Many job seekers read about “marketing your online brand,” yet they don’t understand what their brand is. This blog will be a bit of an overview of branding through some of the platforms as mentioned above for political job branding.
LinkedIn is a highly undervalued networking opportunity. It is not just for when you are looking for work. It is also a way to maintain professional relationships with former coworkers and supervisors. You can find some fantastic business leads if you navigate through LinkedIn correctly. In this case, you want your profile should be all about business. Save your rant about the 1980’s breakup of Van Halen for Facebook. That being said, to make your networking more personal, you should have a photo of yourself. This is where people make a mistake. They post pictures of them on vacation, at home, at the airport, at family events. I’m sorry, but the photo of someone in a sports bra in the airport doesn’t give me a very professional first impression. Your profile photo should be all about professionalism. That doesn’t mean it has to be bland, but should be more conservative.
While Facebook is geared more to your private life, employers still can look you up. Your profile photo will even appear in a search. That means you don’t want your keg stand photo as your profile photo. This is another opportunity to have a simple headshot, so everyone knows it’s you. I’ve run into profiles which have just that – partying photos as their profile photos.
Twitter is where you need to make the best first impression. You have 140 characters and a little photo to explain who you are and what you’re about. When people have bad images, they come across more as an authority than as a hobbyist lurking on Twitter.
Okay, Now What About My Headshot?
Believe it or not, headshots are the bread and butter for the majority of professional photographers. They usually take anywhere from 20 minutes to one hour to shoot, and your photos are ready quickly. Usually, portrait studios have headshot options and will work with you if you tell them what you’re looking for. Be wary though. Just because they have a studio doesn’t mean that they are the photographer for you. I knew one studio which failed because they used the same lighting setup for everyone. The problem is that lighting has to be adjusted for each client since each client has their unique features to be lit.
There are also freelancers and location photographers who have home studios or will come to you and shoot on location. This can give you the benefit of being photographed in an office or another professional setting instead of a dull or digital backdrop.
Be prepared to pay for the following: Session, Prints/Digital Finals, and Usage. US Copyright Law gives sole ownership of the photos to the photographer. What you pay for is the ability to use the images in how you see fit or agreed to some terms set in the license. That means if the photographer says you can’t make copies, then you can’t legally make copies. Play it safe (and legal) and be prepared to pay for the usage.
While it may cost you to get that portrait done, it can benefit you in numerous ways and improve your online/social branding.
About the author:
An author of this post is Brenda Coleman – an experienced editor and part of Writing Department staff of Primetimeessay.com assignment writing service. She is a professional academic writer and the regular blogger of KQED, TeachThough, HuffPost Education, Nat Geo Education Blog etc. Feel free to ask any questions to get more info about the theme she describing in this post!