LinkedIn and Branding: The Perfect Combination for Your Professional Brand

LinkedIn is a professional social network for individuals and companies. It is specifically designed for the business community where professionals can truly showcase their personal brand. It is the most popular site for professional social networking with 238 million users and 40% of these users check LinkedIn every day, so if you do not have one, you should make one.

So, what makes LinkedIn the perfect place to establish your professional brand?
First of all, it is absolutely free! This is one of the best places to get in contact with recruiters and other professionals for anything related to business. You can get a job through LinkedIn or get recommendations and endorsements for your skills and expertise.

There are many ways to promote your brand through LinkedIn. One of the most important ways is the summary section which is similar to the “elevator speech”. This is the place for you to tell your story and use the rest of your LinkedIn profile to support that story. Furthermore, the summary section truly enables those that view your profile to establish a connection with your personal brand. For example, if you are a student looking for an internship, then state this in the summary and move your reader to action (get readers to contact you).


Another great place on LinkedIn to promote your professional brand is headline. You can use your current job title or anything you like that will attract other people to read through your profile. The headline is one of the most important branding tool because it can be used to get the right people to look at your profile.

Other ways to promote your brand on LinkedIn include the volunteer section, interest section, experience and etc. It can essentially be any section on LinkedIn if you use it right. Although these sections are just as important, I believe that the summary and the headline section deserve most of the credit for promoting your professional brand.


Other References
Ryan, Liz. "Put a Human Voice in Your LinkedIn Headline." LinkedIn. N.p., 14 June 2013. Web. 20 Sept. 2013. .
Sundberg, Jorgen. "Do Yourself a Favor and Spruce Up Your LinkedIn Summary!" The Undercover Recruiter. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Sept. 2013.

QR codes: The Benefits and the Limitations

We see QR (Quick Response) codes everywhere. We find them at the mall, at school, on a billboard, on a bus and many more places. They look like barcodes on steroids and give people an easy way to obtain information by scanning them with a smartphone. QR codes are awesome and extremely useful, but they do have their limitations.

The Benefits
QR codes have changed the way that people access information with their smartphone. One of the major benefits of using QR codes is that they are fast. Instead of typing a painstakingly long web address on a small keyboard, you can simply use a QR code scanner to direct you to web address in a matter of seconds.

They are also extremely versatile in the sense that they can be used to redirect people to a web dress, a phone number, a coupon, an image or anything really. People can even obtain Wi-Fi access through them or add an event to a calendar! There is a multitude of ways that people can effectively and efficiently use QR codes and for a more detailed list, you can click this link.

The Limitations
The obvious limitation of QR codes is security. Because QR codes are not human readable, they could lead you anywhere! Of course, you can get a QR scanner to display the URL before you go the webpage, but what good is it if you do not recognize the URL or it is shortened? Would you still go there and risk the threat of getting malware on your phone? No way. To view some of the security solutions, you can refer to the article "QR Codes and Security Solutions". 

The other limitation is that QR codes are not always used correctly. Meunier expresses in his article, QR Codes Work (When Done Well), that “The problem is not QR codes, but rather the many ways in which marketers have overdone them in tragically uncreative ways, and not thought about the ways in which this new tool helps us engage our audience in ways they haven’t experienced before”. Why put a QR code on a billboard, a moving bus, or an ad on television that lasts mere seconds? It does not make any sense and is extremely ineffective. If used correctly, QR codes can very useful.


Other References
"7 Things You Should Know About QR Codes." Educause. N.p., 13 Feb. 2009. Web. 13 Sept. 2013.

Narayanan, Sankara. "QR Codes and Security Solutions." International Journal of Computer Science and Telecommunications 3.7 (2012): 69-72. Web. 13 Sept. 2013.

Social Networking and Security…or Lack of When Promoting Your Brand

The explosion of social networking has revolutionized the way we communicate. 56% of people use social networks and this number only seems to be going up. In this day and age, online presence is extremely prominent so it makes sense for not only people, but also businesses to use social networking as a tool for communication.

Social networking is one of the most efficient and cost-effective ways in order to promote your brand. It is extremely easy to create a facebook page or get a twitter account for your business to easily promote your business. Small or local businesses can get away with not using social networking but it is absolutely crucial for larger businesses to have an online presence in order to promote their brand and communicate with other people. It is one the best ways to create a connections between your brand and other people. Also, it is a great way to get other people to talk about your business and provide feedback. It's great to use tools like Google Alerts or Hoot Suite to track what other people are saying about your company on the web.

            When promoting your brand, it is important to remain consistent in all aspects of your business. First, it is crucial that the business has the same name across all platforms. The website http://namechk.com/ allows you to check if your desired username or url is available on multiple social media platforms.Not only is the name important, but so is the consistency in the voice and the image of the brand. Many companies now have a presence on multiple social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and many more. It is important for people to feel like all these different social networks provide the same brand experience. 

           Social networking is a great tool but with it also comes numerous security risks. Hackers can inject malicious code into a business social networking site. Not only that, but hackers can also obtain access to your account and post as your company like the time when Burger King's twitter account was hacked. Employers also pose as a great security risk because if they make a work-related comment on their social media account, then it can affect the company's image. Lack of a social media account can also create a security risk because it invites imposters to represent your company. Although there are security risks to using social networking to promote your brand, the positive aspects greatly outweigh the negative.