Note: For the previous post in this series, “Step 2: Get Comfortable with the Social Web,” see here.
A Note on Personal Branding
In this series, I’ve been avoiding the “branding” word because I think it’s somewhat artificial. You don’t want to be the next Pepsi or Coke. You want to be you, the best you possible. You want to play to your strengths, differentiate yourself from everyone else and emphasize what you have to offer a potential employer.
Of course, you have to think about how all of that will benefit them and help them solve their problems. But all in all, you should work to create an authentic voice for yourself. That’s what reflects who you are. Otherwise, you sound like generic marketing copy –- and who wants to hire that?
That said, let’s move on to the next step in my career reinvention process — getting my name out there and networking. Below are the various ways I leveraged my network and “brand” to find new opportunities.
Surfing Social Media Week
You never know how one thing may lead to another. As a freelancer, I saw that in action all the time. While I was on one job, I’d be offered the next. So when I saw that Social Media Week was being held in Washington, D.C., I went.
What is it? I wasn’t sure, myself, but I figured I should go and find out.
Did I care that I was older than almost everyone else who showed up at the seminars? No. I saw it as an opportunity to ask people questions. What were they doing? Who did they work for? What did they like about it? Did they ever hire freelance writers?
People like to talk about themselves, and I learned a lot from these networking opportunities. But for me, the seminars were the meat and potatoes. Even though I was sometimes out at sea, I started to develop an ear for the lingo. I also started to see how people were thinking about social media, how they were using it, its potential, what it has to offer and perhaps where I could fit in. There were seminars on websites and SEO (search engine optimization), creating content, marketing, advocacy, crisis management, building a strong Web presence, social media and social change. I even listened to an interview with a marketing guru about the importance of being “liked.”
It was like going back to school. I took 10 seminars and, when the week was done, I’d made one strong contact that’s developing into a friendship, learned how to use Twitter and felt much more confident that I was on the right track — that social media is really a communications laboratory and a powerful way to reach people and drive change.
With all of this heady stuff, I realized I had to reinvent myself and build a strong social media presence. Fortunately, I was already off to a good start. But there was a lot more to do.
New Skills = New Opportunities
In recent years, I’d made advocacy videos for several nonprofits and thought that might be an area where I could gain some more expertise –- I could write proposals and marketing pieces for nonprofits. I’d also taken workshops on advocacy and social media at Social Media Week. So I thought I’d gain more expertise at The Foundation Center, which offers regular classes on fundraising and how to use their databases to search for grants.
If you’re not familiar with it, the Foundation Center is a huge library of information about grants, foundations and trends in philanthropy. They have a physical presence in several major U.S. cities, including New York and Washington, D.C. They have a lending library, and you can also access much of their material online, including many of their courses.
For many startups, crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter probably make more sense when it comes to fundraising. But for established nonprofits and people who want to provide services to them, The Foundation Center is an essential resource. It was great taking their workshops while pursuing my job search –- another form of skill building, staying current and doing something I felt positive about. I also liked spending time in a professional space.
My experience there led me to reconnect with a former client who runs a nonprofit. I told her about my experiences at the Foundation Center and that I was looking for writing opportunities, including fundraising. She knew someone who needed help with securing funding and connected us. So, exploring a new opportunity + reconnecting with my old network = my first assignment!
Unfortunately, that lead didn’t wind up panning out. (Still waiting to hear on it.) But it was a start, and it showed that reaching out does make a difference.
Your Blog as a Virtual Calling Card
I’ve been writing a blog for about three years. I put a lot of effort into it, typically spending the equivalent of a day or so once a week to research, write and edit a post. Often that’s also how I’d spend part of my weekends.
I began to see the blog as essential to my effort to reinvent myself as a writer -– it was like a virtual calling card. It also added some structure to my week while I was unemployed and enabled me do what I enjoy: researching something that caught my fancy and then finding a fun way to write about it.
Blogging was the beginning of my effort to reinvent myself. My website was part of that, too. But I had to find a way to invite people to explore my blog and site, and that meant I needed a presence on social media.
How I Learned to Love LinkedIn
At first I didn’t understand why I should care about LinkedIn, and my profile was perfunctory at best. I also didn’t like the idea of a website deciding how I should be presented –- it was organized too much like a typical resume. If I wanted to post something important (say, my new freelance gig), no problem. But then if I decided to connect with a new person, that replaced my post about the gig, and when everything is equally important, nothing is important.
