This is a set of slides used to accompany a 1-hour conversation with San Diego State University students on 2-13-2013. The goal of the conversation was to (1) help students understand how human resources personnel are currently using social media to recruit and review potential hires and (2) put into place a social media personal branding strategy that can be used regardless of changes in social media landscape.

1. Building and Managing
Your Personal Brand
Using Social Media
A Presentation for San Diego State University Career Services
by Dr. Andrew Baker, marketing
abaker@mail.sdsu.edu
@andrewbaker13
2/13/2013

2. Agenda*
1. Prepping Your Social Brand for Future Employers
2. Establishing a Long-Term Social Media Strategy for
Your Personal Brand
* …or wherever the raised hands take us.

3. 1. Preparing Your Social Brand
for Future Employers
1. Learn: How are managers using social media
to look at you?
2. Plan: How can we use this information to
build up a personal social media game plan?
3. Act: What are some specific, concrete steps
we can do to begin building our professional
self on social networks?

4. Some ground rules
• Beware the all-knowing “gurus”
• Technology is always changing
• There are probably exceptions to every “rule” I share here today…
• … but every well-known practice for managing your professional
reputation in the REAL WORLD also applies to the DIGITAL
WORLD

5. Do HR Managers Use Social Networks
to Research Candidates?
Currently Using S.N.
Starting Soon
37% No Plans
52%
11% Takeaway: Assume your future
employer will use social networks
to learn more about you.
CareerBuilder online study conducted by Harris Interactive. 2,303 hiring managers and human resource professionals.
Study was from Feb. to March 2012. Link

6. How do HR Managers use Social Networks
to Research Candidates?
65% Takeaway: Your social presence is
a chance to impress! Three of the
51% four top reasons can always be
45%
managed, and three of the four are
“soft skills”
35%
12%
Present yourself Good fit for company Learn more about your See if you're well- Looking for reasons to
professionally culture professional rounded NOT hire you
qualifications
CareerBuilder online study conducted by Harris Interactive. 2,303 hiring managers and human resource professionals.
Study was from Feb. to March 2012. Link

7. When Social Media Activities Cost Someone a Job Offer,
What Were the Reasons?
Inappropriate photos or info Not Professional 48%
Evidence of drinking / drugs Not Professional 45%
Poor communication skills Not Professional 35%
Bad-mouthed previous employer Not Professional 33%
Discriminatory comments Not Professional 28%
Takeaway: Actively
Lied about qualifications Qualifications 22%
limiting unprofessional
behavior online is also
important.
CareerBuilder online study conducted by Harris Interactive. 2,303 hiring managers and human resource professionals.
Study was from Feb. to March 2012. Link

8. Which social media platforms are used to:
RECRUIT new employees?
REVIEW potential hires?

9. For companies using social media to
recruit, social media is LinkedIn-centric…
• 98% using LinkedIn
• 42% using Twitter … while Facebook and
• 33% using Facebook
LinkedIn are equally used
to research candidates
65%
21%
(all 3) 63%
Takeaway: Hunting for jobs via social is LinkedIn & Twitter, but
16%
Facebook and LinkedIn is where most future employers will go to
learn about you. These are the Big Three of professional branding.
Number of recruiters with at least one Bullhorn Reach account connection on the respective social media platform. About
35,000 accounts from 2011. Bullhorn Reach is a social media recruiting service, do not interpret these numbers as “% of ALL
employers using these platforms to recruit.”

10. What is .
• “Facebook for professionals”
• 200 million registered users
– 74 million in U.S. vs. 163 million
U.S. Facebook users
• Features:
– LinkedIn Profile = “Resume Plus”
– Job Search -with- intelligent
matching
– LinkedIn Groups based around
educational experience, career
aspirations, industry interests
– Has a Facebook-like newsfeed, but
no funny cat pics and lots of
career-oriented sharing

11. So What Should I Do?
• Align your online brand with your audience’s
social media activity:
– Exhibit the capacity for professionalism
– Demonstrate your qualifications
(aka – showcase your marketable skills)
– Demonstrate you’re well-rounded
– Be a good fit for company culture*
• Complete the Social Media 1.0 Checklist
*This makes sense once you have a specific company or a few companies that you are targeting.
Online social review sites for companies (such as Glassdoor) can be excellent tools to learn about
culture.

