Do you want to create a powerful online presence and guarantee that you rank in Google? Be found by recruiters and headhunters? Advance in your career?Unless you have a large network of contacts the only way people will access your information is by searching for you or your skill set via search engines. Can recruiters and employers easily find you on LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ or job boards? If not you probably are not using keywords. So step one is understanding keywords, identifying what yours are, then applying them to all the headers in your profiles and online applications.
WHAT is a Keyword and how to use them?
A keyword is a word or phrase that shows more importance and relevance than other words. Google establishes what words are searched a lot and what people are interested in. It then rates those words in order of importance – words that are used often get higher ranking and Google prioritizes them. For example Jo is the IT Department Manager and of course that the heading in his LinkedIn and twitter profile. But recruiters seldom find him. So we go to (Googles free tool) and type in other options. This tool can immediately tell you how people search for you or your skill set. The choice then becomes crystal clear - IT manager is searched 11 100 000 times as opposed to IT Department Manager which is only searched 33 100 times.
It is therefore essential to have those words in your profile headers in LinkedIn and Twitter.
Below is an example of how you would use keywords in your profile. This is not the space for your Job title! This is also important when loading your CV up onto job boards you must tag/describe yourself using the words most used on Google.
For example: 
Personal Branding
The journey to master the art of Personal branding is one that will take you within yourself and challenge you to understand your uniqueness, your core beliefs and underlying assumptions that shape the way you see the world, and ultimately the way the world sees you.
You are already a brand. Meaning that how you project yourself, how others perceive you, who you are and what you do, is your brand. Your brand also encompasses your strengths, your talents and what causes you to excel in the different aspects of your life.
But your brand is something that you can create for yourself. In order to start the branding process, you need to begin to a get a clear picture of who you are and what is unique about you. Understanding how each of us is unique is not only crucial to brand building but an important part of understanding what our purpose on earth is.
Your interests and talents point clearly to things that make you different. The essential you that differentiates yourself from the next person. There will never be another Bill Gates, another Oprah Winfrey, another Vincent Van Gogh, another Mother Theresa… and there will never be another you.
“PACKAGING”
You need to “package yourself” as a unique set of skills and values.
Every aspect of your online branding should support the same brand theme. For example: Although everyon
e understands your photograph is important people seldom apply the rule. A client of mine David Haigh, is not only the Director of Leeds United Football Club but a high powered Private Equity Expert – which of these two pictures support his brand of being a no nonsense CEO of a leading bank in Dubai?
So you have to determine where you are starting from (as all of us already have a brand whether we like it or not) and decide where we want to get to.
The story from Lewis Carrolls - Alice in Wonderland, as illustrated in her conversation with the Cheshire Cat:
“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
“I don’t much care where- ” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat
Identifying your primary and secondary audience is crucial to your efforts. Time is well spent when it is targeted and effective and speaking to people who want to hear your story. In this era of information overload, once you have found your voice, you must determine exactly what it is, you are going say and where best to say it.
Present your case and be heard – and depending on how you do that, you can become a brand of repute and stature. It is this realization that inspires, motivates and drives me. So here’s to making your dream job a reality!
