That twitter follower hurt my feelings. :(

Posted by Laurinda Shaver

My name is Laurinda and I'm a twitter-oholic. Yes, many people don't understand the point of twitter but I have found to be a wealth of timely information about what I care about. There are great people who post really useful links. It saves time when I just click on their link as opposed to go hunting for information on my own. Two of my personal branding favs are @williamarruda and @kirstendixson.

Although, I am finding more and more businesses on twitter that completely miss the point. Today, I got a business (that shall remain nameless) that followed me at @videoBIO. I do my best to send a quick note everytime just to say hi, thanxs and humanize the connection. This was their response:
"Your direct message was received but we do NOT read DMs for this account. If you do want to contact us via Twitter, use @$%^&*"

So, I went out of my way to make and effort and reach out to you in a tool that you are in and you tell me that my message doesn't count. Humph. You hurt my feelings. If you are going to participate, participate fully.

As you are managing your online presence, think about the way people reach out to you and what kind of message you are sending. Do you have any examples like this? I'd love to hear them.

Don't lie online.

Posted by Laurinda Shaver

How genuine are you online? Have you ever changed facts slightly to meet your needs or embellished slightly? Its easy really. I mean, who would ever notice?

If I was placing bets, I would say someone would. Your personal brand online is an extension of you. And if you are attempting to build credibility and create and strengthen relationships, then I say honesty is the name of the game.

Microsoft learned that lesson this week. They "altered a photo on its website to change the race of one of the people shown in the picture." How does that make you feel towards microsoft?

And more importantly, if you lie, how would others feel about you?

NY Times has caught the video bug.

Posted by Laurinda Shaver

I'm always on the look out for news about video on in the online space. The real challenge with video is that you need a great amount of bandwidth in order to receive and play video without any buffering and waiting times. But, as the technology improves, so does the ability to distribute and view video online.

The New York times has caught onto the proliferation of video. Yesterday they published "Your Career: Video Resumes Getting More Popular". Why? Because its an extra tool in your job searching kit that will allow you to stand out.

The key thing here, that they point out, is "Production quality is also important. A well-produced video can send the message that the applicant is both professional and on top of new technology, while something that looks like a home video can send the opposite message."

The consistent messaging here is that no matter what tool you use in your personal branding, if you want to stand out and be taken seriously, you and your tools, need to be professional.

A personal brand. You don't need to be famous to have one.

A personal brand is often thought of as something reserved for people with a name that is recognizable. Not so. Personal brands transcend companies or entities. The tough part is defining what your personal brand is. Your personal brand is a culmination of your personal views on what you are passionate about, what you do well and what you want to communicate + how others describe you.

So, you could be a lawyer by day but have a blog and community of thousands following you on your nightime musings on Interior Design and The Punka Fan: Inspiring Southern Dining Rooms before the ceiling fan. How do you define yourself? By your daytime vocation or your true passion? Is our success and career defined by our education, credentials and skills or our everything else that we love to do outside of 9-5? Or, your fan base?

I have long struggled with the concept of wearing many hats, operating many entities and not knowing how to bring them all together. Executive Producer of an award winning web t.v. show http://www.defineyourselfblog.blogspot.com about women and aging, creator of http://www.videobio.com/, President of http://www.marketyourselfsmarter.com/ and an all round spokesperson for all things 'women in business', helping women to find their voice and power.

You probably don't know my name. And, my passions are many and varied. Do I have a personal brand?

What I've known for a long time now is that careers and businesses no longer fit into a box with an easy, one sentence description, or even website. Brands and ideas transcend business entities and are moving towards virtual properties.

Brands follow passion. Throw out the business school definition of brand building that we all learned. In today's digital world, brands are organic and ultimately defined by what we stand for. Our brands are defined by the people who we choose to marry and the bright people we surround ourselves with each and every day. So, let's ask them. Don't resist it. Sit with it and figure out what your personal brand looks like for you.

