4 easy ways to build your personal brand

In this day and age one can not only rely on submitting your CV onto job sites (like Job Mail) and e-mailing employers alone when it comes to effective job hunting. Marketing and promoting your own personal brand is very important. You might be clueless when it comes to this particular topic, but don’t despair: today I’m featuring 4 easy ways to build your personal brand.

1. Clean up your personal social media profiles: It’s 2013 and most of you know what I’m talking about when I say words like “MySpace“, “YouTube“, “Twitter“, “Google Plus” or “Facebook“. Various studies and polls have brought to light that employers, recruiters and companies check candidates social media profiles before they considering hiring them.

Your potential employer might reject your application because all your Facebook photos show you using alcohol or drugs excessively. It’s a good idea to keep your social media profiles clean when you’re job hunting, so delete those photos of you dancing on the tables at your friend’s 21st before you think of applying for a position. They might reflect negatively on you and your personal brand.

2. Network with Industry professionals, gurus, like-minded folk via social media: Social Media is a giant networking resource that many job seekers write off as being useless. The fact is that social media has made networking so much easier in this day and age. Besides being a networking platform it’s also perfect to build your own personal brand.

If you’re a photographer create a Facebook fan page or Twitter account to showcase your photos, if you’re an aspiring musician create a Soundcloud account and give your music online exposure, if you’re an aspiring writer / poet share your poems or short stories via a community on Google+ and if you don’t have a professional profile on Linkedin yet make sure that you create one. Remember, you are managing your personal brand: the better you manage it the better your prospects.

Also look for groups, communities or pages for companies, experts, gurus and other like-minded individuals on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Linkedin. Connect with them and see what they have to say to stay on top with your industry. Start conversations with them and build online relationships that could translate into real life ones. The potential to market your personal brand with Social Media has no limits.

3. Start your own blog or website: Blogs are one of the best tools that are available to market your personal brand. Start small. Don’t fork out enormous amounts of cash when you’re starting one, create a free blog on Blogger or WordPress, it won’t cost you a cent.

Blogs are an excellent way to build up a network and to interact with like-minded individuals and to sharpen up your writing skills. Write about things that interest you, things that inspire you and things that you are passionate about.  Market yourself and build up your own personal brand, your potential employer will be impressed by the effort that you put into it.

If you don’t want to create a blog create a personal website with a portfolio and your CV on it. Setting it up might cost you a little money, but it’s well worth it. Having a personal website featuring your portfolio shows potential employers that you’re serious about finding a job.

4. Keep your CV updated: It’s one thing to have a blog, Facebook page or Twitter account, but you should not ignore your CV. Make sure that you keep your CV updated. Make sure that you add links your social media profiles and your blog / website on your CV. If you’ve been writing for more than 6 months add it as a skill on your CV. If you’ve landed a part time job thanks to networking via Linkedin or Twitter, add it on your CV.

Well, there you have it, 4 easy ways to build your personal brand. Two things that all these ways have in common is that they all require individual effort and being pro-active instead of re-active. So, go out into cyberspace and network your way into your next job.

Spread the word about these awesome tips. Share this article with your friends on Facebook and Twitter. Remember: Sharing is caring.

Watch this space for regular updates for Job Seekers on the Job Mail Blog.