The great Matt Galloway (@mattgalloway), who's passion for social media and analytics are downright contagious, has put together a snapshot of Twitter usage in the Sooner state that reveals some very interesting trends, and is likely a good barometer for Twitter usage overall.  Matt was recently featured in an Urban Tulsa article, along with Bill Handy (@billhandy), about using social networking in your job search. 

As a native of Tulsa, I am always interested in news and info from O K L A.  But beyond that, the study that Matt has recently completed presents some useful insights different from anything I have seen on Twitter usage.

Of special interest to me was the estimate that one in one hundred Oklahomans are active Twitter users.  Really?  I guess that makes sense, but I'm still blown away by that stat.  Also the fact that, even though we've heard that the majority of Twitter users are "older", some of the highest concentrations of Twitter use in Oklahoma are in college towns.  And these "college punks" Tweet later at night than the "older folks".  Stats like these are important to staffing professionals and businesses who are interested in targeting college students.

There are many other interesting conclusions that can be drawn from this 8 week study involving 1,503,018 tweets collected from 21,083 tweeps
from March 29, 2009-May 31,2009.  I took the liberty of creating a Slideshare presentation (shown below) of Matt's original document which can be found here.

Thanks to Matt for this very interesting and unique analysis.

Labels: Analytics, marketing, Productivity, Statistics, Twitter, web2.0

This year requests for training on Social Media and Twitter have gone through the roof.  A-List Solutions is at the forefront of small firms using Twitter and Social tools for Marketing, Brand awareness, and Recruiting.  I have trained top recruiting organizations, businesses, and professional groups in DFW and nationally on Twitter and Social Media effectiveness.  I explain how to best utilize these tools for branding, recruiting, marketing, sales, jobs search, list building, etc.  Here are a few comments from previous presentations:

"Excellent presentation: great analogies and you took the fear out of social networking." - Joel Friedman, VPIT, member DFWTENG

"Craig brings deep practical experience in his training to anyone that wants to leverage Twitter or other social media. This is especially valuable to anyone in the staffing/recruiting business. However, anyone can improve their Web 2.0 effectiveness with Craig's help. I found his presentation and ability to answer nearly any question very valuable to the point I am rolling with my new social media strategy! :-)"  - Rick Rene, Professional Services Regional Director at Matrix Resources

"I've had the pleasure of knowing Craig for more than 10 years. He's without question one of the most savvy recruiters in the business. Craig is a complete professional and is someone with a high degree of integrity and ability to get results for those fortunate to work with him. In addition to being a "thought leader" in the recruiting space, he's a recognized leader in all aspects of social media. He's someone I consider to be a trusted expert in this emerging force. Craig has always been willing to take time to share with others his insight and experience, lending a helping hand whenever asked. I look forward to a continued partnership and friendship for many years to come." - Jon Davis, Director, Western Operations, MATRIX Resources, Inc.

"Great presentation yesterday! We appreciate your willingness to present to our quarterly meeting. Many of our team members listed your presentation as the most valuable take-away from the meeting (you're a tough act to follow). We are a lot more knowledgeable now." - Dane Reese, Senior Vice President at Eurosoft

"The presentation was not only very professional, but very educational as well. This was on of the best "Personal Networking" seminars that can really be applied that I have seen." -Steven Flad, Director at Stark Holdings

Here is some additional recognition I have received (my Twitter handle is Fishdogs):

Mashable.com HOW TO: Find a Job on Twitter

Twitter Grader Top Recruiters

#TalentNet and Social Recruiting By John Sumser

ExtremeRecruiting.TV

Featured on The Recruiting Animal Show-highest rated show to date!

The Career 100

http://WeFollow.com/tag/recruiter

I would be glad to train your team either in-person, or remotely by Webinar. 

The ROI of utilizing Twitter correctly is excellent.  Recruiters and companies can vastly increase their visibility and greatly broaden their client and candidate base with just a small amount of time per week.  The consequence of attempting to do this incorrectly is hours of wasted time.  I see a many companies just posting jobs or Marketing/PR info and getting nothing in return.  There are tools and techniques that can help you target your activity with laser precision.  Knowing what they are and what to do with them is as much a key as is your general approach to social networking.

Labels: branding, marketing, Recruiting, Social Media, Social Networking, training, Twitter, web2.0

Personal Branding.  Do those words make you cringe?  Let's choose something else like, Name Equity.  Whatever term you use, it's really all the same thing.  Mitch Joel posted a great article today on his blog that clearly illustrates the current need to take control of your online persona.  No matter who you are, or what you do, with today's technology there is no excuse for not having a good handle on your personal brand, and a substantial contact network to back it up.  I'm not just talking about people in the technology industry, or in marketing, or any of the industries you might associate with social media, networking, etc.  I am talking about you: manager, college student, stay at home mom or dad, accountant, fireman.

Can you conceive of a situation where you might actually have to ask people for help?  Or want to promote something?  Anything?  Garage sale?  Sell your house?  Help your spouse or kid find a job?  Raise money for a sick friend or relative?  You can certainly get on the phone and call people, or send out a group email to all your friends and contacts.  But most people, without the benefit of a social network, don't have the network power to make the kind of difference that can be made with a healthy group of online contacts.

