How To Use Your Digital Brand To Launch A New Career
It can be difficult to launch a new career, but it’s not impossible, especially when you build and leverage your Brand, more specifically - your Digital Brand which makes the process easier and also a lot quicker.
The biggest benefit of you investing in a strong online profile and presence is your visibility and searchability.
And given most people stay stuck where they are in their career because of their financial obligations as well as the lack of opportunities- taking control over your profile means you can pro-actively tackle those hurdles to be able to be considered for opportunities based on search but also attract them pro-actively. So no more leaving it to chance.
Remember- most purchase decisions, and yes- hiring a skill set is a purchase decision as it is nothing more or less than a value exchange – either start online these days or are based on perceptions we get from someone when we research them further.
Unfortunately, you can also fall flat, and it can backfire if you’re not intentional about building and managing your online profile and presence.
But we don’t let this doesn’t happen, which is why I’ll share with you in this episode how to build a Digital Brand the right way and also, how to use it to launch into a new career and/or business direction.
How to Use Your Digital Brand to Launch A New Career
If you’ve been around the block with me for a hot second, you know that I’ve reinvented and pivoted my career 3.5x so far (I’m still in the midst of a reinvention which is why it’s 0.5 as I haven’t fully transitioned yet but hey … good things take time )
That’s not important in this context, however. My point is- this has only been possible because I’ve focused on building my Brand and amplified it through building my online presence and network. Don’t get me wrong- I don’t have a massive audience but the right one and it’s taken 6 years to land where I am.
This has enabled me to tap into different networks and also get tapped on the shoulder for speaking engagements, board roles, consulting gigs and so on. To be honest, most of the opportunities I didn’t even consider myself pursuing but this is the power of you putting yourself out there so you can level up.
I mentioned in the intro that the main reason so many don’t make the leap and launch a new career is their current financial obligations, followed by ‘not having enough opportunities nearby’.
However, building your online presence helps you with the exact 2 aspects: when you are visible, you can be considered for opportunities and when you are intentional about your online Branding, you can not only be considered for any opportunities but you create the right ones for you by attracting them to you.
How so you wonder?
Well, just to mention 2 statistics:
98% of recruiters are using LinkedIn and social media for their search and a whopping 2.4 million searches happen through the search engine every minute.
This means- you can be found for people who are already looking for what you have to offer simply by taking your Digital Brand serious. And this means – it can massively fast track your career journey.
Your Unique Experience + Digital Branding = New Career Potential
Now you have two options:
1. Use your digital brand as tool to create awareness of your new career and become visible for decision makers by pro-actively building and fostering your network.
2. Actually use your digital brand as a career accelerator because when you become active on Social Media, share original content, tag other leaders in the space, guess what? You show leadership and initiative but also influence.
Depending where you are, this can obviously change but just keep that in mind when you start working or optimising your online presence.
First things first- let’s get started with the basics:
1. Personal Digital Brand: Audit
I know. I know … not the sexiest topic to talk about, however – it can be an eye opener when you actually do it because I bet this isn’t something you do regularly (if you’ve done it previously at all). It comes down to reviewing a few things:
1.) Google yourself and see what comes up
what are the keywords associated with your name? What are the sites that are on the 1st page that mention you? Then take it a step further and check out the images: how recent are they? In what kind of context do they come up? As we know- what happens on social, stays on Google forever so you want to be very intentional about what comes up.
And of course- delete and update accordingly and regularly. If you’re concerned about being tagged by the wrong people, you can also change your privacy settings and/or untag yourself. To be honest, this is what I do quite a bit as I do get tagged a fair bit in posts that have absolutely nothing to do with me but is just used for click bait and engagement.
2.) Ensure all your social handles are consistent and have the same profile picture and background (where applicable).
Having this consistency doesn’t just make it easier for others to find you but also to remember and recognise you. Let’s go technical for a second: social media is all aboutawareness when we are looking at the sales (I call it decision) funnel. Whilst it is used in traditional marketing, you are being considered for a role or engagement follows the exact same stages.
People need to have a few touch points with you to even get in touch and that includes everything from social media to seeing you at a conference to your name being mentioned in a conversation, an email from you, phone calls, introductions … you see- the list is endless and involves offline and online activities.
