Gone are the days where “branding” relates merely to marketing a product or service. In our current era of social networking and with social media tools so readily available to us, personal branding is an important concept to get right.

So what is personal branding all about? It is about the impression you give of yourself and how it is people perceive you. In simple terms – it is how you market yourself to the world, and in this piece, I’m referring to your professional world.  I’d like you to give thought to how it is you represent your current employer, how you are perceived by peers within your industry and how a prospective employer (or recruiter) may view you.

Over the last few years within my HR roles and now in the recruitment industry, I have come across countless instances of professional personal branding gone wrong – REALLY wrong. It never ceases to entertain me when I come across some “epic fails” but then I begin to wonder if these people misrepresent themselves because they just don’t get it or because they just don’t care. If you haven’t really thought about it before, I would like to provide you with some food for thought about your very own professional personal branding. Personal branding is a powerful tool and it doesn’t just apply to the Kardashians and Hiltons of this world!

Where do we start?

1.     Professional vs Personal branding

 

 

It’s simple – don’t confuse professional social media tools like LinkedIn with personal ones (Facebook and the like). Keep your professional and personal life separate. If your profile is related to your career and education, keep it purely professional. Your profile photo, your career details and your updates/comments should attract people due to your experience, expertise (your niche) and professionalism – it should draw a viewer to want to look into your profile in more detail and then actually take the action of contacting you or maybe even referring you on. Your profile needs to confirm that you take your career seriously via your career journey and the role with your current employer. Don’t underestimate the power of a good profile – it can reward you by opening doors to amazing career opportunities!

 

2.     Oh snap!

 

“A picture is worth a thousand words”. With one image, a viewer will formulate a perception of you and it is crucial that you send the right message. Your profile photo will play a big part in whether people want to make contact with you. If you don’t take your photo seriously, don’t expect anyone else to take it seriously either (I promise to go into more detail in another blog!). An inappropriate and unprofessional photo can be damaging to your credibility and unfortunately it isn’t easy to undo negative perception. So, if you’re posing with a bottle of tequila at a nightclub, cosying up to your Chihuahua (that’s just too Paris for me) or maybe canoodling a bevy of beauties at a bucks weekend, then it may just be time to re-evaluate what message you’re sending out to your professional networks. That’s fine if you’re a party animal, dog-lover or love the company of the opposite sex – you just need to filter it through the right channels.

A good profile photo is one that will represent you as a professional, confident and approachable individual who cares about their job and their career – a person that people will want to work with!

3.     What you see is what you get!

Invest time in creating a detailed and accurate quality profile just as you would with your resume. LinkedIn is your live online resume able to be viewed at any time so you need to ensure that it is reflects you in the right professional light consistently. Treat it as a live career document; one that you don’t forget about.

Keep the information current and relevant to your career. Be clear on the role titles, name of employers and timeframes you were with each employer. I have come across too many profiles with conflicting information which causes confusion and doubt about the credibility of the information. Make sure there are no spelling or grammatical errors. It’s just not a good look for any “professional”. Take the time to view your profile from an outsider’s perspective. You want to avoid the misconception that you aren’t too good with attention to detail or that you don’t really care about what people think of you.

 

 

First impressions matter! Your profile should be a positive reflection of you and should encourage people to view your professional details. The last thing you want is for people to stay clear of your profile and for negative feedback to spread throughout your professional network. With the rise and reliance on social media and the internet, a negative perception can damage your professional reputation and haunt you indefinitely.  On the flip-side, you can leave a lasting positive impression of your professionalism and professional credibility forever!

Keep in mind 3 things when creating or editing your LinkedIn profile:

1.     What will your current employer think of your profile? Are you an ambassador of your employer’s brand, corporate values and culture?

 2.     What would your peers (including management and staff) say about your profile? Are you viewed as a professional that is respected, good at their job and an individual people aspire to be?

 3.     Will potential employers and recruiters put you in the “don’t go there” basket or will they view you as a high calibre candidate for a potential new career opportunity?

 

You cannot control a viewer’s bias, however, if you have fed into a negative perception by portraying yourself in a way that is counter-effective for your career, then you only have yourself to blame unfortunately.

Put yourself in a viewer’s shoes. Now click onto your profile. At first glance, what do you think of you? Now read through the profile and stop. Are you left impressed or depressed? It’s time to make people thing O M G – for all the right reasons!

“It’s what you do that makes you who you are and how you project that to others that makes you memorable.”

 

 

It is a fine line to walk but keeping it professional doesn’t have to mean letting go of the essence of who you are. Being professional may simply mean applying a bit of common sense and seeing the bigger picture – your career picture. What matters to your professional network first and foremost is who you are as a master of your niche (your profession). Once they understand that, they may just be open to getting to know you on a more personal level.

Your professional personal brand is not about where you are now in your career – it is ultimately where you want to be!