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Create: Build Your Digital Image

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Video 1: Curated Content! Video 2: Unless you’re applying to be the gunda or bhai of your area, introducing yourself with poetry like this can be pointless! Even more if you are introducing Brand Me to the world through social media. In any social media post, sometimes in less than 140 characters, or with just an image, you share a glimpse of your thoughts with the world! And the best part? Your social media profiles allow employers to see who you are outside the resume or personal interview. You can share Brand Me on social media in so many ways! But first, do you know how strong your Online Identity is? To answer this: Have you ever tried searching yourself on Google? For instance, we typed SRK in a google search. In 0.63 seconds, google found About 11,10,000 results with SRK. This means, SRK has been mentioned in at least 11,10,000 web pages online! Yes, he's King Khan... ! Online too it seems! So how do YOU build an online reputation that is strong too?! Believe it or not- there is a certain science to it. Go ahead, grab a notepad and a pen, your poison of choice and settle down. Let's start building your BRAND ME on social media!

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Disclaimer: Curated Content! This video is available for free here.

Let’s introduce Brand ‘Me’ to the world through social media.

You already may have a social media identity thanks to all the tweets, shares and likes you engage in. And as you saw in the video, Google too indexes your identity.

So, who does Google think you are?

A quick Google search of Neil Patel (a famous social media marketer) revealed this.

There are more than 92,00,000 searches against his name! Very impressive! This means that his name has been mentioned in at least 92,00,000 web pages! With hard work and some handy tools, a Google search of your name can be as impressive.

What’s your online identity right now?

Take 15-20 minutes and fill this calculator. It will help you make sense of your Google results and give you advice on how to build a great identity online which is similar to your real-world personal brand. It’s important to understand where you are in order to decide where you want to go. So you need to know how your current online identity looks. Do fill this calculator before you move to the next section.

‘I’ 2.0 on Social Media

Your social media profiles allow employers to see who you are outside the resume or personal interview. Employers view your social media profiles for one reason – to understand if the person they’re about to hire fits the role and the organization. While it’s a smaller part of the interview process, it is still important.

For E.g.: a writer is instantly judged for making a spelling mistake in a post.

Hence, one has to maintain such rules across channels.

You can make ‘Me’ more attractive using these tips.

1. Keep your name similar across profiles. It’s best to avoid nicknames, shortened names, etc., unless you use the alias regularly. Your profile picture and bio can be different, but only slightly. The universe of social media is growing and employers look in multiple places for information.

2. You’ll be easier to find if you maintain uniformity. It’s also an essential first step to becoming someone who people remember. Here’s a cool and efficient tool you could use to keep your profiles similar across platforms.

3. How would you briefly describe Brand Me?

It’s not that hard really, just requires you to think deeper. Neil Patel has a great list to help you write your own bio. Although, he wrote it specifically for twitter, the tips can be applied across platforms.

- Be accurate – tell what you really do or are

- Be sure to sound energetic and optimistic

- Use the words, the group you want to be a part of uses. It creates deeper connections and easier conversations

- Put in your accomplishments, also the ones not in your professional list. If you bake muffins for friends, you could write baker. If you ram the guitar for colleagues on Fridays, you could be a guitarist

- Say that you’re a genuine person by uploading a picture

- Show off your sense of humor in your bio. Seriousness is so tedious. If you think you’re too serious, ask help from a friend who’s always funny.

Here are a few personal bio examples to get you started.

Linkedin

Krista Canfield, Senior Manager - Corporate Communications @ LinkedIn

Demian Farnworth, Writer @Copyblogger

Andrew Cesarz, Senior Recruiter @ Uber

Twitter

You can’t deny that after reading these bios, you half-like these people already! Each one’s bio shows what they have to offer and creates uniqueness by giving the reader a look into their personal lives. A bio is like an elevator pitch* for you – both socially and professionally.

Here’s a quick cheat sheet from unbounce.com before you start writing yours.

Go ahead and start writing your own bio now! Share it with us in the comments section below or email it to us!

4. Which brings me to this very important point – Don’t leave your profiles blank, unless you absolutely don’t want the particular information online. The fuller your profile, the more comfortable the employer feels as you’ve minimized risk for him. (If your LinkedIn profile is complete, your resume is almost ready and up for employers to make a decision!)

5. Post every day to your most valued social profiles. Share your expertise and enthusiasm with people. But keep in mind to:

- Maintain consistency about subjects that interest you

- Maintain similarity about your areas of expertise

- Go for variety in everything else that you like

6. Create networks of those you admire on social media.

- Use tools like Twiangulate that allows you to see all kinds of activities on Twitter from the people you admire.

- Qweboo “turns Twitter into manageable interest networks by creating customisable interest feeds.”

- You can also set up alerts using Google Alerts. This tool allows you to stay updated on new content related to any person, company or topic. Establish alerts for your network members, or your subjects of interest, and you will be alerted each time they are mentioned in a blog or quoted in article. (It’s a great time to e-mail them and start a conversation.)

