Chapter 11
Build Your Brand in Bits and Bytes

Now that you have a clear understanding of your baseline online profile, you can develop a plan to enhance it. To craft the right Web identity for your brand, you have numerous options at your disposal. You can maintain a blog, create a professional website, use online networking sites, and develop on-brand content by publishing online articles and participating in web-based communities. If possible, you should try to do all of these. When you use these tools wisely, you cultivate a Web presence that ensures you’ll show up in search results the way you intend. Next, we explain how to use such tools to build your brand in bits and bytes.

Join the Blogosphere

A blog (derived from the term Weblog) is a chronological online, regularly updated, record of a person’s thoughts and commentary about subjects of interest to him or her. Unlike message boards, most blogs have one author (or a few authors). Interestingly, more and more professionals and corporations are maintaining blogs. In fact, there are 100,000 new blogs launched each day, according to blog tracker Technorati (Time, November 2006). Blogs are the most economical way for you to create an attractive, on-brand Web presence without having to be a programmer.

Blogs will become the new must-have executive accessory, just as e-mail is today. They amplify any senior executive’s communications from one-to-one to one-to-many.

—Debbie Weil, author of The Corporate Blogging Book

Blogs are an excellent platform from which you can promote your personal brand online—to build both visibility and credibility. By creating a leading-edge, well-organized blog that is related to your niche or area of expertise, you further differentiate yourself from all those professionals who seem to do what you do.

My blog is my primary career communications medium because it reinforces my personal dynamism and change-agent brand attributes, illustrates my use of technology to achieve results, and differentiates me in a crowded technology marketplace.

—Nina Burokas, brand strategist

By inviting comment from visitors, blogs also create an interactive community—and all strong brands solicit feedback and two-way conversations with their constituencies. Blogs improve your searchengine rankings (meaning they help ensure that you appear at the beginning of lists of results), too, because ranking algorithms value frequently updated content. In fact, some people active in the “blogosphere” proclaim that blog is really an acronym for Better Listing On Google.

To easily start a blog, go to any one of these leading hosted blogging applications and follow the instructions for setting up your account and configuring your content:

If you aren’t a Web programmer, we recommend TypePad’s Plus Level because it allows for your own branding and customization while still being user friendly.

What to Write

If you want to establish a job search or career-management blog, what should you write in it? There are no rules, but common sense and good writing principles apply. Also, make sure the blog’s content focuses on professional matters. Most blogs used for job searching include not only downloadable resumes and professionally focused posts but also irrelevant personal information, such as the blogger’s favorite foods or movies. That mix can quickly turn off a hiring manager.

If you are currently employed, familiarize yourself with your company’s blogging policy. If you closely associate your personal brand with the company’s and are helping to build the organization’s brand through your blog, the company could make a move to own your blog if you leave. So, consider blogging about your overall function and the industry, but not your employer.

We recommend using most of your blog posts to establish your thought leadership on a particular topic or group of related topics. The key to a stand-out blog is to own a niche and find your authentic voice for commenting on that niche. You might focus your posts on your specialized competencies, the concerns of your target audience, or your unique way of delivering value to your audience. Figure out an overarching theme for your posts’ content. Then, make sure that each post fits neatly under that theme.

Blogs allow you to stop hiding behind a stilted/stifled brand and allow you to show up fully engaged with a warmer, more authentic personality.

—Andy Wibbels, author of Blog Wild

People expect your blog to reveal your personality, so provide a small window into your world as well. Think about interests you might include on a resume that are noteworthy and supportive to your candidacy. Then apply the same criteria to any personal content on your blog. Your blog should not look as if a robot developed it. Instead, it should reflect your personal brand attributes.

Care and Feeding of Your Blog

The biggest challenge in creating a blog is posting regularly enough to justify this medium. One question we hear often is, “How frequently do I need to post?” It’s an understandable concern in an age when most people are busy enough with other responsibilities. Blogging experts maintain that three times a week is ideal. However, this frequency is not practical for most people. We recommend once a week and definitely not less than twice a month. If you can’t commit to blogging at least twice a month, you may want to use other tools instead to build your online identity.

Create a Web Portfolio

Developing a website can be the best way to create a controlled, on-brand presence online without having to constantly generate new content. With a Web portfolio, you can provide a comprehensive picture of who you are professionally and what your relevant accomplishments are.

