I recently had a chance to virtually sit down and interview Patrick Ambron (CEO) and Trevor Elwell (Brand Manager) of BrandYourself to find out more about this unique product and how professionals can leverage it as part of their personal branding and job search efforts.

How did you come up for the idea for developing your service and what qualifies you to be the best company to develop it?

Well it’s actually a pretty funny story. During college, our founder Pete Kistler was applying for some internships only to find that he was being confused for someone else named Pete Kistler. The problem was that this particular Pete Kistler was actually a convicted felon and if you typed in his name two years ago stories related to how he became a felon were flooding the top ten of Google.

Pete was devastated. Where were all his awards? His great GPA and recommendations? His Achievements? He worked hard his whole life only to be misrepresented by a convict at the moment of truth?

Pete realized then and there that Google was his first impression and it was his responsibility to make sure he was as accurately represented as possible. He also realized this was a common problem. Most people are not accurately represented, and are essentially helpless. If you want to improve your search rankings, you either need to be a tech whiz or pay a company thousands of dollars a year to do it for you. So unless you had a couple G’s to burn or a happen to be a politician with a campaign budget, you were out of luck. Together we decided to change that. We wanted to build something and give everyone the opportunity to get accurate, positive content in their top search results so people can find the real them whether it be for personal branding or their job search.

We are the best company to develop this kind of system for a couple of reasons. First, we understand the problem better than most and we are super focused on helping people control the results for just their name. Which brings me to my second reason: our team of programmers and collaborators is incredibly talented and intelligent. We’re backed with some of the best people in the field like Barney Pell, Founder of Powerset and Microsoft’s Head Search Strategist, who make sure we are doing everything possible to help our users in search engines. Our VP of Engineering, Daniel Chote, has a vast amount of experience in managing the creation of large web-based systems such as ours (he co-founded and was CTO of singlesnet.com before selling it to match.com) and knows how to utilize the skills of our other talented programmers.

Who needs personal SEO?

75% of HR departments are expected to research candidates online. 80 million names are Googled every single day. The short answer is everyone, but we like to focus on those with the most immediate need: Job search applicants, new college grads, entrepreneurs, entering college freshman, or just anyone looking to have a better online presence for personal branding – they all need personal SEO.

How important is it for professionals, whether as part of their job search or for personal branding, to create content to help their SEO?

Simply put, if a professional doesn’t have content, it can’t show up high in search engines. Creating content is very important. We encourage users to create personal profiles (if they don’t already have one) in popular social networks like Facebook or Twitter, and online directories like bigsight.org. These are highly reputable places that anyone can create content on. We also allow users to create a personal site and blog on BrandYourself.

However, having content is only half of the battle; you need to make sure that your content is optimized. This includes making sure the structure and sitemap of your content is centered around your name, so search engines understand that YOUR NAME is the most important thing on the page, and making sure relevant places link to the content so search engines understand it is credible. This is something that BrandYourself automatically does, but you can help the cause too with simple things like making sure your name is in the title of the page, in links to your other pages, and even bolding the name can help as well.

Once you have well optimized content, it never hurts to update and keep adding high quality content. Search engines love content because it makes your page look authoritative to search engines and when someone Googling your name finds your page (which is the main goal after all) you don’t want them to only see a page with your name bolded and in links. Providing them with real, positive content will give you the first impression that you deserve.

What do you see as the future for personal SEO?

As it is becoming more “popular” for people to search someone else’s name on Google (either for hiring purposes, before going on a date, before hiring a professional, etc.) I believe that personal SEO will be something that many more people seek out. If you can control your search results, you can also control the first impression many people have of you- once more people see the power of personal SEO I believe that it will take off.

Final question which I get asked a lot: What is your best advice for people who have common names and are having a hard time getting found in search engines?

One thing that those who have common names can do to stand out in search engines is to differentiate themselves from the pack. Some do this by going by their middle name, including their middle initial or middle name, specifying their profession (e.g. John Doe, Real Estate), or including their location (e.g. Jane Doe Syracuse, NY). These techniques make it easier for those with common names to stand out from among the group. Keep in mind that some things such as your profession or location are subject to change at any given time, it might be safer for those with common names to go with a middle name technique to stay on the safe side.

I hope you are as excited as I am for the launch of this service.  Do you see a value in a personal SEO service such as BrandYourself for personal branding or your job search?  What other services or effort have you done for your personal SEO in the past?  Please share your experiences with us so that we can all learn from each other.  Thank you!

It doesn’t surprise me, then, when I use a tool like ManageFlitter to see who of my followers haven’t been active, I find many people who signed up and haven’t tweeted in months.  That’s why I still get questions from my network like this one:

I signed up to Twitter but never use it due to the fact that I really don’t know what to do or say.

I wanted to spend today’s post to take a step back and look at what should someone tweet about if they are just getting started on the micro-blogging platform.  I also hope it provides value to those of you who may have “burned out” or stopped seeing value in Twitter to give it another try or use it in a more compelling and meaningful way.

