Orange Envelopes | Small Business Optimized Marketing > By Design

Although Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and the other major social media platforms have enabled job seekers to reach an enormous network of people during their job search, these same tools – improperly used – also have the potential to derail and destroy your efforts if you don’t carefully manage your online persona.

The explosive growth of Facebook and its use for both personal and professional networking has revealed some cautionary tales from individuals who didn’t anticipate the damaging potential of too-familiar, vulgar or offensive profile content.

The destructive potential of an artless profile was revealed last week in a post written by Cleveland blogger clevelandsaplum. Her post detailed a candidate search for an addition to their public relations staff. After the first round of interviews, one candidate stood out as the clear favorite. But when the staff did a quick Google search and checked out his public Facebook profile, he lost any chance of being invited back.

Visible to anyone with access to Facebook, and shielded from no one was this stunning paragraph:

About Me:
I am awesome. I run sh**. I had relations with your girlfriend, and yes I got it on tape. I scoff at those less fortunate than me (read: everyone else). I tend to laugh at the handicapped as well as foreigners. I am a firm believer that women are without a doubt the weaker sex. I know more than you. I am a ridiculously huge deal. I’m utterly gorgeous, you (most likely as a result of terrible genes or an unfortunate run-in with the business-end of a shovel) are not. I make fun of ugly people, because they are ugly and they deserve it. My social life is clearly something that you will never experience because you are ugly, unpopular, or a severe combination of the two. I throw sh** onto my neighbor’s porch because I am better than them and they can’t do sh** about it. My friends are also better than you and they will let you know it. I break other people’s stuff. I do whatever I want without any regard for the repercussions. I intentionally ruin the environment via littering, not recycling, and other harmful action. I am an ass****.

Although it’s likely that this individual was attempting to be sarcastic and humorous, his description was highly offensive to those who viewed it within the company and it raised flags concerning his judgment and discretion. And in a heated competition with a dozen other qualified applicants, this was reason enough to eliminate him from consideration.

Now, go check out your own social media profiles and see if you’ve written anything that could offend or concern a potential hiring manager.

Then read these instructions to sanitize and protect your online reputation. Customize your privacy settings to restrict access to your personal information. Segregate all of your contacts into different lists, each with differing levels of access to your updates and photos. At a minimum, you should have a Personal list for your closest friends and a Professional list that allows you to connect with professional contacts but doesn’t grant access to all the intimate details of your life. Prevent photos tagged with your name from appearing in anyone else’s feed unless you specifically approve it. And restrict your personal updates solely to your close, personal friends.

Take control of your personal brand and online reputation before you become a cautionary tale yourself.

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Over the past year I’ve been asked by several friends to help them prepare for and conduct their job searches. These professionals needed the standard job hunting tools: a distinctive, well-written resume, thoughtful cover letters and a thorough understanding of their personal strengths with stories that clearly demonstrated these strengths in action.

But those standard elements were just the starting point. The emergence of hugely popular social media platforms now enables job seekers to extend their reach and power  to connect with an audience that was previously inaccessible.

Every major study of employment conducted over the past 20 years confirms that the way that most people find jobs is through some type of personal connection. A tip from a friend who knows that her company is hiring. A personal introduction to a manager who’s expanding his department. Or a connection made at an industry networking event. People hire people they feel safe and comfortable with, and personal references increase the likelihood that you’ll be a safe hire.

So, how can you build your personal network and increase your chances of finding your ideal job?  Here are some quick tips:

1. Create a blog that centers around your professional expertise. Then fill it with posts. Done right, your blog will be more effective than any resume in communicating the level of your professional knowledge and insight and establishing your personal brand.
2. Make sure the name or tagline of your blog clearly conveys your special professional skills
3. Create a series of posts that teach me something about what you do. Include pictures, diagrams, samples and even a portfolio of your most effective work product. No matter what your specialty, from driving a truck to running a hedge fund, there is plenty of material you can create to educate others.
4. Read and comment on other bloggers’ sites. Every day.
5. Let the other bloggers in your industry know you exist. Send them your posts. Start a conversation. And ask them to add your blog to their blogroll so the search engines find you and rank you.
6. Go to industry events. Go online and check the monthly schedules for all the professional organizations in your area. Then attend with a pocketful of business cards that includes all of  your social media contact information.
7. When you meet someone you’d like to work for, follow them on every social media channel. Read their blog, follow their tweets, read their LinkedIn profile. Learn everything you can about them so you can stay in touch and send them articles and links you know they’ll be interested in. Help them and there’s a good chance they’ll help you.
8. Follow staffing and recruiting professionals on Twitter, facebook and LinkedIn. Their blog posts and tweets are full of useful information that can help you refine your resume, hone your interviewing skills and alert you to job openings.
9. Clean up your online networking profiles to ensure that there is nothing embarrassing or potentially offensive. No photos of you drinking, smoking or engaged in any potentially disturbing activity. Untag yourself from any potentially offensive photos that exist on any of your friends’ photo pages. Remove any offensive or vulgar language. Then modify your privacy settings so your most personal information remains private and unseen except by your closest friends.
10. Search for and connect with similar professionals on all the major social media platforms. Start conversations with them, participate in online forums and contribute to their groups. Create a Twitter list that includes only these professionals so you stay focused like a laser beam.

