Hey big bird, you’re close to your first flight.  Can you feel the wind in your hair, the sunshine on your face, and the fresh air in your nostrils? Not quite? Well, you’re almost there. Flap away!

We learned about how to manage ourselves over the telephone and email in the last lesson, this lesson will focus on how to improve how people see and perceive you over online platforms.

We are now looking at how you brand yourself over social media.  Many people seem to forget that most employers are now surfing your social media platforms to find out what type of person you are and whether you will be a worthwhile hire. Be afraid, be very afraid if you haven’t closed your profile. In fact, we go so far as to say that when you are meeting with someone, try to visit their social media platforms and learn as much about them as possible so that you have contextual topics to talk about. The one profile that should be open is your LinkedIn profile, this way you can populate it with all the information you want people to see about you.  Remember that LinkedIn is essentially an opportunity to sell yourself and many people are actually recruited off LinkedIn.

Once you have finished this chapter you’re going to be fired up and ready to improve your LinkedIn profile and pumped for the next job offer that may come your way!

Why this chapter is going to help you:

• You will be more likely to get a salary increase due to a better job offer through your LinkedIn profile. You can also leverage off that job offer with your present company by saying, ‘I’ve been offered this job with this salary amount and these benefits, can you match this or improve this?’
• Prevent yourself from being fired due to your social media posts
• Increase your chances of being hired due to the specific information you have intentionally put on show.

Let’s take a quick glimpse at what you are going to learn in this chapter:

• Types of information to censor on your social media platforms
• How to populate your LinkedIn profile and what type of information to include
• How to pose for professional photographs
• Which content to share on what platform
• Content to avoid posting

Right, let’s start practicing how to spread those wings.