Using Social Media to Build Your Professional Brand

We’ve all gotten some well-meaning but dated advice from an old boss or a parent. Print your resume on nice paper! Go door to door and ask who’s hiring! A firm handshake goes a long way!

The truth is, getting hired in the 21st century is a lot more complicated than that. Chances are, you’re not going to find a professional position by looking for a “help wanted” sign in the window. Instead, you’ll search for jobs online, apply online, submit your resume online, and maybe even interview online before you ever meet someone face-to-face.

On the flip side, any company who wants to hire you will be doing their research online, looking through your LinkedIn profile, Facebook page, Twitter feed, other social media accounts, and search results featuring your name. Some people choose to hide their profiles to avoid all this background checking, but that’s not necessarily the best approach. With some careful management, here’s how to build a brand through social media.

Define Your Branding Goals

In order to craft a professional brand for yourself, you first have to decide what you want that brand to be. There are a lot of reasons to build a professional brand:

• Creating and strengthening professional relationships.
• Advancing your career.
• Becoming a respected authority on a specific subject.
• Landing a specific dream job.
• Promoting your business.

You might want to land a job at your dream company, for example. To do that, you’ll seek out and create relationships with people who already work there, in addition to publishing content that will show off your expertise in the area. Your goals will all take different approaches to the same end.

What’s Your Expertise?

You can’t be an expert at everything, and “fake it till you make it” won’t hold up under careful scrutiny. Instead, focus on the things that you’re genuinely good at, interested in, and that will help you excel at a certain position.

At the same time, think about what you’re not good at or passionate about. You might love website design, but have little interest in learning the coding and technical skills that go into building one. By being honest and precise about your skill set, you’ll present a much more coherent picture of yourself to the world.

Write for Your Audience

When you create content for your Facebook page, LinkedIn profile, Twitter profile, or personal website, think about two things: who’s likely to be looking at it, and who you want to be looking at it. Are you hoping to make an impression on your peers in a certain industry? Are you hoping to appeal to higher-ups that might be interested in hiring you? The topics you talk about and the way you interact with people might be different depending on who you’re hoping to impress.

Mix it Up

There are a lot of different ways to create engaging content, from simple images and inspirational quotes to full-length blog posts, infographics, and videos. Any single kind of content will get boring after a while, so make sure you’re using a variety of forms to keep your online presence as engaging and interesting as possible.

Stay Engaged

Last but not least, interact with the people who interact with you. You won’t get noticed if you’re simply sitting back and hoping that people will find your content, so you have to go out there (digitally speaking) and make a name for yourself. Here are a few ideas:

• Interact with influencers. Find the people in the industry that other people seem to be listening to and listen to them, too — then talk back! Comment on their posts, tag them in relevant tweets, mention them in your blog, and name-drop them in your videos. They might not respond, but they’ll definitely notice.
• Promote other people. Yes, you want to get yourself noticed, but a generous mentality with other people’s content will prompt them to return the favor, helping spread your own ideas.
• Find your niche. There are thousands of Facebook and LinkedIn groups out there for both your professional aspirations and your personal interests, and it can’t hurt to make as many connections with like-minded people as possible. Join the groups that look relevant and make sure to be an active participant.

Building your personal brand on social media is a lot of work, but it’s worth it. Any employer today is going to look you up before they hire you, and it pays to put your best foot forward when they do.