Personal Branding – a personal case study

In January of 2008, I made the decision to start a personal blog about things that interested me in my professional life – technology and communications. I wanted an opportunity to comment and post ideas that were outside the realm of Facebook and my corporate blog at my office. When it came time to seek out my next consulting project, the effort paid off. People I met had read my blog and took an interest in the subjects I was tracking and commenting on. The interviews were extensions to the conversations I had initiated online. I really enjoyed the experience – it gave me an incredible perspective on the power of personal branding and how much it has changed since the advent of desktop publishing back in 1984.

This google analytics chart shows the web site traffic I experienced as I went through the interview process. My conversations were spreading across the company!

A friend (Robert Saric) went through a similar experience last summer. His blog posts generated all kinds of interest that landed him a key contract.

These experiences demonstrate the power of social networking and personal branding. Dan Schawbel has a great personal branding process at this link. Check it out!

The Transparent Generation – Educators Take Note!

I have to admit, I do smile whenever I checkout my nephew’s Facebook pages. His entire life is being documented, minute by minute. So much information is being shared, indexed and made available for those that care, or those that have taken an interest in someone.

Today’s high school and post-secondary students are quite comfortable with logging in, sharing photos, texting updates and sharing their views on self-made or external news. They do have a tremendous opportunity to develop an online persona that can track their every movement from Friday afternoon, to very early in the morning on Sunday.

What about their future professional lives? How are they discovering and documenting their interests, passions and interaction with news (self-made, local or global)? Do they have a working framework that can help guide them through the discovery of their career passions? Where can they validate their unique views or new ideas? Where are they documenting and sharing their projects, outcomes and experiences?

Facebook and Myspace are not the place. Linkedin? Its the network where relationships and work experience matter. Tomorrow’s graduates need a clean break from social networks. They need a place to document their potential as they progress through post-secondary education and beyond.

Stay tuned for more on this topic. Whyhire.me is coming.

Some simple rules to follow with respect to your online reputation

Louis Freeman, a veteran PR professional is getting an online spanking on Techcrunch. I do feel for bloggers that get bombarded with messages that are off-base, off-target or simply inappropriate. Combing through hundreds of these emails is a waste of productive time and can distract one from real news.

PR people are also increasingly under pressure to deliver coverage, and keep lowering their cost of deliver. The net impact? Stakeholder relationship management practices get sloppy or worse, PR people simply start carpet bombing email lists they pull from Cision without doing any research on a person’s current beat or interest.

In this case, it got very personal and the details of the emails back and forth simply got posted on Techcrunch – the email from Louis is not pretty. She made the mistake of lashing out at someone that gets 5% of daily Internet Traffic.

Regardless of who is write or wrong, there is a key lesson to be learned when it comes to email etiquette…especially, when you are frustrated or angry. Follow these simply rules:

- assume everything you ever write could be on the front page of a large newspaper or a website visited by millions of people;

- if you would be reluctant to say in person, what you have written in your email, chances are, the email is in pour taste and will likely haunt you downstream;

- if sending the email to your mother would make her say hummmm…then think again.

There is a reason Google developed Mail Googles for late night emails to former lover – it forces you to do math in your head, and take your mind out of the emotional zone…hoping it will distract you long enough to reconsider or delete the email altogether.

New Ways of Finding Good People

Seth Godin is definitely one of my mentors.

Which Path Do I Take?

I believe those of us that are happy on our career path, have combined 4 key elements;

Personality

Setting up virtual meetings, work or study sessions.