Personal Branding

Personal Branding in the New World of Work™. Did you know that recruiters now look at your social media destinations to gather information about "who you are" and "who you appear to be?" We put together an article using several sources to show you the way personal branding is impacting the New World of Work™ and how you can approach it successfully.

Building an online personal brand for yourself is an important part of moving your career forward. When you hear the word ‘branding,’ you may think about it only in terms of a business and not as something you need personally. However, establishing a personal brand can help define your professional path.

For many people, personal branding is an exercise in managing, and re-developing, an online reputation. That could include building a portfolio website of your work, refining your LinkedIn profile, or developing your public-facing social media accounts. To help you get started in building your personal brand, let’s discuss why personal branding is important, along with tips to help you craft distinctive individual branding.

What is a Personal Brand?

Personal branding is all about your reputation — aka, your personal brand — that represents the sum total of your career and professional persona. It’s about who you are, what you do, how you work, how people see you, and where you are headed.

Like a consumer brand, a personal brand, not only tells your story, it sets the stage for growth. A personal brand goes beyond the basic resume to deliver a more complete picture of who you are professionally. acquisition strategies with the organization’s overall goals and objectives. By doing so, they can attract candidates who are not only skilled and qualified but also aligned with the organization’s values and culture.

Why do you need a Personal Brand?

A personal brand is more imperative than you may realize. Here are just a few reasons why you need to develop your brand.

Employers and Prospects search and research online

There are scads of examples of qualified candidates applying for jobs and getting turned down simply because they ignored their online image. More than 60% of employers research job seekers online during the hiring process. This is the biggest reason why a personal brand is so important. Employers do, and will, search for you online. According to James A Martin, winner of the 2014 ASBPE National Gold Award for his Living The Tech Life Blog, “Like it or not, the majority of employers — 66 percent — will Google a job candidate they’re considering, according to a 2018 CareerBuilder study. What’s more, 70 percent will check out your public Facebook and other social media posts, and 57 percent won’t hire you if they don’t like what they find. Hiring professionals looking for IT (74 percent) and manufacturing (73 percent) talent are the most likely to dig into your social media history, the study finds.” (source)

How social media can affect opportunities

Regardless of whether you include public-facing social media handles on your resume, prospective employers are likely to look for them. A survey of more than 500 full-time employers found that 90% said social media is important when evaluating an applicant, and 79% of HR professionals have rejected a candidate based on inappropriate social media content (source). From glasses of alcohol to political rants to references to marijuana and even grammatical mistakes, Be mindful of what you post, because old social media comments can come back to haunt you. Our rule of thumb is if you wouldn’t want your mother to see something, then take it down, or better yet don’t post it.

Take charge of your message

When potential employers are considering you for a role, having a strong personal brand can ensure that what they find is what you want them to find. You can take charge of the way they perceive you. Employers or prospects can learn about your passions, see what excites you, and understand where you would like to be in the future. If you care about animals, let’s see compassionate and kind images of your love for animals and an alignment with animal organizations.  

Boost your expertise and authority

Building your personal brand will not only show you in a more professional light but also tell your potential employer and prospects what you’re about and what you’re an expert in. Once you have developed a clear vision for your brand, the expectation of your expertise and authority in your field(s) will gain momentum.

Taking control of your personal brand is one of the most important things you can do for your online reputation and career. It may take a lot of thought and more than a little effort, but in the end, you and your career will be stronger for it. 

At Jordan Anderson, we know this is a daunting new understanding of how Social Media is connected to our Careers and how HR is becoming more like Marketing but we are confident in our ability to help candidates create their brand because we’ve done it many times. Reach out to speak to our Branding Specialists today.