Twitter, like any social media site, can easily be perceived as merely a waste of time, so the first order on hand is determining what your objective is in joining social media sites like Twitter.  Facebook is easy to understand because that’s where your friends and family are.  LinkedIn is where your colleagues are.  But what if neither of those people are on Twitter?  This is likely the case for many.  In this case, what on earth should you be tweeting about?

Even if you don’t have an objective for being on Twitter, it is a powerful public platform that can be a consumer’s best friend in terms of finding deals or even potentially getting preferential treatment from customer service organizations.  But more importantly, you can start to create a public persona that goes beyond what your personal Facebook network might be interested in: your personal brand.

That’s right.  Twitter is an amazing way to build up your personal brand because it truly is a case of you are what you tweet.  Are you an expert in something?  Why not tweet about it?  Follow others who tweet about it.  Make lists of people who tweet about it to better view their contributions and provide your curated lists so that others can enjoy it.  Share things that you read about.  Comment on what other people are tweeting about it that interest you.  Engage in a professional discussion on Twitter just like you would at an industry convention.  Better yet, start your own #chat about your profession.

This has an important relationship with another compelling reason why every professional should be on Twitter: You could lose your job tomorrow.  I’ve been in a situation where my position was eliminated merely 14 weeks after I was hired.  And it could happen to you.  When you go through that experience, you realize that you need to create something that no one can take away from you: I came to the realization that that was my personal brand.

When you look at the world like I do, you begin to understand what the U.S. Department of Labor recently reported: “Among jobs started by 39- to 44-year-olds, 33 percent ended in less than a year and 68 percent ended in fewer than 5 years.”  Unfortunately, the analogy for most of our careers is like this revolving door: In one company one day, out again and back into another one tomorrow.  I wish it wasn’t this way, but the statistics prove that many of us are experiencing this in this day and age.

So, where does Twitter fit in?  It is a public platform who’s tweets are being archived by the Library of Congress.  It’s also where more searches are being performed on Twitter than on Yahoo or Bing.  Journalists like David Pogue from the New York Times wrote a book solely based on people’s responses to his questions on Twitter.   Companies pay upwards of several thousand dollars a month (if not more…) to have access to social media monitoring software from companies like Radian6 to be able to monitor what you are tweeting about.

In short, the world is watching you on Twitter.  So what better place to share your expertise with the world?

Sure, there are ways that LinkedIn and Facebook can help build your personal brand.  But the simplicity of the Twitter user interface displays your raw ideas and thoughts more transparently than any other platform.  And it’s all for public consumption.

So just as I said that blogging is the best way to build and showcase your personal brand, tweeting becomes the best way to have your personal brand be found based on the public and viral nature of the platform.

Now that you see the fundamental importance for every professional to be on Twitter, I recommend you start tweeting a combination of the following to help strengthen your personal brand:

• Share links with what you read concerning your industry or profession
• Comment on the current affairs or hot topics of your industry or profession
• ReTweet either of the above from people that you follow
• Let the world know if you are attending a professional event…and share the link!
• Reach out to your industry peers, potential mentors, and thought leaders…you will be surprised how easy it is to communicate with and potentially develop relationships with people that you’ve never met on Twitter
• Join a relevant #chat and participate
• Ask questions related to your industry and see what your peers following you think

This is only a sample of the things you could be tweeting about, but maintaining a healthy flow of relevant tweets and following relevant people will ensure that you will be found, not only by the public but also by people who may be able to help you out on your professional journey.  All it takes is a tweet a day to start.

Twitter truly is the Field of Dreams: Tweet, and they will come.

What do YOU tweet about?

Unfortunately, I don’t see enough of this happening.  Just like many Internet marketers, who only see social media as another “channel” to start broadcasting their advertisements and self-promoting messages, I see some job seekers doing the same thing by blasting the message that they are unemployed in their LinkedIn profile name and status update or mass sending of their resumes to everyone in their network.  The most important concept behind social media is about sharing, and job seekers can also share their experiences with others and actually start contributing and providing value to the community. In doing so, not only will your expertise be publicly displayed for all of those recruiters to see and help establish a stronger personal brand, effective networking with other professionals can now be done on a scale that reaches far beyond your own network.

Here’s another way to look at it: You can’t force recruiters and companies to look at your LinkedIn profile, but you can use social media in becoming more active in a pool of talent so that you can stand out.  You have to be “productively active”—share your knowledge, expertise and experience to the world and don’t boil the ocean with your resumes.

Here’s how to use social media as part of your job search strategy:

Start Blogging

Blogging is the best way to share your expertise the world, and your blog posts now become things that you can share through social media.  You need to build out the business of company YOU, and a completely customizable blog can now become your “company” website instead of your static LinkedIn profile.  Because you’re sharing knowledge and experience for all to learn by, you are not broadcasting nor blatantly self-promoting.  More people will start visiting your social media profiles because they are interested in you for your ideas.  They will start to seek you out!

