Personal Branding
What is Personal Branding?
- Brand 'You' - it's all about marketing yourself
- What do you want to be known / remebered for?
- Personal marketing collateral
- CV, LinkedIn, cover letter, application forms, and social media footprint
When you're applying for jobs, they're interested in your brand. If your freelancing, your brand is your business - branding is everything. This brand is communicated through everything you put into the outside world including cover letters etc, what you say on social media. Employers and potential clients look at it. LinkedIn is most important for this.
- Employers can see your 'Professional Footprint' - social media accounts
- 70% of employers use social media to screen candidates
- 57% of employers are less likely to contact applicants with no online presence - a positive footprint is better than no footprint.
LinkedIn
What is LinkedIn?
- It is social media, but don't think of it as social media. It's a place to make yourself visible to the professional world, network with others, and the biggest candidate database in the world. (Biggest talent-pool)
- Job seekers seek out companies, hiring managers and jobs and recruiters/hiring managers source candidates.
- Best way to find jobs rather than looking on Indeed, etc. It has a job board.
- A place for professionals to do research on each other - your profile is basically a CV
- Entrepreneurs / freelancers showcase and grow their business and also to find clients.
Finding a position through LinkedIn:
- Search for jobs (job board) and apply - who in your network works there? LinkedIn will show you jobs that fit your inquiries and your connections/people to network with.
- The more professionals you network/connect to, the more support and opportunities that will come your way.
- Networking can provide some random stroke of fate - someone you've connected with and don't know why can end up providing something really valuable. For example, when applying to jobs you might see that someone you've networked with might know someone who works in that company to leverage a warmer approach to a company.
- Some companies have filters where they will only accept applicants who follow them on LinkedIn.
- Participate in discussions to build profile but stay professional - this will always reflect on you and your personal branding.
- Find groups where decision makers hang out.
- Networking: eventually take the conversation off LinkedIn, and even better to take it offline.
LinkedIn Profile:
Photo and Banner
- Professional head and shoulders photo
- Personalised background image/banner/business card
You could make banners professionally - you can advertise your skills on your own banner and provide a service to make one. For example, could contact a company on LinkedIn with no banner and offer to create one for a certain price.
The Headline
- The bit under your name - What are you?
- Currently would put that you're a student and at what university but if you're confident enough, you can put "graphic designer who specialises in..." and charge a fee for work.
- He would write "Personal Branding Specialist, expert in training job seekers on how to develop high impact CVs and LinkedIn profiles that significantly increase interviews and job offers." This provides more information to those that land on your profile - it doesn't have to be this fancy, just impactful.
LinkedIn Summary
- Use the W-H-O-S-E-E-S formula
- it's an Elevator Pitch / more personal
- Write in First Person using pronouns ( I and My )
- WHO / what are you and value proposition are still needed - the first 2 lines on LinkedIn are critical.
- Explain what you're good at (strengths) and give brief examples
- Explain under what circumstances your skill helps companies
- Inject philosophy and ethos into LinkedIn (more personality)
- Add Specialities to LinkedIn - list your skills. Could just be Photoshop, HTML programming, corporate logos etc.
This is the order to fill in the information in this section
- Description of employer
- Summary of Role
- Duties & Responsibilities - do not bullet point minutia. You instead will list achievements/key projects. Anything that really stands out.
- Voluntary, permanent, internship or contract jobs.
Social Proof
- The power of Recommendations - the company you're applying for will want proof that you're worth hiring.
- Professional footprint + your recommendations can be the determining factor for whether you get hired.
- You can use recommendations on your CV, portfolio etc as well. Not everything has to be on LinkedIn. Social proof of your abilities and talent are useful.
LinkedIn Search Optimisation
- Skills section matters - put them in order - this can help refine your searches for jobs.
- Put your skills in order, the ones at the top are the ones you'll most likely be hired for.
- Who endorses you matters - whoever has an endorsement for a skill will come up first if searching for that specific skills. You can buddy up with friends and students to endorse each other for skills.
- Who you are connected to matters - if you are connected to all the heads of your course and companies and students on your course, when searched you will come up first because those connections matters.
- Keyword in the content matters - keywords on your profile.
- Follow companies you want to work for
- Your media/articles/blogs help.
LinkedIn as a Research Tool
- Research companies and their posts and activities to gain insight.
- Research interviewers/contacts
- Find out who else works at that company
- Warm approach/leverage connections and your network.
Getting Found
- SEO your profile with key words
- Write recommendations - they link back to you.
- Endorse people you want to remind them that you exist (hirers?) - might be more effective than repeatedly emailing/phoning as if they don't reply then doing a kind favour by endorsing them may make them more inclined to getting back to you.
- Join groups - contact and be contacted by group members
- Participate in group discussions and build your authority
- Ask for recommendations, 3x more likely to be hired/found if you have recommendations.
Other Tricks
- Change the default message when connecting
- You can use bullet points (can't insert them or copy and paste them from Word) so use Wingdings to create some formatting.
Winning Business On LinkedIn - For Freelancers
- Use Sales Navigator or Business Premium (LinkedIn's platform for selling) which is very expensive now but when you're a good business it's a business expense - marketing
- Allows you to search for specific clients/decision makers based on your criteria
- Send connection requests - you can personalise this then thanks for connecting.
- Offer something for free - adds value.
- At some point, send message explaining your value and get a meeting - then take the conversation offline.
Right now, LinkedIn is probably not important. But in a year and a half, when looking for jobs, LinkedIn will be crucial.
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