2. Personal Brand Strategy: The 5 Cs
1. Content — depending on your ideal positioning – what are your ideas, information, insights, tips, opinions, compilations, learnings and curated content aka: compiled resources from others that support it?
I always recommend to choose 3-5 big content pillars that are aligned with your positioning so you can not only alternate your topics and avoid getting boring but also never run out of content ideas.
If you’re not sure what I mean, check out my monthly live Content Creation Workshops where I teach the exact strategy I have used for years and you can steal it to make your life easier.
2. Channels — which platform/s are most suited for your career goal aka: where does your decision maker hang out so you know where to publish your content but also (if not even more so) interact with other people’s content to increase your visibility. It’s called strategic engagement and is also considered as content. You see- you don’t even have to create content yourself. Simply adding insights, value or a question to someone you want to get in front of can help with that already.
3. Community — who is your current vs future community and network that resonates with your content? The biggest mistake that I see people make is that they are connected to peers and former colleagues, school friends, family and so forth. But these are not the decision makers which means you have to be clear who your decision maker is so you can join this community (and I mean online and offline communities)
4. Communication — how do you show up, what is your brand tone and voice, how do you share content (video, audio, text only etc) and how do you engage in people’s comments and their posts? The litmus test you can do if you have a distinct brand voice is when you take off your name from a post- does this sound like you and would your friends and colleagues say it’s your style? If not, it won’t resonate and even if- it will resonate with the wrong people
5. Consistency — it takes time to build a Brand and presence and to fast track your results, consistency is key. However, this is subjective and depends on your goals, audience, platform and also your resources. If you say posting 2x a week is your level of consistency you can commit to, then this is great. I’d rather see you posting 1-2x a week and engage in other people’s content for 5min each day than going gangbusters for a couple of weeks and then disappear because you’re exhausted
3. Personal Digital Brand Tactics:
Once you are clear what you want to be known for and associated with, it’s time to make the changes happening to reflect the direction you want to head to
a. Update your email signatures with consistent branding and add the up to date links to your profiles (especially if you’ve updated your handles to the same name as we covered in step 1- the audit.)
b. Update your headshot to a profile pic that most accurately represents you for what you want to be known for (next). You may have come from a more corporate background but don’t want to be associated with suit and tie anymore. Change the profile pic to a more casual one where you wear a T-shirt and a jacket for example.
c. Get rid of old skills and keywords that are not aligned with your future direction. Especially on LinkedIn since this is a search engine and if you keep old skills, this is what impacts those search results.
d. Connect with or join industry specific groups (especially those you want to be associated with – the power of proximity)
e. Expand your network pro-actively with people from the industry or profession you want to get into. Often people stay stuck where they are because their current network consists of peers or people from their previous industry but not the decision makers for where they want to go next.
4. Personal Digital Brand Activities: The 3 Daily To Do’s
1. Expand your network with at least 1 new connection (either through commenting on their post, proactively reaching out or replying to their stories)
2. Reply to comments and DMs
3. Engage in your algorithm aka feed. Depending on what you like, comment on, hide or share, you will see more of that. This is how social media works. If you don’t see ‘the right or useful’ content yet, it’s because you haven’t trained your algorithm and fed it the right type of information.
4. Personal Digital Brand: 7 Ways to Marketing Yours
1. Be a forever student & teacher:
Learn as much as you can about your area of expertise and specialisation you want to be known for. But don’t stop there as I know, many use learning as reason not to act and procrastinate – I want you to take people on your learning journey by sharing what you’re learning about, who from, where people can find it and how you will implement it.
This way you also showcase your value of learning and development without having to say it which is always more powerful.
At the same time, whilst you learn and share, you also provide value to others as those who’re on the same page as you, share similar interests and values or work in the same or similar industry, are always on the hunt for the best books, blogs, influencers and podcasts as well.
You can build your Brand by being a curator of the best content from others and don’t have to always create your own, original content. This is what’s called ‘on the go’ content as you literally document what you are currently learning, quoting speakers when you attended conferences or giving podcast hosts a shout out. Don’t underestimate the power of branding by association.
