Category Archives: Business communications

Personal Branding: 5 basic steps to brand yourself

Blog, Business communications, Business Culture, Social media, , , , ,
Personal Branding Maria Camila VillaLessons learned from Search and Social Media Marketing for international business MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) as part of Business, Accounting and Management Courses at Salford Business School.

Personal branding: this is your image-your personality, skills, values, strengths and goals. Personal branding permits you to show the best of you and allows you to create the best impression on your social circle. Depending on how positive that impression is, it can be translated into a successful professional career or business. In the digital age, you can communicate your brand to the world, establish a conversation with your audience and build a network through Social Media channels but also you can have a higher rank in search engines so your future employer or business partners can find you based on your skills.

This short recipe will contribute to your career development and land your dream job:

1. Google yourself

You want people to be able find positive links about you in the top results. However, in many cases you could have very high competition as your name or your brand might be very common, same name as someone else with a bad reputation or you could have negative links about you and your work that might impact negatively on your online reputation. You need to know what will people find when they Google your name. In this step I recommend taking a screen capture to compare the before and after of your Online Personal Brand. Make sure you are not logged in to your Google+ account.

2. Knowing Your Personal Brand

Define who you are:

You need to know yourself and your purpose or mission in life, skills, talents, personality, and weaknesses. A SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis is an excellent tool!

Find your target audience:

Your target audience is the people you want to work with or establish a professional network. Your professional connection. Social and professional circle.

Know your influencers:

Key influencers and individuals who would make employment decisions or help in your application process, or will be the bridge between other important people. Later on, you will reach them on their social networks.

Know your competition:

Make a SWOT analysis of people who do the same type of work you do or have the same skills you have. It will give you a wider view to understand your uniqueness. You can research them in their professional networks. My top ten competitors were searched in LinkedIn, which is the social media site that I am going to use for job hunting as many job ads are posted frequently in this network. Using the keyword Integrated Marketing Communications, all the results are filtered selecting those who are based in the UK in the same order they appear in the lists. You can check what kinds of skills they have and their use of social media for personal branding.

Find the skills required in the sector you want to work in or your dreamed job:

You can include them in your description on your social media networks after selecting the best keywords.

Find the best keywords

Google offers a great Keyword Tool that provides you with keyword ideas. When you type a word(s) Google Adwords will give you new suggestions related to the original search. You need to select a highly searched keyword but with lower competition. As a Primary keyword I select my name: Maria Camila Villa Jurado, which is my personal brand. My secondary keywords are Integrated marketing Communication as this is the area where I would like to work, and Public relations and IT skills as they are skills with  higher local searches and lower competition.

3. Sharing Your Brand with the World

Once you have a clear idea of your personal brand, it’s time to share it.

Classic branding tools are CVs and covering letters, but in today’s world you need to communicate your brand online. Now is time to consider setting up a website, becoming a blogger, creating your online CV on LinkedIn, using Facebook, Google+,Twitter, and Youtube to communicate consistently your brand.

You can use BrandYourself.com to share your brand and control what people find when they Google you.

4. Create an engagement plan, leverage the work and monitor your activities

We all know that managing your online personal brand through social networks could be time consuming. Here are some tools that could help you to leverage your work and make things a little bit easier:

Hootsuite helps you to manage all your social media accounts from one web-based dashboard. You can schedule your post and invite multiple collaborators. Most features of this tool are free but if you want to upgrade the service, additional fees apply.

TweetDeck is another great app that helps you to schedule your tweets, monitor and manage accounts and stay up to date with alerts to new tweets.

Klout helps you measure your social media influence. It gets the data from the user social networks linked to Klout. It analyzes the size of the user’s network, the type of content and the people interaction with that content. There are other tools that have similar function such as Twentyfeet, Crowdbooster and Tweetstats.

You can select the social media channels that suit your needs. For career development, I prefer Twitter and LinkedIn, so I focus on those accounts.

