Nicole in D.C.

The best lesson I’ve learned in life is to insert your personality into everything you do. I got laid off from my former job at the beginning of April and immediately began applying for jobs and internships. After sending out dozens of resumes and cover letters without any responses, I applied to be a strategy intern at Big Duck.

Shortly after starting at Big Duck, I quickly realized I needed to do my own branding if I wanted to get a job. I previously maintained only a sparse, unsearchable Facebook profile and a blog (this one) I updated irregularly. By injecting a little of my own personality into my public postings, I realized I could encourage prospective employers to get to know me before I even walked in the door.

I made sure to invest only in platforms that I would update regularly, would have a wide audience, and could use to cross-promote each other.  Then, I toyed with a few themes for my online presence with the top two being “humor” and “job resource” and I combined the two. I decided to maintain just a blog and a Twitter account and remove any non-job related statuses on my Facebook.

Other key aspects to building my online personality and brand were keeping consistent usernames across all platforms and using my full, real name in profiles. If an employer were to do a google search of my name, they’d immediately find my LinkedIn profile, blog posts, and Twitter. Without keeping consistency across all sites, it could be difficult for them to tie the LinkedIn to the blog to the Twitter.

Next, I focused on content. So many people use social media to post their gripes and annoyances, but that just tarnishes your personality on and offline. Additionally, posting for the sake of posting doesn’t help your cause either. For example, whether you’re building a personal campaign or one for your organization, would you want a follower to know that you are fighting with your parents or you called someone a bad name because they upset you in line at the Gap?

No. You wouldn’t.

I made sure to post mostly about the trials and tribulations of the job hunt, retweeting tips from and communicating with career experts, and funny things that pop into my head. I may veer off this path every now and then, but I always make sure to never post something I wouldn’t say to a potential employer in a first or second meeting.

My short-term career goal is to build online campaigns for nonprofits. By building my own personality and brand across multiple platforms, I effectively built a campaign that I can promote and use as an example to potential employers.

Last Friday, I had an interview at a nonprofit looking for an online communications assistant. While I’m not sure yet if I’ve gotten the job, I know my online personality made a positive impact on my interviewer. She had my blog and articles I wrote in college up on her computer screen when I walked into her office. Staff members had shared my Twitter and they recognized my name when I began following them. Knowing she liked my online personality gave me the confidence to help sell my efforts as a legitimate campaign that gave me experience to help her organization.

Whether you’re looking for a job or just partaking in social media for the fun of it, make sure to inject your personality into everything you do. The results are only limited by what you do – and how strategic you are – with these emerging platforms.