We’ve all heard a lot in the past few years about the
dangers of social media, particularly in terms of employers or potential employers
monitoring your blogs, Twitter accounts, Facebook profiles, and more.
However, the other side of the coin is that social media can be used a career-boosting tool, and Dan Schawbel, author of “Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success,” recently posted a great piece over at Mashable.com on how to leverage social media to build a personal brand that attracts employers and clients to you, instead of you spending endless amounts of energy chasing after them.
The post is worth reading in its entirety, but several points stood out for me as especially important for job-hunters who are interested in using social media to turbo-charge their search.
Conduct a situational analysis BEFORE you start branding yourself. In other words, find out where you are before deciding where you want to go.
Schawbel says,
“You can’t leverage social media for career success unless you know where you stand today. This includes taking a good look at your life, what your current responsibilities are, the amount of resources you currently have and your career position…. These decisions will impact how you use tools to communicate what you do, who you serve, and how you want to be positioned relative to everyone else, along with your goals and mission.”
Unearth, rather than invent, your personal brand. I don’t think this one can be stressed enough. Schawbel recommends assessing one’s strengths, identifying what one is passionate about, and asking others for feedback. In the end, one will create a personal brand statement that says just two things: what you do and who you serve. It’s vital that this brand be a reflection of your authentic work identity instead of a market-driven “makeover,” according to Schawbel. As he puts it, “remain authentic and be completely transparent because that is how people are going to relate to you.” (emphasis mine)
Select the right tools to build your brand. This means hang out where your employers/clients/customers are. LinkedIn works well for executive and professional positions; tech-savvy information sharers commune on Twitter; and Flickr or YouTube get visits from many interested in the visual arts.
Schawbel goes into great detail in this post on other several other key points, such as how to create or share social media content that people will respond to, and how to monitor one’s reputation online. For more information on this topic, check out his Personal Branding blog and magazine.
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