Welcome to the Hugoversity library, a space for our prefects to review PR and marketing-related books that offer insight to our students.
This month, newest Pack member Amie read Leave Your Mark, by Aliza Licht, a book which explains how social media can be used to help build a professional work profile.
The author talks through starting a journey in a new position, from perfecting your CV and constructing emails, to becoming a worthy leader.
Taking a selfie
Aliza describes a selfie as a way of self-reflection, not just a new profile picture. These ‘selfies’ can be used throughout your career to detect if you’re on the right path, help your personality shine in a job interview and to improve being a leader, an employee or an online presence.
An important factor of having a strong selfie is making your CV stand out, and for the right reasons. Aliza has received hundreds of resumes throughout her career and said that an application could be jam-packed with experience from all the best companies, but if the document is poorly written, it’s thrown straight in the recycling bin.
Making sure your CV includes experience that is relevant to the position you’re applying for is important. If you’re applying for a job in PR and marketing, you should probably double check your content is grammatically correct, honest and has a ‘spark’ that makes it stand out from the rest.
Being social savvy
When Aliza started her marketing journey, social media was relatively new and platforms like Twitter and Tumblr were unknown to most people. Fast forward to 2021 and the online world has never been more popular.
It’s important when building your online profile that you’re aware of who can see it, which is everyone who has access to a digital device. When employers are scouting, one of the first things they check out is your social accounts. So, if you’re applying for a job, make sure there’s nothing on your profile that would negatively impact their decision. Or simply set your account to private.
Building successful relationships
Throughout Leave Your Mark, Aliza includes her personal experiences in various jobs and with different employers to offer her expertise of how to be the ideal candidate, employee or leader.
Starting off in a new industry is about putting yourself out there. Networking and attending things like webinars can be a great way to build your professional profile. Even the small things like having your own business card can go a long way to boosting your confidence when you’re feeling a little intimidated.
It’s important to build a rapport with other professionals, employers and colleagues as you never know when you could use a glowing reference, a quote for a story or some advice. When moving up the ladder, checking in with old work colleagues and expressing your admiration for their support can help to keep that healthy relationship going.
But most importantly, when you get to a leadership position, you should always recall where you came from. Remember the stress and nerves that new employees face and that every person’s background and experience is different. How you treat your staff can massively affect their work ethic, productivity and overall mood.
What did we think?
These are just some of the tips I picked up from Aliza’s book and as a newbie to PR myself, a lot of what she wrote has changed my approach to work, how I handle myself, my social media and my overall self-confidence.
I thoroughly enjoyed Aliza’s style of writing and it felt like I was receiving advice from an older sister or work mentor. Her sarcasm and informal way of writing helps to relate to her experience and makes her advice less intimidating.
Although the variety of fonts used on each page is a little distracting!
What did we learn?
I learnt about the importance of having a strictly professional online profile available for employers and how I as an individual should feel confident enough in my work to stand up for myself and know the difference between constructive criticism and being negative.
If you’re looking for advice on how to use your social media in a professional manner, are new to the PR and marketing industry or are interested in some self-improvement, then this book is a great one to pick up.
If you’d like to leave your mark on potential customers with by taking on some social media training, throw us a bone on 01325 486666 or email study@hugoversity.com
