Creating a brand for oneself is no longer exclusive for corporations or musicians– anyone of us can shape up our personal brand and concretely showcase our skills and passions. Social media is a handy and inexpensive way to get your name out there.

It’s like a magnet

Professional brand is your reputation in the job market which can help you to gain respect and attract attention from potential recruiters or clients. When we take the brand into a job search-context, it is clear that even if you are not actively looking for job opportunities, a genuine personal brand works as a magnet – people tend to want to work with those who have a strong brand. It is like inbound marketing on an individual level.

As a recruiter, I have free access to most of people’s resumes and work histories – even to the recommendations from their coworkers. In order to stand out and separate from the masses, something extra is needed. That little something, should demonstrate to others who you are as a professional – what is your thing? If I google your name, do I find blog posts about the topics you are passionate about? If so, I am most definitely more interested in your profile. A blog that is authentic and shows your substance knowledge, speaks for your professionalism.

A classic example of this is UI-designers publishing portfolios on their LinkedIn-site. They might additionally write blog posts on their approach to work or on their viewpoints on the latest industry-trends. In this way, they increase the interest in their personal brand by concretely showcasing their know-how to the key audience.

Not quite a professional yet?

Are you interested in shaping your professional brand but not a super star just yet in your field? No worries! You can start by taking small steps to increase your visibility in the social media. Wanted or not, you do have an existing professional reputation so why not shape it a bit and open it up to larger audience?

Let’s start – take this as a journey to explore yourself in a professional context.  This is a great exercise for all of us to reconsider which are our core strengths, interests and future career plans.  A bit of self-reflection can also clarify whether you are in the right place career-wise or if you should consider shifting to a new direction.

Having trouble in defining your professional self? Go ahead and ask your colleagues, co-workers, and managers. From personal experience I can say that often their comments slightly differ from your own idea of yourself, especially if you tend to be very self-critical.

Once we have clarified to ourselves who we are professionally and where our interests lie, we need to start considering how to communicate this to others. What are the channels you want to use? What is the desired audience? What kind of tone of voice should you use?

Benchmarking is a good way to start – explore how your industry leaders have done it and which channels they use. Also, my colleague Sofia explains in this video, how to structure a CV – these handy tips can be used as a base when reviewing how you express yourself on SoMe-channels such as LinkedIn.

Lastly, your brand needs constant attention and development. Building a sustainable professional brand in SoMe is about doing the little things right. Most importantly, personal branding is about authenticity, not bragging.

At Agile Search we help IT-professionals with professional branding – let’s have a chat if you want me to go over your social media presence! I would also like you to share your story of how personal branding has benefited you in your career?