Welcome back to Cracking the Career Code with Matt and Kierra, where we provide candidates the keys to success in their job search. And today we have our first guest! Hello, thanks for having me. Yeah, do you want to introduce yourself and then, tell everyone what team you’re on. Or what your focus is?
So, I am Skylar. I sit on our tech team here at Hirewell with these guys. So excited to join and kind of learn more about what they have to offer on how to increase my personal brand. Yeah, great. So that’s why you wanted to come on our show to talk about your personal brand and what your plans are for that?
Yeah, absolutely. So one of my professional goals for 2024, was to work on increasing my personal brand. I’ve just heard a lot of success stories from it. So I think, you know, coming on this show and knowing where to start for other people who may be in the same boat and just kind of learning, you know, what that even means and how to increase it.
Yeah, so just kind of hearing tips and tricks from both of you on how to do that and success stories you may have had. Yeah. Yeah. And I think the first part is just getting started. I think that’s the scariest part. That’s what is the most hesitation when wanting to build your personal brand is like, okay, so what do I post?
How often do I post? And I think for me, I just started slowly. I would post twice a week or once a week. And then as soon as I felt more comfortable, I started increasing that. So now I’ll post like four to five times a week. And I feel more comfortable just because I got the exposure. I realized it wasn’t that scary.
I was able to share experiences and funny things with people across my LinkedIn network. And I think that it built a lot of confidence for me. But Matt, where did you start and how did that journey look like for you? Yeah, definitely just posting to post, right? So, like, during the day something might come into my brain that seems like a good idea to put on LinkedIn. Whether it’s like a candidate situation, a client scenario, I see an article, I see someone else’s post, and I’ll usually just write it down or I’ve got a doc, Google doc, that I track things in. And then I just make sure I block some time, usually in the morning to write out my thoughts and get it on there. And I usually like to accompany it with a picture or a meme, or you know, whatever, like the hot meme template of that week is like, I try to work that in sometimes to get the creative juices flowing.
But once you start posting and then the more you post, the more the algorithms pick up your content and show it to more people. So you just definitely got to start, then you got to keep going and you got to be consistent. Just from your perspective, Skylar, what types of content do you engage with most on LinkedIn or what do you like to see the most?
Yeah, I feel like there’s a lot of relatable stuff out there. So I think the memes are a good way to just kind of, you know, break the ice a little bit. It doesn’t need to be that serious. And I think originally that’s what I had in my head is that, like, LinkedIn is a professional platform for networking.
Like, we can’t post fun stuff. And I think a lot of people have that narrative. So when I see more, like, interactive stuff, like Super Bowl memes, or, you know, whatever it may be, it’s a lot more relatable to our day to day. And like, there’s so many people in this industry that I’m sure can also relate. Yeah, and I think it’s more fun just to get on LinkedIn and see some more humorous content. Especially, throughout a work day that could be stressful, it kind of lightens up your day and allows you to engage with other content creators or professionals in the same industry or outside the industry. As far as Matt, what are some of your favorite types of engagement posts or what do you like to see?
Yeah, so maybe I’ll take the opposite spin on that of like what I don’t see a lot of engagement with. And so-
Yeah.
Unfortunately, sometimes I feel like I spent a lot of time like imparting my knowledge that I’ve gained in my seven or eight years of recruiting into like a really well written and thought out post about whatever topic, right?
And then like it gets like five likes and like maybe like 500 impressions and then, you know, two days later I’ll do like a one sentence post, just kind of like a matter of fact statement and it’ll blow up. So, it’s funny how the algorithm works sometimes. So, you know, just my advice, Skylar, is just like, just post a post.
Like, you know, you don’t necessarily have to like, lament over the details because you never know what’s going to get traction. Yeah, I would definitely say like the posts that I spend the least amount of time thinking about are the ones that do better, which is really frustrating, but it’s so true. I think my first post ever got a ton, like a couple thousand likes and I was like, wow, this is so easy.
And then I would post after that. I was like, wait, it’s got like five likes. So it really just depends on what it is. I think that as long as you’re being authentic, I think that’s the best way to get engagement. I’ve had the most success with posting like personal experiences, and just things that are relatable to like the industry and sticking with the industry trends.
