My online personal branding assignment used in my Public Relations Principles class. This assignment is adapted from adapted from A Roadmap for Teaching Social Media by Dr. Karen Freberg. Read more at: MattKushin.com

1. Dr. Kushin, Ph.D.
Shepherd University
Online Personal Branding: Final ProjectOnline Personal Branding: Final Project
Comm 321 Public Relations
Summary
What’s due? Document answering questions in Part 2 below – those sections required are highlighted. This
should all be in 1 document in MS Word format uploaded to “assignment” on Sakai
When’s it due? By: 5pm, Thursday of finals week
Anyone who turns it in by noon, Monday of finals week (early) will get +5% on their grade.
Absolutely no late assignments will be accepted.
Overview
The purpose of this assignment is to help you get started with personal branding and networking online while
applying concepts you learned in class to yourself.
First, read this article – it is worth your time: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/move-over-resume-networking-key-
success-pr-social-media-karen-freberg
Now that you understand the importance of online personal branding, let’s begin.
Instructions
Getting Started (this is for your own use, but you don’t have to turn it into me. However, not working through
this checklist will vastly diminish your success)
Dr. Freberg’s Personal Branding Checklist & Tips
Work through the below.
Who are you as a person?
• What’s your story? What makes you “you”?
• Your background? Hobbies, interests?
• Key experiences, perspectives, expertise that you have to share?
• What are your strengths/weaknesses – and what steps can you take to improve?
Professional passion?
• How are you different from other students, other people who have similar goals or skills than you?
• What are 3-5 topics you can focus on to establish yourself as a thought leader in the community, a
profession, or on social media?
Overarching theme or message you want brands, practitioners and professional in the industry to know?
• What are the main areas of expertise you want professionals to know you have?
• Construct a list of professionals, brands, blogs, Twitter handles, etc. you want to engage with online
o List key influencers in the industry you want to work in – sites like http://buzzsumo.com/ can
help.
o List agencies, brands, etc. you want to work for.
o Are there online Twitter chats, etc. or discussion boards you can join?
What’s Due to Dr. Kushin (highlighted in yellow below):
Part 1: Internship or Job

2. Dr. Kushin, Ph.D.
Shepherd University
Some sites to check (probably your best place to start!):
o Jobs (but look for an entry level position, not manager or director):
 http://jobs.prsa.org/c/search_results.cfm?site_id=2170
 http://meojobsonline.com/blog/project/jobsoftheday/
 SocialMediaJobs.com
 PRSA.org/jobcenter
 prnewsonline.com/resources/pr_jobs.html
 HooJobs.com
Describe: What is the position? You can tell me in a sentence or 2.
1. How does this position align with your existing skill set? Explain.
2. What skills do you need to complete this job? What can you do to work on getting those skills?
Part 2: Map out your personal brand using some of the key terms you learned this semester. In
a document, determine the below:
1. Voice: What is your tone?
a. To consider: friendly, serious, humorous, erudite? How will you show it to the community?
2. 3-5 Opinion Leaders – Using bullet points, list their username, social platform, and a brief rationale.
a. To consider: Who are the people you want to connect with online who can mentor, educate and
be part of your community? Do some searching.
3. Goal: What is your primary goal?
a. Ex: Become a thought leader in the drone racing community; get into grad school, work at a
specific company, become a world famous musician, create a YouTube cooking page, become a
social media influencer in fashion, etc.
4. 2-3 Key Messages & Message Support
a. These are key messages about YOU. That is, what are the key messages about Brand You that
you want to convey to others. And, what evidence do you have to support these messages.
i. They are not about the company itself. They are about YOU.
5. 2 Objectives – for you to achieve your goal.
a. Remember to write S.M.A.R.T. objectives. Your objectives are measurable outcomes you need to
achieve by a point in time that help you accomplish your goal.
i. Ex: Earn an internship with Vanity Fair for summer 2019; Build a following of 3,000
people on my YouTube page by December 2020.
6. Strategies & Tactics – however many you find you need – Recall, a strategy is your plan for achieving your
objective. Recall: And tactics are the steps or tasks needed to complete your strategy.
a. Ex: Strategy: Develop a “College cooking” YouTube series featuring popular musicians on college
radio stations
i. Ex: Tactic: Identify musicians; contact with request to join my show; create episode
schedule; shoot episodes; etc. etc.
Part 3: Build Your Profiles
Step 1: Look over what you’re currently posting on social media. If your social media use isn’t professional, now is
your opportunity to change that.
I use the “grandma test.” That means, I don’t publish anything I wouldn’t have wanted my sweet ol’ grandmother
to see.

