Converting Fears to Confidence

Over the past week, Andy and I have spoken at a variety events including:
- a professional development session on social media tools for staff and faculty at Algonquin College;
- a presentation on personal branding for the Algonquin Alumni Association:
- a case study presentation on WhyHire.me at McGraw-Hill Ryerson’s What Really Works: Strategies to Improve Teaching and Learning Conference at UOIT in Oshawa;
- a presentation to Women in Science and Engineering at Ottawa University; and
- an introduction to personal branding to the Queen’s MBA program while on tour in Toronto.

The audiences have been very different, yet the theme of ‘fear’ keeps rearing its head. We are in a period of great change and to many, change is scary. Social media is changing the way we can and are communicating. This in turn will change the way we teach and market ourselves in a competitive market place.

When we present the concept of putting yourself out there by blogging, using Twitter or even possibly producing video, we are often greeted with shock, horror and disbelief. But the power of these tools for communicating and connecting can’t be denied. The hard part is putting yourself out there and giving it a try.

I have noticed over the last week that students are getting their profiles ready for grading. They are changing photos to be more professional, blogging about more mature topics, and altering their positioning pitches to articulate the essence of their personal brands. In other words, they are experimenting and learning. In WhyHire.me our students can face their fears and discomfort in a safe environment. They need to learn about exposing themselves, articulating their offering, and defining their experiences with different forms of media. The program along with help and guidance from their professors, provides them with a place to learn and become comfortable with these new communication tools and trends (blogging, Twitter, photos, video, Delicious, linking, transparency, documenting experiences).

When they are ready to launch themselves into the working world, they simply change their profile setting, and the search engines will do the rest. Until then, they can experiment and become more comfortable with some of the latest communication tools and trends and convert their fears into confidence.

Starting our Co-Op

Amber Naslund, community manager at Radian6 and blogger at Altitude Branding, shared a post today, Social Media is a Co-op.  I like her way of thinking.

Two hours earlier, we were the discussing how our learning content at WhyHire.me has to evolve and develop through collaborative partnerships.  We do not claim to be experts in everything related to our program.  Our team offers great experience in teaching, marketing, coaching, communication tools & approaches and technology development but there are many other pieces to our training that we want to continue to develop and evolve, and we are looking for partners to assist.

So, from Amber’s perspective, I’m starting my co-op.  Over the past few weeks, I have been anxiously awaiting Sue Murphy’s eBook, Creating Video for the Web: Tips, tricks and tools for telling amazing stories.  Sue had been thinking of developing an eBook and we have been looking for some fresh and insightful content to share with our students on the subject of producing video for their profiles.  Sue is making the content of her eBook available on her website at no charge.

This eBook will be a great new resource for our students.  We hope to work with Sue in upcoming months to develop some customized content for our specific application and I will be putting together some new video assignments based on Sue’s content.  The co-op starts.

As Amber Naslund states in her post;

“They’ll build social media like a co-op. Driven by a team united voluntarily, toward common goals, and equally invested in the outcomes.

Collaboration is not just a feel-good buzzword. It’s the idea that our business is built more efficiently through shared knowledge, and shared responsibility.”

I look forward to more collaborative work with Sue Murphy and others with specialties and knowledge that will make the teaching and approach of WhyHire.me more powerful and engaging for our students.  We can’t do it alone.  Well, I guess we could, but like Amber, I don’t think that makes the best product, service or experience for our customers.

Over the Hump & Playing in Their New Sandbox

It’s the end of October and also the middle of midterms for college and university students across the country.  I guess you could say we are over the ‘hump’ of the first term.  Getting over the hump means that we have activity in the WhyHire.me portal.  Most students are 60-75% finished their learning modules.  We are starting to see new photos uploaded, pitches being written, blog posts going up and videos being loaded.  And for the most part, unless you are in one of our classes, you can’t see any of it.

You can’t see anything because you are not in a class that has adopted WhyHire.me as a program and learning environment for personal branding.  Those that have chosen to use the program have closed the doors to the public while they learn and explore the world of social networking for personal branding.  Yes, this generation is very aware of social networks because of Facebook, MySpace and YouTube but they are not familiar or comfortable with using social networks for developing a professional presence.  That’s why we have developed a place where they can learn and experiment with their classmates and professors.  We’re also playing with them in their new sandbox.  We have 14 classrooms involved in business programs at Algonquin College, Centennial College and Carleton University.

