Promote Yourself (14 page)

• personal photos and videos

• personal anecdotes

• personal status updates

• anything that doesn't enhance your professional image. (That means no party pictures and no updates on how many beers you just drank!)

 

 

What's in Your Tagged Photos?

If you say you wouldn't post beer pictures online, you're smarter than most. According to a 2011 survey by
MyMemory.com
, the average British Facebook user is under the influence of alcohol in three quarters of his or her tagged photos. Fifty-six percent of respondents admit they have “drunk photos” they wouldn't want coworkers to see.
5
What do you have online that
your
coworkers shouldn't see?

 

Develop Your Own Web site

As I mentioned before, once you've got a domain name, you should definitely create your own Web site. More than anything else, your site will define your professional self. It will most likely be the first thing to come up in a Google search for your name, which gives you the premier platform for describing yourself to the world. It's where you'll advertise your achievements and promote your expertise; where you'll post awards, testimonials, or recommendations; where you'll link to any YouTube videos you've posted, your blog if you have one, and any online content you've created. It can include information on your company and links to relevant parts of your company's Web site. And of course, it will link to your Facebook, Twitter, and other social network profiles. All together, this information will define your personal brand.

If you're worried about price, don't be. You can create a Web site absolutely free.
WordPress.com
,
Aboutme.com
,
Tumblr.com
,
Sites.Google.com
,
and others offer free templates and hosting that will enable you to create a basic, functional Web site. The downside to the free options is that they're cookie-cutter and won't help you stand out from the crowd. So I recommend that you use a free site as a placeholder until you're ready to invest in a custom one. Designing a custom site could cost $600 or more (unless you've got the skills and software to design your own). You'll also have to pay a Web hosting service to host your site (I recommend
GoDaddy.com
and Bluehost.com, which cost $50 to $100 a year). But the costs are well worth it: You're making a major investment in your career. Your Web site could be the first thing a prospective employer sees about you. And as we talked about in Chapter 3, you've got to make that first impression count.

Once your site is up and running, you've got to keep it up to date. A Web site doesn't require daily management the way social media accounts do, but it's a good idea to check it at least weekly to make sure it always has your latest projects and information. If you use Google Analytics (available for free), you'll be able to see who is visiting your site, how they found it in the first place (for example, the search term they used in Google), what pages they're viewing, and how long they're staying there. Knowing that will help you tweak the site to make it even more compelling. If you don't have a huge amount of time to update your site, there are a number of free or inexpensive options you can install that will pull the most recent posts from any or all of your social media accounts.

 

The Basics of SEO—Search Engine Optimization

If you want to be known as an expert, you're going to have to come up in searches for your area of expertise—not just searches for your name. In order to rank higher, you have to optimize your site through a process called search engine optimication (SEO). Because Google's, Bing's, Yahoo!'s, and other engines' algorithms are so complicated, a whole industry has developed to try to essentially manipulate the search engines' results. There are entire books on SEO, and we can't go into that much detail, but here are some of the basics to get you started. As you become a social media power user, you can get into the finer points of SEO.

DOMAIN
NAME

By using keywords, such as your full name or a topic you want to cover, as your domain name, you will help increase your search engine rank, which brings your site up closer to the top of the results page when people search for those words (and, by extension, for your site).

KEYWORDS

Choose two to five keywords that you want to rank high in search engines and use those keywords all over your Web site, including the title and within blog posts. In order to see what keywords have the most monthly searches and how competitive they are, go to
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
.

BACKLINKS

The more Web sites that link to your site, the higher your rank will be in search engines. You should aim for both quantity and quality with the sites that link back to your site if possible. If you have good content on your site, then other sites will link back to it. Of course, if you're asking others to link to you, be prepared to reciprocate.

RELEVANCY
AND
AUTHORITY

Links from popular high-traffic Web sites that have content that's related to you are especially good. For instance, if
The New York Times
linked to your blog, it would propel your ranking much more than a random site.

WEB
AND
SOCIAL
MEDIA
TRAFFIC

The more popular your content is and the more you market it, the more traffic you will get. Traffic usually comes from search engines and social networks.

Again, the points above are just an overview of how to optimize your online presence. The more of them you can implement, the higher your Web site will rank. People can't read your content or engage you in conversation if they don't know you exist.

 

Develop Your Own Blog

Once you've got your Web site, it's easy to add a blog. Go to
WordPress.org
and download and install their Web hosting software. Simple instructions are available on the site. This will enable you to develop a custom-designed blog that will sit on your Web site. If you've decided not to create your own Web site, you can create a free blog using one of the templates at
WordPress.com
or use
Tumblr.com
for a simple blog format. But I recommend that you make the investment and get a custom blog design so you can stand out. Thousands of other blogs will be using the same free template (called
themes
in WordPress parlance). Do you want yours to look just like theirs? For under $100, you should be able to get a much more unique theme that you can customize to suit your needs. What to write about? Focus on a single topic that you feel strongly about or want to master, and stick to that. People will read you because they share your passion for that subject, value your insights, and trust that when they open your blog you'll deliver in that specific area. If you've built your expertise in inside sales, don't suddenly blog about PR. Not much of a writer? Here's a tip:
“Talk” it, don't write it.
Forget all that stuff from high school English (sorry, Mrs. Richardson) about full sentences, topic sentences, and not starting sentences with “and.” Pretend you're talking to a friend and just tell him what you want him to know. Successful blogs aren't honors papers; they're written in the blogger's true voice. That's what conveys the blogger's enthusiasm and energy and what makes blogs fun to read. Of course you will want to pay attention to spelling and grammar because what you write represents your brand and you may be judged harshly. The point is that you don't want to sound like a textbook. You need a voice and blogs are more casual than regular articles or essays.

