Promote Yourself (17 page)

ASK FOR CORRECTIONS.
   Sometimes the mistake is not yours; it's misinformation someone else has posted. Don't let it go! Periodically search for your name and act immediately to get erroneous information corrected or removed. Avoiding the situation will not make it go away; it will only increase the potential for damage. You may be surprised at how easy it is to get things corrected or removed. Most sites don't expect to hear from people they cover; sheer surprise may prompt them to remove the offending post. If not, fire off your own correction. Don't be belligerent or snarky; just correct the mistakes using as many facts and sources as possible and let the truth speak for itself. You'll not only correct the misperceptions; you'll gain the moral high ground.

CREATE A BARRIER.
   If you can't fix the negative postings about you, or there are simply too many to pursue, your best bet is to flood the Internet with positive references so the negative ones sink to the bottom of any search. Here's where all that content you've posted really comes in handy. The more you post, the lower the bad news stories will fall.

COME CLEAN WITH YOUR BOSS.
   As we said before, if there's dirt on you online, there's a good chance your boss will see it. So you're best off simply telling them what's there. Yes, it's embarrassing; yes, it feels dangerous. But it sure beats having them learn about it from someone else.

GET PROTECTION.
   Several sites now exist to help you protect yourself from Internet damage.
Reputation.com
, Secure.me, and others troll the Internet, alert you to damaging posts, and offer possible fixes.

*   *   *

R
emember Anthony Weiner, the New York congressman who sent an (ahem) inappropriate photo to a follower on a social media site … and the fallout that followed as he tried to disown it? Did
anyone
believe he hadn't sent it? Did it even matter? The guy's going to be haunted by that scandal for the rest of his life. Thankfully for us Weiner made that mistake so we don't have to. We know better. We know how powerful the Web can be for creating and promoting our personal brand—and how ruinous it can be if we misuse it. So embrace the power of the Web. Explore the ever-growing number of tools it offers to burnish your professional image. But remember how quickly a thoughtless click can backfire. Love the Internet—and use it wisely.

 

Social Media and the Generation Gap

Chances are that your social media skills are a lot more developed than those of people a generation or so older than you. Chances also are that you either are now or soon will be working for some of those older people. And while there's a lot of talk about the technology gap between younger and older generations, I think that social media is the perfect way to bridge that gap. I had a chance to talk with Scott Simkin and Carlos Dominguez at Cisco. Scott is a young Mobility Solutions Manager and Carlos is a Senior Vice President in the Office of the Chairman and CEO. Scott was telling me about the way he had used social media to connect with clients. “Fifty to seventy-five percent of my job day-to-day is social media marketing, and I've built up a community of 100,000 people with Twitter, Facebook, Google
+
, SlideShare, all the typical communities. I'm out there talking to our customers, talking to our partners, getting in a room with ten bloggers and being able to showcase our product or connecting them with our technical experts. I can thank the guys at Twitter and Facebook for my raise and promotions!”

The one obstacle Scott had to overcome was some resistance to social media from people senior to him. Fortunately, he was able to get Carlos into his corner. “The majority of people my age, in their fifties, who are in leadership and in many cases senior leadership roles in organizations don't really use these technologies or they say it's stuff that their kids use,” says Carlos. “The numbers in the last report I read still show that about a third of the Fortune 500 block social media sites from the corporate Internet. So on one hand you've got this great example of what Scott was able to do with social media, but on the other hand, there's a lot of fear from the people of the Wite-Out generation like I am who may be pushing back.”

So although Scott had to convince his VP and directors, “just having that top-down acceptance of it is tremendous for someone in my position.” He gave Carlos the last word: “The world and the rules have changed dramatically. And if it's just Gen Y people like Scott who are leveraging social media to help them move up the food chain, the senior execs who aren't embracing it, or at least supporting it, are going to become obsolete very, very quickly.”

 

Using Social Media to Get Ahead—And Managing Your Online Presence Before Someone Else Does

The Internet has become the global talent pool, which means that a lot of the opportunities that will come to you in your career will happen within social networks instead of in “real life.” Social media gives you access to people you wouldn't have access to in the past, and you can leverage that access to connect with even more people who can further your career. Besides making it possible for you to develop relationships with your coworkers and expand your network outside the office, the Internet and social media allow you to gain insights and learn skills from the leading experts in their fields. Where else can you follow Richard Branson, Steve Case, and others and interact with them? You don't need to navigate an entire organization trying to connect with them, they are already there.

The Internet also makes it a lot easier to solve problems and stay current on industry news and development. Got a question? Put the word out through your social networks and crowdsource some answers? Want to be part of important conversations that impact people's lives? All you have to do is follow thought leaders in those areas and the information will come straight to your smartphone.

The Internet is everywhere. Even if you're one of the very rare people who don't have some kind of social media presence, I'm betting you can find all sorts of stuff about yourself (some of which might actually be accurate) by googling your name. Whether you like it or not, your managers and coworkers are going to check you out online. So will people you're having a business meeting with, and so will anyone you're dating. There's so much pre-in-person googling that Google has become the new handshake—it's how most people first begin to learn about each other.

One of the big challenges around social media is to keep your personal life from spilling over into your professional life. There's no question that something that might seem perfectly innocuous in your personal life could sabotage your career. For that reason, you need to monitor your online brand monthly if not more frequently. If you're not controlling your story, someone else will be.

