Your personal brand is essentially your reputation that you build through communication and behavior with others, and when leveraged correctly, it can play a substantial role in your career and professional development. In this episode of Career Compass, Claire Stroh, SHRM-CP, of Claire is Coaching, joins hosts Aly Sharp and Kevin Abbed to provide guidance on showcasing your unique skills and strengths in the online world to make professional connections and attract career opportunities. Hear them discuss topics including the essentials of effective LinkedIn profiles, the role of authenticity in social media posting, and creating a positive online presence that broadcasts your value to the world, 24 hours a day.
Your personal brand is your reputation that you build through communication and behavior with others, and when leveraged correctly, it can play a substantial role in your career and professional development. In this episode of Career Compass, Claire Stroh, SHRM-CP, of Claire is Coaching, joins hosts Aly Sharp and Kevin Abbed to provide guidance on showcasing your unique skills and strengths in the online world to make professional connections and attract career opportunities. Hear them discuss topics including the essentials of effective LinkedIn profiles, the role of authenticity in social media posting, and creating a positive online presence that broadcasts your value to the world, 24 hours a day.
Earn 0.5 SHRM PDC for listening to this podcast; all details in-episode.
Rate and review Career Compass on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts.
Aly Sharp:
Welcome back to season eight of Career Compass, a podcast from SHRM and the SHRM Foundation. Career Compass prepares the future leaders today for better workplaces tomorrow. Thank you for joining us for this episode. My name is Aly Sharp.
Kevin Abbed:
My name is Kevin Abbed, and I'll also be your co-host. This season we're covering topics related to returning to the office, mental health, and AI. For this episode, we're excited to talk about personal brand and professional use of social media.
Aly Sharp:
We are extremely excited about today's conversation. And with that, Career Compass would like to warmly welcome Claire Stroh, CEO of Claire is Coaching, an LLC to help professionals take their careers to the next level with a relationship building and personal branding centered strategy. Claire also works as the manager of Managed Talent Services at Lighthouse Technology Services in Buffalo, New York. She's also hosting short videos on Talent101 topics with Lighthouse called Claire Shares. And lastly, Claire is a former member of our Emerging Professionals Advisory Council, which provides guidance and suggestions to Kevin on topics that are relevant to emerging professionals and students.
Claire Stroh:
Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here with you both.
Kevin Abbed:
God, that is really quite the intro, but let's go ahead and get started. Claire, can you give us a brief breakdown of some of the components of personal brand?
Claire Stroh:
Yes. I love this topic so much, so I'm really excited to get into it. If you don't mind, I'm going to start with a few basics about a personal brand that I think folks will find helpful.
Your personal brand is essentially your reputation, and you build it through communication and behavior. That's the biggest thing I like to stress with students and emerging professionals. I went to school for HR, so I took multiple HR classes during my undergrad, and I only took one marketing course During that course I learned about company branding, and I'll never forget what that professor said. When you think of one of your favorite company brands like Nike, Starbucks, or Apple, what comes to mind? Likely keywords like sleek, tasty, or fun. You're probably picturing their logos or one of their well-known products right now. I know I am. I could go for a latte right now. But your personal brand works the same way. So what keywords come to mind when people see your headshot on LinkedIn, which I call my logo essentially, or when your name is mentioned in a room?
I encourage students and career coaching clients I work with to think about their core skills and strengths to help them create and define that brand. So for me, to my core, I'm known as being positive, helpful, and optimistic. Those words come through in everything I do and all of my communication and behavior, so my brand and reputation has been built on those things that are true to me. We want to make sure our personal brands are true and authentic to us. We aren't trying to create something or create a more professional buttoned-up version of ourselves. I see some students struggling with that. They're trying to talk in a different way or use bigger words or things like that. We don't want to try to be something we're not. We want to use our special skills and strengths to showcase ourselves and attract opportunities to ourselves.
So yeah, the components of a personal brand are skills, strengths, communication, behavior, and how you share your authentic personality and voice with the world. And in this case more specifically, build and showcase your brand in a career-oriented setting to attract opportunities to yourself and grow.
