The Role of Social Media in Building a Personal Brand

As a freelance writer, I can't talk about the success I've had with blogspot or other sites where content creators regularly keep a roll of other recommended sites that's visible at all times. I think the same applies to artists or other creative fields. Shortly after making some videos I was proud of, I found myself added to the rolls of other, very popular users and within a week that caused my traffic to more than quadruple.

It's strange. At least in the writing world, older platforms are a great way to network. I mean, George R. R. Martin and other famous names still use livejournal as their main social media.

There are some interesting points in this article for sure. Of course, one of the most valuable aspects of using social media is that it is slap free advertising. I think we over look that a little or maybe it's just a given, but I still appreciate that aspect of it very much. To not take advantage of such a powerful advertising tool that is absolutely free just doesn't make since. There are many more social media avenues coming along besides the top 3 mentioned here.

Thanks everyone for the comments. Totally agree that it's really tough to keep an updated online presence and still have a life! There are days when I think that if I never see another computer again it won't be too soon. But it's our reality today - one that we have to accept if we want to find our next job. Personally I find it impossible to post every day and sometimes it's even tough to find the time to post weekly. Try to eek out a few hours every week to attend to your social media sites. You don't have to post every week. It's not about the quantity but about the quality. Don't post just to post because that's even more obvious to prospective employers. Start small on your personal branding efforts - such as with a resume and cover letter. Then move on to sites like Beyond and LinkedIn to continue your personal branding. Social media is here to stay and, as it would appear, so is personal branding. You should consider jumping on the bandwagon or be left behind.

How does anybody have time to build a personal brand? By the time I am done with work a few minutes with my family, it is time to get up and rolling again. Trying to keep content fresh and manage a brand across multiple social media platforms sounds like another part time job.

I love this article. I am currently trying to learn to use social media more effectively. There are some really good tips here, like having all of your social platforms uniform, with uniform color schemes. I also learned to stick to information about the specific topic that the page is devoted to. Selling yourself isn't easy. This article makes it a whole lot more understandable. Thank you for the great information.

I've witnessed people unwilling to adopt social media as a method of networking, and people glad to use whatever they can to increase their visibility, including social media. The latter is always more successful, purely because they are more visible. The truth is, a digital presence is no longer optional, and, increasingly, a person is judged by their digital presence. No presence means there's no way for potential employers to get a picture of who it is they might be hiring. Like the fact that everyone uses telephones instead of letters to communicate, the shift toward social media is a change in the times I think people must simply get on board with.

Although I see the usefulness in using social media to build my personal brand, I worry about spending too much time on this. There are so many networks, and it is easy for me to get caught up in the details of keeping everything current, well branded and professionally appropriate, as well as networking regularly. Like some of the other commenters, I also want to maintain some private social network accounts for communicating with close family and friends. I wonder how other people get everything done without spending too much time at their computers and devices.

I think one of the most important things to consider when you use social media is to make posts consistently and regularly. People lose interest quickly when your posts drop off in frequency; they also unfollow if you post too much (or if you post irrelevant or inane things too frequently). A scheduling tool like Hootsuite can help you post on a regular basis — even if you're not in the office!

@Hamid thanks for your comment as it is so very true. As hard as it is, especially in today's social and political world, we have to use caution when commenting on news articles and the like. We should make sure to keep our political opinions to ourselves - especially when job hunting. And, if employed, NEVER put anything negative about your company on any site - no matter how secure the site might be. Always best to err on the side of caution.

To separate my personal profile from my professional one, I ended up choosing different social media platforms. I only have close friends and family on my Facebook and I use Twitter and Linkedin to keep in touch with professional contacts. I always keep in mind that potential employers can look through any of my profiles and because of this I only discuss any private matters through the message options.

Thanks for the comments. @Shannon that's probably the best way to handle social media accounts - one for professional and another for personal. However, what happens is that a hiring company will not only search based upon the email address given, but will search based upon name and can still find that personal account. Best advice that can be given is not to post anything that would make their Mom cringe! As for the platforms @Katharine, that is entirely up to you. I think it's overkill to have several social media account under different addresses but post the same thing on all. Again, a company will search by name, too and it will become quite obvious that it's the same person. Yes @William it is a great idea to include links to your other social media accounts so that they don't have to hunt for you. Shows transparency - something that is truly needed when you are job searching. @Sylvia if I saw multiple profiles under the same email address, I would run.. fast!

One thing I caution against is using the same email address for multiple profiles that use multiple names. When I was hiring, I'd occasionally conduct a search on someone using an email address. If I had seen three social media profiles pop up, all using that same email address yet using different names, I would grow concerned.

One important aspect of a social media message includes posting links to your social media profiles on each page of your personal brand's main website. That way, customers don't have to hunt and peck for the social media websites. All people have to do is click, sign in and post. The social media buttons also let ordinary people join in your conversation.

Is it best to be on all the major platforms, or to just pick one or two and devote more attention/time to them? I notice that some personalities have several accounts but post the same content on all of them. Is this a good idea? On the one hand, it covers your bases and makes sure more people see your work, but on the other hand it can get repetitive.

Thank you for such an informative piece. As a college professor, I'm always warning my students that the pictures and status updates posted can come back to haunt them in the job market. As a result, many of them have created private social media accounts for personal use and public, professional accounts for networking and the job search.