So that’s where I’ve seen a lot of success. But as far as like getting started, Skylar, what is your plan for starting out your brand and where do you kind of want to go with that? Yeah, I think I’m taking baby steps right now, but I think one effective way is to just engage with your network. So not even necessarily being the one posting, but, like, commenting on people’s post and sharing their content and just, like, participating in discussion, like, commenting on, you know, whatever it may be.
I think this has, just in the couple weeks I’ve been working on this, has just kind of increased my relationships with people on LinkedIn and just kind of grew my network, increase my visibility, just having that reach. And just kind of sharing knowledge. So that’s one place I’m starting, but just also continuing to grow my network in general.
Like, we talk to so many people every single day. I’m making sure I’m connecting with these people. And I think, you know, my base is to grow my network and, you know, grow my visibility first and then I’ll start on like the content side. Yeah. It’s always a good idea after you talk to someone, as recruiters, we’re usually inmailing or emailing them.
So we’re not automatically connected, but I’m in a habit of just connecting with them right after that call. And then, you know, we’re connected. Makes the recruiting experience a little less transactional as well. You know, you might have talked to them about a role that isn’t the right fit or they get passed on, but then you stay in touch more if they see you posting and you’re actually connected with them.
So that seems like a great, great place to start. What about with posting? Do you have any plans of how to get started there? I like the memes. The memes go a long way. Again, just like, things are so relatable and I think just kind of seeing that, like, breath of fresh air can go a long way. And I also, another step I want to take is, Hirewell has so many shows to offer.
Like, so many people on our team are doing this kind of stuff, so being a little bit more present with videos and stuff and, you know, talk shows on LinkedIn, I think will be beneficial too. Yeah, and if you don’t have it on yet, there’s this creator mode, is what it’s called, and it basically changes your profile a little bit, the main things being it makes people that view your profile be able to follow you instead of connect with you as the primary option.
And then you can add some hashtags about the topics that you talk about on LinkedIn and people can discover you that way. And I think it does something else where like it makes your posts more discoverable. So definitely turn that on if you haven’t. Okay. Cool. Another question I had for either of you, with posting, what are some success stories that you’re able to share?
Can you think of one that maybe a post has led to or a connection has led to and what that looks like? Yeah, sure. I think the back and forth dialogue posts of like a hypothetical scenario seem to do pretty well. Shout out Vincent on Hirewell’s team. He does a lot of those and he’s always getting like hundreds of likes.
And I’ve tried to mirror that with some of my own creativity and those always seem to, you know, skyrocket your impressions, which is basically, you know, your view, how many people that post gets fed to. I also recently started, and I know Kierra has been doing this too, is contributing to community articles.
So, LinkedIn has a whole section with tons of different topics. I contribute to the one on, on recruiting, but there’s Topics for HR, consulting, everything in between. And if you contribute enough to those and enough people react to your post and say, it’s insightful, you can earn badges. They’re kind of silly.
But like, I have the top recruiter voice badge on my profile and it gives you some credibility in the space when people see that. And, you know, you didn’t get that for no reason. Yeah, no, I agree. I think it’s just a little bit more credible. But it doesn’t necessarily mean that if you don’t have one that you’re not credible, it just is nice to be engaging with that type of content because I think it gives you good exposure.
And, I think it’s just nice to see that you’re engaging in content that you are in and working with. So, Skylar, any questions just about like getting started or anything else that you have to comment on about starting your brand or anything around that topic? No, I think this was great. Super helpful.
I think the biggest thing is just to realize it’s not that serious and just don’t do hard about it. I think that’s the takeaway and really just post whatever you find, you know, relatable or anything that would be engaging on your feed. Yeah, absolutely. Matt, anything else you want to add? No, I just want to say thanks, Skylar, for joining us today on Cracking the Career Code.
And for those watching, go check out talentinsights.hirewell.com for more content and follow us on LinkedIn if you’re not already. And watch out for Skylar’s new post. Watch out guys! Thanks for having me. All right. Bye. Bye.