If you have an established brand that people can find on Google, your chances of building a substantial network, getting a better job, getting venture capital, whatever, are increased exponentially.  People online will network with people they can "check out".  Employers will hire or recruit people who "check out" in a Google search.  People will offer assistance to you if you are active on social networks and have a trustworthy "brand".  But if someone goes online to Google you and all they turn up are some old high school photos that someone posted of you on MySpace or Facebook, well...

Here is a quick tip.  It's sort of the essence of branding.  Many of us have common names, or names that would compete with more famous or prominent folks of the same name online.  So find your niche (a word, or two words) and associate it with your name wherever you choose to place your brand.  My name, for instance, is pretty common.  There are hundreds or maybe thousands of people online with the same name, many of whom are more famous or more public a figure than I.  So everywhere I put my name online, every social media spot, blog post, directory, whatever, I always put what I do and list my web sites. 

Many people don't like to write anything about their work on social media sites because it is supposed to be social, right?  Wrong.  If you don't associate your name with the things you want to be known for, something that is specific and not too generic, you are doing yourself a disservice.  Google Craig Fisher and you will find me.  But I'm not right up there at the top.  However I'm in the recruiting business.  And I help companies and people to brand themselves better online so that I can more easily match them up together.  And my web sites where I write about all this are Fishdogs.com and AListSolutions.com.  So Google Craig Fisher and Recruiting, or Craig Fisher and branding, or Craig Fisher and Fishdogs or Craig fisher and A-List, and the results are much more satisfactory.

This exercise is not only an ingenious way to get people to Google me, it also demonstrates that if you, Jane Jones of knitting fame, pair your name continuously with something online that you would like to be known for, you are well on your way to creating a brand for yourself.  Now don't forget to be consistent, and genuine, and helpful, and informative, and creative, and knowledgeable...

Personal Branding Is Not An Option - It's Crucial To Success

March 26, 2009 5:58 AM

Posted by Mitch Joel

More layoffs. Giving back bonuses. Fewer work days to save the company from firing people. Doing the job of the three people that were let go in your department. Not hiring the five people you were thinking about hiring. Trying to find a job in this climate.

Whether you are an employee in a big, medium or small business, or an entrepreneur, or about to enter the workforce, never has it been more important to understand the power of having, maintaining and developing a strong personal brand. Never before has there been more ways for you to connect and build your personal brand through digital channels.

Never has a simple search on Google been able to tell us more about a person, who they are, what they do, and why they matter.

What does Google say about you?

If brands matter more than ever (and they do, just ask Apple, Starbucks and Twitter), then the ability for individuals to build a personal brand has never been more important. Maybe the idea of "branding yourself" seems ridiculous. It's not. It's a subject that famed management guru and author of the best-selling business book, In Search of Excellence, Tom Peters, first tackled in 1997 for an article in Fast Company magazine titled, The Brand Called You.

"Regardless of age, regardless of position, regardless of the business we happen to be in, all of us need to understand the importance of branding. We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You. ... You're every bit as much a brand as Nike, Coke, Pepsi, or the Body Shop. To start thinking like your own favourite brand manager, ask yourself the same question the brand managers at Nike, Coke, Pepsi, or the Body Shop ask themselves: What is it that my product or service does that makes it different? Give yourself the traditional 15-words-or-less contest challenge. Take the time to write down your answer. And then take the time to read it. Several times."

Peters gave us the beginning of an insight: like big corporate brands, all of the people we connect with have some kind of similar emotions and thoughts when they think about us as people. That mental tattoo that our personas and reputations create in their mind's eye is the essence of our personal brand.

But Peters wrote this in a world where individuals were limited by how they could spread their personal brands - the Internet was just taking its commercial shape in 1997. Now, in a world of Blogs, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, our personal brands are resonating 24-hours-a-day, and the content we put in there and link to says more about who we are, as individuals than any one-page resum� ever could.

There's a small caution.

People working on their personal brand sometimes seem a little snake-oil salesy-like. They would state that they were working on their personal brand in a way that made it look like they were trying too hard. They were the same kind of people who manoeuvred through the local chamber of commerce event dumping business cards in any available and open hand No need to be that person.

The amazing thing about developing your personal brand online in social networks and by blogging, is that you can hone in on connecting with those that have shared values and similar interests.

One of the best places to get started is a search engine. Start looking for blogs in your industry, and start following some of the more notable people on Twitter. After you get a feel for the type of content people are publishing, you can dip you toes into the personal branding waters by leaving comments on those blogs or spaces. You can even go neck deep and start your own blog to demonstrate your own, unique, perspective.

Personal branding and the new media space creates a unique and mutually beneficial relationship. Anyone can express who they are to the world. And, if you're not sure what you have to say that is unique and different, just remember the immortal words of Oscar Wilde: "Be yourself, everyone else is already taken."

Labels: branding, careers, FACEBOOK, Job Hunting, LinkedIn, marketing, Social Media, Social Networking, Twitter, web2.0

Thanks to Flora Felisberto and Martin Burns of ZoomInfo for including me, alongside recruiting industry great, Lou Adler, in this edition of the newsletter.

If you haven't done so, I would recommend going to www.zoominfo.com and searching for yourself.  If you find yourself, but the info appears out of date, claim your profile and update the information.  This is a great place on the web to stamp "brand you".

