Personal Branding - How to Get The Most Out of Your Profile

Most of us have a difficult time writing about “us”. We like to be subtle, shy, unassuming and humble but each of those things don’t find with self-promotion; square peg, round hole. If you want to make the most of your online profiles for branding then you have to learn to “speak up” with your content and hook the people you hope will view your profile.

Follow these tips to position your own personal brand for success:

Don’t Cut & Paste your Resumer
The web is not a division of human resources and these social sites are not a cork board to post your resume for someone to wander by and glance at. You also wouldn’t walk up to a group of people at a cocktail party and hand them your resume. Joining the conversation means adding value, so go into depth and detail about your experience, abilities and facts about you so that people who meet you get a clear picture of who you are.

Be Your Strongest Advocater
When you’re talking up a product or an experience to someone you know, you tend to be more animated because you’re passionate about it. Be passionate about yourself and light your profile up with your voice. Unless it suits your brand, don’t write from the third person. Using personality wherever possible reinforces your transparency and authenticity – both vital attributes for personal branding.

“Just Do It”

Make a tagline and try to make it something that you can own, and live up to. You can use your tagline in most professional profiles and you should leverage it as a way to make a lasting impression. Your tagline is your personal brand at a glance - this is important because when positioned properly, your tagline could appear near your name in search results. Everyone that finds you within the search results could also find you relevant to what they need based on your tagline alone.

Captivate Your Audiencer
Think about a scenario where you have less than 30 seconds to sell someone on who you are – the elevator pitch. Make sure that the content within your profile captivates your audience within the first 15 seconds, because that’s all you have before they finish skimming and click away.

Explain Yourselfr
Remember that brevity is important but when you start dropping experience into bullets you need to qualify what it is you’re saying. Talk briefly about what you did within a specific job or career track. Think in terms of the cocktail party or conference again 0 once you introduce yourself, how do you describe what you do and what your company does? Break it into chunks that are easily digested to make it web-read friendly.

Stand Apart
You’re not the only one with your specific skill load out and experience. There are plenty of other people just like you that want to brand themselves in a similar way, so part of your self-promotion needs to emphasize standing out from the pack. Make sure you include your interests, abilities and those things that you’re passionate about. By highlighting the right achievements, interests and more you can add prestige to your profile and toot your own horn.

Always look at your branding profiles, especially your central branding hub, as a peer-reviewed picture of you and your personal brand. Keep the picture in focus, easy to find and centered on you and your business.