Tom O'Neil: Developing a strong brand in 2020

Social media is an enormous force for professional personal branding, job hunting and career management. With a multitude of platforms available to "sing your praises", the success of the next vacancy you apply for, may well be based on how positive (or negative) you are perceived to be online.

As many people are prepared to put the "real them" on social media for all to see, recruiters and human resources professionals actively use this information to ascertain their "fit" in the business they are hiring for. So how do you create a strong online platform to promote your personal brand in 2020?

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a terrific way to promote your personal brand to key players and influencers in your industry. Executive recruiters trawl LinkedIn for quality candidates they can "head hunt" into choice appointments quickly and efficiently.

Ensure that your profile is complete, with a strong achievements focus demonstrated through work experience. Include a healthy amount of skills that can be endorsed by others, highlighting your expertise in a specific area.

Remember LinkedIn is to a large extent an "open" forum, allowing a diverse range of people internationally to read confidential information about you and companies you have worked for. Never include specific financial data and be careful of all other information you share.

Facebook

Clean up your FaceBook profile to ensure there are no dodgy photos or comments.Tighten up your privacy settings to ensure strangers can't trawl through your profile at will.

Twitter

This social media platform is a real "truth-teller" in terms of a person's thoughts, feelings, political affiliations and social commentary. You will be judged not only by your own tweets and the tweets you share, but by who you follow. However you can use this as a positive platform by advancing positive insight in relation to your trade or industry, as well as connecting with some of the top thinkers in your field.

Other platforms

Podcasts, YouTube and Instagram provide a positive way to promote your (professional) thinking to your potential employment audience. If you want to develop a strong personal brand in your industry, select the platform you naturally gravitate to, and start to carve out a niche as a specialist in your field.

Google Search

Finally do a Google search on yourself if you have not done this in a while. Whenever I speak at events on personal branding, I always ask people to "Google themselves" at the end of my presentation, and on almost every occasion, someone in the room found something surprising (or disturbing) about themselves online!

Get employer ready for 2020 by making sure your online personal brand really hits the mark. The time you spend doing this will more than pay itself off over the next 12 months.

Contact Tom O'Neil and the team at CV.CO.NZ for a free CV assessment or to be your personal career coach. Visit CV.CO.NZ (0800) 282 669 or www.CareerCoach.nz to find out more.