Avoid Marketing Gaffes in Your Online Portfolio

Have you thought about how to market yourself online?

Marketing isn't just for big brands these days. If you market yourself effectively while job hunting, you can boost your chances of landing that perfect new position.

It is common knowledge that prospective employers will look you up online; add to that the fact that many employers also search for potential candidates online and it's clear that your online presence matters when it comes to job seeking.

So just what can you do to market yourself effectively? Follow these six tips to get started.

1. Know Yourself and Your Brand

To market yourself effectively, it's worth brushing up on some marketing knowledge and techniques so you can build up a clear picture of your brand. Seeing yourself as a brand doesn't mean you have to lose the personal touch. It means taking a good look at your achievements so far, your skills and your goals and pulling that together into a cohesive sense of who you are and what you can offer to a potential employer.

2. Know Your Customers

As any marketer knows, one of the cornerstones of good marketing is knowing and understanding your customers and their needs. The same is true when you market yourself as a job hunter. Whether your customer is one specific employer, or employers in a specific industry, work out what they are looking for in their employees. Do they require certain skills, or the ability to fit in with a certain culture? Get a feel for what they want and you can pitch yourself to resonate with that.

3. Show Don't Tell

As the article "The Power and Impact of an Online Portfolio" points out, jobseekers now live in a "show me, don't tell me" world. It's not enough to list your experience; employers want to see specifics of what you've achieved. When talking about your past career, give quantifiable evidence of the value you've added to past employers or projects, such as the ways in which you've saved money, helped boost sales, or streamlined a process.

4. Clean Up Your Social Media Profiles

Social media is one of the first places employers will look for you, so make sure they like what they find! Your public posts should reflect your personal brand and create the best impression of you. Choose your photos and content carefully to highlight your achievements and skills, and make sure any potentially embarrassing or unprofessional content is removed.

5. Build an Online Portfolio

You can use your social media profiles to your advantage when marketing yourself, but why stop there? An online portfolio can be crafted and polished to highlight your strengths and skills, and give specific examples of your achievements. You can host your own profile on a site such as WordPress or Tumblr (add a custom domain for an even more professional appearance), or use an online portfolio site such as Carbonmade or Pathbrite.

6. Make the Most of Networking

So, you've got your brand straight and you know who your audience is. The next step is to reach them. Instead of waiting for employers to find you, reach out on networking sites such as LinkedIn, or start talking to people in your industry on Twitter or Facebook. Avoid the temptation to shamelessly self-promote though. Instead, add to the conversation with valuable insights and ideas that will get the attention of employers and show your worth.

Marketing yourself online will increase your chances of a successful job search, and give employers a good first impression of you.

Get started today to make sure that in a sea of jobseekers, your online presence is the one that stands out.