November 19, 2007
Establishing Your Online Personal Brand
When you are in the market for a new job -- whether it's because you are seeking a change or you've been laid off or lost your job for other reasons, one of the most important things we all do is update our resumes.
There are a number of ways to do this. You can work up the “traditional” resume and just add yet another employer or reference, or you can establish an “online” resume, which may be generic but touches on all of your “key” skills.
Another method might be to establish a brochure, an ePortfolio or other type of electronic method to establish your personal brand.
There are many ways you can do this:
ODesk (http://www.odesk.com) allows you to set up a full resume which will list all of your relevant experience, training and skills. In addition, ODesk allows you to rate specific competencies on your own. This also allows you to “headline” your skills. ODesk offers many benefits (at no cost to you as a ”provider”), including competency tests which further strengthen your marketability. You can use ODesk as a tool to direct potential employers to your profile or as a way to bid on jobs.
LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com) also offers online profile development as well as the additional bonus of doing a 'search' of the companies you've worked for or schools you've attended. It also sends to you a list of all the people who have worked for those companies who are linked to LinkedIn. You can also upload your email address book to LinkedIn, and it will match your contacts to those who are already members of LinkedIn. LinkedIn offers both free and paid services and has plugins for your web browser to see how “linked in” you are. This site also offers you the ability to request recommendations from contacts.
Two other networking sites you might want to explore (Jason Alba, creator of jibberjabber.com, calls them "Google friendly"): jobster.com and emurse.com.
Personal Blogs are yet another way to get your name and your personal brand out in front of people.
What online resources have you found most helpful in establishing your personal brand?
Posted by Doreen Martel at 03:50 PM | Comments (5)