Reflections of a Square Peg

Facebook & Personal Branding

The 'discussion' continues with another on line article at the Globe & Mail about the negative aspects of Facebook and personal branding.

Having been interviewed by both the Toronto Star and National Post recently on the whole subject of building a personal brand on line this is becoming a very hot topic as people start to look for new ways to connect and share information.

Its best to look at the whole subject with two hats on;

1. What personal brand do you want to be known for professionally? How do you want to be seen on line by those who might hire you? Then make a plan to ensure that all you do on line reflects that brand authentically.

2. How do you want to connect and network socially? How much personal information are you prepared to share? Make a separate plan that addresses this and make sure if you are using public access sites like Facebook that you have all the necessary filters in place.

Finally be mindful of the fact that applications and additions you download to your computer like alexa rankings or to portals like Facebook are being used to gather information about your web habbits and preferences - there is no value in this unless it is going to make money - its business, not personal.

Watching You Watching Me

There had to be a ROI with Facebook at some stage and the new approaches in targeted advertising would appear to be getting some people upset according to an article in the Globe & Mail today.

Just this week I bumped in to someone who is helping parents (and their children) understand the implications of Facebook and allowing access, not switching on filters etc etc - it pays to check it out.

Work Productvity to Drop?

According to a recent Accountemps survey, 21% of workers are going to be spending up to 3 hours at work doing their on line holiday shopping and employers are not going to be too happy.

I can remember in my corporate time a few years ago when we were given half a day near Christmas to do some shopping.

With Black Friday in the US fast approaching and Christmas just aorund the corner perhaps letting employees do a little surfing to shop is a way of showing some thanks and festive cheer. It might be remembered longer than the recent IT policy to block access to Facebook!

Building an On Line Career Brand

I was meeting with a client this morning to specifically spend some time building their on line brand (one way was to raise their Google score - which we were able to do even by the end of 3 hours!). Being the first person globally to be certified in on line identity its starting to become a significant part of the personal brand work I am getting asked to do.

Just by chance in todays National Post (one of Canada's leading national newspapers) there was an article I was quoted in about building your on line career brand. What was even more incredible was that the person sitting behind me had just been reading the article and was thinking they wanted to get in touch - and they found me right then!

The article also mentioned my e-book - Google ME! - how to build your on line personal brand in 10 easy action steps, which is starting to generate a lot of interest as people realise that part of their personal brand building has to take place virtually.

Listen to 24 hours of personal branding expertise

The podcast recordings of all 24 sessions from the Brand You World global telesummit are now available for listening at the web site.

This is quote probably the richest source of information and expertise on personal branding in one place on the web so take advantage of such a rich resource and also take a moment to donate to the social cause partner Kiva.

What's in a Naymz? And What's in it for Them?

One of the repeating themes throughout the recent Brand You World global personal branding telesummit was building an on line brand - and this is echoed in my discussions and presentations in the question that I get asked the most - How do I raise my Google score?

One such way is Naymz. I only recently did something about getting my profile on Naymz. It had been recommended by a few colleagues, I had been nudged through invites from some others, but it was one of those - I will get around to it things. I just wish I had done it sooner.

I have now been on Naymz for less than a month and already they have placed Google Adwords at no cost to me for my name (do a search for Paul Copcutt and you will see a paid ad on the first page)  and my profile in Naymz is already hitting near the top of Page 2 in a google search, even getting above my Linked In profile - now that is really impressive

If you are looking for one way to get noticed on line quickly then this might well be the way.

I wrote about all this last week in my e-zine - Innukshuk and my Monthly Personal brand Heat tip - and it prompted a lot of questions and e-mail.

One such e-mail was from Robert Fripp, a professional business writer in Toronto- who, apart from having the challenge of competing on Google searches with a famous guitar player and musician, wondered about the ad words and "What was in it for Naymz?"

Here was my answer:

Robert, thanks for the question. I am guessing the actual number of click throughs is very low and as no-one else is bidding on this keyword chances are its pennies for Naymz - so part of their marketing budget.

The great thing for them is that it's targeted marketing spend with someone who already likes what they do enough to be trying their service, so they also achieve two more things -1.) I start to think if its worth upgrading to their premium package and see who is looking at my profile and 2.) I buzz about it - I have just told over 2,000 people today (through my ezine) and everyone I presented to and networked with over the last 3 weeks!

Now I have told a whole bunch more people through blogging so what are your thoughts?

Lost for words? - Well I am just in the pink!

How do you get 70+ MBA students and a room full of alumni talking if its not immediately about jobs?

Hold a networking event where there are 4 chairs like this that are sold for $10,000 each!

Yesterday I had the opportunity to work with one of the current Ivey MBA classes on personal branding , time just flew by as we talked about personal brands and how they might start to look at the way they are communicating and portraying their brands differently. I feel that we shifted, I was certainly energized by the students interest and enthusiasm for the subject and certainly the feedback was positive - many liked the fact that the presentation included references to pop culture and related to them much more.

It was then enhanced when we got to spend a few hours in the evening at Ultra Supper Club on Queen Street in Toronto where they had just taken delivery of the Verve Cliquot loveseats designed by Karim Rashid. The full story on the chairs can be read in this Globe & Mail article.

A fun conversation piece, an ice breaker even - it just went to show that sometimes you do not have to worry aobut what you are initially going to say when you have a fibreglass chair in the room!

Did You Benefit?

If you listened in to the Brand You World Personal Brand Telesummit or plan to download the podcast when it comes up then also please take a moment to make a loan or donation to the social cause partner - Kiva - I just went there and made some loans to women running their own service businesses - it's part of my target audience and therefore is very on brand for me.

Where you can you exude your brand and contribute at the same time?

Lest We Forget

As you go about your day today, take a moment and ideally two minutes at 11 am to remember and respect those that gave.

And if you have to explain to anyone why - send them to Terry Kelly's video and song - they'll get it then.

Party! Party! Party!

At least that was what the first ever Global Personal Brand Summit felt like as personal branding, careerists, coaches, consultants, entrepreneurs, bloggers, marketers, HR professionals, candidates, job seekers and corporates all 'met' via 24 hours of programming celebrating the 10th anniversary of personal branding.

It was a huge undertaking taken on by an enthusiastic and dedicated team from across the world and ran incredibly smoothly - as one of the hosts it was a joy to be able to turn up and just get on with the interviews and facilitation.

The value in terms of content is incredible, all of the speakers gave their time and information and input at no charge, and it will all be available as podcasts from next week for free courtesy of one of the main sponsors Conference Calls Unlimited. Anyone would do well to get there and take the time to listen to all of it!

If you do, or have already benefitted from some of the telecast take a moment to recognise that with a donation to the telesummit's chosen cause to support - Kiva, who makes loans to developing country entrepreneurs.