As hard as it sounds, many employers look at you as an asset rather than a person. This doesn’t mean that they don’t appreciate you – but it means that they look at what you can offer to the company as a whole rather than an as an individual. This means that you need to look at your personal branding methods and how you can make sure that you are seen as the best possible asset for a company to have.

There are different ways that you can do this, but the whole point is to look at what you do as a whole rather than the individual aspects that these offer. This means that you need to look at your resume and your cover letter, and even what to wear to an interview – to help make sure that you are seen as a valuable asset to any company.

You need to make sure that a company sees you as a must-have brand, something that they feel their business can’t do without! Sell yourself and create a little bit of a buzz about you, so that they are curious about what they are missing out on – which will encourage them to employ you!

Personal branding is easy to implement, especially if you take a sensible approach and make sure that you think about what an employer is looking for and how you can accommodate this.

Social media sites are an effective way to brand and market your work. Pinterest is one such site where you can create boards onto which you can pin examples of your work. It is especially effective for those with visual careers such as filmmaking, fashion, illustration, photography, or graphic or product design. A group of boards can function as an online portfolio where you can send potential employers or customers to view your work. This free, online portfolio can be paired with a creative arts industry resume to give an employer a complete view of your work and career.

It is easy to get started on Pinterest. You can have a friend send you an invitation to join Pinterest, or go to pinterest.com and click on “Get Invitation” at the top of the page. The Pinterest invitation allows you to create an account by using either your Facebook or Twitter accounts. You then choose a user name and fill out and save a profile. Create your boards from your Pinterest home page by clicking on “Add” at the top of the page and then on “Create a Board.” Name the board, choose a category, provide a brief description for it and then click “Save.” You can then upload your work to your Pinterest boards. You can add and delete pictures at any time, including moving pictures from one board to another. Add captions or pin pictures with no captions.

Once you have your career portfolio set up on your Pinterest boards to your satisfaction, you can send your Pinterest URL to potential employers and clients. For example, if the name you chose for your Pinterest account is cameraman, your Pinterest URL would be pinterest.com/cameraman. Be sure to list your Pinterest URL on your resume under the Online Career Portfolio section and also mention it in your cover letter.

You’ve likely heard of social media. You probably have a Facebook account and you may even use Twitter on a regular basis. If you’re really social media savvy, then you might have bought into the Pinterest craze as well. But do you know which social media website you should be on if you want to land a professional job that leads to a rewarding career?

If you said LinkedIn, kudos to you. You’re ahead of the game.

LinkedIn is the social media website for professionals. It’s where professionals go to network with each other, discuss business around the water cooler, secure their next position with a new company, and to close sales if they want to do business with other professionals.

Creating your LinkedIn profile is the first step. Your LinkedIn profile is your social media resume. It’s not a traditional resume in the traditional resume format. But it does contain all the same information that a traditional resume contains – or it should.

Your LinkedIn profile should have, at a minimum, the following information:

• Name of present employer and your position/title
• Previous employers and your positions/titles to at least 5-10 years back
• Your contact information
• Links to websites you own,  manage, or contribute to
• Links to online portfolios if you are a creative person
• A well-written summary of your professional experience geared toward the position that you want to obtain
• A list of associations and other organizations you are member of
• Use of keywords that are searchable and that brand you within your niche

This is just a start. Think of your social media profiles as online calling cards. Other professionals will look at your profiles to get a glimpse of who you are and what you have to offer. Make it easy for them.

LinkedIn has become one of the most effective social networking sites for business professionals. Some people have used it to find better jobs within their industry while others do well using it for prospecting. Whether you are actively searching for a new career, or just checking out what opportunities are out there, having a strong LinkedIn profile is a must.

Not sure how to get your LinkedIn profile ready for the job search? Here are some tips to get your started…

 

1. Write a dynamic headline with a summary on your profile. Use your most important keywords in both for search engine optimization purposes, but speak directly to the person you’d most like to connect with. Keep it concise and communicate clearly.
2. Use a professional photo that makes you look serious about doing business. Don’t use a full body shot or a photo that includes other people. Use a great head shot and smile.
3. When you include a link to your website, select the “other” block and use keywords so that you can build better inbound links to your web properties.
4. Include a call to action in your profile. Say something like “to get more prospects for your business in a shorter time, call xxx-xxx-xxxx or message me directly through LinkedIn”.
5. Get rid of LinkedIn’s dynamic URL. They’re ugly and ineffective. Instead, edit the link and use your name.
6. Make sure to complete your education and experience sections. Again, use keywords. Keywords help to ensure that your LinkedIn profile can be found in the search engines.
7. Proofread your profile before saving it. Be sure to correct any spelling and/or punctuation errors. Your profile is a reflection of you, so you want it to look professional. Consider having a friend or colleague look over it before you publish it.
8. Is your profile public? It should be. Making connections with others in your industry is key to staying in touch with job openings, industry trends, etc.
9. Ask people you know and with whom you have done business to “recommend” you. DO NOT blast all of your contacts and ask for a recommendation. Only ask people you know and have done business with.
10. Finally, add a few widgets to your profile. You can add your blog feed, Twitter feed, and other widgets that help flesh out who you are.