Kevin Abbed:
I think that is a perfect description of personal brand. You talk about recognizing brands and immediately thinking of a product or service that they offer. You think Nike and you immediately think, "Oh, shoes." When I think Claire, I immediately think about your Twitter. For some reason I immediately go like, "Oh my God, I'll just be scrolling through my Twitter and then there's Claire with some HR community post or a podcast or a webcast or a speech or something you're doing." So that's a perfect descriptor for you.
Aly Sharp:
Yeah, I was going to say I was shaking my head pretty violently when you said positive and optimistic. I was like, "Yeah, exactly. That's like every interaction I've ever had with you." How you ended answering that question tails into our next question of why is it important for students and emerging professionals to have a strong personal brand?
Claire Stroh:
Yeah, your personal brand is really what sets you apart and makes you memorable. Again, your communication and behavior, especially during first impressions or important situations where your communication and behavior hold a lot of weight, can follow you the rest of your career. I've definitely learned that from experience. There are folks that I've only met in person once and connected with on LinkedIn afterwards and then didn't hear from again for years, but they reached out with a cool opportunity years later because they thought of me. So I was memorable, I continued to stay visible and top of mind to my community through my LinkedIn content. So having a strong personal brand really helped me attract opportunities to myself, whether that be job opportunities and then opportunities like this to speak, teach, train, podcasts, serve on boards. You can be contacted for so many things, not just jobs if people know who you are and they know your brand. I've experienced it, so that's why I will get on my soapbox and try to help as many HR students and EPs get theirs going as early as possible.
Aly Sharp:
Yeah, I would say I think I reached out to Chris Lopez to talk about topics and he was like, "Oh, well, Claire has to be the one for a personal brand. There's nobody better." I was like, "That is so awesome that I don't think he's worked with you in maybe a few years, and he's like, 'Yeah, it's still Claire.'"
Claire Stroh:
I know. That's awesome that he thought of me. You're right, it's been a few years since I did a student webcast with Chris, but we did do it on social media. So made a good impression, I guess he remembered, so that's awesome.
Aly Sharp:
Claire, what's something that might pose a challenge to building your personal brand, or maybe what was a challenge for you?
Claire Stroh:
Yeah, that's a good question. I would say it's not so challenging anymore, but I would say when I got started in 2017, it was really having the competence to hit the Post and Submit button. I love working with students and emerging professionals on getting comfortable with using their voice and commenting. Leaving comments on LinkedIn is a great place to start because the first place their brain goes is like, "I don't have anything to post. I'm going to have to write something." And that's not the case. If you share an article or a photo from an event, you don't have to write an article or anything like that. So just get comfortable first with commenting on your network's posts. Look for congratulatory type things because that's easy, congrats on the new job, the birthday, service anniversary. Then as you get more comfortable just hitting that Submit a Post button. You'll feel better about actually gaining or using your HR insights and trying to add that to the conversation, and then you'll build up the competence to do your own posts.
So that's how it worked for me too. It was just scary of like, "Oh, the trolls are going to come for me," things like that, but it ended up being much better to post than not at all.
Kevin Abbed:
I talked about your Twitter already, but for our listeners, you're also an expert on LinkedIn personal brand. How do you recommend students strengthen their brand through social media, not just Twitter, but also LinkedIn?
Claire Stroh:
Yeah, this is a great question, Kevin, and I love that you use the word strengthen their brand through social media, because again, your personal brand just is who you are to your core, those special skills and strengths. So it's not just someone you are online or something you're creating for online purposes, so I'm really glad you just phrased it that way.
The reason I love strengthening my brand through social media over the years is because we all only have the same 24 hours in a day. We can't get to all the in-person events and conferences we'd like to. I try, trust me, I don't asleep a lot. But through being a strong presence on LinkedIn, I jokingly say that I can still be contacted and paid for work even while I'm sleeping. How cool is that that you can still be findable and visible to your network even if you're not in person at all these events or conferences? So yeah, I can't be at every event and every room I'd like to be in, but through connecting, posting, and engaging on LinkedIn with my network and intended audience I can attract and be contacted for opportunities without ever having showcase myself in person, so that's pretty cool.
