Welcome to the Real World, College Student!

Now, Go Get Yourself a Headshot

Dear College Student,

Welcome to life as an independent adult – aka, The Real World!

You’ve put in a lot of hard work over the past 12 years, but now it’s time to buckle down, spread your wings, and figure out what you want to do the rest of your life. No pressure… you just need to have it all planned out by the time you graduate in three to five years, give or take an extra semester or two.

As a proud member of Generation Z, you have another job, too; you need to help define your generation! As a post-millennial, you have a blank slate. We already know that you are more competitive, self-motivated, and digitally-savvy than your predecessors, but what will you be remembered for? What will your generation do to impact the world?

The Brand Generation

I’m just throwing it out there, but I think you should call yourselves The Brand Generation. It may sound cheesy, but if you stop and think about it, you really are experts at personal branding. You have taken social media and turned it into customized branding platforms.

For example:

• Facebook – This is where you post milestones and achievements for friends and family. Emphasis on family here; this is the only place your Aunt Alice keeps track of you. Your Facebook posts are always confident, monumental, and somewhat boring.
• Instagram – Your closer friends follow you here, but so do lots – and maybe lots – of random strangers. You post milestones here, too, but this is also where you go to post pictures of your tacos. Every Instagram post is carefully curated and filtered to meet your unique aesthetic guidelines. If it’s not, you won’t post it.
• Finsta – This is your evil Instagram alter ego. On Finsta, you “stalk” people who you’d never follow in real life, post things you don't want Aunt Alice ever to see, and let your wild side shine. If it isn’t crazy, it’s not Finsta-worthy.
• Snapchat – If you’ve still got a Snapchat account, then you must have some long-distance buddies scattered around the globe. You post funny moments here merely to keep in touch. Nothing has to be super-polished or edited here; it’s all about sharing moments with your friends as they happen.
• Twitter – With your 280 ever-so-important characters, you keep track of celebrities, weed through news events, and retweet hilarious one-liners. You know there’s a lot of junk in Twitter-land, but it’s a great place to research your inner gossip-magazine desires anonymously.
• Private Twitter – Much like Finsta, Private Twitter is reserved for the things that you don’t want the whole world to know, like maybe your favorite political pundits or a controversial movement you support. Whatever it is, no one will know it’s you – so you can do whatever you want without the typical spotlight of social media.

Excellent Analysis, But Who Cares?

You should care, as a member of The Brand Generation, that what you are doing online is genius! Not only are you personalizing your message depending on its audience, but you are also tailoring its appearance. You are truly marketing masters – and you probably didn’t even know it!

There’s just one little problem: LinkedIn.

Oh yes, that glorious “other” social media space where you update your resume and like Forbes articles is now important in your life. You may find your future employer here – or they may find you – and you need to have your LinkedIn-persona branded appropriately for this exact moment.

In other words: Go get yourself a headshot!

LinkedIn, just like every other social media platform, is all about perception management. And since you’re about to enter an even “realer” Real World post-graduation, you need to start working on your professional brand now.

A professional headshot is the ultimate marketing tool. It allows you to:

• Define yourself. You can be nerdy, casual, or funky; it’s all about who you are and what you want others to think of you.
• Make yourself memorable. Imagine comparing a professional headshot to one taken on your phone. You’ll stand out from the crowd in the best way possible.
• Fit in. A professional headshot is a blank slate of sorts in its own way. You will look like you can fit into any work culture or environment, which is precisely what the person hiring you will want.
• Expand your network. Would you accept a connection request from some guy with a grainy picture of himself in front of a Christmas tree? Exactly.

Are you ready?

It’s time to harness your inner Brand Generation power and take your branding to the next level on LinkedIn. Show those millennials that you mean business – and you get it – by presenting your professional self in a way that makes their selfie profile pictures look silly.

At Conveyance Marketing Group, we thanked our interns this summer by paying for brand-spanking-new headshots from the headshot gurus at Alimond Studio. That one little picture may help them define their post-millennial futures – or even an entire generation! You never know. We just want them to be armed and ready for what life throws at them next (because we're cool like that).

Are you ready? Now, go get yourself a headshot.

Conveyance Marketing Group is a team of bright, innovative and talented veteran marketers dedicated to big ideas, fresh insights and measurable results. We pride ourselves on taking challenging marketing issues and turning them into opportunities for our clients, on pointing brands in the right direction, and on getting our customers noticed both online and off. From branding to websites to digital marketing, and public relations, we handle all your marketing communication needs! Web Design and Development | Brand Strategy | Inbound Marketing | Social Media | SEO | PR