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In today’s corporate world, people are hired and fired on a daily basis. There is a transient nature to this ever-evolving process; I may be here today but could be gone tomorrow. People attempt to stitch together the semblance of a career while trying to maintain the perception of loyalty to their current employers. We often remain vigilant to the next position possibility, and the reasons are numerous, but often these reasons are rooted in consistent themes: an opportunity came along that I just cannot pass on; I have a desire for more money, and I deserve it; my manager is simply unrealistic, unreasonable, and unbearable – it is just time to go! Regardless of these valid motivations, one consistent reality remains unchanged; we are each CEO of our own company: Me, Inc.
In a sense, we are all just free agents in an ever-changing job market paradigm. But as free agents we each carry certain notable attributes along with us, many of which are intangible. It’s incumbent upon each of us to ask ourselves: What do I want my brand to be? What are the qualities of my brand that differentiate me from my competition? Everything matters: our educational level attained, our ability to communicate in verbal and written form, our choice of wardrobe, and our ability to work and play well with others.
We have sufficient control over most of these. What we do not have control over is the manner in which they are perceived, and perception – in marketing – is everything. The best approach to mitigate this reality is to contemplatively observe and critically analyze each segment of our brand: Me, Inc. More than likely we are stronger in certain areas than in others, and can strengthen our shortcomings to become a more formidable brand overall.
Utilizing LinkedIn or writing a blog are channels to market oneself and assist in constructing a solid foundation for the mosaic that composes who we are as individuals. Gaining new expertise, developing new capabilities, increasing our colleague set, and constantly reinventing ourselves as a brand are critical in the process of brand strengthening. The sooner we begin viewing ourselves as individual brands, the better positioned we will become in reaching success in whichever career path we find ourselves on.
John Brigantino is a graduate student in the Master of Science in Business Management & Leadership Program at the CUNY School of Professional Studies. He enjoys writing, non-fiction books, traveling and the many cultural and leisure experiences Manhattan has to offer.
When you want information on something, it’s likely that one of the first ways you go about seeking it out is through a quick Google search. It’s fast, it’s easy, and it’s comprehensive. But have you ever googled yourself? Because if you’re not, and consequently you’re not doing whatever you can to manage those search results, you’re putting yourself at a severe disadvantage.
Taking control of your search results is a key part of managing your personal brand online. It allows you to control (to a certain extent) what people see when they search for you. This is something that can be very important if you’re looking for a new job. And even if you’re happy with your current employment situation, it’s never a bad idea to try and manage what people see when your name comes up.
The first time I googled myself, I found out I was on the FBI’s most wanted list, that I thought my University was doing a great job of bring events to campus thanks to a quote in the student news paper, and that I was a hip hop artist. Only one of those actually pertained to me (my ranking FBI most wanted list, naturally), so I went to work figuring out how to make the search results actually reflect me and my online presence. It’s not an overnight process, and you’re competing with a lot of other people with the same name, but it’s an important process nonetheless.
Now there’s my website, my social networking profiles, a blog I wrote when I was living in China, and then, below all of that, some results for other Shawn Abrahams. I did my best to make sure that my content was the first thing you’d see when you search my name, and people seeking information about me can see the information that I want them to see right at the top.
Naturally, the more common name you have, the more difficult it is to guarantee that you show up on top. Here are three quick tips to keep in mind if you want to take control of your digital destiny.
1. In case you haven’t heard it from me enough, social networking is kind of a big deal. Google and other major search engines have a tendency of floating Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn profiles to the top. So make sure you register a vanity address for your account wherever possible.
2. If you haven’t done it yet, if someone ELSE hasn’t done it yet, register http://www.yourname.com. Even if you don’t know what to do with it, you’ll find a use for it eventually.
3. Time to start that blog about cross stitching vintage 80′s pop art that you’ve always been talking about. Blogs are a great way to up your relevance in searches. Your name comes up a lot, and it helps define you as an expert in something. This can be a key component of your personal brand, especially if that brand is 80′s Pop Art Cross Stitching Expert.
The idea of developing your brand online will be central to this column moving forward. Now that the semester is in full swing, we’ll be going bi-weekly, but the next installment will pay closer attention to the idea and importance of starting your own blog.
Shawn Abraham is SPS’ Virtual Campus Manager, which means he gets to have a lot of fun building an online community for the school. He also has a lot of fun reading books about zombies. These two things rarely intersect.
I’ll venture a guess and say that most of you have heard of Mark Zuckerberg. I’ll venture another guess and say that most of you have not heard of Reid Hoffman or Jack Dorsey. Hoffman and Dorsey are at a decided disadvantage here as Zuckerberg is the centerpiece character in the Oscar nominated movie The Social Network. No big screen for Hoffman or Dorsey. But I’m thinking that’s just fine with Hoffman as his company will soon go public. That said, Hoffman is the founder of LinkedIn, and Dorsey is the founder of Twitter.
