On August 19, 2008 I wrote the post titled Gravatar: How To Get Your Picture With Your Comment In This Blog.

I love this simple post for two reasons… one is because it has over 50 comments, and the other is because it helps me and my readers get to know a bit more about you, because of your picture.

I love to see pictures of my contacts… if you have any inclination of using blog comments as a networking tactic I suggest you follow the super-easy instructions on the post:

Gravatar: How To Get Your Picture With Your Comment In This Blog

New: an EVENING JibberJobber User Webinar on Tuesday, March 9th at 7p EST. Register here. (other webinars listed here)

Many of them are not put together well, or the responses are not put together well.

Here are THREE of my favorite posts where I talk about how to introduce someone, or yourself:

Job Search and Networking Introductions (January 28, 2009) – how to introduce yourself and ask for help.

Introductions gone bad… (January 11, 2007) – thoughts on how to write that initial email introduction.

Solution to Introductions gone bad… ? (January 12, 2007) – how to respond to an introduction from someone else.

Those posts are old, but the ideas are not too shabby!

(Shoudn’t they teach this stuff in college??)

Thanks to Kristian Andersen for putting this together

In LinkedIn they call it a Professional Headline.

Some call it a tag line.

It is the bite-sized value proposition… I might get bored listening to your poorly-crafted 30 second elevator pitch, but I can’t help but digest your 5 Second Elevator Pitch.

One of my favorites is from Carol Fletez, who is an IT professional in the D.C. area.  Look at how fantastic her 5 second pitch is:

This might not mean anything to you but I used to work in a mainframe environment.  Mainframes are cool and powerful, but many times you feel like you are in the bedrock era.  Carol’s very simple phrase…

Helping Companies Migrate from Mainfraimes to the Future!

… is just clever! It brought a grin to my face, and immediately I assumed she has an expertise in legacy systems and new stuff, and marrying the two. Anyone who has been around mainframes will know what this means.

Guess what?  She also has this sentence on her email signature – she is getting that branding in multiple places (as she should).

What is YOUR 5 Second pitch?

I recently read an article (in a newsletter, sorry, no link) about how to use Twitter in a job search. In short, the suggestions were:

1. Get on Twitter,
2. Tweet and get your brand out there, and
3. follow key job people, including coaches, recruiters, etc.

I absolutely, fundamentally disagree.

Not to sound like a pessimist, but the people who usually listen to me are (a) busy, (b) not necessarily early adopters to technology, and (c) busy.  Because of (b) I have to be careful when I recommend any technology.

I’m not opposed to technology, but telling a job seeker to do the three steps above, I think, will give them a false sense of “I’m doing the right thing in my job search!”  I bet I can come up with 20 (non-twitter) activities that are more important than those three steps. I would not put this as a top priority.

But I do tell job seekers to include Twitter as part of their job search strategy.  In a nutshell, I suggest:

• Use Twitter to find people who you can/should network with.  Best place to do this?  Twellow.com.  You don’t have to have a Twitter account to do this.
• Once you find a key contact, see if they have any lists, or are listed in any lists… if so, look for other key contacts to contact.  You don’t have to have a Twitter account to do this.
• IF you want to contact people, consider doing it through Twitter.  Now you need to get an account, but you can do this in a way that gets you in front of key people who you are targeting (instead of throwing twitter-mud on the wall).  Be onbrand and realize the purpose of this is to get a discussion with that person, not to do a general branding tweet.

Addressing point 2 above, I don’t think it’s a bad idea to use Twitter as a branding tool – in fact, it has been quite a tool for me.  But I have resources allocated to branding and marketing, and this fits into that.  Job seekers, like I said, could have at least 20 other activities that are more productive.

Addressing point 3 above, I don’t think there is as much value in following recruiters and those posting jobs on Twitter… no offense to @tweetmyjobs and such services, but if you are spending a considerable amount of time looking at job postings anywhere, there is something wrong with your job search.

Active job seekers should be as wary of posted jobs as recruiters are of active job seekers.

(if you didn’t get that last line, read it again – it might be one of the most important sentences I’ve written on this blog, ever)

I would suggest you follow job search coaches, resume writers, etc…. because they will throw out tips and advice… but if you find yourself reading and reading and reading most of the day, I’d tell you to stop your Twitter activity and go do some of the hard stuff in the job search.

Thoughts?

Some people hate the phrase “personal branding.”  They think branding is for products or cattle, not for themselves.

Some people hate the phrase “on-brand.”  Like we go on- and off-brand with frequency, or intentionally, or unintentionally?

Let me share an example of the idea of being “on-brand.”  This came up at lunch last week with a good buddy of mine who is going through a career reevaluation.

We were talk about a book that he has been contemplating for the last year, as well as the new directions his career could take.  He’s an independent contractor and has been for many years – he’s not looking for a job, but will be looking for new contract work.

I asked him what kind of work he wants to do in 1, 3 or 5 years – who would his client be and what would he consult on?

The answer to this question is significant for many reasons, but especially significant when he thinks about the book he should write.

My buddy said he wants to consult to business owners and directors about strategic issues – but the book he was going to write was very, very technical.

Writing a very, very technical book would brand him as a very, very technical expert.  Why would a business owner consult with the techie for strategic reasons?  Sure, techies are involved in strategy, and they should be brought in when evaluating decisions, but doesn’t it make sense that a strategic consultant show their expertise with a book on strategy?