3. Dr. Kushin, Ph.D.
Shepherd University
Step 2: While I encourage you to be professional active on many social networks, particularly those relevant to
your goals, you are required to either 1) create a professional, public LinkedIn account for this class or 2) an
about.me page. It must contain:
1. Name your page accordingly (ex: about.me/yourname or linkedin.com/in/yourname). Think about your
professional identity online. If you have a common name, perhaps you want to use a middle name or an
abbreviated version of your name. Ex: Dr. Carolyn Mae Kim uses her maiden name Mae to distinguish
herself, given she has a common name.
2. A professional headshot – don’t have one? Find a friend (maybe someone from this class) with some
photo skills and ask them to take a photo of you. Do not use a casual photo or a photo with people other
than you in it. It must be professional in nature.
a. Tip: Be consistent with your visuals by using the same headshot across your online assets.
3. Tagline (LinkedIn): You can put your title or a tagline instead of your title. Ex: Dr. Kim uses “Developer.
Strategist. Professor.”
4. In your profile section: provide your elevator statement (we worked on this in class. Polish it up as
needed) or a summary of your skills & accomplishments.
5. Enumerate membership in clubs, organization, volunteering, jobs, or other experience relevant to your
goals.
Paste the link to your LinkedIn or about.me page into the bottom of the document you turn into me. Any non-
public pages (meaning, pages I can’t access without a password) will receive a -15%.
Note: If you don’t want this info to stay public, just make it public for the duration of this assignment and make it
private or delete it after this assignment has been graded.
Examples:
Dr. Zhang’s about.me page: https://about.me/ai.zhang
Dr. Kushin’s LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattkushin
Part 4: Execute - Begin engaging your audience and building your brand
Tips:
Be aware of professional actions on social media
• Remember PPCs
• Be humble & generous
• Always think before posting
• Ask for feedback and responses from your community.
To Do
Get connected
Identify the social media platforms most relevant to your field. E.g., Twitter is very popular among reporters;
Instagram among photographers; blogs among writers; etc.
• Follow relevant brands, industry outlets, influencers. etc.
• Follow others who are mentioned among those you respect and admire in your community
• Non-profits, brands, professionals, influencers, etc.
• Find Twitter chats you can join
o Directory: http://twubs.com/twitter-chats
o Popular social media: #HootChat, #SMSportsChat
Pay it Forward
• Think about who you want to reach and share timely resources that they can benefit from.

4. Dr. Kushin, Ph.D.
Shepherd University
o Practice curation:
 Share work of those you admire. The best way to get traffic is to share the content of
those you want to notice you.
 Give credit to originators of content
 Provide comments / feedback on posts by those you want to network
o Share:
 Blog posts
 Resources
 Tutorials
 Lists & best practices
 Podcasts, videos, slideshares, etc.
o Congratulate others on accomplishments and give shout others to others.
• Engage the Community
o Connect with the influences. Don’t be afraid to start the conversation.
o Read and respond/share content from those you’ve identified.
o Seek out mentors. Connect. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.
• Monitor Your Engagement
o Monitor what of your content gets shared, and make more of it/share more of it.
o Respond to comments.
o Show personality
Thinking through the “to do” bullet points above, write me a brief paragraph or 2 describing what and how you
have taken steps/are beginning to take steps towards executing. Paste in screen grabs as evidence when
possible/appropriate to support your points.
Credit: The inspiration for this assignment came from A Roadmap for Teaching Social Media by Dr. Karen Freberg
Several of the tips above are adapted from Dr. Freberg’s book.