Authentic, enlightening and engaging digital personal branding has recently landed Miracle Sitompul, 21 years old, a desirable job as a company’s key opinion leader. Her job is to support and assist the marketing strategy of the company in social media.

“I am just being hired end of August as a staff who is responsible for influencing a public opinion for the company in social media,” she said before thousands of young viewers during the event jointly organized between ILO and GRID Network, a leading media network in Indonesia, during an interactive session named Boost Your Creativity (BRAVE).

The BRAVE session titled “How to build personal branding in social media”, virtually held on 18 September, was part of the youth festival titled “Reconnect” conducted in conjunction with the commemoration of the International Youth Day. Starting from 12 August until 26 September. It aimed to provide Indonesian youth with practical skills that were relevant with the needs of youth, including skills on building personal branding.

Miracle already had a full awareness about the importance of social branding when she was still at the eighth grade of junior high school. At that time, she just followed an account that she liked but her request for a follow-back was rejected. The rejection made her realize that she needed to improve and manage her contents better in social media.

“I started rebranding myself by better selecting photos and articulating my contents as I realize that personal branding is the reflection of our image. Personal branding is also how to put ourselves out there to get noticed and appreciated for our expertise, values and skills and to allow more people to get to know who we are,” told Miracle.

Linking personal branding with employment opportunities, Deddy M. Kresnoputro, Head of Human Capital and General Administration of IPMI International Business School, explained that, for the last 10 years, the company’s Human Resource Department (HRD) have checked social media accounts of potential employees to further learn about their real characters.

“Each company has its own value. Therefore to find potential employees who share the same values, we also check their social media, examining examine contents and photos posted, types of languages used and social behaviours shown,” stated Deddy.

Therefore, from the point of view of HRD, he suggested the participating youth to post contents that reflected their passions, interests and skills. He also suggested the use of different types of social media for different purposes.

“The HRD will first focus on LinkedIn for professional information. You can develop your digital resume in LinkedIn by highlighting you passion, skills and expertise as well as experiences. Then you can also use other accounts like Facebook, Twitter or YouTube to show your other interests or hobbies. These will help HRD to know you better,” said Deddy.

Both Miracle and Deddy agreed that the key of good personal branding was high self-awareness where posted contents were the true reflection of ourselves. “Be consistent and continue upgrading ourselves with new skills,” concluded Miracle. While Deddy emphasized the importance of ethics. “Always be mindful about ethics in all of your posted messages.”

The Youth Talk was part of the ILO’s skills development programme, providing support to Indonesia in preparing its young generation with industrial-based skills. The ILO’s support was also provided by its two skills projects: the Industry Skills for Inclusive Growth Project (In-Sight) Phase II and the Quality Assistance for Workers Affected by Labour Adjustments (UNIQLO) Project.

Funded by the Government of Japan, the second phase of In-Sight Project aims to promote mechanisms and practical approaches that enable industries and workplaces to become drivers of sustainable and inclusive growth in the Asian region.

Funded by the parent company of UNIQLO, Fast Retailing Co., Ltd, the ILO/UNIQLO Project facilitates tripartite dialogues and provide technical assistance to formulate an effective and comprehensive unemployment benefit scheme as a part of social protection system. The Project will run for two years until 2021.