Here is an excerpt from the February Zoominformer:

The social media phenomenon is no longer breaking news, but its impact on talent (finding, recruiting, and retaining) has started to accelerate.

Over the coming months, we'll be taking a closer look at social media trends. We're working with our clients and industry thought leaders to get to the "actual" behind all of the hype. It's our goal to help you work in the present, as well as understand the future. This month's newsletter will focus mainly on some of the practical impacts of social media, but we are also looking to a future that may be wildly disrupted by new methods of connecting with prospects, companies, and candidates.

If you have any ideas and interesting examples, please let us know. We are always amazed by the creativity of recruiters in navigating this world.

Stay tuned..

Are You a Web 2.0 Wannabe?
by Lou Adler

According to Lou Adler, "If you don't invest in finding tomorrow's candidates today, you'll become history." By investing time in key low-cost technologies, recruiters can increase both the visibility and interest of their job postings. In this article, Lou Adler describes the six most important web 2.0 trends and tools. Read on to find out if you're a "Neanderthal or a new ager."
Click here for the full article

Employer Branding with Web 2.0 & Social Media
by Craig Fisher

If your company's HR department is not already utilizing web 2.0 tools and social media to market the company to job seekers, it should be. A new report by Gartner, Inc., shows that even though corporate marketing and web strategies are embracing social media, HR departments are generally slow to align with those efforts for the purpose of employer branding.

Click here for the full article

The newsletter is: http://www.zoominfo.com/About/m/newsletters/february_2009.asp

You can subscribe to it here: http://www.zoominfo.com/About/resources/newsletters.aspx

ZoomInfo is a business information search engine used to quickly find information about industries, companies, people and products. ZoomInfo is used by sales and marketing professionals to identify business opportunities, by recruiters to locate talent, and by anyone conducting in-depth research about products, services and businesses. ZoomInfo's semantic search engine continually crawls the Business Web - the millions of company Websites, news feeds and other online sources - to identify company and people information which is then organized into fresh, comprehensive and objective profiles. ZoomInfo currently has profiles on more than 40 million people and over 3.5 million companies, and its search engine adds more than 20,000 new profiles every day.

Labels: branding, careers, Employer Branding, Hiring, jobs, marketing, Recruiting, Social Media, Social Networking, Twitter, web2.0

Social media sites are fast becoming the go to outlet to compliment a marketing campaign.  Companies of all sizes are embracing the technology and the ability to interact with their audience to boost sales and enhance marketing.  But as I stated in a previous post, Employer Branding with Web2.0 & Social Media, HR and PR departments are lagging far behind.  Those responsible for a company's image, apart from sales, and product or service marketing, should be at the forefront of the company's efforts in the online arena.

We have already seen two recent cases where a company's reputation can be hurt quickly by the viral spread of stories or video posted to networking sites like YouTube, FaceBook, LinkedIn, MySpace and Twitter.  The cases of KFC and Motrin are now well documented.  Just do a google search on KFC and rats, or Motrin and Twitter, and you'll see what I mean.

My question, apart from the obvious effect of tarnished reputation and loss of market share, is how does this effect the morale of existing employees, and the interest of perspective employees, of the companies who own these brands?  Motrin responded with an apology and stopped running the offensive material.  This was material that was meant to be good marketing and ended up as a PR headache. 

CV Harquail at AuthenticOrganizations.com has found a nice presentation that illustrates the basics of reputation management.  She points out in her article, Online Reputations and Authenticity a few keys that can be derived:

* Many managers and management scholars are unaware of how important an organization's online reputation management is to the organization's overall corporate identity, the organization's corporate social responsibility efforts, and the organization's employer branding.

* Managers who remain ignorant of blogs, or twitter, or whatever online tool is being used to discuss an organization, do so at their organization's peril.

• Although online reputation management seems to be taken seriously only by those in social media and marketing circles, an organization's online reputation can influence everything about how an organization is perceived . When you consider how perceptions of an organization affect how every stakeholder in the organization's circle responds to the organization, you can begin to imagine the power of an organization's online reputation.

And, if that is not enough to get you to pay attention, think more selfishly about your own 'brand'. Online reputation management is also critical to individuals- as any teenager on Facebook can tell you.

Four points made nicely in this presentation - That we all should use online reputation management tactics to:

1. Offset negative content by promoting what is good, and true
2. Take ownership of your reputation in (yet) another medium,
3. Address negative feedback in a constructive way, and
4. Be open and transparent - and authentic - in your communication and self-presentation.

Labels: branding, Employer Branding, FACEBOOK, Hiring, LinkedIn, marketing, Social Media, Twitter, web2.0

If your company's HR department is not already utilizing Web 2.0 tools and Social Media to market the company to job seekers, it should be. A new report by Gartner, Inc., shows that even though corporate marketing and web strategies are embracing social media, HR departments are generally slow to align with those efforts for the purpose of employer branding.

Job seekers today research companies the same way recruiters research job seekers.  They look at what other people are saying about them on social media, blogs, and other Web 2.0 outlets.  HR Organizations who don't attempt to control their employer brands online are missing a great opportunity and run the risk of missing the most sought after job candidates.

