| Only tag people who will find the information you’re posting relevant. Throwing up a coupon and tagging all your friends is spammy. Use your update or email marketing features for that. Use tagging when you mention one of your Facebook friends showed up at your event and you were glad they came. It sends a personal “thank you” in a public way and allows them to see that you appreciate them. |
| Don’t tag the same people all the time. Just like blasting messages via email, when you get into copy and paste procedures, you become spam-like and annoying. Make sure you follow rule number one, but mix it up and tag different people in different messages, pictures or notes.Read more at www.socialmediaexplorer.com |
Part 5 of the great series on Branding and WoM from http://www.personalbrandingblog.com/personal-brand-and-word-of-mouth-part-5/ Who do you need to know |
The best contacts for you fall into one of three categories: Your INFORMATION network, your REFERRAL/RECOMMENDATION network and your personal brand ADVOCATE network. And, there’s a definite strategic plan that needs to be created to fill each network. |
Your information network consists of people who can keep you up to date in the latest of you industry or community. This can include association leaders, auditors, authors, policy makers and speakers. |
Your referral/recommendation network consists of people who can connect you with your best clients or best contacts. Again, you’re looking for those people who can connect you with large numbers and those who connect with large numbers of your potential client or contacts. Who have you referred? Who has recommended you? |
Lastly, your personal brand ADVOCATE network are those people who have already spoken positively on your behalf. Do you know who they are and have their up-to-date contact information? Read more at www.personalbrandingblog.com |
Cool link list on PR 2.0 articles! Check it out!
Discovering your personal brand is the first step in the personal branding process for a reason. If you don’t know what you’re brand is then how are you going to convey it to the world? Your brand is what you will be known for. When your name or image is seen or heard, what will people say? Will that description or single word be what you want them to think? These are all questions you need to ask yourself now, not in five years! The reason is simple: brand yourself before someone else brands you. |
| First impressions have changed |
The internet has promoted perception over reality, which is both a threat and an opportunity. A first impression is obviously the most important and if it’s not perfect or authentic, then you will lose that opportunity, whether it’s a possible job, speaking engagement, friend, etc. There are no second chances, especially now since there are an infinite amount of people and websites that are easily accessible and free to the world.
You will be judged based on what appears online in many different situations, such as:
- Google: Your name is google’d and the first result is clicked on. You will be accessed based on that single website they click. If you were prepared and had created content, joined social networks and had your own domain name, then you could, for the most part, know what that first point of contact would be. That is a huge window of opportunity to make an impact.
- Facebook: I always say that Facebook does more harm than good. Recruiters, for instance, use Facebook to conduct background checks more than any social networks. It’s very challenging to build a “professional” brand on Facebook, as you can easily do with LinkedIn. When people search on Facebook, depending on your setting, your name and picture may show up. If the picture is you doing something suspicious, then you lose out. Your Facebook profile might rank first in Google, which means that becomes your first impression in the above example.
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| Domains: Some people will type in your name as a domain name without using a search engine. Did you purchase your domain name? If you didn’t, it will show them that you aren’t thinking about personal branding and that you don’t have a great web presence. Go to GoDaddy.com and use the promo code “oyh7″ to purchase a $7.15 domain name. Try and get yourname.com or yourname.net. |
| Shared content: The latest and most interesting first impression machine is content shared through social networks. For instance, let’s say you never heard of me before. Someone shares a link to a poorly written blog post that I wrote two years ago and another person clicks it. That would be a bad first impression through shared content. This means that everything you do has to be high quality, consistent and portray a positive image of your brand. |
| Other social networks: I mentioned Facebook above, but people are searching for you on industry networks, LinkedIn and maybe using tools like Twitter search. Based on what your the search results are for your name in Google (this could be Yahoo! or Bing now too), it will create an impression. |
| You need to have SOME control |
It’s hard to have control when people are sharing your contributions just about everywhere these days, at a pace that is like lightening. That being said, you still can take control of your online image, such that you know what impression you’ll make making so you can capitalize on it. For the most part, everything I mention below is something you can create, control and/or influence.
