How Facebook 'Like' Can Destroy Your Personal Brand | Brand-Yourself.com Blog

Several weeks ago, I wrote an article explaining the Top Privacy Tips in Facebook. Now, for the sake of avoiding lots of “what-if” scenarios, let’s say that you have every single Facebook privacy setting set to “only friends.” You also took great caution as to the coworkers/managers/bosses who can see your page. Are you all set to do whatever you please on Facebook? Nope. Your Facebook profile quotations and ‘Likes’ are public for all the world to see. Subsequently, what you quote or Like on Facebook can destroy your personal brand.

For those who may be a bit confused as to what a Facebook Like page is, Facebook Like pages used to be the old Facebook fan pages.

If you are a job candidate and I search for you and find your Facebook link, I can see your favorite quotations and ‘Likes and Interests’ despite your tight security on your page. If I want to know more about you as an employee because I want to promote you or because you are having performance issues, same rule applies.

Let’s say I (potential or current employer) find you and while I cannot see much about you, I click on “Likes and Interests.” There isn’t much else to see about you, so why not?  Is this where you said you liked skiing, snowboarding and golf? No, that is private. This is where I see what you Like on Facebook.

Are you one of the people who Like:

• Reading Someone’s Status Update and Thinking Oh, Shut the <expletive> Up! (1,343,430 people on Facebook Like this)
• I Am Going to Sit Back and Laugh When Karma Punches You in the Face (1,125,074 people Like this)
• I Thought About Knocking You the <expletive> Out on Multiple Occasions (304,567 people Like this)
• I Am Not Wrong, You Are Just Too Stupid to Grasp What I am Saying (278,842 people Like this)
• I am Sarcastic Because You are an Idiot (44,400 people Like this)
• Seriously, Shut Up, I am Going to Hit You (27,486 people Like this)
• I Deleted You Because You are Ugly and Your Status’ Suck (10,558 people Like this)
• I Am Smart, I Just Feel Too Lazy to Put Any Effort in My Work (4,234 people Like this)
• I Hate My Job! (3,561 people Like this)

If you Like these pages or anything remotely similar, remove them immediately if you care anything at all about your personal brand. While employers can also click on the pages and read anything you may have written on these pages, the simple fact that you Like them raises concerns about your character.

Yes, we are all regular people and some of these pages may ring true and are funny, but this information is public for everyone to see. Should they be public? That is a whole other issue. Right now we must deal with what is and be very conscious about what we do online that is visible for anyone to see.

It comes down to this: if you are a job seeker or you want to be promoted to a leadership position in your company, do the above “interests” reflect an ideal job candidate or an ideal leader?

Next, let’s look at your favorite quotations. Since your favorite quotations are also public, what do they say? Are they hardcore “I hate the world” quotes or are they inspiring, motivational and thought provoking quotes? An employer or prospective employer will draw conclusions about you based on your quotations if they read them. Use this public category to make an impact.

There are so many different types of pages on Facebook to Like, and quality authors to quote. You can leverage your personal brand by having your personal Likes or quotations reflecting your industry, charities, hobbies, etc. I do not think that it matters if you Like sports, movies, parenting topics, travel, or any pages of good quality. Believe it or not, there are even many fun ones to Like that are not offensive in nature!

Think about this the next time you click the Like button or publish a quotation.

Yes, it’s your Facebook page and you can say and Like whatever you want, but always keep in mind what you can control in your privacy settings and what you cannot. Public information is just that. What do you want the world to see? What do you want your (potential) employer to see?

Jessica Simko is a seasoned senior level Human Resources professional with over 15 years of experience in all facets of Human Resources Management.  She is a Freelance Writer and  Entrepreneur specializing in career/ life coaching and social media. Striving to help people connect their passions with their jobs and life, she offers great career, personal branding, and life tips on her new blog, Work and Life Solutions.  Feel free to connect with her on:

Twitter
Linked In

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life@work: How Strategic Attraction Can Help You Get the Job You Want

If affirmations aren't your thing, you've come to the right post.

Because even though I've used the word "attraction" in this post's title, and I'm convinced that we can do a lot to attract the kinds of people and situations we want in our lives, there are more effective ways of attracting what we want than simply repeating, "I welcome the abundance of perfect job offers" to yourself in the mirror every morning.

You need to know what value you provide to an employer, envision your ideal job and take steps to make yourself attractive to your ideal organization.

