10 Ways I Use Twitter to Build My Personal Brand is a post from: Executive Career Brand

Twitter is one of my favorite brand communications tools. The strategies I use are ones I advise my c-level executive clients will also work for their job-hunting and career management efforts.

Here are 10 ways Twitter helps me communicate and build my personal brand:

1.  My Twitter bio contains my relevant keywords and an abbreviated version of my brand statement. See my post, Does Your Twitter Bio Pack an Executive Brand Punch?

2.  My tweets and retweets are consistent with my brand, and reinforce my subject matter expertise and promise of value to potential clients.

3.  I tweet things that will be relevant to my target audience, and include my relevant keywords in tweets when applicable, mixing it up by sometimes using hashtags with the keywords.

4.  I give value to (hopefully) get value by retweeting with attribution to support the tweet originator, sharing helpful information and advice, and engaging in interesting conversation.

5.  I seek out subject matter experts and thought leaders in my industry and niche to follow, learn from, support with retweets, and connect with.

6.  I tweet every blog post I write – on my own blogs and as a guest blogger – and when I’ve commented on a blog post elsewhere or contributed an article to another site.

7.  My two business blogsites (Executive Career Brand and Executive Resume Branding) integrate Twitter with the Tweetmeme button for easy retweeting by readers.

8.  I have Twitter update widgets in the sidebars of both business blogsites and my personal blogsite, MegGuiseppi.com, showing visitors my current Twitter stream.

9.  I use TweetBeep to notify me of Twitter conversations that mention me and my companies, so I can tweet those people a thank you.

10.  I leverage the 3 C’s of personal branding:

• Clarity – Clearly tweeting who I am and what differentiates my value to my target audience.
• Consistency – Consistently tweeting the same brand promise and message.
• Constancy – Tweeting my message regularly – usually several times a day.

Related posts:

Twitter Turbocharges Executive Job Search and Personal Brand Visibility

Twitter Personal Branding Strategy — The Beauty of a Re-Tweet

14 Reasons I Won’t Follow You On Twitter [Revisited]

Stalled Executive Job Search? Get Busy on LinkedIn and Twitter

How to Lose Friends and Alienate People with Social Media is a post from: Executive Career Brand

With acknowledgment to Irving Tressler, who wrote his parody of Dale Carnegie’s famous “How to Win Friends and Influence People“, both published in 1937.

Snarkiness and downright rudeness seem to be on the rise across social media.

Maybe more of it is coming my way, as my social network expands. Maybe I’m too sensitive to it. Or maybe, because their voices are usually the loudest and most aggressive ones, they reverberate and dig at me more.

I’m talking about the lack of common courtesy and manners, and people spewing hurtful epithets and vitriol, instead of making life more pleasant as we all muddle through our daily challenges.

Why do people feel it’s their right to publish negative content about people they don’t like and possibly don’t even know, with no regard for how their words impact that person – internally and in their perception to the external world?

Is it naive to expect kindness over nastiness on these public platforms? Is it too much to hope that people have learned and practice what is second nature to many of us – “If you have nothing nice to say about someone, say nothing”?

I like to think that eventually their passion for sniping about others will come back to bite them, but comeuppance may not ruffle them at all, or cause them to rethink the way they operate. Maybe they purposefully mean to brand themselves as snide, thoughtless people.

The thing is, many, many people are giddy about aligning themselves with these proponents of negativity, and happily jump on their brandwagons. The more their bad behavior is reinforced, the more they’re encouraged to be snarkier still.

With its conversational chumminess, Twitter especially is riddled with mean-spirited and, frankly, tiresome remarks excused by the perpetrators who forewarn us in their Twitter bios that “I tell it like it is. If you don’t like it, don’t follow me”, or similar words.

Well of course, on Twitter you can un-follow anyone you want to, but these rants against you will still pop up in your @username mentions. And plenty of other people out there are reading this stuff about you.

I’ve gotten Twitter mentions referring to blog posts of mine, stating that my opinions were flat out wrong. I foolishly tried defending my stance in the past, but no more.

I’ve received tweets telling me to change my twitter handle (@MegGuiseppi) because my name is too hard to spell.

