Crafting Your Personal Brand: Marketing Yourself Effectively
For many people, one of the most uncomfortable things to do is brag about yourself. It’s easy to remain complacent in a role and dismiss the need to promote your personal brand. However, even if you aren’t a professional salesperson, you must know how to sell yourself to excel in your career.
The Basics
It all starts with how you look on paper, no matter what stage of your career you’re in, you should always have an updated resume and/or portfolio. Your resume should capture your experience and who you are as a person, think of it as your first impression. Try to keep your resume concise, it should ideally be kept to one page but no more than two — highlighting your achievements, not just job duties.
Your portfolio captures examples of your achievements. It should include pictures, statistics, and each portfolio will look different depending on your industry. For example, a journalist would have a portfolio filled with their writing samples, and a design engineer would have one with pictures and graphics of the products they’ve worked on or produced.
Your Brand is More than a Resume
Beyond having a fantastic resume, your personal brand should spill into every facet of your life. In today’s world, social media rules the public’s minds – how you present yourself online is just as important as your resume and in-person interactions.
- LinkedIn: Nowadays, you don’t go door to door with a paper resume in hopes of acquiring a job. Instead, most employers and jobseekers have moved entirely online. LinkedIn is a well-known primary source for job hunting, it’s basically the career-building version of Twitter. Your LinkedIn should encapsulate your day-to-day experiences. It should be used to make connections with people in your industry and showcase your skills.
- Personal Social Accounts: Be smart and mindful about what you post on your personal accounts. As a recruiting agency, we’ve seen perfect candidates get denied due to their social media posts, don’t be that person. Every time you post, ask yourself “would I want my current or future employer to see this?”, if the answer is no then you probably shouldn’t post it! At the very least, keep your accounts on private but know that it doesn’t guarantee privacy.
Ensure that you have a professional image of yourself to use as your profile picture. Look around on LinkedIn and local sources to find headshot locations. Many events and organizations give out professional headshots for free, it’s a very easy way to professionalize your image.
Crafting Your Story
Your personal brand should emulate who you are personally and professionally. Promote viewership towards things you enjoy and value. Join groups online to learn more about the industry you represent and interact with those accounts publicly. You could post about places you’ve been, awareness projects you support, and big wins or downfalls that need attention in your industry.
The goal is for people to see your profile and be able to quickly identify your professional specialty with the extra perk of getting to see your personality shine through. Remember to utilize your personal brand in every new connection you make – it works as a mnemonic; they’ll have something to remember you for.