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If you had told me five years ago that I should build my professional brand, I might have rolled my eyes. I’m a new college grad, not an influencer, I would have thought.
Here’s my story in a nutshell: After graduating from college with an industrial engineering degree, I went to work in technical consulting. That job wasn’t a good fit for me, and I realized I wanted to move into the data field since I enjoyed every project I worked on that involved data analysis. While upskilling through a 6-month data science course, I started writing about what I was learning and posting on LinkedIn.
Fast forward 4 years, and those articles I wrote along with my posts on LinkedIn helped me land two jobs, opportunities to freelance, a guest spot on a podcast, lots of new connections in my professional network, and more.
What started as a writing hobby turned into building my professional brand, and I’m so happy it did! In this article, I will share what I have learned along the way.
My main platforms have been Medium, LinkedIn, and the Maveryx Community. However, my goal here is to share tips for building your brand that apply to any platform.
Design Your Profile
Your profile page is a snapshot of who you are, so it’s best practice to customize it, adding the details necessary for future employers and connections to get to know you.
Add your photo
LinkedIn’s research shows that “just having a picture makes your profile 14 times more likely to be viewed by others.” [1] No matter what platform you are on, having a photo creates trust that you are a real person and could help people remember you if you are on the job hunt.
Write a bio
Perhaps your work experience or contributions to a platform don’t tell the whole story of who you are. What inspires you, motivates you, interests you? This is where a bio section can be helpful. Others can get to know you without browsing through every piece of code you’ve ever written or the last 10 articles you’ve published.
If you need a bio to land work, like an “about me” section on your website to win new clients, check out this article from Indeed. It has some great examples and criteria of what to include.
Link to your portfolio
This is a simple and intuitive tip: when building your professional brand, make sure you are cross-linking your portfolio. Whether you contribute to the Maveryx Community, Tableau Public, Github, etc., it’s crucial to highlight examples of your work.
If you don’t have a portfolio yet, keep reading to learn more about content creation and some ideas on how to get started.
Add certifications/courses
Certifications and courses are a good way to build credibility. If you want to establish yourself as a qualified professional and build up to being a thought leader, your followers/subscribers might want to know that you are indeed knowledgeable in your field.
On the Maveryx Community, your certifications are automatically added to your profile page when you pass! On platforms like LinkedIn, it is easy to add certifications or courses and even link to the certificates from digital credentialing sites like Credly.
If you’re wondering which certifications are valuable in your field, try browsing open job descriptions and looking at the requirements section!
Build Connections
Time for my favorite section! I have found building online connections to be extremely rewarding and fun.
Follow and connect with others
Follow and connect with people in your field or your desired field. If you want to talk with them more, reach out with a message or email. (If this seems scary, keep in mind that the worst they could say is no.)
This is especially important if you are building your brand in a field that is new to you. It’s your chance to learn from others!
According to Forbes, “Your personal brand is a two-way street. By networking, you can develop better brand awareness across audiences. Luckily, networking is just as beneficial to the other person. After all, they’re on the same platform, sharing their brands, because they want to network, too.” [2]
Comment and interact
Commenting on other people’s content is a great way to start growing your network. When you feel like you have something of value to add, whether from your work experience or your unique perspective, don’t hesitate to jump in!
It’s always nice to add something of value to the conversation if you comment, even if you are letting the author know you enjoyed their article. Perhaps you can add why you enjoyed it or what you would like to hear their take on next.
Create Content
This could be the most daunting part of building a brand for you.
“Content” is a catch-all term here and could look very different depending on the knowledge you are sharing and how you prefer to communicate. Creating a YouTube tutorial, writing an article, sharing a social post, designing an infographic, posting your workflow or code, speaking on a podcast, creating templates—these are all examples of content!
Share what you know
Start by creating content about what you know: interesting use cases/projects you worked on, topics you have studied or put into practice, or things you wish you would have known when you were starting out. All of these should be easier to talk about than something you do not have experience with.
Another tip that has served me well is to write about things you are passionate about and excited about. In 2020, I wrote 2 articles explaining data science concepts “to a five-year-old.” I had fun with this theme and enjoyed the challenge of writing this. The time flew by when I was drafting these articles because I was excited about the topic.
This article from Hubspot also has some good questions to ask yourself to help you discover your niche.
Help others solve problems
Another good place to start with creating content is to help others solve problems with your knowledge. It’s rewarding, too! If you spent a lot of time at work solving a tough challenge, chances are there’s someone out there up against the same issues. And if you can share what you’ve learned and how you solved the problem, you might be able to save other people valuable time. People could respond with how they solved the problem differently, opening up more learning opportunities.
Design your content intentionally
If you are creating technical content, it’s especially important to design it intentionally. Including graphics or visualizations in your posts when possible will help you get your point across. You also need to be intentional about your audience—figure out who you are targeting and adjust the level of detail accordingly.
Another note on intentionality—while generative AI could help you start your content, generate ideas, etc., you should add your voice and perspective to ensure your content is valuable and unique.
Conclusion
My hope is that this article sheds light on how beneficial building your professional brand can be and how it is less intimidating than it might seem.
Here’s something to think about: even if you aren’t posting on social platforms or building up a public portfolio, you can still intentionally build your brand in your workplace (or at your school). This article from the Harvard Business Review is a great overview of what that can look like.
To get started building your brand on the Maveryx Community, try completing the challenge below! Let us know when you’ve finished by commenting on this blog article.
Here are some resources for the above challenge:
- Elevate Yourself to Superstar Status with Ranks & Badges
- Posting for the Fastest Possible Solution
- Submitting to Gallery Best Practices
- Blog Submission Guidelines & Process
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