Welcome to the age when resumes are no longer enough. If you want to stand out, you have to have a presence that extends beyond the page, or in most cases these days, the Outlook reading pane. With that in mind, here are some tips on creating your own professional brand because today everyone is a marketer and your flagship solution is you.
Taken from Building Your Online Career Brand: Five Tools for Job-Seekers by Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D.
Career Branding Tools
1. LinkedIn profile. If you are a professional -- or an aspiring professional -- you must have a profile on LinkedIn, a business-oriented networking site that consists of millions of experienced professionals from around the world, representing hundreds of industries from more than 200 countries. When you join, you can create a profile that can serve as both a resume and an introduction to your career brand. Once your profile is completed, you then build connections with other members, getting introduced to new people through the people in your network. Read Jason Keath's 6 New LinkedIn Job Search Tips.
2. Personal Website. One of the best ways to build and promote your career brand is by developing a professional Website that showcases your key accomplishments. At a minimum, you should buy a domain name based on your name (for example, mine is RandallSHansen.com) and publish your resume. Even better, publish your career portfolio, content-rich articles, and other keyword-rich materials that will lead prospective employers looking for someone with your qualifications directly to your site. Read more in my article, SEO for Job-Seekers: 10 Tips for Building Your Online Brand.
3. Twitter account. Every day, more and more individuals and businesses are tweeting information, ideas, links, and more Ð all in under 140 characters per tweet (message). Twitter, a networking and micro-blogging site, enables people to connect and communicate -- developing both a following of people as well as following the tweets of others. Tweeting key information, resources, and other professional advice -- while building a following -- is a very easy way to build your career brand. Read this great blog post, , as well as Andy Headworth's The Ten Commandments for Job-Seekers on Twitter.
4. Professional blog. If you are a decent writer and can commit to writing regularly, creating a professional blog is a great tool for building your career brand. A blog is a specialized Website that focuses on a particular subject (person, industry, profession) that can include news, analysis, commentary, and links in a variety of formats (including print, audio, images, and video). Showcasing your expertise and knowledge of your industry or profession is an excellent way to build your career brand. Read Darren Rowse's How to Build Your Personal Brand Through Your Blog, as well as my article, Tips for Blog Publishing Success.
5. Social networking profiles/accounts. Consider joining at least two social-networking sites. One should be a general social-networking site, such as Facebook, and one should be career-specific (which you can find by searching Google -- most professions have multiple networking sites). While social networking is just that -- social -- remember that networking with others (online and off) is one of the most powerful tools of job-hunting as the majority of jobs are filled through referrals, not through responses to job postings. Read Dan Schawbel's article: Twitter, Facebook, Digg: Can You Join Too Many Networks?
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