Is it beneficial to create and maintain a personal website to cultivate my own professional brand?
Answers
Great question! And the answer is, it depends.
If you are thinking of having a website merely to house your resume, it is probably not going to be an effective strategy. With websites, as with many things, the “build it and they will come” mindset rarely works. There has to be something that keeps the content fresh so that Google - and readers - will keep coming back to your site.
So, if you enjoy writing and are thinking of blogging as a part of your website, or if you speak regularly and use slides that you could upload, a personal site might be a good idea. The “maintenance” aspect is key.
Otherwise, a well-written profile on Linked In makes a great home base for your personal brand.
From my experience, having a solid LinkedIn profile will pay more dividends in getting leads and prospective employers to find you. That plus a great resume that powerfully and effectively communicates your "brand" or major attributes, along with hard-hitting accomplishments with metrics, timeline periods and why that accomplishment was important to the business (e.g. strategic) are the top tools required when looking for that next opportunity.
When I was in my job search, I did create a personal website using Google Sites. It's a fairly easy application to use and it's free. I did not open this website up for public consumption because I did not want others to copy what I did. I did however provide the URL link to prospective employers once I had that initial interview and liked the opportunity. The website provides an opportunity to convey more details to prospective employers over and above your resume and LinkedIn profile...all in a confidential and secure environment.
The real benefit that I found from developing and maintaining my own personal website was the PROCESS of putting it together: thinking about who I am, what I'm really good at, what I really love doing, etc....both on a professional and personal basis…and making sure that my skills, accomplishments and wants all align and support each other. This process helped me improve my resume, my LinkedIn profile and in honing my message about me, which was really powerful during the interview process.