Home » Blog » Category: Guest Post

The SparkNotes of Personal Branding

Building your brand is a continuous process that will last you your entire lifetime and there are countless ways that you can build and communicate your personal brand both online and in-person.

However, to get you started, I have put together what I’d like to consider a SparkNotes guide for establishing your brand and credibility in today’s career marketplace in 3 easy steps:

1. Get active and get visible online and offline:

If no one meets you or sees you, it won’t matter how strong your personal brand is. Therefore, it is critical that you get both your name and yourself in front of your target audience. Here are some ways to increase your visibility:

o Create a LinkedIn profile and follow the suggested steps to complete your profile 100%, making sure you include your personal brand and pitch in your subtitle and summary sections

o Create a Google account and profile for improved search engine optimization

o Include your personal brand on your resume, cover letter, business cards, email signature, voicemail message and across your other social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook

o Consider creating a personal website or blog site where you can store all of your professional information, including experience, education, skills, honors, entrepreneurial efforts and more

o Join associations or networking groups within your industry, both online and offline, and try attending their events to meet new contacts and build your target network. Be sure to share your personal brand with those new contacts you meet

o Conduct informational interviews with contacts in your target industry or companies (whether or not you’re seeking a job) and share your personal brand with them in your introductions

2. Offer consistent value:

Make sure that everything you contribute is valuable to those with whom you share it and also relevant to and supportive of your personal brand. Consistency is key, for the more consistent all of your own marketing efforts are both online and offline, the more powerful and memorable your personal brand impression will be on all current and prospective stakeholders in your career. Here are some ways you can start contributing value on a daily or weekly basis:

o Tweets

o Comments on other blog posts

o Blog articles or articles for print publications

o Discussions in LinkedIn Groups or in other forums

o Advice via LinkedIn Answers and other forums

o Book or product reviews

3. Develop thought leadership:

As you grow the quantity, quality and uniqueness of your contributions, you may be increasingly considered as an industry thought leader. Here are some ways to support and even expedite your rise to thought leadership:

o Start your own blog with a unique POV on your industry/area of interest

o Found a company with relevant and valuable products/services/resources for the industry

o Publish and offer print and/or electronic publications

o Get quoted in the media by joining HARO (HelpaReporter.com) and contributing advice, experiences and insights to writers and journalists seeking expert sources

o Find ways to bring fellow industry thought leaders together on a project or at an event

o Find ways to contribute to the projects or events of fellow industry experts

o Get recommended on LinkedIn and any other networks where you or your offerings are available and/or collect and display testimonials from customers, clients and partners

Chris Perry, MBA is a Gen Y brand and marketing “generator,” a career search and personal branding expert and the founder of Career Rocketeer and Launchpad.

» Read more...

The Value of LinkedIn Recommendations

LinkedIn recommendations seem to be a dime a dozen. Some profiles show hundreds of recommendations. Do they really matter?

The answer is YES. Here’s why:

LinkedIn is a fairly static social network that relies on the creator of the profile to provide all of their own information. As such, you could, if so inclined, make up your entire work history, education, specialties, etc.

What you can’t make up is your recommendations. (Well, I suppose by an elaborate scheme, you could…). Other people have to recommend you. Hopefully people who have worked with you, managed you, gone to school with you, done business with you, or interacted with you in some meaningful way. LinkedIn recommendations provide us with a means to TRUST what we read on a profile.

Giving and receiving recommendations on LinkedIn may seem uncomfortable or awkward at first. But don’t let that stop you. LinkedIn is built on recommendations, and you cannot have a complete profile without both giving and receiving a recommendation. It’s the norm.

What value does GIVING LinkedIn recommendations provide:

Giving a LinkedIn recommendation is like putting your footprint on someone else’s profile. It is a link back to your profile. It says something about you, about your communication style, about your willingness to give back.

Every time you recommend someone on LinkedIn, you are cementing a relationship with a connection. The person you recommend is more likely to recommend you in return. You are crafting a circle of influence where your word is trusted and you are seen as someone who is valuable as a connection.

What value does RECEIVING LinkedIn recommendations provide:

LinkedIn recommendations are social proof that you are who you say you are. Recommendations can be from a variety of connections who know you in a variety of areas and can provide a well-rounded picture of you as an employee and as an individual.

