact people or show the complete, albeit vague, list of who took a peek at your stuff. So for instance, one of the people who might have viewed my profile will only be identified as "an editor at Gannett." Because there are hundreds of editors working at Gannett, that really doesn't tell me much. If the message says 15 people viewed my profile, it will still only list a handful of them and the organizations they are employed by or titles they hold. Still, it won't name them. Left to you to guess who the others might be associated with.

It's sometimes maddening because curiosity can get the best of you. Why is a "soccer coach in Brazil" or a "a health professional in Montana" looking at my profile? And who are these people? Long-lost roommates from college? Or might they have a job for me? Did they mistake me for another Mick Calvacca -- as if there are a lot of those in Loudoun County, Va. Most of the time you just don't know.

Still, LinkedIn is a good tool for networking professionals. It's better than most sites for job seekers looking to connect with folks in various industries. It will even suggest people you might want to have as a "connection" based on your profession and contacts you or they know. You can join different discussion groups, such as alumni associations, find former colleagues or connect with people who share similar occupational or educational interests. Despite the intentionally mysterious listing of who is checking you out, I would recommend this site to anyone who is seeking a job or is interested in keeping up with news from various companies or colleges. I would also suggest jumping into discussions now and then.

By the way, you can get a more complete list of the people who are looking at your profile by getting a paid membership. I haven't done that. I figure if someone wants to identify themselves and contact me, they know where to find me. My contact information, resume and references are on the site. I am very thankful to the nine former colleagues who posted their recommendations of me on LinkedIn. Having that capability is another nice feature. It allows potential employers to read what your former coworkers and ex-bosses have to say about you.