Still not convinced?  Here are 7 more reasons why you should start blogging, and here’s advice on what you should blog about if you are looking for a job.

Get Active on LinkedIn Answers

Providing one answer a day in your category of expertise is all it takes to share your knowledge with those who need it most.  Find your category, “own” it, and make it  a part of your daily routine.  You never know what may come out of it!  Here’s some etiquette advice on utilizing LinkedIn Answers.

Contribute to LinkedIn Groups

Join LinkedIn Groups for your industry and profession, engage in discussion, and share your expertise for all to see.  Just by spending a few minutes a day looking for relevant discussions to participate on and engaging in them, you are displaying your expertise for a lot of people to see and truly Windmill Networking.  Here’s some additional advice on what LinkedIn Groups are and their value, which LinkedIn Groups to join and the etiquette of LinkedIn Group participation.

Upload Your Work to SlideShare

SlideShare is quickly becoming the preferred destination for professionals to seek out information that is in a PowerPoint or presentation format.  If you’ve done professional presentations, all you need to do is upload them for everyone to see.  If you have expertise to share, all you need to do is create a PowerPoint and now it’s there for the world to see.  There are many stories of small businesses who have found business from SlideShare…it wouldn’t surprise me to hear of a job seeker who landed because they utilized SlideShare as part of their job search strategy.

I will be honest that I am still a relatively newbie at SlideShare, but I plan to start uploading presentations in the near future.  Please follow me on SlideShare to get my updates!

Create a You Tube Channel

Social media provides a lot of opportunities to learn because many companies and professionals are sharing lots of information.  Many people prefer the video format over a written one, so why not take out that Flip Camera or your iPhone 4 and take a video of yourself speaking about your experiences and sharing your expertise?  If you have a chance to speak at an association or meeting, bring your video camera to capture yourself and upload highlights of it to YouTube.  By creating a YouTube channel and simply favoriting the videos that you recommend to others in your industry or profession, you are curating content and displaying your expertise.  Become the “channel,” literally, on YouTube!  Here are 5 more reasons why every professional should have a YouTube channel.

By doing any or all of the above, not only will you have reached many more people as part of your job search than through your traditional broadcasting of your message, people will also see you as a person with expertise, not someone who is merely using social media as part of their job search.  This social media strategy for your job search is bound to lead to greater opportunities and attract more people who respect your knowledge and will be there to help you on your journey.

Any additional advice or experience in using social media as part of your job search strategy?  Please share!

If you are unemployed or soon to be in career transition, there are lots of things that you can be blogging about.  I don’t mean blogging about your job search experience, either.  I’m speaking of things that will help you strengthen your personal brand, appear more attractive to potential hiring managers, and help you get found in social media.

Before I even talk about what to blog about for the unemployed, let’s review the 7 benefits of blogging:

• Blogging is the best way to build and showcase your personal brand
• Blogging helps differentiate you from everyone else
• Blogging brings you new opportunities
• Blogging is the ultimate Pay It Forward
• You’re Already Tweeting…Why Not Add Your Own Original Views in More Depth?
• You Can Start to Monetize Your Knowledge
• Because You Can

By now you are hopefully bought in to the fact that blogging is beneficial not just to those in a job search but to any professional.

Next we should talk about my Golden rule of Blogging: Blog about topics that your target audience is interested in.

If you are looking for a job, your target audience will naturally be the hiring managers at your target companies within a particular industry or profession.  What use is your blog, no matter how useful it may actually be to someone, if it does not stimulate your target audience?   By blogging about your expertise, hiring managers who find your blog will have a solid hold of who you are, what you can do, and how important you can be when part of their company.

So what exactly do you blog about?  If you’re targeting hiring managers, your most natural blogging content should come from your own expertise and experience:

1) Blog About Your Work Experience

The best thing that you can do if you are unemployed is to show off your expertise.  You have probably already prepared for interviews and created SAR (Situation-Action-Result) paragraphs in your resume and LinkedIn profile.  If this is the case, why not use a SAR and create a blog post around it?  Or maybe talk about some of your career accomplishments and takeaways that other professionals can learn from?  Offer insight that will help other professionals in the same situation.  But remember that because of NDAs with previous employers, make sure you do not reveal any information that would violate agreements that you have already concluded with past companies you have worked for!

2) Blog About The Latest News

Another strategy is to blog reactively to news about your industry and/or profession.  If you don’t know them by now, get to know the websites and blogs which feature news and current events about your field of expertise.  More than just offering your own insights to all of these happenings and giving the public your own opinion, why not take it a step further and back up your claims with projects you have done in the past?  This way, you hit two birds with one post: providing your own views and opinions on the matter while leveraging your expertise.  Just like that, you’ll be able to create thought-leadership blog posts that are authentic because you can back it up with your actual experience.  It will also show that you are up-to-date on the latest trends in your industry.