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| 5 ways to own your Google search results: |
| Domain name: As said above, claim your domain name right now. You should then put up at least one web page that people can access from this domain and so it becomes “crawlable” in various search engines. I recommend taking your resume, splicing it into different sections, such as “education” and “major projects,” and then having one page that talks about each. |
Social profiles: Social networks have very high Google PageRanks (Facebook=9, LinkedIn=8, Twitter=9), which means that once you create a profile, give it a unique URL and establish it, it will more than likely rank high for your name in search engines.
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Content: The best content you can create is in the form of a blog because it’s refreshed a lot (if you put work into it) and therefore ranks high and is shared more. You can also upload videos to sharing sites like YouTube or Vimeo and write for other blogs and/or news sites.
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Press: When a publication or blog writes something positive about you, especially if your name is in the title of the story, it can rank high as well, as well as give you traffic and credibility with that audience.
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Search engine optimization (SEO): Before, during and after you perform the above four strategies, you’ll want to think about how you can influence search engines. For example, if you want to own two keywords in the minds of your audience and dominate your niche, then you want to use them in the title and description field of your website or blog. There are many other SEO strategies out there, but since content is king, those with the best content will get the most links and therefore conquer search engines anyways.
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What happens when someone brands you before you brand yourself? |
Well, it depends on your mark of highest visibility. What I mean is that if you’re really success doing something you hate and you don’t invest the time to think about your branding, then you will always be known as something you despise. On the other hand, if you understand your brand and everything you touch has that branding, consistently, over a long period of time, then it will start to resonate with your audience. People brand other people very fast. It might have to do with what you’re wearing, if you’re beautiful or not, how you respond to a question or what your profession is. |
The end result is that your audience is confused about what you do, what value you can provide to them, what your values are and your mission in life. There is no going back either. You can’t run down the hall and explain to them that you are someone different than you may have appeared. All bets are off. You probably don’t want to be known as the lazy intern or the drunk executive!
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Pick a brand and sick with it! |
| You need to brand yourself even before someone even meets you in the first place. That way, the conversation is less of an introduction and people draw a line between who you are and what you do. I’m not saying that you won’t evolve your brand over time, but I’m trying to make the point that consistency is encouraged and preparation and execution are everything. When you’re not in a position doing what you love, then it’s hard to brand yourself based on who you are. When that happens, you’ll be branded based on a life you don’t want to have and nobody wants that. So take the time and think about what type of impression you want to make and what you want to be known for. |
But what can be done? It’s not like you can just quit Facebook, right? No - and you don’t have to either. You just need to take a few precautions. |
Unbeknownst to most mainstream Facebook users, the social network actually offers a slew of privacy controls and security features which can help you batten down the hatches, so to speak. If used properly, you’ll never have to worry about whether you should friend the boss and your mom. You can friend anyone you want while comfortable in the knowledge that not everyone gets to see everything you post. |
The problem in implementing these privacy options is that they’re just too confusing for most non-tech savvy people to handle. And often, folks don’t want to bother to take the time to learn. To simplify the process, we’re offering five easy steps you can take today to help make your Facebook experience safer, more secure, and more private. |
Step 1: Make Friend Lists |
Yes, it will take some time, especially if you’re connected to a couple hundred friends already. But this step, while not the quickest, is fairly simple. And it will be one of the most useful things you can do on Facebook. |
Friend lists, like they sound, are lists for categorizing your friends into various groups. The nice thing about this feature is that once you set these lists up, you won’t have to do it again. We suggest that you put your work colleagues and professional acquaintances into a friend list designated “work,” personal friends you’re not very close with into a list called “Acquaintances,” and people you’re related to into a list called “Family.” Those three main categories will separate out the groups of “friends” who you may want to hide some information from. |