For a great place to start visit one of the world's top personal brand destinations http://www.reachcc.com/ to find a personal brand strategist near you.

Its all about YOU!

Don't you love those e-mails from companies who are trying to sell you something and have NO IDEA who you are. Chris Brogan recently blogged about his love of Macs (even showed a pic of his latest love). But, an e-mail from Apple greatly disappointed him. It told him about "the joys of owning a Mac, the same joys that I’ve experienced for eight or nine years and counting.." Apple wanted to sell a Mac to Chris who already had one. The e-mail was impersonal, badly targeted and frustrating. Chris' message to Apple: "I want you to really care about me. I want you to remember me. That second one matters a lot. I want you to remember me, such that when I contact you at your touchpoints, you know how much I’ve done with you."

This got me thinking about our personal online networks. How well do you keep track of the people you meet? Prior to social media, we all used our address books. Taking notes about who we met at what conference and what they were about. With the introduction of social media, this is all trackable online. Meet someone? Just connect to their LinkedIn account, get their twitter addy and maybe even friend them on facebook.

But will these tools, its easy to just add them and forget. Its important to think about how you are going to use the tools to actually nurture your relationships. Are you actively communicating with your online community or are you simply collecting connections.

Failing which, you might fall into Apple's trap of having a connection, but not taking full advantage of it.

Posted by: Laurinda Shaver

With the social media meltdown yesterday, I was lost.

It started with my Tweetie account being completely empty. No text. I asked around the videoBIO office if anyone was having Twitter issues. Check.
Then I went to Facebook. And (being a mac gal) I watched the loading circle button go around and around. "Facebook down too?" Check.

I was ok. I could deal with not being plugged into the world for a little bit. My need for personal expression could be tempered with other work at hand.
By mid day, I think I had the withdrawal shakes. What was happening to me?

I was missing that strong human need: feeling connected. We sometimes focus so much on the social networks themselves, we forget what the point is. Their purpose is to help build and maintain relationships with like-minded people. Belong to a tribe, a community. The big deal is not the social communities themselves, but the service that they provide. Like Josh Mernoff and Charlene Li said in their book "Groundswell", concentrate on the relationships, not the technology.

Are you using the technology to serve your need to build relationships? Do you have specific networking goals and are you working towards them? Or are you just playing with the technology (when its working)?

For example, sign up for LinkedIn and actively use the platform to increase your connections. It says alot when someone searches for you and your connections are 0 - 5. You would be better off not signing up at all if you are not committed to using the tool. You will be not be taken seriously.

Instead of you going to the info, have relevant and timely information come to you. Sign up for the Market Yourself Smarter's e-newsletter for online marketing tips. There is nothing to maintain and you are using a great tool to increase your knowledge.

Anyway, the outage is still ongoing so I picked up the phone. "Did you know twitter is down?... oh.. its back up?? Gotta go! Talk soon. Bye."

Congrats on your new job! Now what?

Posted by Laurinda Shaver

Hypothetically lets say you’ve got a new job and you want to tell the world and update your online profile status. Where do you start? For the sake of argument, lets take me for example in my new role as Director of New Media and Production at an amazing company called videoBIO. How do you maximize this opportunity to raise your profile in the industry? Naturally I would start with LinkedIn as my professional online status lives there. But what are the other professional tools online that you can lever to build a consistent, professional image online?

1) Take a look at all the communities and networks you are registered with. How do you describe yourself? Are you professional, targeted and focused in one and personal, irreverent, and off-tone in another? What is the take away you want people to have on you? What do you want them to think about when they think of you? Remember, people usually only retain one or two things so you better make sure this first impression is the right one.

2) The most effective way to build that brand image is to be consistent. Use the same picture and an identical bio. That way, anyone reading it would get a clear idea of who you are no matter where they see you online.

