Tips for Building a Strong Personal Brand in a Competitive Job Market

Regardless of what kind of profession you have, these days competition in the job market is higher than ever. With unemployment rate projected to rise in 2017 there is a need for that extra step in order to gain advantages for your Curriculum Vitae.

I sat down to speak with Laura K. Inamedinova, an independent PR and Branding consultant, Forbes & Huffington Post columnist, and she gave me some solid tips on how to get professional exposure.

Realize what your end goal is

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“You can’t start a journey if you don’t know where you are going. The same goes with personal brand building.” - Laura states, “You need to make quantifiable objectives which you want to achieve.” This can be a certain position and your dream company, your face on the business magazine cover or keynote speech at the conference. This will make your life way easier as now you will be able to make smaller steps in order to reach the end goal. Also, your journey will be more consistent. “Only if you will have clear goals you can work faster towards them without taking any unnecessary roads.” - Laura adds.

Start online

The easiest way to start establishing yourself as an expert in particular field is to start building your online identity. Don’t forget that people love googling others. This can be done in various platforms, but Laura points out a few worth checking out:

• Linkedin. “I can’t believe that so many hard working friends of mine still don’t have Linkedin!” - Laura says. This is a number one website that you have to register to show off your professional accomplishments. There are many tips how to become a power user in Linkedin, so you better check any of those.
• Reddit. “Ask Me Anything” or AMA is probably one of the most known subreddits out there. This is a great way to boost your online reputation by answering questions about your expertise.
• Quora. “This is sort of similar case as Reddit, but on Quora you answer questions based on your knowledge. There were times when very good answers were later republished in big media outlets, so it is definitely a place to be.” - Laura states.

Attend meetups and workshops

When you created some kind of online presence, the next step is to gather as much credibility offline, as possible. Start with small local meetups or workshops, get to know the people in your field and try to present yourself and your background too. By gaining people's trust you can offer yourself as a guest presenter. This is a great way to expand your professional network so that people would talk about you. “Also, those offline connections can easily be converted to online ones.” - Laura adds.

Get yourself quoted in media or speak in the conference

“After you have a splending online presence and quality contacts, look into your network and identify people who can help you make one step further. The next best step is to be quoted in one of the top media outlets or speak in the conference.” -Laura continues.
Try reaching out to the journalists and pitching them a story. Don’t forget that certain journalists write about certain things, so make sure that their swimlane meets your profile. The best way to send your message is a short email or a tweet. As for the conferences, find the key people who are responsible for speakers and pitch them your speech idea.

Be consistent

“In order to succeed in building your brand - consistency is the key.” - Laura states. “Make yourself to do a timeline on how many times per week/month you do certain things.” Most people try everything once and when they don’t see immediate value - they move on. Laura points out that this is the number one mistake that everyone makes: “You have to push yourself to make tweets every day, to attend all the meetups you can find and write as much emails as you can find. Trust me - maybe first 9 won’t answer, but the 10th will be your luck one.”

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