Left to right: Zuckerberg, Hoffman, Dorsey
In full disclosure, I really never understood the fascination with Twitter – or, at times, with Facebook. Pardon my learning curve but status updates like getting ready to vacuum just do not strike me as the depth of information that needs to be posted for public consumption. But far be it from I to make the perfect the enemy of the good. As social network platforms, there is no denying their power and significance in today’s interconnected world. Connections matter. Get on board or get left behind.
In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell discusses that John D. Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan, and Andrew Carnegie, along with a number of other capitalists of that era, were all born between 1830 in 1837. It was the dawn of a new era saliently marked by extraordinarily robust growth in the oil and railroad industries. These men prominently stood at the epicenter of such industries, in the right place, at the right time. We saw a similar occurrence during the computer revolution. Had Bill Gates and Steve Jobs been born in an earlier time, Microsoft and Apple might not exist today. To their credit, all of these men comprehensively harnessed the technologies and infrastructure advancements that were available to them at the time, and ran with it, while the rest of the world remained pedestrian. They were risk takers and unyielding in there myopic focus in seeing what others could not, or would not, envision. But it was the combination of internal forces and external facilitators (most of all, timing) that ultimately brought their embryonic visions to fully matured fruition.
In a sense, Zuckerberg, Hoffman, and Dorsey are today’s Rockefeller, Morgan, and Carnegie. They are visionaries, entrepreneurs, business luminaries, and billionaires. Like their predecessors in their respective sectors, these contemporaries figure prominently at the forefront of the newly created social networking space. J.P. Morgan dressed in a three-piece suit and top hat as he walked through Central Park while Mark Zuckerberg goes to work in a Gap sweatshirt and flip-flops. Yet, both have had an astounding impact on the world. They all deserve celebration and should be lauded (unlike many “celebrities” who have accomplished remarkably little and often contribute nothing of value to our society – read: Kardashians) for their respective, significant creations that we all may opt-into as participants. They are corporate titans of the highest magnitude, even in flip-flops.
John Brigantino is a graduate student in the Master of Science in Business Management & Leadership Program at the CUNY School of Professional Studies. He enjoys writing, non-fiction books, traveling and the many cultural and leisure experiences Manhattan has to offer.
We’ve all felt it at one point or another. We’re scrolling through our Facebook news feed, wondering why we’re not doing something else a bit more productive, but unable to look away. And then it sets in. How many posts about sheep and virtual farming do I need to let run past my eyes before I need to throw up my arms and close the browser. Or better yet, step away from the computer.
Social Networking is undeniably a valuable communication and networking tool, but sometimes Facebook makes it hard to see how. The trick answer is that Facebook is far from the be all and end all of Social Networking, and if that’s where your experience begins and ends, you may be missing out on some extremely valuable tools for professional outreach and development.
Exhibit A: LinkedIn. Billed as the “professional” social network, this site has established itself as a true networking powerhouse. The crudest way to describe it is imagining it as your online resume. Your profile should mimic a lot of what your “analog” resume looks like. But as with most web based platforms, it offers many more robust features. From publicly posted recommendations from colleagues, supervisors, and clients, to status updates that allow you to discuss projects you’re working on and articles you find professionally stimulating.
LinkedIn provides many other robust tools for managing your professional network. They have dynamic group pages where you can connect with others in similar fields, people with common interests or hobbies, or classmates and fellow alumni. (You’d better believe we have an SPS Group waiting for you!) LinkedIn has proven itself as the ideal way to stay in touch with old colleagues, and find potential new leads as you move along in your professional development.
But don’t just listen to me. This pitch video hits on many of the key features of LinkedIn and why it is a truly indispensable tool for all professionals.
That doesn’t mean LinkedIn is the end all for all your professional networking. Just because Facebook is dominated by Farmville and other games doesn’t mean it isn’t a remarkably useful tool. Just because Twitter uses a bunch of strange words doesn’t mean it can’t help to solidify your personal brand and get you a job. We will touch on all of this and more as the column progresses.
But as we move forward, I urge all of you to explore LinkedIn, set up a profile, and join the SPS Group. I am happy to work with all of you on this, and if anyone has questions, please post them in the comments. Chances are you’re not alone in wondering about all the oddities that go hand in hand with joining a new social network. As students in a school of PROFESSIONAL studies, you are at a severe disadvantage these days if you don’t take advantage of all the tools available to you. And LinkedIn is a very powerful tool.
Shawn Abraham is SPS’ Virtual Campus Manager, which means he gets to have a lot of fun building an online community for the school. He also has a lot of fun reading books about zombies. These two things rarely intersect.