Someone I don’t know on Twitter published a tweet accusing me of misusing the word “executive”. What? I’ve been working with executives (my client base) for over 20 years. I think I know who they are and how to use the word properly. And even if I didn’t, who asked you, and why tell the world?

There are Twitter people passing judgement and tw(outing) people who have photos they don’t like.

I have a few blog comments on my Executive Resume Branding blog waiting to be approved that disparage opinions of mine and demean me as a person. I choose not to approve and post them.

I read a blog post recently on a highly-esteemed site that basically dissed career coaches as dispensers of damaging job seeking advice, and then at the end of the post, dug the knife in by daring any of us in the profession to rebut. The author was clearly looking to boost her blog comments, and delighted in the repercussions she hoped she’d set in motion.

In my world, Dale Carnegie’s core principles should always hold true – for real-life and virtual interaction:

• Don’t criticize, condemn, or complain.
• Give honest and sincere appreciation.
• Arouse in the other person an eager want.
• Make the other person feel important and do it sincerely.
• Show respect for the other person’s opinions. Never tell someone they are wrong.
• If you’re wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.
• Appeal to noble motives.

Related posts:

Social Media Spins Too Fast

14 Reasons I Won’t Follow You On Twitter [Revisited]

LinkedIn Helps You Find the Right Twitter People to Follow

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

Does Your Twitter Bio Pack an Executive Brand Punch? is a post from: Executive Career Brand

Twitter allows you just 160 characters in your bio to tell the world who you are.

Granted, it’s not easy to pack everything you feel people need to know about you into such a small package. Carefully craft what you put there to resonate with the people you want to attract.

First, define your purpose for tweeting. Are you just interested in idle chatter – sharing and discussing what you do for fun, music you like, favorite foods, restaurants and vacation spots, etc.? Then it’s okay for your bio to be light and reinforce that purpose.

But if you’re an executive job seeker and you want to leverage Twitter to expand your network, connect with your target employers’ hiring decision makers, gather market intelligence, and learn about job openings, your Twitter bio should reflect that purpose.

Understand that this is your pitch – whatever is in your bio may be the first impression people will have of you. They will use it to assess whether to follow you, connect with you, and/or consider hiring or doing business with you.

Take advantage of what you can do with 160 characters to brand your unique promise of value to hiring decision makers and potential employers.

If you’ve already gone through a branding process and created your brand positioning statement, you’re most of the way there. All you have to do is cut it down to fit.

If not, it will take some work to draft the right kind of statement. Meantime, by all means devote time to defining your brand. See my 10 Steps to an Authentic, Magnetic Personal Brand, and get busy.

As you’re composing your bio, or improving your existing bio, ask yourself these questions:

• Is it free of typos? Is it grammatically correct? Is it free of Twitter/texting shorthand and confusing abbreviations?
• Does it contain your most important keywords?
• Does it include some of your brand positioning statement, if you have one?
• Does it clearly differentiate the value you offer potential employers?
• Will it generate chemistry and resonate with your target audience?
• Will it compel others within your niche, or those you want to attract, to want to follow you, listen to you, and retweet you?

It’s all about career marketing through precision, short-form writing. Ruthlessly edit and pare down . . . consult a thesaurus to pinpoint the right words . . . say just enough to capture attention.

Here’s an example of one I wrote for a senior real estate executive:

Acquisitions, Business Development, Retail, Project Management ~ Physically & Economically Maximizing Tenant Retail and Mixed Use Real Estate Development

Related posts:

Twitter Turbocharges Executive Job Search and Personal Brand Visibility

Twitter Personal Branding Strategy — The Beauty of a Re-Tweet

Stalled Executive Job Search? Get Busy on LinkedIn and Twitter

14 Reasons I Won’t Follow You On Twitter [Revisited]

Search Executive Jobs With Twitter Lists is a post from: Executive Career Brand

Are you still on the fence about the value of Twitter and hesitate diving in?

Maybe this will change your mind. Thousands of top companies post job openings in real time and recruit executive candidates through Twitter.

You can find these employers by joining Twitter and searching for them, and through Twitter lists.

If you’re not familiar with Twitter lists, they offer users the ability to organize other users into groups, forming curated Twitter streams of the lastest tweets from specified users. Any Twitter user can then follow the lists of their choice to easily access those Twitter users’ streams.

