7 Tips for Building Your IT-Focused Personal Brand

My packed #WITSDC (Women In Tech Summit) session, Building Your IT-Focused Personal Brand (held on March 26, 2016, in Washington, DC) was a clear indication the subject was of high interest. The 60-minute session, as it turned out, proved to be hardly enough time to cover this vast, important subject but I hope the following recap helps those who were there remember my top seven key points:

1. Resumes are no longer enough.
   Recruiters are spending less than 5-7 seconds on your resume, so be sure to develop supplemental assets (such as published articles or subject matter expert presentations) to enhance the information on your resume.
2. Use the right hashtags.
   To find the intersection of interest (or content) between you and prospective employers (or clients), use hashtags. And not just any hashtags. Find the targeted hashtags being used by your target audience to insert your personal brand in a highly relevant way.
3. Overlap = Opportunity
   Once you start identifying the hashtags to use, then spend some time finding that interest or content overlap point between your audience and you. Then, use that overlap point(s) to define your own unique points of differentiation.
4. Promote yourself.
   The good news about personal branding is that you don’t have to wait for a yearly performance review to move on up the career ladder. Remember: There are NO glass ceilings in You, Inc.
5. Moreover, per Tom Peters, you are Head Marketer at You, Inc.
   As the Chief Marketing Officer of You, Inc., keep in mind that no one else but you craft out the DNA blueprint of your personal brand. You can hire others to help deploy or support your plan but only uniquely you can define the exact specifications of what your personal brand is or will be.
6. Time is your friend.
   Your personal branding effort will be more of an ongoing journey, with occasional pit stops for replenishment, rather than a fast sprint. It will take some time, usually weeks and months in fact, to build and deploy your personal branding efforts. Trickle your progress out across your social and digital channels in close alignment with your specific goals and professional objectives.
7. Invest in YOU.
   Corporate branding budgets are wide and deep. Businesses spend thousands and millions each year to not only keep their brands fresh and vibrant but also important and relevant. This is no overnight task and requires regular upkeep of brand standards, campaigns, and ongoing outreach. As Head Marketers of You, Inc. you too must make similar investments of time, effort, and resources in your personal brand. Invest in yourself to catapult your personal brand forward in the minds and hearts of those you seek to impact.

Questions? Please share your questions or comments via email to mayra@ruizmcpherson.com.