Facebook Content, Context, and Your Personal Brand

November 22, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Facebook

Social media has become one of the most effective outlets for word of mouth marketing. It provides the venue to interact, discuss, and communicate with a broad audience. It also allows a brand to generate a personalized image that individuals can relate to. Facebook has more than 1 billion users. It is one of the top (if not the top) social networking sites. This, therefore, should be on the top of your list for social networking sites to promote your brand. Users can promote their personal brands using Facebook free of charge. However, this does not mean that it does not come without a cost. Facebook users need to invest quality time and efforts in order to promote their brands successfully. How much time are you able to invest in Facebook? How much time should you invest in Facebook? Personal Branding with Facebook 101  Before anything else, you must determine the purpose for your Facebook site. Do you have a particular goal in mind, such as generating brand awareness, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Personal Branding Quick Tips, Social Media Tagged With: , ,

Taking Time Out to Create New Habits

August 1, 2012 by Leave a Comment
meditation-6

I recently returned from a 5-day meditation retreat outside of Kyoto, Japan. Meditation used to be a regular part of my life a few years ago, but has unfortunately taken a back-seat. Other things have occupied my time and meditating even for just 15 minutes simply became a chore. However, I have felt an urge, almost a calling, to bring meditation back into my daily routine. My life used to be less stressful and much more balanced when I disconnected myself for 25 minutes every morning and evening. I wanted this back. I needed this back. Off the Social Media Grid In the past year I have been grateful for the role social media has played in my life. It has helped me to launch my business, connect with amazing thought leaders, and express my personal brand. It has become part and parcel of daily life - but perhaps too much. Time I could have spent meditating or even just enjoying the present moment has been replaced with tweets, likes, comments, +1s, pins, etc. I can't even … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Discovering Your Brand, Social Media Tagged With: , , , ,

If You’re Not Seen, Are You Not Heard?

May 3, 2012 by 4 Comments
facebook

How often have you heard “you need to be on Facebook”? With Facebook being the largest social networking site in the world, won’t you miss out on a lot of opportunities to connect with people if you aren’t on it? Definitely, yes. But connecting with people on Facebook may take a lot more work than you think. Facebook came up with an algorithm called EdgeRank, which determines what people will see in their newsfeeds. Basically, the most important thing to note here is that only about 16-17% of your fans will typically see what you post. The lack of good response from your audience regarding your updates will mean that your posts will not be seen by most people. Yes, even if you have 500 people who have “liked” your page, it doesn’t necessarily mean that your updates will appear in their newsfeeds. And if your updates aren’t appearing in your audience’s newsfeeds, then how will you engage and connect with your audience? Maybe those who are truly loyal to you … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Personal Branding Quick Tips, Social Media Tagged With: , , ,

Pssst, what’s the password?

March 27, 2012 by Leave a Comment
facebook

This past week a story started circulating that managers were asking for employees or job candidates for their Facebook passwords. An employment lawyer would answer this better, but I am fairly sure this cannot be allowed (at least in Canada) - unless of course the employee is using their Facebook profile to post company information, offers etc. But why would they? Of course the US Senate has already looked at launching in to a probe to see if it violates any laws and other countries are doing likewise. Facebook has jumped in to the fray too, although I am not sure its their domain (pardon the pun!). More importantly what can you be doing right now, before anyone makes any decisions on this? 1. Don't look to be logging on to the likes of Facebook on public and certainly not work computers. You may well have signed an employment contract that includes a clause about your employer having the right to access memory of anything you have accessed on a company computer. And … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Expressing Your Brand, Personal Branding Quick Tips, Social Media Tagged With: , , , ,

Maximize Facebook New Changes for Your Personal Brand

November 10, 2011 by 2 Comments

Facebook has recently made a lot of changes to its platform, with some speculating that most of them are countermoves to the features that Google+ is offering. Though Google+ continues to grow in popularity, Facebook remains the top social networking site with regards to number of users. The recent Facebook changes have been designed to improve the users’ experience as well as the overall site, so that individuals and companies alike can interact with each other better. As a personal brand, you may be worried that these changes can negatively affect your branding campaign, but you can actually use them to your advantage to better interact with your audience and help you promote your brand. But what exactly are these changes that Facebook rolled out? And how can you maximize them for your personal brand? Here’s what you should know. Subscription Button Now, people can subscribe to your page without even being friends with you – all you have to do is enable the subscribe … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Expressing Your Brand, Personal Branding for Careers, Personal Branding For Entrepreneurs Tagged With: , ,