I spoke to a few classes recently and here are a few comments from students in the class:

“The presentation was great, I really enjoyed it even though it was pretty early on a Friday morning. I can say it was very inspiring for me, gave me new ideas on to what I can do with me as a brand.”

“After your talk today (which very much inspired me), I was thinking I would film an introduction video of myself for the profile. A sort of visual media piece to make me stand out and inform people of what I’m about.”

“I think the lessons and system are very educational. The creativity and thought put into this system is very much appreciated. It’s about time we started stepping away from just the traditional resumes and use technology to help promote ourselves. Congratulations to you and your team for being so innovative and allowing a new perspective into the education system.”

I’m looking forward to the second part of the term, as more students play, experiment and start to understand the power of the developing their own personal brand.

Looking for work or looking for ways to help?

Over the past few weeks, a theme keeps percolating to the top of conversations with students, educators and industry people. It’s time to make the shift from ‘looking for work’ to “How can I help?” The meaning is completely different. The perspective is mind shifting. Businesses have challenges and problems to solve. The question is “How can I help solve them?” What do you as a student or professional have to offer and how can you help to solve their problems?

Helping people is about taking action not sitting back. It’s about getting your hands dirty and showing people what you can do. I’m not suggesting that we work for free but I am suggesting that, in some cases, you need to be willing to throw something in (an idea or time) to prove you can help. Times have changed and we need to change our approach to looking for work and start looking for ways to help.

Getting Caught Up

It’s been week since I have written a blog post.  Once again, breaking the blogging golden rule but I’m giving myself some latitude because we have been in the middle of officially launching WhyHire.me.  Although in theory, I should have been writing more.  But moving on…

Over the last month, we have launched the second version of our WhyHire.me portal, finished up a 70 page eBook which is embedded in the portal and produced 7 interactive presentations which will be used by teachers and students either in the classroom or as stand alone interactive learning modules.  It’s been a lot of work but rewarding on so many levels.  I really feel that what we have developed a product and program that will has tremendous value for those preparing for their professional lives.  I wish someone had pushed me and asked me the questions we are asking of our students when I was 20ish.  We are giving them a leg up on their careers and a perspective which all knowledge workers need in this economy.

WhyHire.me is being used in 12 classrooms this term.  We are getting the professors up to speed on the technology (social networks) but they will all be ready to fly with the content by the end of the week.  Everyone involved in the program has been very positive, and like ourselves, believe that this program has great value to our students.
Over the next couple of weeks, we will share feedback from our users here.  I will be team teaching at Carleton in the Sprott School of Business alongside Leighann Neilson, so I will have first hand input from the ‘trenches’.

I want to once again thank all our partners who have taken the next steps with us.

At Algonquin College, we would like to thank Wendy Threader, Jim Kyte, Dave Donaldson, Wayne McIntyre, Terry Frederick, Marc Johnstone and Noni Stukel.  Algonquin piloted our program last year and showed great leadership and a real understanding and interest in helping their students.  The Algonquin students in the School of Business are lucky to have people like this behind them.
At Centennial, our thanks go out to Liz Smith, David Johnson, Michael Vourakes and Linda Donville. These faculty members saw the potential associated with the curriculum and the associated outcomes. Their students get to learn how to use social media tools for research, collaboration and online communications – plus the added bonus of each student being able to fire up a comprehensive portfolio of experiences gained at Centennial College.

You Should be Reading Seth Godin’s Blog

I have been a fan of Seth Godin for years. He’s led me down the path of permission marketing, purple cows and leading tribes.  As a marketing professor, I have introduced Seth to everyone of my classes.  As a consultant and business owner, I have applied his teachings and developed better business models and approaches because of them.  What sets him apart from other authors and consultants in his field is that he’s an amazing storyteller.  His short blog posts are both insightful and thought provoking but at the same time they are easy to remember and apply because of the stories he wraps around his teachings.

I’m grateful for his storytelling approach.  It has made me a part of his tribe, a better teacher, and a more astute business person.  I for one have become an information junky.  Not only because of my love for communication and  technology but also because I want to learn.  With all the information that’s out there, it’s nice to find a source that is anchored with an experienced perspective but also a visionary eye while at the same time intertwining real situations and people that pull the pieces together so nicely.