2. Join, participate in, help lead or even set up your own community
Your network is your net worth but your diverse network = your next career opportunity. You’ve heard me saying that so many times but it’s still something most people don’t out enough emphasis on. It can benefit you in so many ways: from fast tracking your learning journey by tapping into other people’s expertise and experience to building your relationships to strengthening your skill set by taking on different roles.
It’s never been easier to do this as you can join online memberships, speak at local MeetUps or industry events (most are online now anyway), offer to be a guest speaker at Universities (this is also how I started) and of course- run or co-host your own MeetUp groups or get active on Clubhouse. This platform has also already worked wonders for me.
3.Become a connector:
I’m sure we all know this one person who seems to know everyone on this planet. And I’m sure – you like them because they have helped you prior with introductions or recommendations.
Good news- you can be this person yourself and connect people with each other, also (actually especially) with no agenda.
Being a connector is one of the most important roles you can play in society as it comes down to providing value to 2 parties by connecting the dots: who is looking for what and who is offering what they want?
This is why it’s so important for you to constantly increase your circle as you also want to avoid asking the same 5 people for favours.
4. Attend conferences, webinars, community calls, and relevant meetings in the industry or profession you want to get into (also when you aren’t there yet).
This is a super fast way to increase your knowledge about this field but also connect with others who are already where you want to be. When you build strong relationships, you can also collaborate with this person and have them as guest speaker at your event, interview them for a video you can use for social media or your website, have them as podcast and so forth. You never know where this leads to.
5.Present, speak, lead discussions, and deliver training
I always say- when you step up and speak up, you are already seen as authority as most don’t do it.
And any type of speaking up counts: from speaking up at meetings, to commenting on other people’s posts to facilitating a conversation to hosting a lunch & learn session … you name it.
You can do this obviously offline by initiating a lunch & learn for example for your team or for the department you want to get into but then also talk about this on social media. Every post and content related to what you actually want to do and be known for, is one step further to building your online footprint.
Don’t be shy to also pro-actively ask if you could moderate an upcoming panel discussion, be the MC at a conference, help the event organiser with content etc.
Key here is that you document your journey and leverage all those activities and events - from announcing the project or event, to sharing more details closer to the actual date with who’s coming, introducing the guest speaker, details about the venue etc and then of course: Posting in ‘real time’ when they event happens and do a recap after. You don’t need to be the leader of it, simply documenting the journey already helps you with building your online footprint and with that, your ideal career.
6. Post, write, and publish
Each and every one of us is a Publisher these days. And if you are not (or don’t consider yourself as one), think again. This is one of the most famous sayings of Gary V – content is the baseline and without content, you don’t exist.
Start by posting regular short form updates, answer questions in online forums like Quora or Facebook groups etc, participate in a community discussion in different interest groups and chats (check out Slack channels or LinkedIn event chats, maybe even write your own long- form articles, white papers or podcast episodes.
The benefit of creating long-from content is that you can repurpose it in many ways, from putting the link (either on your website, on someone else’s website or directly on LinkedIn) in the featured section on LinkedIn, you can create short-form social media posts, even pin the images on Pinterest, create a download from it, create a slide show from it, design an infographic from it, … you name it.
If you want some help and a proven step-by-step method for how to create content that gets results, I’d love you to see you at one of our monthly content creation workshops. You will not only get a pre-planned month ahead but also receive a ton of content ideas, topics, prompts and even copy & paste captions to make it easier. Details and enrolment
7. Find a mentor and/or become a mentor to increase your knowledge about your specialty and to connect with others in the specialty
Maybe you want to get into the tech industry but haven’t gotten any experience or connections there yet. Well, guess what- time to apply the proximity principle: Join start up hubs and accelerators and offer your area of expertise, research who is part of the community and start building relationships. You don’t always have to have a formal mentor relationship to have a mentor. Sometimes simply being around those people can already give you so many insights. Then also research specific industry events like pitch nights, EOY celebrations, etc where you can join.
If you want to make it more formal, you can also directly ask those people. Often they are happy to be a mentor but also don’t be upset when they respectfully decline because they usually have so many commitments. But don’t let one no discourage you. This no might just be a not yet (and you can listen back to episode 31 where I talk about turning a no into a yes).
Now there you have quite a few tips and strategies you can implement straight away and this is also the key here- put theory into practice. As always- I’d love to hear from you and what you want to hear and learn more of.