So yeah, I hope that makes sense. LinkedIn is just such a powerful platform to show who you are, the value you can bring to your network and community, and you can reach such a huge audience that includes people that you just would've never met with in person. I've made so many HR friends on LinkedIn that I've then connected with at SHRM conferences or something for example. So it really makes just networking and getting who you are out there so much easier.
As a student or emerging professional specifically, you're likely doing cool things like working on group projects, participating in a club, working at an internship or job, volunteering, doing something, and you can showcase that on LinkedIn. Don't think you have to have professional working experience before you start posting or things like that. I promise you, your network and community loves to see those types of posts from you. You're not bragging, show us what you're doing, and over time it will help you in your career.
Kevin Abbed:
I think that perfectly sums it up. A couple of years ago before LinkedIn really took off and career services were saying, "Hey, make sure if you're applying for jobs that your social media is polished." I'll use that term. There was always that your company is the boogeyman and they're going to send out operatives to go through your social media and look for things. But I think, putting it in a different light, that using social media as part of your career is a viable way to get yourself out there and to share your thoughts but also engage with other people.
Just like you said, I can't tell you how many times I have gone to a conference or done a speaking event and I always end with the same thing, I'm like, "Follow me on social media, follow me on LinkedIn," and then it's normally in the car on the way home or on planes, trains, or automobiles, however I'm getting home, I am looking at my LinkedIn and just I get 10 dings in a row, "So-and-so wants to connect with you. So-and-so wants to connect with you." It's crazy to be able to see again what you are doing in New York and what some of my colleagues are doing in California when we don't get to engage with them as often.
Claire Stroh:
Yeah, that's a really good point, Kevin, and I'm glad you brought up the boogeyman. That made me laugh. But I usually include that in my social media presentations with students, so I'm glad you brought it up. I only choose to use Twitter, X, and LinkedIn for HR professional, learning, recruiting type purposes. I keep Instagram and just some of those other platforms for my friends and family. So still a good idea, good reminder. Thanks, Kevin. Some channels you do want to keep with those security privacy settings if they're not going to help you with your career advancement, but definitely don't be afraid of using social to help your career grow. It's a huge piece.
Kevin Abbed:
Claire, could you share with us some essentials for building a good LinkedIn profile?
Claire Stroh:
Yes, of course. I love this one. I'm going to try to limit it to my top three because we probably could do a whole episode on optimizing your LinkedIn profile. Especially for students and emerging professionals, I would say your headline is one of the most important pieces. A lot of people take it for granted. Your headline is the little summary you get, two to three lines right below your photo. So if you're viewing your own profile, you should see a pencil right near your photo where you can edit your headline. I see a lot of students where their headline just says, "Student" or "Looking for internship," or something like that. You have 300 characters there to use, it's so valuable. It's like when a recruiter is taking those five to seven seconds to look at your resume, they're going to see your headline and be like, "Okay, here's what I know I'm going to expect to see as I'm continuing to scroll down your profile." So you want to catch.
So yes, please list student, where you're going to school. If you have a major or a concentration, if you're involved in any clubs, you can put that in your headline, if you're currently interning or working. So any combination of school, job, volunteer, special skills, get that into your headline. So yes, likely you have more characters there to use, so please check it out and try to update that.
And then the other thing I would say for students as well is I don't see a lot of detailed experience or education sections filled out. We talked about that a little bit. They might just have school on there or they might just have bartender or cashier. That's fine that that's your work experience, I'm so glad you have it on there, but you've got to give me something. Where are those transferable skills? So tell me about customer service or counting the cash drawer if you're going for accounting or whatever it is. You just got to give me something in there because you control the narrative. You don't want the recruiter or someone viewing your profile deciding for themselves what you were doing in that role based on what they know about it. You want to tell them what you were doing.
Okay, so let me cap it at headline or experience. But yeah, feel free to check out my profile as an example. I try to give a lot of details for everybody.
Aly Sharp:
Yeah. I'm going to literally pull up my LinkedIn after this because I don't know if my headline has been updated since I graduated in 2021.
Kevin Abbed:
I did have one follow up. What would you say is intentional posting?
