“We still don’t care about your personal brand” tweeted one of the social media thought leaders yesterday and that set me thinking: does anyone care?
I guess many people won’t care. But I know people who want to do business with you, or hire you, definitely care.
So how can you improve your online presence and build up a good network? Start with a plan. Random acts of kindness is a lovely idea. Random acts of social media won’t get results.
Here is the strategy to build your brand online
1. Look at your social profiles – make them as comprehensive as possible. Remove anything that could be detrimental to your job search.
2. Google your name and see what is on page one. You need to have excellent content that showcases your abilities on that page.
3. Buy your name as a domain name. www.marysmith.com
4. Create a blog that is your resume. Use WordPress, but do it on your own name domain. Get technical help if you need to.
5. Make your LinkedIn profile as complete as you can. Optimize it for search around the terms a recruiter or potential customer might look for, if they wanted to hire someone like you. Join relevant groups on LinkedIn and Facebook.
6. If you are not on Twitter, start an account. At the end of each blog post put Follow me on Twitter and link to your Twitter account. Add Join my network on LinkedIn and link to that. Tag the links with your name.
7. Use Social Mention to find conversations about the industry or job you would like to have
8. Analyze the conversations you find. Look for mentions of possible openings or conversations about your industry or subject. Just as companies look for statement of purchase intent, you can look for hiring intent.
9. Identify topic trends and influencers in the conversations – the thought leaders in your field. Follow them on LinkedIn and Twitter. Like their content on Facebook.
10. Read their blogs, comments, tweets, status updates. Comment appropriately. Retweet their content.
11. Publish content that shows your expertise. Stay abreast of topics, trends and research in your industry. Post interesting and compelling content that people might want to share. Write articles and get them published on relevant industry websites.
12. If you see a post or tweet that you can reply to intelligently and offer something that adds value to that conversation, engage.
13. Build a core group of people you can network with and get them involved with you.
14. Integrate your social media activity with your offline networking. Make every effort to connect personally with the people you have found online. Watch for conferences they will be attending that you could go to. Find out if there are local places where you can mingle and meet people you have contacted online.
15. Join appropriate local industry networking groups and attend regularly. See if the people you meet there are online and follow them
16. Join general networking groups. You never know who you could meet there.
Many years ago Rockefeller said, “Those who make a good first impression make more money than those who don’t.”
Sounds like a personal brand might be useful in this economy. What do you think?
Image Credit: Stephano Principato
