Landing a job is a nuanced process. When you are actively seeking a job, you might update your LinkedIn profile to get noticed by recruiters or learn about a company's hiring process so you feel confident going into an interview. The truth is, however, that what you do before you’re actively looking for a job greatly impacts your chances of success when trying to obtain a job offer. Developing a strong personal brand can help you get noticed by recruiters and help to ensure you make a good first impression on an employer.

Overview

In this article, we:

• Define personal branding and outline why it matters for your career;

• Discuss how social media contributes to your personal brand;

• Discuss ways to identify and understand your personal brand; and

• Provide actionable steps you can take to improve your personal branding so that you can land your dream job whether now or in the future.

What Is Personal Branding?

By definition, a personal brand is “a widely-recognized and largely-uniform perception or impression of an individual based on their experience, expertise, competencies, actions and/or achievements within a community, industry, or the marketplace at large.” In the essence, your personal brand is how you are perceived by others which determines people’s impression of you. Before the rise of the internet, your personal brand was constructed based on person-to-person interactions or deliberate communication. However, with over 4.7 billion people using social media around the world there’s a good chance that the first impression someone has of you is from an encounter you’re not aware of (i.e., viewing your online profiles). With that, it’s important to assess whether your online presence gives the same first impression you’d want to make if you were actively engaging with a person.

What Impacts Personal Branding?

Your personal brand determines how you are perceived by others. It is the amalgamation of everything about you including your “experience, expertise, competencies, actions, and/or achievements.” This could be displayed in a single document, website, or another communication medium, or someone could manually compile this information using various sources. With the rise of the internet, people can curate a detailed impression of you based on what they find online about you. Before the internet, you could choose the information you shared with particular people. For example, you may have shared your personal life with your friends, but kept the details away from your work colleagues. That is, you could curate your personal brand by deliberately choosing what you shared depending on who you were engaging with. Now, your first encounter often occurs without you even knowing it. Research shows that 92% of companies are using social media for hiring and that 75% of hiring managers look up candidate social profiles. What this means is that the impression you make on hiring managers may occur before an interview and is determined by what people find online about you. Consider whether people in your professional life are consuming information that you would prefer to only be known by certain audiences.

Thus, your first impression is no longer based on the first 7 seconds you spend with an employer. It is increasingly being made during a one-sided encounter that the employer makes with your social profiles.

Is Social Media Bad for My Personal Brand?

Although your social profiles may harm your career if not monitored and deliberately curated, they can also be leveraged as a tool so you can put your best foot forward. Social media is playing a larger role in personal branding than ever before. If you are intentional with your online presence, you can capitalize on social media’s potential for developing your personal brand. With it, you showcase your personality, connect with others and grow your network, and ultimately drive success. A person with a strong personal brand may be more successful in their job hunt as they’ll be able to make a strong first impression and demonstrate that they are a good fit for a role. In addition, they may attract recruiters who offer them job positions they weren’t necessarily looking for.

What Can I Do To Develop My Personal Brand?

The first step in personal branding is to identify your vision statement and values. By understanding who you are, you’ll know how you want people to perceive you. From there, audit your online presence and evaluate whether it aligns with the impression you want to make . Here are some steps you can take to understand your current The first step in personal branding is to identify your vision statement and values. By understanding who you are, you’ll know how you want people to perceive you. From there, audit your online presence and evaluate whether it aligns with the impression you want to make. Here are some steps you can take to understand your current personal brand, identify how you want to be perceived, and fine-tune your online presence so that it aligns with your personal brand.

Keep building your brand

Building your brand isn't a one-time effort. It’s not another task on your to-do list. It’s an ongoing endeavour that evolves based on your personal goals, professional goals, and values. Part of developing a personal brand is creating a solid presence online that aligns with how you want to be perceived by others. Keep your profiles up-to-date, stay in touch with your contacts, and build and maintain your network. As the digital ecosystem and your career evolve, so will your personal brand. Make sure to reflect those changes on your social media platforms.

And remember - recruiters will form an impression of you regardless of whether (or how much) effort you put into it. If you put the effort in, you can determine the impression they get.