3) Book Reviews

What are the latest must-read books for your industry and/or profession?  Why not talk about the most popular books in your industry or profession, not only showing that you are keeping ahead of the curve but also sharing information and displaying your expertise?  There is nothing as compelling as a convincing book review about your line of profession.  Not many can even find the time to start or even finish reading a book these days (blame it on social media, right? .  Being able to have finished one, understand it and share a certain degree of directed information towards your target audience will obviously help you be seen in a positive light.

4) Industry Exhibitions or Professional Association Meeting Reports

You are still attending these despite your job search, right?  Then write about them and share your experiences and expertise to those that were not able to attend!

If you remember the golden rule of blogging, you can see that there really is never a lack of things to blog about, even for those that are in a job search.   The Internet itself provides a huge pool of opportunities for you to find something to reactively blog about.  That being said, if you run out of things to blog about, you may want to start slow.  I suggest starting to blog once a week, and if you run out of content to blog about, then that may be a sign that you need to be reading more books or attending more professional events!!!

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First of all, I know what you’re saying: between LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and reading blogs, I am exhausted!  Yes, social media can be overwhelming, and this is why you need to create social media boundaries.  But as we become more active users of social media, some new niche social networking sites such as Brazen Careerist, Amplify, and Business Exchange have appeared that have compelling value propositions when compared to more “general” social media sites.  What targeted demographic does Business Exchange appeal to?  The LinkedIn user.

LinkedIn, as you already know, is the site for every professional to find and be found.  I always mention that the trend of social media is about the growing convergence of where we go for communication and information.  LinkedIn excels on the communication side, but it may not be the first place to look for the latest information when compared to Twitter (albeit LinkedIn is trying to change this with their recent introduction of new sharing features).

This is where Business Exchange shines: it is THE place to find out the latest news on anything business-related, vetted by its professional users and categorized to make it easy for you, the user, to find relevant information quickly.  That’s Business Exchange in a nutshell; here are the 6 compelling reasons to become a Business Exchange user if you are not already sold on the idea:

1.) Easily Import Your LinkedIn Profile

If you are already on LinkedIn, rest assured that you are not reinventing the wheel when you use Business Exchange: you can seamlessly and easily connect with your LinkedIn profile and import all of your profile information into Business Exchange.  This makes it very easy for the LinkedIn user to get set up with a rich profile on Business Exchange in a matter of minutes.  It also means that your professional branding is 100% portable.  Ease of getting started is one reason to at least establish a presence on Business Exchange.

2) Where the Professional Demographic Truly is

Some think that LinkedIn has become flooded with the job seeker and recruiter.  A client I was talking to today reminded me that most people see activity on LinkedIn equivalent to searching for a job.  While any social media site will have its share of any particular demographic, just by looking at the featured users and popular contributors will make it clear that Business Exchange has a demographic that is executive and professional-centric.  For instance, let’s look at the most active users in a topic that I also contribute to: Social Media Marketing.  As I write this, the most active contributors are four thought leaders in social media, including John Jantsch of the famous Duct Tape Marketing, as well as a Senior Vice President of Public Relations & Communications.  In fact, here are the titles of users I randomly selected who’s names begin with “Neal”: Business VOIP Specialist, Principal, Vice President of Sales & Business Development, Chief Investment Officer, Managing Director, CEO, Owner, Business Systems Analyst, Account Executive, IT Manager, and another Principal.  If you are an Executive or would like to be part of a social networking site that has a very professional demographic, this is the social networking site for you.

3) Completely Free of Spam

The potential problem with every social networking site is the potential to be spammed.  This is where Business Exchange shines: it concentrates only on information and no communication.  You can follow the news updates of anyone you want, and you can “react” to their news posting which may send them a notification in their email box.  But you cannot directly access any Business Exchange user.  Instead, when you navigate to their profile, you have the option of finding their LinkedIn profile, following them on Twitter, or navigating to one of their customizable links.  In other words, you can rest assured that you will not be receiving any spam by being a member of this site!  Furthermore, you can rest assured that your news stream will also not be spammed because all postings must have links…and every posting can be easily reported as spam if it indeed is so.

4) Sharing Information on LinkedIn and Twitter is Easy

With the help of first Twitter and now LinkedIn’s new sharing features we are becoming a “sharing society.”  There are compelling reasons why we should be sharing, which will be content for future blog posts, but you don’t want to have to find something on Business Exchange and then have to copy and paste and navigate over to multiple sites if you want to share it elsewhere.  Business Exchange allows you to easily and seamlessly post your article or reactions and comments straight to LinkedIn and/or Twitter just like you can do with your LinkedIn Status Update.

