I’m worse at sending holiday cards than I am at sending thank you cards!  But this year is going to be different.  I’m going to do it this year.  Here’s my plan of attack:

1. Export all my contacts who I have an address for from JibberJobber, and determine if they are holiday card recipients or not (I should have been tagging my contacts, but I haven’t been diligent in that).
2. Do a mail merge from the file I get out into a word document, IF I’m going to print labels (not sure if I’m doing that or handwriting the addresses).
3. Find holiday cards to send out.  Most will be Christmas cards, but some will be holiday cards.
4. Prepare them and get them all ready to go for a Dec 1 mailing.

I’m trying to figure out how to make this more meaningful and personal than the typical card… I’ve been at companies where they just tape them up on a wall and then throw them away… some cards simply have a name and a generic message… what could I do to make it more personal?

So I’m a newbie at this stuff… any suggestions?  What am I missing?  HOW DO YOU DO IT?

This post is brought to you by Walter Akana, founder of Threshold Consulting.  Walter Akana is a Life Strategist who specializes in success! With expertise in career transitions, personal branding, and life planning, he works primarily with mid-career individuals who want to achieve more self direction in their careers and lives.   Walter’s services include coaching clients on developing career/life plans, uncovering their personal brands, and establishing online visibility. Visit Walter’s site to learn more about his services and to read his blog.  Walter is a JibberJobber Career Expert Partner.

Online networking allows you to meet lots of people who you otherwise wouldn’t be able to meet.  Instead of one-to-one networking, you can do one-to-thousands networking, and still have some level of intimacy.  You can enhance your brand as a thought leader or subject matter expert, and learn from the best minds in a particular space.  You can do it on your own time, from your own house… and you don’t even have to brush your teeth or comb your hair before you start!

Offline networking allows you to develop intimate relationships one-on-one where you can communicate with passion and excitement communicating with your voice fluctionation, body language, facial express, and touch. It’s a great opportunity to really get to know people, learn about their quirks, needs, desires, etc. in a setting where you both can devote your complete attention to one another.  You can put your best foot forward and guage reactions immediately.  And brushing teeth, combing hair, getting dressed up and actually talking with other human beings is a good thing

Of course, there are draw backs.  Online it’s easy to trust someone who isn’t who you think they are.  Not getting a timely response might lead you to draw wrong conclusions.  Information overload grabs at our attention, and we can easily communicate something that is misunderstood (without being able to immediately know it’s misunderstood).  It’s sometimes so easy that we overextend ourselves and drown in information and contacts, not really able to do anything but flounder.

Offline networking is a challenge because we have to dedicate time and gas money to travel to and from, sometimes pay for event or meals, go to an event where there aren’t enough of our target contacts (or there are too many, and not enough time), and my biggest challenge, weighing the opportunity cost in the in-person networking vs. what I could do from my office.

So which is better?  Either may be more appropriate for different objectives, but both can and should be used in a complementary strategy.  Don’t choose one or the other - do both.

This post is brought to you by Cindy Kraft , the CFO–Coach. Cindy Kraft is the Personal Brand Strategist & Career Coach for senior-level Finance Executives who are ready to repackage and position themselves in order to Land their next opportunity! Career offerings include marketing document development, brand strategizing, executive coaching, and online identity positioning.  Cindy Kraft is a JibberJobber Career Expert Partner.

After almost two years and 19 Personal Branding winners of the month, it’s time to shift the emphasis a little.

I started this personal branding award for two reasons.  First, it was to recognize those who are showing, or growing, their personal brand through current technologies.  Most of the recipients are (or were) bloggers.  A handful only had static websites.  A few of them extend beyond their own blog or website, and I recognize that in the post I wrote about them (see bottom of this post for the list).

The second reason I started this personal branding award was to show YOU that YOU can do this too!  It’s not just for the elite, or the early adopters of blogging or other technologies.  The strategy of developing and portraying your personal brand is a strategy that you should seriously consider.

June’s winner is one of my favorite people.  I “met” Heather Gardner on the My LinkedIn PowerForum a number of months ago.  I found her to be brash (in a good way), passionate, and anxious to help people.