If you follow these 10 tips to improve your LinkedIn profile you’ll find yourself making more contacts and quite possibly, score your next big career opportunity through LinkedIn.

A lot of people are unemployed these days. But they don’t have to be – not for long. Not if they beat feet and hit the pavement.

Looking for a job is itself hard work. It’s a full-time job just to find a job. You have to find prospective employers, research them, put together a resume and a cover letter, send it off to the decision maker, then wait for them to call and set up an interview. And you should be doing that several times a day.

After that, you go to the interview, spend some time getting to know the interviewer and answering his or her questions, and then wait for a followup. If you do well they’ll call you in for a second interview, or a test, or offer you a job. The entire process can take weeks or months.

But where do you search for jobs? What resources do you use? Here are 5 resources you can use right now to find your next job.

1. The Internet – Search for “job” and your industry, or the title of the position you want to find. Look for companies that are hiring or have posted wanted ads online.
2. LinkedIn – Search the companies on LinkedIn and see if the companies you are interested in are hiring. Or connect with people who work there and ask them about openings.
3. Unemployment Office - Your city should have an unemployment office. This is usually where you go to fill out the paperwork for your unemployment insurance compensation. They also provide job search resources.
4. Executive Recruiters – Often called “headhunters,” their sole job is to find qualified executives and place them with companies that need their skills. They get paid a commission when they find a suitable placement so it doesn’t cost you anything to send them your resume.
5. Online Job Boards – Many of these are industry-specific or cater to a particular profession. But they are valuable resources even if general in nature.

Find more job search resources here.

The Internet has definitely transformed how jobseekers contact hiring companies. Most company’s now have an option on their website to submit resumes, which makes it much easier and more convenient. You don’t have to spend hours printing and mailing or faxing resumes to countless recipients.

Because of this convenience a breeding ground for scam artists continues to grow each year as well. Identity thefts have increased to an overwhelming 10 million cases per year, and many of them are the result of phishing and the employment industry is under attack as well.

Phishing is an attempt to extract personal information through what appears to be authentic emails. You may get emails from a recruiter that looks legitimate but may not be. Knowing what to look for and how to spot fraud (or potential areas for abuse) can be the best way to ensuring you have a safe experience while conducting your job search.

Be careful of invitations to submit your resume. Scammers and spammers follow the same patterns. Mass emails are sent to a lot of people at once. Receiving an email from a recruiter who sends you an email to the effect: “We saw your resume on the Internet and we find your skill set to be perfect for one of our clients. Please complete our online application through the link below. Be very careful and think before you respond. Did you send your resume to this recruiter? Do not click on the link in the email, instead visit their website from a new browser window. Make sure everything looks right first. Always proceed with caution when you receive a cold-contact email from someone.

Do not give out personal information unless you know for sure the email is legitimate. Reputable companies will not ask for personal information via email.

Don’t just give your information freely. If a job application wants more information than you’re willing to provide, be very careful. With safe online practices, you’ll get the best return from your job-search efforts instead of filing a police report and/or calling credit bureaus and credit card companies.

Since a lot of businesses now use the internet to check potential employees, it’s very important to know what your personal brand says about you. So, how do you do that.

For starters, search for your own name on Google to see what comes up about you. Sometimes, there will even be other people with the same name so you need to make sure you know which searches are relevant to you.

Google will find you especially if you have any Google accounts such as email, Google Voice or Google plus. Additionally, make sure your social networking pages are more professional than casual.

Be careful of the things you post on networking sites. You don’t want it coming back to bite you, and it will if you aren’t careful. It doesn’t matter what others are posting on their own sites, but if you are trying to build a brand, yours needs to be more professional than that.

Register for online forums that are relevant to your type of skills so that you can build your personal brand better. Forums are an excellent way to find business relationships and information.

The more you keep your presence alive on the internet, the easier it will be for potential employers to find you and to become acquainted with who you are.