To create a friend list, click on “Friends” at the top of the Facebook homepage. In the left-hand column, click “Friends” again under the “Lists” section. Now you’ll see a button at the top that says “Create New List”. Click it. In the pop-up that appears, you can name your list and pick members. If you’ve ever shared an application with your friends, the process of doing this will be very familiar. |
When you’ve finished making lists, you’ll be able to use them when selecting who can see what (or who can’t!) when configuring the security settings described below. |
Step 2: Who Can See What on Your Profile |
At the top right of Facebook, there’s a menu that many people probably ignore: “Settings.” But this menu is now going to become your best friend. To get started, hover you mouse over the Settings menu and click “Privacy Settings” from the list that appears. On the next page, click “Profile.” This takes you to a page where you can configure who gets to see certain information on your profile. |
Before making changes, think carefully about the sorts of things you want public and the things you want private. Should “everyone” get to see photos you’re tagged in? Or would you like to limit this only to those you’ve specifically chosen as Facebook friends? |
Underneath each section on this page (basic info, personal info, status, etc.), you can designate who gets to see that particular bit of information. For anyone not using custom lists (see step 1), the best thing to enter here is “Only Friends.” Anything else opens up your profile information to people you may or may not know. For example, choosing “Everyone” makes that info public, “Friends of Friends” lets your friends’ friends see it, “My Networks and Friends” opens up your info to anyone in your networks - that means anyone in your city, your high school, your college, a professional organization you listed, etc. |
You can also block certain groups from seeing these sections, too. On any item that offers an “Edit Custom Settings” option, you can click that link to display a pop-up box where you can choose people or lists to block (see where it says “Except these people”). If you haven’t made custom lists as explained in step 1 above, you can enter individual names here instead. (Sorry, mom, dad, boss - this is where you get blocked.) |
Step 3: Who Can See Your Address and Phone Number |
Did you list your address and phone number on Facebook? While that’s a handy feature, you may not want everyone you friended to have this information. To access this configuration page, you follow the same steps as above in step 2 to display the Profile Privacy page. You’ll notice that the page has two tabs at the top - click on the one that reads “Contact information.” |
As previously described above, you can again use the drop-down lists provided to designate who gets to see what and/or block certain people or lists from viewing this information. The sections on this page include “IM Screen Name,” “Mobile Phone,” “Other Phone,” “Current Address,” “Website,” and your email. |
Step 4: Change Who Can Find You on Facebook via Search |
Sick of getting friend requests from old high school pals? While for some the beauty of Facebook is that it lets you reconnect with everyone you ever knew throughout your life, others find this intrusive and annoying. You’re not friends with any of these people anymore for a reason, right? |
As it turns out, you can still enjoy Facebook without some folks ever knowing or finding you thanks to the search privacy settings. |
Click on the “Settings” menu on Facebook’s homepage and then click “Search” on the following page. You’ll be taken to a Search Privacy page where you can specify who gets to find you on Facebook. Want to be wide open? Change the “Search Visibility” drop-down box to “Everyone.” Want to keep it a little more limited? Select “My Networks and Friends,” “Friends of Friends,” or “My Networks and Friends of Friends” instead. Don’t want anyone finding you on Facebook? Change it to “Only Friends.” That means only the people who you’ve already friended can find you in a Facebook search. |
On this page, you can also configure what information displays when your info is returned as a search result (e.g. your profile picture, your friend list, etc.). In addition, you can check and uncheck the boxes for network-based searches too. For example, if you don’t want anyone from high school to find you, uncheck the box next to “people in high school networks.” |
Step 5: Stop Sharing Personal Info with Unknown Applications |
Remember when we told you about what Facebook quizzes know about you? Using Facebook’s default settings, you’re unknowingly sharing a plethora of personal information (and your friends’ info too!) with various Facebook applications and the developers who created them. The problem is so bad that the ACLU recently created their own Facebook Quiz to demonstrate how much information an app has access to. |
It’s time to take back control! From the Facebook homepage, hover your mouse over the “Settings” menu and choose “Privacy Settings” from the drop-down list. On the next page, click “Applications” then click the tab that reads “Settings” which is next to the “Overview” tab. (Oh, and if you want to really be freaked out, read that overview!) |