Stacey Hall and Jan Brogniez's book, Attracting Perfect Customers: The Power of Strategic Synchronicity, is one I turn to weekly as I develop and grow my own business. I have a business, and the business depends on customers. Every business owner has to figure out where those customers are going to come from. 

The tactic of running around, chasing after customers wasn't working too well for me. Imagine that. When I read this book, which was introduced to me by coach extraordinaire, Molly Gordon, I began to think about attracting perfect customers. I created something called a strategic attraction plan. And this changed my business entirely.

OK, so what does this have to do with you and your perfect job?

Everything. You can create a strategic attraction plan to attract perfect customers, a perfect job, mate, perfect vendors, business partners, or whoever. It's not magic, but is a fresh way to look at marketing or job seeking.

The book has all the details, but here are a few highlights:

• You are most attractive when you are like a lighthouse, standing still with a very focused beam of light, than when you are running up and down the beach, shining your light everywhere, trying to attract the attention of all the boats in the harbor.

This metaphor is about knowing who you are - in the case of being a job seeker, knowing your value proposition - and not trying to be what you think everyone else wants you to be. Focus is attractive, diffuseness is not.

Paring the process down quite a bit, your strategic attraction plan is the result of:

• Envisioning your perfect employer (it helps to have already worked for one that was awfully good), writing down their qualities and attributes
• Writing down what you choose your perfect employer to expect you to do
• Writing down what you need to improve to attract your perfect employer
• Working to improve what you decided you need to improve
• Reviewing the plan each day, to keep it alive

Creating a strategic attraction plan for a job search requires that you know yourself well, that you can imagine an ideal environment for you, and that you understand what you can do to make yourself more attractive to your perfect employer.

Just getting to the point of writing the plan takes a lot of thought and exploration! But it helps you become the lighthouse, someone your ideal employer will recognize as a great fit for their needs. Having a plan also positions you to recognize opportunities as they come along. Long-hoped-for synchronicity often ensues.

If you've done reading on personal branding, you recognize how closely tied the strategic attraction plan is to developing your personal brand. (Check out the 1997 Tom Peters article that started it all for more information). Dan Schawbel, among many others, is at the forefront of personal branding evangelism today.

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Business Cards - Guerrilla Job Hunting

Use them as mini resumes.  Have them printed on both sides with pointers leading the recipient back to your web site.  Have multi panel folding ones done which profile your accomplishments.

Offer a reward for leads which land you a job.

Make sure all your contact information is on it so people can reach out to you 24/7.

Compliments of David Perry and Kevin Donlin

Image credit Ted Mann

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How to Make a Career Change Doable for You - Career Chaos

Ready for a career change, but not sure just what?

A first step is to get back in touch with what goes on in the world beyond your current workspace. Start by reading recent business magazines such as Forbes or Fortune and BusinesswWeek. Include the Wall Street Journal AND the New York Times. Discover the current trends in your industry, in your field, in the world. Reflect on how these trends will affect your current career, and on how the skills you already have can impact these trends. When contemplating a career change, think about what your choice will look like 5-10 years from now. It's important to select a career you can grow into and thrive in.

Next, after looking forward, take a peek back at your early life. What dreams did you have as a child that you tossed out along the way? Music, art, school newspaper, team sports, "playing school" with your siblings - all offer clues to what your true passion may be. For example, if you liked to play on the soccer team instead of painting landscapes, you may now prefer working on group projects instead of being a freelance web designer.

Finally, after coming up with a few career change possibilities, talk to some people who actually work in those careers. Find out what they like and dislike about their work. And ask them whether they chose their careers, or fell into them as careers by default. Imagine yourself working in these careers through their stories.

As you can see, changing careers is not a simple process. It may take weeks, even months, to realize results that can shape your decision. But if you have defined steps and a career action plan, you will be able to get off that treadmill in your head and actually see some progress. It's never too late to start the career change process. It's your choice as to when you are ready to begin. Working with a professional Career Coach can make it easier.

Wishing you career success in 2010!

Meg

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Who Are You: a Generic Job Title OR a One of a Kind Executive? | Career Rocketeer - Career Search and Personal Branding Blog

Since January I have received several dozen senior level referrals from clients, especially one’s in HR administration, who have told their friends about my business philosophy “One Size Does Not Fit All.” (http://www.perrynewman.com/) After working with me they have come to understand that this is not a slick marketing slogan, but a highly effective approach to creating personalized marketing documents and social media profiles in a market dominated by resume mills fronted by job posting search engines.

