One thing that is also shifting online in a big way is CV’s. If said this before in an interview here, and I will say it again, we are not far away from the point where recruiters will ask for a URL instead of an attached CV doc.  Ideally, what you should have is a few URL’s. These should all form a part of online personal branding effort. Most people presently use LinkedIn and twitter to promote themselves online.  Some use a blog as well. These are all really good in their individual respects. LinkedIn serves as the online CV, the blog as a way to substantiate the knowledge in your area of interest, and twitter as a promotional platform to create personal brand awareness. The CV format on LinkedIn is nevertheless a bit dull and very much mimics a word document CV.  If you send a recruiter your LinkedIn URL, you may as well just them your Word document CV. There is definitely a need for a more dynamic online CV platform.

The answer to this is “sliderocket”.

Sliderocket is website which specializes in creating presentations. Part of their service includes promoting the Presume (Sorry, I don’t have the accent for the ‘u’ on my keyboard) – an amalgamation of a resume and a presentation.

Isn’t this a just an online PowerPoint presentation you may ask?

No, this is what makes it cool:

• First of all its free (well, the basic option, which is enough)
• You can install Presume templates, which saves you the hassle of starting from scratch
• You can integrate video into your Presume
• Free coaching!
• You can make your CV public, either through a URL or an embed code – This is the future!

The best thing about this online CV platform is that you can tell a story about yourself. Everybody loves a good story!

Check out a demo Presume here:

I would recommend promoting yourself through two social media conduits: Twitter and a blog.

gadgetsin.com

1. Twitter – a great platform where one can promote himself or herself as a specialist and choose to only follow people who align to their field of interest. This allows one to create network or relevant individuals. Besides being alerted of the latest opportunities. Unlike LinkedIn where you only message someone if they are in your network, Twitter allows you to direct a tweet @ someone. Although this is not direct message, it could at least be a potential precursor to establishing a dialogue with someone. Its also a great place to get free advice, and if done properly, you can be put in touch with the right people. By limiting each tweet to 140 characters allows for the rapid free flow of information. This creates a dynamic real time communication tool, which cannot be said for most of the other social media platforms.

1. Blogging is a great way to establish a credible presence online. Sure some may say that blogging is now a saturated market, and your blog will simply be lost within swathe of other millions of blogs out there. There is certain amount of truth in that. BUT the point of blogging in this case is not necessarily to get thousands of views a week/month, but more so to get the right kind people visiting your blog. For me a blog is potentially a medium to make the interests/strengths on your CV come alive. It substantiates what you’ve written on your CV. For example when I was looking for a job in the financial markets, I launched the blog called ‘The market knows best”. This was a way for me to show my interest in the financial markets. It therefore became a great talking point in interviews, and most definitely helped differentiate me from the crowd.

You may have noticed that I have not mentioned LinkedIn. I feel that although this a good platform that should not be neglected, it does not have the same amount of clout as twitter or a blog. LinkedIn for me needs to modernize, and give its users a more enjoyable experience. I think that at present LinkedIn is a more asymmetric social media channel, because if you wish to get the most out of it, you need to subscribe to a pay service. I have subsequently changed my view on LinkedIn. Since writing this post, LinkedIn has modernised its platform, and as a job seeker I think that if you know how to use LinkedIn properly, the free service is enough. LinkedIn is definitely a key platform when it comes to building a personal brand online.

 Additional, yet small platforms to build your brand on:

-       Zerply.com

-       about.me

-       imcreator.com