On this page, you can check and uncheck boxes next to your personal information (picture, education history, wall, religious views, etc.). This controls what applications your friends are using can see about you. Yes, your friends’ apps can see your personal info if you don’t make this change! Believe it or not, you don’t have the same control over your own apps. The best you can do is head over to the Applications page and delete the apps you’re not using anymore. (Use the “X” to remove them.) You see, once you authorize an application, you’re telling it that it’s OK to access any information associated with your account that it requires to work. While some developers may only pull what’s actually required, many others just pull in everything they can. Scary, isn’t it? |
While this is by no means a comprehensive guide to Facebook security and privacy, these five steps can help you get started in creating a safer, more secure, and more private environment on the social network. |
However, if you choose not to take any precautions, then you’ll only have yourself to blame when an errant wall post or naughty photo makes its way online and straight into Grandma’s News Feed, or worse, your boss’s. These days, it’s better be safe than sorry, so go ahead and delve into those settings! Read more at www.readwriteweb.com |
| Start a blog – I can’t think of any simpler website technology to start and master, and there are cheap and free platforms readily available. Why a blog? Because they’re easy to create, because they’re easy to update, because they encourage repeat visits, and because you can use them in many flexible ways. Need a good website address (URL)? Pick a name out at Ajaxwhois.com, which lets you search many variations at the same time. Then, click through to buy the domain at GoDaddy.com, and then decide if you want to buy hosting there, or from another site. The company Bloghost.me, run by my friend Andy Quayle, offers $10/year hosting for WordPress blogs. I think that’s pretty reasonable. You?
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| Start listening – People are talking about you. Find out where they are and who they are. When you’re done with that, start finding new business opportunities. People tweeting or blogging about being in your neck of the woods? Reach out, if it makes sense. Free advice on how to grow bigger ears.
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| Try Twitter OR Facebook – Let’s not rush things. Facebook has many more users, but it’s a bit harder to find customers, prospects, partners and colleagues. Twitter is easier to use and faster to connect with people, but there are far fewer users on there today. I’ll let you choose. If you go with Facebook, make a personal account under your own name, and then start a fan page for your business.
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| Get the word out – If you’re going to spend time building these social sites, let’s presume that you want more people to contact you and interact with you through them. Print business cards with the company name, and/or the request for people to join your fan page or follow you on Twitter. Extra points if you give them a social-media-tool-only discount of some kind.
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| Try moving the needle – now lets really get crazy. See if you can fill the place up with social-media minded folks. Okay, this won’t work for every business, but don’t be too quick to count out the idea. Let’s try inviting them to a store-only special event, or let’s give them a discount code. You know, the stuff you already know how to do. Any difference in the results? See if you can do some kind of really special one-day-only push, and what that brings to you.
Read more at www.chrisbrogan.com |
This is part three of a five part series of the importance of personal branding in garnering positive word of mouth. In our hyper-connected society, word of mouth has become “world of mouth” and recommendations truly craft your online and offline persona and value. It makes all the difference between positive or negative word of mouth about you, your service, or your business. |
By now I hope that you’ve had the opportunity to really discover what your personal brand is. From getting feedback from contacts, clients and peers, to making some strategic plans to create a “word garden” that highlights your strongest brand attributes – we’ve been going over much to understand what you think your personal brand is and the perception that is out there. Unfortunately, human nature dictates that perception is reality. So, if you have not really understood what the current perception is of you – out there – then do that first before you move onto the next phase. (Personal Brand and Word of Mouth – Part 1 and Personal Brand and Word of Mouth – Part 2) |
 Now, it’s time to craft your communication plan. And, this is important for individuals within a company, independent professionals, solopreneurs and business owners. I’ll focus on how to create a communication plan that garners positive word of mouth. Whether you’re looking for a job or not, positive word of mouth is something that you want to encourage, nurture and know of prior to you needing it. Asking for positive word of mouth when you need it and when you haven’t nurtured it with your contacts, sounds desperate. Being desperate, no matter how you package it looks neither inspiring or positive on anyone.