Unfortunately over 50% of those referred to me have already spent from a low of $399 to upwards of $1000 to get a resume written in a style that they were told by the company’s salesperson 'IS THE ONLY FORMAT' that will land you job offers. After making this very costly investment and seeing minimal results they have a difficult choice to make, live with the mediocrity they paid for or try to get it right without breaking the bank. Thankfully most don't need costly major surgury just affordable personalization.

What is striking is that I (and most people who review resumes for a living) can look at a resume from a resume mill and in less than 15 seconds tell you exactly which one it was purchased from.

Is this ESP? No. Its simple; most of these companies use one single style for all their clients to produce a resume that presents a job title, i.e. a CEO, CIO, CFO, Director of Marketing, Operations Manager, lawyer, civil engineer, purchasing manager etc. I think you get the picture.

This is not to say these resumes are not well constructed; and I must admit the wording and sentence structure are erudite and professional. The problem, in most cases, is that every CFO, CIO, CEO resume looks the same and lacks a personal touch.

What I also found strange was when I spoke to these referrals and asked them how they were referred to the service they told me it was from a free resume critique offer they accepted after inputting information to get access to the services executive level job posting/job match search engine.

They told me that after attaching a resume they received an email critique with a nice sales pitch and no guarantee. I then asked a few people to send me the critique, and I registered with a few services myself submitting a resume they wrote under a different name and email address and then noticed all the critiques were boilerplate generic with slightly different words… This is a straightforward assessment of your current resume, and not a judgment of your skills and qualifications… Here is the good news: My first impression of you is that you have an impressive array of skills and experiences. You’re a qualified (widget maker) with a lot to offer an employer. Now, here’s the bad news: Your resume and the content is not up to the standards one would expect from a candidate like you. I saw the same general remarks for a low level candidate with limited skills and experience, a mid-level manager who is mediocre at best, and an executive who was fired from his last two jobs with cause. Sound familiar.

So what can you do to avoid getting a pedestrian product for a king’s ransom?

1: Get a verbal critique of your resume, not just a cursory written email review.
2: Inquire as to the exact qualifications of the person who is critiquing your resume, and ask for specific examples of what they feel needs to be changed, why, and how they would handle it.
4. Ask how many different styles of resumes they work with, and which ones would be best for you and why.
5: Avoid layers; make sure the person who critiques your current resume is the same person who will write your new resume.
6: Your resume is not like receiving Social Services. You should be the one to choose who writes your resume instead of having someone who you don’t know and does not know you arbitrarily say “we are assigning writer XYX to your case.”
7. Ask if there is a money back guarantee of at least a partial refund if you are not satisfied with the final draft and a free rewrite if you are not getting results after a specified period of time.
8. Have someone you trust who knows you professionally look at the resume and see if it captures what makes you unique and special and then discuss their opinion with the resume writer.
9. If you want someone to critique your resume with you over the phone and tell you if it needs minor adjustments you can do on your own, major revisions, or is good as is, email a copy with your phone # to perry@perrynewman.com

---

Author:

Perry Newman, CPC CSMS is a nationally recognized executive resume writer, career coach, and certified recruiter and social media strategist renowned for his ability to produce resume, social media profiles and job search strategies that get results. You can view sample resumes at http://www.perrynewman.com/ and email him your resume at perry@perrynewman.com for FREE resume critique.

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Entry Level Jobs - Start Here - Secrets of the Job Hunt Career Podcast

Reposted from CareerAlley

"A successful life is one that is lived through understanding and pursuing one's own path, not chasing after the dreams of others." - Chin-Ning Chu

"Launching a career", sounds kind of melodramatic and it is in a way. The age old question - "What do you want to be when you grow up?" has to be answered to really launch a career. Most of us don't actually know where we want the journey to take us other than we want it to be challenging, rewarding and enjoyable. And, contrary to what some may say, these are not always mutually exclusive, but they can be elusive. So maybe you just got out of college, are starting your first job, don't like the job you're in or decided to change your life. It doesn't really matter, the best place to start is always the beginning (whether or not it is a re-do).