Be Digitally Distinct and Physically Present

November 4, 2011 by 2 Comments
Blocking-Social-Media

Can you imagine going a week without access to your Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or You Tube accounts? Some of us actually make a conscious choice to take some time away from posting on a wall, tweeting, joining a new circle, or uploading a new video clip. We need the time away from our online networks to get out into the real world. Now imagine someone blocking you from your social media networks. You innocently try to log into your account and your access is denied. Such was the case for me on a recent business trip to China. For one week I was blocked from all my accounts - no 'tweets,' no 'likes', no social contact! I literally felt cut off from the world and after a few days it almost felt like symptoms of 'social media withdrawal' had started to set in. Seeing the drop in my Klout just made things worse. Social media had become such a regular part of my daily life that without it I felt naked! Be Digitally Distinct and Physically Present Building a successful personal brand … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Exuding Your Brand, Social Media Tagged With: , , , ,

Expat & International Careers: Social Media is Potentially 6 Times More Influential than a CV or Resume in Hiring

June 14, 2011 by 2 Comments
Megan Fitzgerald, Expat & International Careers Coach

How important is social media to people building expat or international careers? Very. Back in August of 2009 I blogged about the fact that social media is not a fad - its here to stay. It's not only changing the way that we communicate, it's changing how we manage our careers and run and market our businesses. In that blog post I shared a video by Erik Qualman, author of the international best seller, Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business, entitled the Social Media Revolution. Flash forward almost two years and Qualman has created an updated version of the video: Social Media Revolution 2011. Updated statistics reported in the new video: If Facebook were a country it'd be the world's 3rd largest (up from 4th two years ago) 90% of people trust peer recommendations and only 14% trust advertising (up from 78% - advertising remained the same) 50% of mobile internet traffic in the UK is on Facebook Ereaders surpass … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Expressing Your Brand, Personal Branding for Careers, Personal Branding For Entrepreneurs, Social Media, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Top 5 Social Media Platforms for Career Management

May 16, 2011 by 1 Comment

How Social Media has Changed the Job Search I created this video (click hyperlink "How Social Media has Changed the Job Search" to view) originally to demonstrate some pretty fascinating statistics about the power of social media in a job search. However, this information is equally relevant to career management. One of the strategies for establishing your personal brand online includes building profiles on professional platforms. Naturally, if you are working within a company, you will want to adhere to the company's social media policies. Top 5 Social Media Platforms for Career Management How is building and participating on social media platforms helpful in career management? Networking and showing your expertise/thought leadership! Laurie Smith stated in her article, "Using Social Media as a Career Management Tool," there are five main tools that are especially effective for business owners, executives, and professionals looking to manage their career. They … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Personal Branding for Careers Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Tips to Find Your Target Audience for Ultimate Career Success

May 5, 2011 by 2 Comments
Goldfish

We’ve discussed the importance of extracting your brand through the 360 Reach personal brand assessment and personal brand consultation. What are the next steps, though, in leveraging your personal brand for effective career management? Three Steps of Personal Branding 1. Extract: Find out what is unique and different about you and what makes you different than everyone with your same job title. 2. Exude: Determine your target audience (remember, this needs to comprise people who will facilitate you reaching your ultimate goal) and where they “hang out.” If you are a Marketing professional, some platforms may include LinkedIn, Marketing Groups on LinkedIn and Facebook, American Marketing Association, Marketing Profs, and more. 3. Express: Build your personal brand in online and offline activities with consistency and clarity about who you are and what you can uniquely deliver. Tips for Finding Your Target Audience Go to LinkedIn Groups Directory and/or Facebook and … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Employee Brand Activation, Personal Branding for Careers Tagged With: , , , , ,

Expat Careers & Businesses: Storytelling about Your Brand Online and Offline

April 13, 2011 by Leave a Comment
StorytellingOnandOfflineBook

For today's post I’ve interviewed friend, colleague and fellow personal branding strategist Bernadette Martin about her new book Storytelling about Your Brand Online & Offline. The book explains how storytelling can help executives, entrepreneurs and professionals to message and strengthen their personal brand. I had the honor of penning a chapter in the book entitled, “How to Internationalize your Bio”. I want to thank Bernadette for taking the time to answer a few questions regarding storytelling and personal branding. • So Bernadette, how do you define the word “story” and why are stories so powerful? I believe a story is an expression of real and imagined experiences, crafted and woven by the storyteller in a sensory fashion. This can play out in an oral, written, visual or tactical context in a book, movie, poem, song or dance. Stories can be expressed online through vehicles like YouTube, FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Second Life and more. Stories … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Books, Expressing Your Brand, Personal Branding for Careers, Personal Branding For Entrepreneurs, Strong Personal Brands Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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