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You’ve heard the phrase, “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” Even now that phrase continues with, “and more importantly it’s who knows you well.” To garner positive word of mouth, it is your job to create the curriculum – meaning that you must put together the process of the way that people speak of and about you. |
Why does word of mouth matter? |
 Word of mouth has always been considered a strong and reliable way to get information. With all of our social networks online, too, word of mouth has become the “new black”. We have greater lists of friends through online networks, friends that we’ve rekindled past high school and college relationships and friends that have become friends in a truly different definition of the word now that “online friending” is mainstream. 93% identify word of mouth as best and most reliable source for information, ideas, product, services and people. There are 500 to 1500 people we are connected with in life that are our weak ties (associates, acquaintances, colleagues). Source: Northeastern University
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How do you define success? |
First things first, it’s important for you to define what success means to you. To put forth a good map to success, you have to know what that first stop in the destination looks like, sounds like and feels like. What’s most important are to know the “who” needs to be involved, what numbers would measure that success and your mile markers along that road to success. Why? Because you will teach others how to recognize connections for you and it must be done in a way that is specific, portable and easy to understand. |
What will people talk about? |
- 32% will talk about something exciting or “buzz-worthy”
- 20% will talk about solutions to problems or great ideas
- 13% will talk about knowledge they have exclusive access to
- 13% will talk about what they’ve personally experienced
- 12% will talk about something news breaking, stylish or fashionable
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Keep this in mind as we talk about the curriculum you will develop for people to speak positively on your behalf. |
It is important to teach people about positive word of mouth for you and what would be most effective. Why? Because when they ask you “how can I help you”, you want to provide a more helpful response than “find me a job” or “send some business my way.” Do you think true action would happen with that limited information? |
Your communication plan is like your curriculum for teaching people how speak positively on your behalf and who to do this with. |
First, identify who are some of the best people to connect with for what you’re wanting to accomplish. Are you transitioning positions? Breaking out into an entrepreneurial endeavor? Going to the next level in your current company? Focused on securing more clients? Whatever the reason identify who it would be good for you to know. |
 Second, once you’ve identified that list take one step higher and give yourself (and your connections) a “birds eye” view. Where do people, like you identified, hand out in droves, packs, or groups? For example, my friend, Rachel Stone, President/CEO of our local Hispanic Chamber, is a great connection for me. Taking a “bird’s eye view”, I would look to see where other “heads of chambers of commerce” spend their time together as a group. It could be in leadership groups, city planning committees, industry conferences, ground breaking ceremonies and ribbon cuttings, etc.
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Next, identify what phrases people can listen to for you that would give them a clue that this person might be a good person to connect you with? It could be simply they say, “I need someone with (and then they say something related to your talent). Yet, it might be more subtle. What do those subtle comments sound like? Going back to my example, those people that are good connections for me are in a leadership role with an organization or association, and they say “we’re good at getting members but not retaining them” or “our members are really wondering what they get for membership with us” or “we’re hosting a conference”. |
So, you might be thinking “well, that’s well and good when you’re selling a product or consulting service” but what about if you want to move ahead in your career/profession? |
Keep the same guidelines. Who do you want/need to be connected with? So, let’s say you identify that you want to connect with upper management and CEOs. Next, where do they hang out in groups? Industry meetings, certification/training workshops, a local Rotary club. Then, what could a good contact listen for that might give an insight to who would value your authentic strengths? It might be statements like, “I’m ready to slow down and share the workload” or “it’s hard to find someone competent to delegate to that you don’t have to hand hold” or “I’ve gotten this huge project and I’m not quite sure where to begin.” What these phrases are depends on who you identified you need to meet or brought into their circle of awareness. |
 Kin to listening for specific types of phrases is looking for certain things. Back to my example, I look for associations with Facebook and Twitter accounts with little or no activity or worse yet, they’re the only ones “talking” on those pages, so there’s no engagement or conversation. For you what would that be? If you’re a job seeker, it might be someone who is rushing around, not making appointments or being able to return phone calls. It could be a CEO whose having to be project manager, blogger and social media specialist. What do they look like when they don’t have what you authentically provide?