Of course, even the best, most readable blog is only readable if people find it. Which means you can't just write it and put it out there. You need to create pathways to it. And that means finding blogs and Web sites that will post links to yours. Are you blogging about trends in Human Resources? Try to get the best-read HR blogs to link to yours. Writing about your experience with Linux? Pursue links in the IT world. Set your sites high and go for links to the biggest blogs and Web sites; they get more traffic themselves and will lift you higher in Google rankings. How to pursue those links? I don't recommend groveling (
“Please, pretty please, link to my site…”
). It isn't effective and can turn people off. Instead, create good content that other bloggers and journalists in your industry will want to link to. Send your material to them; post relevant comments on their articles and blogs; let them see what you have to offer. As they pick up your material, initiate a relationship. Once they know you and your work, they'll be more apt to offer a link.

You never know where your blog—and your passion—will lead. Brian Stelter started a blog tracking cable news coverage of the Iraq War when he was a college freshman. The blog got so much traction that it caught the eye of a media networking company,
Mediabistro.com
, which hired him to expand the blog under their umbrella. Stelter says, “Passion is the most important trait I bring to my blog. I am motivated to blog every single day.”
6
Today, Stelter has continued to follow his passion as a media reporter for
The New York Times.

A word of caution before you create your blog: Blogs are driven by passion. They're only as good as the host's
frequent
, passion-fueled postings. Nothing's less interesting than a blog that was last updated six months ago. So don't start one if you won't truly enjoy writing it
at least once a week
.

 

Become a Content Producer

The key to maximizing your online brand is getting to the top of search engines with links that showcase your assets. And the key to rising in search engines is putting material out there for people to find. That means producing a lot of content. What kind of content should you produce? Blog posts, comments on other people's blogs, articles and comments in online publications, and even YouTube videos. Any professional content that appropriately shows off your skills will help your career. Don't know what to write or post about? Well, everyone's an expert in
something
. You just have to find out what your something is. Customer relations? Marketing? Excel spreadsheets? Do you have ideas about how to streamline a process? Or thoughts about a trend you're seeing? What insights have you gained that might be of interest to others in your field? Keep your writing general: Don't reveal company secrets. But try thinking of yourself as an expert in your field and see what content possibilities come to mind. (Following what others in your field are posting will also give you ideas.) Perhaps you're an expert in something outside of work that's nonetheless relevant to the workplace. I was working in product marketing at EMC when I began posting about my outside passion, social media. I was publishing about twelve posts a week, posting videos I'd filmed for Personal Branding TV, and writing articles for blogs and online magazines. My work caught the attention of
Fast Company
, which profiled me as an expert in the field, and the next thing I knew, managers at EMC noticed and approached me to cocreate the company's first “social media specialist” position. Perhaps you too have a skill or interest outside of work that might be relevant to your company. Are you an excellent public speaker? A skilled negotiator? Fluent in a foreign language? Using the Web to promote your expertise is a way of demonstrating it to your employer. If you're a public speaker, post videos of yourself in action with a list of venues at which you've spoken. If negotiating is your forte, post a short article on your Web site about negotiations you've successfully completed. If you're fluent in a foreign language, post a video of yourself conversing in a businesslike setting, along with a list of your language-related skills (can you do simultaneous translation? written translation? cultural training for overseas travelers?). Post these to your Web site and social media profiles, then use your contacts and corporate intranet to search for opportunities in your company where these skills might add value. One surefire way to create content is to review and comment on other people's material. Comment regularly on your favorite blogs. Post comments on articles relevant to your field. Review work-related books on
Amazon.com
where you can create a profile as a reviewer, bringing you to the attention of others with similar interests. Just make sure your comments are thoughtful and add to the conversation. You want to be seen as a resource, not an opinionated crank.

Posting comments is also a way to start writing for other people's blogs and magazines—an excellent way to be seen as an expert in your field. Pinpoint a few small sites you'd like to write for and start posting. After a few weeks, reach out to the site owners and ask if you can do a guest article or blog post. Once you've been published a few times, pitch the owners of larger sites and include links to your published postings. Gradually work your way up the ladder to bigger and bigger media platforms. If you're still unsure of what to post about, think
current.
The world is constantly changing and managers want workers who can update them on the latest trends, events, and opinions. Online tools can help you stay current so you can pass on the latest news.

 

• Subscribe to industry blogs and newsfeeds. One of the best ways to do this is with Google Alerts, a handy service that will send you e-mails or RSS feels whenever content matching your search parameters shows up just about anywhere.

 

• Use OneNote, or another note-taking software, to organize your finds. Then use that news to create and update your online content.