Social networking: personal branding challenges

Article used with permission from Emerald Group Publishing

Finding a job and managing career progression increasingly involves understanding how today's networks operate and how to deploy them effectively, both online and offline.

Building and maintaining a personal brand in this way is becoming a critical differentiator between the proactive and the reactive members of society. It is therefore essential to make sure that the nature of the information an individual displays online is going to encourage rather than discourage a potential employer.

Personal branding: what is it and why is it important?

The concept of branding now extends well beyond its product and corporate origins to include even whole countries (remember Great Britain PLC?) sporting giants (think Manchester United FC) and now to individual personalities. A strong personal brand is a mix of reputation, trust, attention, and execution:

A personal brand gives you the ability to stand out in a sea of similar products. In essence, you're marketing yourself as something different than the rest of the pack.

The growing importance of social media marketing to business branding has been well documented, but its role in the development of a personal brand has not yet received much attention. Of course the principles of personal branding have recently been applied to great effect in the election of Barack Obama, who successfully engaged with his supporters and deflected his critics (using both online and offline mechanisms) and raised millions of dollars for his campaign in the process.

Monitoring the internet for personal references is also of great importance, in order to avoid being taken by surprise during a job search. More than one in five employers search social networking sites to screen job candidates, according to a recent survey of more than 31,000 employers by CareerBuilder (www.careerbuilder.com). If a recruitment consultant Googles an applicant's name, what will he find?

The CareerBuilder study found that the number of recruiters turning to social networks like MySpace and Facebook to check out candidates' online behaviour has increased to 22 per cent of employers from just 11 per cent in 2006. Of the hiring managers who use social networks, 33 per cent said they found information on such sites that caused them to stop considering the candidate for a job, and 24 per cent found content that instead helped convince them to hire a candidate. These managers said that social networking profiles showing a professional image and solid references can boost a candidate's chances for a job, because it gives a more rounded view of the individual and hence a better assessment of their likely "fit" within the organization.

By actively managing their online presence, people can maximize the opportunities to develop their personal brand in the direction that they want to take it, while minimizing the impact of any negative material that might be "out there". Google plays a key role in this process.

Managing a Google profile

Google can be described as a "reputation management system". To be easily found through an online search, a profile needs to be displayed as prominently as possible in Google's results. There are other search engines of course, but with a majority share of the search market, Google is clearly the dominant player. There are a number of ways in which a Google profile can be boosted:

1. encourage inbound links to the website from other sources, preferably from sources that are themselves important "destinations" with a high page ranking;
2. create outbound links to quality material;
3. make sure content is updated regularly – Google favours "organic" growth (meaning that it builds gradually over time) and any attempt to artificially boost a ranking by posting large amounts of content or new links at once will be likely to backfire; and
4. submit the site for inclusion in the more prominent website directories.

New information that comes online can be monitored by setting up a Google Alert on the name (www.google.com/alerts) This tool acts as an automatic search agent, allowing quick notification to be received by email of any new online data that contains that name.
There is a diverse range of tools – both offline and online – now available for boosting a Google profile. The specific emphasis of the tools used will vary according to individual circumstances, but here we focus on the key areas of blogging and social networking to provide an indication of their personal brand building possibilities.

Blogging

A blog can be integrated into a website or it can operate as a "stand alone" marketing tool hosted by a specialist company such as Wordpress or Blogger. A blog is different from a website because it is interactive, written in a "conversational voice" and frequently updated. It is potentially an effective form of viral marketing if others pass on or link back to the author's posts in significant numbers.

Blogs enable a personal brand to be enhanced by articulating knowledge on specialist matters pertaining to the industry concerned, and provide opportunities for the individual's "story" to be told in a compelling and innovative way. A "network effect" can be created if other bloggers link to a post on the blog, or if comments are made on someone else's blog, leading to an enhanced presence on major search engines over time.