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Lastly, teach your contacts ways to bring up in conversation some topics that would give you (and them) and idea if this is a good contact. For example, going back to the job seeker example, it might be asking “could you use some help on that project?” or “have you thought about someone who does (whatever your talent is)?” Or, maybe, it could be this question “how do you decide who you are going to put in a position of responsibility in your team.” All of these questions will give you and your contact insight into what your best contact is looking for along with their decision making process. |
Now, who do you teach this all to? |
| Well, the answer to that is in our next installment! In the meantime, start putting your curriculum (communication plan) together so you’re ready to teach people who to pass along great word of mouth for you in a way that honors your brand and gets results. |
Maria Elena Duron is chief buzz officer, coach and speaker with buzz2bucks.com. Buzz2Bucks | a word of mouth firm serves as the community manager around your personal or business brand online and offline, and coaches community managers on how to be buzz-worthy. Buzz2Bucks is known for the talk that yields profits. She is author of the book “Mouth to Mouth Marketing” and the ebook “Social I.R.A.” She’s been quoted as a marketing and word of mouth expert by Entrepreneur Magazine and contributes to several publications and is the creator of #brandchat, a weekly twitter conversation about all aspects of branding. She broadcasts weekly as the business coach with CBS7. Duron will speak at the 2009 Massachusetts Conference for Women. Read more at www.personalbrandingblog.com |
You only get one chance to make a first impression. |
| You have all heard that saying before and I’m willing to bet that most of you don’t find much insight in those words. And at first glance you would be right – but lets dive deeper and look at this statement in context of our personal brands. |
 If I were to ask you to think about the saying, “you only get one chance to make a first impression” and visualize it playing out between two people, many of you will form a picture in your mind of two people physically meeting for the first time.
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Maybe you get a picture of two people shaking hands for the first time, or hear the small talk as they greet each other or maybe you imagine the interaction going smoothly or poorly. No matter what you see, the vast majority of you when asked to do this exercise will think in physical dimensions – you will picture two people physically meeting for the first time. |
But, when taken in the context of building and promoting your personal brand you need to flip this convention on its head. |
You need to think in digital dimensions. |
You need to think of somebody going to their laptop, typing in a search term or your name in Google and then clicking on the first five links that appear to be related to their search. |
| This is the way that people meet in a digital economy. |
The information that is found in those first five links is the digital first impression that others will form of you. This information and how it affects others’ views of you is what shapes the perception of your personal brand – and perception is reality. |
 If you think I’m losing it just go to Google and type in any keyword or name related to something you are interested in. Then spend some time going through the first five search results – if you try this out, you will find the names and related content from the individuals with the strongest personal brands for that search term.
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And, if you didn’t notice; you just met someone and formed a digital first impression of them. |
How many people are exposed to you digitally and ultimately end up forming their digital first impression of you? It’s hard to say how many for sure, but it is far more than the amount of people you will meet face to face in your lifetime. |
This is a by-product of our digital economy — the majority of the people you meet are from your social networks or through people finding you on the web through search engines. |
These changes in the way people meet have many advantages for those who have positioned themselves favorably through building their personal brands. |
1.) You WILL BE FOUND online by those interested in meeting you
2.) You WILL RECEIVE unsolicited opportunities to grow your brand or career
3.) You WILL MEET more people and develop a stronger safety network
4.) You WILL ADVANCE quicker than those who do not develop a strong personal brand
5.) You WILL EARN more money and represent more perceived value by others |
 You only get one chance to make a first impression. I believe in that statement now more than ever because people have the ability to find you online without you agreeing to it. If you have a strong personal brand you can influence a good digital first impression. If you do not have a strong personal brand, well, you will go largely unnoticed and find doors shut where others find doors open.
