Personal branding: Don't forget to be interesting -- Career Center Blog

July 9, 2009

Personal branding: Don't forget to be interesting

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By Randy Woods
NWjobs

So you have accounts with Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. You've got a blog about your interests. You're going to local networking events. Here's one other thing for your checklist: Are you boring people?

I recently spoke with Boston-based media and personal branding expert Dan Schawbel, who wants to remind job seekers that a job search is about more than just organizing data. It's also about making yourself interesting to potential employers. "The level of competition is just amazing," he says. "There are about five job seekers for every job available. You have to do a lot more to get noticed and use everything at your disposal."

Amid this level of white noise, one of the best ways to get noticed is to market yourself -- your personal brand -- as someone to whom other people want to listen. Here are three tips from Schawbel for creating a unified brand strategy to gain the rapt attention of hiring managers:

Provide a complete picture: A common mistake most people make is that they sign up for the Big Three social net sites (LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter) but don't bother to add certain elements, such as a photo or their interests and hobbies. For instance, on LinkedIn (which about three quarters of hiring managers say they use to find quality candidates) it's especially important to fill out every possible detail about what you've done to help out your previous employers.

"A lot of people just copy and paste the bullet points from their resumes and add the years they worked at each job, but they don't the right language to describe their accomplishments," he says. "It's a keyword game on LinkedIn, and you have to add as many as you can."

If you link your social nets to a personal blog, be sure to write about current topics within your specific field. And while controversy can be a bit risky, don't be afraid to include some of your own opinions. "You have to make [hiring managers] interested," Schawbel says. "You have to show them you understand what's moving out there and what's relevant."

Get serious: Sites like Facebook are obviously a fun way to connect with your friends and colleagues. But don't forget that your basic profile can be seen by just about everyone and that there are some parts of your personal life that hiring managers won't find amusing.

"If you're using Facebook for job leads, you should have at least one professionally done picture of yourself," he says. "You look on some Facebook pages and they're using the Joker from Batman or Homer Simpson for their profile photo."

If you think Schawbel is being a Grinch about a little harmless fun, consider this sobering thought: "One in five hiring managers say they use Facebook as a serious tool to check up on candidates," he says. "More often than not, they're using the site to weed them out." Suddenly, those drunken photos at the bar don't seem so funny.

Translate to the real world: As wonderful as social nets are for connecting quickly with large groups of people, they only get you halfway there. You have to follow up contacts with face-to-face meetings. "A lot of new job seekers don't know how to create business relationships," Schawbel says. "You have to be aggressive and communicate clearly. It's like going to a cocktail party. You have to show that you care about what other people are talking about."

Schawbel cites a recent survey showing that 64 percent of recent hires said they got their last job through traditional networking contacts while only 7 percent were hired through online social nets. "Conducting a job search only through technology is just foolish," he says. In fact, he doesn't even like the term "job search." "I prefer 'people search,' because that's a lot more accurate description of what you have to do," he adds.

To gain attention, you have to be the one to seek people out and make them want to talk with you. Schawbel recommends listing the top five companies you want to work for and seek out those people who work in that field. "Twitter is the easiest way to get noticed," he says. "Start following people at the company on Twitter and 're-tweet' their messages as much as you can. Show how you can help them, not the other way around. If you tweet every day, odds are you'll build a following yourself."

Once hiring mangers start looking at your Twitter stream, you have to seal the deal. "Send a direct message to a hiring manager on Twitter about your common interests," he says. "That might turn into an e-mail, which may turn into a phone call and maybe an interview."

For more information on Schawbel's branding advice, visit his site at DanSchawbel.com.

Randy Woods writes about job-search tools, networking techniques and other tips to help you land your dream job.

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Rod Mattson | July 9, 2009 6:21 PM | Reply

Schawbel is right on point when he says not to rely on technology only during, as he says, a "people search." It should be part of the process though.

I would be wary of this "branding" idea of searching for work. To me, it is PR and Marketing people cleverly finding another market for their services. I don't really think we each need to "brand" ourselves.

We want to show our ability to fit in and work well with others, not show we are our own brand.

We really want to work for an organization whose values align with our values, and the work in meaningful and interesting, right?