Social networking using LinkedIn

Professional networks such as LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com) have benefited from the current adverse economic conditions as people turn to their online contacts in search for jobs. By actively updating a LinkedIn profile, the likelihood that people will see that profile displayed when they are searching the site for someone to hire or do business with is increased.

LinkedIn allows profile information to be made available for search engines to index and the site is highly ranked by Google. To strengthen the visibility of a profile in search engines, use it in various places online. For example, when commenting on a blog, include a link to the LinkedIn profile in the signature then if people like what has been said, they can click through to find out more.

Rather than take a risk on a total stranger, most people prefer to work with people who their friends know and trust. In order to progress job applications to interview stage, a "complete" LinkedIn profile is now becoming a prerequisite for many recruiters in order to progress an application to the interview stage. A "complete" profile displays a minimum of three testimonials from past employers, and includes full details of the person's employment, affiliations and educational background. Including appropriate keywords in the profile can also increase the chance of being found by recruiters who are searching for likely applicants in that area of interest.

Job applicants who are active on LinkedIn can also use the testimonial system to check out their prospective line manager, or even to track down someone who has held the particular job they are applying for in the past. Such endorsement has been instrumental in increasing trust while reducing the risk and uncertainty traditionally associated with the recruitment process, for the benefit of both employee and employer.

Twitter

Twitter is a micro blogging platform which allows publication of short messages of less than 140 characters through the web or mobile device. Twitter allows users to "follow" selected users and receive their message updates, as well as promote themselves or their business to their own followers. Although each "tweet" is shorter than an SMS message, it can incorporate links to photos, videos, job vacancies or recommend specific blog posts.

The service allows people to keep abreast of trends and stay in touch with their contacts with a level of immediacy, regularity and intimacy that would be hard to replicate in the offline world. For employers, Twitter is another channel which connects current and potential employees with the business and helps to build loyalty.

Effective Twitter usage necessarily involves an investment in time and attention so it is important to be selective in both the quality and quantity of people followed. In terms of building a personal brand, Twitter can help establish someone as a well connected, knowledgeable and approachable personality, and allow them to interact with other like-minded people, as well as keep them informed of specific job vacancies that may be flagged up by their contacts.

Personal branding challenges

Ongoing time and effort is required to develop and maintain online profiles, learn new tools and when best to integrate them into the mix. The results may not be immediate, though progress can be tracked through Google Alerts. Face to face brand building elements should not be forgotten – it is not a zero sum game, because good online networkers also tend to be effective communicators offline. As with most things in life, you get out what you put in, and persistence pays off.

It is critical to be authentic. If personal branding is developed at only a superficial level, for example by basing it simply on ego, spin or piggybacking off the work of others, then it will not be enduring. What drives online collaboration forward is a culture of trust – something that the conventional world does badly. "Givers Gain" and "Paying it Forward" are phrases that crop up frequently in the social networking environment. The best long term way to build brand influence is to be seen as a "giver" of good quality practical information and advice. What seems to happen, over a period of time, is that successful individuals obtain a reputation and position based on a combination of their expertise and "connectedness" which makes them attractive to other players operating in the same space. An authentic personal brand therefore delivers both a track record and a promise of the ongoing delivery of value.

Finally, it is important to bear in mind that personal branding can be too successful – at least in the mindset of some organizations that may see effective brand builders as a threat. As an employee of one of these dinosaurs, raising a personal brand profile too effectively may lead to suspicion and scepticism, especially if the brand appears to eclipse that of more senior managers, or even the brand of the organization itself.

However, in most cases authentic personal brand builders are genuinely strong performers who are highly sought after by employers because they have the ability to use their personal social capital for the benefit of the organization and their own career progression within it – meaning that there is true alignment of the internal values of the organization with the external expression of the brand.

January 2012.

This is a shortened version of "Building a personal brand through social networking", which originally appeared in Journal of Business Strategy, Volume 32 Number 5, 2011.

The authors are Lisa Harris and Alan Rae.

© Emerald Group Publishing Limited