The 11 tools you should use to create your personal brand

The 11 tools you should use to create your partieal brand3K SharesWhen you start venturing into a professional field, it immediately hits you there are 5 to 10 professionals that you follow closely. You probably trust their every word, you take their advice, test techniques they are suggesting and use the gadgets they recommend. The question is How can you be that leading figure for others in your field? Welcome to the exciting, demanding and often a counter-intuitive world of personal brandingI have been building my personal reputation as a digital communications specialist for some 10 years now and I can tell you Its an uphill battle and you have to be in it for the long haul. But it surely is worth it and the opportunities you can unlock are tremendous.The good thing is that nowadays we have all kinds of tech solutions on our side, so building your personal brand can be much better organized. Here are some of my favorite tools.Tools for creating your personal brandNamechkShakespe are famously asks Whats in a name? I really dont know, but I know whats in a Twitter handle. It makes no sense to be johnnysmith on one network and smithj on another, so make sure you keep a consistent naming convention for all your top channels. Test out your desired personal brand name with Namechk to see what social media its available on.GrammarlyYou got a great Twitter handle? Good, now write something there Thats where Grammarly comes in. Its a great tool to run your public communication through, in order to make sure you eliminate any pesky mistakes in your texts. Its very handy, especially (but not only) if youre not a native English speaker. Combine it with Hemingway to improve both your grammar and phrasing skills.CanvaBeing a person dealing with words means Im not a natural when it comes to design. Canva helps me a lot with building the visual side of my brand. My top suggestion here is to focus on 2-3 templates you like, make them yours by adding your signature color, f ont or logo and be consistent with visual messaging.EnhancvThe second best thing to having your own personal website is having an outstanding resume. This is not just a tool for job hunting it can be a great collateral material you can send to media you want to write for, events you want to speak at or presentations in front of potential clients.Related articlesSelf-discovery through me datesNurture your character to enhance your personal brandWhat I learned about myself from solo travelTools for monitoring your personal brandGoogle AlertsGoogling yourself from time to time is a great habit you need to develop, but its not scalable enough. Set up Google Alerts for your name and any nachrichten you appear in will come straight to your inbox. Make sure you also include any common misspellings of your name or type it in different languages (a woe Cyrillic alphabet users across the world would be familiar with).MentionThis tool does the same thing Google Alerts does, but for social med ia mentions, as well. Getting everything in your email is very handy The tool has a great free plan and if youre mucksmuschenstill early in building your personal brand, itll be completely enough to track all mentions.TweetDeckIf youre active on Twitter and lets face it, thats still the place where thought leaders gather you can keep everything in one place with TweetDeck. I rely heavily on Twitter lists to interact with different groups and I found its a great way to focus on specific topics and do more in less time.KloutMany digital practitioners have mixed feelings about Klout the methodology they use for calculating their score is discussed a lot. But its still a good way to assess performance over time. Dont look at the absolute score that much just notice if youre doing better or worse and act accordingly.Tools for extending your personal brandBufferLets face it you cant be active on all channels all the time. Buffer allows you to schedule messages for different social me dia and post updates at your audiences most active time of day. Just a tip there dont just post the title of the article and the link, add some value by sharing what you found interesting in the piece. Thats how you build true thought leadership.IFTTTThe tools name is the abbreviation of if this then that and this is pretty much how it works. You can make a variety of recipes to automate your online channels just choose a trigger event and the action thats performed after, on the same network or not. The applications of IFTTT are pretty numerous you can start by checking out their top recipes for social media.MeetupA recent discovery of mine, Meetup lists interesting events in your area. Its a great way to continue with brand building offline a less scalable, but very effective way of doing things. You will meet new people, find new niche communities. Hey, you can even dessin the courage of speaking at one (and dont forget to show your Enhancv speaker profile)