However, be careful here too. As I read all this advice, it is about what we (the job--person--seeker) wants. Most people are not really interested in what we want, they are more interested in what they want or what you can do for them.

I suggest having information in written form to hand to someone telling them what you can do for them because they (hiring managers)talk to too many people and the out is sight out of mind maxim might apply.

This easily could be in the form of a good resume or mini resume. It's tough going to networking functions where everyone is looking for what they can get for themselves. You might think of going with the mind set of what you have to offer.

Consider the problems and needs of others and find a way to solve or satisfy those problems and needs. I guarantee you that people will find you interesting if you talk in terms of their interests, problems, and needs.

Change your approach and mindset. Help them insead of finding out who can help you.

I'd also be weary of recruiters, they really don't do hiring; however, they do have contacts. Yet, you can establish your own contacts with a bit of effort on your part. Finding work is really more about effort on your part than on anything else.

Speaking of effort and solving other's probems and needs, come to our workshop and exert some effort that will go a long way in helping you find work.

We have a "role up your sleeves" workshop on this type of approach towards resume writing on Wednesday July 29, 2009 in Federal Way, WA at the Best Western Emerald Suites Hotel located at I-5 and South 320th St.

You will develop an excellent communication product to put into the hands of hiring managers.

It is only $39.99 per person because we can do it in a group. It's the power of scale. If you were to come to us individually, we would--and do--charge between $400.00 and $650.00 to write a special resume.

In this workshop, we will show you how to do it yourself because Nobody Can Write Your Resume Better Than You, not even us. (We do it for the busy person who just doesn't want to learn to do it her/himself).

Rod Mattson
www.MattsonCommunication.com

Nikhil Vaswani | July 10, 2009 4:47 AM | Reply

Great tips and very nicely written! Social networking will soon become the most effective way of building your professional career and creating a personal brand. However, one will have to invest time in learning the effectiveness of these sites and ways to use them properly.

By the way, I am new to LinkedIn and have found this resource quite useful. It is a new book called "How to REALLY use LinkedIn" by networking expert Jan Vermeiren. Check it out, you can find a free lite version at http://www.how-to-really-use-linkedin.com/

Vickie Smith-Siculiano, PMP | July 10, 2009 5:05 AM | Reply

SPOT ON! You most certainly have to brand yourself in today's marketplace - even if you work on a team, we are all individuals and are best at our own individual successes - are are not worker ants and it's great to use social media marketing to do that - and check out profiles of some great people, like Dan and also Guy Kawasaki. Good luck and thanks!

Steven Diebold | July 10, 2009 8:56 AM | Reply

I think Dan is spot on. I think people misinterpret brand and branding all the time. When surveyed most people get the concept of brand and branding mixed up and have a lot of garbage attached to the terminology.

The brand resides in the mind of someone else. You have one whether you like it or not. Good or bad. Its there because people are making judgments and making impressions without even opening their mouth or their URL. No URL says something about you just as much as being quiet at a meeting does.

The brand (in this case a personal brand) is the associations or attributes people assign to you when your name comes up.

Are you funny, intelligent, kind, spiritual,etc. So for a job your personality plays a large role in defining the personal brand. People will want to know what it will be like to work with you. After we like someones personality we tend to evaluate their character or value system and then we want to know what they can do for us or what they have done before(which is known as their unique genius). It should be noted I only mentioned a few dimensions here because CONTEXT defines the dimensions important to someone.

The personal brand dimensions for someone seeking a romantic relationship would be different from a job of course. We look for different things because the context is different for the relationship and expectations we have of them. Just like a service or product we are evaluating to buy dictates the important dimensions we will evaluate it on.

The brand is basically a shortcut to allowing someone to make a purchase decision in a complicated world of information we live in. Its our GUT feeling about someone or something. The part called BRANDING is the actual materialization of the brand. These are called branding signals. Your facebook page, dress attire, posture, speech, confidence level, or any other indicator people use to ascertain something about you is a branding signal. If your signals are off then so is your brand.

If you want to learn new and innovative ways to build your brand check out our new meetup group.

http://www.meetup.com/Small-Business-Branding-Bootcamp/

Steven Diebold
Senior Brand Strategist & User Experience Designer
http://www.ideaintoaction.com