The rise of social media platforms, such as Twitter, in the past decade, has turned personal branding (PB) into a powerful technology within the reach of almost everyone. However, whether PB on social media can improve a candidate’s standing among other equally qualified candidates remains unclear. Using personal branding, individuals strategically present themselves to establish a desirable identity and remedy a damaged one. However, overly used, it may backfire by causing social rejection and doubt since a self-promoter may appear conceited, self-aggrandizing or narcissistic.

To answer this question, we obtain tweets from S&P 500 executive personal accounts and data on executive employment records and the compensation. Utilizing a technical upgrade of Twitter to tease out the impact of self-promotion on labor market outcomes from other candidates’ traits, such as their personalities, we found a more PB-active candidate is more likely to be hired than a less active one. In fact, personal branding may help with the chance of getting a dream offer by more than 30 percent. Moreover, effective self-promotion on social media was more attractive to employers than other characteristics of the executives, including compromising on compensation and experience. Lastly, being active in PB on social media also boosts payment for executives.

Our results suggest that job seekers can generally consider social media PB to improve their job market performance. For social media platforms that help unleash the power of PB, this research also reveals a potential new business model.