Fine-Tune Your Personal Brand For National Career Development Month - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Fine-Tune Your Personal Brand For National Career Development Month - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career November marks the  National Career Development Association’s (NCDA)  annual National Career Development Month. This year the theme is “My Career Dreams,” and participants are encouraged to share what their dreams are regarding their career or future career. Making your personal brand better is one way to celebrate with NCDA this month! With  National Career Development Month in mind, I decided to help you take the steps necessary in order to fine-tune your personal brand. Set up Google alerts Being aware of how your personal brand appears online is crucial, and there are easy ways to do so. Setting up Google alerts so you can maintain, and measure your personal brand is a good way to do this. You can choose to be notified for your name, Twitter handle, latest blogs, and much more. Remain current You want your personal brand to accurately reflect you, and being up to date is certainly a way to do this. Staying current with your resume, personal website, blog, and social networking platforms will help portray you correctly. You should also be constantly checking up on industry news because you don’t want to fall behind. Reading about current events can indicate if your skills sets or knowledge need to be updated. Stay connected Your personal brand does not only reflect the content you write, but also how you interact with others. Always stay on top of responding back to individuals who comment on your blog, or mention you on Twitter. You want to encourage conversation through various forms of networking websites. Make sure you respond to other thought leaders in your industry as well. You don’t want the conversations to solely happen on your websites because then you’re not being active within the community. Maintain distinctive content You want to stand out from the crowd, not blend in! While it is good to reflect current issues and news, it is also important to create your own spin on topics. People will be more intrigued by your blog or social networking sites if you are different. For more tips on how to draw in readers, check out: 10 Ways To Make Your Blog Less Sucky or 10 Types Of Addictive Content. Hopefully these steps will help you move in the right direction for your career, and fine-tune your personal brand. Happy National Career Development Month everyone! How do you fine-tune or maintain your personal brand? Is there anything you would add to this list? Author: Heather R. Huhman  is a career expert, experienced hiring manager, and founder president of  Come Recommended, a content marketing and digital PR consultancy for organizations with products that target job seekers and/or employers. She is also the author of Lies, Damned Lies Internships  (2011),  #ENTRYLEVELtweet: Taking Your Career from Classroom to Cubicle (2010), and writes career and recruiting advice for numerous outlets.