Personal Branding on Social Media
Anh Nguyen
You are a brand. I am a brand. We are all brands, whether we claim to be or not.
So what exactly is personal branding? It is the process of managing and optimizing the way you are presented to others. It is really important to represent your brand well because that is how you will be marketing yourself to future employers.
Here are a few branding tips that you can use when building your personal brand on social media.
1. Be professional.
Never, ever, apply to a job or respond to a potential employer’s email from an account with an inappropriate username. For example, [email protected] or [email protected] are not appropriate names to use.
To protect their privacy while maintaining their public reputation, it is not uncommon for professionals to have two profiles – a professional one for colleagues and employers and a private one for family and friends. They make sure the two never meet (no shared friends, no cross tagging, etc.). Professional pages, which can look like this [email protected] or if you are a student, you can use your school email, are becoming more common.
Photos can say a thousand words you wish they would keep to themselves sometimes. In fact, a CareerBuilder survey discovered that the number one reason job candidates are rejected these days is for posting unprofessional and inappropriate photos. Make sure your photos show you in the right light, because they are easy to share and can be picked up (and are given preference by) Google images, and other search engines.
Although photos are the most obvious aspect of your online profile, text-based posts, comments and tweets can be equally destructive to your career. Even if your pictures make you look like an angel, your status updates and tweets can ruin your chances of success if they are mean-spirited or inappropriate. SimpleWash is a great app that will help you clean it up.
2. Be conservative.
Because seemingly innocuous pictures (e.g., you and your buddies at the anti-Choice rally) can give employers more information than is necessary or helpful, think carefully before posting political, religious or other identifying information unless you are totally comfortable having it in the public eye.
It’s not just pictures of you that are being evaluated. If you post pictures of your best friend well past her alcoholic threshold, viewers can assume you are guilty by association.
Therefore, as tempting as it is to post the photo of yourself stealing that McDonald’s sign or giving the finger to the security camera at a club with a bottle of Jack in your hand, it is a bad idea. Even if you are scrupulous about your privacy settings, once something is on the web you must assume it is out there for everyone to see forever.
There are privacy settings on Facebook that help you manage your page. It allows certain people to see certain information. However, there are rumors that people can surpass the privacy setting easily so be careful with what you post.
The basic rule of thumb for social media posting: If you wouldn’t want your grandmother to see it, don’t post it.
3. Be yourself.
Although your employers are likely looking for warning signs on your profiles, don’t forget that you can use social media to your advantage, too. LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter can be excellent ways to promote yourself and distinguish your candidacy from the competition. Include any impressive work experience or interests you have in your public profile. Use bio options and tags to proactively promote yourself, not simply to list your hometown and your favorite ice cream flavor (although these are good to include, too). If the first result you have when you Google yourself is that one time last year you won the annual beer pong contest, you might want to explore options to clean up your profiles further. You need to consider your public profile a kind of brand, so make sure the Internet reflects what you want prospective and current employers to see.
Also, social media is where you express yourself. Be your self and be confident. You want to be proud of what you are made of. model.
Social media rankings
The following is my ranking of social media based on most use in the professional arena:
So what exactly is personal branding? It is the process of managing and optimizing the way you are presented to others. It is really important to represent your brand well because that is how you will be marketing yourself to future employers.
Here are a few branding tips that you can use when building your personal brand on social media.
1. Be professional.
Never, ever, apply to a job or respond to a potential employer’s email from an account with an inappropriate username. For example, [email protected] or [email protected] are not appropriate names to use.
To protect their privacy while maintaining their public reputation, it is not uncommon for professionals to have two profiles – a professional one for colleagues and employers and a private one for family and friends. They make sure the two never meet (no shared friends, no cross tagging, etc.). Professional pages, which can look like this [email protected] or if you are a student, you can use your school email, are becoming more common.
Photos can say a thousand words you wish they would keep to themselves sometimes. In fact, a CareerBuilder survey discovered that the number one reason job candidates are rejected these days is for posting unprofessional and inappropriate photos. Make sure your photos show you in the right light, because they are easy to share and can be picked up (and are given preference by) Google images, and other search engines.
Although photos are the most obvious aspect of your online profile, text-based posts, comments and tweets can be equally destructive to your career. Even if your pictures make you look like an angel, your status updates and tweets can ruin your chances of success if they are mean-spirited or inappropriate. SimpleWash is a great app that will help you clean it up.
2. Be conservative.
Because seemingly innocuous pictures (e.g., you and your buddies at the anti-Choice rally) can give employers more information than is necessary or helpful, think carefully before posting political, religious or other identifying information unless you are totally comfortable having it in the public eye.
It’s not just pictures of you that are being evaluated. If you post pictures of your best friend well past her alcoholic threshold, viewers can assume you are guilty by association.
Therefore, as tempting as it is to post the photo of yourself stealing that McDonald’s sign or giving the finger to the security camera at a club with a bottle of Jack in your hand, it is a bad idea. Even if you are scrupulous about your privacy settings, once something is on the web you must assume it is out there for everyone to see forever.
There are privacy settings on Facebook that help you manage your page. It allows certain people to see certain information. However, there are rumors that people can surpass the privacy setting easily so be careful with what you post.
The basic rule of thumb for social media posting: If you wouldn’t want your grandmother to see it, don’t post it.
3. Be yourself.
Although your employers are likely looking for warning signs on your profiles, don’t forget that you can use social media to your advantage, too. LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter can be excellent ways to promote yourself and distinguish your candidacy from the competition. Include any impressive work experience or interests you have in your public profile. Use bio options and tags to proactively promote yourself, not simply to list your hometown and your favorite ice cream flavor (although these are good to include, too). If the first result you have when you Google yourself is that one time last year you won the annual beer pong contest, you might want to explore options to clean up your profiles further. You need to consider your public profile a kind of brand, so make sure the Internet reflects what you want prospective and current employers to see.
Also, social media is where you express yourself. Be your self and be confident. You want to be proud of what you are made of. model.
Social media rankings
The following is my ranking of social media based on most use in the professional arena:
- LinkedIn
- Twitter
- Facebook
- Other (tumblr, instagram, snapchat, etc)