The way you market yourself is critical to your professional success. And while many of your business interactions will be face-to-face, your digital presence is your 24/7 shop window. In every online interaction, you are showcasing who you are to potential colleagues and clients, so it’s essential to present a consistent ‘self’ that reflects your values and skills.
Indeed, with some 64 per cent of employers now admitting to viewing a candidate’s professional social network profiles before hiring (i) ‘owning’ an online presence that clearly and accurately conveys your key messaging has never been more important.
Take time to consider and create an authentic and powerful personal brand – the everywoman workbook, An Introduction to Personal Brand is a great place to start. A powerful personal brand helps people to understand who you are, reflecting the things that matter to you, your personality and the way you work with other people. By helping you to communicate your value consistently you can not only ‘broadcast’ yourself clearly, but also invite opportunities toward you that align with your aims and career goals.
Every message and visual you publish online should reflect your brand identity and optimise it. This is something that holds true whether you’re publishing on your personal or work website, networking sites or social media platforms. Clarity of intention and content online is an essential investment in an age of fast information and indelible digital footprints. And as with real life, the more you put into an online presence the more you will get out of it – think of it in terms of dynamic maintenance and ongoing communication rather than something you dip in and out of when you want or need something.
Ultimately, building your digital profile takes commitment – the everywoman workbook Making the Most of Your Online Profile can help you to lay the foundations – but you can boost your personal brand online quickly and easily with these five easy fundamentals:
Create a personal ‘pitch’
Develop a ‘pitch’ that defines who you are, and list your values and aims so you know what you want to convey with your brand. Make sure your brand identity conveys your passion for what you do and that it’s authentic to your personality.
Keep consistent
Stay consistent in your messaging and your tone of voice, so people can always instantly understand who you are from your social media, emails and other content. Join up the dots across a variety of networking channels including LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook to ensure broad but seamless messaging about who you are, what your values and drivers are and what kinds of opportunities you are open to.
Pick your subjects
What you talk about online will allow you to show your professional strengths and personal interests. Select subjects that enable you to build communities around shared interests and connect with networks and influencers.
Do your research
Do an audit of your audience and your competition. What does your audience want to hear and how can you communicate that in an engaging and personal way? How are your competitors marketing themselves and how could you do it better?
Establish your KPI
Work out what you want to achieve out of your online presence: a new job, more traffic, or sales? Evaluate the success of your branding and tweak it accordingly.
(i) Robert Walters whitepaper
