There are so many of us recruiters.
We are a lot like Man Utd fans in the 90's, never more than 6ft away from one. So how do you become successful in such a saturated market? How do you stand out in such a big and let's face it loud crowd? Today we want to talk about you or rather your personal brand.
Previously, we spoke about BD for the modern recruiter, and floated the idea of becoming an influencer, and yes that may have been a bit of a stretch for most of us, but an influencer is really just someone who took the time to invest in their personal brand and nailed it.
Now these guys can earn millions just from talking about themselves or what interests them, why because people now trust what they say. That's the power of personal branding.
So, how do you build up your personal brand?
Firstly, you need to 'find your niche'.
When developing your personal brand, take the personal out of it. Think of yourself as a business, what are you selling, why are you selling it and most importantly why should I care and why are you more important than your competitors?
So as an example, Joe Blogs is a recruiter with over 15 years of experience, helping some of the FMCG industry's highest profile individuals develop their careers. Joe is now on a mission to share his experiences and knowledge with others to help them reach their goals within the industry.
We now know who you are, what you are best at, why I should care, how do you want to help me, and what makes you better than most of your competitors.
Now, don't spam, provide value.
Far too often on LinkedIn, people just InMail the hell out of everybody, as if this is going to make us want to buy. The only time we've ever bought anything from a cold InMail was wait¦..never!
There is a great book by marketing guru Gary Vaynerchuk called Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook. It basically points out to successfully get people to buy from you, you first need to give something for free, before you smack them in the face with an advert.
For recruiters we are basically saying if all you do is spam people with job adverts, you are probably going to struggle, you are definitely not going to stand out, and if you think about it you are just a less evolved version of Total jobs “ at least they post valuable content¦ kind of¦(!)
Always remember to, just be there.
Probably the biggest pointer for building your personal brand and arguably the most important, just be there.
Yeah, that's right, simple as its sounds it's probably the most effective tactic. If you are constantly popping up in the places where your target audience is and you are bringing value to the conversations they are having, then eventually they will get to know who you are and will start to trust you.
Trust and awareness the two pillars of a solid a brand. Don't just sit there in the corner like a weirdo though, actively get involved in the conversations, pose questions, post articles or news that you think your audience would love to hear. Do this every day for 6 months and you will notice a huge difference in the strength of your network and reap the benefits.
So, there you go, 3 things to help you build a personal brand up “ ˜Find your niche', 'Don't spam provide value' and 'just be there'.
Do you want to level-up your recruitment career?
Then check out these amazing opportunities right here at Vertex
