Marketing Yourself Effectively
- how to brand yourself and
create career opportunities face to face and online
Carolyn Parry
Computer Science Link Careers Adviser, Acting Deputy Director
Careers Service
careers@aber.ac.uk
01970 622378
www.aber.ac.uk/careers/
Outcomes from this session
• Be able to identify potential personal brand values
and consider the impact of these on employers
• Understand how to create work/career opportunities
• Recognise the need to be consistent in your aims and
objectives so your personal brand has integrity
Marketing (recap?)
• “The management process responsible for identifying,
anticipating and satisfying customer requirements
profitably.”
(Chartered Institute of Marketing)
• “The activity, set of institutions, and processes for
creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging
offerings that have value for customers, clients,
partners, and society at large.”
(American Marketing Association)
Why market?
Noise in the marketplace!
• 335,000 new graduates per annum (UK)
• High ratio of applicants to jobs
• Monster contains 44 million CVs (US)
• CareerBuilder has 17 million (US)
Or because you are starting a business!
So you need to stand out!
Branding makes you memorable...
and creates opportunities
What
is
Personal
Branding?
So what is personal branding?
“The process by which individuals and entrepreneurs
differentiate themselves and stand out from a crowd
by identifying and articulating their
unique value proposition,
whether professional or personal,
and then leverage it across a platform with a
consistent message and image
to achieve a specific goal.*
* source: Me 2.0 Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success by Dan Schwabel
ie...how we market ourselves to others!
Useful questions
• What’s your goal?
(Target role/sector/company)
• Why? (Passions/motivations)
• How? (Skills/talent/behaviour)
• To Whom/through whom? (Contacts/networks)
• Key messages/themes (Focus/relevance)
• Routes (Paper, face to face, online)
)
How to brand
• Be clear about your intended outcome
• Develop a strategy based on knowing what
you want to achieve
• Have a strap line (or personal brand statement)
• Identify and know your audience
• Find out where they are (events, online etc)
and develop a presence there!
What makes you want to buy me?
A game of features and benefits
Brand magic
• If you were a brand, which one
would you be and why?
&
Right
experience
Right
Knowledge
Right Skills
taught (IT etc) &
learnt (team work etc)
Right Personality
values, character, drivers
What employers look for in staff
Shopping for staff
- walking in the recruiter’s shoes
• Values/motivation/passion
– is the candidate committed to this industry/role?
• Features
– does s/he have the right personal attributes, skills & talents,
experience/knowledge and previous successes?
• Benefits
– what difference/contribution can s/he make here,
where and how?
What’s the target profile?
• Understand how the role and sector
both work, look for language used,
professional body, key events etc
• Find out where key players are located
• Use www.prospects.ac.uk website as a
starting point to find industry groups
Quality Check!
• What do your personal brand values say about
you from an employer’s perspective?
• Now you’ve looked at your brand this way,
what would you change, if anything?
What makes you unique in their eyes?
– ie what are your USPs/UVPs*?
•
•
•
•
What’s your top passion(s), values , personality?
What are your top talents/skills/abilities?
What are your key experiences?
What is your most relevant knowledge?
*Unique Selling Proposition/Unique Value Proposition
SWOT – a 360° view
I am at my best when...
I am at my worst when...
(strengths)
(weaknesses)
I am most interested in...
I am least interested in
(opportunities)
(threats)
Finding opportunities
• Physical - face to face/phone
Every time you meet someone you have an
opportunity to grow your network
• People buy from people
• Many jobs are simply not advertised
• Who you know can often be more important
than what you know.
Six degrees of separation
• A way to create unique opportunities to help
your career grow
• We are all only six steps away from anyone
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_degrees_of_separation
• Try me!
Who do you know
who can help you?
• Make a list of all the people you know (of)
who could help you get work experience in
one of the following areas:
Retail
Manufacturing
Logistics/supply chain
University
Local council
Hospital
What opportunities could they offer you?
Opportunities
– Face to Face and Networking
• Through people you know
• Work experience inc work
tasters/placements
see www.aber.ac.uk/careers/workexp
• Exhibitions and events
- graduate fairs
- industry exhibitions
- networks
Opportunities
•
•
•
•
Trade/industry press and newspapers
Related websites
www.prospects.ac.uk
Other prospecting opportunities:
- www.kellysearch.co.uk/
- http://directory.kompass.com/en/dir.php
- www.yell.com
Physical support materials
• Business card (use appropriate email address)
(cheap or free and good quality from
www.vistaprint.co.uk)
• Up to date CV
• Your best self!!
Face to Face
• Right clothes/shoes, wear a badge
• Never get a second chance to make a
first impression, so smile!
• Make eye contact
• Develop a good handshake (!!)