So how am I shifting emphasis?  I’m not going to talk about her blog.  And I don’t think she has a static website.  Even so, she is doing an excellent job sharing her brand all over the place.  I can sum it up in one word… Heather is:

Of course, she’s married with kids, but she is very engaged in discussions online.  She is active enough in various places that many people know who she is, what she does, and what value she brings. It’s not her full-time job, so she can’t do it 8 hours a day.  Nonetheless, she’s out there.  Here are some things she’s involved in:

My LinkedIn Power Forum - Heather is quick to share, ask, give advice, participate and encourage.  Many people have benefited from her involvement there, and I’m sure she has branded herself as a very helpful, knowledgeable and resourceful recruiter (and employment expert).

Recruiting Blogs Ning network for recruiters - Very active here, sharing with and learning from her peers.  When I created my I Just Got Fired slideshow done she asked if I was going to put it on RecruitingBlogs.com, which is something I hadn’t thought of.  It showed me that it is on her mind, and she’s involved there, and guess what… there are over 9,000 recruiters on that little social network!  Powerful, and a great place to be involved.

Twitter - some think Twitter is bunk, and others like it when it isn’t down (which is too often).  Nonetheless, it’s an amazing place to develop relationships, learn about other people, and share “who you are” with your followers.  Of course, Heather is there, active, with hundreds of people following her.

LinkedIn - of course she’s on LinkedIn.  She’s not just there - she is engaged.  She has asked three questions and answered 12. How many have you asked or answered??

Blog - Yep, she has a blog, too.  I find her style and perspective to be quite insightful and engaging.  And with titles like Honey does this blog make my “BUT” look big? and “I’ll show you mine, if you show me yours” Promiscuous Web 2.0, how could you not be interested?

She’s elsewhere, like Facebook.  I’m sure she’ll be other places, too.  But the point of this post, and the reason I’m recognizing her, is because it’s the next natural step to what I’ve recognized over the last almost two years of this personal branding award: being engaged.

Heather is definitely engaged.  And the relationships she’s building will benefit her for many years to come.

Heather Gardner, congratulations! You join a special group of professionals and have earned a coveted link from my monthly winner’s blogroll area (on the left), six months of premium JibberJobber (you can transfer/award this to someone else ), and a cyber-high five! And, a new addition to the prize list is the two hour (!!) minute recording of Blog Marketing 201 - 501 (part of the CEO Training for Me, Inc. - listed at $49.95 (but much more valuable than that!).

Feel free to post the You Get It award on your site!

Here are the past winners:

• September 2006 - ClickDave - my review
• October 2006 - Kent Blumberg - my review
• November 2006 - Heather Henricks - my review
• December 2006 - Adelino de Almeida - my review
• January 2007 - Rob Humphrey - my review
• January 2007 - Ariel Meadow Stallings - my review
• February 2007 - Mike Schaffner - my review
• March 2007 - Susan Johnston - my review
• April 2007 - Thomas Clifford - my review
• May 2007 - Rob Frankel - my review
• June 2007 - Trent Hamm - my review
• July 2007 - Katie Konrath - my review
• August 2007 - Robb Hecht - my review
• September 2007 - OOPS! I took this month off and didn’t realize it! Lucky me
• October 2007 - Tanya Ferrill - my review
• November 2007 - Sean O’Donnovan - my review
• December 2007 - Andy Shaindlin - my review
• January 2008 - Kate Herrick - my review
• February 2008 - John Halamka - my review
• March 2008 - another OOPS!
• April 2008 - another OOPS!
• May 2008 - Morty Schiller - my review

It was two years ago yesterday that I wrote my first blog post.  I thought I was a darn good blogger until about 6 months into it one of my respected peers said “hey, it sounds like you are finally finding your blogging voice!  Congrats!”  I know it was a compliment but I was offended because I didn’t know I had sounded so lost before that :p

Anyway, this week I’ll share some special stuff with you, like I did for last year’s anniversary.  Stay tuned for that.

Today I wanted to share information on something called Sourcing, which is something that recruiters rely on.

If you are a job seeker, check out the description below - you should know what techniques and tactics recruiters are taught so that you can optimize your chance of being found.

If you are a recruiter, fork over the $149.97 to attend this session by the master of sourcing, Shally no-last-name-required.  Shally (okay, it’s Shally Steckerl) is one of the most respected people in the recruiting space, and probably has some kind of super-human abilities.  He is an expert at searching… that is, finding talent.  Whether it’s through LinkedIn or Google, or however he does it, Shally finds hidden talent.  This is a must-not-miss opportunity.

