March 20, Liz Navarro, adjunct professor of public speaking at SMU who teaches in the Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Division, for a commentary advocating that students and small business owners take steps to improve their personal branding on social media and other platforms. Published in the Dallas Business Journal: http://bizj.us/1q2uie
Since we’re all at home and have some time on our hands as we play defense against COVID-19, we really ought to take this opportunity to play some offense and sharpen up our personal branding tools.
If someone were to visit your LinkedIn profile, scan your resume, or Google your name, what would they learn about you? There’s a good chance they could read your current job title and see a list of companies you’ve worked for. They can likely figure out your approximate age, your alma mater, and how well you use Microsoft Office. . .
Since we’re all at home and have some time on our hands as we play defense against COVID-19, we really ought to take this opportunity to play some offense and sharpen up our personal branding tools.
If someone were to visit your LinkedIn profile, scan your resume, or Google your name, what would they learn about you? There’s a good chance they could read your current job title and see a list of companies you’ve worked for. They can likely figure out your approximate age, your alma mater, and how well you use Microsoft Office.
The question is, would they learn enough to feel motivated to reach out? Consider you for an open position or ask you to speak on a panel they’re hosting? Would they subscribe to your email list, read your articles, tell friends to follow you, or ask you to go to coffee?
For those who have invested time building a strong personal brand, the answer is more likely to be yes.
All of us have career stories to tell, and the way we tell them (or don’t tell them) can make a big difference in the opportunities we attract. Consider a recruiter reviewing two candidates for a position: resumes reveal they have similar career trajectories, level of education and skills. Their LinkedIn profiles, however, demonstrate differences.
The first candidate’s profile provides the same information her resume does:
- Jane: Junior Marketing Manager at Creative Co.
The second candidate’s profile fills in the blanks between her resume entries, positioning her as an emerging expert and thoughtful leader in her field:
- Maria: Junior Marketing Manager | Simple SEO strategies that grow small businesses.
Maria’s profile offers three articles: one about current trends in SEO blog writing; one arguing that SEO can generate more leads for small businesses than social media; and one about multi-generational team dynamics.
No wonder the recruiter invited Maria to come in for an interview — not because Jane was incompetent or unprofessional, but because Maria told a more complete and compelling story.
Here are four ways to amp up your brand:
Identify and communicate your value-add
Articulate your style, contributions and the skills and strengths you rely on to perform your job. Identify changes you’ve initiated and examples of your problem-solving prowess.
Tell a clear and compelling career story
Potential employers and job networks are more interested in your strengths and abilities to power through problems than your career history. There are better ways to approach telling our stories in a bio or an elevator pitch. Start with the vision you have, the results you create, and the people you love to serve. In only a few words, Maria’s LinkedIn headline gives us much more insight into the work she does than Jane’s job title alone. She’s relatable, clear and delivers a true sense of what it would be like to work with her.
When bringing up past experiences, it’s better to lead with the problems we faced in each new role, our approach to solving them, and the outcomes. Make it about how past experiences contributed to where you are now.
Elevate your presence on digital platforms and social media
Now that you’ve mastered the message, put it out there on your digital platforms. Update your LinkedIn profile, revise the bio on your company website, and consider the way your other social media platforms might contribute to (or at least not detract from) your personal brand. Think about creative ways to showcase your work online — through a website, portfolio, blog, or SlideShare account.
A great way to bolster your personal brand and connect to opportunities is by sharing your best practices with others. When you know the value you can offer other people or organizations in your industry, it makes it easier to reach out to your network and offer to facilitate a workshop, sit on a panel, or write an article for a publication.
Even without those connections, you can create and publish content on your own. Consider Maria, who wrote LinkedIn articles to share what she’d learned about effective SEO strategies and leading a multigenerational team. The second article led her to be asked to facilitate an HR training in another department of her company that was struggling with dynamics between Millennials and Baby Boomers. The workshop was so well received, it made her director consider ways to promote Maria into a higher leadership role.
A strong personal brand has the potential to accelerate careers, differentiate great candidates, and open doors to new connections and opportunities. Our personal brands can “market” our strengths to the people who need them. If your personal brand is underselling your experiences and skills, invest some thought and time into rewriting your career story.
Liz Navarro is a communications consultant and adjunct professor of public speaking at SMU. She teaches public speaking in the Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Division