As a recruiter, I spend an abnormal amount of my time online connecting with people. Primarily I do this via Linkedin, but any social media account can make an impression as well as company websites and even personal websites. Through years of doing this, I have come to appreciate a professional who knows how t
o put their best foot forward to the world with a classy personal brand. I have several in my feed that have impeccable profiles, and produce content on a regular basis. Most of these people are high-level executives or "influencer" types. Some arent though and it made me think... Why aren't more people doing this?
Of course, there are probably lots of reasons why people don't pay more attention to their personal brand, but I think the main reasons are:
People don't think it matters if they do it
Fear of putting themselves out there and listing their achievements
Not realizing the benefits of communicating to the world what you do
With the first one, "not thinking it matters" if you put yourself out there professionally. I get it because I used to be in that camp. And I still don't believe we should be obliged to participate in social media. My family and friends seem to expect constant social media participation sometimes! The point is that it does matter and at least having updated info on your Linkedin profile can yield big opportunities on a small investment of time. Another personal benefit of using Linkedin is that it gives you a reference point to remind you of goals and a place to look for others in your industry. In summary, it matters because you will miss out on opportunities by not putting out an attractive and accurate profile of yourself.
Fear of putting yourself out there is a real thing. I know that I hold back on posting personally at times because I'm not sure who is judging or what people's reactions might be. Your personal brand is too important for you to not pos
t for this reason. You deserve to be connected to the world and engage with other professionals and potential employers. Everyone does. When you create your personal brand you need to put out into the world who you are, what you have accomplished professionally, and what your goals are. That is a baseline for you to grow from. Beyond that, you can decide what and how often you produce content. One last point on this... If fear is holding you back from posting your accomplishments, don't let that result in a half-filled-out-profile. That is worse than not having a profile at all in my opinion.
The third reason for not having a personal brand presence online is that a lot of people just don't understand the upside. Even though we are years into
having social media play a large part in all of our lives, we still are seeing the potential in how it will impact our businesses and our careers. If you are a start-up you should be very concerned with creating a "Marketing Gravity" and the best way to do that is by networking and getting your name out there. If you are young in your career you are essentially a "start-up" and you will want that same type of marketing effect by networking with people in your industry and attracting them to you with great content. There is definitely a significant upside in getting new opportunities or even new business...
All the way to my point... As a recruiter, I feel like about half of the people I interact with online do not have great branding... Start with your LinkedIn profile and grow from there.
Take the time to make sure you have a great profile pic AND get a cool or industry/company-specific background
Fill in all of the areas of your profile from your headline to your volunteer work
Completely fill in your Work Experiences and don't forget to list your accomplishments!
Post and reshare things that you think will add value to your network contacts
If you have read this far and still have questions you can reach me on my cell phone to talk personal brands even more... 773-501-1701
