How to Showcase Your Skills in a Socially-Distant Digital World

It’s no secret that the world has changed a lot in recent years. We now live in a paperless, digital, socially distant, remote world where everything is centered around the individual. If you want to be a movie star, you no longer need a film studio or camera crew, rather only an iPhone and YouTube. If you want to be a writer, you no longer need a book deal or publisher, you can self-publish. If you want to be a rock musician you no longer need a record label or fancy multi-figure studio. Heck, you don’t even need instruments anymore if you have a laptop or whatever this ball is…

These days, corporations are looking for successful individuals, rather than individuals seeking successful corporations. You are now the brand, the product and the service. The marketing channels are endless and the sales pitch and the branding are entirely yours to control.

So how do you stand out from the crowd? How do you showcase yourself, your skills and talents in a way that can separate your brand from every other individual’s brand?

Here are 5 ways to present your skills and market your own individual brand in today’s digital society.

1. Social Media Diversification. We all understand the importance of social media presence and networking by now. However, not everyone understands how important their individual social media presence is. In today’s world, individual branding is everything, so the key to utilizing social media to its full potential is to diversify and streamline. Keep your personal social media accounts if you choose, but consider revamping them or creating separate ones for your brand. Consider what imagery, colors, and messages best depict your brand, and don’t stray from that. Think of yourself as a business, product or service, and then envision that business as a separate identity from yourself. What’s my brand’s favorite color? What kind of social activities does my brand like? What values and issues does my brand care about? What music does my brand like? Then, create all your social media channels in this structure, showcasing content within this umbrella and depicting your skills and talents as the products/services your brand offers.

2. The Resume Reimagined. If you are still using a paper resume in 2021, you might as well still be using a rotary dial phone. Thankfully, most people nowadays are using digital PDF resumes, LinkedIn and Indeed, but this is just the minimum you can be doing. If you don’t have a resume website, you’re missing the boat. How about a video resume? Online portfolio? YouTube Channel? Podcast? You really should consider all your options and invest in your brand to the point where others would also want to invest in you. If you have all of these, great! Now get creative with how and where to share these, and share, share, share!

3. The Digital Business Card. Are you still toting around a bunch of paper business cards? If so, why? There are plenty of new options. From plastic or metallic business cards like Mobilo, to NFC enabled, wearable devices such as Linq that can simply be tapped against someone's cell phone and instantly link them to a customizable page that displays your information, products, services, and can even schedule appointments, receive payments and more. The paperless options are virtually endless, so ditch the paper cards and switch to something more convenient and immediate.

4. Two Words: Side Hustle. What do you do when you aren’t working? Do you like to cook, play a sport, play video games, paint or draw? Whatever it is, you can make it work for you! There really is no excuse to separate work from hobbies anymore. You can be paid for both. Create a YouTube Channel and show your skills or teach someone else how to do what you do. Join one of the ever-growing list of entrepreneurial social streaming and sharing sites. I’m not saying you should necessarily start an OnlyFans, but there are plenty of other similar platforms out there now with less controversial emphasis. There's Twitch for gamers, Patreon for musicians, Vocal for writers, and the list goes on. Find a place to showcase your talents and grow a following of supporters and you’ll easily grow your bank account in the process, just by doing what you love.

5. Get What You Give. You’ve probably all heard that Your Network is Your Net Worth, but these days it's much more than who you know, it's what you have to give. Do you want likes and followers? Then go like and follow others. You have to spend money to make money, but you can make back ANYTHING you spend these days. If you know something, show it, teach it and share it with others. If you have something cool, show it off and tell us how you got it. If you earned it, how? If you made it, how? Create content and videos sharing who you are, what you do, what you have and how you got there. Share your stories and your process, people want to know and learn from you, and this will build rapport and a following and can lead to infinite opportunities and financial gain. If you have a voice, use it! The secret to success in the digital world is to not keep it a secret. Share with the world and the world will share with you.

Article by: Ryan Barbin - Digital Marketing and Content Creator - www.rbarbin.com

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