I was thrilled for Susan P. Joyce, my esteemed colleague and online job search guru, when she told me last month that she was about to purchase Work Coach Cafe, a widely-read and highly respected job search and career hub.

I was even more thrilled when Susan invited me to join her new team of career professionals supporting Work Coach Café, beginning in the new year. 

Ronnie Ann Himmel, who founded the site in 2007, decided to move on to the next stage of her career. She built an amazing community of supportive members and will be sorely missed.

Taking over the reins from Ronnie Ann, Susan summed up her challenge in her introductory blog post last week:

“Ronnie Ann’s are the proverbial “big shoes” to fill, and I will do my best, honoring what Ronnie Ann has created over 5 years of hard work, and, hopefully, continuing to help people with work and job search issues.”

For nearly 15 years, Susan has been the publisher and editor of the top Internet employment portal Job-Hunt.org, named Forbes Best of the Web for Job Hunting and U.S. News & World Report Top Site for Finding Work.

For the past 5 years or so, I’ve been Job-Hunt’s Personal Branding Expert, contributing articles on the various aspects of building and leveraging branding in job search.

I’ve come to know and deeply respect Susan as a friend, and as a job search expert and website owner who is fiercely dedicated to providing job seekers the best and safest resources and advice. She truly cares. You can always trust her to have job seekers’ best interests at heart. And she knows most of the best career professionals in the industry, so you can bet she’ll have quality support on the site, just as she does on Job-Hunt.

On Work Coach Café, you’ll see me responding to comments, and I’ll likely contribute blog posts and assist Susan with various behind-the-scenes activities. The new team’s mission is to continue Ronnie Ann’s legacy of providing job seekers a safe place to fall in the daunting new world of job search and work.

Come visit us at Work Coach Café and subscribe to receive the latest blog posts. Lots of good things will be happening!

I love blogging – running with the germ of an idea, the writing itself, the research (when necessary), recalling older posts to refer to, even the actual mechanics of loading on the content, finding a graphic and hitting the “publish” button. There’s more geek in me than I ever realized until I started blogging and learning about SEO.

Although my ongoing blogging strategy is to focus content on my 14 blog categories (listed in the sidebar directly to your right here), I still run out of ideas that make me want to actually sit down and write.

One thing that keeps blogging interesting is getting pumped by something I read and building my own blog post around it. The inspiration can come from a news or business site, a magazine article, a book I’m reading, or many other things. Sometimes content I read on other sites prompts a nifty blog post title first, then the content all falls into place.

But maybe my favorite inspirations are other bloggers’ posts, or other bloggers themselves.

I like to showcase or link to their work, and I do it often. Over the past year, I designated separate posts to some of my favorite job search bloggers. You can see the list in my post about blogger Jason Alba of Jibber Jobber.

Jason returned the favor with a post on his blog showcasing me, Has the Job Search Changed?

Here’s why I love this strategy so much:

Of the millions of people actively blogging out there, there are so many people doing such a good job of posting content that is meaningful and worth reading. I typically only zero in on people writing about job search, personal branding and related topics, but I wander away from that, too.

In business networking, reciprocity is critical. If you want people to support you and evangelize your brand, you first (usually) have to get on their radar, support them and evangelize their brand.

Writing about another blogger or their writing builds community and encourages mutual brand evangelism.

The beauty part about writing a blog post that mentions and links to another blogger’s site or their content elsewhere is the satisfaction I derive from doing something nice for someone I admire and respect. It makes me happy. It makes them VERY happy to be singled out and spotlighted in this way.

Many colleagues in the careers and other industries have been kind enough to mention me in their blog posts. I can tell you that it not only made my day … It made my week. The goodwill you create with this simple strategy goes a long, long way. And, when I get writer’s block, this is a relatively easy kind of post to write.

If you’re on Twitter (and you really have to be if you’re blogging), don’t forget to send an @mention or direct message to that person to let them know you’ve written about them. They’ll be happy to support you with a retweet. Who knows? Your post could go viral and generate lots of traffic to your site.