5) Easily and Quickly Find the Latest News on Professional Subjects

This is the most important value that Business Exchange provides the user.  How do you filter through all of the noise that is out there in social media to find information that is relevant to you?  Everyone who posts information here must post it to a certain category.  For instance, I may want to share an article concerning social media.  If I enter “Social Media” into the category list, I get the following options: Social Media Analytics, Social Media Branding, Social Media Business Failures, Social Media Business Success, Social Media Design, Social Media in the Workplace, Social Media Innovation, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Operations, Social Media Privacy, Social Media Training, Social Media vs Old Media, Conversational Media, Micro-Blogging, Relationship Economy, Social Networking, and Web 2.0 Marketing.  In other words, I can’t just post something to “Social Media” and need to be more specific in the category that I choose.  Because of this, I am forced to correctly classify the article that I am sharing.  You can now see how Business Exchange can help you easily and quickly find the latest news because the information has been properly classified by its professional user base.  In fact, I just counted, and there are 1,699 different categories for which you can share news on Business Exchange!  True, some of these categories are actually Company Names, but from the example above you should be able to ascertain that there are probably specific categories that exist that you have a professional interest in.

6) An Excellent Destination to Strengthen Your Personal Branding

So in addition to being able to potentially network with other professionals and find and share news information, why spend the time to be on Business Exchange?  Sharing relevant information to a targeted demographic is a great way for you to strengthen your personal brand and potentially win a little more mindshare in the world.  Similar to Twitter with its information-centric approach, what articles you point people to will determine how they perceive of you and thus will become part of your personal brand.  The beautiful thing about Business Exchange is, because of the choice of Categories, you can in essence compartmentalize the way people view your personal brand by which categories you post to.  It really is that simple to strengthen your personal brand in a particular category to a particular demographic should you wish to invest the time to do so.

On a final note, some of you may be worried that you are potentially investing your time in a social networking site that may not be around tomorrow.  Business Exchange is run by Business Week which is run by Bloomberg.  Furthermore, it is just one tab away from every reader who navigates to Business Week.  Business Week gets 5 million visitors a month to its site.  Hopefully you can see both why I believe that Business Exchange is here to stay and its potential to become a true source of relevant information for the professional demographic.

Have you ever heard of Business Exchange?  Have you started using it?  Please do share your experiences and advice below!  Thanks!  And please feel free to follow me on Business Exchange!

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Today’s blog post is written by my guest Jennifer V. Miller. Jennifer is the founder and Managing Partner of SkillSource. She advises executives on how to improve workplace productivity via positive workplace dynamics. Jennifer blogs at The People Equation and considers her old-school professionalism a key to her personal brand. Follow her on Twitter: @JenniferVMiller .

Where did our manners go? According to a Rasmussen poll taken last fall, 75% of adults polled said we’re getting less civilized as a population.  In the workplace, the numbers are equally dismal: according to a Forbes.com article, author Christine Pearson cites research that says 96% of Americans report experiencing rudeness at work. The Digital Age, it seems, may also be the Age without Civility. Nowhere is this more evident than in our online worlds. Instant access to information and the ability to comment behind the safety of our avatars has, in some cases, created an ugly, snarky monster.  Even those of us who resist the vitriol still have questions about how to “mind our manners” online.  What are the rules?  Do I thank someone publicly or privately? Do I even need to thank them at all?

It’s really not the complicated. Yes, there are some different etiquette rules evolving for the social media world, but in general good manners are still good manners.  Princeton University defines etiquette as “rules governing social behavior.” Inexplicably, people seem to forget the “social” part of “social media”, leading to rude comments, thoughtless actions, or spamming. Judith Martin (aka “Miss Manners”) says, “Many people mistakenly think a new technology cancels out an old one.” Simply because our technology allows us to do things faster and with a broader reach, doesn’t mean we should forget the foundation upon which all of this rests: human interaction. So what’s a savvy business professional to do? Go back to the basics.

Exercising proper online etiquette really is as simple as remembering the basics of courtesy. It’s about thinking about the other person’s needs first, using “please” and “thank you” and being gracious in all interactions.

It’s About Them. Above all, etiquette is about helping people feel comfortable, not necessarily about knowing the proper fork to use.  The same applies to social media interactions.  Consider: are you coming across as too pushy, or too self-promotional?  What’s the ratio of your offer for help to your request for help? Think carefully about the way you communicate across social media platforms. Third-party applications like Ping.fm are very efficient, but are they effective?  True, you can quickly post a comment across 3-10 social media platforms—but to what end?   Sometimes that approach may be useful.  Other times, it may just serve to irritate your followers who are on multiple platforms.

“Please and Thank You”. These are still powerful words. Here are a couple of old-school ways that shouldn’t be abandoned, even though some would say they aren’t necessary anymore.

• When asking someone to join your social media network, send a personal note that includes a sentence or two that describes your connection and why you’ve made the request.
• If you’re a blogger, ask permission to use a blog reference. Even if the blogger has a Creative Commons notation on the blog, it’s a good way to build rapport and show courtesy.  Be sure to let the blogger know when your post is published, along with a quick note of thanks.
• If you post photos of someone on Facebook, ask for permission. Yes, this is very old-school, but it’s a rare form of courtesy that will keep you from having a potentially uncomfortable backlash.
• When people help you out, thank them.  If it’s a really big assist, go very old-school and send them a hand-written thank you note.