A lot of people I work with feel very uncomfortable doing many of the network-building and identity-building things I'm suggesting in this chapter because they feel that it's too self-promotional. I can't really argue with that: No question, building a brand is self-promotional. But that doesn't mean you have to look like a narcissist when you do it. It's possible to promote yourself in a way that is humble and non-self-congratulatory, a way that makes your experience and expertise apparent without shouting, “Look at me!” So don't be put off by the idea of self-marketing. And be sure to read the next chapter to find out how to gain visibility without being a self-promotional jerk; the chapter will help you find ways to market your skills without alienating your colleagues or looking utterly self-absorbed.

 

5

Gain Visibility Without Being Known as a Self-Promotional Jerk

 

Don't worry when you are not recognized but strive to be worthy of recognition.

—ABRAHAM
LINCOLN

 

In the previous four chapters I've talked about how important it is in today's changing workplace to stand out by creating and managing your career, and how to get the hard, soft, and online skills you'll need to really stand out in the workplace. In this chapter, we're going to deal with a question that I hear a lot from young workers: How do I let everyone know how good I am without people thinking I'm a self-promoting jerk?

Before we start, we need to define two terms I'll be using a lot in this chapter. First, there's
self-promotion
, which is strategically letting people know what you can do, what your abilities are, and what you've accomplished—in a way that keeps the focus on how all of that benefits your team and your company. If you don't do at least some of it, you're screwed. You want to stand out, and it would be great if your accomplishments could speak for themselves, but most people you work with and for won't be aware of everything you bring to the table and you'll end up frustrated and angry when you don't get the credit you deserve and as you watch less talented, less competent coworkers get promoted ahead of you. Self-promotion is good—as long as it doesn't go too far.

Second, there's
bragging
, which is often used interchangeably with self-promotion. While there is some overlap, the two are actually very different. Again, self-promotion is more about the external: your skills and accomplishments in the context of how they benefit other people, your team, and your company. Bragging, however, is all about the
internal
: you, you, you—how great you are and how you're better than everyone else. Sometimes it's hard to see where self-promotion ends and bragging begins or when self-promotion goes from acceptable to obnoxious. But by the end of this chapter, you'll have a clear understanding and, more importantly, you'll know exactly how to stay on the right side of the line.

 

You Can't Promote Something Nobody Wants

Although no one likes a braggart, most people are okay with self-promotion—as long as it doesn't go overboard. But again, self-promotion is about your accomplishments. You may or may not be a fan of Justin Bieber, but there are millions of tween and teen girls who love him. And the way he got where he is was by doing a lot of self-promotion. In his case, it was putting videos on YouTube of himself singing. If no one had seen those videos, Bieber would be just another guy. But he got himself discovered. And while his looks contributed to his success, the fact is that he has talent. Talent is the only path to a sustainable, thriving career and Bieber is still around, so he has it. People were able to forgive the rather aggressive YouTube campaign because they enjoyed his singing.

Another singer, Lady Gaga, is almost as well known for her outrageous stage costumes as she is for her music. But the music—her accomplishments—came first. If she wasn't writing and performing songs that people were interested in, she could wear anything she wanted including a dress made out of raw meat and brag about what a great voice she has and no one would care. The same goes for athletes, actors, and any other kind of celebrity. It's all about the accomplishments. Michael Phelps doesn't have to tell people he's a great swimmer. All he has to do is get out there and swim. It's similar with you. (The difference is that Michael Phelps does his self-promotion at the Olympics, so everyone in the world knows exactly what his accomplishments are. You, on the other hand, will most likely have to
tell
people about what you've done.) If you have a weak personal brand and you haven't accomplished much, you can promote yourself all day long and no one will notice. The key is what we talked about back in the previous chapters: acquiring skills and using them to position yourself as an expert.

 

Promoting Yourself Online

Google recently did a study on how social media tools are used in businesses. They found that people who embrace those tools at work are more likely to get promoted than those who don't. The big problem with social media, however, is that more often than not it becomes a vehicle for self-promotion. Jean Twenge, a professor at San Diego State University, did a study of Gen Y and social media.
1
She found that 57 percent of young people believe that their generation uses social networking sites for promotion, narcissism, and attention seeking. In the same study, almost 40 percent of young people agreed that being a self-promoter or a narcissist would help them succeed in this highly competitive world. The 57 percent stat is undoubtedly true. But the 40 percent one is flat out wrong. Being a narcissist and excessive self-promoter will
not
help you succeed. In fact, the opposite is true.

The number one rule of networking—whether online or in person—is: Give before you receive. If you've got a Twitter feed and you're tweeting advice a few times a day, people will overlook occasional self-promotion as long as they're getting value. If I had to quantify it, I'd say that if 80 to 90 percent of your tweets have solid content, people will be fine with the other 10 to 20 percent being self-promotional because you've given so much more value. That goes for all of the other social media tools that are out there.

The online world allows people to opt in or out very easily. Provide good value and help others and people will opt in to whatever you're doing. Turn every tweet or status update or wall post into an advertisement, and you risk being ignored or blacklisted.

So think about the impression your social media presence is giving. Are you posting twenty status updates every day or sending hundreds of tweets, giving people a blow-by-blow description of everything you're doing in real time? Are you uploading dozens of pictures every week or changing your profile picture more than once every two or three months? If so, stop it. You may not think of it this way, but the fact is that you're well on your way to being seen as a self-promotional jerk. So slow down and remind yourself to give value before you promote yourself.