Can Social Media Integration Build Your Professional Brand?
Posted on Tue, Mar 30, 2010
On March 25th,
Cali Yost, CEO and Founder of
Work + Life Fit, Inc. and I co-hosted a seminar on
Harnessing Social Media to Build Your Professional Brand for
Lone Wolves NYC, a networking group of independent professionals. It was our second pairing having done a
social media integration webinar for radio broadcasters over a month ago.
The gathering included more than 20 accomplished professionals, a number of whom recently held C-suite jobs in larger corporations. Since leaving Corporate America behind, many, like me, have launched their own businesses or are doing independent contract work. They were all there because they now understand that social media is not just an avenue to explore, but a necessity as they each build their own professional brand.
Why Is Social Media Now a Professional Necessity?
Social Media has become a professional necessity as prospective clients and/or employers are relying less on resumes and more on what is learned about you through Google search, including optimized LinkedIn profiles, blogs, articles and websites or social media search, including Twitter and Facebook.
In fact, many in the room commented that their LinkedIn profiles regularly trump Google search results for their blogs and/or businesses.
How To Manage the Social Media Landscape?
Today's social media landscape offers professionals many choices including LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, Flickr, You Tube and many more. All in the room were using LinkedIn, but wanted to know how to better leverage it. At the same time, few were using Twitter, but most wanted to know how to get started.
Given the audience interests, my presentation concentrated on Twitter and LinkedIn. With Twitter, I talked about what I learned as I acclimated myself to the "Twitterverse" last year. My goal was to help them save time with their own acclimations, highlighting things it took me months to learn! With LinkedIn, my focus was on enhancing their current profiles and engagement with LinkedIn.
I have included a copy of the presentation that was given below.
Can Social Media Build Your Professional Brand?
Cali Yost's success harnessing social media provides an affirmative answer. Cali built her business Work + Life Fit, Inc. leveraging her company blog and Twitter Her business builds worlk life flexibility soltuions for employers and employees. Clients include Pepsico, Astra Zeneca, the United Nations, the U.S. Navy, amongst others. She also writes a blog for Fast Company and is regularly interviewed by major media outlets, including NPR and recently the New York Times.
Through her blog and Twitter, Cali has achieved increases in: 1) access to corporate influencers, 2) reach through media exposure and 3) most importantly, business.
When asked by the audience how often they should be tweeting, she quoted social media guru Gary Vaynerchuk, "Every @*# minute of every @* day." As for Cali, she divides her social media engagement into 20 minutes chunks during the day - in the morning, in the afternoon and the end of the day. Her social media time management made sense to this multi-tasking audience . . . and me as well!
Some Further Thoughts on Professional Social Media Integration . . .
As for my own answer to the question of social media building a professional brand, I am finding it a work-in-process. Social media is not something I check off on a list of things to do. Instead, it is a continous learning and a discovery adventure. The social media channels I engage in regularly, including Twtter, LinkedIn and this blog, have helped me become a better professinal, build new relationships, support other colleagues and unearth business opportunities. As a result, social media is now a rich part of my daily life.
I would love to hear how social media is playing a part in your professional life.