Make someone’s day, or even week. Give this strategy a try.

Related posts:

You’re a C-level Executive Job Seeker and You’re NOT Blogging?

C-level Job Search: Blogging? What Am I Going To Write About?

Blogging and Twitter: How Tweet It Is!

photo by Sean MacEntee

So many of my c-level executive clients and potential clients are surprised that Twitter is such an integral part of my personal branding and social media marketing efforts, even though it’s wildly popular and stories about its value for business-building and job search abound.

They still think Twitter is a time-drain for people who have nothing better to do than tweet about what they had for lunch, or other trivial matters.

My Twitter ROI was dismal at first when I started tweeting seriously late in 2008, and I thought I was wasting my time. It took about 6 months of tweeting several times every day (except weekends) before I could see that my time spent was gaining traction, and I was beginning to make a mark.

I certainly haven’t been as heavy-duty a tweeter as many others, but I’d say my Twitter schedule is realistic for someone who is actively job seeking. Some say it’s better not to tweet too much anyway, and risk overwhelming your followers.

Because tweeting is micro-blogging, Twitter is a natural complement to my blogging efforts. It fits in perfectly with the kind of marketing that works best for me – spreading my own content across various social media channels, showcasing my writing skill and its value to c-suite job seekers.

It’s all about getting my brand and promise of value noticed by potential clients and those who can lead me to more clients, and getting recognized as an industry thought leader and expert.

The idea is to get on their radar and stay top of mind with them so that, when they have a need for my services or know someone who may, they’ll reach out to me.

Sounds just like job search networking, doesn’t it?

Good networking on Twitter, just as in real-life or through any social media channel, works when you think “give to get” – promote and help others, and they’ll likely reciprocate. I’ve built professional friendships with all kinds of people (other career professionals, executive job seekers, social media experts, entrepreneurs, etc.) with whom I’ve formed alliances.

We’ve become brand evangelists for each other. I support them by retweeting them, tweeting their blog posts, spreading the word about them and referring them to good-fit clients. They’ve reciprocated by referring potential clients to me and sometimes their contacts in the media who are looking for career experts to interview and/or to contribute to their publications.

One of my Twitter strategies is using relevant keyword phrases often, in my retweets and original tweets, and/or adding hashtagged (#) keyword phrases at the end of tweets, if it will still leave room for others to retweet them.

Savvy Twitter users search these phrases for information, products, services, and to find people to follow. Here are some of my recurring keywords:

#C-suite
#PersonalBranding
#JobSearch
#Executive
#SocialMedia
#LinkedIn
#Blogging

Other strategies I use to attract potential clients, colleagues and thought leaders within my niche:

• Using hashtags on my relevant keyword phrases strategically, tweeting with and without them.
• Retweeting people I want to notice me, if they’ve tweeted something relevant and worthy.

And my efforts have paid off:

When I published my executive branding and job search ebook, I knew I could rely on my Twitter network to help promote it.

Many of my blog posts have gone viral, broadcasting my name and business on many other sites. People have referred to and linked to my blog posts on their blogs, helping to build SEO on my sites and bring more visitors … all potential clients or people who can refer potential clients.

About 15-20% of visitors to my blogsite come from Twitter. If I’ve tweeted an especially popular blog post of mine, that number can jump to more than 50%. Those visitors are people who probably otherwise wouldn’t visit my site. Every visitor is a potential client or may know someone who is.

Some clients who found me by Googling relevant keyword phrases, landing them on my blogsites, said they wanted to work with me because of my Twitter and other social media involvement, indicating my expertise in online identity and online reputation management. They watched my ongoing activity in the Twitter stream on my blogsites.

Leading job search experts who found me on Twitter have included me in their lists of approved career services providers.