Job-Hunt.org (@JobHuntOrg on Twitter)  has done some of the leg work by compiling their list of hundreds of top employers who are using Twitter to directly recruit employees.

A quick recent visit to the growing list included job postings at every professional level for companies such as:

• FedEx
• Motorola
• Bing
• GE
• Allstate
• ING
• Sears
• AOL
• Raytheon
• L’Oreal
• Dolby
• Vanguard

You can also search for individual Twitter users’ lists of employers (and other lists) through directories such as Listorious.

For more information on finding lists to follow and how it all works, see Josh Catone’s (@catone on Twitter) Mashable post, HOW TO: Use Twitter Lists.

Related posts:

Twitter Turbocharges Executive Job Search and Personal Brand Visibility

14 Reasons I Won’t Follow You On Twitter [Revisited]

Stalled Executive Job Search? Get Busy on LinkedIn and Twitter

2010 Top 10 Executive Personal Branding and Job Search Trends

LinkedIn Helps You Find the Right Twitter People to Follow is a post from: Executive Career Brand

Are you like many of my c-level and senior executive clients – a Twitter noobie, or thinking of diving in, and having a hard time figuring out who to follow?

You know that the more quality people you follow, the more value you’re likely to derive from Twitter. But how and where to find them?

Connect with me on LinkedIn

Here comes LinkedIn with one solution to your dilemma.

They’ve just rolled out a huge improvement to their Tweets application, which launched last November.

Now you can easily find and monitor your LinkedIn connections on LinkedIn and Twitter.

In his May 25th post on the LinkedIn blog, Adam Nash (@adamnash on Twitter) described the features:

• Once you’ve installed the Tweets application, you can easily access it from anywhere on LinkedIn using the “More…” menu at the top of the website.
• The Overview tab has been updated with an improved design to help you easily find everyone you currently follow on Twitter, view their Twitter feed, and tweet from your own account.
• A new module, “Connections to Follow”, has been added to recommend new people for you to follow, based on your LinkedIn connections.
• A new tab has been added to Tweets called “Connections”. On that page, you can see all of your LinkedIn connections who have added Twitter accounts to their LinkedIn profiles. Simple navigation is provided to make it easy to see who you are and aren’t following on Twitter.
• One of the most useful features of the new Tweets application is the ability to save your LinkedIn connections as a dynamic Twitter list.

Still on the fence and leery about joining the Twitter phenomenon? See my post, Twitter Turbocharges Executive Job Search and Personal Brand Visibility.

Related posts:

14 Reasons I Won’t Follow You On Twitter [Revisited]

Give Twitter 15 Minutes a Day, Land Your Next Executive Job

Stalled Executive Job Search? Get Busy on LinkedIn and Twitter

Twitter Personal Branding Strategy — The Beauty of a Re-Tweet

Twitter Turbocharges Executive Job Search and Personal Brand Visibility is a post from: Executive Career Brand

In a recent chat about social media, a new client and I discussed the value of LinkedIn and Twitter. “Randy” understood that, just to keep pace with his competition in the job market, he had to have a strong presence on LinkedIn and take advantage of all it has to offer. He had already made some strides with it.

But when it came to Twitter, Randy was adamant. “If you think I’m going to waste my time on Twitter telling people what I had for breakfast, you’re crazy!”

Are you Twitter-resistant like Randy, still sitting on the sidelines, thinking it’s a waste of time, and questioning whether there’s any value at all there?

With more than 60 million users, Twitter is a powerful place to:

• Build credibility, visibility, and evangelism for your brand and unique value proposition,
• Extend your online presence.
• Position yourself in front of employers and hiring decision makers.
• Connect with new communities of subject matter experts and thought leaders, and
• Uncover opportunities that may lead to landing a job.

Many, many employers these days are hanging out on Twitter, tweeting job openings at all levels and tweeting about their organizations. Shouldn’t you be there too, connecting with them, learning from them, and staying top of mind with them?

Where else online (or offline for that matter) can you listen in on and learn from conversations your targeted key decision makers are having, without being invited?

