Up until fairly recently, an individual would have landed a junior position at a decent company or government organisation, and most likely would have tried to work their way up their employer’s chain of hierarchy. Are you familiar with the phrase ‘corporate ladder’? Well, that is basically non-existent these days. Millennials (people born post-1980) are more interested in fulfilment and inner happiness as opposed to making money, achieving “social status”, and working for benefits.
This shows in several ways. The most prominent way of gauging this trend is by logging onto a job board like Indeed.com, Link Up or even a more community-based platform like LinkedIn. The amount of jobs available in any trade is at a remarkable level. In modern times, people tend to “job hop”, hardly ever working at a company for longer than two years. This has a lot to do with the technology age, “high-demand”, extremely “low-supply”. It crept up on the world at a swift pace and continues to evolve rapidly. Most markets are saturated and that is why it’s important to establish your personal brand. An up to date online portfolio is pivotal in getting the right job for you.
In this article, we’ll take you through some tips and give insight into the top sites and platforms to showcase your professional talents.
Top platforms
A business-themed platform. This is the best platform for connecting with industry professionals, previous and future employers, and getting hired. The thing about LinkedIn is that it also acts as an online Curriculum Vitae. There are more than 240 million active users worldwide. That’s a lot of opportunities. Another key factor here is that recruiters and hiring managers use LinkedIn as validation of your expertise and experience. We’ll put it to you this way: a recruiter receives your CV, and will immediately compare it to your resume and activity on LinkedIn. We’re talking about professional head-hunters here. Any decent recruiter will literally scour the internet for information about you and according to Jobvite, 93% of recruiters use social media to check out candidates. We can almost guarantee that the first place they look is LinkedIn.
Instagram is all about the visuals. So, it’s perfect for creative professionals to showcase their work. Whether you’re a designer, photographer or artist, this is the premium platform to get your skills and talents noticed. Either for freelance work or something more permanent. A great website to use for image dimensions and personalising your designs is Canva. Best practice is to use relative hashtags to engage with your industry and harness an audience. Researching trending hashtags, relative to your field, will ultimately make your content more discoverable. Check out this article on How to Grow Your Audience With Hashtags for Instagram to find out how best to go about it.
Contently
This platform is for copywriting, content marketing and even advertising professionals. A free, user-friendly portfolio platform. Contently has an algorithm that filter’s through its users’ portfolios, pushing forward relevant candidates, based on keywords that underline your skills and expertise. It’s a fantastic way of showcasing your expertise to potential clients. It only takes about 15 minutes to create a portfolio, which should include your best work and as much of it as possible. From blog writing to short clips of films, you can include anything. It’s also worth linking your social platforms to your portfolio. For instance, if you post a piece on Instagram, give your audience a call to action (CTA) to follow the link in your bio to your Contently portfolio. The same applies to LinkedIn. Your resume should include a link to your portfolio.
Build a solid and unique online presence and you’ll never look back. Share on XTop tips
As this article has been from a more individualistic perspective, let’s focus on how businesses and individuals can best showcase their expertise online.
Newsletters
This is an effective way of promoting your business because you can set it up in such a way where customers can subscribe. Give them something in return for a subscription like expert guides, discounts etc. What can you achieve with a newsletter?
- Spreading the word/building awareness around your brand
- Sharing essential information about what people can expect in the future (upcoming events, release dates of products etc.)
- Building a loyal customer base/strengthening existing relationships between your business and its customers/clients.
- You can boost sales and increase website traffic by including CTAs.
Webinars
A truly fruitful way of advertising your expertise, talents, and skills online. Why opt for a webinar?
- As an expert individual, you can hold a paid webinar, literally charging people to watch you showcase your skills.
- Demonstrate and talk about something of value, in real time.
- Interact with your audience in real time. Viewers can ask questions and you can answer the ones you want right there in front of them.
- Attract new customers and clients (the online promotion of your webinar needs to be first-rate though; otherwise no one will know you’re holding one.)
Outsourcing
You may be thinking to yourself that all of this sounds outstanding, but where would anyone find the time? This is the digital age and all the above can literally determine your level of success, as an individual or as a business owner.
Well, we’ve got the answer! Outsourcing. It’s a brilliant and affordable way of establishing your online presence, without taking time away from your busy schedule. What can a digital marketing agency provide?
The list goes on. You can pay per hour or opt for a monthly rate. For full-service digital marketing packages combing social, PPC, SEO and website optimisation, you can either go for a major digital marketing growth agency like Greenlight, or for a more boutique-style option like Prime Pixels.
Given the direction the world is moving, it’s best to get on top of this as soon as you can. Build a solid and unique online presence and you’ll never look back.
Matthew McGregor is a community manager at Prime Pixels and has always had a passion for business coaching. He is in charge of the marketing team that focuses on the industry.