Your takeaway:

As an executive job seeker, if you build a realistic strategic plan to incorporate Twitter into your search campaign – even as little as 10-15 minutes a day – you’ll get the word out about your unique promise of value to the companies you’re targeting.

Many of them are on Twitter, tweeting opportunities and updates on their products and services, which could alert you to needs of theirs that you can fulfill. Job search experts are on Twitter, tweeting valuable (and free!) information that can help you. They’re all active on Twitter. You should be, too.

Related posts:

Twitter Turbocharges Executive Job Search and Personal Brand Visibility

Twitter Executive Branding Strategy: The Beauty of a Retweet

14 Reasons I Won’t Follow You On Twitter

Twin Twitter Executive Job Search Tips

photo by josh semans

Morbid topic. But if you’ve spent any time working on building your brand and online presence across various channels, you have to wonder what will become of all those profiles and photos.

And if you’re a blogger or article-writer, do you want all that content you’ve created to be “out there” forever?

Occasionally I ponder this very dilemma. I have 3 blogsites, LinkedIn and many other online profiles, my photo all over the place, content on Twitter and other social networks, and hundreds of executive branding and job search articles copyrighted to me sitting on numerous other sites.

The online profiles could be shut down. Social networking activity would, of course, cease, and the accounts could be shut down, unless I want to memorialize them and have them live on.

But would I want my blogsites to be taken down, making all that content inaccessible? Although after time it would be somewhat dated, I’d like to think that it would still be of benefit to executive job seekers.

Even now, after only 4 years of blogging, people have told me they come back often to my sites and use them as a resource. Social media is still in its infancy. I can only imagine how search engines will favor content that’s twenty or more years old.

And would I want my online personal brand – something I’ve worked so hard to communicate and cultivate – to fizzle out, and my mark on the careers industry to be forgotten?

Obviously, I need to put a plan in place … designate someone to oversee things … give them passwords and instructions.

I was once again reminded of this after reading a post by Drew McLellan, a marketing and branding expert, Does an online presence need to fade into that good night?

He wrote about a colleague of his in the advertising world who died and left behind a blog filled with smart, valuable posts on advertising lore that he often returned to. His family took the blog down.

“Most people have probably not discussed this with their family and friends. Much like the “I want to be cremated or buried” conversation – part of the 21st century needs to be a conversation about what we want done with our online accounts and content.”

What do you want to have happen to your online presence? Do you have a plan in place?

Related posts:

Executive Brand Online Reputation Management: Relevance, Quality, Diversity, Volume, Consistency

Social Media ROI: Is It Worth the Time?

Does Your Online Presence Scream “DON’T Hire Me”?

photo by Vince Alongi

In my continuing series of posts focusing on job search bloggers you should know about, I turned to my friend and colleague Jason Alba.

He has been on the scene since 2006 offering help through JibberJobber, a job search and career management tool, and several blogsites.

Catch up with my 3 other posts spotlighting blogging job search experts and their advice:

→ The Career Sherpa: Job Search Navigation Expert – Hannah Morgan (@careersherpa on Twitter)

→ Happy Fourth Birthday to the Job Mob blog! – Jacob Share (@jacobshare on Twitter)

→ Personal Marketing for Job Search – Tim Tyrell Smith (@TimsStrategy on Twitter)

A little background on Jason . . .

He designed JibberJobber during his first real job search early in 2006, a so-called “job seekers market”, when he discovered there was no practical tool to help job seekers manage and organize their job search. No longer a tool just to be used during one job search, Jason transformed JibberJobber into a tool to be used to manage job transitions during your entire career.

Jason is the author of I’m On LinkedIn – Now What??? and the LinkedIn for Job Seekers DVD.

As with the other experts, I asked Jason for his best job search advice:

“Stop wasting time. I wasted time in my job search, as do many people. Time wasting is masked by ‘I’m busy doing a job search,’ but really all we did was put a lot of time and effort into the easy stuff, which was not as effective as the hard stuff (like networking). You can’t hide behind job boards and LinkedIn and call it a job search, when you really don’t reach out to people. Do the hard stuff.

