The formal CV or resume has been replaced by this amazing new ‘Auto CV generator‘. Which is the final confirmation that we have now entered the age of personal branding. And this can be good news or bad news depending on your world view.
It’s great news for people who like to do a little more than the average person.
It’s terrible news for the average person.
So if you haven’t worked it out you, the world view of you and me is our digital footprint. Which so happens to be arbitrated by Google these days. The good thing is that we can take control of our digital footprint with a little bit of effort. The great thing is that the effort required to develop a reputable digital footprint is simpler than the old way. The old way was battling in the career world to build a reasonable CV, a CV which was very much decided by a variety of gate keepers. We can in a digital world invent specific credentials regardless of what our formal qualifications are, or our work experience is. No one can stop us. We can self publish our way to what ever reputation we desire. We can do this because the gatekeepers of yesteryear have all left the building. Gate keepers like university admissions personnel, and HR managers who kept us out of that career or industry we so desperately wanted to get into.
There are many ways to build your personal brand. But here’s a few rules I set for myself:
Own your .com address: Mine is here. If we have our own .com and some relevant content feeding to and from it it will be the first organic search result for your name in Google. This is what we want – control.
Self publish in your area of interest: Mine is right here, you’re reading it. This blog is the second organic Google result under my name.
Choose a traffic directing tool: My preferred one is twitter. It’s where I find like minds and have discussions on the stuff that matters to me.
Link all your digital bits: You’ll see my .com and my blog and my twitter all feed into each other. This is what helps the Google juice choose your footprint over other search results.
Use them: Setting them up, is not the same as populating them. If you publish regularly, then you will decide what the world sees when they search you.
What we don’t want is our facebook page to be first thing people land upon when they find us on-line, and not even our linked in for that matter. It should be our content. Here’s my favourite recent example of Personal Branding – Ned – his home page totally rocks and says so much about him and what he is capable of. Make sure you click on his eyes!
This stuff matters more than anything else when it comes to entrepreneurial endeavours, job security, pursuing life goals and our financial position. Because it is the first place people look to now when they are getting their first impression of someone. It is a asset, and an asset that we can choose to own, or let someone else own on our behalf. I know which one I prefer.
