The most important tool that the digital era has given us is the ability to create and mould our own digital brand and personal image.  The very first step of truly defining and creating the right career path for you is realising that YOU ARE A BRAND and this matters hugely in today’s digital world.

Building a strong personal brand / identity on various digital platforms will help you gain a competitive advantage during a job search and in interviews by defining the right personal image. Even if you are not looking for a job strong personal identity online will also help you to secure industry recognition, enhance your credibility and become an influencer in your niche.

Next critical step is to focus on building your digital identity.

Most jobs in this digital era can come from referrals’ and even amazing social media sites like LinkedIn.  Now many people are guilty of simply opening their LinkedIn account, pressing save and calling it a day when there is so much more that meets the eye.

Building an identity is all about consistency and credibility. Once you are online, you need to be conscious of what you post, when you post and who you post to.

1. Develop You Key Message

The first step to building your Digital Identity is developing your Key Messaging and this is well routed in asking yourself “What is important to me?” What key takeaways do you want your audience to get after reading your post or watching your video? Figuring out your key messaging is important for setting targets and goals in your career.

2. Pick Your Target Audience

Many people simply post and target everyone and this is much like standing on top of the Kilimanjaro with a small megaphone screaming into the wind and hoping someone will hear you.In order to be successful as a Digital Marketer you need to be able to accurately pick your target demographic and be as specific as possible. Now that you know what your brand is all about, who are you ”selling” that message to?

3. Define your brand persona

Understanding your audience, it’s important to define your brand persona. Your personal digital identity should be as close to the real You as possible so learn to pick and choose the right tone and the right voice that your audience and potential employer will resonate with. Your persona should highlight what differentiates you from the rest of your peers. So define what’s your unique selling point? What makes you good at what you do? Determine your niche and then figure out what value you bring to your target audience.

4. Pick and choose your digital channels.

We’ve already discussed LinkedIn as being the biggest professional site out there but there are hundreds of social media sites to choose from the popular sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube and other sites like Pinterest and blogger. You need to accurately define which social media sites work well for your brand, whether or not your audience is present on those sites and what sort of content they relate and engage with the most. Do you have to create a lot of written content? Pictures? Videos? And most importantly what digital channels are best aligned with what you have a passion for.

Now that you know all about building You as a brand that will help your career in digital, you need to be sure you have set and clearly defined all your career goals. What you want to achieve? What type of company or organisation you would like to work? Does the company’s culture and their brand and image aligns with yours?

That said the last and final part before creating your CV and how to ace that digital position interview is to create Your Career Mission Statement. This statement can be a 1-line, a paragraph or a few lines – whatever you feel compelled to write that helps you to determine what you want from your digital career.

You can use the following template to help get you started:

• I want to make an impact in the industry by (insert your business or blog idea or particular skill you want to use).
• I’ll get there by (insert the great thing you’re going to do to help you get there – e.g. creating a business, starting a blog or mastering Google Analytics).
• I want to be (insert the kind of digital professional you want to be).
• Ultimately I’d love to achieve (insert your ultimate career mission – e.g. make money from my blog, become the Digital Marketing Director of a well-known company, etc.)

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