Also, consider other options. When I speak to executives in transition, I look out at the white hair and wrinkles and know they are scared to death about age discrimination. They should be. It’s real, and it’s rampant. It’s a shame, but it’s there.

Some of my audience will never, ever find a traditional job again. That really sucks, because it’s based on bias and stereotype, but what that means is you need to figure out a Plan B, or Plan C, or Plan Z. It might not seem as exciting or lucrative as your Plan A (corporate job), but it might end up being much more exciting and lucrative. And, you might end up with more ‘security’ than what a corporate job could ever offer you.”

Visit Jason’s I’m On LinkedIn – Now What??? blogsite for the latest LinkedIn information and advice.

Related posts:

How To Land an Executive Job in 2011

The Two Biggest Executive Job Search Mistakes

LinkedIn Guide for Executive Branding and Job Search

16 Ways to Stay Motivated in Executive Job Search

So much has been written and said about whether social media brings enough return on time invested.

The key to getting value is choosing a few platforms and leveraging them well. We can easily get consumed and overwhelmed by dabbling in too much social media , and making an impact with none.

Running my business is similar to running an executive job search campaign. I tell my c-suite clients that, just as I do, they need to think of themselves as a company of one – Brand You – and determine what differentiates them from their competition, then promote that unique value they offer.

Using social networks and social media helps you (and me) uncover opportunities, build community and brand evangelism, make connections with potential employers’ hiring decision makers, and demonstrate your thought leadership and subject matter expertise.

In my opinion (and that of just about any career professional), executive job seekers MUST get involved with LinkedIn, at a bare minimum, just to keep pace with their competitors in today’s job market. But is that one channel enough? How many are too many? And how much time should you spend on each?

It’s all about creating a realistic strategic plan, and understanding that social media has a cumulative impact. It takes time for your efforts to gain traction. Don’t expect too much to happen until after several months or more, depending upon how active you are and how quickly you build connections, followers, visitors, etc.

Blogging, LinkedIn and Twitter are my social media of choice – the biggest pieces in my online brand communications plan. Here’s a taste of the ROI value of each for me:

BLOGGING

No question, most of my business comes through my blogsites. They are the single best tool for marketing my brand and the services I offer.

I write a total of 2-3 new posts each week on my two active blogsites, Executive Career Brand and Executive Resume Branding.

By concentrating on SEO (search engine optimization) – using enough relevant keywords in the right ways and places, frequency, and building back links from sites with good Google juice – I’ve been able to maintain strong search results for the keyword phrases that prospective clients use to find careers industry professionals like me.

LINKEDIN

Because my LinkedIn profile lands at the #2 or #3 spot in Google search results for my name, many click through to my LinkedIn profile and assess whether to do business with me based on what they read in my profile.

And, many of my clients are LinkedIn members who find me through a LinkedIn search of relevant keywords.

I keep LinkedIn working for me by:

• Making my professional headline SEO-friendly – it contains the keywords my target potential clients use to find people like me.
• Integrating my blog posts with LinkedIn, so that new ones are automatically posted to my profile.
• Staying active with the LinkedIn Groups my potential clients are active in.
• Growing my number of good quality connections, so that I have that many more second and third degree connections.
• Keeping my connections updated on my latest activities.

TWITTER

Twitter does require diligence and an active presence, but I happen to really enjoy keeping up with it.

Good networking on Twitter, just as in real-life or on any social media channel, is all about “giving to get”. I’ve built professional friendships with all kinds of people (other career professionals, executive job seekers, social media experts, entrepreneurs, etc.) with whom I’ve formed alliances. We help each other promote our brands and businesses.

I’ve supported my Twitter friends by retweeting them, tweeting their blog posts, spreading the word about them and referring them to good-fit clients. They’ve reciprocated by referring potential clients to me and referring me to their contacts in the media who are looking for career experts to interview and/or to contribute to their publications.

