Six quick and effective ways to optimise your personal branding
In today’s digital world, personal branding, the act of managing your online image to stand out and establish yourself as an expert, has become more important than ever. While promoting your personal image can help you gain visibility, it also plays a key role in growing and nurturing your professional network on social media.
Whether you're actively looking for a new job or simply aiming to advance in your current role, taking time to optimise your online reputation is a smart move. Many recruiters now examine a candidate’s online presence before contacting them. A strong personal brand can be the edge that propels your career forward, even if you're not actively job hunting.
But let’s be honest: between work and personal life, we don’t always have time to polish our professional brand. So how can you improve your online image efficiently?
Here are six effective and time-saving personal branding tips:
1. Choose the right social media platforms
Trying to be active on every platform can quickly become overwhelming. Instead, focus on just a few that best align with your career goals.
While Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram may come to mind first, when it comes to building your professional brand, LinkedIn is the clear winner. If your LinkedIn profile is incomplete, now is the time to fill in every section, your work experience, education, skills, and interests. If you can, add key accomplishments and ask former colleagues or clients to endorse your skills.
If you work in a multilingual environment or with international clients, it’s worth creating a LinkedIn profile in another language. To do this, go to your profile menu, click on “Add profile in another language," and fill in the fields.
With over 575 million members globally, including more than 16 million in France alone, LinkedIn is the go-to network for professionals. Your profile might be viewed by recruiters, collaborators, or potential employers, potentially opening new career opportunities, regardless of your current job status.
2. Use a professional profile photo
Profiles with a photo are much more likely to be viewed than those without. But not just any photo will do, skip the selfies and group shots.
The ideal profile picture should be:
- Recent
- Framed so your face occupies about 60% of the image
- Set against a neutral background
If you don’t have a suitable photo, ask a friend with a good camera to take one of you in professional attire. You could also consider investing in a session with a professional photographer to truly showcase your best self.
3. Share relevant content
The more you share content on social media the more visible online you become to recruiters, colleagues, former coworkers, etc. However, that alone is not enough: to optimise your online presence, you need to choose articles or videos that may interest your network or potential recruiters and clients.
The content you share can include articles, blog posts, videos, or studies you find relevant, ideally content that’s interesting to your network and that establishes you as an expert in your field
To share content quickly without wasting time, here are a few tips:
- Subscribe to newsletters from blogs or websites that interest you or relate to your profession, this way, you’ll receive fresh content directly in your inbox.
- Set up Google Alerts with keywords related to your field to get a list of articles via email.
- Follow hashtags influencers, or companies on LinkedIn that regularly post relevant content. Don’t hesitate to reshare posts that relate to your activity.
Once these habits are in place, finding the right relevant content to share becomes quick and easy.
4. Share at the right time
Ideally, you should share content daily, but if time is tight, aim for at least once a week.
To have an impact and generate reactions, such as comments or likes, your content must be shared at the right time when your network is most likely to see and engage with it.
According to LinkedIn the best times to post are weekdays during breaks or commuting hours. Try Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday between 7:30–8:30 a.m., at noon, or between 5–6 p.m. For even better engagement, Tuesday between 10–11 a.m. is ideal.
On Twitter, as on LinkedIn:
- For B2B (business to business): post before 9 a.m., between 12–2 p.m., and between 5–6 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
- For B2C (business to consumer): weekends are more effective.
5. Be active on social media: like, comment, and share
Posting at the right time isn’t enough: to stay visible on social media, you also need to interact with other users. Like, comment on, and share their posts. This activity shows that you’re socially engaged and reinforces your image as an expert in your field.
Additionally, you’ll help increase your connections online visibility, and they may return the favor by liking or commenting on your posts.
6. Set up a Google Alert for your name
You’ve probably already Googled your own name. If not, do it! You’ll discover what’s being said about you online. It may seem narcissistic, but if your profession requires strong online visibility, for example, if you work freelance, hold a key position in a company, or are occasionally quoted in the press or online, it’s essential.
To save time and manage your online image better, consider setting up a Google Alert to track new content mentioning your name and receive it directly by email. You can choose daily, weekly, or monthly alerts.
This gives you the tools to control your online reputation. Alerts are also helpful if you run a blog or have a website, you’ll know when another site mentions or links to one of your pages.