Remember, by leveraging these social media platforms, you get a chance to reach not only your contacts, but the entire constellation of contacts that are just one or two degrees removed from you. And you never know who’s hiring.

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A recent study released by Universal McCann reveals that we are immersed in the fourth wave of internet usage characterized by social networking participation. Their study notes that social networks are becoming the dominant platform for personal interaction and content creation and distribution.

The global internet audience now totals 625 million people, with almost 100 million of those users located in the United States. Nearly two-thirds of these users are active in one or more social networks.

What’s also revealed is how these users spend their time on the social networks. The most popular activity was watching video, followed by listening to streaming audio, blogging and connecting with friends.

What does this mean for you or your industry?

First of all, the place to connect with people – whether personally or professionally – is on one of the social networks. They’ve made their choice how they want to interact with others, and it’s not through email. For professionals, this typically means LinkedIn, though Facebook is being used more and more by professionals who have learned to adjust their privacy settings so as not to share overly personal information with other professional contacts.

These trends also mean that you need to generate content that is interesting, engaging and compelling enough to generate views and inspire your connections to share your content with their own network of friends and colleagues. The dominant format for this content: video. If you’re not creating videos to put on your site, your blog, your LinkedIn page, your Facebook Fan Page, then it’s time to start.

But don’t stop with video. Over 70% of social networkers also post photos to their pages. People want to see who they’re connecting with, and a thoughtfully designed series of photos can generate a powerful impression. For the professional, these can include images of your office, your personal workspace, your coworkers and even photos from events that you participate in. Sharing some personal visual insights will increase your familiarity, strengthening your connections with your networks.

Finally, if your company really wants to engage online, you need to create a community that’s worth joining. That means frequently updated, compelling content. The promise of interaction with other, like-minded people. A thoughtful, meaningful – even delightful – user experience. And the ability to listen to your community members and adjust your activities to satisfy their needs, not yours.

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The Masters golf tournament is unique in many ways – one of them being their restriction on advertising during their televised event. While most golf tournaments show 16 minutes of commercials per hour, The Masters limits the amount of commercials to four minutes per hour.

This imposed limitation makes each minute of available commercial time more valuable, and actually makes the viewer notice the commercials more because of their rarity.

As a Masters junkie, I kept the tournament on my tv during the entire event, even while working. I just muted the sound so each cheer wasn’t a distraction, and glanced at the screen intermittently to monitor the leaderboard.

Because I watched much of the tournament with the sound off, I was struck by the effectiveness of IBM’s visual design cues that they integrate into every one of their commercials. Even with the sound off, I knew instantly when an IBM commercial was on simply by the consistency of their design cues.

A visit to Youtube confirms that every IBM commercial is bounded by an IBM blue letterbox border above and below the displayed video. This simple visual cue immediately conveys to the viewer that the commercial was created by IBM.

Even if the viewer is not actively paying attention to the commercial, IBM gains another imprint, another touchpoint, that reinforces their presence, increases awareness and strengthens their brand.

This video repetition is a simple design device that should be emulated by small business and by individuals trying to strengthen their own personal brand. What visual cues can you employ that differentiate your message and reinforce your brand image? It can be color, logo, wardrobe choice, tagline, message – as long as it’s authentic, it’s memorable, and it’s all yours.

Then start integrating those visual cues in everything you do online: email signatures, Twitter avatar, blog and website design, personal and corporate letterhead, business cards, social media profile pages – every visual touchpoint that allow you to make and reinforce your brand image.

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We’re all exhibitionists now. The amalgam of perpetually available social networking tools have enabled everyone to share their most intimate thoughts, personal feelings and illuminating (and embarrassing) photos. Now if only there were a website that infused its visitors with a modicum of common sense and decorum.

Sonny Gill wrote this morning of a west coast job seeker who posted her thoughts about landing a job with Cisco. It seems that after her interview, the applicant Tweeted:

Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.

The stupidity of this public comment cannot be overstated. Shortly after its post, the job seeker received a Tweet in reply from Cisco :

Who is the hiring manager. I’m sure they would love to know that you will hate the work. We here at Cisco are versed in the web.

Busted.

This public idiocy followed a recent embarrassing Tweet, recounted by Peter Shankman, that caught an ad agency rep responsible for social media training (oh, the sweet irony), trashing the home city of his largest client, FedEx. On a public forum. Where everyone could see. Including the CEO of FedEx.