Claire Stroh:
Great question. I always say to connect posts and engage intentionally. Intentional posting means that you're sharing information with your community in a way that's helpful for them, but also helpful for your career growth. LinkedIn is not the place to vent or share what you had for lunch, so do save those for your personal channels you have for your friends and family. A good gut check I usually go through before posting is I just ask myself, "Is this something I'll be proud of months down the road that I shared, that it's an honest reflection of who I am again to my core, and that I'd be proud of a future employer saw that I posted this?" So ask yourself those questions because everything does live in your activity feed on LinkedIn, so that's why it is important to be intentional. I can view your profile, Kevin, right now and see everything you've liked, commented, posted, shared, et cetera. So that gut check is super important before you engage, so do so intentionally.
Some examples I just like to mention real quick of intentional posts are industry related news or articles, events that are coming up that you'll be attending or post about an event you recently attended and share what you learned, community engagement or volunteer work. So those are good places to start if you're wondering, "Just how do I get comfortable or confident starting with posting?" Those are great ideas that are going to pass that check of a future employer will be okay seeing that, and those things will help you in your career and show your network that you're active and serious about HR and things like that.
Aly Sharp:
I'm just thinking back, I think you mentioned posting club involvements and stuff like that. In my case it would've been LinkedIn. I didn't do that at all, and now I have nothing on my LinkedIn. But every time I meet with someone I'm like, "Oh yeah, I was in a sorority and a fraternity and I was also an econ minor." I'm like, "You wouldn't know that... " I mean you would know that, but you wouldn't know what I actually did in that time just by looking on my LinkedIn. And now I'm bummed out. I'm like, "Can I go back a few years? Can I retry?" Because all of my posts were required... I guess not required, but meant to be on Instagram, so I never even thought about putting it on LinkedIn. And now I'm like, "When I graduate I'm going to have you craft what the heck my post is going to say."
Claire Stroh:
I would love to help you with that, but you should definitely still go back and edit your profile and add those things under your education. That's probably one of my biggest gripes with students is they do have the basics on there, they have where they're attending school or whatever, but either the graduation dates, anticipated graduation dates aren't right, or yeah, there's no minor or there's no club activities listed. I'm like, "Give me all the info." Think of what a recruiter would love to know about you. They're going to have a lot of questions if they just see you're enrolled in school. They're going to be like, "What the heck are you doing?"
So definitely add that on, Aly. Definitely add it on.
Aly Sharp:
Well, and a note to our listeners, if you're in a club and it just says your club on your LinkedIn, please add a description. I'm going to go do that when we're done. Our personal brands are going to be evolving, especially as we evolve throughout our career, but how are some ways that people can use their brand to build personal relationships?
Claire Stroh:
Yes, this is such a good question because having a strong brand has definitely helped me attract the right people that I want to build relationships with, because they know me and know what I'm about. So people can visit my LinkedIn profile or my website at any time, yeah, see what I'm about, see my personality and voice, see what my strengths are in HR. It makes it easy for them to contact me or break the ice or strike up a conversation. So similar to what we just mentioned about if you're a student putting that extra information on your profile, you never know who's looking at that. A recruiter or hiring manager might use a piece of that information and say, "Oh, I was in a sorority too, tell me more about that" or "Oh, you did recruiting for your club. That's a transferable skill to this role. Can you tell me more?" So it's like the more you put out there, use your personality and voice, showcase those skills and strengths, it does make it easier to build personal relationships with people and get those, I call them warm conversations started. I hate having to go into a room or a networking event and do my cold 30-second elevator pitch. It's super nice to always walk into the room and likely people have viewed each other's LinkedIn profiles already or something so we can just strike up an easier conversation.
So yeah, LinkedIn is a great place to showcase your values, interests, work experience, and that will help you attract the right types of people and opportunities. So yeah, people can get an idea of who you are, and then it makes it easier for them to relate to you on some level. Even if they can't, they can refer you to someone else with similar interests. I've had that happen a lot too. So even if that person's not my person, they're like, "Oh, you would love to speak with my niece. She's going into HR," and whatever. So it can still help you make connections by sharing as much as you can about yourself.
