What does your personal brand say to hiring managers?
Getting the ideal Salesforce job isn’t just about having the right Trailhead certifications or experience in the right software. Today’s business leaders are looking for individuals who can grow and thrive with their organisations. Assessments of personal branding are just as important as evaluations of technical skills.
Even in a skills short market, most hiring managers know how detrimental, time-consuming, and expensive it can be to hire a professional without the right values and characteristics. In today’s hyper-connected world, it’s also much easier for these professionals to seek out additional information about applicants through social media.
If you’re not actively investing in developing an effective personal brand, you could be ruining your chances of incredible job opportunities without realising it.
Fortunately, we have some tips to help.
Step 1: Audit your Existing brand
We’re living in a digital-first world where everyone is connected. Every Salesforce candidate has a personal brand; the only question is how you’re using yours.
Whenever you post something on LinkedIn, share an article on Facebook, or respond to a comment on a Salesforce forum, you’re contributing to your personal brand. Your employer can use your activity online to get an insight into who you are, your values, and your attitude. In fact, around 70% of employers now use social media to screen candidates.
Searching for your name on Google, assessing your social media profiles, and carefully evaluating how you present yourself on the web are all steps that allow you to audit your personal brand and ensure you’re making the right impression.
Ask yourself what people see when they look for you online:
- Are you listing all of your achievements on LinkedIn and sharing content that highlights your thought leadership?
- Are your personal profiles on other social media channels private? How do you present yourself when sharing content?
- What kind of words would people use to describe you based on the information available right now?
Step 2: Shape Your Brand Identity
Once you’ve examined your existing brand, you can decide how you want to change your appearance and use it to attract more opportunities.
Your “professional pitch” is the culmination of all the information you cultivate and share online to highlight specific characteristics about you. For instance, you might create a website where you can share content about previous projects you’ve worked on in the Salesforce landscape.
You could also ask your previous clients whether you can share stories about your experiences on channels like LinkedIn. In these stories, you’d highlight skills and qualities you want to be known for.
Shaping a new personal brand is about deciding how you want your potential employer to see you and creating as much evidence online as possible to present yourself in a specific way. You can strengthen your image by:
- Refining your social media profiles: Use endorsements on LinkedIn and insights into your experiences to highlight the skills most important to the job you want.
- Joining online groups: Join social media Salesforce groups and forums where you can position yourself as a thought leader and network with other professionals.
- Sharing content: Share content through your own website or social media channels to demonstrate your understanding of your branch of the Salesforce ecosystem.
Step 3: Work on your Network
Sometimes who you know really is just as important as what you know. The Salesforce ecosystem is highly community-driven, which means networking will be an important aspect of building your personal brand. For instance, if you want to become a Salesforce consultant, aligning yourself with other well-known consultants in your industry will help position you in front of the right people.
The good news for Salesforce professionals is the “Ohana-focused” nature of Salesforce makes it easy to strengthen your connections with other professionals in your space. Check out the local events in your area to see whether there are any Trailblazer community meetups you can get involved with. You can discover new skills at these events, connect with business leaders, and even interact with recruitment teams looking for Salesforce talent.
It’s also worth building your digital network. Reach out to people not just from the Salesforce ecosystem on LinkedIn but from the industry you’re interested in working in. This will help you start meaningful conversations with people who might help you find a new job.
Don’t forget, few connections in your network will be more valuable than a Salesforce recruitment team who can work with you to get your personal brand, CV, and cover letter in front of the right hiring managers. Make sure you’re working with the right recruitment agency.
Step 4: Commit to Updating and Optimising your Brand
Great personal branding is just like a great Salesforce career; it takes time, commitment, and dedication to succeed. It’s not enough to simply update your social media profiles every once in a while. Instead, you should constantly be updating your online identity with evidence of the work you’ve been doing in the Salesforce space.
Keep people informed about your latest Trailhead certifications, and post about the Salesforce events you’ve been attending on LinkedIn. Work on staying active online, commenting on the posts of other leaders in your industry, and reaching out to possible contacts over private messages.
Your professional recruitment agency should also be able to give you some insights into the kinds of things you can do to make yourself stand out in the eyes of specific business leaders. The more work you put into your personal brand, the more effective it will become.
About Resource on Demand
Resource On Demand is Europe’s first specialist Salesforce Recruitment Company.
We assist innovative and disruptive organisations in growing their technology teams. Supporting companies to fill Cloud roles across the growing Salesforce.com suite of skills.
The team at Resource On Demand have access to an extensive database of key talent, registering over 8000 Cloud professionals each year.
To find out how we can support you call us on 01322 272 532