Article 3

From Digital Culture & Society

Hodd, Robles and Hopkins (2014) came together to write this article "Personal Branding and Social Media for Students in today’s Competitive Job Market", to discuss the importance of personal branding on a professional social media platform such as LinkedIn. The following information below outlines the author’s research problem and questions they wanted to answer by using two different methods of research; in-person interviews and online surveys.

• Problem: Because personal branding is important to recruiters and employers when hiring job candidates, business educators must help students develop their personal brand.
• Research Questions: This research study addresses the online elements that hiring managers focus on during the recruitment process and how educators can help students integrate these components using pertinent business communication into developing their personal brand.

More now then ever before, students need a personal brand to help secure employment in today’s competitive job market. Educators can help students develop their brand using a LinkedIn profile through course assignments. ‘’Personal branding’’ consists of integrated marketing communication in which an individual communicates them self as a product. LinkedIn is a professional networking site that students need to utilize in order to make an online impression to many potential employers. Through this online professional networking platform, students can display their personal branding components that would be desirable to recruiters. The purpose of this study was to find out what recruiters look for in job applicant’s personal brands, and what marketing communication tools should LinkedIn users integrate into developing their personal brands (Hodd, Robles and Hopkins, 2014).

The personal branding process begins with students reflecting on how they want others to view them, in particularly online. It’s important to highlight ways in which students can differentiate themselves when creating a personal brand. Personal branding on a professional networking platform like LinkedIn should also follow past professional industry and career standards such as, having a conservative image (Hodd, Robles and Hopkins, 2014). This advice provided by Hodd, Robles and Hopkins (2014), in their article does contradict itself however. On one hand LinkedIn users are being encouraged to individualize their style, and differentiate themselves in order to stand out through their personal branding methods – but simultaneously they are also encouraged to conform to common career advice, such as wearing business attire which would negate standing out with an individual personal style. I also think gender and cultural differences should have been included to incorporate minorities and apply career advice to a wider, inclusive population overall.

There were two different studies conducted in order to gain data for this research…

Study 1: In Study 1, twelve participants were recruited from a professional network and were interviewed in-person over a two-week period. The in-person interviews were recorded by audio devices and then analyzed to reveal themes surrounding the recruiting experience.

Study 2: The purpose of Study 2 was to further explore the themes discovered in Study 1, with the primary goal being to identify what mechanisms result in effective personal branding during the job search process. This study was conducted through an online survey method, which consisted of a series of questions using a 7-point Likert scale. There were 170 usable responses and the sample participants were all University students that were heavily engaged with the recruitment process through their own work experiences.

The results from these studies were then organized into the respective common themes:

• Interview Process
• Resume Criteria
• LinkedIn Criteria Importance
• Social Media Utilization
• Recruiting Process
• Classroom Activities

This is another weakness in the study; the participants were a narrow a group. Students that are working and experiencing a recruitment process at their jobs are probably few and far between. Many Human Resources positions within companies require skilled, qualified individuals and much of the information about job applicants that is collected by Human Resources personnel is highly confidential. Overall the sample of the study was not a balanced representation of everyone within the recruitment population. I think it would have been wiser and provided more accurate results to gather data from Human Resources professionals working in the field on a full-time basis.

Regarding LinkedIn profiles, many participants indicated the importance of a LinkedIn profile would contain a professional photo, specific skills and their desired positions in the work force. Incomplete profiles which included lack of focus and less professional photos were the features that made it easier for recruiters to exclude them from the job search. Two major conclusions drawn from 'Study 1 was that LinkedIn is the most widely used social media platform for recruitment purposes and Facebook is most often used to exclude candidates from consideration because it’s easier to see how people ‘’actually behave’’ on that platform. For example, drinking alcohol with friends frequently (Hodd, Robles and Hopkins, 2014).

An individual’s personal brand can be crucial during the job search process. This study resulted in discovering what recruiters focus on within a user’s LinkedIn profile in order to assess applicants. One of the researcher’s recommendations was to advocate for adding the topic of personal branding on the professional networking site LinkedIn to the curriculum in schools. I agree with this recommendation and think it could bring awareness and guidance to students that are trying to build up job experience and create a professional online presence. Students need to become as marketable as possible in order to increase their success in such a competitive job market.

By: Natasha Bloomfield (Student #5735840)