6 ways to boost your personal brand

Your personal brand is more than just a buzz phrase. It’s how you present your unique set of skills, knowledge and talent in a way that’s sure to catch the eye of a hiring manager or recruiter. Here are six ways you can take personal branding to the next level and land that dream job by setting yourself apart from other candidates.

Guest-blogging is a great way to showcase your knowledge, your talent and skills and to increase your visibility in your area of expertise. Guest-blogging can also boost your “street cred,” especially if you can land a spot with well-known, respected blogs in your field. Unbounce has compiled a list of tips to make sure you’re guest-blogging effectively and generating as much interest in yourself as possible.

The question’s no longer, “Should I post/publish on LinkedIn?” but “How often and what type of content?” — especially if you don’t already have your own blog or personal website. With a built-in audience, a guaranteed level of reader engagement and the possibility that LinkedIn itself will discover and promote your content, there’s no reason not to leverage this powerful opportunity.

Most hiring managers and recruiters know that the best hires come from referrals. Make sure your networking skills are polished and you’re leveraging your social networking connections, too. You never know just how valuable they can be.

Showcasing your expertise is simple using SlideShare technology. Whether you’re using it to publish content you’ve developed for a current or former job, or to develop a new presentation laying out exactly why you’d be a great candidate for a potential career, SlideShare is a great advantage when searching for a job.

A personal website can be a great way to highlight your writing, creative and design skills, and can take the place of the traditional portfolio, especially if you’re searching for opportunities in a creative field. Sites like Strikingly.com offer easy-to-use templates, and connect to social media sites like LinkedIn with the click of a button.

Are you female? African-American? Do you belong to a group that’s typically underrepresented in your field? Take advantage of what makes you unique by searching out communities aimed at improving diversity in the workforce. For example, PowerToFly.com matches women with remote- and flexible-work opportunities all over the world, and Jopwell.com is aimed at increasing the number of minority workers in IT.