bizMe

Three Ways YPs Can Elevate their Professional Profile & Personal Brand

Social media is your world, ladies. Women make up the majority of Internet users. Over 100 million women are on-line, where they search blogs for information on everything from business to fashion to car repairs. Women cultivate personal relationships and professional networks as the majority Facebook and Twitter users. More and more big brands spend increased time and money courting women on-line. Women have the strongest presence on-line, yet we still don’t have the strongest influence and voice.

It’s (Still) A Man’s World
Check out lists of the most influential people on the Web and they are almost all men. Yet, social media is intimate, conversational, and built on relationships—all characteristics that are traditionally gendered female.
There are innumerable opportunities for women to increase their power and influence using social media, from entrepreneurial ventures to thought leadership to celebrity. Here are three such opportunities you don’t want to miss.

Personal Branding
As men and women increasingly turn to the Internet for research and information, it is time to think of yourself as a business. Whether it is for personal or professional life, the first thing people do before or after they meet you is Google you. Don’t miss this opportunity to show your best through a strong personal brand.

Your on-line brand is 100% controllable by you through LinkedIn, Facebook, blogs, and more. In a way, having a strong on-line brand levels the playing field for young women by taking more superficial judgments out of the equation. Content is the most valued and sought after currency in social media. It is what you have say that is scrutinized, not your clothes, tone of voice, or work experience. Invest a lot of time and energy strengthening your on-line brand because first impressions still count, virtually and face to face.

Think you can get away without an online brand? Not anymore. People expect you to have one. Think of it like this. In the past, people didn’t care if a business had a fax machine. Shortly after, people didn’t care whether or not a business had a website. Now they care. A lot. If you’re not on-line, you’re not in the game.

Networking
Yes, jobs and opportunities are still found the old-fashioned way—through networks. Access to information and networks is one of the key reasons women tend not to rise as high as men in organizations (see my blog post Why Men Tend to Rise Higher Than Women). The good news here is that technology has made networking a whole lot easier. Find the first conversation the hardest? Now you can do it over email. And, if you’ve got your strong on-line brand in place, all the better.

Key tools for building your network are LinkedIn, BrazenCareerist, Facebook, and KODA. LinkedIn is certainly the place to be and if you aren’t there or haven’t taken the time to complete your profile, it is time. LinkedIn can be used to target companies, secure informational interviews, and develop a strong image of your professional experience, capabilities, and trajectory. You can also use LinkedIn to form your own professional interest groups, another opportunity to show your leadership abilities.

Visibility
Remember that stellar task force report you wrote for your boss? You know, the one he got all the praise for at the board meeting? Oh, and remember all that time you spent patching up relationships between task force committee members? Social media can help make this kind of “invisible work” visible.

“Invisible work” has been a complicated problem for women in work and leadership. Relational practice—associated with listening, mutuality, and reciprocity—underlies Web 2.0 and social media cultural values. What’s more, the work is now measurable by community size, page views, connections, links and other easily tracked metrics. Community building, in fact, is highly visible and valued by big brands now as they seek to connect and engage with consumers (especially women). Demonstrating your ability to build and lead communities on-line is a great way to increase your value to employers and build influence and power.

You can also share examples of your work on highly networked platforms like SlideShare, Webinars, blogs, and other on-line commentary.

Remember, content is the key currency in social media. Sharing your work adds value to everyone in the immediate term. In the long term, sharing work on-line provides women the opportunity to establish themselves as thought leaders in their field.

Social Media Builds Power and Influence
Social media is a welcoming and fun world, but it should also be used to build women’s influence and power through personal branding, networking, and visibility. Read more here at the Think Big project.