Blog post: How to manage your image online

April 25, 2012 at 5:10 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

By Katie Glass, Fresh Networks

 Our last Young Women in Media event was another great evening, with a stellar line-up of smart, funny women talking about personal PR and how to manage your image online.

With most employers now googling job applicants’ names as standard, nowadays looking after your online image should be a top priority. But what should you be thinking about and how can you stand out?

Emma Robertson, senior digital consultant at Lexis (@emmarobertson01) kicked things off by sharing a few case studies of how creative candidates had managed to use online tools to do things a bit differently. From annotated Youtube CVs, QR codes on the back of paper CVs and even paying for Google adverts to get someone’s attention, there are so many ways of presenting yourself online which are slightly more memorable than a Linkedin profile.

Get creative

Even if you’re a little bit scared of the internet, it is still worth thinking up original and relevant ways of presenting your CV in a good light. Whilst Emma said that the majority of the CV’s she sees are now Youtube CV’s, Beth Murray, account director at Lansons Communications (@bmbm) said that merely using a slightly different font can be a breath of fresh air for someone looking through hundreds of the things (although it’s probably advisable to stay away from Comic Sans!).

If you aren’t already, it’s worth keeping up-to-date with what’s hot online so that you can take advantage of it. For example, we found out that (relatively new platform) Pinterest could be quite a cool way to share your work and achievements in a more visual way. Take a look at Mashable and TechCrunch for the latest news in digital.

Get on Twitter

Our speakers sang the praises of Twitter as a great way to share your personality and to network with other people in your industry. Sarah Drinkwater, Community Manager at Google Places (@SarahDrinkwater) said that Twitter is a great way to get someone’s attention without being pushy.

Think Twitter is all about telling people what you had for breakfast? Whilst many of us are guilty about over-sharing, there is a lot more to it than just tweeting about whether you went for museli or Weetabix. Twitter is a great platform for getting yourself noticed by powerful people in your industry so it is worth engaging with them every so often – reply to their questions, retweet them occasionally and don’t feel guilty about playing to their egos every once in a while! Who knows, once someone has a sense of who you are, they might just agree to that cup of coffee, or spend slightly longer looking at your CV…

Get blogging

Another theme of the evening was the importance of having your own blog. Especially in media, if you don’t have a blog, employers may wonder whether you are really committed to the communications industry. Not only is it a great way to share original thoughts and commentary, it is also another means for getting you noticed. Make sure you are consistent with how you write your name everywhere on the internet – and read up on a bit of SEO – so that you have a greater chance of getting onto the first page of Google.

Thanks to our lovely speakers and everyone who came for a great evening. Keep an eye out on here and on Twitter for our next event about Networking, coming soon…

About these ads