Launching Your Career:

• Essentials For Launching Your Career - Do you know the essentials for launching your career? Monster.com provides some advice and a number of links for the essentials - Choosing a Career Path, Getting in the Door, Surviving and Thriving and Prepare for the Interview. There is also a link to a four step process if you are simply interested in everything. Each of the links provide comprehensive information and many provide additional links to relevant material.

• The 30 Best Careers for 2009 - By now you know that there is a list for everything, and knowing the best careers is no exception. US News & World Report offers this article, which is not only for those first starting out but will also help those "re-starting" (whatever the reason). There are links for a number of related articles as well as some embedded links throughout the article. The list starts at the bottom of the article, and each career listed has a link to a comprehensive article on that career (like Ghostwriter, which is not to be confused with writing about ghosts). While you are here, also take a look at the link for "11 Best Kept Secret Careers".

• How To Find Your Dream Career - It should be so easy (and the writer is quick to point that out). A good article with some tips (5 to be exact) on finding the career for you. Some are basic (like "know what you want") and some are not, but all are good advice from Career Success for Newbies. There are embedded links within the article as well as a long list of links on the left hand side of the page.

Sounds Good, but who is hiring?: A few companies with college grad or entry level sites.

• Verizon Wireless - I've reviewed Verizon recently, but have not focused on their College Site. There are links at the top for "Why Verizon", careers/profiles, internships and campus events. The Careers/Profiles (once clicked) provides background on a number of career choices, while clicking internships provides an overview of that program. You can submit a resume or click "search jobs" at the top of the page.

• Ernst & Young - E&Y has an excellent site for college students. There is an overview to start, followed by a number of links for additional information (like working at E&Y and applying for a job). The best one is the link to their Student programs, which include Internships and their Summer Leadership Program.

• Top Entry Level Employers - This is the list you really need to leverage. An amazing amount of work went into this site by Collegegrad.com. There are 100's of companies listed, with links to their college sites and key statistics which will help you in your search. If you only have time for one site, this is the one to leverage.

Fun Stuff: A bit of a diversion, but worth the read.

• Top Twelve Things To Do While Unemployed - First, thanks to Steven for letting me know about this post. This is a great read with an interesting view on some good ideas (unemployed or not). Sell junk on Ebay is my favorite, but I do like the

• Worst Companies To Work For: Glassdoor.com's List - Okay, we've listed the best, why not the worst? Take a look and make your own decision.

Good luck in your search.

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How To Use LinkedIn To Market A Book | I'm On LinkedIn - Now What???

I’m working on my third book, titled Eight Lunches.  It’s a cool idea and I’m actually looking at people to review the latest draft (more info and an excerpt here).

While I’m asking for people to review the draft and provide feedback that can help the book be more solid, I’m using LinkedIn for business development.  I mean, er, marketing.  I mean, perhaps PR.

What I really mean is I’m using LinkedIn as a tool to help me network into certain places to help me market my book.

I’ve identified a number of media outlets I want to approach with information about my book.  Last week I did a few simple searches on LinkedIn to find editors and writers of one magazine and came up with about a dozen contacts I’ll reach out to.  Here’s what I did:

• I searched on “editor [magazine name]” and came up with a bunch of names.  Most of the names are interesting to me.
• I went to each LinkedIn Profile to learn more and see if they really were a contact who I want to network with.
• On the right of each Profile I looked in the “Viewers of this profile also viewed…” box to see who I was missing, or who didn’t come up in the search, or who key people were at other magazines.  This is a KEY area when you are searching for contacts you might want to reach out to.
• I recorded the name, location (so I know what time zone they are in – not all are in the same time zone), title, URLs (always the LinkedIn URL, sometimes the Twitter URL (if they are on Twitter), and the name of the magazine (because I’ll put these contacts into a spreadsheet and then import them into JibberJobber – I figured it’s best to put the “company” name in before the import, rather than one at a time).

This week I’ll work on my message (aka, pitch) and then send them messages.  But I won’t send them messages through LinkedIn… I don’t have any introductions left (I can’t find the outstanding 5 that should be recalled – it’s a horrible weakness in LinkedIn to not be able to find those), and I can’t InMail them because I’m on the free level now.

That’s okay, a simple google search shows me that the company email structure is simply the first initial of the first name plus the last name @magazinename.com…. I’ll check out the magazine to make sure that’s what they say in there, but emailing each of them individually should be easy.

As a side note, I noticed that ALL of them have weak/skeleton LinkedIn Profiles.

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