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In college, Andy Drish was told that if he started a blog, he would have a job waiting for him when he graduated.

He did just that, and it helped him land a job at Principal Financial Group Inc. and led to him starting his own marketing company.

At the end of an internship at Principal, the hiring manager asked Drish to read “Getting From College to Career” by Lindsey Pollak, a book that she was thinking about giving to future interns. After reading the book, Drish was headed for New York, where Pollak was from, and decided to try to meet with her.

“She told me that she gets e-mails a lot about getting coffee,” he said. “I’m pretty sure the only reason she said yes to me was because in my e-mail signature she could see my website (address), and click and see my blog.”

The posts on his blog weren’t that great at the time, Drish said, but because he had an online presence, Pollak could learn about his personality and see who he was beforehand.

Meeting Pollak in New York was a great experience, he said, one Drish shared with the hiring manager at Principal, who ended up helping him get through the first few rounds of interviews at the company.

“That’s when it all clicked for me,” he said. “That’s when I really understood the power of having an online presence.”

In the current economy, job seekers will use anything that gives them a leg up on the competition, and some experts say now is the best time to start marketing and branding yourself.

“You’re entering a world where the individual is becoming a larger form of media than companies or media platforms even,” said Nathan Wright, founder of Lava Row, a Des Moines-based social media consulting firm.

The idea of personal branding is catching on in the professional world as a way to get noticed by potential employers and as a way for job applicants to persuade them that they are the best person for the company.

“Personal branding would be how you begin to present yourself and your image,” said Tammy Stegman, career coordinator at the Iowa State University College of Business. “It’s something specific about you that sets you apart from others.”

Personal branding is not a new idea; athletes, celebrities and business people like Donald Trump have marketed themselves for decades. But with the rise of blogs and sites like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook, where the average user can create content for the world to see, everyone has a voice in the world of “Me 2.0.”

“With ‘Me 1.0,’ only the corporate spokespeople got media attention and could really voice their opinions to the outside world through traditional media,” said Dan Schawbel, author of “Me 2.0” and founder of the Personal Branding Blog. “But with ‘Me 2.0,’ even if you’re the janitor, the intern, maybe even the manager, you can get your voice heard and make a difference for the corporate brand. Everyone matters.”

Getting started

Schawbel breaks down the process of personal branding into four steps: discover who you are, create your brand, communicate your brand to an audience and maintain your brand.

He said people first need to reflect on who they are, what they have to offer and what they want to be known for in the corporate world.

This changes the job search and forces people to really “get specific.”

“It’s not about applying for a billion different jobs,” he said. “It’s about being very specific about what you want to do and whom you want to do it for.”

One of the biggest mistakes people make when they are developing their brand is failing to be specific enough, Schawbel said.

“They don’t dig deep enough, and they become one of many,” he said.

Stegman said after job seekers learn who they are, they need to start researching whom they want to work for, what the company does and what they have to offer the company.

Then, Schawbel said, people need to start crafting an online presence to communicate their goals and ideas. If this is done correctly, people will be known for what they do and what they can offer so others will come to them for those specific services. He also said people shouldn’t change their brand with every job they get.

“You brand yourself for the career you want, not the job you have,” Schawbel said.

What medium to use

Stegman said a resume is “really your best marketing piece,” and for it to be used effectively, it has to be specific to what the job seeker wants to do and has to offer the company.

Schawbel, though, said a resume should be complemented with a blog because resumes tend to be “static” and only show “what you’ve done in the past.” He said a blog gives people looking for jobs a voice and allows them to elaborate on their ideas for the future.

Social media tools like Twitter can help job seekers create a personality online, and LinkedIn can help people make connections in the business world, Wright said. A blog, though, may still be the best.

“You get more long-form writing, and you can share a lot more,” Wright said.

Drish recommended starting a website, which can be similar to a blog or incorporate a blog, but offers a different homepage in case there are long periods between blog updates.

Who should be branding

There are no age limits on personal branding, and people who have been in the professional world longer already have a leg up, Wright said. For them, the goal is not necessarily creating a new personal brand, but augmenting what their image already is by using online tools.

Schawbel said people who are already established in the business community should weigh where they are at in their career, their income and other factors before changing careers to develop a brand. But, he said people should consider what their dreams are and work toward those on the side, because someday a dream could become a full-time job.

For people just starting their career, personal branding can play a huge role.

“You are going to be looked up (on the Internet) by employers, and if you have a blog and you have an active LinkedIn presence, that’s just an advantage to you over other college students that might not be gravitating to these things,” Wright said.

Drish agreed.

“Everyone in our generation is an entrepreneur,” he said. “Everybody is running their own business, whether they know it or not.”

What to avoid

When sharing information online, it is always best to act with common sense, Wright said, and avoid crossing the line of what information should be private and what can be public. That line, though, is different for each person.

“Everyone has their own line,” Wright said, adding that everyone will judge what people share online differently.

What goes online stays online forever, Wright said, because search engines like Google will archive content when it is posted on sites like Twitter.

Wright said people should ask, “What would you not feel comfortable sharing in large public forums about yourself?” as a general guide.

He recommended that networking be done on LinkedIn over Facebook because it offers a more professional environment.

Drish said among the biggest mistakes he sees people making is doing things online that they never intended to affect their personal brand. One example, he said, is Kevin Colvin, an intern at Anglo Irish Bank who lied to his boss so he could go to a party. Eventually, Colvin was busted when pictures of him at the party were posted on Facebook.

Because media outlets picked up the story, Colvin’s personal brand has been tainted; even today, articles about his mistake come up when his name is put into search engines.

“Your reputation, your personal brand is more than what people think of you,” Drish said. “When people search your name online, it’s the first 10 blue links that come up on Google. It’ll be like their first impression.”