Kevin Abbed:
Just a random question, are you a LinkedIn Premium subscriber or do you just go bare bones LinkedIn?
Claire Stroh:
Such a good question, Kevin. I have so many thoughts on this, I'm going to try to keep it short. I am a LinkedIn Premium user, but that is because I use LinkedIn Recruiter for my job, so I have Premium paid for by my company. If you are a student or emerging professional, I used to say... So prior to having LinkedIn recruiter, I did everything I did on LinkedIn, connect, repost, engage, whatever with a free profile. Before I would say that you don't really need it. What I'm annoyed with with LinkedIn right now, I don't know if any of you have noticed that have a free profile, is you are limited on the connection request notes that you can add-
Aly Sharp:
Yes.
Claire Stroh:
... which is super frustrating to me because LinkedIn is a networking platform, that is what it's made for. It's not a job platform, it's not a learning platform, though they certainly have those elements. LinkedIn's technically a social media site. It's not a job board. So it's just frustrating. Instagram wouldn't charge you after following five people for the month. Anyway, so you can still connect with people, but they limit the notes. And sending a connection request with a note is the biggest tool that's helped me over the years with networking and reaching out to people. I never paid for Premium because I didn't need InMails. You don't need InMails, you don't need to be able to send someone three paragraphs, but you do need those two to 300 characters to make that connection when you're reaching out to somebody.
So, depending on how active you are in your job or internship search or just what your current priorities are with networking in your career, it might be worth it to pay the 30-something bucks a month for Premium to be able to add all those connection request notes if you're doing a ton of networking. Because I get requests all the time without notes and I'm like, "Why is this person reaching out to me?" You know what I mean?
Aly Sharp:
Hold on-
Claire Stroh:
So I need to be that person. When I'm reaching out to people, I always want to add an intentional note.
Aly Sharp:
$30, is that serious?
Claire Stroh:
Yeah, don't quote me. The last time I looked, it was, I want to say, high 20s, early 30s for basic Premium per month.
Aly Sharp:
Oh my gosh.
Claire Stroh:
I know. So it's a bummer. So you can still obviously start with free profile, post comment, all those things. And again, you can still connect, you just can't add as many notes, and that's a recent change.
Kevin Abbed:
Interesting. I am one of those just click the Connect button type of guys, so I might have to switch that up. I didn't even know they made that change. Wow.
Aly Sharp:
I'm the same way where people will come out of the woodwork because they're somehow related to SHRM and they'll find me and want to connect with me, I'm like, "Who are you?" And I get to play the game, "Have I met this person?"
Claire Stroh:
I know. So it's so nice to be able to add a note and just say a few words about why you're reaching out. Kevin, I think you might still have five to 10 notes a month on your free plan, so at least use those up every month.
Kevin Abbed:
Okay, I'm going to have to go check my LinkedIn after this. No free ads though, we've talked about LinkedIn for a lot. Okay, speaking of ads, we're going to go to our commercial break.
I want to pause just for a second to take care of a couple of housekeeping items. First, those of you listening to this podcast who are seeking professional development credit, this program is valid for 0.5 PDCs for the SHRM CP or SHRM SCP. The code to redeem your PDCs is 25-TAE2S. Please note that this code will expire March 19th, 2025. Again, that code is 25-TAE2S.
Aly Sharp:
I also want to pop on and say that the SHRM Annual Conference and Expo 2024 is happening this June in Chicago. We have a great lineup of programming not only for students and emerging professionals, but for anyone who is trying to get some professional development. Students specifically get the student union experience where we'll have some specific content for them and mock interviews, resume review, everything like that, networking, of course most important. The best part probably about our SHRM Conferences is it's the largest gathering of HR professionals in the country or maybe even the world. It's about 25,000 participants. So if you're interested, students get a special rate of 495 for in-person or 295 virtually. You can go to annual.shrm.org for more information.
We're going to jump back in and talk more about Claire, your particular experience. So how did your personal brand help you advance in your career?