I felt the site was in control, not me, so I pretty much ignored it. That was a mistake.
After reading advice on sites like Career Attraction, I realized that when you’re looking for a job or reaching out to people, almost everyone looks at your profile on LinkedIn. So how you come across there is really important — and I was looking pretty lame. I started to rethink who I was and how I wanted to present myself.
First Impressions Are Everything
The first thing people will look at on LinkedIn is your picture and the headline describing who you are. I wanted a picture that looked professional but interesting, so I ended up using a black-and-white image of myself wearing a suit and tie with a nice smile.
I also worked really hard on finding a headline that would stand out from the crowd.
I was talking with a friend, a former VP of Communications for a major nonprofit, about my job search. I was feeling very frustrated at the time, having tried all these official-sounding but boring titles like “Communications Professional.” I was redefining myself, so I needed to find something snappy that would also tell people what I was about — and something I could back up, too.
My friend’s response? “Bottom line, who are you?”
Thinking of all those times I freelanced as a hired gun, I responded, “I’m a Samurai warrior.” (I think I actually pounded the table when I said it.) “I come in, do my job with excellence, kill the bad guys (tight deadlines, lack of direction, difficult material, etc.), deliver the product and ride on to the next job.”
Maybe it was my passionate delivery borne of frustration, but she said it gave her goose bumps. “That’s what you should write,” she said.
Here’s how it ended up, next to my picture:
Samurai warrior — fighting on your behalf to create killer copy, standout blogging and powerful but graceful video.
A lot better than “Media professional with years of experience writing, blogging and producing video.” Granted, if I were applying for a job at a bank, this headline wouldn’t fly. But I saw myself as working with creatives, so this description seemed fitting.
The third most important part of your LinkedIn profile is your summary. My first stab with LinkedIn ignored that part — another big mistake, given that most people spend just a few seconds checking you out.
Here’s where I could take the Samurai warrior concept to the next level:
I wield my keyboard to enhance your brand, educate your people, motivate your audience, celebrate your heroes and inspire change.
There’s a little more copy and contact information, but you get the idea.
Why LinkedIn Groups Rock
Joining groups on LinkedIn is another great way to get your name out there. Every time I write a new blog post, I post it on my activity page and then post it as a discussion in the groups I belong to. I try to solicit comments to my posts, and when I get them, I respond on the blog or in the LinkedIn group where the comment was posted.
It’s about creating a dialogue and building a presence. People start to see you and pay attention. They become curious and check out your profile. These are all opportunities to connect with people and tell them more about yourself. What I also like about that is you can start off talking about your blog post instead of yourself, so it’s a softer and nicer intro -– and more authentic.
Spreading It Around
You should be doing the same with Twitter, Google+ and Facebook.
Google+ is like a LinkedIn alternate universe, just smaller, so there’s more opportunity to stand out. It’s also more user-friendly.
Facebook is another case. I’m very mixed about it for a business presence. I may be missing something, but it just doesn’t seem as serious, and I pretty much only go there when I have a new blog post to promote. I did make a separate business site for my blog, and I post to that and to my personal site whenever I have a new blog post.
I’m still a Twitter newbie, but learning as I go and hoping to make better use of it. Every time I write a new post, I tweet about it, usually several times using different words. If I find something cool that I don’t want to write about but still want to share, I’ll tweet about that. And, if I’m looking for cool stuff to write about, I might explore some of the people I follow to see it there’s anything there worth pursuing. I’ve even gained a few followers along the way.
To make the most of my presence on these platforms, my email signature includes a link to my blog and my Google+ and Twitter profiles — just another way to connect everything and build your presence.
Of course, I didn’t do all of this in a week; it happened over several months of experimenting, researching and learning. But know that there is light at the end of the tunnel when you’ve been laid off. It may be a longer journey than you’d like, but it’s just a matter of putting one foot in front of the other to get there. (Click here to tweet this thought.)
Stay tuned for my final post in this series, in which I’ll discuss some additional steps in my reinvention journey and share the lessons I ultimately learned from it.
How can you use these steps to increase your own network and online presence?
Image: Flickr