Be gracious. Being a good sport, even when others aren’t, will serve you well. It’s tempting to want to lash out at a rude comment, but resist. Doing so only brings you down to that person’s level. Strive to maintain a professional and open demeanor, even when those around you do not. Some other pointers:

• Keep in mind that the written word doesn’t allow for tone of voice. It’s possible that the person did not intend for the comment to be rude.
• Remember that social media is public. Anything you say on a LinkedIn discussion group, Facebook wall, etc. open for all to see.  Be professional at all times.
• Cut people some slack.  We’re all still learning the “rules” for social media.  One person’s criteria for “friending” someone is another person’s personal rebuff.

Emily Post, whose name is synonymous with good manners, once said: “Etiquette is the science of living. It embraces ethics. It is honor.” Use this as a guiding principle in your social media use and you’ll build a personal brand for impeccable manners.  It won’t banish the boorish behavior of some colleagues, but it will ensure that your interactions are of the utmost professionalism.

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Personal Branding in a Web 2.0 World is about proactively managing your online identity so that 1) you can be found, and 2) when you are found, you are being perceived in alignment with your brand.  The first step for professionals in social media has been to have a branded presence on LinkedIn, followed by Twitter and/or Facebook (although many people are not as cognizant about their personal brand on Facebook, they should be).

Over the last several months I have seen a lot of professionals rightfully start blogging.  Why you should start blogging is the subject for an earlier blog post of mine, but let me simplify by it saying that blogging can be a powerful personal branding tool in that you can share your expertise with the world on any subject you so desire.  If you have expertise, why not share it for the world to see?  You become a better Windmill Networker, and it becomes easier to find you with all of the content that you add to the Internet.

YouTube can serve as a powerful extension to your personal branding for the following five reasons:

You Can Share Your Expertise in a More Effective Format: Video

You have a lot of expertise to share with the world from your own unique experiences.  By showing off your expertise in a video format, you can be showing off your entire package, not just your writing skills.  Do people say that you present well in front of others or have a knack for speaking?  Is your profession naturally outward-facing?  If so, video may be a better personal branding platform for you when compared to the written world of a normal blog.

Get Found More Easily: YouTube is the 2nd Most Popular Search Engine After Google

Enough said.  If you want to be found on Google, why wouldn’t you want to be found on YouTube?

It’s Easy: You Don’t Even Need Your Own Content to Start!

Buy a Flip Mino for $200.  Record video.  Upload to YouTube via the Flip software after connecting it to your USB port.  DONE!  You have just created your first YouTube video!  Easier way to start?  Just favorite another video that aligns with your brand and it will show it up in your channel.  You can see how this works by visiting my new Windmill Networking YouTube Channel…notice the “Uploads” and “Favorites” on the right.

Helps Further Differentiate Your Brand…Especially if You are in Transition

VisualCV was the first platform for jobseekers to introduce the power of video to us all.  So using video as part of your job search strategy, while not being new, is still considered cutting-edge for a lot of professionals.  Taking this one step further by creating compelling videos on a YouTube channel can only help further differentiate yourself from the crowd…and the people that are competing for the same job that you are!

People Love to Watch and Share Videos!

If there’s one reason why YouTube became as big as it is now, it is because people love to watch and share videos!  Don’t you want this power to work in favor of your personal brand?

I plan to blog more on this in the future, but was I successful in selling you on creating your own Channel?  Any other reasons that I missed?  Let us know your thoughts!

1. Blogging is the Best Way to Build & Showcase Your Personal Brand

Whether you like it or not you are developing an online identity with or without your knowing it.  Just do a google search for your name and watch the results increase.  You can’t fight it, so you might as well do your best to proactively manage how people will perceive of your online identity.  This is what personal branding is all about, and you are in complete control of it through your blog.  If you have expertise that you want to let the world know about, simply start blogging and they will recognize you as the expert over time.  I can think of no better way to build your personal branding than through blogging.

2. Blogging Helps Differentiate You from Everyone Else

As a professional, there are times where you may want to stand out from the crowd for whatever reason.  Could be you’re aiming for a promotion among several contenders at work.  You could be competing in the marketplace for jobs.  Or maybe you can’t control your ambitions and want to be known as THE go-to person in whatever it is that you are an expert in.  There is no better way to differentiate yourself these days than by creating a blog and sharing your expertise for all to see.  Get noticed: Start blogging!

3. Blogging Brings You New Opportunities

To be honest with you, I started blogging because I wanted to Windmill Network.  There is no better way of meeting new people online than to put your thoughts and ideas out there for the world to see, not just those that may happen to see your profile on LinkedIn, et. al.  But something funny happened as I started blogging and getting comments: a lot of opportunities started to come way.  And as I continue to blog, now that my blog has some credibility, more opportunities come my way.  You have to trust me on this one, but once you start blogging, you will start meeting new people and various opportunities will come your way over time.

4. Blogging is the Ultimate Pay It Forward

Paying It Forward is an important part of Windmill Networking.  There is so much that we can do for others, and it can only help our bank account of karma over time.  By blogging and sharing information, you are providing a great service to everyone out there seeking out just the information that you can provide.  Google is the matchmaker here.  Everyone is happy.  Consider blogging as the ultimate Pay It Forward device and start sharing!

