The Intersection of Online and Offline

I had an economic wake-up call this week.  Big time.

A friend of mine and one of the smartest social media people out there, someone who has not only succeeded on the biggest stage possible, took a money-hemorrhaging business and turned it into a money maker in four years — was told about six weeks ago that we was “redundant” and given a pink slip.

In addition to making me really mad for my friend, this was a severe wake-up call for me.  If my friend could lose his job, a star in an otherwise sinking ship, someone whom I admire greatly and think he’s a lot smarter than me — then I  gave some serious thought to maintaining or establishing a market for yourself when we are facing severe economic times.

Quick note:  times are horrendous and I am loathe to blog about this because I think that most recessions are 51 percent fiscal and 49 percent psychological — but this one hit home.  So I came up with some suggestions that I think could apply to most people — to establish or protect your “personal brand” (and by writing “personal brand,” I know that I am inviting the wrath of Geoff Livingston).

So below are a few tips and those that I would encourage folks to consider as they would from the perspective of someone who does not know you personally, but can discover a lot of wonderful things about you online.

1. LinkedIn, LinkedIn, LinkedIn. I have not used this as much as I could or should since Facebook and Twitter are a lot more fun, but read any “How To Find a Job” book or article and it will tell you that the best start is by networking.  It used to be hanging out around “Association of This and That” breakfast meetings, but now you can do it online.  Seek out and  connections that could benefit you.  When I went back and checked my own LinkedIn profile, I had forgotten that I was linked to the DC Recruiters LinkedIn group.  This group has never benefited me, but I have never reached out to them either.
2. Two Faced-Facebook. I have written about this in the past, but consider setting up a second, open-to-the-public Facebook profile.  Not the one with you doing kegstands, but the one with you in a business suit listing all of your accomplishments and muckety-muck friends (whom you will warn under penalty of death not to tag you passed out on the floor clutching a Bud Light).
3. Blog, blog, blog.  You have to be smart or passionate about something. It takes zero time to set up a free Word Press account, and about $100 a year to do a self-hosted Word Press account with your own domain (what I have done).  Then, with a career/personal brand-building focus, start writing about, and connecting with others in your field or desired field.  As an example, when I started this blog (erasing my last one..sniff) if you Googled “Mark Story” I was about #40, making me virtually (pun intended) invisible in search engines.  Plus, there are a urologist, sports writer and photographer all named “Mark Story” (and the photographer grabbed “markstory.com.”).  I checked the other day and was amazed that now, my LinkedIn profile is the #1 result and my blog is #5 and #6.  I did not set out to do this, but it happened literally, organically.
4. Play around with some other resume services out there.  I tend to think that Monster.com is probably getting crowded, and there are a few executive recruitment firms out there that let you build your own online, schnazzy resume.  Or you could just grab a domain that is your name (unless you are late to the game, like me) and build one yourself.  You don’t have to be an HTML guru, just use WordPress as your content management system.  If it’s good enough for Number 10 Downing Street, then WordPress could probably  handle your resume.
5. You might get mixed results now, but still try a recruitment firm.  If you are an executive, there is a list of executive recruitment firms out there (some of which do not accept unsolicited resumes - they want to find you).  Bottom line is that it better to have a bunch of people looking for you and you looking than just you looking for a new or even potential gig.

And for the most controversial statement of all (and this is based upon my early career experience in the recruiting field) remember that the initial, front-line search for candidates in a down economy is based upon a search for the negative. That’s right, I said “negative.”  What I mean by this is the amount of resumes that are being sent and processed is increasing exponentially.  Nine times out of 10, the person who is the gatekeeper and holds your possibility of an interview in his or her hands is a lower to mid-level person who links “God, I have to go through 300 resumes today.”  Never — ever — give him or her a reason to exclude you.  This individual’s job is to get to the “right” resume for the position and it means eliminating all of those that don’t fit. So if you do all of the above, you are in decent shape.  Do be in better shape:

1. Customize your resume to the position opening.  If they use the word “new media,” swap out the words “social media” for “new media” in your resume.  Write carefully (and for God’s sake, error-free) and tell a story using your resume (in the order in which the job description does) of why you are might for the position.
2. List ALL of the above in your resume.  LinkedIn profile, personal Web site, Congresional Medal of Honor, blog, etc.  They are going to look for it anyway, so make it easier for them to find the stuff that you want them to find.

