How Social Media Can Enhance Your Personal Brand

We all have a personal brand, regardless of whether we’ve intentionally developed it or were assigned such branding by our colleagues and communities.  A positive personal brand can help advance our careers and expand our potential for impact. Developing a personal brand that aligns with your expertise and values should be a top priority for today’s innovative professionals.

Across all platforms, social media has emerged as a fertile ground for professionals to build up their personal brand and advance their careers or ruin their professional reputations. While consumers may join a social media app to communicate with friends and family, research purchase decisions, and connect with their communities, potential clients and recruiters are actively scouring social media sites for insight into who the professional in question is, what they believe, and how digital-savvy (or, at least, aware) they are. If you’re conscious about what you post on social media, and its content aligns with your personal brand, social media can be a great way to attract new career opportunities!

In our Digital Age, no professional is exempt from managing their digital footprint. What we post, share, and publish online has the potential to both enhance our personal brand, or destroy it. Learning how to implement social media strategies that positively contribute to our personal branding can lead to additional career opportunities and increased community reach.

Social Media’s Impact on Our Personal Brands

Navigating the professional world - and our extensive digital footprint - can present quite the challenge to our always-connected workforce. Recognizing the potential benefits and digital strategies professionals can leverage to build their personal brand with the help of social media can provide ambitious professionals with a competitive advantage. Social media presents a variety of opportunities for professionals to connect with new career opportunities, support organizations, and develop their networks. Additionally, avoiding social media pitfalls that have the potential to be career-ending, can assist professionals in maintaining an upward career trajectory. 

Abstaining from social media used to be a recommended approach for organizational leaders; however, their digital absence can preclude them from valuable opportunities. Just because you aren’t posting things online, doesn’t mean someone else isn’t posting things about you and your organization. Engaging the digital community through proactive social media strategies can position professionals to take charge of their personal brand and maximize their potential impact, both on and offline. Today’s we’re going to discuss several key strategies professionals can use to ensure social media expands their career, not ruins it. 

Developing Your Personal Brand

Establishing and developing a personal brand around your career goals and skill sets can help professionals access additional career opportunities in the form of employment and entrepreneurship. A personal brand encompasses what you do, who you are, and what you have to offer organizations. Communicating a consistent and well-defined personal brand can help professionals stand out in a highly competitive landscape, courtesy of the Internet. 

Here are five key elements of an effective personal brand in the Digital Age:

Alignment

A successful personal brand provides an authentic perception of who you are as a person and the values you demonstrate through action. Such alignment of substance and purpose helps communicate your personal brand both directly and indirectly with everyone you come in contact with. A brand that’s disconnected from the product (you) is fraudulent and can be very destructive to your professional reputation. 

Consistency

A personal brand isn’t something you put on before your morning commute and take off after 5 PM; it’s an integrated set of values seamlessly incorporated into everything you do. Consistent branding that extends from your professional life into your personal life is key for success in our Connected Age. Thanks to social media apps and other electronic tools, any inconsistencies you harbor may be broadcasted to the world. 

Distinction

The cornerstone of your personal brand is what makes you unique. While there may be many competent professionals in your industry fulfilling a similar job description, what distinguishes you from your colleagues? Are you especially tech-savvy? Do you have a nontraditional educational background that provides you specific insight into new markets? What aspects of work are you really passionate about? Identifying your competitive advantage within your industry pool of similar professionals can help you hone your personal branding strategy. 

Expertise

A personal brand communicates your expertise as a professional. Maybe you’re especially talented at promoting fundraiser events or building collaborative teams. Maybe you’re a talented public speaker or particularly effective at launching new projects. Others often identify a professional’s area(s) of expertise before being recognized by themselves. What do your colleagues ask you for help on the most? What topics are you frequently consulted on? Herein often lies your area of expertise. 

Messaging

The messaging aspect of personal branding is where social media really comes into play, as it can provide professionals with a platform to connect with their target audiences, establish subject matter expertise, and gain thought leader status within their industry or community. Communicating one’s personal brand via online channels can be a highly efficient (and economical) method to connect with new opportunities. When posting contact online, consider how the content will reflect on your personal brand and the organization(s) you represent. 

How does your social media presence affect your personal brand?

We all have a personal brand, whether we consciously create one and intentionally communicate it, or whether it’s assigned to us by others. Your personal brand is everything that comes to mind when someone else hears your name. What we post online has the potential to build up our personal brand, or severely damage it - either way, our online footprint will likely extend beyond our lifetime. 

If you would like to learn more about how social media can impact our professional pursuits, subscribe to our newsletter for additional social media resources. Additionally, Becker Digital provides customized social media training to organizations interested in equipping their leadership teams to succeed in the digital space. Contact us to learn more about these organizational training opportunities.