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Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Building & Growing Your Personal Brand. Are you LinkedIn?

Is it just me? Or does anyone else relate to this picture when you think of the chaos that plagues the social media realm? Anyone else feel like a fish out of water? That you can't "learn & apply" fast enough? Sigh....well, then join the club.

Well, as of late, social media has been my job (you know the 24/7 job you can't escape?!?). Can I just say that I love my job! I truly do love the advertising industry...even despite the A.D.D. that I fear it's causing (can i get some Ritalin???) However, just the past few months I've jumped head first into the media mayhem that is Twitter, in addition to my many other "social-media" endeavors. I've recently learned of the TED conference, AdAge Digital Conference, SXSW Interactive Conference and now they are having a Twitter conference in May!!!

During a meeting with a social-media maven (Mike Dwyer) today I started jotting down all the places I dabble in the web 2.0 or 3.0 arena...Here's the ever growing list: Blogger (Obv), YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, SlideShare, Twitter (TweetBrain TweetDeck, Skimmer), StumbleUpon (becoming a new fave), DIGG, Skype, Delicious, Dopplr, WAYN, and 20Somethings Blogger. AH! No wonder I sometimes feel like a 6 year old in a toy store! There's so much fighting for my attention. So, instead of having an atomic melt down (like i'd sometimes like to) I'm choosing to focus on better understanding each of these services and give you my take (or an experts) on how to use each of them. Then, maybe i'll better be able to discern which ones are working for me and which are working against me!

Today's topic...LinkedIn, compliments of Mike Dwyer! Thanks! My opinion is that it has been a static resource in the past and has now become more agile due to the recession - people are treating it like a Monster.com or Careerbuilder. Recruiters are on it, unemployed too. Seems like a natural fit. But for those of us with jobs it can be a great tool for networking via the "groups" that relate to your personal or professional interests!

Let me know if you use this service and what you like or don't like about it!

2 comments:

cojovo said...

I love LinkedIn. My three main jobs are all in different cities, so it's been hard to keep in touch with former colleagues and bosses, which is a necessity to get good recommendations.

Also, at my last job I had a position that put me in contact with people at my same level at my competitors and with the decision makers at our large customers. I've stayed in the same industry but have taken a different type of job, so keeping those contacts has been important knowing I'll get back into negotiation position again eventually.

And last, I'm female in a very closed circle male dominated industry. It's hard to get power and respect, especially where negotiating costs are involved. I need to keep reminding the people I've fought for the respect from that I'm still here, especially when I've built my reputation on an unmarried name.

I'd hate to step back in and have to fight for it all over again because I got married and chose to traditionally change my last name. Luckily, there's not many Courtneys in freight transportation.

Michelle said...

Haha..all good points! Thanks for sharing how you use this valuable business tool!