3) Don’t hold back! If you don’t promote yourself and tell people what you are up to, who will? Use your communities’ status updates, walls, and other announcement tools to let people know about your change. If you don’t tell your community, how are they going to know? This will spark conversation, as people will respond in kind.

4) Use your twitter account to connect with people in your industry. Twitter can be frustrating at first (yes, I did swear at it more than once) but once you get the hang of it, it’s a real resource for timely information. Graeme Newell has a great post about How to Make Your Twitter Feed Worth a Damn.

5) Very importantly, get a videoBIO. I did. The feedback has been amazing. I am getting queries from people I have not heard from in a long time to professional associates who are very curious on how they can use this remarkable tool. It’s a great way to stand out in the cluttered online space and most importantly, get your unique perspective across in a dynamic, personal way.

What did I miss? How would you use this opportunity to raise your online profile?

As a side note, I’m thrilled to join the VideoBIO team. There is nothing like working on a remarkable product and working with you to create them! I thrive on your input. Contact me at Laurinda@videobio.com and on twitter @VideoBIO. Let’s talk.

Canada's high tech strategy...anyone? Up for grabs.

In today's Globe and Mail, an article on Canada's high tech strategy. Who's advising? Who's contributing? Why is Stephen Harper absent? And, where's the trickle down effect of funding for high tech firms who are in the trenches, investing in Canada's innovation equity today... and contributing to employment.

Try as we might to keep all equity in Canada, high tech firms are forced to go south of the border to access capital for great ideas, innovation and seed capital for start ups. Why? In my mind there are two key contributing factors that keep Canada stagnant in its efforts to jumpstart its international profile back to where Canada used to stand on the Canadian stage as a leader and high tech innovator.

First, the funding model is geared towards rewarding companies who are cash flow positive. Yet it is the ones in the red who are in dire need of the capital to get their companies to the place where they can viably compete and have the chance to succeed. It is at this very first stage that small businesses need the capital but, banks don't have the risk tolerance and there is no small capital structure for venture capital co's who won't get out of bed for less than $10 million and 80% of your company. But what if you only need $1 M? Or less? While there have been recent efforts by some VC's to change this model like Marc Anderseen's recently launched VC fund and introduce funding as little as $50 K to get co's off the ground, they are still more talk then currently actionable funding options and few and far between.

Second, Canada's overall apathy and lack of opportunism and competitive spirit when it comes to embracing new ideas and leadership. Conservative, risk averse protectionism is what stifles Canada's ability to grow and claim these success stories as their own.

For someone who spends a lot of time south of the border and in other countries, it is a clear, disappointing truth that while many great things come from Canada, it is no thanks to our political or financial systems for supporting this success.

Tweeting to professional success?

Where does Twitter live for you in the professional networking world? What role does it serve? Quick personal daily updates, provocative thoughts, stream of consciousness, developing a fan club, sharing interesting items, self promotion? Is Twitter about putting ideas out there with the goal of creating interaction and dialogue and positoining yourself in the world of the web, or is it about voyerism and narcisism? Which leads me to wonder, in what professional network is it deemed truly acceptable to promote yourself in a direct, shameless way. Is there a channel for this? Where will this ultimately aggregate?

Yes, people have made connections through Twitter that have led them to find a job. Yes, people have developed contacts through Twitter that have helped them build their business. But it all feels a little random still in terms of where this channel lives in the networking ecosystem online. If Facebook is for personal use and LinkedIN is for professional networking and updates then Twitter is still a relative novelty in its model alone I think. People are addicted to the public, 'levelled' access to all Twitter enthusiasts-- celebrity and anybody. You can find them all there.

We need to give some concentrated thought to our online profile in its aggregate and the overall message we are sending out to the world about who we are, how we think and what we do. And, in some instances... why they should care. If we leave it up to the collective digital thumbprint we may find out that people are getting the wrong impression. We need to do the work to stage, protect and control (to a certain extent) our professional profile and then manage it diligently.