5. Be careful

 Think twice! Have you ever heard the old phrase “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas”? Thanks to social media, it is no longer true. What happens on the web stays on the web.

Love to see your comments and please let me know how you have benefited for Search and Social Media Marketing for international business MOOC!

By

Maria Camila Villa Jurado

Contact me on LinkedIn

Follow me on Twitter @Camivillaj

What is SME ?

Business communications, Business Culture

When I first heard the acronym “SME” I didn’t have a clue what it stood for. However while researching what is SME , not only did I find out the answer to define SME but also some information about the importance and relationships of SMEs with banks and the global economy.

An SME stands for “Small to Medium Enterprise”, and there are various parameters to measure an SME for example to European Commission brakes down SMEs even further into small-medium, small and micro. For example to be classed as a Micro SME you would need less than 10 employees, a turnover of less than £2million or a balance sheet total of less than £2million.

The world bank has carried out research into SMEs to see if they can gage the importance of them to a nation’s economy. Their research found that in countries such as Belarus or Azerbaijan SMEs accounted for 5% of the GDP whereas countries such as Greece, Chile and Thailand this figure was over the 80% mark.

To find out more about SMEs and their relationship with the economy go to : http://www.radar-global.com/blog/what-are-smes-and-msmes

How social media became word of mouse marketing

Business communications, Social media, ,

Word of mouth marketing is now becoming a “word of mouse” marking forum. People still communicate and recommend products, services and portray their experiences however it is becoming increasingly more likely that you will read about the good time “Andrew” had at his local pub or the terrible time “Ally” had with the kitchen she bought from her local kitchen fitters.

 

Social media is the platform that people broadcast this information and it can be a useful tool not only for next to nothing advertising and reaching a broad audience but also a way in which a business can measure the response to adverts and other forms of information.

 

Word of mouth is now  word of mouse less and less speaking, more and more typing. See how you can effectively utilise the power of social media and get people talking about your product in a positive way:

http://www.business2community.com/social-media/how-social-media-became-the-word-of-mouse-marketing-0232899

The top social media trends to watch out for in 2012

Business communications, Social media

As we start a new year in 2013, it is interesting to reflect back on the biggest social media trends that occurred in 2012. This year observed an even bigger social media craze than the last; having an affect not only on every day decisions but important business decisions too.

First of all is the increasing usage of social media within customer service. In 2012, more and more businesses have utilised this tool as a way to communicate with their customers and those who haven’t kept abreast of this trend, may have profits which reflect this.

There has also been a boom in the use of social media on mobile and tablet devices. With a range of devices available that offer users many of the same abilities as their desktop computer, social media applications are plentiful, and including increased use of check in platforms and GPS, such as Facebook Places.

To read more about the social media trends in 2012 take a look at the below link:

http://www.businessrevieweurope.eu/marketing/social-media/the-top-social-media-trends-to-watch-out-for-in-2012

University internship abroad

Business communications, Business Culture, Student placements, , ,

How will an overseas University internship boost your career prospects?

In an increasingly competitive market, many students are looking for work experience in addition to their academic studies. An internship gives students the opportunity to put the theory they have learnt into practice and gain the experience of how real-life organisations are run and the challenges they may face.

Whilst it will be a lot different to the lifestyle that many students will be used to, the hard work and long hours are likely not only to give you an experience of professional employment, but also improve your C.V. therefore making you more attractive to prospective employers.

An internship in your home country is great, but an internship in a different country is a totally different thing. Out of your comfort zone and away from family and friends, the idea at first can be daunting; though many who embark upon this experience learn new and interesting things, gain a unique perspective and broaden their horizons.

Not only will you get the chance to meet new and different people whilst experiencing a different culture to your own, you will get the opportunity to pick up a different language – another way of making yourself a more attractive recruit. Internships are a great way to make yourself stand out but an internship abroad shows employers you can work under pressure in a totally different environment, whilst promising you a real memorable experience!

For more information go to http://www.i-to-i.com/overseas-internship-career.html