Lin Humphrey's suggested approach to personal branding via social media with a focus on Linkedin & Twitter. Created for Texas Tech's Society for the Advancement of Management.

1. Personal Branding
Using Social Media to Manage your Brand
William F. Humphrey, Jr.
Texas Tech University

2. Why personal branding?
70% of recruiters have rejected a job candidate due to
online reputation (Source: Microsoft)
85% of recruiters say they consider online reputation in
hiring decisions
7% of jobseekers think their online reputation affects
their job search
In short: the Internet is the easiest way for hiring
managers to weed out candidates. You MUST actively
manage your personal brand.

3. What is personal branding
Your personal brand is the sum of all available
information about a person online. This includes
search results, social media profiles, media and news
coverage, and any other digital artifact that help an
observer form an opinion of you.
What others think about what they see is how they’ve
branded you.
Why leave this to chance?

4. How do I start?
Get a game plan
Choose your online activities and profiles
Register your profiles with Google & Bing
Set aside time to participate in these channels
Monitor your online brand & adjust privacy settings.

5. Game plan
Determine your goals and focus
Select your area of expertise (like social media or
mobile marketing)
Determine where you can add value and where your
contributions would be unique
Don’t oversubscribe. Choose only the social media
channels you can handle

6. Game plan
FOCUS. Choose 1-2 areas that are your expertise.
This is your positioning.
Social media & mobile marketing
Print & commercial advertising
Create a message platform around these areas. What
you share with others should align with your positioning.
Observers should know your speciality at a glance based
on what you share. If they don’t, you are not focused.

7. Choose your online activities
LinkedIn.com
Twitter
Quora
Facebook Pages (Brand/business pages)
Professional forums

8. The primary site to message
your accomplishments.
Layer with keywords and rich
descriptions to show up in
search.
Be specific and play up to your
chosen positioning
Use the option to get a vanity
url like www.linkedin.com/in/
linhuphrey

9. Upload visual images
for your portfolio
Use the Behance.net
plug-in and show rich
imagery of your work

10. Share relevant
Powerpoint decks that
reinforce your personal
positioning
Establish yourself as a
good communicator
and guest speaker
Use the Slideshare
plug in for this feature

11. Upload relevant files
that help sell your
brand including a PDF
of your resume.
Use the Box.net cloud
storage app
Box.net emails you
every time your resume
is downloaded

12. Request recommendations
from coworkers, supervisors,
and professors you know well
Ask for feedback on a
specific aspect of your work-
this allows you to highlight
how others view working with
you
This also allows you to shine
without seeming vain

13. Think of Twitter as a timeline
of your musings
It should be a mixture of
sharing, interacting, and
driving to other content
Highlight content from other
social sites like LinkedIn,
Quora, etc.

14. Have a mixture of sharing
links, providing feedback on
others’ tweets, and making
connections.
Just tweeting and not
interacting shows poor social
skills.
Retweet and make friends.

15. Invest in creating or
commissioning a customized
background
Direct people to your other
social sites
Choose a profile picture that
promotes your best image

16. You will likely follow more people
than advisable
Add your contacts to lists and toggle
Twitter to see specific types of
tweeps: companies, executives,
colleagues, etc.
Talk to these people with an
@mention-make sure you have
something worthwhile to say.
Do not tweet only to celebs. You
lose credibility doing this more often
than occasionally.

17. Build a list of websites you visit
regularly like WSJ, NYT, Fast
Company, and BW.
Use a URL shortener and share this
content with some context.
If you are retweeting (sharing), give the
originator credit with via @username
Participate in Follow Friday. Say
something nice about tweeps you
admire. They might notice you and
start interacting
Do not overshare Foursquare locations

18. Ask questions, answer
questions, accumulate
knowledge
Share your questions with
Twitter and gain perception of
expertise
Participate in Q&A on Linkedin
as well
Each of these sites should
reinforce one another

19. Build a page with carefully
selected images
Show that you are cultured,
intelligent, and worldly
Search engines will pick
these images up in
association with your name

20. Register each of your profile
addresses with the search
engines
Google: http://
www.google.com/
submityourcontent/index.html
Bing: http://www.bing.com/
webmaster/
SubmitSitePage.aspx

21. Monitor your web presence
DAILY with Google Alerts
Check your Google results
and Google image results
Make sure Facebook is
LOCKED DOWN. Check
privacy settings WEEKLY

22. Don’t get lazy. Miss a day,
miss exposure.
I nearly missed a quote in
USA Today.

23. Other tips
Keep Facebook for friends, LinkedIn for professional
contacts.
You don’t have to accept every friend request you get. Use
BLOCK if you don’t want someone to see you.
Friending your boss or professor is a bad idea. Trust me, I
know.
Be honest. Your company can see what you’re doing if you
use Foursquare or Facebook Places. People lose jobs
based on their location contradicting their sick day request
or based on a negative status.

24. Connect with me
www.linkedin.com/in/linhumphrey
www.twitter.com/linhumphrey