If you are a career professional who works with job seekers (job search coach, resume writer, career counselor, etc.), consider taking the course so you can learn how to better position your clients.

There you go - a two-fer blog post… first, happy birthday to us (yeah!) and second a recruiting event you shan’t miss!

Beverly Harvey is one of my expert partners. She runs Harvey Careers, and specializes in “empowering senior-level executives with savvy career marketing materials and job search tools.”

Beverly is conducting a three-part teleseminar called “How to Conduct a Highly Successful Job Search and Land Your Next Position Quickly.”

She asks: Is your job search stalled? Are you confused about the market place?

That is how my job search was. And I was confused since it was a “job seeker’s market” but no one would call me back.

I totally could have used this training. Here’s the deal… this job search series includes 3 calls (60 minutes each) that are recorded, and you’ll have access to them anytime (so you don’t even need to be on the calls). You also get a 45-page resource guide, a roadmap, and much more.

I haven’t taken the class, and I don’t have the resource guide. But I have seen Beverly at conferences and know that she is always keeping up on trends, is principle-based, and well-respected by her peers.

And she partnered with JibberJobber. That’s good enough for me… when a coach forks over some money to partner with JibberJobber they really show they “get it.”

Beverly gets it, and for less than $100 bucks you can tap into a wealth of knowledge.

How do you register? Just go to her website and scroll down to the bottom… or you can call 386-749-3111.

One last point. Even if you aren’t in a job search… you know, you already have your comfortable job… I strongly encourage you to sign up for this training. You never know when you’ll need it!

I almost titled this “how to screw up your brand,” but you know, that kind of strong language would be off-brand for me :p

In the last three weeks I’ve received three comments, all from different people, on this blog.

All comments kind of, almost, add to the discussion, and enrich the original post or surrounding comments.

When I went to approve the comments in question, I kind of hesitated, but ultimately thought, “well, if they want to leave something that stupid, it’s on their brand, not mine.” It’s almost the “give them enough rope to hang themselves with” idea.

I approved the comments.

And then I started to see the very same comments posted on other blogs in the career or recruiting space. No editing, no customizing, just a straight copy-and-paste job.

So here’s the deal - I saw a yellow flag by the overly-self-promoting comment… but decided to let it fly. I figured my readers are smart enough to see through the crap.

But then when I read the very same stuff in multiple places, my initial concern was validated.

Guess what? As a blogger, you have gone backwards on our relationship. Instead of being flattered and grateful for you adding to my discussion, I’m now mad that you are “using me.” And insulting my readers.

You have tarnished, or screwed, your brand, as far as I’m concerned.

And I’m sure my readers are smarter than you think. I bet you’ve tarnished your brand with them, too.

Why the uncharacteristic rant?

Because I travel around telling people to comment on blogs to enhance and develop their personal brand. But please be cautious about how you do it. Follow these guidelines:

1. Don’t be self-promotional, unless it’s clearly warranted. If you have a solution that is right for the topic, great… let us know about it. Otherwise, save your pitch until the timing is right.
2. Don’t insult me, as the blog owner. I’m okay if you disagree with me, for sure. I’m okay if you think I write something dumb, or unwarranted. But don’t try and pick a fight with me, and try and smear me. Of course, this might be what you really want to do, but if you are interested in nurturing a relationship with me, or enhancing your personal and professional brand, it might pay to take a breath and keep it nice. Also, I, like most bloggers, have built a community of readers. Sorry to say, but they like me. They support me. They are my champions and my evangelists. You might think I’m full of hot air, but they think I’m pretty cool. And they’ll stick up for me.
3. Don’t ever insult my readers. You might think they are yours to preach to, but they are pretty smart and can see through your crap.

What am I missing? What have you seen diminishes the credibility of a commenter?

I get asked this question all the time - just who uses JibberJobber? Here’s a user who has given me permission to share her profile with you.

Bridgette Hinchman is:

… a mid to senior level General Manager/Director of Operations (at a medium to large company) or a VP of Ops/COO at a small company. I have my MBA and over 12 years of progressive sales and operational experience at the GM level. My experience has focused on getting small businesses to the next level (from start up and shortly after) or fixing troubled sites within a 90 day window (for existing companies). In essence, people pay me to fix their broken or struggling business as a career employee and from there I have gotten promoted upward.