It may take a little time to get the hang of Twitter, but soon it will all click, and you’ll get into a rhythm.

Getting started basics

• Set up your free Twitter account claiming your real name, or variation if yours is taken, for your Twitter @username. Or you may want to choose something highlighting your expertise, like “COOBobJames”, if “BobJames” isn’t available.
• Upload a professional head shot.
• Add a link to your blog or website (if you have one), or Google Profile, LinkedIn Profile, VisualCV, etc.
• Create an abbreviated version (160 character maximum) of your keyword-rich personal brand positioning statement for your Twitter “bio”.
• For now, choose a Twitter background other than the default. You can customize this later.
• Noodle around and get comfortable with how Twitter works.

Building out your network with old friends and fresh faces.

Use Twitter Search or Twellow, the Twitter Yellow Pages, to search for, find the Twitter usernames for, follow, and retweet these groups of people:

• Friends and colleagues in your existing real-life and online networks.
• Your target employers. See if they’re on Job-Hunt’s list of employers who are using Twitter to recruit.
• Major players and decision makers in your industry.
• Recruiters in your industry. Also look at recruiter Jeff Lipschultz’s list of recruiters.
• Thought leaders, subject matter experts, and other people who are talking about your industry.
• Top career people. Check out Job-Hunt’s 101 Best Twitter Job Search/Career Experts Plus 6.

See my post, Twitter Personal Branding Strategy: The Beauty of a Retweet. If you do nothing else on Twitter, you can get results by retweeting, but don’t stop there.

Use hashtags in your tweets and retweets (RTs) when you can. Read Ben Parr’s (@BenParr) HOW TO: Get the Most Out of Twitter #Hashtags, at @mashable for all the skinny.

Once you build up a strong and diverse following, tweet what kind of job you’re looking for. Put the information out there. Someone may be looking for candidates just like you. Or someone following your tweets may know someone who needs you.

Through the Tweets of those you follow you may uncover job opportunities, plus gather market intelligence and discover challenges facing your target companies which you may be able to help them overcome.

Twitter is all about micro-blogging “tweets” in 140 characters or less. For best impact, Tweet (and RT) content that is consistent with your brand and will be interesting to your followers and relevant to your target audience.

Google indexes tweets, so the more you tweet, the more you’ll expand your online identity.

A few Twitter tips:

Realize that when people look at your Twitter profile page, they’ll see your most recent 20 tweets and the time line and frequency of your postings. Avoid constantly repeating the same tweets.

Include targeted keywords – including company names, products, industry names, and people – in your tweets to lead hiring professionals to you.

Retweet your own important tweets using hashtags with the keywords.

Mix up your tweets for variety:

• Retweets
• Tweets with URLs to relevant articles and blog posts.
• Tweets that demonstrate your knowledge about best practices, trends and events, and position yourself as a subject matter expert.
• Some tweets with relevant and/or inspirational quotes.

If you’re blogging or publishing articles, book reviews, or anything else online, tweet it.

Use Twitter lists to save time and organize users into groups. Search for lists through individual Twitter accounts and by keywords through directories, such as Listorious. Also curate your own Twitter lists.

Use applications such as Tweetdeck to manage your groups of tweeps and to schedule your tweets.

Bring your Twitter stream into your LinkedIn profile (see applications on your LinkedIn home page).

And some Twitter DO’S AND DON’TS from The Twitter Job Search Guide, an extremely valuable resource.

Do’s:

• Brand and Plan. Know who you are and what you want to accomplish on Twitter (networking, job seeking, research/information, fun, all of the above?)
• Choose your identity wisely. Select a professional screen name, whether it’s your first and last name, or a name that captures your brand (CIO_Leader, RockStarPMP, EagleEyeEditor).
• Shoot for a 75%-25% professional-to-personal tweet ratio. Interviewers will review your stream. People get hired for who they are, not just what they do. Your digital footprint is your resume.
• Be visible, viable, and valuable. Tweet with regularity. Make sure your tweets demonstrate your skills and interests. Don’t be afraid to toot your own horn occasionally (example, Just finished my xyz training and earned new certification).
• Be worthy of a follow. Engage in interesting conversation and generously offer help, information, job postings, inside leads, lessons learned, shout-outs, retweets, questions, Follow Friday lists, and more.