When we use the word portfolio, we’re not talking about oversized black leather cases with zippers that secure three of the four sides. We’re talking about cyberspace. A Web portfolio is the traditional paper portfolio concept reinvented for the online medium, with links and multimedia content. For example, if you’re a marketing executive, your Web portfolio might contain your brand bio, case studies, links to press coverage of your initiatives, audio testimonials, and a video clip of your recent presentation for the American Marketing Association. Portfolios are more than Web-based resumes in that they contain tangible evidence of your professional achievements.

Like the creators of any other website, you want your Web portfolio to attract traffic—something you can accomplish, in part, by ensuring that the site is easy to use and inviting to the eye. Because many Web-based career “portfolios” are poorly designed, you have a valuable opportunity to further impress visitors by ensuring that your site looks polished and professional. You’ve probably noticed that a lot of websites intended to support their creators’ careers look amateurish. Many also mix personal information (religion, politics, lifestyle) and family photos with career-related content. Or, they provide no information beyond what’s already in the person’s resume. Avoid these gaffes, and you differentiate yourself from others even further.

Proving Your Mettle

In a Korn/Ferry online survey, 44.7 percent of respondents said they believed that resume fraud among executives is increasing. Web portfolios protect you from being seen as fraudulent by enabling you to provide evidence of your achievements, not just tell visitors about what you’ve accomplished. For example, if you claim to have strong presentation skills, you can show a video clip on your website. Articles, awards, white papers, press releases, and schedules of speaking engagements are just some of the additional ways in which you can prove your expertise. Lance Weatherby shows his expertise with click-and-play Flash video clips of his interviews on CNBC and Tech Now. Figure 11.1 provides an illustration.

Through your website, you can also provide tangible, multimedia evidence of your ability to follow through on your promise of value. Once you’ve fostered virtual rapport with visitors by supplying this evidence, your telephone or in-person meetings will begin at a deeper, more productive level. And it helps you weed out no-win situations by revealing more about you earlier in the evaluation process. For example, Alexandre Guéniot’s singing Flash CV (www.flashcv.com), which contained an on-brand presentation, netted him an internship at Microsoft. A creative approach like this certainly wouldn’t work for everyone. And that’s the point. What would work for your brand?

Figure

Figure 11.1 Multimedia Proof of Performance

Of course, people are busy and want to quickly find information about you online. Thus, it’s always better to be clear than clever in how you design your website. After all, hiring managers don’t have time to figure out how your skills and experiences might benefit them. You have to tell people, in straightforward terms, exactly what you want to do for them and why you’re the most qualified to do it. That’s why clarifying your brand must always precede your Web-development efforts.

So, how do you grab visitors’ attention quickly online—and keep it? A clear brand statement/tagline, compelling design, and easy-to-navigate information architecture are keys to keeping visitors on your site long enough to want to learn more.

Heather Henrick’s Web portfolio design and content reflect her creativity and passion for pushing the limits—whether it be in her work, volunteer activities, or adventurous outdoor pursuits. Her area of specialty is immediately evident in her tagline. See more at www.heatherhenricks.com (Figure 11.2).

Figure

Figure 11.2 Capturing Interest Online

Creating my Web portfolio is, without question, one of the best career moves that I’ve made. Executive recruiters frequently call me with incredible opportunities even while I’ve been happily employed.

—Heather Henricks

Carefully consider the design and layout of your website. Even if the content is well written and compelling, the wrong design—one that doesn’t reflect your brand—will only work against you. For instance, if your brand says “trustworthy financial planner,” you wouldn’t want your site to look too creative or quirky. Before you build your site, know which brand attributes you want the site to reinforce. If you are unsure about your authentic brand attributes, get some input from those around you with the 360°Reach personal brand assessment that is included with this book. And if you decide to hire a website development company to design and build your site, take care that you select a good one. The box on the facing page offers helpful tips.

Use Online Networking Sites

If for whatever reason you don’t want to or can’t create an on-brand Web portfolio or blog, you can use online networking sites to post your profile, make connections, and research people and opportunities. Depending on the service you use, you may be able to create a public Web page or minisite based on the template provided by the service. Online networking sites include:

When you have your own website, you can provide links to it through online networking sites. You can also cross-promote your networking profiles on your site to enhance your online identity. Be sure to revisit your online profiles every few months to make sure they are up to date. Also, don’t expect online networking sites to be replacements for actual, face-to-face networking. Instead, they are meant to augment traditional networking. You can get the most from online networking sites by using them to gather your existing network in one place—which gives you easier access to your contacts’ networks by making them transparent to you.

