Boost Your Brand: Four Steps to Success
Let’s start with the basics – what does ‘authentic’ mean? – for me, (and the dictionary) it means real, genuine, original and accurate.
Hence, I am taking this question to mean, how should I go about showcasing who I really am?
You may be wondering, why is this important? The answer is simple, around 92 % of recruiters use LinkedIn to vet candidates, and 31% use Facebook[1]. So your profile must be authentic.
Anyone wishing to establish an authentic professional profile will need to have a consistent message (or brand), use multiple platforms to build this profile, and remove anything that is inconsistent or inappropriate.
Bearing this in mind, my four step plan to create an authentic professional profile is as follows:
(Video created using GoAnimate, audio added using Audacity.)
Establish Your Own Brand: As the BBC video highlighted by Lisa shows, the first step is identifying what your potential employers are looking for – which will be a mix of technical skills, personality, passion and dedication. You need to find a way of describing how your attributes match those they are looking for. And this has to be short and snappy message. The concept of the elevator pitch is a useful one, shown here in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98WlZJqscVk. And remember, aside from your picture and name, your headline is what people see most often on LinkedIn[2].
Use Multiple Platforms: Clearly LinkedIn is the most well established professional platform, but this can be supplemented with a professional blog. It is also important to stand out on these platforms; last semester Sophie Collins highlighted the case of James Shamsi who not only had a video CV but posted his resume on Tinder. We should note that 94% if companies use social media to support their recruitment efforts[3].
You can even add videos to LinkedIn and you can apply the lessons that this course is teaching us to make yourself stand out.
Ensure Consistencies: This isn’t just about taking care when using Facebook. It is about ensuring that everything you post in the professional arena is consistent with your brand. Similarly, if you don’t have a (visible) Facebook account then this may look odd, and people may question why it is hidden. In a way this is the opposite of Topic 2 – clearly, if we have fragmented internet persona employers will question why. Ramierez found that 42% of candidate’s suitability was reconsidered based on the content found on their social web profiles[4].
Make the Most of What You’ve Got: Authenticity, in a sense, comes from time. If you have been keeping a fashion blog updated for five years, this shows that you have a genuine long term interest; similarly with LinkedIn, if you have a long standing account and are following key thinkers and key companies, with a range of professional people linked to you, this again emphasises your authenticity.
Take this short quiz to test the authenticity of your own professional profile:
References:
[1] Asher Rospigliosi, Sue Greener, (ed) Proceedings of the European Conference on Social Media: ECSM 2014, link
[2] Laura Shin, Career and Money Secrets to Succeed in Today’s World, Forbes Signature Series, http://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2014/06/26/how-to-use-linkedin-5-smart-steps-to-career-success/
[3] Jobvite, Social Recruiting Survey Results, 2003, http://web.jobvite.com/rs/jobvite/images/Jobvite_2013_SocialRecruitingSurveyResults.pdf
[4] Fernando Ramierez, Social Media Screening: a Candidate’s perspective, Recruiter, https://www.recruiter.com/i/social-media-screening-a-candidates-perspective
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98WlZJqscVk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0a0Vm0zHFh0
