I wanted to throw out a quick update and let everyone know what is going on.
Last week, you may have noticed that we were missing a podcast and a Web 2.0 Survival Guide. This was entirely my fault as I focused myself on getting moved out of the old apartment and moved into the new apartment. Additionally, a perfect storm formed over my head and struck the productivity right out of me.
I am working on the material right now so please stay with us and look for content to be coming back to the regularly scheduled program.
When I started to go through my strategy, I realized that what I really needed to do was get started with the plan, and get moving now. The more I waited, the less my message was getting out there on the web. So, I made up a list of all the places I wanted to put my name, developed a common fact sheet for myself, and set myself to work on a few destinations each day.
Get Started Today
The only thing holding back your name from getting out is you. Today, we’re talking about how to get from the planning stage into the action phase and getting your word published online. As I did with my own plan, we’ll go through with the list of destinations, talk about the personal fact sheet, and then discuss blogging as a student.
Identify the Online Destinations and Networks
By figuring out which services you feel fits your needs, you can shape the message that you want to convey. If you want to go for an innocent, law-abiding student, don’t go posting a profile on “imacriminal.com” or something like that. The networks that you subscribe to say just as much about who you are as what you say on those profiles.
There are two different strategies you can use at this point. One where you put your name on every account you can find just to make sure you claim your name and someone else doesn’t. The other is to pick and choose which services you put your name on. I took a hybrid approach where I got an account on every service I could find to secure my name and put up basic information. What distinguishes each service is the level of engagement and interaction that I put into the site. For example, I have a MySpace page but I hate the network and what it represents so all you’ll find there is a VERY basic profile so no one can take my name there.
Here are a few services that you can use to get yourself started:
By having one document with your “public information” in an accessible place, you can present a consistent image across many platforms. I will sometimes vet someone against a number of different services before I will interact, follow, etc just to try to get a sense of who they are and what they are about. If they’re two different people (by the way they present themselves) on differing sites, I would be a little leery.
The best thing you could do is to visit the social networking sites that you have now and look at what questions they have on the profile builder now. Then, you’ll make on Word or text document that has titles and the info broken up into groups. From there, you can copy and paste into the pertinent fields within each new service. Some common questions:
About me
Favorite movies
Favorite music
Favorite TV shows
Favorite activities
Favorite quotes
Favorite interests
Favorite places
Education
Contact Info (include a link to your website, discussed next)
Photo (can’t be in a text file, obviously but have a headshot consistently across all sites)
Get a Website… NOW!
That’s right, do it right now, there’s no reason not to. You can get a blog for free and trust me; you can leverage a blog the same way if not better than a static website. Free solutions are also called hosted blogs. This means that you sign up with a company to get a blog, usually http://yourusername.blogcompany.com or some derivative of that. In most cases, you can go ahead and buy a domain name and point it to your hosted blog. For example, I could have http://www.jamesmconnors.com point to http://jamesconnors.wordpress.com if I wanted to.
Buying your name as a domain name is another step along this path of personal branding. Using your first and last name will not only solidify your place online but it will keep others from taking it and possibly letting recruiters find another version of you. It is really simple to buy a domain - head to http://www.godaddy.com and register there. Do a search on Godaddy promo code and you’ll find discounts all around for that.
The two sites that have emerged as the leaders in free hosted blogs are http://www.blogger.com powered by Google and http://www.wordpress.com - quite possibly the most popular blogging software out on the market (all free and open source of course). These solutions will get you up and running, give you some layout and image options as well as let you customize some parts of the html/widgets to give it extra functionality.
If you need more options and are ready to deal with hosting your own, http://wordpress.org is one of the most common platforms available. In fact, most hosts can auto-install or one-click install wordpress for you on your new account. I use http://www.bluehost.com for my hosting but Godaddy.com also has hosting available. I will be going into how to use your new blog more in the Friday issue.
TALKBACK
Do you have a blog? What social networks are you on? Do you have any other tips for getting your name out there? Leave a comment here or on the listener hotline at 206.203.1877 and email at collegetechcentral@gmail.com.
