PROFESSIONAL CAREER DEVELOPMENT

Hey guys, have got new information for you on how to grow yourself and start working early on your professional image.

Personal brand is your professional style or reputation. It is how you choose to communicate yourself to people in your networks or target audience about your work and ethics. Whether you are actively managing it or not, you have some form of personal brand already.

Creating, defining your professional image or brand

In a bit to draft a professional image or brand, you must be able to identify certain questions. They are:  

What skills or talent do you bring to the table that others don’t have?

If all your colleagues and friends were to describe you, what three words would they use?

What is your unique selling point?

What is your personal value mission statement?

What experiences, job roles, professional exams have you taken

Identify academic attainment (degree, awards), extra-curricular activities, work experiences, internship opportunities, and career ambitions

How to use social media to sharpen your brand

Be unique

Create and maintain a unique persona for social media viewers to remember and distinguish from other personal brands. A unique persona is usually established through the use of employing a unique and recognizable language for your message, behavior and manner of communication.

Profile your target group

Choose your target group for the contents you will upload on social media channels, define target group in terms of demographic and psychographic profile and use contents to meet their needs. For example, if you want to use your twitter account to properly position you as a writer for a content marketing organization, you have got to put up stuffs that positions you as an excellent writer.

Be consistent

Always post new contents regularly, at the same time and day, for example, once a week on Mondays at 5.00pm.  Lack of consistency in posting content will result in lost viewers and fewer subscriptions. 

Tell a story

Practice telling stories on social media platforms, tell the story in a few minutes or less. This is your personal pitch which you would use to attract followers on social media and even potential employers. Your story should include who you are, what you are good at doing and how you can help others to achieve their goals

Build your linked in network with relevant connections

Create a targeting criterion for whom you would like in your Linked In network. Then optimize your LinkedIn profile to communicate the information about yourself that you feel is important. This approach would help you build the foundation from which you can build your personal brand.

Putting your brand to work

Successful personal branding means managing and influencing how others perceive you. Exhibiting a unique but consistent image through your CV, email address, dress code, social media post can directly and positively influence your career image. Here are some few tips

Update your CV to reflect your brand

Have you thought about how to construct a CV that reflects you and your personal strengths? Thinking of ways to add a unique flair to your CV is very important. You can use any of the following methods to portray your CV and unique talents

Infographic CV:  Highlight some true facts about yourself and work experience in a visually appealing manner.

Vide CV: Show off what you have got, your professional experiences and qualifications highlighting relevant information on a video and post on relevant social media channels.

Web based CV: Put your CV online in the form of your own branded website and instead of attaching a PDF document include a link to your website in your cover letter.

Social CV: help recruiters and employees find you by including links to your social media platforms such as linked in and twitter in your bio.

Control your image

Do you know that 92% of companies use social media for recruiting? 3 out of 4 hiring managers check candidates profile photos even if they are not provided with it by candidates. Please be super careful about what information you put online or allow others to put about you online, it damages personal brand when information is bad or slanderous. Monitor what you put on social media and keep your privacy settings in check. Having a damaging brand on google or any of the social media sites can just be as bad as having nothing on google.

Be who your brand says you are

Without realizing it, your behavior, attitude, communication skills and dress code can affect how people perceive you. dress behave, communicate in the manner in which you want people to communicate with you. The key to career development could lie in making a great first impression. Let everything you do on social media really portray who you are in reality.

Commit to brand development

You must commit to personal development, which is nurturing and maintaining the brand you possess. Know the career landscape, market demands of the industry you belong to, and work hard towards getting to the peak of your career. Consistently show an ability to learn, adapt and keep current and develop a skill set that makes you indispensable.

Growing your networks should be an activity that you never ignore and be a part of associations that works to complement your personal brand. Don’t stop working on your personal brand, and if you have not begun, make sure you start now.