Originally discussed in 2014: https://charlierobinson.wordpress.com/2014/06/16/social-media-5-ways-to-increase-awareness-online/ I recommended 6 Steps to Increase Your Online Profile:

1. Keep your About Me areas up to date.
2. Use all Social Medias relevant to your customer or audience demographics.
3. Make sure your Long Description is just that. Long.
4. (Alternatively) Use Facebook Notes. (*they did disappear however they are coming back)
5. Use a Facebook Image Album. (*as a portfolio)
6. Use a Profile Photo that is reflective of the style of person you are.

To continue, let’s discuss the next steps for improving our online public profile.

This delves into the arena of personal branding.

Personal branding is the practice of people marketing themselves and their careers as brands. While previous self-help management techniques were about self-improvement, the personal–branding concept suggests instead that success comes from self-packaging. Reference WIKI

Developing a personal brand is similar to developing a company brand, however, as not everyone is in this line of work, they can struggle. So, let’s explain.

A company’s brand represents their market identity — who they are, what they do, what kind of quality they provide, their reputation for trustworthiness, and more. A personal brand is similar.

“Caring for your media, public relations and communications” highlights a personal positioning which is easy to grasp, however, for my social media profile to take effect, we still need to consider the “what I do to reinforce this“. Your personal brand is not a tagline or an ad campaign – it is a combination of your interests, beliefs, values, talents and skills.

The quote “actions speak louder than words” ring very true online.

Time to get cracking on your strategy. It’s time to define your overall aspirations:

1. Who keeps you on your toes (competitors/allies?
   1. What is it about them you like / dislike? Fine tune the good bits.
2. What makes you unique?
   1. There is only one of you. Shine.
3. Where are your passions and strengths for conversation?
   1. Social medic in particular likes a personality. No plain Jane’s please. Let’s open up and have a real conversation about stuff you know. Just be mindful of legalities.
4. Why are you not doing more?
   1. This is an interesting one to consider as it delves into the blockages we might have about online – social media frivolity, etc. It is a proven fact; a good online profile can assist business results (personal and company).
5. How are you currently positioned via Google?
   1. Have you checked via search results? Good to do this every few months anyway.

Then, there are some basics.

Check your attire, hair, makeup, behavior, verbal and non-verbal communication. For example, your LinkedIn picture should look similar to the in-person you, your social media posts should stay within your market niche and your in-person behaviour should be representative of how you want others to perceive you.

Simple right? Yes.

You have all this inside you, it’s simply a matter of making it clear in your head, to streamline your actions, to gain the best results. And we all want that!

Cheers!

-CHR

Extra tip:

Here’s my academia page, simply because, I stress again, anyone with papers or articles should be publishing online.

https://unisa-au.academia.edu/CharlieHelenRobinson