On Tuesday, I gave you a tool box of questions to ask yourself to try to hone in on your inner-self as well as develop a strategy by assessing your target audience. Today, I want to share with you my answers to these questions so that you can see an example of what it would look like - maybe get your own thought processes kicked off.
Who am I and why?
I am a leader because I will talk when no one else will.
I am student because I try to learn something from everything I do.
I am a geek because I sometimes enjoy technology more than other “normal” things.
I am a good person because I always strive to do what is right.
I am an honest person because my first instinct is to tell the truth and do so.
I am a protector because I would give my life for those that I love.
What are my core values? Truth, honesty, reliability, leadership, integrity, achievement, excellence, perseverance, teamwork, courage, loyalty.
What am I passionate about? Technology, service, podcasting, the outdoors, helping others, listening, camping, baseball, friends, achievement.
What am I good at? Communication, technical skills, problem solving, listening, project management, leadership, detail orientation, education.
How would you describe your personal brand now? What do you want it to be? James Connors is a dynamic problem solver with an eye for technology and its positive value. He strives to learn constantly from both resources and personal experience.
What dreams and goals do you have? Professional: I want to grow into a powerful decision maker within a global corporation or organization, such as a CIO.
Personal: I want to be a loyal friend, a good man, a beloved husband, a positive role-model, and a proud father
What does it mean to you to “live well?” Living well means having a job that supplies for immediate and future needs and personal wants. Having a lifestyle balanced between work and play. Being able to enjoy time with friends and family - all while being about to walk into work with a smile because I enjoy my job.
What is your personal mission statement? I will continue to grow and learn in order to make myself a better asset, friend, family member, and man through consistent effort, confronting challenges, and always pushing myself to do better.
Looking, now, to the external factors of your personal brand: the people you want to reach. Again, I will try to address as best I can the basics of audience assessment.
What is their background? The recruiters are people, educated employees. They are probably used to weeding out those that don’t fit - they look for keywords and congruent experiences. They are paid to find good people to hire. They might work with these people in the future.
What is their motivation? They are paid to find good people, the people they find may be the future leadership of their company, they are evaluated by peers and leaders for their performance, they want to find the best. They want to understand who you are beyond your resume and they don’t want to work too hard to figure that out.
What are they looking for? They are looking for someone that is reliable, intelligent, and carries congruent values as their company. They want to find people that fit the job position, that will stay with the company for the foreseeable future, who will reflect well on themselves.
How much effort will they spend looking? They don’t want to search hard. The easier it is to find that person, the better since it means more time to do other projects. They will make sure that the information they find is actually about you and not another by the same name but they aren’t going to do a full background check.
What information do they value? They want to know the stuff that isn’t on the resume. Who are you as a person? Do you work well in a team? Do you have other interests beyond work? How do you treat others? How do you treat strangers? Do you know how to hold yourself or market yourself?
Where are they located? We are in a global society and they can be anywhere. Their culture may hold value on certain characteristics different from my own. They will most likely look for those that are close to the job but may look farther afield for the right candidate. Recruiters may be local to you but placing jobs on the other side of the country/globe.
With whom are you competing for their attention? Everyone. At least, everyone that is in the same field as I am. They can be from India, Europe, Mexico, or right down the road. They will be just as smart, just as witty, just as intelligent.
How will you attract these people to your message? I will use all means necessary to get my name out. Placing well in search engines will be key. Claiming my name on every social network they can search will be key. Making sure that people search engines have the right info will be key.
These are works in process and develop over time. So go out and ask yourself these questions - challenge yourself to give honest and complete answers. You’ll learn more than enough, I promise. Once you’ve gone through these exercises, it’s time to put together a full strategy for establishing your personal brand. In the next installment, we’re going to walk through how to get yourself up to the top, make yourself seen, and deliver the message you want to have delivered.
TALKBACK
What sorts of feedback do you have about my answers? Do you see areas that I can improve? Do you want to share your answers, realizations, aha! Moments? Leave a comment, drop an email to collegetechcentral@gmail.com or leave a voicemail at the listener hotline: 206.203.1877.
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