Receiving a LinkedIn recommendation, especially unsolicited, signals to you that one of your connections has cared enough to take the time to write something good about you. It also should be a signal that you should return the favor.

A LinkedIn recommendation can say about you things that you cannot (or should not) say about yourself. The fact that someone else said them, is equivalent to that person putting their stamp of approval on your profile.

A few hard-and-fast rules concerning LinkedIn recommendations:

  • Only recommend people that you know well.
  • Only ask for recommendations from people that you know well.
  • When requesting a recommendation, give the writer a specific aspect of your work to recommend you for
  • If you can, reciprocate when receiving a recommendation
  • Keep it short and sweet
  • Give more than you get

This isn’t rocket science. People can’t recommend you if you’ve only met them for coffee once or twice. You shouldn’t be recommending them either. Wait until you have something of substance to say.

LinkedIn recommendations are not like those your professor wrote for you when you applied for grad school. They are about a paragraph. Leave out the fluff, and stick to the meat.

The last part is about generosity. Being generous is one of the unwritten rules of success on the social web. When people see that your are recommending others often, and writing really decent recommendations, they will want to get in on the action. Maybe they will recommend you, and then you’ll recommend them, and the circle grows.

So today, go and look through your list of connections, find a few who you know really well and have something of value to tell others about. Write those recommendations and see what kind of reaction you get. You may find it makes you feel good, and it will definitely make them feel good.

Then make it a habit.

» Read more...

Twitter Chats & Your Personal Brand

We all know by now that Twitter is more than just a fun place to talk to people and learn what’s new, it’s also a huge personal brand generator.

Whether it’s Alyssa Milano, a perennial B-list actress with in excess of one million followers and a klout score higher than Barack Obama, or Justin, the 29-year old who’s twitter account @sh*tmydadsays has now been made into a book and a TV series, stories abound of people who have become famous (or more famous) because of their twitter presence.

While you may never have a million followers, it is possible to become known on Twitter, to become an ‘expert’ in your field or even a ‘thought leader.’ I have found a simple tool that is an easy way to gain influence, grow your following and expand your personal brand: the twitter chat.

If you’re not a devotee of chats, as many are, you may have noticed from time to time that your stream fills up with hashtags such as #genychat, #mbachat or #jobhuntchat, and either wondered what everyone is talking about, or gotten annoyed that these tweets keep filling up your stream with something you’re not involved in.

Next time that happens, instead of tuning out, tune in. Search for the hashtag so you can see the tweets in real-time, use a tool like tweetchat.com. That way you will get a feel for what the whole conversation looks like rather than just a few snippets here and there. If it’s a topic you know something about, feel free to join in ~ twitter chats are open to all and generally very welcoming to newcomers.

Here’s a few tips for chats and why you might want to join:

1) Meet interesting new tweeps. Chats usually attract people from outside your sphere, so it is almost assured you will be exposed to some tweeps you have not previously been aware of. If they seem interesting, follow them.

2) Put your two cents in. Like I said, if you know something about the topic, it’s perfectly fine to add your thoughts. You do not have to be an expert on the subject. Everyone has a different level of expertise, so you don’t know who your tweet will help or appeal to.

3) Retweet people. This will give them a chance to interact with you later. It also helps your audience if you are tweeting good information at them.

4) Add a comment to a tweet. Have conversations within the chat…this is the time to engage…everyone is expecting that, they all came here for the same reason.

5) Since most chats move quickly, the more you tweet within a chat, the more likely you will be noticed and pick up new followers. Generally these are people with at least some similar interests and can become valuable new sources of information and engagement. Follow them back.

6) By engaging in chats, you are using Twitter for what it was designed for ~ conversation.

7) There is usually a digest published after the chat with select tweets, along with a transcript of the entire chat. More tweeps who did not get to participate in the chat, but who are interested in the topic will seek that out, and will find you there.

8) Tweet a link to the digest or transcript to your followers and ask them to join the next chat. And make sure to thank the moderators of the chat at the conclusion.

9) Growing a presence among twitter chatters will increase your opportunities to know and be known by influencers within a given field.

10) Twitter chats are fun!

