Individuals that want to get ahead in digital PR should use social media to build their personal reputation. At least that was the conclusion of the CIPR Summer Social workshop that I led last week on getting ahead and getting hired in digital.

I included examples from recent graduates such as Ben Cotton, Jed Hallam, Laura Tosney and Matt Watson that have used digital techniques to build their personal reputation during the last two to three years.

Their experiences getting hired into some of the UK’s leading PR and social media agencies are inspirational and worth sharing more widely. Each story shows that irrespective of the economy there is always a market for smart, proactive and motivated individuals.

It’s traditionally been tough for individuals to break into careers in journalism and PR because it took time to build networks and opportunities were limited to the number of pages of newsprint published each day. Networking relied on being invited to the right parties or getting in front of people at conferences and events.

But the web has removed all constraints to content and truly democratised personal networks. Anyone with internet access can become a publisher via a blog, Flickr or YouTube and build a network of followers on a network such as Twitter.

Video job application: Laura Tosney
Laura Tosney developed a beautiful video job application in order to get the attention of 33 Digital managing director Drew Benvie. I challenge you to watch it and be anything but utterly charmed. She got the job.

“Social media allowed me to show a future employer a lot more about my personality and work attitude than I felt I could with a traditional CV. [...] It presents you with so many ways to show people who you are and what you can do, if you’re willing to go after the opportunities,” said Tosney.

Facebook campaign: Jed Hallam
Woflstar’s Jed Hallam created a Facebook page to get the attention of his future employee and persuaded people in his network to leave recommendations. And of course Wolfstar managing director Stuart Bruce invited him for an interview and he got the job.

“[…] the key to starting out in social media was finding platforms that I was comfortable on. For some people this will be podcasting or shooting videos but for me I found Twitter and blogging gave me a comfortable outlet full of supportive and generous people,” said Hallam.

Building reputation through networks: Ben Cotton and Matt Watson
Ben Cotton works in the digital team at Edelman UK. He studied personal online reputation as part of his degree at Leeds Metropolitian University and so you could say that he had a head start.

“Whilst social media may seem daunting at first, providing you are authentic, which means being open, honest and transparent in your conversations, there is a host of opportunities and knowledge out there ready to be tapped into,” said Cotton.

“I’m constantly surprised by the tremendous level of goodwill I’ve encountered from people, who I’m yet to meet in person, but have been willing to answer questions, offer advice and let me know about potential openings,” he added.

Matt Watson used this tactic to build relationships with PR agencies including my own when he was looking for a job two years ago. During his final months at Huddersfield University he reached out to PR agencies that were working in online and social media. Three weeks later we hired him. The rest of the story, as they’ll say in the future, is searchable via Google.