7. Do more exciting stuff and keep updating

Barry Feldman’s advice on the aspect of social media is so crisp, and enjoyable, just like a treat! His post on Social Media Today shared a number of takeaways that he found when studying a book by networking expert David Bradford. These are listed here as a checklist you can use to manage brand me on social media. Download a copy of this checklist in the next chapter.

❖ Follow up with new connections you make immediately, stay in touch, and always follow-through on your promises.

❖ Connect people in your network to each other.

❖ Surround yourself with positive and successful people. Don’t let awe stop you.

❖ Have confidence to reach out to the best.

❖ Study the network of successful friends and leaders in your area of expertise and follow their lead.

❖ Find mentors. Do as they do.

❖ Ask for advice from everyone you stand to learn from.

❖ Give as much as you can.

❖ Ask your connections if there’s anything you can do for them. Ask a lot of questions and listen.

❖ Tell people you’re excited to hear their stories. They’ll be glad to share them.

❖ Make yourself available to your peers and organizations.

However, you must bear in mind that employers look at Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram and Pinterest for your interests. Facebook and Google+ work great as platforms for information on your education, previous workplace(s), and location. Keep it real and up-to-date.

‘I’ as an expert

Question and answer sites like Quora or Stack Exchange are gold mines of curious questions and answers. The plethora of questions and different perspectives can sweep away at least a couple of hours from the day. Ashton Kutcher, the actor and tech geek is on Quora, answering and rating as well!

The Internet has the answer to possibly every question. But the problem is that most of it is bullshit. These question-and-answer sites are exploiting the power of social media and applying stricter quality control on crowd sourced material to generate qualified answers. And the reason why you should be spending more time on these sites is this – To market yourself as an expert.

But there are a few ground rules.

1. Determine where your target audience is, because that’s where you want to be. Answering the questions requires time, and as an investment it’s only lucrative if your audience is reading it.

2. Make sure your answers are correct, informative, helpful and complete (as much as possible).Most of these sites allow the readers to rate answers and with spam you’ll sink to the bottom of the page. Run a thorough research before answering questions.

3. Participate in conversations with intelligence and most importantly, modesty. Brawls may get you noticed but the outcome could be negative. As popular poet Jalaluddin Rumi said, “Raise your words, not voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.”

4. Stay updated on your area of expertise and participate in related discussions on various forums. Follow related bloggers, news sites, social media profiles, websites – the Internet is your treasure-trove.

5. If you have a blog (brownie points for you!), link the answers to corresponding blog topics that you’ve written.

6. By being an active member of the online community you immediately up your chances of not just being noticed, but being noticed in the correct places. Isn’t that what we do in the physical world too?

Quick tips for Quora

- Your bio summary shows up next to your name when you answer questions, so make it good.

- Your Quora profile is a key marketing tool for potential customers to find out more about you. Make sure you fill it out completely.

- Create different bios for different areas of expertise. This is a great way to tailor your message.

- Share your Quora activity on your other platforms.

Keeping your key traits in mind at all times, follow these tips and you’ll discover several practical ways to apply it to build ‘Me’ on social media.

*The Elevator Pitch: If you were in an elevator of a building, and the CEO of a very famous company (think Jeff Bezos of Amazon) was in this same lift, would you take the chance to introduce yourself and ask for a job? Remember you would have just 8- 10 seconds. What would you say, in order to get the job you really want? How would you ensure that the CEO is impressed with you? If you did do that, you just created an elevator pitch!

Timeline:

Let’s face it. You are at it even now. Aren’t you getting Facebook or Twitter notifications on your phone even now?

Social media is about you and your personal life. And yet, if you are preparing for job interviews, go and look at social media feeds. Remove a lot of irrelevant and old posts. Delete any posts you feel are immature and silly. And at least for a bit, until you get that job, try to watch what you post on social media. A sure shot way to promote Brand Me on social media is by picking one single channel and posting relevant stuff daily. A photo blog on food, or fashion, or a blog about technology, or even a daily tweet on a subject that matters to you will do the job.

Key Takeaways

• In order to build Brand Me on social media, find out how you rank on Google using an identity calculator.

• Your social media profile allows interviewers to know your interests outside the formal setting.

• Your social media profiles are also a way for interviewers to authenticate any information you may have shared.

• You can make "Brand Me" more attractive on social media by following a few simple steps.

• Keep your name similar across profiles.

• Maintain uniformity in profile pictures, descriptions, biographies, et al.

• Craft your bios for each social network with attention to various details.

• Add a dash of humour to your profiles.

• Your bio is like your elevator pitch- and can impress the interviewer if done well.

• Blank profiles are a big no no.

• Cultivate your profiles by posting content daily.

• Create a group, network, or just set up alerts for people you admire on social media.

• Use the checklist to maintain social media hygiene.

• Interviewers look at LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest to discover your interests.

• Interviewers look at Facebook and Google+ to know your background, education, etc.

• You can market yourself as an expert on Q&A sites like Quora.

• Keep your key traits in mind and keep it real on social media.

Up Next:

Download the "How To Manage Brand Me On Social Media Checklist" in the next chapter. Further, in the next chapter, find out how you can build successful connections with various people in order to promote Brand Me.

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