A recent study by Potentialpark Communications, a Swedish-based research and consulting firm, surveyed 1,800 U.S. students and recent graduates in an effort to identify the leading corporate careers sites.  Rusty Weston wrote an article about the study, Checking Out the Best Corporate Careers Sites, that states:

"about one third of the rated companies use videos to present possible future colleagues, a walk through the office or the day-to-day work," says Potentialpark's Magdalena Knott. "The use of blogs, pod casts and web casts has not advanced too far until now, but the importance is rising."

The Top 10 U.S. Corporate Career Websites

by Potentialpark Communications

1. Deutsche Bank

2. Microsoft

3. BCG (Boston Consulting Group)

4. Merrill Lynch

5. Accenture

6. Charles Schwab

7. UBS

8. Booz Allen Hamilton

9. Intel

10. Bertelsmann

The Gartner report concludes that "By 2011, Organizations That Do Not Manage Their Employer Brands Effectively Will Fail to Attract Key Talent.

"Organizations are investing significantly in adopting marketing and sales strategies for social software, and Gartner predicts that by 2010, more than 60 percent of Fortune 1000 companies with Web sites will have some form of community that can be used for marketing purposes. Although many organizations hasten to adopt and exploit social computing in marketing, sales and customer support roles, Gartner has found that HR tends to lag behind."

According to Gartner, the first step that organizations need to take is to understand what is being said about them on social networks and informally benchmark this against competitors and peers, as well as companies that tend to lead in this area. They need to be prepared for candidates to enter the recruitment process with a much-deeper understanding of the organization than would have been expected previously. The organization must also look at new ways of improving its image online."

So where is an HR organization to start?  UK-based Web 2.0 development firm, Organic Development, offers these suggestions.

5 ways social media can benefit an Employer brand

1) Blogging is a great way of building up your online presence and generating awareness of what it is like to be employed 'on the ground' within a company. They help the business engage with candidate and employee audiences directly. Moreover, with blogging comes the opportunity to 'comment', where readers can actually speak back to the business, giving their opinions and input: free market research.

2) Engage and respond to feedback. Responding to your candidate and staff opinions makes for a stronger relationship, gaining your customer's trust and understanding. If people say good things about you, say thanks. This shows that they are genuinely being considered and their opinion matters.

3) Recruitment and HR Managers should welcome social networking sites such as Facebook, Linkedin and Myspace into the workplace. Not only are they tools for colleagues to recruit, promote HR policies, interact with employees and build relationships with each other but having them viewable by the public makes the company seem more approachable and engaging. Many companies are now using these sites already to recruit new members of staff, search for new business or to induct new team members.

4) Advanced search facilities allow people of all interests and niches to find and target what they are looking for quickly and easily. New and evolving audiences can be identified and reached without spending a penny.

5) If you create media that people enjoy and find useful in some way, they are likely to pass it on. Therefore, it is worthwhile seriously thinking about how social media could be incorporated into your business. The beauty of the concept is that through processes such as word of mouth, making a success of social media means sooner or later your audience will start to do the work for you. "

Blogger beware!  Corporate blogging has its pitfalls.  In an article written by Forrester Research analyst, and co-author of the book, Groundswell, Josh Bernoff comments on the recent Forrester survey that showed Only 16% of online consumers who read corporate blogs say they trust them.  Bernhoff says, "This means that if you blog, your goal should be to create a blog about which people say "I like that - I don't think of it as a company blog." For the most part, that's a hurdle you need to jump to gain their trust. I don't mean to hide who is writing the blog. I mean it has to be more about your customers than it is about you."

The survey, and Bernoff's comments, are geared more toward corporate marketing efforts than employer branding.  But the lesson is good for both.  The job candidates you are seeking are savvy.  They do read blogs and utilize social media.  So relying solely on a blog for your HR and employer branding is not advised.  Nor is posting the usual HR propaganda.  Get your real employees involved and make your message transparent and believable.  And use that content in conjunction with social media to create an organic source of top job candidates.  Give them a real face to associate with your Employer Brand.

You can find more great articles for Career and Employment at the A-List Solutions Weblog

Labels: blogging, branding, careers, Employer Branding, FACEBOOK, Hiring, jobs, LinkedIn, marketing, Social Media, Social Networking, web2.0

This is a great post by Jun Loayza on Brandon Mendelson's blog for Newby internet marketers, existing bloggers who are not monitizing their efforts, and jobseekers wishing to brand themselves as experts in their field in order to get noticed and recruited.

How to make a profitable blog with under $20 - The Graduate Student Survival Blog - Graduate student Brandon Mendelson - Albany NY - Times Union#comment-772

December 2, 2008 at 12:19 am by Brandon Mendelson

If you’re a graduate student, you’re probably broke. How can you make some money to help pay for school? How about blogging? With a budget of less than $20, what steps would you take to build a blog that would turn a profit in 90 days? I asked the experts, and they answered. Want to tell us your thoughts on making a profitable blog for under $20? Write a guest post.