About 10-15% of visitors to my blogsite come from Twitter. Those are people who probably otherwise wouldn’t visit my site. Every visitor is a potential client or may know someone who is.

Here’s some of my Twitter strategy:

• Tweeting several times a day (except Sundays, and sometimes Saturdays).
• Making sure that the 4 most recent tweets in the Twitter stream shown on my blogsites are no more than a day old.
• Integrating my blogging with Twitter, driving more visitors to my blogsites.

You can see that my choice of social media channels and strategy have great value in building my business. Similarly, as an executive job seeker, your own well-planned strategy can help you get the word out about your unique promise of value to the companies you’re targeting and those who have first and second degree connections to hiring decision makers at those companies.

You may not choose the same mix of channels I did. Find what works for you, create a realistic strategy and stay with it until things start to stick. Another benefit to your efforts is that you will be positioned as up to date and social media savvy — qualifications more and more companies are seeking.

You’re probably wondering why Facebook isn’t in my mix. I tried. I just couldn’t realistically manage it, with the others. And I was never a big fan. But many job seekers are having success with Facebook, connecting and networking, so it might be right for you.

And now Google+ is in front of all of us. Like many, I’m still waiting to determine whether it’s worth it to carve out some of my limited time for that.

Related posts:

LinkedIn Guide for Executive Branding and Job Search

You’re a C-level Executive Job Seeker and You’re NOT Blogging?

Twitter Turbocharges Executive Job Search and Personal Brand Visibility

Twitter Executive Branding Strategy: The Beauty of a Retweet

photo by John-Morgan

I asked my friend and colleague Hannah Morgan, the Career Sherpa (@careersherpa on Twitter) for the best job search advice she could share with people:

“The rules have changed. Lifetime employment no longer exists. The sooner we can all adjust and accept this, the better. We all need to develop a career insurance policy. Ongoing networking to stay top of mind with key people, even when you’re not actively searching, should be part of your plan.

But for job stability, the future world of work will be built around career portfolios, or multiple income streams. That is, a series of short-terms jobs, self-employment and consulting stints for one or more employers, along with possible full-time employment with a single employer.

Think of it this way. You have a retirement account and maybe even financial investments. You don’t put all your money into the same fund do you? You diversify your investments. You do this as a form of insurance because if one doesn’t perform as well, you’ll be protected by the others. This is exactly the same logic you’ll want to apply to your career.”

Hannah has been called one of the most underrated job search bloggers in America, by another job search expert, Jacob Share.  I featured Jacob earlier in this series that introduces you to some of the best job search bloggers you may not know about.

She may not be a superstar – YET – but, with more than 4 years of steadfast, daily blogging behind her and continuing every day, she’s bound to get there soon. Many of us in the careers industry have been loyal fans for some, if not all, of those years.

With over 10 years’ experience working in human resources and outplacement, her engaging, compelling writing style is backed by deep expertise in the field. She was a career training specialist at RochesterWorks, a career consultant at Lee Hecht Harrison, and is now Job-Hunt.org’s Job Search Navigation Expert. It’s no wonder that people get hooked once they start reading her blog or tweets.

Hannah and I get together by phone regularly to discuss trends, strategies, and how to better help our clients. Her driving passion for the new world of search and helping job seekers understand how to navigate it, are obvious.

In her business, Hannah works with job seekers on career mapping, reputation management and social media strategies. As she says on her blogsite:

My mission:  Guiding new job seekers through the treacherous terrain of job search by providing a map and tools to navigate today’s competitive landscape.

My passion:  Helping the wandering and lost job seeker to understand how to look for work better.

To give you an idea of what kind of information you’ll find on Career Sherpa, here are some of Hannah’s most popular posts:

25 Habits to Break if You Want a Job

LinkedIn Tips – How To Find “Great” People to Connect With

How To Find Smart People to Follow On Twitter

The Process of Job Search

Social Media, Job Search and You