What Does Your Profile Say About You?
No doubt you have heard the term personal branding. Once upon a time only companies had to worry about their brands. Now individuals do as well, especially individuals who are open to or actively seeking new job opportunities.
If you maintain a profile on any social media site, it is worth considering what your profile conveys to a potential employer as well as to potential colleagues.
Here are some common mistakes that social media users make on their profiles that definitely hurt their personal brands:
Inattentive to detail: Typos and incomplete profiles say to a potential employer that you do not pay attention to detail. Even if you pack your profile with keywords to draw the attention of recruiters, the recruiters will not contact you if they see a sloppy profile. Proofread your profile carefully to make sure that it is not misrepresenting you.
Unaware of proper social media etiquette: Before participating on any social media site, you should find out what is considered proper behavior on that site. You can easily discourage a potential employer from seriously considering you as a candidate if they see that you behave inappropriately in the social media world. An employer may well conclude that your lack of awareness of social media etiquette extends to the workplace as well.
Bland: There is nothing about you that is distinctive or appealing. Your profile is very vanilla and does not give an employer a reason to give you a second look. In other words, you blend in to the background of the other millions of social media users.
Too few connections: It is very easy to build your network on social media sites because the other users are there to network. Most of them will be open to connecting with you. But if you simply fill out a profile and expect people to come to you, you will have too few connections to make you appealing. Make a point of getting involved in the different social media sites that you are on and join groups of likeminded people.
Unsupported claims: Your professional headline (for LinkedIn), your bio (for Twitter), or your tagline (for Facebook) should say something about what you have to offer to a potential employer. If you are a trainer, for example, you might say this, “Trainer/Instructional Designer - Increasing Bottom Line Profitability Through Learning Strategies.” But you need to go a step further and substantiate your claims by showing you have actually increased profitability. If you make this claim on Twitter, you should have a URL that links to your web resume that highlights your bottom line results under your Professional Experience section. If your profile is on LinkedIn, you can include your accomplishments on the profile under your different positions. And if you are on Facebook, you can upload your resume onto your profile. But by all means, don’t expect a potential employer to believe a claim that you have not substantiated. Increase your credibility and your appeal to employers by supporting any statements that you make and demonstrating your value.
Cheryl Palmer is a certified executive career coach and a certified professional resume writer and is President of Call to Career, a career coaching and resume writing firm. She has been featured on the Wall Street Journal, CNN, MarketWatch, The Ladders, ExecuNet, and Yahoo HotJobs. Cheryl was also a guest on a radio show entitled How to Find a Job Fast hosted by Chris Russell of Secrets of the Job Hunt where she discussed tips for finding employment more quickly in this economic downturn. In addition, she was a guest on WMOV where she discussed networking for your career with host Greg Gack on the radio.
Cheryl has a social media program for executives to aid them with reducing the amount of time it takes to land a new position. She also conducts webinars on social networking.
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