Personal Branding and Developing an Online Presence
Peggy McKee wrote an interesting piece on her Medical Sales R
ecruiter blog about personal branding and developing an online presence to find a job. For those of you who haven’t heard about personal branding, it is de rigueur and the hottest thing on the net these days. Put simply, you, the jobseeker, are the brand and to be successful (get a job), the brand must be vigorously promoted! Personal branding can be easily achieved by creating profiles on social networks like MySpace, Facebook or Linked In or creating your own promotional website using your name as the domain name. However, there are a few things that you ought to consider before you embark on your personal branding campaign. Peggy offers a few pointers and recommendations when it comes to both personal branding and your online persona.
Employers and recruiters research prospective candidates online to get more information about them before an interview is scheduled or an offer is extended. This can work against you if your MySpace page is filled with “party” pics (or worse), but it can work for you if you have an effective online persona.
Web Worker Daily rounds up several tips for developing an effective online presence:
- Check your Google profile. What comes up when your name gets typed in? Know what’s out there so you don’t get suprised.
- Own your domain name. Even if you don’t want to do something with it now, you might later.
- Develop your personal brand. Set up a LinkedIn profile. Write a blog. Be a guest writer on blogs specific to your industry (maybe you could write a post for me - describing your job, etc). If you’re not sure what personal branding is or how to do it, there’s a lot available out there. Here’s 3 articles to get you started:
The 6 P’s of Personal Branding (Persona, Positioning, Packaging, Presentation, Promotion, and Passion)
Three Keys to Building a Strong Personal Brand. “A good brand has 3 main features: clarity, consistency, and constancy.”
Dan Schwabel’s podcast, Top Social Media Tools for Turning Your E-Brand into a Powerhouse. Let Dan show you how to choose what to use.
Until next time…
Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (personal branding can’t hurt)!!!!!!!
