Irrespective of our personal opinions about social media, the fact is, social media is an integral part of researching for suppliers, sourcing for personnel and job hunting. Today, more and more companies rely on the Internet to research the candidates or suppliers they plan to hire. This makes it important to take a strategic approach when it comes to building your online reputation. Effectively leveraged, social media can help on creating a strong personal brand and widen your reach across a wide array of job markets, industries, and organizations.
While there are many social media platforms that can help you build your network, there are two that all professionals should definitely consider and keep up to date – Google+ and LinkedIn. While the latter has now become synonymous with job search / hiring, the former can help you establish a strong online presence that you can leverage to enhance your reach. These two platforms alone can help you build a relevant network, and create and exchange information and ideas to give shape to your personal brand as a professional.
LinkedIn has become the most popular professional network in most parts of the world. It has advantage over traditional professional portals thanks to its social media strengths and that it is primarily driven by quality content. On this network, people:
- Connect with each other. Connect with like-minded individuals from the same profession and explore available opportunities.
- Identify the people that matter. Offers insights into who the key persons in your area of interest are at a company you want to work or do business with—as an employee, as a vendor or as a business partner.
- Build credibility. Your company or personal profile provides details about the people in your professional network, the companies you have worked with, and the capabilities you bring to the table. Features like endorsements and recommendations add even greater credibility to your profile.
- Develop your company or personal LinkedIn profile highlighting your strengths and capabilities.
- Create interesting content and share it with your network. This will help establish you as a subject matter expert. The more original content you post the greater the benefits.
- Build your network. Identify people within your industries of interest and connect with them. Join relevant groups and make your presence felt within these micro-networks.
- Post regularly on relevant forums and comment on topics that can demonstrate your expertise.
Where do we all go when we want to search for information?
Google. Where else? No other search engine today comes even close. A strong presence on Google+, is therefore, a definite advantage. However, as Google says, Google+ is now more than a social media platform. It has integrated various offerings from the Google stable such as YouTube, Google+ Communities, Hangouts, Google Local and Reviews, Google Analytics, Google+ Ripples and Google Mobile to provide a single window platform that can have a significant impact on search engines.
- Build a profile page on Google+. While there is no stated preference, there is enough empirical evidence to show that Google does favour content hosted on its products when throwing up search results.
- Create backlinks to your blog, website and LinkedIn pages using Google+. Ensure that these links can be shared by those who visit your profile.
- Upload content and make it shareable on Google+. The more shares you can manage the better for your profile.
- Build the right connections. The “Circle” function offered by Google+ helps segregate your contacts. This is a valuable tool you can use to employ targeted messaging and relevant communications.
