The Importance of Online Personal Branding
• Enhance career opportunities
• Increase LEVEL OF ENGAGEMENT with customers and potential employers
• Increase your compensation – recognized brands command premium prices
• Our personal brand is the only asset we have in the new economy
• We are in an ultra-competitive world (GLOBALLY COMPETITIVE)
• There will be fewer jobs available in the future
• More people will be entrepreneurs and free agents
Brace yourselves for the coming years, but more importantly, embrace the coming years!

If you don’t show up in Google, you don’t exist!!

3 Challenges of Social Media (facing Companies and Individuals)
• Information
• They don’t have the information, knowledge or understanding of social media.
• They don’t fully understand the value of social media to their career or their business.
• Implementation
• They don’t have the resources to successfully implement the social media tools.
• They don’t have time to work on these things.
• They don’t have a budget set aside for this new and developing area.
• Integration
• They don’t know how to integrate social media into their existing operations of their company or their
existing personal branding activities.
• They don’t have procedures, policies and other supporting infrastructure to integrate social media
across function business units.

Adopting the Right Philosophy
• Sharism concept – Give, give, give
• Focus on what you are passionate about
• Engagement, NOT Sales or Marketing
• Niche thyself
• Take a Forest Gump approach to business/career (Christine Lu @christinelu)

Tools to Cover Today
• Blogs – Wordpress example
• Google alerts, analytics, and adsense
• YouTube
• Twitter
• Tweetdeck
• Bit.ly analytics
• Slideshare
• LinkedIn

To Blog or not to Blog?
• Blogs – Wordpress example
• Position yourself as an expert
• Build a community
• Increase engagement by adding value to your community
• Fresh and relevant content is critical
• Comment and engage other bloggers
• Use Google analytics
• Use widgets and plugins to include feeds, tools, and other valuable content

The Power of Twitter
• Conversation is the new online currency. Twitter is the goldmine of conversations
• All about listening to the people
• Affects everyone
• Kogi example
• Why Twitter matters?
• Growing rapidly
• Game-changing technology
• Immediacy
• Access and Influence
• Brevity
• Sharing
• Business and Personal
• Twitter Benefits
• Better, more engaged relationships leading to greater customer loyalty
• Drive traffic to your website
• New Customers
• Increased brand presence
• Informed Feedback loop
• Brand extension
• Every user’s voice has influence
• Innovation and crowdsourcing opportunities

*graphic and other valuable resources available at www.applicant.com

Example of a Branded Twitter Page

Example of a Branded Twitter Page

Building Your Brand Online - YouTube
• YouTube and other video sharing sites like Viddler and Vimeo offer a tremendous opportunity
for personal branding
• Video cameras are very affordable (Flip HD is a great option for around $200)
• Video interviews are a great way to get visibility and make impact
• Video content is highly visible on search engines
• Distribution sites such as TubeMogul make it easy
• Easy to use, reference and upload
• Example of Wordpress upload
• Great potential to go viral
• Example of “Where in the hell is Matt?” video

Building Your Brand Online - LinkedIn
• LinkedIn is the most professional or business-like of the social networks. It seeks only resume-
type information.
• LinkedIn is not just for jobseekers. It is a place to brand yourself as an excellent
resource on a particular topic.
Why LinkedIn?
• Typically more publicly viewable than an individual Facebook profile.
• Your name will rank high in search engines.
• Tips:
• Choose the personalized URL option during setup.
• Fill out all sections as completely as possible.

Position Yourself as an Expert
• Use the Recommendations function (similar to Reviews application in Facebook)
• Write recommendations and request recommendations
• Current and past colleagues
• Clients
• Conference attendees
• Start a group on the topic of your academic discipline or join an existing group. Answer
questions in your area of expertise posed by other users (similar to Discussion Board in
Facebook).
• Use Applications
• To embed slideshow presentations on your profile.
• To share your conference travel itinerary with colleagues.
• To link to your blog.
• To initiate private, secure online workspaces to collaborate with colleagues.
• To share your reading list.

Creative Job Search Techniques and Tools
• Use www.visualcv.com to create a visual resume
• Create visual resume using Powerpoint
• Be sure to include:
• Photos
• Past projects
• Accomplishments
• Articles
• Links to websites
• Speaking engagements
• Educational background
• Employment experience
• Personal attributes
• Be sure to save as a PDF, so it can be easily emailed out
• Upload to Slideshare.net and tag it with appropriate tags
• Create a YouTube video of yourself
• Video resume
• Host a radio show on BlogTalkRadio and interview the heads of companies that you want to
work for – based on a topic that is of interest to THEM

THE GOAL: An INTEGRATED Brand Plan

Key Takeaways
• Invest the time upfront to develop your personal brand statement
• Engage the help of others in the process
• Contribute, Contribute, Contribute
• Monitor and continually evaluate your brand
• Create a niche and leverage your uniqueness
• Invest heavily in (social media) learning and development
There are no rules, so have fun and express your brand!

Resources
Sharism Concept – Isaac Mao - http://freesouls.cc/essays/07-isaac-mao-sharism.html
www.visualcv.com - visual resume website
www.slideshare.net – online presentations – great place to post content and do research
www.google.com/alerts - alerts based on keywords sent to your email daily, weekly, or monthly
www.tubemogul.com – video distribution website
www.blogtalkradio.com – create and host an online radio show
www.globallycompetitive.com – resources for entrepreneurs and companies

Contact Information
Brian Hollowaty - Founder
Twitter: http://twitter.com/gcbrian
Email: brian@globallycompetitive.com
Website: http://www.globallycompetitive.com