Hi there! Great to see you’ve stopped by for this fourth article in my ‘Career Branding - series.

In the previous articles we have been over:

If you haven’t read these articles I’d recommend you do that. That’ll help you get clarity on your career purpose, goals and contribution. If you’ve already got it down, then get ready to dive in here.

Your brand reflects in everything you do

It’s important to know what your contribution and message are going to be when you want to build your career brand.

The content you share with your network (the world), has to be consistent with the things you want to contribute to, and - most important of all - has to be of value.

The best thing you can do when you’re building your career brand is to be generous and share your knowledge. That’s a great way to communicate what you stand for, and it’ll have a great impact on the way you come across to your network.

What's obvious to you, is amazing to others.

-Derek Sivers

 

There are plenty of things you can share with your network that’ll create value.

You can do that either by commenting and engaging on blogs, articles or posts in different forums/ groups on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter. Just by sharing your knowledge you’ll create value. The things you know, and feel are obvious, are going to be amazing for others to know.

Post comments on news and tendencies in your industry, and link to relevant articles for people to read. You can share links to websites, blogs or books you’ve found interesting and helpful.

The kind of content you share helps to create your brand. So make sure you think twice about what you share. Don’t share meaningless content like some of those word/math puzzles that have been going around on LinkedIn. Content like that doesn’t give any kind of value to you connections. I’ve deleted contacts who’s engaged and shared content like that.

You should make a weekly update on your LinkedIn profile. On Twitter, you can be more engaging and post several times a day, if you’ve got the time (and enough content to share).

Sharing valuable content and commenting shows you are up to date, engaged and passionate about what you’re doing and it’ll give your network a clearer idea of who you are and what you stand for.

So what are you waiting for? Get going, go share, create value!

The benefits of sharing and being a Go-Giver

You’ve probably heard of the Go-Getter mentality. Flip that concept 180° and you get the Go-Giver mentality.

Being a Go-Giver is the essence of sharing what you know to help other people without expecting anything in return.

Being a Go-Giver on social media will attract like-minded people to your network and you’ll get to meet a lot of interesting people, both off- and online. To me, sharing and having the Go-Giver mentality have made a lot of things possible, because of the people I’ve attracted to my network.

Lately, I’ve made a handful of great new connections, by engaging and sharing my knowledge on Periscope, Twitters new broadcast platform. The results of providing value on Periscope have given me the opportunity to get interviewed on British radio, I’ve been featured on other people’s broadcasts and received close to 300 followers. When it comes to connecting with people, I’ve never been on a social platform and created connections, as fast as I have on Periscope.

Since I started sharing my knowledge on my first website back in January 2012, I set out on a journey that I had not expected. My initial thought was: if I could just help one other person, by sharing my story and experiences, then it would be worth “getting it out there”. I began receiving phone calls and emails from people I’ve never met, who just wanted to thank me for sharing and doing the things I did.

I hope you’ll go out there and be generous sharing what you know and are passionate about with the world.

 

Read on: Part 5 - Take complete ownership of your Career Brand

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Our guest blogger Niels Reib is a mentor, speaker and Career Branding specialist who helps career driven students and professionals attract fulfilling careers where they can unleash their full potential. In cooperation with Graduateland, Niels offers special counseling session for students and graduates to kick off their career - including optimizing your LinkedIn profile, creating a strong online presence and taking complete ownership of your career brand.