How to make a profitable blog with under $20

By: Jun Loayza, jun[dot]loayza[at]gmail[dot]com

I was challenged by Brandon to write a post about how to make a profitable blog with under $20. I of course cannot turn down a challenge, so I excitedly accepted. Here are the assumptions of this blog post:

* I will give advice that is concrete and actionable. All of these tips should be things that you can immediately start doing tomorrow. You will find no generalities here
* Domain names cost $10 to register
* Hosting is $200, so you will be unable to host your own site
* The blogger is starting from absolute zero personal brand and equity
* For the purpose of this post, we will assume your focus is Fashion
There are several ways to make money with a blog: advertisement, consulting services, eCommerce, or speaker events. If you honestly think about it, it all boils down to one thing: traffic. If you have the traffic, then you will be able to leverage it to make money.

This challenge really isn’t as hard as you may think. It’s going to take A LOT of extremely hard work, but you CAN do it. Let’s go ahead and dive in.

Step #1 - Control your personal brand online

The first thing you’re going to do is sign up for every single social network, bookmark, and micro blog out there. Furthermore, you’re going to buy your domain name for $10 and build your blog on top of that domain name using Wordpress

Social Networks and Micro Blogs:

* Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter
Social Bookmarks

* Digg, Stumble, Mixx, Delicious

You do not have the money to host your own account; therefore, you’re going to have to find a friend or contact who can host the domain name for you. If you must, give him the other $10 you have to make it worth his while.
What if you do not have a friend who you can bum hosting from? Then what you do is go to every single blog out there and build a relationship with each of them. Once you have found someone who you have become great friends with, ask her if you can use her host to host your domain name. Hopefully she’ll say yes. We’ll talk more about how to build relationships with bloggers below.
Recommended blog network to start at: Brazen Careerist

Step #2 - Create your identity and thought leadership
Blogs that are profitable focus on one topic and one topic only. Just take a look at ZenHabits. Leo focuses purely on personal development. He focuses on it religious, to the point that he lives and breaths personal development. This is what you’re going to have to do.
Take a moment (a week or month if you have to) and really find that one thing that you absolutely love and have the deepest passion for possible. I’m talking about such a deep passion that you could talk about this one topic for the rest of your life and never get sick and tired of it. This is what you need to find.
Found it? Ok, lets get moving. (Remember, for this post, I am assuming your focus is Fashion)
Set up every single online outlet that you have to reflect your expertise in Fashion. Take a look at Dan’s Personal Branding Blog. I dare you to google personal branding or his name. This guy lives and breaths personal branding. Everything from his Facebook, Twitter, to LinkedIn all reflect personal branding. This is what you have to do.
Every single link, picture, about me, and status update should reflect your expertise in Fashion. Great, so now we have found your thought-leadership. Lets keep going!

Step #3 - Blog your life away
You now have all of your social networks set up and your thought-leadership figured out. You want to make a profit blogging right? Well, it’s time for you to blog.
Don’t write great posts; write posts that are TO DIE FOR. I learned this from my good friend Derek who writes Prevential. In the next step I will teach you how to market, but if the content is not to die for, then people will not subscribe and keep coming back. Worse, if your content is not to die for, then they won’t tell their friends and promote it all over Twitter.
Write a post every single day. You said you want to make money right? Well, you better be blogging a to-die-for post every single day of the week in order to build the traffic you need to make money. If you take one single break, then you’ve lost it.
Guest write on every blog out there. Yes, you should write a guest post for blogs that are about Fashion, but you don’t have to necessarily stick to just Fashion blogs. Write a guest post for a Tech blog by writing an article about the new Web 2.0 fashion style. Write a guest post for a marketing blog by writing about how Fashion companies can use social media to promote and brand themselves. There is a way to write a guest post for every single blog out there. Go out there and do it!

Step #4 - Evangelize, Evangelize, Evangelize!
After you write a post each day, you’re going to go out into the blogging community and comment on every single blog out there that has written about a very similar topic.
Use Google Blog Search to search recent blogs that have written about a very similar topic. If you wrote a blog post about Paris Fashion, then write those exact keywords on Google Blog Search. Now go to each of those posts and write a very relevant comment that adds value to the post and tell them about the blog post that you just wrote. Tell them that you feel your post is similar to the post that they just wrote and that you would value their feedback on it. They WILL go to your post, read it, and comment back.
Use Twitter Search in the same way you use Google Blog Search. Search for the keywords “Paris Fashion” and @reply to each one of the Tweeps who Tweeted about it. Tell them that you love Paris Fashion as well, and that they should definitely read your blog post. Tweeps are super friendly! They will @reply you back and hopefully follow you as well.
Build relationships on Stumble, Digg, and Mixx. This can be an extremely time consuming process, but if you do it very well, then it’s very worth it in terms of growing your traffic.

Step #5 - Generate Revenue
With enough hard work and amazing content, you can build your readership to 100K+ a month. Once you have this traffic, you can leverage it in any way you want to generate revenue.
You can of course, lay out ads all over your site. But isn’t that just so boring and messy? Here are some exciting ways that you can generate revenue:

1. Fashion Consulting. You have proven to be a powerhouse in the world of fashion. So what if you didn’t go to FIDM. So what if you haven’t worked in the corporate world of the fashion industry. You have 100K+ people following every word that your write about the fashion industry. You can leverage this following to become a fashion consultant.

2. Speaker Events. People want to read your every word about Fashion; therefore, organizations and companies will want to hire you to speak at their events. This works double time for you because you make money, and more importantly, you reach a new group of people who you can turn into your evangelists.

