Topic 3 Reflection

This topic was all about developing a professional online profile, which includes websites like LinkedIn. LinkedIn has become a very important website for people who want to connect with companies and potentially get work from companies on LinkedIn. However, from reading other blog posts, LinkedIn isn’t the only website to look at if you’re trying to promote yourself online. By reading Chris‘s blog, which focused on musicians and photographers, websites like Instagram and Soundcloud play a large role in promoting one’s photos or music. He goes on to say how it is crucial for artists to constantly share their work in order for them to get noticed, otherwise no one will be able to see their work if they don’t share it as much as possible.

In Georgina‘s blog, she talks about the importance of making a good impression with employers who quickly glance at your online profile. She stresses the point of how it is important for you to have multiple online profiles so that you are much easier to find on google, so having an account on Twitter or Facebook will serve as a benefit to you. Georgina also used a personal example of how her blog’s views skyrocketed after applying for multiple jobs.

Both blogs discuss that making your presence known is the most important thing about maintaining a professional online profile. I completely agree with this because if you don’t make your presence known online, potential employers won’t be able to see what kind of skills you offer. This can potentially prevent any fantastic work opportunities from happening because you didn’t promote your work and profile as much as possible.

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Creating a Digital Professional Profile to become a Freelance Content Creator

Developing an authentic online professional profile

Ways in which you can develop your online profile

Websites like LinkedIn are becoming more and more popular, especially the idea of using an online profile to try and attract potential employers. The important part about this is making sure your profile is spot on and that people from various companies like what they see from you.

Here is my LinkedIn profile to show you my attempt at creating a professional online profile. However, there are many ways you can impress with your linked in profile:

Make Your Profile Look Professional

First of all, you’re going to want to upload a picture of yourself on your profile, particularly a professionally taken picture. Keep it simple, while only keeping a headshot of yourself so people can see what you look like. Your name should be your name and your name only, while maintaining a snappy headline to capture potential readers’ attention. You’re going to want to add links to all your different websites to help you appear more in searches online. Be sure to keep things on your other links hidden so that viewers don’t see things you don’t want strangers to see. For websites like twitter, which are usually open to almost anyone, make sure your profile looks professional and doesn’t contain photos from nights out.

Keep It Updated

Keeping an up-to-date profile is essential in order to make your profile stand out. Things like status updates and keeping your work/educational history is important for companies to get a clearer picture of who you are. By remaining inactive on LinkedIn, it isn’t possible for other people to see what you have been doing with your career in recent times.

Presenting Your Skills

Be sure to present your skills by using various different keywords, such as marketing or public speaking. Beware, however, generalizing, or showing people that you’re the jack-of-all-trades kind of individual, doesn’t sit well with companies as they want to see what specific and specialized skills you offer so that they can see what field you fit into as a potential employee. Adding to that, using words like outstanding and excellent aren’t very believable, so it is suggested that you show them what you did instead of potentially praising yourself too much.

By maintaining a solid LinkedIn profile, you should be able to impress almost anyone who comes across your profile in the future. Nowadays, we are seeing social media and technology have a much larger impact on our lives, so companies and potential employers will follow suit and use social media to recruit people.

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References

Dartmouth, “6 Steps to Creating a Professional Profile”, Dartmouth, (Electronic Resource) <http://www.dartmouth.edu/~csrc/docs/linkedin_howto.pdf

Dodaro, Melonie, “21 Steps To The Perfect LinkedIn Profile”, TopDog Social Media, (Electronic Resource) <http://topdogsocialmedia.com/linkedin-training-creating-the-perfect-profile/

Dummies, “How to Create Effective and Professional Online Profiles”, For Dummies, (Electronic Resource) <http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-create-effective-and-professional-online-pr.html

Gant, Jesse, “7 Ways to Optimize Your Professional Profile”, Mashable, (Electroinc Resource) <http://mashable.com/2012/07/17/optimize-online-professional-profile/#AhPa.O6k0Sqx