There are hundreds, if not thousands, of articles about building your personal brand during your job search. One thing that is often left out is the importance of building consistency throughout your profiles. Large brands understand that in order to have their message ingrained in the minds of their target demographic, they must consistently use the same messaging. This is something any person can and must do. If you are using social to get a job you want your message to resonate and be memorable. Here are five tips for building consistency across your profiles.
Use The Same Profile Pictures
Profile pictures are an important aspect of any profile. Profile pictures build credibility. Choose a recent photo and one that will allow people to recognize you if they meet you in person.. Don't try to catfish anyone - even in the job search. Something that is overlooked often is the importance of having the same picture across all platforms in order to build recognition. As someone who actively uses LinkedIn, one of my strategies during a phone interview is to look at the person's picture at some point during the interview. It helps me remember them, even a few weeks or months afterwards. It often times is better than looking at my notes. Having the same profile picture on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and blogs will continue to speak your message no matter the platform.
Use The Same Language
When something is true, you should repeat it several times, in various forms across many platforms. The language and tone you use on one platform should be identical on another in order to tell a consistent. Your job title, interests, and allegiances should be the same across each platform in order to build "brand" consistency. If you are the Director of Sales on Twitter, the Manager of Business Development on Linkedin, and the Bread Winner on your blog, people will question your actual job and your attention to detail. Use the same language across all platforms.
Have A Memorable URL And Username
While not always possible, because of names and availability you should try to build consistency from your Linkedin URL, Twitter handle, and email address. I would suggest ditching [email protected] and grabbing a Gmail account with your name or some usable variation (not name and 32 random numbers). This makes it easier to find you! It also continues to build your recognition.
Think of Your Content
You've got an important choice to make. Who will see your information in social media. I highly suggest you consider which networks you will use in your job search, but also consider where you are in general. This includes your "personal" Facebook account. Ditch the picture of you pulling a Miley regardless of your profile settings. You never know who is looking at you, or who has mutual friends. Lock down your profile settings.
You should be sharing things of interest to you, from your allegiances to the United States soccer team to interesting professional development articles. Ultimately people want to work with interesting people. Be wary of your language, and try to build consistency on any public facing (which I would argue is any). Again think about always being memorable... for the right reasons.
Save Space And Build A Hub
Websites are easy to make now. Whether it be building something on a site like Wix, about.me, or flavors.me, do it. Instead of trying to share six lines of usernames and taking up valuable space on your resume or profiles, build an aggregator for all of them. Purchase a domain (similar to your usernames) on GoDaddy or your provider of choice. I pay $15 a year to have BTMurr.me. It isn't particularly fancy, (in fact I'm a little embarrassed about it and now have a weekend project) nut it is much easier to say check that out rather than rattling off all of my handles and sites.
This post was originally posted on the Likeable Media Blog.