3. Sell an eBook for free. Yes I said it: “Sell it for free.” Why? Because I don’t believe you should sell an eBook for money. However, do ask for Donations. Write on the bottom of your eBook: “If you loved this eBook, I would greatly appreciate a $5 donation.” Trust me, people will give you money if you have high quality content.

And there you have it. In under $20, you just turned your blog into something profitable. You turned your blog into your career, and you did it by building your personal brand and spreading your thought-leadership.

Labels: blogging, branding, careers, marketing, Social Media, Social Networking, web2.0

This month Lisa Parker, CPRW, posted a great article with straight forward advice for establishing and marketing your business online.  Most of these principles can be applied to personal branding for other objectives, such as job hunting or hiring, as well.

The Art of Establishing Your Personal Business Brand

Each of us sports around our very own, unique personal brand. The many things that separate and identify us as individuals serve to become known as our personal brand. All of the principle components of our personal brand; to include first impressions, demeanor, accomplishments, and the value we place on interaction with others determine the level of success we experience in both our personal and professional lives.

As we establish our business and working relationships, we must incorporate those same principles in the strategy we use to develop our personal business brand. As an entrepreneur myself, I would like to share with you three basic steps I took to establish the foundation for personal branding in my business.      

Service and Reputation – The first step toward developing a personal business brand is to determine the type of service or product you intend to provide your clients or customers. You have to decide what your mission is and always deliver the service or product as promised; in the utmost professional manner. The expectation of, or perceived service is the reason your customers will choose your services over other competitors.  By visualizing the end result of your efforts, you will be able outline a plan of action in reaching your goals.    

In promoting my business, I researched other service providers in my career field, and chose to provide my clients with a level of service that I found missing in a sampling of my competition. Quite simply, “One-on-One Customer Service”.  The availability of this simple, consumer expectation is severely lacking in today’s market. A client can hardly expect satisfaction in seeking services when contact with a concerned service provider is practically extinct. As my business continues to grow, I note that most of the comments from satisfied customers focus on the need to express their appreciation of being able to contact an individual service provider.                        

Once you identify the needs of a potential client base, market your business based on the provision of those needs.

Marketing Strategy – The second step in promoting your personal business brand is obtaining visibility.  With the unlimited resources and marketing avenues available today, you don’t have to spend a great deal of money (if any) to establish your foundation. You may consider my techniques “shameless self promotion”, however I consider the results monetarily rewarding. In addition to a variety of local advertising assets such as newspapers, magazines and the Chamber of Commerce; there are plenty of online resources just waiting for you to tap into the benefits they provide. One little known example: using popular free blog websites such as “Word Press” will help you to get your information out on the world-wide-web in minutes.  I spent a short amount of time researching some of the opportunities available for free advertising, and you can view the results of my efforts first hand by taking time out to “Google” my business name in a variety of configurations (parker cprw, parkercprw, lisa parker cprw).  

Networking – The third step in laying a successful foundation for your personal business brand is to never underestimate the power of networking. In addition to the efforts you employ through other advertising and marketing resources, remember that opportunities for networking happen on a daily basis. Aside from the many organizations that enlist members to promote networking with others in your specific career field; there are plenty of opportunities to volunteer in support of events in your local community. As a business owner you can provide free workshops, schedule product demonstrations, distribute opportunities for entry into free drawings at local businesses and a number of other activities that will support the growth of your business. The key to effective networking is to be diverse in your connections, and by this I mean that you should not limit yourself to a particular region.  If your organization supports local events, wear a professional identification badge that mentions your business or service.    

A large amount of my clients have sought out my services after only seeing the business name, or speaking with other satisfied customers.

Association – The ultimate goal is to have your business name associated not only with the service or product you provide, but with your own personal name as well.  Most of us already have a business name before we begin to research and understand the importance of branding. That doesn’t mean that you should wait any longer to begin marketing your name side by side with that of your business. Consider “Trump Plaza”, Trump Towers”, “Trump University”, and “Trump Financial”. Do you know who I am referring to?

Personal Branding is the art of following the “Golden Rule” in the provision of service and interaction with clients and customers.  By learning how to manage other people and their perceptions of you and your business, you will naturally establish the unique value that sets you apart from competitors in your career field.

Labels: blogging, branding, careers, Hiring, marketing, Social Media, web2.0

As I sat watching live, streaming video from the Word of Mouth Marketing Association Summit and Research Symposium in Vegas last week from the comfort of my cushy office chair in Southlake, TX, it occurred to me that the corporate philosophy being shared by the enigmatic Zappos.com CEO, Tony Hsieh (pronounced "Shay"), echoed something written over 70 years ago.

The video stream was courtesy of Interactive Marketing expert, David Armano, who makes a habit of live streaming from the various high profile marketing conferences and other events he attends.  When he announced on Twitter (see my Twitter blog post) that he was about to stream Hsieh's presentation, my interest was piqued.  According to this recent interview, Zappos is on track to better the $840M in gross sales it did in 2007.  Hsieh previously founded LinkExchange which he sold for $265M to Microsoft in 1998.  I follow him on Twitter.  He's good.

So I clicked on the link and watched Hsieh as he shared some entertaining stories and interesting ideas.   It was a good presentation.  I made a couple of notes and prepared to turn it off.  But then he said something toward the end that struck a chord with me. 

