Dear Professor: You have a personal brand and it should be online.

We’re in a tight job market. We all know this, and as universities and colleges cut budgets, shut down hiring and examine current faculty positions, it is becoming increasingly important to demonstrate the value you bring to your position, promote your reputation, and establish a presence in your field of study in the unfortunate instance that you may be looking for a new position.

The question is how? Well, an increasingly popular argument both inside and outside higher ed is that you should really start thinking of yourself – you, your work and your skills – as a brand. You can think of this as a personal  brand, or brand “you”, as a recent article in Fast Company explained:

“Regardless of age, regardless of position, regardless of the [industry] we happen to be in, all of us need to understand the importance of branding… To be [successful] today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You.”

What does this mean in the higher education field? How does it apply to tenured professors and job-seekers alike? The answer begins with developing your presence outside of the confines of your classroom and your department. If all of your best work is housed on your computer or in a filing cabinet, or limited to select publications, you’re not doing so well in developing an accessible professional reputation!

When a student, faculty member, or search committee turns to Google to find out more about you and finds very little, this sends the message that you’re not engaged in actively promoting your work, your contributions, your service, your brand.

You need to tell more people your story, and share your strengths and successes with them. That’s why many are turning to web-based tools that help professors, graduate students and others take their work online and out to a wider audience. Think about the brands you know and use. They all have websites or at least a presence online. So should you!

As David Meerman Scott argues in a recent post about career and professional development, you have to think as a publisher.

Those in higher ed have an advantage in this market, because most are already prolific creators of work within their field.  It’s the publishing that matters- not just your publishing in academic press or research journals, but in ways that are widely available and engaging to a broad audience. Your online portfolio should be searchable online and include examples of your work in many different formats (video, slides, audio, as well as text). Most importantly, it should be unique and establish you as a valuable voice in a crowded field of study!

Getting your thoughts and opinions out into the online marketplace adds value not only to yourself, but to your school as an ambassador of THEIR brand, and the same goes for your department. Job seekers can use this opportunity to become more attractive to search committees, showing that they are forward-thinking, engaged in the wider community, and are already an established and respected voice in their field of study.

So… looking for some ways to get started? Check out the the posts from Fast Company and David Meerman Scott, and read through this handy list of online networking and personal branding tips.

Start by thinking about what makes your work unique, and how you could structure a portfolio both offline and online to show your value in research, teaching and service (the Interfolio Portfolio can help with this). Get engaged in online networks (such as discussion forums) relevant to your work, and aim to become a leading voice, representing your field of work as a whole, your university, or even your department.

Tags: academic portfolio, branding, job search