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If your anything like me you don’t like running into shut doors – you like them open with opportunity. If you think of it in this sense, creating your personal brand is much like having a set of keys to unlock closed doors. |
| Chad Levitt is the author of the New Sales Economy blog, which focuses on how Sales 2.0 & Social Media can help you connect, create more opportunities and increase your business. Chad is also the featured Sales 2.0 blogger at SalesGravy.com, the number one web portal for sales pros, the professional athletes of the business world. Make sure to connect with him on Twitter @chadalevitt.Read more at www.personalbrandingblog.com |
Sehr nette Studie! (via @myonid auf Twitter gekommen)  Das Dimap-Institut hatte ja erst kürzlich eine von der Bundesregierung in Auftrag gegebene Studie veröffentlicht. Demnach gaben 28% der befragten Unternehmen an, Bewerberinformationen im Web zu suchen. 36% dieser Gruppe macht dies mit Hilfe von Social Networks. Alter Kaffee, steht ja überall.
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Vielleicht aber eine Studie die noch nicht jeder kennt, hat CareerBuilder in den USA durchgeführt. Über 2600 HR Manager wurden befragt, ob und wie sie Bewerber im Web screenen. Herausgekommen ist: |
| 45% gaben an, in Social Networks Kandidaten zu überprüfen |
| 29% nutzen dafür Facebook |
| 11% suchen in Blogs nach Kandidaten-Spuren. |
| 7% folgen den Accounts der Bewerber auf Twitter |
Folgende Gründe warum gesucht wird, gaben die HR Manager an: |
| 53% wegen kompromitierenden Fotos und Informationen
44% im Bezug auf Alkohol und Drogenkonsumswegen
35% um festzustellen, ob der Bewerber über den ehemaligen Arbeitgeber negatives berichtet.
29% zur Überprüfung der Kommunikationsfähigkeiten
26% wegen diskriminierende Aussagen
24% ob Bewerber falsche Qualifikationen angeben
20% wollen wissen, ob Kandidaten vertrauliche Informationen ihrer ehemaligen Arbeitgeber schon einmal weitergaben
14% schauen, ob sich Kandidaten gerne mittels Smiley´s mitteilen, was wohl nicht ankommt |
Jetzt mal etwas Positives. Die häufigsten Gründe warum nach solch einem Screening zum Vorstellungsgespräch eingeladen wird: |
| 50% wenn die Profile ein gutes Gefühl vermittelten über deren Person und die passenden Qualifikationen
39% falls die gemachten Angaben über die Qualifikationen in der Bewerbung, durch die Profile bestätigt wurden
38% wenn der Bewerber Kreativität beweist
35% mögen es, wenn der Kandidat gute Kommunikationseigenschaften im Web beweist
33% finden Vielseitigkeit, also den Allrounder interessant
19% schauen auf Referenzen, die andere User über den Kandidaten posteten
15% stehen auf Auszeichnungen die ein Kandidat vorweisen kannRead more at www.blogaboutjob.de |
This is part two of a five part series of the importance of personal branding in garnering positive word of mouth. In our hyper-connected society, word of mouth has become “world of mouth” and recommendations truly craft your online and offline persona and value. It makes all the difference between positive or negative word of mouth about you, your service, or your business. |
 I hope you were able to connect with your personal fan club and ask the questions posted in the first part of this process, Personal Brand and Word of Mouth – Part 1. It’s important that we research where we are in our personal brand and word of mouth in order to effectively move forward. Remember, we are not really focusing on what each individual says as much as we are focusing on the common traits or brand attributes mentioned. If you haven’t done it yet, for any reason (either fear, lack of time or lack of focus) you still can find out. I utilize the 360 Reach Personal Brand Assessment and you can, too. I have a free version set aside for you that you can access here. (the code is BLOG)
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Now that you’ve garnered some feedback from your brand advocates it’s time for you to assess what they said. What they said is the way they describe you and more than likely your brand. You need to see if that is in line with what you think your brand is. What do you feel are the attributes that you have? What are your strengths? What makes you so very unique? Does there feedback match with what you think you bring to the table or is there a disconnect? Do some of the attributes show or are there some that are nonexistent that you feel should be there? |
For those brand attributes that you believe you have but are missing from the feedback, do you truly believe those are authentic attributes for you or ones that you should possess?
