Online Personal Branding

You may or may not be thinking of LinkedIn right now but we'll get to that in a minute. I really want to focus on the big picture first and then get down to some specifics, either here or at a later date depending on time. I also encourage social interaction, especially with this article, since everything we do online is out there for everyone to see.

First, a few words of caution and maybe a story or two. Anything you put online is there forever. Let me rephrase, anything you put online is there forever. Ok, not the best rephrasing, but that was on purpose.

A few years ago, I was being recruited for a company by someone who was not from where I was from. I knew this because I didn't recognize the area code on the phone number, so I Googled it. I won't get in to specifics, but what I found was astonishing. Within 5 minutes, and just starting with the person's name and phone number, I saw that they were selling a condo (which included the 360 view of each and every room inside), I saw what business this person had invested in (because of comments he'd made on a real estate forum) and I had their picture. And this was before everyone was using social media sites and LinkedIn hadn't really taken off and pictures weren't available to the public.

So, do an online search for yourself. See what you find. You may be surprised, shocked or hopefully impressed.

To test my own statement, I just Googled the name of someone close to me and added the city in which they live. The person I searched for just now does not do Facebook and has no part of LinkedIn. I make this point because even though you may try to live an offline life, others will share things about you, companies will register information about you and many government jobs are part of public record. You may not have put it there but anything online is there forever.

One last example. In the early stages of creating and designing this website, I set up test and dummy pages that no one knew existed or had access to. On those pages I tested fonts, formatting and design templates before making final decisions about what I wanted to move forward with. Those pages were on the internet for less than a week and have since been deleted completely; I was the only person to even see them. Google still has record of them and the URLs they resided on.  Information that is put up online is there to stay; good, bad or otherwise, it's there for all to see for all time.

Now, a few practical ways to develop your online personal branding.

1. Think how a recruiter thinks. A website I frequent, Inc.com, has a great article about marketing yourself using a LinkedIn profile. Through the use of keywords and industry “buzzwords” you can create a profile that will get caught up in searches for those words. Our EmpoweredServices section on our website will also show you 3 valuable tools that we can perform to get a resume ready for you. With the Personal Development Coaching we'll actually take a look at what your goals are and help you define them in a clear and concise way that will position you to attract more recruiters and prepare for those upcoming interviews.

2. Keep your personal life and your professional life separate. Your personality should shine through, but your personal life should be separate from your professional one. A few examples: you can tell us about what you're working on at work, and share what you're proud of accomplishing, but we don't need to also see where you're enjoying fish tacos and what time you're heading to bed. If you're going to link your social media profiles, which I don't recommend, make sure all content you share is relevant to everyone who might see it. Share what you're passionate about, illustrate some accomplishments outside of work, but don't tweet about how you drank too much last weekend on an account that recruiters will look at. Better yet, keep your boozing stories offline completely (see warning #1).

3. Embrace social media. Yes, I know we just talked about keeping your personal and professional lives separate, but, done well, social media can be an extraordinary tool for getting your personal brand out to potential recruiters and hiring managers. If you take extra care with your profile(s) and dutifully moderate what you're associated with, social media outlets can get your name in front of thousands if not millions of people. Right now, through my direct connections, I'm professionally connected to almost 2 million more people. To make this work for you, find a company you'd like to work for, or a group you'd like to work with, and work your way back. Most social media sites will show you how you're connected to your target and then its up to you to ask for and make introductions. If you've done your pre-work, you won't have to worry when the recruiter looks up your profile or Googles your name.

4. Lastly, err on the side of caution. Take down any posts, pictures, articles, etc that you wouldn't share with your mom, grandmother, or your kids.  The people who you're showing that stuff off to were probably there live to witness it, and if they weren't, send it to them in email, don't post it for friends, family and recruiters to find.  Keep your information secure and private.

Embrace technology and the internet, don't hide from it. Just be careful what you put out there for all the world to see.