8. Online Networking and Employability
Course
• What Personal Branding is all about
• The importance of social media for self-promotion
• How to identify and use different social networking tools
• How to create an online portfolio
10. Personal Branding Process
There are four steps in the personal branding process
• Discover your brand
• Develop your brand
• Communicate your brand
• Maintain your brand
11. Discover your Brand
Brand discovery is about figuring out who you are and what do you
want to achieve in your life, setting goals, writing down a mission,
vision and personal brand statement, as well as creating a personal
development plan.
To know if you have discovered your brand, you need to make this
equation equal: Your self-impression = How people perceive you
12. Develop your Brand
• Identify your target audience
• Understand your unique selling point. Personally and professional it
is important to know what makes you different.
• List your areas of expertise and accomplishments
• Recognise your personal strengths and weaknesses, as well as
values, interests, your personality and what motivates you
13. Communicate your Brand
• Create a communications plan
• Select a combination of tools that will help you reach your selected
target audience
• Set a timeline for implementing your communications plan
14. Personal Branding Communication
Tools
Tangible
• Personal Website
• Blog
• Social Networks
• Business Card
• Curriculum Vitae
Intangibles
• Personality
• Appearance
• Mission
• Vision
• Values
15. Maintain your Brand
• Search for information about yourself on Google and other internet
search engines regularly (your digital footprint)
• Be consistent – walk your talk
• Assess your brand regularly – keep your online profiles constantly
updated.
• Gather feedback and ask others for recommendations
• Evolve yourself
16. What have I learnt from the Online
Networking and Employability Course
What Personal Branding is all about
=
Personal branding is the process through which you differentiate yourself by
identifying and articulating your unique selling point and then leveraging it across
platforms with a consistent message and image to achieve a specific goal. I believe
that my blog and online profiles reflect my strengths, experiences, skills and interests.
My aim is to portray an image of a young and energetic professional who is
comfortable in her own skin and who is not afraid to take on a challenge.
18. Social Media & Online Networking
Social Media has become increasingly important, especially in the search for a
job. A number of employers have a presence and recruit using social media. An
online presence means that you can:
– Chat with employers directly
– Share the experiences of people who have been through the recruitment process
– Gain commercial awareness
– Job-hunt creatively
– Develop an effective personal brand to promote yourself
19. Creating an Effective Online
Presence
New technologies can be intimidating but once you learn how to use them, they can make
your life easier. Being digitally literate is becoming increasingly important to finding a job.
There are seven key concepts to digital literacy, vital to your good use of the internet and
social media. It is important to remember there is more to it than just connecting with
friends and family.
• Changing - understand and adapt to new technologies for the purpose of career building.
• Collecting - the ability to source, manage and retrieve career information and resources.
• Critiquing - understand the nature of online career information and resources, and
analysing usefulness for your career.
20. Creating an Effective Online
Presence cont.
• Connecting - build relationships and networks online that can support your career
development.
• Communicating - interact effectively across a range of different platforms, to understand
the genre and netiquette associated with different types of interaction and to use them
appropriately within the context of career.
• Creating - create online content that effectively represents you and your career online.
• Curating – store and retrieve online information and mange your digital footprint and
online networks to support your career.
21. What have I learnt from the Online
Networking and Employability Course
Creating an online portfolio – Personal Blog
Blogging: A personal blog will help you to develop and promote your personal brand to
the people you want to communicate it to. It will also allow you to reflect on your
experiences while creating a portfolio of your activities and skills. Integrating your blog
with your social media will help to expand your online presence. During the Online
Networking and Employability course I had the opportunity to set up my own blog and
also to receive feedback from a peer. The feedback I received was very encouraging
and also some suggestions, like improving the title and appearance of the blog have
been taken aboard.
22. What have I learnt from the Online
Networking and Employability Course
Creating an online portfolio - Facebook
Facebook: With more than 500 million active users Facebook is filled with
CEOs, celebrities, entrepreneurs and people just like you who can be
reached through Facebook’s messaging system without any boundaries or
restrictions. Facebook is also a talent search engine and part of the college
admission and corporate recruiting criteria. It is important to use common
sense in determining how you want to represent yourself. You are what you
publish and first impressions are everything.
23. What have I learnt from the Online
Networking and Employability Course
Creating an online portfolio - LinkedIn
• Your LinkedIn profile is the closest thing you have to an online resume. It needs to be crafted with
extreme care, because it will be the first place many recruiters and potential clients look. Fairly or
unfairly, they make immediate judgments about you based on that profile. The summary should
include a brief paragraph summarising work experience, skills and achievements.
• Your profile should be rich with keywords that recruiters and potential clients or customers will use
when searching. The higher you rank in a LinkedIn “people search,” the more likely you are to
make the short list. Check privacy settings on your profile carefully. Make sure that a LinkedIn
member who is not already connected to you can still get a good picture of who you are.
24. What have I learnt from the Online
Networking and Employability Course
The importance of social media for self-promotion
• Social media networks are useful in promoting your personal brand.
• Through the use of social media you can create and nurture relationships with others by engaging
in public or private conversations
• You can find other professionals in your field or in related fields
• Connect with old friends and former business colleagues
• Discover new ideas and insights by joining and reading special interest groups
• Learn more about your competitors by studying how they interact with customers online and
discover where you can gain a competitive edge
25. What have I learnt from the Online
Networking and Employability Course
My use of social media at the beginning of the course was somehow limited. I had like
millions of other people today a Facebook account but I never thought that Facebook
could be used for professional networking purposes. I also had a LinkedIn account but
I have to admit that I had not updated it for a very long time.
Google+ and blogging were completely new to me. Over the last three months I
endeavoured to update my online profiles so that these can reflect my personal brand
and I have to say that I am quite pleased with the image that I am projecting at the
moment. The chart which is shown in the next slide has helped me to have an
overview of different social media available and their usage.
26. What have I learnt from the Online
Networking and Employability Course
How to identify and use different social networking tools
28. Conclusion
• Maintaining a personal brand through online networking is becoming
a critical aspect of career and business development
• It is essential that information displayed online positively influences
potential employers, customers and collaborators
• My target for this year is to increase my LinkedIn and Google+
contacts and also to continue to maintain my personal blog in order
to continue to increase my exposure online.