This is all just a top-line approach in what should be a semi-full time job in this economy.  And one more note:  when I was in recruiting in President REAGAN’S second term, the rule of thumb was for every $10,000 you want to make, give it one month.  I think that if you do some or all of the above, you can shorten that time frame.

And I am happy to report that my pal did indeed land a new gig.  I just Googled him, and he had 10,100 results.  That’s some online presence.  Good luck, pal.

Mark

At the request of my pal and blogger extraordinaire, David Wescott (wow - I’m not one line into this post and already I have used five French words - touche!) I wanted to offer some thoughts and open up a discussion thread for how the Obama administration may change “things.” I have put “things” in quotes because I want to keep the floor open for comments and ideas.  Since I get to go first, here’s my thinking:

Social media, social media, social media.

Am I clear?  Good.

Just last week, I did a Media Bullseye Radio Roundtable on “the First Internet Election,” and while we are several months away from getting hard numbers, one can draw a dotted line (in pencil) to social media and voter turnout.  Don’t put it in pen, yet because we don’t have any hard numbers yet. This morning’s Boston Globe reported that voter turnout was NOT at an all time high:

Turnout in last week’s election increased from four years ago but fell far short of some forecasts largely because many Republican voters either stayed home or left blank the presidential section of their ballots.”

So what will change?  Well, by now, we have all seen Change.gov, “..for the Office of the President-elect and Office of the Vice President-elect, as recognized by the Presidential Transition Act of 1963, as amended (3 USC 102 note).  There’s a first and an indication that President-elect Obama will turn more to delivering information to an increasingly Internet-savvy populace via social media.  Cool.  But here’s what I wonder.  You can’t just go and register a political site (let alone build it) in a day, so someone was working on this puppy for a long time.  Within the government, because that is the only way that you can get a .gov domain.

Quick bipartisan note:  The Republicans have a site, too: Republican for a Reason.

Second,  the Wall Street Journal reported in November on how President-elect Obama made tremendous use of many social media tools during the election, including Twitter, Facebook and email and text alerts.  As someone who draws a paycheck from Uncle Sam, this is harder to do from within government, but I think that President-elect Obama at least grasps the concept that government can be more efficient by delivering information to the populace via social media tools.

Well, memes are supposed to be short, so I’ll stop here and leave it to other, smarter minds to continue to conversation.  So consider yourself tagged:

• David Wescott of “It’s Not a Lecture“
• Jenn Zingsheim of Custom Scoop
• Geoff Livingston of the “Buzz Bin”
• Cheryl Contee of “Jack and Jill Politics”

Start memming, folks.  And the one, super-smart guy who I left off of my list is my pal, Jason Falls, who last time I tagged him for a meme, wrote “My Hatred of the Memes is Overcome Only by my Liking the Memer.“  Lesson learned, Jason.  One bitch-slap is all I need to get the message.

C’est bon!

Mark

Way too many public relations practitioners forget their own principles and/or advice that they give clients when faced with tough times.  Stonewall.  Obfuscate.  Spin. Happens way too often.

That’s why I was simultaneously proud and a little sad when Geoff Livingston and Maggie Fox announced that their companies were, in fact, not going to merge.  Not only did they announce it, but they both blogged about it and even did a call-in with Shel Holtz as part of his “For Immediate Release” series.

I know Geoff, but I do not know Maggie (yet), but I have to give kudos to them for a) having the business sense to explore the deal, b) giving serious thought to it, c) having the guts to call it off, and d) most impressively, being open, honest and transparent about the fact that the acquistion was off.

I urge everyone to give the interview a listen.  It’s isn’t always pretty — and breakups never are — but to anyone considering hiring a social media or communications firm that tells the truth - even when it hurts — can know that Maggie of the Social Media Group and Geoff Livingston of Livingston communications walk the walk.

That counts for a lot.

Mark