Last, but not least, tailor your resume so that it details all the relevant skills you have and your expertise. Once that is done, post your resume in as many places as possible on the Internet. Before long, you will have built a professional brand that others will contact you instead of you always having to seek job positions.

The electronic age has revolutionized the way job seekers and employers meet. Online services take the volume of resume traffic to levels unimagined only a few years ago. With services to job seekers expanding continually, it’s important to understand the different options available to increase exposure of your resume to potential employers and recruiters. Two types are resume posting and resume distribution.

Resume Posting. This is a service where job seekers post their resumes to a job board for employers and recruiters to find. This is a passive approach in that the employer or recruiter must find you within the resume database. They usually find you by calling up resumes via key words. The chances of their finding you depend greatly on your including all the appropriate key words in your resume.

This service is normally free to job seekers, and used only by those employers and recruiters who have paid a substantial fee to access the resumes. In other words, when you post your resume to an online resume posting service, not every employer or recruiter will find you.

Resume Distribution. This is actually opposite of a posting service. With a resume distribution, the job seeker has access to a select database of well-qualified employers and/or recruiters to email his/her resume to. This service does cost the job seeker a fee. The amount will vary depending on the service you use.

There are several advantages of a distribution service. The advantages include not having to wait to be found, you decide who receives your resume and you are in control of who actually gets your resume.

Make sure the distribution service allows you to target the employers who receive your resume. At a minimum, you should be able to query the employer/recruiter database by industry, job function and geographic region. If the service offers no targeting capabilities, your resume may be sent out indiscriminately to employers and recruiters who do not match your employment criteria.

For optimum resume distribution or posting effectiveness you’ll want to make sure your resume is updated. If you are not currently getting the response rate from your resume that you’d like, using a resume distribution service will only be marginally helpful, because you will still be distributing a resume that is not working for you.

Both services, resume posting and resume distribution, are valuable strategies for your job search. Don’t be turned off by the fact that one is free and the other you must pay for. The money spent on a good quality resume distribution will repay you over and over again with valuable job leads and introductions to influential recruiters. After all, aren’t you worth it?

There was a time when job seekers only had to be concerned about background and reference checks. That seemed intrusive enough. Now comes along social media and the possible damage it can do to your job search.

Almost everyone is on social media sites now, which is great. People can connect now like they never have before. But, here is a big BUT, potential employers can see this as well during the hiring process. When building a personal brand, this will all become a part of that brand as well.

Potential employers will do a Gooogle search of your name to find out more about you. This is not illegal and is becoming more popular with employers. This is an excellent way for them to really know who they are interviewing.

Some things you can do to prevent your personal life from spilling into the interview process is:

• Remove anything on social media sites that may not picture you in a good light. Photos, comments and personal views. You can set your profile to private so they will only see basic information about you. It might not be a good idea if they see you with a drink in your hand in a bar or something.
• Update all business social media sites with an updated resume, pertinent business information and a tasteful photo.
• Do not use silly email addresses like “want2chat” or “prowler” or something to that effect. You will want an email address that is much more professional.
• Do the same type of search on potential employers. Use sites like LinkedIn to see what type of business they are, what they are talking about and who works there. This gives you excellent leverage during the interview process as they will be impressed with your questions and statements about the company. They will know you have done your homework.

If you are not sure what is going to pop up about you or how to prevent it, there are always companies that can help you clean your act up. They can search through a lot of venues to make sure that nothing embarrassing will affect your job search.

In this day and age when employers can go online and find out virtually anything about you, it’s imperative that you think of yourself as more than just a job seeker. You might have to think of yourself as a brand and do some online reputation management.

Google – the largest search engine in the world – recently announced that they are changing the way search works. They’re calling their new product Search plus Your World.

Essentially, what it boils down to is that Google is rolling its search service into its social service, Google+, and creating a personalized experience for every searcher. Now, what’s that got to with your reputation? Everything!

By setting yourself up with a Google+ profile, you can virtually brand yourself online, which could give you a leg up on your job seeking competition. With a Google+ profile that is linked to your personal website, a Facebook page, an active LinkedIn presence, and a Twitter account, you can stretch your fingers and your mind out globally and become a personal brand. How you manage that could be the difference between a job or the unemployment line.

Furthermore, it could make a difference in your salary.

Employers today are looking for people who are Web savvy. If you understand current technology well enough to be a user, then you could be setting yourself up for the future, which is always a good thing.

Online branding is as important today for job seekers as it is for the companies who will be hiring them. Manage your online reputation and you’ll have a rewarding career.