He said that Zappos, which is known for being fanatical about customer service, does not hold customer service as its first priority.  He and the company are more concerned with its people - hiring great people and fostering an excellent company culture.  Hsieh believes that if you hire great people who share your corporate philosophy of great service, then great service will take care of itself.

This sounded to me like more of a partnership than a typical employer to employee relationship.  And it reminded me of something I had read in the seminal work of author Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich.  In this, perhaps the best selling success book of all time, Hill shares his 13 principles for success in the form of a philosophy of personal achievement. 

  The book, originally published in 1937 and abridged by Hill himself in 1960, was inspired by Hill's association with American billionaire Andrew Carnegie, and Hill's interviewing of over 500 of the most affluent men and women of his time.  The chapter on the "sixth step to riches" is entitled Organized Planning, and Hill has a section within called The New Way of Marketing Services-"Jobs" are now "Partnerships".  Here is the excerpt:

Men and women who market their services to best advantage in the future must recognize the stupendous change that has taken place in connection in the relationship between employer and employee. In the future, the "Golden Rule," and not the "Rule of Gold" will be the dominating factor in the marketing of merchandise as well as personal services. The future relationship between employers and their employees will be more in the nature of a partnership consisting of:

a. The employer
b. The employee
c. The public they serve

This new way of marketing services is called new for many reasons.  First, both the employer and the employee of the future will be considered as fellow-employees whose business it will be to SERVE THE PUBLIC EFFICIENTLY.  In times past, employers and employees have bartered among themselves, driving the best bargains they could with one another, not considering that in the final analysis they were, in reality, BARGAINING AT THE EXPENSE OF THE 3RD PARTY, THE PUBLIC THEY SERVED.

In the future, both employers and employees will recognize that they are NO LONGER PRIVILEGED TO DRIVE BARGAINS AT THE EXPENSE OF THOSE WHOM THEY SERVE. The real employer of the future will be the public. This should be kept uppermost in mind by every person seeking to market their services effectively.

"Courtesy" and "Service" are the watch-words of merchandising today.  They apply to the person who is marketing their services even more directly than to the employer whom he serves, because, in the final analysis, both the employer and his employee are EMPLOYED BY THE PUBLIC THEY SERVE. If they fail to serve well, they pay by the loss of their privilege of serving.

Tony Hsieh's approach of carefully hiring great people, and placing the employees and the company culture first is an inspiring means to this end.  Everyone is on board and understands that great customer service will be what sets the company apart.  And the customer benefits because the whole organization is made to feel they are playing a critical role, plus they like their job and love their company. 

This is a partnership based on mutual commitment.  Zappos notoriously offers new employees a $1000 bonus to quit after the first week of  its four week new hire training.  About 10% accept the offer.  The rest are committed to the cause.  And the company is committed right back.

According to a recent article in the Las Vegas Sun online, Zappos is a tight-knit company that buys its employees lunch each day and has a dodgeball room in its corporate headquarters.  And when the company reluctantly  laid off 8% of its 1,300-member workforce earlier this month due to the economic downturn, Hsieh said in an email to the employees, that "laid-off employees will be paid through the end of the year, and employees who have been with the company for three or more years will receive additional pay. He also said Zappos will pay for six months of health coverage for all laid-off employees."

"In doing all of this to take care of laid-off employees, we expect that it will actually increase, not decrease, our costs for 2008, but we feel this is the right thing to do for our employees," Hsieh wrote.  "It will put us in the position of having a lot more financial flexibility in being able to respond to potential changes in the economy in 2009."

The book, Think and Grow Rich has many more lessons that apply here.  But this book was originally compiled over a 10-year period beginning just prior to the Great Depression.  No streaming video, no Twitter, no Internet.  Hill just found, through exhaustive research, the common qualities that bound hundreds of highly successful people and organizations.  And he was undaunted by the financial woes of the time.

In our current struggling economy employers and employees alike can benefit from thinking of our jobs as partnerships.  And, like Zappos, we can create a competitive advantage by employing the "Golden Rule," and not the "Rule of Gold" as the dominating factor in the marketing of merchandise and services.

Labels: branding, careers, Hiring, jobs, marketing, Social Media, Twitter

There is a nice article posted last week by Eric Brantner on DigitalLabz.com entitled 10 Secrets of the Best Social Media Users .  It is a terrific list for businesses wanting to use the

(less and less) alternative marketing conduit of Social Media.  Most of it applies to individuals for promoting your personal brand as well.  Here is the list:

1.    Do Your Research- Every successful marketing strategy is based on good research. You can’t just blindly go to a social media site to submit your content and expect immediate success. You need to find social media sites that fit your niche. For example, if you’re trying to promote your medical business, you should find sites where health related articles tend to be popular.

2.    Interact with the Community- The biggest rookie mistake in social media marketing is to completely ignore the community. It’s called social media for a reason. Take advantage of the social platform by interacting with the community. The closer you become with community members, the more likely it is that they’ll help promote your content.

3.    Write for Your Audience- This is Writing 101, but many people tend to ignore it. If you want your content to go hot, it has to be tailored toward the audience on the social media site. When you’re interacting with the community, get to know their likes and dislikes. Also, take note of what type of stories tend to get the most attention. You’ll see patterns develop in the types of themes and content that consistently go hot.