Sounds pretty cool, right? Bridgette is in the Dallas area, and is hoping to stay in that area if possible.

Bridgette is a corporate rockstar. By no fault of her own* she is a self-proclaimed “VERY assertive job seeker.” She is the type of professional who “gets” JibberJobber. Does she understand networking and nurturing relationships? I’m sure she does. Is she a competent subject matter expert? Undoubtedly (I’ve seen her resume and her work history). I’d be happy to put you in touch with Bridgette - just leave a comment in the box below or hit me via e-mail.

How many of you are prepared to be a “VERY assertive job seeker” right now? How many of you would benefit from doing stuff that you do in JibberJobber for a full 6 - 12 months before you become a VERY assertive job seeker? Whether you are in a job search or not, I encourage you to seriously consider the benefit of preparing now by nurturing network relationships, targeting companies you are interested in, preparing your master resume, preparing multiple elevator pitches (or, Me in 30 Second pitches, or whatever you want to call them), and more.

* By no fault of her own. Bridgette found herself in this VERY assertive state the same way that thousands of people this year will find themselves. This is what happened to me two years ago… corporate decisions, economy, fickle management, bad management decisions, loss of a contract… the list goes on and on.

This year there will be hundreds of thousands of people who’s jobs and careers are affected by forces they have no control over. Check out these recent headlines:

• CNN: 80,000 job losses unemployment spikes (April 4, 2008) Just in March!
• The New York Times: CBS Moves Ahead With Layoffs in News (April 2, 2008). This affects just one percent of their workforce. Only 1,200 people. Only 1,200 breadwinners, contributors, neighbors, friends, family… 1,200 people who are likely up against on of he hardest things in their life - long-term unemployment.
• California Department of Education website: State Schools Chief Jack O’Connell, Teachers, Support Staff,
  Administrators Announce More Than 20,000 Teachers and Support
  Staff Getting Layoff Notices Due to Budget Crisis (March 14, 2008) great - keep teachers underpaid for a long time and then cut 20,000 jobs across the state. Hope you have a favorable private and/or homeschool policy.
• CNET NEWS: Dell: Layoffs bigger than expected (April 3, 2008) it already announced 8,800 layoffs… but that isn’t enough. This is going to have a huge impact on Austin, TX.
• MSNBC: Analysts see 200,000 banking industry layoffs (April 1, 2008) I doubt this was an April Fools joke. But seriously, 200,000 banking jobs slashed over the next 18 months? How will this be absorbed?
• Paul Kedrosky’s blog: Google Announces Layoffs (March 11, 2008) quoting directly from Google’s blog post, I thought the same thing that Paul did (”Translation: We’re letting people go. And a bunch of ‘em, at that.”). I also thought “Google? The place where everyone wants to work?? They are downsizing?”
• CNN: Motorola cuts another 2,600 jobs (April 3, 2008)… “as total employee cuts rise above 10,000″ That’s a lot of engineers out in the market. I wonder how many of them have created “pull marketing” strategies with their personal branding?
• CNN: Home Depot could cut jobs (April 4, 2008) no one announces this if they “could,” only if they will. Reading further: “about 2,200 employees who will be affected by the changes, which will be completed by May 1.” and “there no longer will be a human resources manager in each of the company’s 1,970 U.S. stores.” One more HR professional on the market in just about every city.

What makes you more immune to the unemployment line than any of these hundreds of thousands of people?

Is it your degree, or your MBA? Mine didn’t keep me off of unemployment.

Is it the tight relationship you have with your boss or the CEO? Trust me, I’ve seen how it works, and that relationship won’t keep you from getting a pink slip.

It’s time to be CEO of You, Inc. What are you going to do TODAY to take charge? I have a few ideas, but would like to hear yours

I started JibberJobber on May 15, 2006. In June I started blogging, and credit much of JibberJobber’s success to this blog. It became clear early on that putting time into this blog would be a significant portion of my overall marketing strategy, and when the blog was mentioned in the Wall Street Journal’s Career Journal (they moved the Career Journal and I don’t know what the new link is), I felt reassured I was on the right track.

I was happy (but not satisfied :)).