Women entrepreneurs, market yourself with the Profit W100

OK smart women entrepreneur followers, it's time to yell from the hilltops about how successful you are! Yes, I said yell!! Shameless self promotion and a W100 application is what it takes to get that much deserved attention for all of your hard work. In fact, why not add a http://www.videobio.com/ to your application?

The 11th annual ranking of the PROFIT W100: Canada’s Top Women Entrepreneurs is now open for applicatins and nominations.

This year, changes to the ranking criteria this year open up the program to smaller firms and companies across a wider range of industries.

And, they're launching a new ranking of up-and-coming women entrepreneurs who deserve recognition for their early successes.

What won’t change are the benefits of ranking, including coverage in the November issue of PROFIT, which can attract new staff, customers, business partners and the interest of other local and national media. You can also count on business-building marketing and PR support from PROFIT. Perhaps best of all, you’ll be invited to the PROFIT W100 Idea Exchange, an exclusive conference geared to helping you strengthen your company and management skills in collaboration with other female entrepreneurs.

You can request a nomination package by calling 1-800-713-GROW or completing the online ballot at www.PROFITguide.com/w100ballot

Application deadline is July 17, 2009.

Industry specific career matchmaking

Industry specific career matchmaking just got better for employees in Canada who post their resume at Workopolis. Here is an excerpt from their recent release:

Workopolis releases stats from study that uncovers challenges with industry specific. New Workopolis functionality helps employers connect with hard-to-reach specialized candidates.

June 4, 2009, Toronto – In this ever-changing labour market, employers are looking for more efficient ways of connecting with hard-to-fill specialized workers. And according to new poll results from Workopolis, nearly six-in-ten (57 per cent) working Canadians fit the bill with self-described sector-specific skills and experiences.

To serve this need, employers posting a job on Workopolis.com can now access specialized workers through the Workopolis NicheNetwork, Canada’s largest specialized association and publication job board network. Starting today, a new Cross-Post feature will enable employers to quickly and easily access candidates from industries ranging from accounting to telecom.

“What employers need to help them navigate this downturn is great employees, and being able to quickly connect with hard-to-fill candidates is mission critical,” said Gabriel Bouchard, President of Workopolis. “Employers can forget the wild goose chase for specialized workers because the Cross-Post feature makes it all possible to target industry professionals in just one simple click.”

http://niche.workopolis.com

Do employers and employees see this as a value add among online job search engines?

Marketing yourself on the web. Women's Post Event. Courage to Lead

Where are you in your own marketing campaign? I spoke at the Women's Post, Courage to Lead event on Tuesday night hosted at the Sony Style store and shared some of my thoughts on the personal marketing campaign. I enjoyed sharing the stage with Brent Wilson, Dragons Den and Tsufit, Author, Step Into the Spotlight! A great event.

Standing out... where Personal Branding meets Marketing

For those starting to become more familiar with the whole idea of taking charge of your reputation and managing your profile online, you will undoubtedly have heard the terms 'personal branding' and 'market yourself'. Both key ingredients to career success. But, personal branding and marketing yourself are two very distinct concepts-- both equally important in the overall career strategy.

First, personal branding is about understanding who you are and what your strengths and weaknesses are, what you stand for and what you wish to be. Take William Arruda, CEO of Reach and a partner of Market Yourself Smarter/videoBIO in helping individuals to know themselves before sitting down in front of a camera for a videoBIO or thinking about a more concerted effort in building profile and marketing yourself. Reach has been in the personal branding business for years and is arguably the leader in the field for all things personal branding.

Next, there is the marketing step. This is the part where all of the groundwork comes together and is put to the acid test as you navigate through your career and create connections, make impressions and build success. Take videoBIO as a career marketing tool, for example. In order to get the best out of the videoBIO opportunity you need to know what you are putting into it. What are your key messages? What is your raison d'etre? What makes you unique and how do you convey this with energy and conviction?