4.    Be Relevant- Relevance is the key to social media marketing. Don’t believe me? Just go to the front page of Digg or any other social site. The vast majority of the top content is related to late-breaking news. Be the first to break a story in your industry; or, give your unique insight on a hot news item.

5.    Keep it Short- Internet users don’t like reading long passages of text. They tend to scan online content rather than taking the time to fully read it. For this reason, you need to accommodate their reading habits by keeping your content short and easy to scan. Brief paragraphs and bold, descriptive headings are great ways to make your content more scanner-friendly.

6.    Focus on Design- When users come to your page to read your content, are they greeted with a clean, welcoming design? If not, they might just turn around and leave your site. Remember, it’s not just enough to have great content; how you present it is important as well. Use a design scheme that’s easy on the eyes and that assists the reader in scanning the content.

7.    Stop Trying to Sell- Another social media marketing rookie mistake is to constantly try to sell your products. Sure, the ultimate goal of marketing is to promote your brand, but you’ll never gain any respect on these networks if you’re constantly pimping out your products. Instead, contribute useful content that the community can learn from.

8.    Create Great Headlines- I don’t care if your article is good enough to be the cover story in Time Magazine. If it doesn’t have a great title, it won’t get any attention on these sites. Think about it- thousands of users are submitting content to these sites all day long. What makes someone click on a post to read more? An eye-catching title.

9.    Help Out Others- This goes back to #2 and #7. If you want to become a top user on a certain social media site, you have to help others out. Don’t just submit and promote your own content. Find useful articles from different sources that your audience will enjoy. By promoting content that’s not yours, the community will begin to see you as a great resource for relevant information.

10.    Convert Hot Content- One mistake many social media marketers make is to not capitalize on hot content. If you’re fortunate enough to have a piece rise to the top, you need to make that attention last. How can you do this? By creating another great post to follow the hot one. That way, when visitors come to your site to read the popular post, they’ll see you have new content. Ride that wave as long as you can!

And yesterday www.businessblogconsulting.com posted an article by Krishna De of BizGrowthNews called Why Blogger Is No Good For Business Blogging.  What Krishna means by this is that companies should host their own blogs so that the links to their blog are also the links to their corporate web site and thus driving the traffic to their own domain.

She also sites WordPress.com as being a "no no" for business blogging.  She makes a good point about driving traffic to your corporate domain, but fails to mention that companies can use both Blogger and WordPress.org to host their own blog on their own site.  And both have advantages. 

Graham Jones of http://www.grahamjones.co.uk points this out in his comment on Krishna's article.  At the same time, Graham illustrates "secret" #2 above, which is the importance of being an active participant in social media beyond just posting your own material.  In his comment he not only made a good point, but also  plugged his own business site thus generating a hit and a mention by me. 

He also somewhat violates "secret" #7.  But it's a passive plug and it was effective as mentioned above.   I say that is not only allowed, but smart.  And since I do it all the time, we'll let Graham get away with it too. 

-CF

Labels: blogging, branding, marketing, Social Networking, web2.0

What in the world does this mean?  Well back in the mid 90's I started teaching myself web design because I wanted to know more about the tools that developers and designers were using so I could better understand job requirements from my clients and better screen job candidates (I am a headhunter if you didn't already know that).  Plus it was a fun creative outlet and problem-solving time-waste (just try it, you'll see).

Over the years I have used these web skills to craft creative job postings, attract the attention of potential job candidates and hiring managers, and built a respectable network of client and candidate connections.  You see, building your brand online isn't just about self-promotion.  It's about generating a ready network of contacts, creating an alluring web presence, and making yourself visible and available when opportunity wants to knock.

You may have seen my other blog which was mostly job postings. It's still alive, but will be undergoing some re-constructive surgery to get new skin.

In this new blog I wanted to illustrate the power of online branding. I often advise business leaders and job seekers to get their personal brand online to further their cause, upgrade their web presence, get noticed, etc.

I have had Fishdogs.com up since 1999 and have gotten steady traffic and plenty of connections because of it (in addition to keeping friends and family up to date). But in the last year I have been advising executives about online marketing, for themselves or their companies, outside of a corporate web site. It became apparent that I should have a good example of my own to show.

So here it is. I will be discussing the following topics among other unlimited tangents and unrelated minutia...

• Digital Branding - furthering your cause through strategic use of web presence, social networking, cross-linking, etc. Companies and job seekers alike benefit from carefully crafted exposure.
• Attraction & retention of top talent - how does a business market itself to great job candidates? Job boards are less and less effective. Candidates see them as a black hole. The answer for employers? You guessed it, digital branding, social networking, and assistance from key recruiters who know how to work that system.
• Job Seekers and Web2.0 - an overused term but a reality all the same. Just posting your resume doesn't cut it any more. What you have to do to get noticed in this era.
• Business Marketing, Sales, Recruiting, Job Hunting/Careers - my usual rhetoric on these topics (finely tuned after 18+ years in business) plus tips and articles from around the net.
• Internet and technology - no explanation required
• Web Design - one of my favorite hobbies

That's all for now. I have work to do!

Labels: branding, careers, marketing, web2.0