Content curation? Every time I consult with businesses on social media strategy, the theme of content curation always comes up.  I already wrote about why everyone’s content is king on Twitter, because for companies to be considered true resources of information, they need to be sharing content that isn’t always written by themselves.  This is why the role of a Content Czar in social media marketing is so important.  On a professional level, whenever we are sharing a link of resourceful content on Twitter, LinkedIn, or even Facebook, we are playing the role of content curator without knowing it.

On the other hand, we all know how video is a powerful medium and that YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine in the world.  Videos can be a powerful component of a social media strategy to meet many different objectives, and I often recommend my clients to try to include a video in as many blog posts as possible to give readers one more reason to stick around and stay on their website.  If the company doesn’t have their own video, this is where they become curators of video content and end up displaying authoritative videos that best illustrate their point.

A company called ShortForm has now come out with a product that allows us to easily curate and display videos in our websites.

ShortForm allows you to curate videos from a number of sources and easily add them to create a “channel.”  You would expect to be able to add videos to your channel from YouTube videos, which you can do from the YouTube URL or even use their bookmarklet to aid in automatically adding all YouTube videos on a web page while you are browsing.  ShortForm also allows you to add videos that you, or even your friends, posted on Facebook.  I personally only post professional videos on YouTube, but for some who have a lot of Facebook video content, this can now be utilized to help create the “channel.”

Once your channel is created, you can easily drag and drop to arrange the ordering of the videos or remove any at any time.  In fact, the ability to manipulate your channel videos, add new ones, and check out other channels is all available on one long web page so you don’t have to wait for the ShortForm page to refresh.  Very clever!

What do you do once your channel is created?  ShortForm itself will display the channel on its own site for others to watch and curate from, but ShortForm has created widgets in 3 sizes (200, 400, and 740 pixels) which you can easily embed in your posts and pages (you can see mine at the bottom of this post)  or in your sidebar as a widget (mine is displayed near the bottom of my right-hand sidebar).

I believe the potential for content curation in video format is huge.  Think about it: You could create a separate video channel for each category of your blog, and when you don’t have a new or appropriate original video of your own to show, display your ShortForm channel for that category!

If you see value in video content curation, give ShortForm a try and let me know what you think by dropping a comment below.  In the meantime, enjoy my TV channel on social media strategy to see the potential of this vaulable tool

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!

I recently wrote on why you should have your own YouTube channel even if you are a professional and not a company.   Today I want to help you establish your YouTube presence by helping you choose one of the most important aspects of your Channel: Your Username.

I found out the hard way, but here are the facts to consider on the whys and how of selecting your username:

Use Your Primary Email Address to Establish Your YouTube Account

In order to create a YouTube Channel, you need to either use your Gmail account or create a new YouTube account.  Which do you choose?  Whichever you choose, what is important is to make sure you choose your primary email address for your account.  If Gmail is your primary email address, it will be easy to sign in to YouTube automatically when you are signed into Google.  If you don’t have a Gmail account, create a YouTube account using your primary email address.  Why is this important?  YouTube users will be able to search for you and subscribe to your channel 1) if you allow them to find you using your email address and 2) if your email address is on Google, Yahoo, or associated with your Facebook account.  In other words, if you don’t use your primary email address, it will make it harder for friends of yours that are already on YouTube to find you.  You are on YouTube to be found…just as I recommend you do with LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook, make sure you use the same email address that you do when communicating with your friends.  Using any other email address is like reinventing the wheel and not making the best use of your personal network.

Think Long-Term About Your YouTube Username

This is a no-brainer, but there is an important reason why I bring it up: Once you create a YouTube Username it can’t be changed.  Don’t believe me?  Give it a try.  Whatever Google’s reason is for doing this, there is nothing that you and I can do about it, other than deleting the name that you don’t want anymore.  That is why it is best to think long-term about your username and stick with a brand that is as long-term as you are: your name.

What Happens After You Delete Your YouTube Username

If you want to change your name, you do have the option of deleting it as mentioned above and creating a new YouTube username.  However, once you delete a YouTube username, your email address cannot be associated with another YouTube username.  In other words, once you delete it, the email address associated with it is disabled from being able to be associated with a YouTube username.  Tough luck, but unless Google changes the way they do things, you are now YouTube account-less!

The Only Other Workaround: Creating a Second Account

If you made the mistake of improperly branding your original YouTube username or deleted it for whatever reason, you do have an option: create a second account using a different email address.  Since you will have already used your primary email address, nobody may be able to find you on YouTube until you tell them about your channel.  And, obviously, you will not be able to get your previous username which has now been permanently deleted.  However, you can at least being a new YouTube channel with the branded username that you want.

Hope you found the advice useful, whether you are considering starting your own YouTube channel and want to do it right, or you Googled and found this article when you were looking for a solution to the problem.  Since you’ve read this far into the article, please also subscribe to the Windmill Networking YouTube Channel and let me know about your channel as well!

Any other tips that you recommend?  Please tell!

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!