Time for some quick rule reminders:

1. Refrain from posting negative comments about another person or company.
2. If you break Rule #1, remember that all public comments are permanent.
3. Rule #2 means forever.
4. Share intimate thoughts and feelings in a private medium (e-mail), not a public forum.
5. If you write it, expect that it will become public someday.
6. Expect repercussions. There is a Twidiot tax. Tweet something profoundly offensive or stupid, and you can expect to suffer the consequences.

Full disclosure: I fully acknowledge that my intemperate comments below concerning my raging hatred of the dark and evil forces controlling Ticketmaster will likely prevent me from ever pursuing employment with the Ticketing Evil That Must Not Be Named. I’m ok with that.

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As I near 1000 Twitter followers I perceive myself as the avuncular yet acerbic voice of Twitter wisdom and guidance who owes it to his vast network of sycophantic followers to clarify the cryptic and unyielding rules surrounding Twitter use.

Now, I'm not the first to provide helpful hints to the Twitter newbies, but after almost three months of reading Twitter posts, rules and guidelines from assorted self-described Twitter experts, I thought it was time to elevate my Twitter station and proclaim my own lofty Twitter status.

Note that although you may not agree with all of these rules, they are still inviolate. I don't want to yank your Twitter privileges, but I will if provoked.

1. Don't waste my time. Really. A lot of so-called experts encourage you to dive right in and start Tweeting. These are the same people who encourage everyone to vote. I don't want ignorant 19 years olds who can't name either one of their senators voting, and I don't want you Tweeting if you have nothing substantive or interesting to say. I don't care when you got up, when you're taking a shower, what type of coffee you're drinking or how slow traffic is in Denver. That's why you have text messaging on your phone. Share the banalities of your life with those close friends and family who have to endure your inanity. Not with us.
2. Don't link to anyone who uses the word "expert" in their profile. Especially "social media expert." Check out the some of the most popular Twitter users – Guy Kawasaki, Digg CEO Kevin Rose, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, Chris Brogan – none of whom hint at the word "expert" in their personal profiles. And they all have actual accomplishments. Online social media have been around about as long as the iPhone. There are no "experts." Pass them by without guilt or sympathy.
3. Don't link to anyone who proclaims themselves a personal branding expert/specialist/fanantic whose Twitter avatar is still the Twitter default icon on a turquiose background. Really, would you solicit or heed fashion advice from a guy in a lime green leisure suit? It's the same thing.
4. You do not have to include your photo in your avatar. Some of the best avatars I see are those created by designers who incorporate their personal logos. They are distinctive, memorable and emblematic of their creative capacity. They speaks volumes more than the standard blurry and pixelated headshot. In reality, many Twitter users aren't terribly attractive and would actually benefit from a creatively designed personal icon. Hey, don't shoot the messenger.
5.  It's perfectly fine to send automated DM's to those who elect to follow you. Tweetlater allows you to set up an automatic reply that sends a standard direct message to every Twitter user who follow you. Some Twitter users detest these DM's. Their righteous indignation can be detected through their Tweetdeck profile. It burns with the fiery intensity of a thousand suns. Ignore them. You're trying to build a network, and following those who follow you is generally a good idea and Tweetlater provides a valuable, time saving utility. Use it.
6. Numbers matter. Notice that virtually everyone who claims that numbers don't matter already has several thousand followers. You don't. You need more. Trolling around Twitter is a lot like deep sea trawling – you drop a large net and hope to reel in a handful of keepers from a slimy pile of aquatic offal. It's true that quality is more important than quantity, but the Twitter tools aren't precise enough to identify those really worth following. So, follow 500 and hope that a dozen provide useful and insightful Tweets. The remainder simply provide you with bragging fodder when you compare your size with fellow Tweeple. And despite the strident proclamations of righteous denial we all do it.
7. Don't forget attribution. We are a self-policing community here. We respect each other's intellectual property and efforts. If you click through a link, enjoy the article and decide to Tweet about it, give credit to the original Tweeter. It doesn't diminish the value of your post to attribute its origins to someone else. Unless, of course, you add nothing of value when you repost. But if you're adhering to Rule 1, we won't have that problem.
8. If someone reposts your tweet without attribution, remain calm. It's a tweet, not your college thesis. I'm in a reflective and revelatory mood, so I'll admit: I've tweeted without attribution in the past. We all have. sometimes I click a link but don't get a chance to read the page for hours. By the time I've determined that the page deserves to be shared I can't recall who posted the original Tweet. But I'll tweet about it anyway and simply hope for forgiveness from the IP Tweet police.
9. Do not try to sell Twitter users a way to earn $12,000/month working from home in their bathrobe while watching the Gameshow Network. You don't want to be the Amway salesperson at the cocktail party. In person, polite societal conventions might compel us to be cordial. Those rules don't apply in the social media free for all on the Interwebs. You're rude, embarrassing and inappropriate and I'm afraid we'll have to delete your Twitter privileges. Or at least unfollow you with head snapping rapidity.
10. There is no rule 10, but 10 rules looked better in a headline than 9 rules. So, let's agree that the tenth rule is a somber reflection and hearty embrace of all the previous rules.

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