So be sure to remember the one, two' step process when you are ready to launch your personal brand out into the market. Take care with your brand.

Career search 2.0

Robert Lesser, President, Direct Impact Marketing and blogger for MarketingProfs posted a great how-to on how Career Search 2.0 meets Demand Generation-- includes some great, practical tips for optimizing your job search online.

Social currency. How full is your bank?

The art of conversation. High value networking. Quality interactions. Meaningful relationships. Great buzz words but really not well executed in day to day business relations. We need to take care in managing each and every impression and connection that we make with colleagues. Great impressions + authentic interactions = social currency. At the end of the day our reputation and our network and human relationships is what will make you or break us in business. Take a moment to think about whether you are building or losing currency. How full is your bank?

Check out www.knowyourcharacter.com to learn more about your professional style and character.

Are you really who you say you are? And, do you know what to say?

There's something about video that brings it all home in a very personal way. Integrating video into your online profile or job search is the new hot tool, but with video there is no hiding behind an airbrushed photo or well crafted resume. It is you. You are out there for everyone to see! It is a very intimate experience between you and the video camera -- and an honest one that needs to be carefully thought through.

There are times in your life when you need to slow down and reflect on who you are and what you stand for. We usually don't take the time out to think about these things as they relate to work, or life. When you find yourself out of work or are looking to shift your career path you really need to take a good hard look at what you want, what you believe, and what you bring to the table.

These are all good questions in general but necessary ones in the process of understanding what your overall message is and how you are going to set yourself apart and connect with potential employers or clients. With the emergence of new online tools and lower-touch communications we have lost the art of relationship building and storytelling. Video is bringing us back to the basics and is forcing us to take more care with our presentation and personal brand messages. And, this is a good thing. Investing time and resources in managing your reputation and brand impressions will pay off.

For examples of well crafted brand messages and video bios, visit us at http://www.marketyourselfsmarter.com/

Marketing yourself (part 2). Your approach to market

This is a follow on to an earlier post Marketing Yourself, the A, B, Cs that focused on what I described as Part One of the A, B, C's of marketing yourself. Today I want to chime in on Part Two which is YOUR APPROACH TO MARKET. Individuals looking for their next position or looking to bolster their profile and build their networks can draw from the fundamentals followed by companies launching new products or brands into the market. You need to understand what your brand is and then you need to manage that brand impression in every media-- when meeting someone for the first time at a cocktail party, when in a meeting or on a conference call, when promoting yourself on your bio, resume or speaking at a conference, when managing your professional profile online. It all matters and it requires a plan and ongoing management and maintenance. Every interaction is an opportunity to make a great or an average impression (let's hope not a bad impression!).

To start you need to think about your goals. Are you in launch mode, build mode or sustain mode? Typically if you are at the early stage of your career you are in launch or build mode. If you are at a mid career stage but are shifting careers you will drop back to launch mode.

For online you will want to ask yourself how much of your profile do you want to be publicly available online? This will dictate your online, professional networking strategy with sites like http://www.linkedin.com/ and http://www.videobio.com/ . Do you want a video to add a level of personalization to your brand? Are you an entrepreneur who is constantly promoting something and seeking new networking connections? You may want to look at http://www.twitter.com/ for sharing daily updates on what you are up. Think carefully about how you use http://www.facebook.com/ as a professional networking tool as it is most commonly used for social / personal networking and it is important to keep your personal and professinal brands separate.

Stay tuned for more marketing yourself a, b, c's.

Career and life reflected by one great CEO

Five years ago I had the pleasure to come to know Howard Breen, Chairman of MacLaren McCann Canada-- a man who needs no introduction on the North American advertising stage. Howard shared with me a few months ago that he was in the final stages of writing his book "A Page from a CEO's Diary" and I couldn't wait for the opportunity to help him promote it.

Well, it is now available for all of us to enjoy!

In addition to Howard's obvious career success he is an extraordinarily thoughtful and reflective man who cares very much about looking at the whole person, walking the talk, course correcting and holding himself to a higher standard.

