Shameless Self Promotion is a Must
for Job Searching in the Digital Age
Job seekers come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. There are the currently unemployed who are pounding the pavement
and submitting several resumes a day. Then there's those who are employed but ready to jump ship at the first available
opportunity, also very active in seeking out new opportunities. Lastly, there are opportunists, people who would consider
offers and keep abreast of industry openings but don't actively submit resumes.
Which of these people should have strong professional branding - both offline and online? All of them. Plenty of
employees are afraid to build an online presence because they fear their employer will perceive it poorly. If you
build your personal brand well,
however, you'll be helping both yourself and your employer. You shouldn't have to apologize for having an actively maintained
LinkedIn profile or any other professional online presence.
If you want to be the kind of person who makes the short list for interviews or gets called out of the blue
with a job offer, you have to cultivate an authoritative presence in your professional community and network. It's all about
visibility. You can be the best at what you do and without visibility you'll get poor results and recognition.
A great real-life business example is the GoDaddy.com commercial campaign. Founder Bob Parsons
couldn't understand why they weren't doing better business. They were, after all, offering great customer service and low prices.
What they didn't have was name recognition - potential customers didn't know who they were. One racy SuperBowl
television ad and several ad campaigns later, GoDaddy.com and businessman Parsons
is running a great business.
We're not suggesting that you take an identical route, simply that you stop blaming the world for not
recognizing how amazing you are. Tell them how amazing you are. We've got tools to help you.
Online Tools
If you had a stack of 100 resumes for one or two open positions what's the first thing you'd do? Probably Google the
candidates. Anyone with significantly negative content showing up would probably go in the "no" pile and anyone with no
results at all would probably go in the "read and ignore pile." Who would go in the "call" pile? Candidates with published
professional articles or quoted by business trade publications. Start by cultivating and taking control
of your online presence.
LinkedIn
If you don't have a LinkedIn page, go get one right now. Network with all of your co-workers. Recommend them for skills.
Share articles relevant to your field. Ask trusted co-workers for recommendations of your work. Join groups to keep abreast of what's
happening in your industry and share your expertise.
Google +
Google + might not seem fun or interesting but it will help with your search engine results. If you've published on any websites
you need to apply for authorship and link to it on your Google + page. This gets complicated and Google is always changing
things up. At minimum, make a profile that you can share or link to with your other online tools.
Twitter
Create a username that isn't embarrassing to share with potential employers and get active in your industry space.
Depending on your personality, you can keep a personal twitter and a professional one or maintain one for both. Proceed
with caution if you use it for both! Follow industry leaders, share relevant articles (you can tie LinkedIn and twitter
together) and participate in conversations where you can offer authoritative perspectives.
Bonus Networks
You can also host your own blog, but tread carefully here. You'll have to keep churning out content and you certainly
shouldn't write anything that could jeopardize your current employment. An About.me page is a good central page you can
put in an email signature or on a business card that tells people how to get to the rest of your networks. It's clean and
simple and worth looking into. Klout.com measures your
social reach and influence.
You probably don't want to actively send people to it or share a bunch of updates, but it can be a good way to see where you stand.
Offline Tools
Speaking of business cards, they are still valuable and powerful tools. Get them and keep some on you all of the time.
Another fantastic means of branding yourself offline is by taking on speaking engagements. Anything from Kiwanis luncheons to
lending an opinion on a local morning news show to major trade conferences will help boost your brand and help you land the
job of your dreams - whether you asked for it or not!
