Your Essential Guide to Building Your Brand · Finally, there is nothing like a little healthy...

Your EssentialGuide toBuilding YourProfessionalBrand

How To Make Your uCarenet Profile Stand OutFirst impressions do count!

Today they happen on-line as often as they do in person; and this is your chance to makeyour profile a memorable one.

Your on-line profile is an opportunity to tell your story and build your professional brandthe way you want it. This is your chance to communicate with perspective clients in a way that highlights your strengths and makes you stand out among the competition. To build your brand, and turn that brand into a revenue source.

uCarenet –Your Essential Guide to Building Your Professional Brand 1

Professional Branding is the practice of people marketing themselves and their careers as brands.

Before I provide you with the Seven Elements to Creating Your Professional Brand, I amgoing to explain why it's important to have a dynamic and searchable professional profile.

It's human nature to want to see the face of the person you're communicating with. Beforeyou commit to working with a company or a professional you usually like to know who it isthat you'll be doing business with.

If you use the six elements described below to building your personal brand, I guaranteeyou will place higher in search results and increase your business. It's about leveraging the‘Power of Me’.

At the end of the day, we all like to know a little bit about the people we're trusting with ourhard earned money, and this is no less true for buyers (care seekers) on uCarenet.


On uCarenet the first thing most care seekers will do before they click the “message” buttonis check out your profile. It's important to invest some time and thought into your profile.You want to craft a page that displays exactly who you are and what makes you unique.From your picture to your description, think of your profile as a way to showcase yourself,your skills, and explain why your care seeker should hire you.

So show your true face.

Your digital profile is an asset to building your personal and professional brand. It showsnot just who you are, but how you interact. For a digital profile to be vibrant and robustyou're going to have to do a little more than just have a new photo. You're going to need toshare some of your great experience, and get peers, colleagues and managers to give youstrong reviews and recommendations; independent third party endorsements of why you.

Prospective employers, potential business connections and new clients are searching yourname in advance of your first meeting. Whether it concerns a job in the public or privatesector, you do not want to waste the opportunity to capture the interest of a someonehiring with your page coming up blank.


Your digital profile is a reflection of who you are, what you've done, and what you'd like todo; and social networking profiles are critical for you to rank high in search engine results.By showing up on the first page of search results, whether people search for you by name,by profession, or by services (i.e. caregiver with dementia experience in Waterloo), you havea better chance of being discovered and being hired.

Each social media profile you create is an advertisement for your personal or professionalbrand. This advertising page (landing page) is possibly the first encounter someone willhave with your brand, and you will want that first impression to be golden and make thevisitor want to know more about you.


7 Elements to CreatingYourProfessionalBrand

1: Your Profile Picture

First impressions are critically important, and set the tone for the relationships that follow.Perhaps more importantly, first impressions are extremely difficult to change.

That means that not only will others be looking at your picture, they will likely remember it(and the impression it made on them) more than the text in your profile.

So how do you put your best face forward and show care seekers that they're working with areal person? By choosing a photo that best represents brand "you".

1. Choose a photo that looks like you.2. Make sure your face takes up at least 60% of the frame.3. Choose the right expression.4. Wear what you'd wear to work.5. Choose a background that isn't distracting.


A strong nurturing profile inspires confidence and enthusiasm in care seekers and is animportant part of building your business!

Don't forget, name your photo appropriately before uploading it. Be sure to name the file ...‘yourname.jpg’ or ‘yourbusiness.jpg’ as opposed to uploading IMG0153.jpg. This will helpwith being discovered with search engine optimization (SEO).


2: Your Head Line

It's usually just a sentence or two about yourself or your business. Think of it as a perfectplace to put your elevator pitch and include your main keywords.

I don't mean in a salesy way, but as you would if someone asks you to briefly describe whatyour business is about. What would you say? In ten words or less.

Choose descriptive and compelling keywords that a) make you as marketable as possible,and b) help you get found by the right people. Remember, uCarenet is a search engine.


3: Your Bio

First and foremost: It's not about you, it is you! Write your summary in the first person. Thisis the body of your profile where you really showcase your experience, expertise, and skills.

Focus on writing a clear and sharp description of who you are and then tweak it to make itmore personable within the space limits.

Be sure to fill out your bio to its full potential. When it comes to making your profile standout, it's really about showcasing who you are, why you do what you do, and the principlesthat guide your work.

Treat your bio as an opportunity to introduce yourself to potential care seekers, and sharethe best about you and your brand.


4: Identify Your Skills and Offering

Consider listing your specialty and speaking directly to your audience. If you want yourprofile to be searchable, include important keywords.

This space is where the uCarenet's algorithm searches for key words, so be sure to fill it withinformation you think your target audience is looking for, and to jazz it up with awards oranything that will make you stand out. You can put in keywords that match those of thejobs you are looking for.


5: Your Interests

People hire people, so let them know something about yourself. The languages you speak,your favorite books, hobbies, movies, and so on. A lot of people skip over this, especiallywhen it comes to business profiles, but that is a big mistake.


6: Your Recommendations

Ask for recommendations. Endorsements are great, but recommendations are the best.This is one area that easily fall through the cracks. Yet it is one of the most valuable tools inbuilding up your credibility in the job marketplace.

You have to be proactive about asking for recommendations, following up, and keeping ontop of it. Recommendations can be from anyone: bosses, colleagues, mentors and mentees,happy clients, or anyone who has collaborated with you and benefited from your skills oradvice.

Reach out to past colleagues, managers, and associates and ask that they write you arecommendation.


7: Your Links and Promotion

Add links to relevant sites. This varies from one network to the next, but be sure to seekout any opportunity to get your link on the main page of your social profile. If you have awork-related blog or website you must add it. Also, many people miss the fact they can addtheir uCarenet link in the box underneath their profile picture on Facebook.

Finally, there is nothing like a little healthy promotion of your social network profiles tohelp more people find and connect with you, giving you more people to engage with! Besure to add your social networking profile links to:

• Your website.

• Your email signature.

• Your forum signature.

• Your business card.

Also, don't forget to interlink your profiles to each other. If you can share multiple links on asocial profile, make sure some of those are to your main social profiles!


The new reality is you need a digital profile. It's not an option if you are looking to earn aliving, stay marketable, maintain and expand your networks, and grow your business. Sohow will you implement what you just learned to build your professional brand and turnthat brand into a revenue source?


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