What Marketing Can Teach You About Personal Branding

Chances are, you’ve heard by now how important social media is during the job search. By posting articles about your industry, commenting on relevant groups, and following companies you’re interested in, you can have a leg up on the competition.

But this is all assuming that an employer or recruiter actually happens upon your profile.

Luckily there are ways to make your posts on social media more visible. These tactics are based on social media marketing, and they will take your personal branding to the next level.

By simply thinking like a marketer, you can make your social media presence more appealing and, thereby, more likely to land you a job.

Here are three tips from the marketing world that you need to apply to your personal branding strategy:

1. Incorporate video

Just because you’re posting professional content on social media, that doesn’t mean you can’t get creative. One of the most effective ways to do this is by including videos. This will help your posts pop and increase the odds that they’re shared around your industry.

For example, a recently released Buzzsumo report found that all top ten most viral Facebook posts of 2017 were videos. They did better than news articles, quizzes, and any other type of social content.

Use this to your advantage. Create a video resume that you can pin to the top of your profiles and share in relevant groups. Encourage your friends to share the video with their professional network. This way, if an employer is looking on social media for potential talent, they’ll be more likely to see what you have to offer.

2. Optimize your profiles

Have you ever wondered how the internet returns search engine results? At a basic level, when you search for a phrase in Google, it scours different websites to see which pages feature those words. The more that keyword is included, the more likely Google will present it on your results page.

Similarly, marketers research what types of words their target audience is searching. Then they include them on their website to increase their rank in search engines.

Search features on social media function the same way. If an employer is looking for a graphic designer, LinkedIn will show them profiles that feature that phrase. To increase your chances of being listed, you need to optimize your profiles.

Optimization involves carefully choosing the words you use to describe yourself and your experience. You want to use the same terms that employers are looking for in talent. To do this, you’ll need to perform some keyword research.

One of the easiest ways to discover these keywords is to look at multiple job descriptions that are close to what you’re looking for. Take note of what types of words and skills show up over and over. Then incorporate them into your social media profiles.

3. Try social listening

Even among social media marketers, social listening is fairly new. The process involves following members of their target audience and seeing what topics they’re posting or which hashtags they’re using. Then they adapt what their company posts so it will better appeal to their audience.

As a job seeker, your target audience is employers in your industry. Pay attention to what these people are talking about on social media. Then share similar content to catch their eye.

For instance, if you notice that the CEO of your dream company is always posting content about making businesses more green, use this information as a jump-off point to look for other posts on that topic to share.

You can even tag them with a message that says “I noticed you’re environmentally conscious and I thought this would interest you.” This will get you directly on the employer’s radar and encourage them to find out more about you as a potential employee.

Want to know more about personal branding? Check out this article!