Academic institutes, in India, as well as abroad, while selecting students for their graduate and undergraduate students, and companies while selective candidates for various job roles, along with checking students on various quality parameters and their academic performance, also give high importance to their activities in digital social life. They want to see and understand what are all activities a student does on these social media platforms. According to a study by Kaplan Study prep, online digital brand, which includes all digital activities by students, influence the decision-making of admission managers.  So, it is very important for students to present their best part on social media, create their personal brand using these online platforms, and maintain that for the long term. 

Each of these social media platforms has a different purpose for its users. For example, Facebook is all about sharing what is happening in your personal or professional lives, however, LinkedIn is only for making business connections. Instagram is all about sharing the soft side of life, fun, and the color of life in terms of photographs or videos. YouTube is all about creating content, both personal and professional which is available to the public to view, comment on, or share. Essentially before starting to use all these platforms, students should understand the aim of these platforms so that they can get the best out of them, to build their personal brands.

Personal branding, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), is “what you’re known for and how people experience you. It’s about bringing who you are to what you do and how you do it.” For students, their personal branding is promoting their ideas, skills, knowledge, competencies, and achievements among their network, universities, or future employers where they want to start their dream jobs. This involves presenting the best part of you - your personality, communication, interpersonal skills, networking skills, hobbies, and passions. However, remember promotion is effective only if a product is of good quality and after-sales services are also good. Similarly, it is critical to developing required behavioral, leadership, and technical competencies; present them effectively on offline as well as online platforms; then continuously strive to improve them. That is the only way to build a long-term sustainable personal brand. As Rome was not built in a day, so for every person, it takes time to build a personal brand, both in the offline world as well as on social media.

At JAGSOM (Jagdish Sheth School of Management) which is part of Vijaybhoomi University, we focus on and help students to discover themself; develop advanced management competencies with new-age specializations like music, law, and data science; and help students to present their skills and competencies effectively to the outer world with an aim to build their own personal brand which is effective and sustainable in long term. JAGSOM is the only B-School in India that has both its campuses – Bangalore as well Karjat campus – AACSB accredited, which is a gold standard in management institutions across the world.