Lies On Your Resume Can Haunt You

Lies On Your Resume Can Haunt You Lie on your resume at your own riskYou just want to get a job, so its tempting to stretch the truth a little on your resume.But think again if youre considering embellishing orwe can just call it what it islyingon your resume.According toMonsters 2019 State of the Recruiter survey,85% of recruiters said that candidates exaggerate skills and competencies on their resumes.Whats the worst that can happen? Paradoxically, the worst-case scenario might be that your lies actually get you the job. Whos going to abflug fessing up once the paychecks start coming?If you dont want to be looking over your shoulder or hoping no one in HR gets suspicious and decides to audit their files, avoid these whoppers on your resumeLies about past employersPlan to lie about wherbeie you worked? Think again These fibs are cause for an employer to show you the door, even months or years after you are were hired.Tegan Acree, director of human resources and training for Nuance C ommunications, shared a story from a company where she previously worked. The organization hired a high-level executive who claimed on his resume he had worked on Wall Street as well as for a major celebrity. When the employee underperformed and his employer became suspicious, a few calls revealed he had forged all of his experience. In fact, he was working for three different companies on their time. Needless to say, he was soon working for one less company, Acree says.Lies of omissionLisa Rangel, managing director of Chameleon Resumes and a former recruiter, recalls a candidate for a position in the legal department of a media company who never completed the degree listed on her resume. When I confronted her, she said, Well, you never explicitly asked if I earned the degree. The media company rescinded the offer since it could not have an employee in its legal department who demonstrated such flexible morals, Rangel says.Lying about your degree can come back to bite youeven in the unlikely event that no one notices right away. A dean at MIT resigned her post after working there for 28 years when the university audited its files and learned she did not have degrees from the three schools listed on her initial resume.Half-truthsMike Ramer, president of Ramer Search Consultants, says you need to be careful about omitting short-term jobs from your resume. Theres a lot mora scrutiny now, he says. Companies are conducting background checks that will uncover inconsistencies on your resume.He recalls an outstanding candidate who failed to mention a short-term position he held, which raised red flags for the employer when it came up in a background check. The company worried that if he lied about that, what else was he not sharing? The company rescinded its offernot because of the short-term job, but because the candidate had not mentioned it.Little embellishmentsAll of this personal-branding business is encouraging candidates to upgrade their job titles, Acree expla ins. If you were an HR assistant, dont call yourself an HR manager. When you lie about your job titles, its a big red flag.Acree cautions job seekers to make aya their resumes match their profiles on professional networking sites. Any discrepancy is going to pop up on a background check, she says. The employer will wonder whats the truth and whats a lieand move on to the next candidate.How to get a job without lyingTell it like it isRamer told of a candidate who lied about having a degree and lost the job opportunity. If he had been truthful, his experience would have landed him the position, regardless. If your skills are in demand and you are well-qualified, you may be able to overcome certain obstaclesif you are up front and tell the truth.Enhance your credentialsfor realIf every job you want requires a college degree, instead of listing a school where you took a few credits and trying to pass it off as a degree, consider how you can actually earn that degree. Many colleges and u niversities cater to working professionals, and you may consider an accredited online program.Tap your networkSometimes you can overcome some missing skills or qualifications by impressing a decision maker who can persuade a company to take a chance on you. Referrals are very important in the modern job search, so spend as much time as possible networking with colleagues and contacts. Be sure you can explain what you offer via a well-rehearsed, succinct elevator pitch. Demonstrate clearly why you are the best at what you do and how you will solve the targeted employers problems.Build an online profileOvercome gaps in your experience by using the Internet and social networks to demonstrate that youre an expert in your field. Consider hosting a blog related to your industry, or create a social resumea professional website highlighting your expertise.Also connect with current and former colleagues on appropriate networking platforms. The more people who know about you and what you offe r, the less likely youll feel the need to lie to get noticed. If you can create a community and demonstrate expertise, its very possible that jobs will start coming to you.Miriam Salpeter is a job search and social networking coach, the author of 100 Conversations for Career Success and Social Networking for Career Success, and the owner of Keppie Careers.