Don’ts:

• Don’t be a downer. Avoid focusing solely on your job search, appearing needy, over-sharing personal information and problems, whining about frustrations, or boss bashing. These are not appealing to potential employers.
• Don’t forget your 15-minutes-a-day plan. Don’t let overwhelm stop you from starting; and once you’re in, don’t get sucked in or lost in the stream.
• Don’t expect Twitter to “work” (land you a job) in 1 day or even 1 week or 1 month. Relationships take time. Be strategic; allow serendipity.
• Don’t forget to ask! For example, Know of great companies in Philly for project mgrs? What’s best advice on dreaded “weakness” question in interviews?
• Don’t forget to follow recruiters, engage in conversation, and share info. Search #splits and send them candidates. They’ll love you!

A caveat:  Twitter is just one piece in your executive brand communications plan. It’s way too easy to squander an unfocused hour or more hopping around on Twitter. Develop a time-limiting strategy for Twitter – 15 minutes a day or so should do it.

Your key takeaway here, as with any networking activity – give value to get value.

Join in and begin adding value to your various Twitter communities. Contribute to conversations and start your own. Share your knowledge and learn from your tweeps. You may be surprised by the valuable resources, opportunities, and people Twitter can lead you to that you would otherwise never have come across.

Related posts:

How to Build a Powerful Executive Network

2010 Top 10 Executive Personal Branding and Job Search Trends

14 Reasons I Won’t Follow You On Twitter [Revisited]

Stalled Executive Job Search? Get Busy on LinkedIn and Twitter

Give Twitter 15 Minutes a Day, Land Your Next Executive Job is a post from: Executive Career Brand

Impossible you say?

Not according to my friends and colleagues Susan Britton Whitcomb, Chandlee Bryan, and Deb Dib, the authors of “The Twitter Job Search Guide: Find a Job and Advance Your Career in Just 15 Minutes a Day“.

This book is a powerhouse of information and practical advice on leveraging Twitter for personal branding and job search.

The authors understand job seekers who ignore Twitter:

“Of all the sites associated with social media, none may be more embraced or reviled, used or abused, comprehended or confused.”

Pick up this book if you want to learn about:

• Building and managing your brand on Twitter
• The art of following and being followed
• Staying out of legal hot water with your tweets
• Job search advice from recruiters, resume writers and career coaches
• Jumpstarting your network with Twitter
• Maximizing Twitter in just 15 minutes a day
• Using Twitter for job leads, feeds, and advice needs
• Researching people, positions, and places to work
• Finding and using the right APIs for you.

A tip the authors provide on locating job leads:

“Send a message to a recruiter who has tweeted relevant job postings. You’ll have a much better opportunity to stand out from the crowd of candidates. Your message might sound like this: ‘Just e-mailed my resume for product mgr. opening. I’ve helped similar co’s gain double-digit market share. Will follow up early next week.’ Note that the key here is the hint of value to come and initiative to follow up.”

And a tip on researching breaking news and corporate culture:

“Sharing breaking news with your followers – news that is relevant to your industry – can also position you as an “A” candidate in the eyes of recruiters and hiring influencers.”

Wrapping up all the pointers and advice is a long list of actual tweets posted by careers industry professionals, including me. Here are some from the category “Researching Leads and Employers“, with the contributors’ Twitter handles:

@careerliz Research recruiters on LinkedIn and Twitter. You will be amazed at what you might have in common! This info can help you grow relationships.

@KCCareerCoach Use Google Alerts to track current job trends. Transition your skills to meet new workplace needs.

@myreinventure Use reference librarians (town or college) to flesh out list of target companies/industries-a free, useful resource for targeted job search.

@KBitschenauer Be curious! Follow links in blogs, newsletters, ebooks, reports, Web pages–even footers–to find new gems of information.

Another benefit of this book is the list of dozens of career experts who contributed. Follow them and learn from them.

Related posts:

Stalled Executive Job Search? Get Busy on LinkedIn and Twitter

14 Reasons I Won’t Follow You On Twitter [Revisited]

Twitter Personal Branding Strategy: Get the Most Out of Re-tweets