Joining in a twitter chat is a first step level of engagement. Eventually, you may want to co-moderate a chat of your own. To get started, check out this complete up-to-date list of twitter chats. You are sure to find one that fits your interests and goals: http://bit.ly/bOTzCe.

My next post will outline how to create and host a twitter chat.

» Read more...

Has Social Media Lost it’s Sexy?

Every so often I see a tweet or Facebook post that is along the lines of someone “quitting social media” for a period of time. It almost seems they’ve become fatigued with the heavy lifting of sharing, posting, and the commenting that’s necessary to stay relevant in social media. Relevant being a key word.

If you are anything like me, there are long periods where I do great and then there are times when I have extreme peaks and valleys. At any period of time you can catch me racing - posting here, tweeting there, engaging with people through blog comments over there….and then…it drops. Let me tell you *in Bill Cosby voice*– Do as I say and not as I do.

That is the wrong way to stay RELEVANT.

Our lives are busy and sometimes being active in social media is at the back of our minds and for most of us thats ok. For us trailblazers, we must show the way. Personal branding content sources such as this blog and conferences like BrandCamp 2010 are VERY important for this space. It pushes forward use cases for social media and personal branding using the internet. We are the social authority! Scary? Nah.

Is IT still sexy?
Yes. Social Media as we know it – social networking, blogging, location-based services, and real-time-publishing is definitely still evolving. Meanwhile, us who champion the social media cause, we have significant jobs to do. For our personal benefit and for the community. In order to maintain the social media sexy, we need to be consistent and challenge ourselves to pump out GREAT content.

The Internet is still a teenager, at around 15 years old, it is just coming into its own.

Entrepreneur’s, large organizations, individuals, you are all welcome - join the party. We will be rocking for a while.

» Read more...

Announcement: Brand Camp University adds Adjunct Lecturers: @KellyLux & @Riddick3point0

Today Brand Camp University is excited to announce the addition of two new Adjunct Lecturers (Bloggers): Kelly Lux and Lawrence Riddick. They bring a great deal of knowledge and incite from their career experience and we are very happy that they have decided to share content on BrandCampU.com. They will be posting content that is career, social media, and personal branding related. For more information about Kelly and Lawrence her bio have been included below.

Kelly Lux - School of Information Studies (iSchool) at Syracuse University as Social Media Manager

I recently joined the School of Information Studies (iSchool) at Syracuse University as Social Media Manager. My duties entail designing strategies for the social media efforts of the Syracuse iSchool and Syracuse University. I manage SM accounts on a variety of platforms and engage with a set of diverse populations, while building community and brand awareness.

We are forging partnerships with a variety of social media companies in order to build and expand Syracuse University’s presence in this space. It is our intention to make SU the leader in social media among our peers.

I lead a team of graduate and undergraduate students on a variety of social media projects designed to enhance the social media experience of prospective and current students, alumni, potential donors, employers, researchers, educators and the community.

At the iSchool I am a member of the iComm Team which is responsible for internal & external print, social and web communications content and design.

Most recently, I worked in Career Services at SU managing the Mentor @ SU program, making connections between students & alumni for networking, using social media, one on one meetings and workshops to deliver career advice, and planning and hosting networking events across the country.

For more information follow Kelly at: @KellyLux

Lawrence Riddick - Principal at Clarity Consulting & Design

Lawrence is a dynamic marketing professional with over 8 years of experience in helping brands and ideas emerge and evolve. He has working experience in marketing, design, project management, publishing, and writing.
Most recently while at Experience Marketing as an Experience Director, Lawrence helped his team execute and activate hundreds of sponsored events on behalf of General Motors. Prior to Experience Marketing he worked as a project manager in the branded content publishing division of Campbell-Ewald Advertising on publications such Corvette Quarterly and OnStar Magazine.
Lawrence started his career with an entrepreneurial effort as owner of an agency, The Riddick Group, that serviced small to mid-size businesses with marketing communication solutions. In addition to creating marketing plans and ad campaigns for clients, he expressed his design and writing abilities, as publisher of a branded publication for the apparel company DAVERSE in Detroit, MI.

He is currently consulting individuals and small organizations at Clarity Consulting and Design on marketing, branding, and content creation in the web 2.0 space.

For more information follow Lawrence at: @Riddick3point0

» Read more...