• Offer card immediately
• Find common ground
Maximising
the opportunity
• Find common ground;
• Show you know what’s happening in the industry
• Match body language (carefully):
• Use their business card to make notes of discussion
• Follow up within 1-2 days
Tools – a great CV
www.aber.ac.uk/careers/cvs
• Use CV to showcase what makes you different
(remember features and benefits exercise)
• Check for evidence, consistency and accuracy
• Review it from the recruiter’s perspective
Opportunities online
- the digital you
"Today's tools make it easier to create, manage and
manipulate a personal brand - and society has
realised the value of strong, personal brands.”
Frank Gruber Sr, Product Manager AOL
All the world’s an opportunity
- so who do you connect with and how?
• Do it carefully and professionally
• Whatever you write/include is normally open
to all, always!!!
• What would a recruiter see about you on line?
• Watch your FaceBook activity!
Virtual tools
•
•
•
•
•
•
Blogging (www.blogger.com)
Twitter (www.twitter.com)
LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com)
MySpace (www.myspace.com)
Google+ ? BeKnown?
FaceBook (everybody got an account?!)
• www.bravenewtalent.com – social media based site –
recruiters meet students
• The comments box on websites eg newspapers,
blogs etc
Blogging
• Twitter (micro blogging)
• Use # (hashtag) to search for relevant opportunities
• Build the relationship by retweeting/having a
conversation with others; show personality
• Be appropriate (spelling/grammar/content)
• Use short URLs (http://www.shorturl.com/)
• Write good quality content not drivel!
• Comment on other blogs/news etc
Twitter – connections & prospects
• http://twitter.com/#!/CareerAlchemist
Blogging continued
• Blogging
- www.blogger.com or www.wordpress.com
• Example –
http://insiders.aber.ac.uk/blog/abigail/?p=239
http://ruraldebugging.blogspot.com/
• Guidance on blog writing: www.useit.com/alertbox/weblogs.html
Q: What could you blog about which
would help your career plans?
Other ways
•
•
•
•
LinkedIn – www.linkedin.com
http://uk.linkedin.com/in/carolynparry
Use it to network with recruiters
Do this by joining groups and making sensible
contributions to them
• Or even create a group of your own
• Connect via existing connections!
Other ways
•
•
•
•
Share good sources of information
Create original content
Podcasts - www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts/
Video podcasts - www.youtube.com
( you could integrate these with your blog and
Twitter using use aggregating system eg TweetDeck)
• Social bookmarking eg Delicious
Social Bookmarking sites
For latest rankings see
www.ebizmba.com/articles/social-bookmarking-websites
Social bookmarking
eNetworking
– contacts via targeted marketing
•
•
•
•
Newspapers and television blog sites
Trade/sector press
Have a purpose, be professional
Seek out the best opportunity
• Comment on other blogs + link to your own
• Be appropriate (spelling/grammar/content)
• Write good quality content not drivel!
Who’s reading what?
• Bank employee sacked as Facebook
Hallowe’en picture revealed family emergency
was a fake.
• Virgin sacked 13 crew due to Facebook
• “Bored” sixteen year old sacked
Just remember - your future
boss could be reading!
Online
Branding
Aims
Keep current and
persistent!
Walk your talk
Don’t do a Tiger Woods!
Inspiration at Aber
• Rhys Gregory
www.virtualent.co.uk/who.html
• Huldah Knox-Thomas
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZyChJqJiDw
• Richard Piper Griffiths
www.walesoffice.gov.uk/2011/02/16/welshsecretary-supports-student-volunteeringweek-in-wales/
Me.com; me.gov; me.ac.
Virtual presence/digital conversations
• Blogs, personal web pages, social bookmarking,
social networking, or online media commentator?
• How could you use this approach in your
own career search/development?
• What Could You Do Online?
Personal branding themes
• Differentiate (offerings that have value to employer)
• Stand out by identifying and articulating how you match
the need
• Be appropriate and professional!!
• Leverage your USPs/UVPs (ie the things that make you
unique)
• Consistent message and image
• Specific goal
How the Careers Service can help
• One to one guidance
• Career Development programme (CDP)
• Wide range of free leaflets and handouts
www.aber.ac.uk/careers/caspubs
• Comprehensive library and website
• On-line lectures and interactive e-learning
www.aber.ac.uk/careers/casmods
• Employability events programme and Employer visits
www.aber.ac.uk/careers/eventscal
• Job Link for casual jobs and work tasters
• Go Wales grad. work placements and internships
• Vacancy database www.aber.ac.uk/careers/casjobs
The quality of the opportunities you get
correlates directly to the work you've done
building your personal brand.
Strong brand builders get great mentors and
solid networks, and those tools, in turn,
build stronger brands.
In a world where there are no more
corporate ladders to land on, your brand is
the platform your career will stand on"
Penelope Trunk
Boston Globe newspaper
Where to find us!
Careers Service Job Link
Careers Library in Llandinam
Your Careers Service’s sites
The Careers Service
Floor E Llandinam Building, Penglais
Aberystwyth
SY23 3DB
01970 622378
careers@aber.ac.uk
www.aber.ac.uk/careers
www.facebook.com/abercareers