Personal Branding 2.0: Marketing Yourself | Fresh & Easy ...

Last week, we introduced the topic of personal branding, how it impacts your job search, and how to enhance your online image to manage your own personal brand. Remember, personal branding is a process of applying marketing techniques to your job search in order to associate yourself with certain values. The idea is to provide a consistent message about who you are and the unique qualities, talents, and skills you have in all interactions with potential employers, including your resume, cover letter, online profiles (including social networks), and interviews.

After you?ve cleaned up your online image across all your social networking accounts and profiles, you?re ready to start marketing your personal brand. We asked fresh&easy HR recruiters for their tips on how to use marketing techniques to land your next job. Here are a couple pointers:

Your Target Audience & Where To Reach Them
It?s likely you have an online resume, a Facebook account, a LinkedIn account (by the way we highly recommend that you do because our recruiters at fresh&easy use LinkedIn all the time), and maybe even a blog and Twitter account. On personal social media accounts, you probably communicate to a mix of friends, family, and coworkers. In general, these are the people that know you best (and apparently ?LIKE? you), so you need only to maintain a virtual rapport already established in person.

For your professional networks, like LinkedIn, where employers and professional contacts may be learning about you for the first time, it?s important to make sure you make the best first impression. This audience will want to know about your skills, your experience, and your professional aspirations. Make sure you are communicating that information clearly, consistently (across accounts), and concisely. Next time to you talk to a recruiter, you may even want to ask where he/she found your resume and what was attractive about it. This helps you learn more information about your target audience, their interests, and where they found you, which will help you refine your strategy.

We?ve made it easy to find out what we?re all about at fresh&easy and which jobs we?re hiring for on our Careers site. But did you know you can get in touch with our recruiters directly? Follow us on Twitter at @FandECareers, or individually at @Emma_Weare, @MelanieTom, and @C_Almanza!

Showcase Yourself
Once you know whom you?re trying to reach, think about what your audience is looking for. At fresh&easy, we hire fun-loving, hard-working employees, who thrive in fast-paced environments and who want to make an impact. That said, we also provide a list of skills and requirements on our job posts, which will let you know what is important to us as we evaluate your resume. We suggest you review job postings carefully to pre-qualify yourself for the role, and to ensure that you are highlighting your most relevant experience and skills based on the job description.

Select a few key words or phrases from the job description and ensure those are reflected on your resume. Be careful to be authentic and honest about your skills and experience while showcasing what makes you the best candidate. Moreover, descriptive words like ?experienced? or ?organized? are great traits, but be careful not to pick qualities that everyone else is already using!

Differentiate From The Competition
At fresh&easy, we go through a ton of resumes each day and many times it?s hard to remember one person from the next. It?s your job to make yourself stand out! Our advice is to know a great deal about the company and the job you?re applying for and make sure your online accounts match the required skills of your target job. That said, differentiate yourself?tell us what makes you unique and special. Not only does it help busy recruiters remember you from a pile of resumes, but also it helps recruiters find the best match between your skills and passions and the open positions.

OK, that?s your homework for this week! Stay tuned for next week when we talk further about how to apply these techniques to your personal brand. And in the meantime, don?t forget to read up on what?s happening here at fresh&easy on our blog and join our Talent Community!

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