Using Social Media for Professional Personal Branding

My colleague, Rachael, came across a great article about a young woman who through the use of a LinkedIn ad landed a coveted internship role with a tech company in New York City, and it got me thinking about the importance of employees, staff and executives using social media for professional personal branding.


According to the article, she took out the ad to be noticed over the crowd of prospective interns who usually landed the best roles in NYC because 'someone knows someone' who can hook them up. Well this student, Nicolette Weinbaum, showed them, by professional personal branding on LinkedIn. The language she chose for the short ad yielded amazing click throughs to her personal page where visitors were hit with a solid list of services she could perform. Companies were impressed to say the least and she had many options from which to choose.
I love this story because I can relate. I landed my first job at Boston.com through Twitter branding. I used to work for an agency and through some networking events, I met a man who worked here at Boston.com. He followed me on Twitter and was apparently impressed with my professional personal branding through my tweets. When a job opened up in marketing, he reached out to me on Twitter and the rest is history. I've always been cautious of what I post on social media outlets because it's important to me that I am respected in the industry in which I work and that I can make meaningful connections with individuals who can help me accomplish my careers aspirations.

Professional personal branding on social media is extremely important not only for individuals looking for jobs, or to advance their careers, but also business professionals to help sell their companies' products and services. Always remember that you, the intern, the marketing manager, the web designer, the IT person, the executive, are the faces of a company. When you post to social media keep in mind that people probably know for what company you work. Use social media to promote your products and services, or sell yourself as a likable, trustworthy person. These things will help you succeed in your career and help your company do well!

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