I would recommend that our students, teachers, and any other readers set up Seth in their RSS readers, follow him on twitter (where he announces his blog posts) or just check out his blog regularly.  It’s a good read and one I know you will learn from.

Ian Ford Shares His Thoughts on Personal Branding

Ian Ford was one of the 47 students in our first pilot project at Algonquin College in the Business Administration program. Now that Ian is out looking for work, we thought it would be helpful to get his thoughts on how learning about personal branding and using the WhyHire.me portal have changed his approach to his own job search.

Interview with Ian Ford, WhyHire.me user on YouTube

Personal Branding List – Using all Three Dimensions

I submitted an article to Career Options Magazine early this week and now I have been asked to send a ‘call out box’ that could be a part of the article. At the same time, I have been reviewing a blogging ebook by Darren Rowse AKA ProBlogger.  My article needs a list and the second step of ‘31 Days to Build a Better Blog’ was to create a list post.  Here I go, killing two birds with one post.

Creating Your Personal Brand Using Social Media Tools, title of article

1) Manage Your FaceBook Account. Be conscientious of your privacy setting and what you are using FaceBook for.  What’s your objective and strategy?  Mine is just pure play and socializing with close friends.

2) Grab Your Digital Real Estate.  Grab your name in the popular social media sites including; Flickr, Twitter, Linkedin, Technorati, YouTube, Vimeo, and even FaceBook, I suppose. And if you know you are a natural entrepreneur or moving in the direction of independent consultant, check into buying your domain name. Your name is your brand.

3) Develop Your Positioning Pitch – What makes you different and what can you offer future employers?

4) Tell Your Story.  And make it dynamic like you are.  Use text, photos and video but also include blog posts, Twitter and social commentary. Make yourself 3 dimentional.

A quick reminder that my audience is college and university students and that there is a complete 2 page article that this list is attached to, not to mention, 8 hours of training plus a software portal.

I will post the article when it is published.

Summer Classes & Experiences

We’re over 1/2 way finished our pilot with the Algonquin Sport Business Management program. I have to admit there is a very different vibe on campus in the summer time.  I have been told by students that absenteeism is extremely high which is what I am finding in my class.  I don’t blame these students.  They started the program in September and are in their final term of a 12 month program and we live in a city where winter never ends.  It’s not easy to sit in the classroom for 4-6 hours but…….

Last class, the few of us that were there, talked around transparency issues (putting yourself out there), Facebook privacy, and the basic text elements that are required in a profile.  The focus was on defining ‘experiences’ which includes jobs, internships, projects, and volunteer work.  Many students forget about the project experiences they have pick up while in college. These projects are what make up the ‘Applied’ nature of a college diploma.  And there are often co-op placements, internships or client projects that provide our students with real life experiences that need to be documented in their profiles.

For the students that missed the class, I have added audio to the slides and it’s now available in our Group on WhyHire.me.

Meeting the Sports Business Mgmt Students

It was my turn in class this week with the SBM students at Algonquin. I was thrilled to see a few students whom I had taught 3 years ago in a Business Skills class when they were in the 2 year Marketing program. Andrea Hutchinson, Warren Hovius, Andy Lancefield, and Graham Pelletier were a few of my very first students at Algonquin. They were stunned to listen to the few stories that I remembered about them from our first class together. I explained that marketing is all about stories and as a marketer I love stories.

We started the class with an overview of the personal branding process will be following over the next few weeks. My first goal was to get them clearly committed and engaged in the process of branding themselves. I had the class stand up.  When these students are asked to stand their ‘engagement’ with me changes completely (especially since it’s a laptop class).  Their senses intensify, they are engaged on a higher level, and they don’t quite know what I am going to make them do which makes them more vulnerable. My point was that these students need to stand up when it comes to their careers.  They need to make a commitment and be engaged. It’s not going to be easy out there and they need to do their homework in order to stand out in a changing market place.

We then started the process of ’self discovery’ or the research phase of our personal branding process.  You would never launch a product without research to understand how you are going to position the product.  When we are looking at branding a person, it’s important to ‘Dig Deep’ and ask the big questions in order to define their brand.  We started by diving into personal values and personality traits; the cornerstones of many personal brands.

Next week, we will continue the process of self discovery and move into the process of crafting their positioning pitches in WhyHire.me.