5. You’re Already Tweeting…Why Not Add Your Own Original Views in More Depth?

If you are reading my blog I am assuming that you have already started to tweet…if you haven’t do that first!  Why?  Once you start tweeting on a regular basis a funny thing happens.  You start thinking about what you want to tweet about it when you read information on the Web.  You start thinking about what information your Twitter Followers might be interested in.  But maybe you want to start adding more of your own color and opinions but are feeling limited by 140 characters?  Well, Twitter is a micro-blogging platform, so when you’re ready to move up, start a blog page on Posterous or even WordPress.

6. You Can Start to Monetize Your Knowledge

I recently did a webinar on helping entrepreneurs and frustrated job seeking executives to utilize social media to start monetizing their knowledge.  A blog itself will not help you make money, and very few bloggers make enough money to replace a full-time job.  But blogging does serve as a gateway to advertise anything that you may want to create, such as an e-book, webinar, or speaking engagement.  When you are ready to start monetizing your knowledge, your blog should be the home base from which you broadcast and advertise…but in a savvy way that is aligned with social media.

7. Because You Can

If you have enough time on your hands and the creative juices are flowing, start blogging now.  You never know what will happen to you tomorrow!

Did this article give you enough courage to start blogging?  Are you already blogging and want to add more reasons why others should start?  Do tell!

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Image by Steve Rhodes via Flickr

LinkedIn continues to be flooded by the unemployed and executive job seekers.  This is not a new phenomenon, as everyone knows that all of the headhunters and recruiters are active on LinkedIn: establishing an intelligent LinkedIn presence with a consistent brand is free and invaluable career insurance that you can never have enough of.  I’d like to write today on the new tactics that I see being taken by some aggressive job seekers and comment on their effectiveness (or lack thereof).

Since I am a LinkedIn LION, I get more than my share of LinkedIn invitations.  And since many of the unemployed are joining open networking groups like TopLinked and connecting with group members like myself, I receive a lot of invitations from those in transition.  So it surprised me a few weeks ago when I received a LinkedIn invitation from someone who’s name was “FIRST LAST – Active Job Seeker.”  I had seen “Active Job Seeker” as part of someone’s Profile Headline, and I have already blogged about not broadcasting your unemployment status in your Status Update.  But to have it as part of your name is something that really caught my eye.

Well, someone must have written a blog post or spoke about this practice and recommended it to their followers, because since then I have received a steady stream of these invitations with people who add “Active Job Seeker” to their name.  And I really wonder why whoever is recommending this practice is doing so.  I think it is the wrong strategy for LinkedIn job seekers for the following reasons:

1. “Active Job Seeker” is now part of your brand.  Your brand should differentiate yourself in the job market, but in a positive and strategic way.  Do you want to be perceived as a successful executive with a great track record in specific functions in certain industries?  Or do you want people to just think that you are a job seeker?  The difference in the way people will perceive your brand is huge and most likely not to your advantage.
2. By broadcasting the fact that you are an “Active Job Seeker,” you have now just devalued your brand.  Think about it: there is an entire industry of recruiters and headhunters that believe that “Passive Job Seekers” are more valuable than “Active Job Seekers.” You can’t hide the fact that you’re unemployed, but do you need to brand yourself with your current situation?
3. It’s socially awkward.  Would you walk into a networking meeting with a “For Sale” sign hanging from your neck?  I don’t see any difference in actively portraying yourself as an Active Job Seeker as part of your name.
4. You are not found on LinkedIn in this fashion.  And if you are found it may be for the sole fact that you are unemployed.  How do recruiters find you?  Not by looking at your name.  By doing keyword searches, looking at past companies, your education, your successes.  If a recruiter finds you by searching for “Active Job Seeker,” that job may not be something that you’re looking for.  Let’s look at a similar situation that I have experienced: If you are a sales executive and post your resume on Monster or Career Builder, many insurance companies and financial planners will contact you regardless of your past industry just because you are in sales and are unemployed.  You are not attracting the people that you want to contact you.
5. It violates the LinkedIn User Agreement.  Although it is not the same as having a telephone number next to your name, adding the term “Active Job Seeker” clearly, “adds to a content field content that is not intended for such field (i.e. submitting a telephone number in the “title” or any other field).”

I am not proposing that you lie if you are unemployed.  Simply updating your LinkedIn Profile focusing on your branding is sufficient.

There is no need to brand yourself with the fact that you are in transition.

What do you think?  Leave your comment and let’s continue the conversation.

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Image by Jeanna Theodd

LinkedIn Profile Tips.  A lot of people tell you what you should be doing, but what about what you shouldn’t be doing?

LinkedIn is the place to not only find others but also to be found.  And that is why you need a profile that not only helps you get found but also will entice people to contact you once they view your profile.  I see many people making fundamental mistakes that actually work against them in this aspect.  If you’re going to spend time putting together a profile, I assume you want to maximize your chances of being contacted by the right people, right?