12. Social Media Prep 1.0 Checklist
The tasks in this checklist are suggestions to help inspire you to start the process of building your online professional brand. This
is not a complete list; it is just a starting point. Sorry, no “recipes “ or “cookbooks” out there.
 Facebook  LinkedIn  Twitter
Get in the Game  Create Facebook Account  Create LinkedIn Account  Create Twitter Account with Professional Username,
 Privacy Settings Locked Down*  Privacy Settings Unlocked (Public pic, and profile
(Privacy assumed, public if desired) assumed)  Privacy Settings Unlocked (Public assumed)
 Complete LinkedIn Profile (Summary,
Experience, Skills & Expertise)
Exhibit  Have a trusted older friend/family  Upload a “professional” headshot & clear  Include career / future aspirations in profile
member perform a “social content mission statement  Have a trusted older friend/family member conduct a
Professionalism audit”. Delete ALL questionable  Connect with past employers, current “Tweet Audit” of previous Tweets – check for poor
content (see earlier slide) employers, and other professionals you spelling, grammar, swearing, rude, and angry activity.
 Like or Join at least four professional interact with regularly (professors!) Delete ALL questionable content (see earlier slide)
or student organizations that are in  Join five active LinkedIn groups that cover  Perform a “Following Audit.” Who you follows signals
the industry / field you care about industries / jobs / skills you care about who you are. Delete unprofessional associations.
 Follow five Companies that you would  Follow 5 companies you want to work for
consider “dream jobs”  Follow 3 professional organizations in your
 Ask for career advice in at least one of the industry/field
professional LinkedIn groups you joined  Follow 5 people you aspire to be like later in your career
 Personally Recommend or Endorse at  Follow 2 accounts of blogs that cover industries you’re
least three people in your LinkedIn passionate about
network you consider to be influential for  Ask for career tips / advice from at least 3 businesses /
your professional career professionals you follow
Demonstrate  Update bio to include school, job  Include in your profile at least five distinct  In the next 2 weeks, Tweet at least 2 things you learned
experience. Interests should include skills & expertise you currently have in class or elsewhere that you believe are helpful
your professional interests  Research and identify 10 distinct toward your future goals
marketable skills/expertise that people with your  By the end of the semester, tweet about your most
skills “dream job” consistently list impressive academic accomplishment (project,
 Share your attendance and learning for the presentation, survive a tough class, etc.)
next extracurricular professional event you  Tweet about the next two times you attend a
attended (re: mini-blog) professional event (hint, hint)
Demonstrate  Add a cover photo and profile photo  Add all non-profit, community service, and  Include (appropriate) hobby / passions in your profile
that positively conveys your non- student organization activity  After 3 months of Twitter activity, assess your Tweet
you’re well- professional but positive personal  Highlight one proud personal non- ratio. Remember its okay to be a human being. Even
rounded attributes/interests professional achievement (ex: I ran my first the most professionally-oriented individuals tend to
 Positively convey your personal goals 10k!) follow a 60 (professional content) / 30 (appropriate
and when you achieve those goals personal content) / 10 (other) rule
*There is a lot of debate about whether your Facebook account should be solely for personal use, a hybrid professional & personal, or strictly for professional use. The correct answer probably depends on the
individual and the social norms around the job they want. This checklist presumes you have decided to primarily keep your Facebook content private but do want your basic info and select FB activity to be available to
the wider public.

13. Social Media Prep 1.0 Checklist
• On Facebook:
– Have a trusted older friend/family
member perform a “social content audit”.
Delete ALL questionable content
• On LinkedIn:
– Join five active LinkedIn groups that cover
industries / jobs / skills you care about
• Twitter:
– Follow 5 people you aspire to be like later
in your career

14. Pulling Your Online Brand Together…
• Your brand is a PROMISE to others about who you are (or will be) as a
professional
• You SIGNAL this promise through your online:
– Profiles
– Images
– Videos
– Posts
– Tweets
– Associations:
• with other people
• with other institutions
• with other people’s shared content
• Brands must be consistent to be understood by others.
– Inconsistency can lead to confusion (“I don’t know who this person is.”)
– Inconsistency can lead to the belief you’re a liar (“This person can’t be who they
claim to be.”)

15. What about all the other social networks & social content?

16. Part 2: Pulling Together a Long-Term
Social Media Game Plan

17. Establishing a Long-Term Social Media
Strategy for Your Personal Brand
1. A long-term social media strategy for your
personal brand should simply be a subset of
the long-term strategy for your own brand
2. Designing long-term strategies for any brands
is something marketers have long known
how to do, we just need to:
– apply it to individuals instead of products
– use social media specifically instead of the other
ways we used to communicate

18. Start Your Social Media Personal
Branding Journey in Four Easy Steps
1. Understand what you want your personal
brand to be.
2. Understand who “customers” are and where
they hang out online.
3. Learn how to listen in on your “customers”
conversations.
4. Join the conversation yourself!

19. How to Build a Long-Term Personal
Brand Strategy Using Social Media
• Step 1: Define Your Brand Positioning
aka Understand Who You Are, and What You Want to be Seen As
– What are you good at?
– What are you uniquely good at?
– What do you care about?
– How are you weak?
– What do you want to be uniquely good at?
(what do you want your brand to become)
Image by cpotter on rebubble.com

20. • Step 2: Define your “Customers”
aka Identify The Online Community you want to Showcase Your Brand To
– Who is the online community you need to impress with your brand?
• Where does this online community congregate?
• What is important to them? What do they talk about?
• Who are the leaders of this community? Who are the influencers?
“#hottopic1”
“#hottopic2”
“important.newslink.com”
“Everyone buzzes when
@so-and-so posts!”
“Common Career Convo
Topic!”
“Buzz around
newsarticle.com!”
“Common Career Convo
Topic!”
“Buzz around
newsarticle.com!”
Mr. So-and-so
? “So-and-so is super
important!”

21. • Step 2: Define your “Customers”
aka Identify The Online Community you want to Showcase Your
Brand To
– Who is the online community you need to impress with your brand?
• Where do they get their online information?
?

22. • Step 3: “Research” Your “Customers’ Habits”
aka Use Social Media to Listen in on the Ongoing Conversation
– How can you start listening in on your online community’s conversations?
– How can we systematically store this “listening” capacity and do it in an on-going way?
Mr. So-and-so
• “#hottopic1”
• “#hottopic2”
• “Buzz around
newsarticle.com!”
?

23. • Step 4: “Sell” to Your “Customers”
aka Start Talking with the Community
– Courteous
– Thankful
– Respectful
– Knowledge-Seeking
Mr. So-and-so
• “#hottopic1”
• “#hottopic2”
• “Buzz around
newsarticle.com!”
?

24. Social Media Personal Branding
Worksheet

25. Conclusions
• Managing your online brand is an ongoing process.
Steps 1 – 4 constantly happen, and often happen
simultaneously as you develop your online brand.
• Start today. Your brand can evolve. Like you will.
• This process will not change, but social media and
social networks will.
• Thank you for your time. Preparing for this
presentation inspired me to heed my own words!