As a student, being your own best brand steward is your individual responsibility.

Your online footprint becomes a permanent record of you as an individual, particularly on social media. Ensuring your digital behavior is consistent with the image you wish to project to potential employers, the values you hold, and the reputation you seek to build is of paramount importance. 

Build Your Professional, Online Brand

In seeking employment and internship opportunities, it is essential that you own and evolve your social business identity. Below are five keys to success.

1. Be authentic and transparent. It is critical to be your true self. Social media enables others to discover who you are, so being real and consistent builds trust and credibility.

2. Curate your digital identity. Activate and optimize your social presence. Periodically revisit LinkedIn, other social media channels and your digital portfolio to ensure that you do not have inappropriate followers or connections, your content and actions tell your intended story, and your information is up to date. Marry your online persona to that of your offline personality - make it seamless.

3. Maintain a passion for learning. Being a perpetual learner ensures currency of skills and enables you to provide your network with interesting information. By gaining new and relevant knowledge, you are able to both provide value to your network and acknowledge and contribute to the awareness of those from whom you garnered the insights. Be generous and give to your network without a goal of reciprocity.

4. Become an original content creator. Your own voice is the best voice to tell your personal story and develop your personal brand. Whether it is writing blogs, creating videos for a YouTube channel, or creating presentations and uploading to SlideShare, develop assets that provide proof of and depth in your personal brand. The experience you create for others matters and original content facilitates and supports you.

5. Communicate to create engagement. Seek to meaningfully interact with your target employers and stakeholders both online and offline. This might take the form of sharing and amplifying others content in social channels or engaging in discussions by commenting and asking questions. Attending job fairs or conferences and cultivating relationships through real world interactions should also be part of your communication and positioning strategy.

Take Aways

• Invest in yourself and your career readiness by learning the professional use of social media. Spend the time needed to become proficient in the digital communication and networking skills that improve your career readiness. This translates to both learning the core competency and maintaining currency as the social media landscape changes and evolves.

• Use sound judgement in all communication and interactions both on and offline. Allow your goals, values and beliefs to inform your online and social media actions and guide your digital behavior. Your identity is yours to protect and nurture, and will reflect how others perceive you.

• Professional online communications is the key to digital personal brand building. Your credibility, authority, reputation, and influence can be greatly enhanced through the effective use of social media. Act in a way you wish to be perceived to differentiate yourself as an individual.