With that in mind, I have created an easy-to-understand list of a few things to check for with my reasoning.  If it sounds like an exercise in search engine optimization, you are on the right path.  Just like any website owner, you want to stick out and be found!

1. Not Displaying Your Personal Photo

I wrote an entire blog post about why you should include your photo in your LinkedIn profile, but it all comes down to having social media credibility or not.  There are too many fake profiles on LinkedIn, so you want to show that you are real.  If you have taken the time to complete your online presence on the social networking platform, why wouldn’t you display your photo?  It just raises too many potential questions.  And company logos or photos of pets obviously have no value here

2. Headline is Not Branded Enough

See that space underneath your name?  That is your “Professional” or Profile Headline.  It will appear in search results next to your name, as well as next to any questions you ask or answer.  It is, in essence, your elevator speech in a few words.  Are you just putting your title and company name here?  Don’t!  This is the place where you need to appeal to anyone who finds you in a search result to reach out and look at who you are.  Your Profile Headline is the single most important piece of real estate you have, and you need to brand it as such.

3. Status Update is Not Appealing

This is that “What are you working on?” box that I refer to as a “Status Update.”  Assuming someone finds you and looks at your profile, chances are they are going to be looking at what you write here simply because that it appears just underneath your Headline.  What do you write here?  Many people in transition note that they are looking for a job here, and here is my LinkedIn Status Update Advice for the Unemployed.  What do you use your LinkedIn Status Update for?  It is part of your branding exercise, and it should be something appealing that will both inform the reader of your latest activities as well as hopefully add to, not subtract from, your Brand.

4. Don’t List Enough Companies You Worked At Or Schools Attended

One of the ways you are found is through searches on company names or schools.  If you are only listing your current company and/or not even displaying your college, you are missing out on potentially being found.  Check this out: I did my Junior year of college abroad in Beijing nearly 20 years ago.  I had been out of touch with all of the 15 or so Americans that were there that year.  Two of those 15 have found me on LinkedIn!  And another high school friend who I lost touch with found me this week.  They would not have found me had I not listed my Junior year abroad school and high school name on my profile.  Companies are even more important in that there are potentially more colleagues that may be trying to find you or recruiters trying to network with you!  You may be missing out!

5. Not Having Three Recommendations

This is the same as not displaying your personal photo.  Why?  When you sign up for LinkedIn and first fill out your profile, LinkedIn recommends that you write three LinkedIn Recommendations.  You need to do this in order to get your Profile to 100% Completion.  Job postings on LinkedIn similarly require three recommendations.  These recommendations can only work in your favor, so why don’t you have at least three of them?

6. Too Few Connections

This is a topic for debate, but too many people have too few connections on their profile, and thus are not getting found.  The idea is simple: when you do a search you will see results from your network.  And vice-versa.  So the more connections you have the more search results you will appear in pure and simple.  Combining this is the fact that Windmill Networking is about finding value in online networking with people that you don’t know.  So what are you waiting for?  If you don’t know who to invite, here are 15 Ways to Grow Your LinkedIn Network as well as 10 LinkedIn LIONs & Super Connectors You Must Connect With!  Better yet, why don’t you join my Windmill Networking LinkedIn Group and consider connecting with some of the group members?

7. Not Listing Three Websites

LinkedIn gives you the ability to list three websites on your profile.  Are you taking advantage of it?  Do you have a Twitter profile or other social networking profile that you want to advertise?  Company website?  A blog that you enjoy reading?  Anything that you would want associated with yourself should be listed here.  You will be adding to the search engine optimization of your own websites just by the fact that you list them here!

8. Not Claiming Your Personal URL

When you sign up to LinkedIn you are provided a public URL which you can then include on your email signature or wherever else you want to lead people to your profile from.  You can customize this when you edit your profile.  Claiming your name here is one of the first things you should have done on LinkedIn.  For instance, I can memorize my LinkedIn Profile URL, which is www.linkedin.com/in/nealschaffer, because I customized the last text to “nealschaffer.”  If you have a common name, make sure you claim your URL before others do!

9. No Branded Summary Rich with Keywords

Assuming that someone finds you in a search result, likes your Profile Headline, and isn’t scared away by your Status Update, the next most important part of your profile will be your Summary.  This is the chance to fully brand yourself and ensure that any keywords that you want associated with yourself are found here.  You also want to write something compelling, just as you would in the Executive Summary of your resume.  This is your stage to tell the world who you are and what you can do!  Utilize it to your fullest advantage!

10. No Job Descriptions

Even if you’ve listed positions at companies that you previously held, it means nothing if you don’t have any job descriptions.  Job descriptions provide you the perfect opportunity to pepper your profile with keywords that will help you get found.  Why aren’t you taking advantage of this?

Did I miss any that you’d like to share?  Let me know!  And if you didn’t make any of the above mistakes, congratulations!  You’re in good shape

For more advice on how to leverage and maximize your presence on LinkedIn, be sure to check out my book!