Extend Your Brand Online

In addition to developing your own website and blog and having a profile at online networking sites, you have numerous other opportunities to build your online presence. To become digitally distinct, you want to ensure that there’s a great deal of content on the Web that consistently expresses your personal brand. Here are some ways to generate that content:

  • Publish: Publishing articles online about your passions and interests is a great way to increase your visibility during a Google search. There are many article banks and Web portals that will accept your articles. ArticleAnnounce (a Yahoo! Group), for example, takes articles of all kinds and makes them available to those who need content for magazines and e-zines. Find the right places to post your articles, and regularly submit content that will drive members of your target audience to your website or blog.
  • Post: Post your reviews of books that are relevant to your area of expertise at Amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, and other online bookstores and provide links in the reviews to your website or blog. But remember: If your area of expertise is nuclear physics, posting a review of your favorite cookbook will only dilute your brand message.
  • Participate: Join professionally oriented online forums and information exchanges such as Yahoo! Groups or Google Groups. By sharing your expertise, you increase your visibility at the same time. You’ll also start to build your brand community with others who share the same interests.
  • Pontificate: Comment on other people’s blogs that are relevant to your personal brand. Get mentioned on others’ websites and blogs. Linking with other like-minded individuals improves your Google ranking and further increases your visibility.

Start Now

We find it curious that Web-based portfolios and career management blogs haven’t already become the standard. After all, people check in for flights, order groceries, and manage their money online. Why not use the Internet to advance your career as well? Regardless of the industry or job function you’re seeking, a blog and website provide similar benefits. But now is the time to master these and other online-identity tools: Once everyone has a website showcasing their accomplishments, it’ll be that much harder to make yours stand out. Start now, and you boost your chances of grabbing plum jobs before someone else does. In addition, you will forge positive relationships with new colleagues—as the following story reveals.

In the future, [employers] aren’t going to advertise job openings anymore. … They’ll find you.

—Fast Company, March 2006

Dos and Don’ts of Building Your Online Identity

  • Take a stand. Strong brands have something to say, and they say it with passion and conviction. If you build a me-too site, no one in your target audience is going to pay attention to it. The goal is to stand out—not to blend in. But don’t be too controversial. You don’t want to alienate everyone.
  • Steer clear of dirt. Avoid visiting and commenting at sites that contain questionable material. You leave a virtual fingerprint everywhere you go. Don’t build an online identity that could come back to haunt you.
  • Go for quality over quantity. If you can invest only a small amount of money and time in your website, go for one or two pages with quality images, stellar copy, and easy navigation.
  • Make the link. Ensure that all of your online content—your postings, articles, comments, reviews—point back to your website with your contact details. And don’t forget your call to action. For example: “If you enjoyed this article about ethics in accounting, sign up for my monthly newsletter, or join my online forum where we regularly discuss ethical issues in finance.”
  • Build up your Web content over time. If the thought of generating all that Web content overwhelms you, break the effort down into more manageable pieces. Remember: If you publish one online article every other month, you’ll have six by the end of the year—a decent compilation. With everything you write, shoot for quality. One page of Google results that leads visitors to a series of high-quality experiences with your brand will propel people to take the next step to learn more about you.
  • Be consistent. To build a solid reputation, you must be known for something, not a hundred things. So build your online identity around who you are and what makes you relevant and compelling to those people who need to know about you. Don’t try to be all things to all people. When you’re clear and consistent, the right people will find you on the Web.
  • Watch your mouth. Be careful about what you put in your blog. Badmouthing your current employer or revealing corporate information could get you sacked.
  • Call in the professionals. If you don’t have the skills to build a quality website or blog, get someone who can. This is an investment in your career. When it comes to managing your reputation, don’t skimp.
  • Lead with your strengths. Use your creativity, understanding of your subject area, communications skills, and other strengths to showcase your professional prowess online.
  • Show ’em your mug. Get a professionally taken photograph that exudes your brand. Please note that we said professionally taken—not something you take with your webcam. A high-quality headshot speaks volumes about your brand.

With the advent of Googling, the days of the resume as the sole career-management tool are over. The energy and care that you put into creating a branded online identity just might be the tipping point between you and the other qualified candidate jockeying for the same position or client. In addition to the suggestions offered in Chapters 8 and 9, building your online brand is a key part of Step 2: the Express phase of our 1-2-3 Success! process. Now it’s time to move to Step 3: Exude, which focuses on how you can best manage your brand environment.