For those brand attributes that you have but don’t believe that is “really you”, is it because you really don’t exude those attributes or wish you didn’t exude those attributes?
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This is something that you alone have to ponder and reflect upon. Understand that branding is not about positioning, it is about tapping into your authentic strengths and how can you tap into those if you lie to yourself about what they are and who you are? |
 Some people can do this part alone while others need the help of a coach or mentor. Whatever way you get it done, it’s an important part of discovering and developing a personal brand that garners positive word of mouth. Without it, you will not build a solid foundation and any word of mouth about you becomes unsteady as shifting sand. Build a solid foundation so that you won’t have your referrals and recommendation legs literally cut out from under you later on down the line.
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Planting a “word garden”, is a popular exercise I use in my workshops to test if your personal brand “powers up” or “drains” positive word of mouth. Essentially, a “word garden” is comprised of words that people use to describe you. They are your spoken brand attributes. |
Whatever you have harvested from your brand advocates you have planted sometime before with them either through action,interaction or perception. Does your word garden reflect what you want people to say and know about you? Does it reflect who you really are? Now, you see why that earlier reflection was so important. |
 List down what you want to see in your word garden. Now, do people use any of those words when they describe you? If not, then why not? Is it that it’s really NOT a part of who you are? Or, is it that you’re not expressing that in your daily activities and interactions? And, finally, what can you do to start planting these words in your word garden so that they show up when people describe you?
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It is authentic to plant a word garden and is not merely a practice in positioning because you are taking something that is uniquely you and evolving it into a portable message that shows up in what you do and is easily communicated by others. Understanding where you’re at in the words that people describe you will help you better understand what kind of word of mouth is out there already about you. Now, how do you evolve to ensure that people are talking about your authentic strengths, speaking positively on your behalf and moving others to action? |
To plant your word garden: |
- Using the word people have described you with already, what actions are you doing that perpetuate those words?
- Are these actions that stem from your vision, purpose, values and passions?
- What words did not show up for you that you really want to be known for?
- In what ways are your actions working against these words?’
- What can you do to make sure your actions support these words?
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 It’s a wonderful gift when someone speaks positively on our behalf. Yet, currently most people hope for those ‘gifts’ from people instead of creating a plan to harness the tremendous power of word of mouth. Many people ask others to give them referrals with statements like “please say something nice about me” to “put in a good word for me” or even “if you know of someone looking send them my way.” Unfortunately, we usually receive something or worse yet they say something to this effect, “they asked me to say something about them to you.” Often the quality of word of mouth we receive from such questions stems from the quality of the question itself. When we ask better questions, people have a better idea of what our brand is, what are deliverables are and how they can help make the connection.
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To further engage and really harness the power of word of mouth we need to craft our word of mouth curriculum and that’s what we’ll focus on in the next installment! |
Maria Elena Duron is chief buzz officer, coach and speaker with buzz2bucks.com. Buzz2Bucks | a word of mouth firm serves as the community manager around your personal or business brand online and offline, and coaches community managers on how to be buzz-worthy. Buzz2Bucks is known for the talk that yields profits. She is author of the book “Mouth to Mouth Marketing” and the ebook “Social I.R.A.” She’s been quoted as a marketing and word of mouth expert by Entrepreneur Magazine and contributes to several publications and is editor of the Personal Branding Blog. She broadcasts weekly as the business coach with CBS7. Connect with her on Facebook at facebook.com/mariaelenaduron or on Twitter @mariaduron Read more at www.personalbrandingblog.com |
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