This is kind of a gray example, since I think a technical book could reinforce the brand to a degree, but I would suggest another book to complement it.

I’m not saying you have to write a book to reinforce your brand, but the example is this:

If you have a brand or expertise, what tools can you use to reinforce that brand?

Some that come to mind are blogs, books, business cards, articles, email signatures, etc.

Think about your branding reinforcement tools – are they reinforcing your brand, or are they detracting (or confusing) your brand?

The second Now What book that I didn’t write is available on Amazon and as an ebook download from Happy About.  The image to the right is pretty big because I LOVE how all of the people are represented by business cards, and the one in the middle (presumably YOU or ME) has hands out, ready to meet and welcome other people — how cool!

I’m at a Networking Event — Now What??? is a terrific resource for anyone who has to go to any kind of networking event for the purpose of… networking!

I remember a few years ago when I went to networking events and cheated… I went late and left early.  I totally missed the point of the event, and missed out on opportunities to meet people who could be helpful in my job search.

Now when I go to networking events I am really looking for networking opportunities.  But it is not as easy as I originally thought – to have a successful experience because of a networking event there is:

1. Preparation: what do you do BEFORE you go to the event.
2. On-site performance: not that you are performing, but I didn’t know how else to say this – you are “on!”  This means you need to put fear and pride aside and get the job done – many times all this takes is starting out by saying “hi” to someone.
3. Post-event followup: after you meet someone, get business cards, exchange emails, what do you do?  This is the key, and perhaps a great opportunity for failure (if you don’t followup).

In this book on how to work a networking event Sandy teaches you how to really, effectively get value out of your networking.  I don’t care if you are networking with job seekers, business owners at the  chamber of commerce meeting, at a luncheon with managers and directors, or with your target prospects – this book will help you understand how to more effectively work the room, find those key relationships, and then move forward from there.

Congratulations to first-time author Sandy Jones-Kaminski for this very useful book (see what others have said about it here)!

You can get it for $19.95 from Amazon or from Happy About, or get the ebook (immediate download) for only $11.95.

Once you get it, if you like it, consider giving it a favorable review on Amazon – thank you!

Yesterday I blogged about my cousin who was hired in just a few days from when he found a job posting on Craigslist.

I guarantee he was prepared to have the right conversation when the time came.  He was ready.

Last night I dropped in on a network meeting I haven’t been to for over a year.  The hostess recognized me and at one point said “Jason, why don’t you take a few minutes and tell us about JibberJobber?”  What a golden opportunity to sell the concept to people who needed it.  Two years ago I would have messed it up – last night I was surprised, but much better prepared.

Today I flew into Orlando for a surprise meeting. I was just here 2 weeks ago.  Due to a series of events that happened from two weeks ago, I’m back and here to talk about some pretty serious stuff.

I am ready.  I’ve been ready for a while.

You never know when you are going to meet that key contact – whether it’s online or in person.  It might be from a referral, and it might seem meaningless.  But you have to be ready.  here are some of my suggestions:

• Know what you want. If you know what you want, then when an opportunity arrives you’ll be better prepared to react appropriately.
• Know how others can help you. People will say “how can I help you?”  It is better to know what to say rather than “I’m not sure but I’ll let you know later.”
• Know who you are. So many elevator pitches suck – they are misleading and offbrand.  If you know who you are, who you want to be, and how to communicate it, you can take advantage of those 10 or 30 seconds  you might get.  Not prepared?  That’s okay, you can just mess it up like most people do.

How else can you be ready?

I retired the Personal Branding Award series a few months ago and said I was going to start a new series…. well, this is it.  I want to interview people who are doing something DIFFERENT.

There is an irony I live with every day.  Some people think I am hear to help you land your next gig… to find your dream job.

You see, I personally don’t think a dream job exists… not in the way it did a few decades ago.  Even if you find the dream job you might not have it after 6 months or 6 years.

You are always in transition, always a job seeker, and thus, always CEO of Me, Inc.

Part of that, as I’ve mentioned before, is to figure out personal income security.

That’s what this series is about – thinking outside the box of “I’m getting my dream job soon!” to “I think there are other ways to crack this (income security) nut!”

Welcome the first person in the series – Gary Vaynerchuk (aka, GaryVee).

Gary is beyond a rockstar, although he’ll deny it.  His energy makes me think all I’m suited for is a government job… but he claims it  is not the craziness or energy that makes you WIN.  No, not win, that makes you CRUSH IT! Crush it is the name of his new book, which should start shipping today.

I interviewed Gary for about 45 minutes, you can listen on the BlogTalkRadio channel.  Lots of gems to apply to your own career here.

And check out his book Crush It - it’s less than $15 at Amazon.  I’ve got mine in the mail and I’m anxious to get into it!

My friend Randi Bussin is a Personal Branding Strategist and is putting on some very affordable personal branding webinars this Fall.  Click here to learn more info, or register at her site.

I had NO personal brand when I was looking for a job and quickly realized that if I had been working on it, I would not have been “Jason WHO??,” instead I would have had people who knew me and my strengths before I got to an interview.

If you want a strong, intentional personal brand, I recommend checking out Randi’s webinars!