ASU Online Brand Ambassador: Tips to build your brand and land a job

Personal branding through social media is the New Age way of marketing yourself. Social media is a worldwide platform that allows us to broadcast our personal messages to accomplish our goals. For me, social media has allowed me to build my brand. You might not think of yourself as a brand, but the truth is that you are.

When you engage on social media, you make an effort to manage the way you present yourself to others; that’s branding. Social media is not just valuable for your personal life, it is also an excellent tool for building your professional network. Social media has allowed me to stay connected to individuals and companies relevant to the field I am studying, and it has allowed me to gain followers and quickly get noticed.

Here are some steps and tips to consider when developing your personal brand:

• Create a social media page that is about you or relevant to what you do best. Having a personal account pertinent to you will draw like-minded individuals.
• Focus on what you want to share and the type of followers you would like to attract. This should connect with your brand.
• Consider keywords that are associated with you/your brand that you can use on your profile page.
• Be sure to include prominent hashtags related to your posts. Hashtags improve your chances of visibility when used with natural keywords.
• Describe what sets you apart from someone else. A great way to do this is researching other social media pages.
• Be sure to keep it professional. You’re representing your brand. What you post is an explicit representation of yourself. 
• Be sure to keep it positive; you never know who may stumble on your page.

Many employers use social media as an outlet to recruit their talent. The more you use social media, the more you will benefit from it as well. Once you get the hang of it, you can be a social media master with followers all over the world.

We're so excited to share Alicia’s story! Alicia is a part of our #LearnASULive team, an ASU Online brand ambassador program highlighting students who are earning their degrees while living their lives to the fullest. If you enjoyed this, be sure to check back for new articles from Alicia so that you can follow along with her journey. To check out all her posts to date, visit Alicia’s Instagram, Twitter and website!

Want to hear from our other ambassadors, too? Use the #LearnASULive hashtag across your favorite social channels to browse through them!