Figure 1.
When talking about branding, many people will relate it to some big companies, such as Apple, Coca-Cola, etc. In fact, all of us have our brands which can represent your status and capabilities in our society. According to Dr. Nadir Ali Kolachi (2013), “Branding in Human Resources is the concept of promoting one’s capabilities in the Organization.” He divides individual branding into three parts: competency branding, professional branding, and career management branding. While some companies use a lot of money to promote their brand by advertising, what can college students do for their branding? We can use social media to improve our status in the society. As we know, there are hundreds of social media which are very cheap and even free on the Internet. Social media are the effective tools for individual branding, but we really need to be careful the information that we put on them.
What is the relationship between media and individual branding?
I believe that most college students use social media in their daily life, but how many of them think about the relationship between social media and their branding. Some student may argue that they only use social media for conversation. Yes, they are good tools to connect people. However, when you release something online, the information will easily spread to the whole community. It will affect your branding in public. Depending on what kind of information that you post, it can be good or bad for you.
Figure 2.
How to use social media for branding?
Looking around us, there are many social networks which are free for using, like LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTude, etc. Are they helpful for us to develop a strong personal brand? Soumitra Dutta (2010) gives his answer that Tom Dickson becomes an “internet rock star” and a famous CEO from an unknown guy by posting series videos on YouTube. It is the power of social media. There are several steps to build our brand by social media. First of all, create a professional profile on LinkedIn. This is the first step to create your brand. It tells people about your name, experiences, and capabilities. Next, select a medium platform which is suitable to expose your talents. For example, if you are a cook, you can create a blog or post a video on YouTude to show people how cook. For computer science students, you can show your solution of some computer problems on YouTude or show your work on your personal web site. Furthermore, you should be active in each professional blog and give you idea about the topic. These are very helpful to improve your competency branding, which is most important for your individual branding. Finally, connect more professionals by using social media and only post positive information. If you use the social media in the right way, you can improve your brand quickly. Just as Soumitra Dutta (2010) says, social media are low-cost platforms which allow you communicate with the public and learn from them to build up your brands.
The bad effects of social media
While we use social media for branding, they also have side effects. I really remember the news that a teacher was fired after she posted some drinking pictures on Facebook. Believe or not, it is the negative image of a teacher. Regardless of what you post on social networks, they can spread around the world in seconds. Thus, before you want to post something online, you need to understand which is good or bad for you.
Social media are double-edged swords. If we use them appropriately, we can develop our strong individual brands. On the other hand, they can also harm our images if we use them in the wrong way. Therefore, when you post something on social media, you need to think carefully.
References
Dutta, S. (2010). What’s your personal social media strategy?. Harvard Business Review, 88(11), 127-130.
Kolachi, N. n. (2013). Competitive Branding & Development Model: A Qualitative Case Study of UAE approach to Human Capital. Bulletin Of Education & Research, 35(1), 95-105.
Figure 1. http://whitbeckweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/reasons_social-media_branding_quote.jpg. Accessed on 11/01/2014.
Figure 2. http://itvibes.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/slider/socialmedia_slide.gif. Accessed on 11/01/2014.
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