The net proceeds for this book are being donated to Camp Oochigeas ( a wonderful camp for kids with cancer) and PrevNet (an organization addressing bullying). You can order “A page from a CEO’s Diary” at http://www.authorhouse.com/Bookstore/ItemDetail.aspx?bookid=55960

Here is what Howard has to say about it:

"This book reveals the most important lessons I have learned about business, career and relationships. I intend to challenge you to re-evaluate your thinking, values and practices with observations, anecdotes and questions. My goal is to help you gain a more honest picture of who you are and what you truly believe so that you can achieve greater success in your career…and happiness in life. " -- Howard Breen

Using video as a distinct advantage in your job search

A video bio is an important tool in your career marketing toolkit. Your on-camera ‘pitch’ is a way to present important soft skills like communication style, overall presence, attitude and energy, relate ability and professionalism whether you are in the job market, looking to promote your business or trying to build your profile. At the end of the day, people connect with people and video is a great way to express your whole self online.

Tips for using video online in your job search

1. Be sure to highlight your interests. Just out of school and looking for your first job you won’t have a lot of experience to rely on. Employers are looking to see leadership potential, ability to perform well in a team environment, energy and commitment. Sitting on college committees, volunteer work in the community, sports and other recreational interests all demonstrate a well rounded individual who makes time to develop all her skills.

2. Emphasize your achievements in high school and college. Did you graduate at the top of your class? Have you won any awards? Were you nominated for something by your peers? Did you take on an interesting project that had a great outcome?

3. Make it relevant. The employer doesn’t want to see the same video resume that every other employer is seeing. They want it tailored for them so be sure to translate your strengths into meaningful employment benefits. For example, highlight a specific skill that you have that can be immediately applied.

4. Share your ideas. Bring something specific to the table that shows that you have done your homework and you really want to work there. It demonstrates initiative and confidence.

5. Be confident on camera even if you are not. The key benefit of a video resume is that you can edit which means you have a few ‘takes’ or chances to get it right. Employers are looking for self assured, bright individuals with great communication skills so brush up on your key messages and prepare before your shoot. Make it conversational and not too scripted but make sure your best you comes across.

What are the don'ts of video bios ?

1. A videoBIO is not a video resume. It is a tool that will augment a resume and get your soft skills and communication style across. Keep it punchy and not more than 3 minutes in length.

2. Don’t submit a home grown, handycam version of your video resume to a potential employer. Employers are leery of the source of videos and the way they are submitted. Invest in a professionally shot videoBIO that comes from a credible source and is hosted on a webpage that can be easily viewed without downloading.

In this market climate it is more important than ever before to take control of and manage your online reputation.

check out my profile at www.videobio.com/cfennell

Walk the Talk excellence exhibited on Nov. 12th

The Nov. 12th Walk the Talk event was filled with inspired thinking for employers and new ways of looking at employees and how we engage and enable creativity and innovation-- not just the 'day job'. Employers are looking at new ways to employ and new ways to access talent in a collaborative and open global workplace. Wednesday's Thinking Beyond the 'CUBE' event speakers shared case studies and new ways to make to make this happen. Check out video below that features two of our expert speakers; Stephen Benson, CEO of Innovation Exchange and Chris Carder, President and Co-Founder, ThinData.

And congratulations to our three awarded Walk the Talk companies annouced last Wednesday! The three 2008 Walk the Talk Awards go to:

Sequel Naturals, Port Coquitlam, B.C. Most Open Walk the Talk 2008 Awardee
I Love Rewards, Toronto, ON, Most Inclusive Walk the Talk 2008 Awardee
Speakers Spotlight, Toronto, ON, Most Supportive Walk the Talk 2008 Awardee

Stay tuned for our full 2008 Walk the Talk best people practices report to be released in December 2008 on http://www.walkthetalkers.com/