A beautiful, authentic and carefully thought-out online presence and personal brand increases your chance of catching the attention of a recruiter and potential employer. In these technology-first times, recruiters and hiring managers are regularly looking beyond your resume to try and get a better understanding of who exactly you are.

For both job seekers and employers alike, LinkedIn — with over half a billion users and growing at a rate of two new users per second — is certainly the social network that springs to mind. However, a thorough and curated personal brand stretching across a variety of digital platforms prepares you for the best success to have potential employers pay attention to you.

With the proliferation of social media, the emphasis on building a personal brand and the competition in the job market, there’s no better time than now for you to improve your online presence and personal brand. Here are my five quick tips to better manage your digital personas to help land the job you’ve been dreaming of.

GOOGLE YOURSELF

I know, I know. You may be hearing “You’re so vain” playing in your head (and if you weren’t, you are now), but you should regularly check what’s populating in search engines when someone types your name. Potential employers are looking for your online presence more than ever during the recruitment process — some may even consider it a red flag if they can’t find anything online about you.

While conducting your search, also look at what’s already out there about you and see what you can leverage and what you might need to clean-up or revise. Worst case scenario — consider doing a full social media cleanup if those photos of you doing keg stands in college are still showing up (you know who you are).

HAVE A COMPLETE PROFILE

At the heart of any great social media profile is a picture which helps to humanize you. People feel a deeper personal connection when they can view a photo of the person they’re engaging with. On LinkedIn, profiles with a photo get up to 11 times more views than profiles without a photo. Many heat map studies have also been conducted on a variety of social networks — the area where the profile picture is published consistently sees the highest levels of activity and visual engagement.

You don’t have to invest in a professional photographer, but do make sure that the photograph looks professional and speaks to who you are. Don't be afraid to show a little personality, but don’t use photos where you’ve cropped out other people. With smartphones and a good friend, we all have the ability to have a simple but effective headshot taken.

CREATE A PERSONAL WEBSITE

A personal website is not only a great place to manage your online presence as you build and nurture your personal brand, but it’s also a perfect venue to show off your work. Use your personal website as a centralized hub for all things you — be sure to share your contact information and social media links.

There are many platforms available today that can allow those less tech-savvy individuals to create a beautiful and professional personal website.

Additionally, having your own personal website shows potential employers that you take pride in your work and have something unique to offer — think of it as an online resume with the added benefit of a portfolio.

STOP WRITING IN THIRD-PERSON

Biographies written in third person have their place — on corporate website leadership pages or in your author bio. Your online profile should be personal and about you, so you should write it in first person. Remember, you’re trying to sell yourself to recruiters and hiring managers to land that dream job.

Writing in first person is much more intimate than writing in third person. Treat your profiles as if you were meeting someone for the first time and they asked you to quickly tell them about yourself. Think of your profile as a dialogue between you and the reader. Unless you're describing someone else, it should be from you.

Your profile and short biography should tell others what they can expect from you — directness and authenticity is key.

POST MEANINGFUL CONTENT AND POST REGULARLY

You have social media accounts, but you never post any content? Not good. You should always be thinking about how to provide valuable content to your audience consistently. Through thoughtful content publication, you’ll gain credibility in your industry. Valuable content is also a type of currency that you can cash in on when the time is right. 

Social media expert Gary Vaynerchuk has built a hugely successful empire by providing valuable content to clients before ever making “the ask.” In his best selling book Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook, he says,

“Creating content that allows us to share our experiences, thoughts, and ideas in real time is becoming an intrinsic part of life in the twenty-first century.”

Failing to create and maintain an online presence and personal brand can create some serious missed opportunities for you to really shine with a potential employer. A swipe right-worthy profile is not hard to create, but it does take some dedication. By following these five easy tips, you’ll be well on your way.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Chris Skaggs is the co-founder of BODDHI Branding, a creative agency with a vision to authentically and creatively construct stories to help your brand grow. Digital and social media, branding, recruitment and content strategy are all functions Chris has developed building teams, processes and strategies from the ground-up. Dedicated to giving back Chris also co-founded Leighton’s Gift, a non-profit with a mission of turning a tragedy into something positive. He also serves on the boards of a variety of different organizations. A natural storyteller, Chris’ work and experiences have been featured on CNN, Marketing Sherpa, Thrive Global, CBS Radio, Recruiter.com and Glassdoor. Get connected online, @chrislskaggs.