Claire Stroh:
Yeah, definitely. I've been actively showcasing my skills, strengths, personality, and voice by posting, commenting, and networking on LinkedIn since 2017. I graduated school in 2014. The brief story I just like to always tell students too is that I made my LinkedIn in 2012 because my boss actually made me do it. So now my alma mater makes creating a LinkedIn as part of the curriculum and stuff, which is amazing-
Aly Sharp:
Same.
Claire Stroh:
... but it was not like that before. Yeah. My boss, who was in HR in my first internship told me about LinkedIn and that I should make it, and she was my first connection. But it sat as a static online resume from 2012 to 2017. Ever since I started more actively using it in 2017, my career has advanced a ton. Every role I've had since then I've been tapped on the shoulder for from someone in my network, because through showing up consistently online, they got to know me, knew what opportunities would be good to send my way. How amazing is that, not having to apply and compete for roles because your network and brand is so strong? I think it's pretty cool.
Aside from just job opportunities though, again, my personal brand has helped me be memorable and contacted for other cool opportunities such as attending SHRM Annual as part of the influencer team in the past. So that's a blast. Definitely can't wait to see my friends there. I continually share content, resources, events, recommendations, and things with my network. So they know I'm a sharer and I'm passionate about helping others, which has helped me attract some really cool coaching and training opportunities. I'm just super proud of myself to have a thriving and rewarding LLC and career at just this point in my life at the age that I am. I attribute a lot of that career advancement to the work I put in to building and showcasing my brand. So it's definitely paid off in my career so far.
Kevin Abbed:
Amazing. You talked about your boss telling you to create a LinkedIn. It's funny, it just made me laugh because my dad's boss literally made him a LinkedIn, and I don't think the man has ever even touched it. Thanks a lot so much Claire as always for participating and helping our just emerging professional growth and our podcast. Before we let you go, what is something you know now about personal brand that you wish you knew when you graduated from college, whether that was your MBA or your undergrad?
Claire Stroh:
Yeah, I mean, I wish I knew what a personal brand was, honestly. I'm glad I took that one marketing course to learn about company branding, but then I didn't even hear about the buzzword personal brand until a few years after I graduated. I go back to my alma mater a lot, the University of Buffalo, and I'm amazed and impressed at how far their career services and career resource center have come. They now have class time designated to LinkedIn and networking. When I was there, there was only basic guidance on resumes and interviewing. I personally think a class on just personal brand would be helpful as well. Not a whole course, but just one class as student are getting ready to graduate and transition into the working world. But it seems like a lot of colleges are making some good steps. So yeah, I wish I had that for me, but I think our emerging HR pros are going to be in a really good spot.
Kevin Abbed:
Awesome. That recalled something for me. Actually, when I was in my undergrad at Penn State, shout-out, I actually had a half credit personal brand course. We started with the resumes and cover letters and then went to LinkedIn and then actually did some of the networking. Honestly, besides my basketball class, I think that was maybe my most enjoyable course and useful course that I had taken.
Aly Sharp:
Yeah, I'm hoping that CNU, Christopher Newport, got some better career... I mean, not to say they weren't helpful, but I took a quiz that was 200 questions for it to tell me that I should be a florist. While I love making flower arrangements, I was hoping for something a little more, I wouldn't necessarily say practical, maybe profitable something. I was really thrown off. I was like, "So why am I at this university right now if that's what I should be doing?" Anyways, Claire, as always, like Kevin said, it is such a joy talking to you, that positivity and optimism, seriously it comes through the screen, which is why you don't even have to be in person. Thank you so much for joining us.
Claire Stroh:
Thank you for having me. This was a great conversation. And for anyone listening, of course, feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn.
Kevin Abbed:
Perfect. With that, we're going to bring this episode of Career Compass to a close. Thank you, all, for joining us, and we hope you stay with us throughout the season as we discuss more topics like this episode.
Aly Sharp:
For more exclusive content, resources, and tools to help you succeed in your career, consider joining SHRM as a student member. You can visit us at shrm.org/students to learn more.
Kevin Abbed:
Lastly, are you looking for more work and career-related podcasts? Check out All Things Work and Honest HR at shrm.org/podcast. Thank you again for listening, and we'll catch you on the next episode of Career Compass.