Building Your Brand with Professional Groups and Meetups

Once we get back to in-person gatherings and meetups, it will be time to hit the networking with extreme professionalism again. There is nothing that can substitute congregating in one space with a bunch of other people from your industry, all there looking to make connections and grow. It’s a great setting in which you can enhance your personal brand and make connections that can win you entrance to the jobs of your dream, the programs of your dream, and the colleges of your dream.

After you’ve put in the work to define and present your personal brand, it’s time to take that personal brand out in public. You want people to know your personal brand is there and it’s serious, right? Here are a few places where you can introduce this seriousness to everyone else in your industry:

Networking Events (Local Industry Meetups)

Networking events are a great catch-all activity for people looking to make connections. Through Meetup.com and EventBrite.com, you can find plenty of free networking events in your area on a weekly basis. These events will be segmented out by type, size, and industry, so you can better refine that ones that are right for you and your goals. With just a few clicks, you can sign up for free and attend (some may require a $5 or $10 entrance depending upon drink and food availability).

When you finally arrive at these events, be sure to bring a few things with you:

• Your business cards. Now is the time to impress people with your preparedness, even if you’re still enrolled in college.
• Your elevator pitch. We are going to look at this in the next chapter.
• Your authenticity: never go to a networking event and adopt this alternative persona that has nothing to do with your actual personality and likes.
• A crisp, clean professional appearance with clothing that is tailored to fit you perfectly. First impressions are lasting impressions.
• A bag of some sort that you can use to collect all of the business cards you are going to receive at the event.

Coming prepared to a networking event will help you stand out from the crowd. You want to be ready to take advantage of all of the amazing connections that are available in the room. The more you network at public meetups, the more likely you will be invited to more private, intimate networking events that require an invite. Make this one of your goals when you’re first getting started.

Professional Groups

Moving past the public networking event is access to professional groups. These are smaller groups that are united around very niche topics related to your industry. In order to gain access to these groups, individuals have to go above and beyond in some capacity to sign up and apply. Here at Honor Society, we host our own professional group meetups that are restricted to our society members. This ensures that only professional, serious networking individuals are enabled to get in on the action. Your time is valuable, which is why we want to host events that will provide you with access to opportunity immediately.

We also proudly host banquets and member trips that provide a more intimate setting for our members:

• Our latest retreat with the Mayor of Los Angeles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5d3evYoziI.
• Our Washington D.C. trip that was provided for members: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8qiDEsjisw.

We proudly host professional groups across the spectrum, as well as monthly events that will make it easier than ever before for you to advance your career. Don’t forget to join the digital professional groups associated with these meetups, which can usually be found on Facebook and LinkedIn. This is where some of the best offers and opportunities are provided.

Facebook Groups

Why should you consider joining a Facebook Group? One of the biggest reasons is to access the visibility that comes with these groups. On any given day, these groups can be buzzing with comments, breaking news, article shares, and more.

Many individuals will sign onto Facebook every day and engage with a couple groups where they can share their new articles and ideas. It kickstarts the conversation, as well as the engagement with the article for better algorithmic rankings.

Groups are more visible since the people who belong to the group receive notifications about new posts. This tends to keep the discussions going, especially since everyone in the group is united around a common passion.

In order to measure the effectiveness of a Facebook Group, consider a few items: active members, good descriptions, and low spam. If you don’t like what you see, you are free to leave the group at any time!

Did you know: you can join up to 6,000 Facebook groups? It’s time to get started!

If you really want to go above and beyond with impressing the members of your industry, consider making your own Facebook group! Let’s say you want to work in digital marketing. Consider creating a group called: “Young Digital Marketers of the Future.” Put time into creating the group rules, descriptions, and graphics. Once that’s done, post it to your page and encourage people to join. Be sure to address pain points that make people more likely to join. You can mediate the group, check the fans, and access some of the best networking in the world. It will take some time, but it will certainly be worth it!