Professionals have entered an era of extreme online connectivity, which means your first impressions often occur before you’ve even had the chance to meet someone in person! If you want to further your career, your first step should be evaluating how you appear in the internet. Here’s how you can create a professional online presence that communicates your skills and achievements in a clear and concise way.
Look For Potential Colleagues
If there are people you admire in your industry, a quick search can show you a lot about how professionals present themselves online. Select a handful, view their profiles, and study not only the information they include but how they display it across platforms. See what you can deduce from the pieces of themselves that they’ve posted for public consumption and see which areas you can emulate through your personal achievements. Professionals like Peter Dodge Bridgehampton make it easy to view achievements and determine the values and skills that made them so successful.
Sweep Your Socials
It never hurts to do a quick search for your name on a regular basis. It’s important to know what type of information is freely available about you. The first page could be clear, but what about that spring break picture buried on the third or fourth page? Many professionals don’t have the time to comb the internet for you, but others might, especially if they’re going through the effort to hire you or network with you. If you want to post more personal pictures, consider making private accounts to share special moments with family and friends. When in doubt, if you don’t want anyone at your job to see something, don’t post it at all.
Curate Your Portfolio
An online portfolio can build off of the skills you list elsewhere, backing up your claims and displaying those achievements in action. This doesn’t have to take a lot of time, but it should look professional and be easy to both access and navigate. Some websites include areas for examples of your work, but you can also choose a platform to build a portfolio to that you can get a link.
Edit Ruthlessly
When describing your career, you want to craft an engaging story, and even the smallest mistakes can pull someone out of that narrative quickly. While some people can overlook one or two small errors, others will see a spelling mistake and think you’re careless or unskilled. To them, it won’t matter how good you are at your job if you can’t highlight your abilities correctly. To avoid these mishaps, consider hiring an editor or at least having a friend or colleague look over your profiles. Being able to communicate effectively is vital in any workplace, and with every word, you’re communicating something specific. Make those words count.
Select Appealing Visuals
While bright colors can catch the eye, they can also distract from important information. They might even scare people away. When curating your online presence, think of your brand and the values you want to convey. Get creative with your color scheme and other visual elements. Photos can help foster genuine connections and add fun elements to your personality. Your determination to finish a difficult hike might be indicative of your determination at work, so a snapshot of you at the summit can create a powerful visual to support your claims and make you appear more personable. If you have a website, make sure the content is not cluttered or difficult to read. If other professionals have to keep clicking to find your resume or portfolio, you don’t have a good website. It’s hard to go wrong with something simple, modern, and sleek.
Crafting a professional online presence doesn’t have to be time-consuming or difficult. All you have to do is decide which elements you want to display and do so in an effective way. By thinking about your past and the goals you have for the future, you can craft the perfect first impression across the internet.