And then I wrote a book. In fact, it was one of the very first books on LinkedIn (the book that beat me was Steve Tylock’s LinkedIn Personal Trainer).

The story of my book is kind of fun. It was a mix between “get more buzz” and “provide value to JibberJobber users who were asking about LinkedIn.” I realized I could continue to blog about LinkedIn, but it would be cool to have one resources that kind of spells it all out - what do I need to do, what do I need to pay attention to, and what is just plain noise?

I started my Table of Contents, and wrote a few paragraphs for the introduction. And then I got distracted by running a business.

A couple of months later I was at dinner with a few bloggers in Austin, Texas. Two of the bloggers were also published authors, and I asked them a few questions, like:

• how many books have you sold?
• how much money have you made (not sure how I really asked this question)
• would you recommend an ebook or a hard copy? Why?
• … and more.

That night, I told Scott Allen my idea (a LinkedIn book for the normal person, not the early adopter or tech genius) and he immediately said “do it with me! I’ll hook you up with my publisher and …” we discussed some of the details.

About a month later I had a signed contract in hand, and was ready to go - I had a publisher! I dusted off my old Table of Contents and… looked at it and… let it sit for a few months. After all, I was running a business! And ever author I knew told me that I wouldn’t make any money from selling books.

In May, 2007, I was liveblogging SOBcon (a terrific event, they are repeating it this year, more info here) and listening to Andy Sernovitz speak. Andy gave a list of things we could do to create more word of mouth buzz for our blogs (or, companies). I was intrigued by the list, thinking of what I could do for JibberJobber, when he ended with a simple idea. He said something like:

and if you try all of these, and can’t figure out what else to do, find a brand that is getting a lot of buzz and figure out how to attach yourself to it!

Now writing my book become more about marketing JibberJobber (I could create buzz by associating myself with LinkedIn??) than with making a few bucks on each book sale. And I was all about figuring out how to market JibberJobber.

So I buckled down and finished my book. I put stuff (like, e-mail!) on hold. I had a self-imposed deadline, which I hit.

And I was absolutely amazed by what happened after that.

All the places I wished would write about JibberJobber were now contacting me. Not because of JibberJobber, the coolest thing to hit the career space since (fill in the blank), but because of a 124 page book on getting value out of LinkedIn.

In the past few months I have been interviewed by Money Magazine, CIO, the New York Times, Wired Magazine, US News & World Report, and many others.

Has it benefitted JibberJobber? Absolutely, because in those articles I’m quoted as “Jason Alba, CEO of JibberJobber.com and author of …“

Andy Sernovitz was right - associating myself with a brand that was getting buzz helped my own brand get buzz!

This directly relates to your personal brand. You are a subject matter expert (SME), aren’t you?

Don’t you know enough about your field to be considered an expert? Whether that is finance, marketing, cleaning, managing, strategizing, project managing, etc. you are an SME. Guess what, nobody knows, or cares about, your expertise. They are all looking at the thought leaders for new and exciting stuff in your field.

Know how the thought leader got to be a thought leader? I bet it’s because they wrote a book.

And you can write a book too. In fact, if you are serious about your career path, and you are serious about your personal brand, you should seriously consider writing a book.

Tomorrow I have my first CEO Training session on writing a book. I’m really excited about this CEO Training. Many who buy the CEO Training webinar (the recording only works on a PC, not a Mac - sorry :() don’t come to the live session, but if you come to the live session you get to ask your specific questions.

I will share with you my thoughts and ideas on how to get started, how to move through the process of writing a book, getting it published, marketing your book, and getting media value out of it. I haven’t finished the presentation yet, but I’m shooting to have about 60 to 90 minutes of content.

If you are interested, head on over to the CEO Training website. If you are a JibberJobber premium subscriber make sure you login first, so you can get your discount.

Finally, I have already sent out a number of copies of Hands-on LinkedIn, and Blog Marketing 201 - 501 (2 hours!), which are two other sessions in this series. If you are interested in those you can find info to purchase them on the CEO Training site.

The last few weeks we’ve spent quite a bit of time on my re-branding… I hope to wrap this up and bring a message back to you.

It’s no secret that I’m big on personal branding. I love personal branding. Why? Because with a strong, or appropriate, personal brand you can create pull-marketing, rather than push-marketing.

When I was in my job search I was a nobody. I was cliche, a commodity, a dime-a-dozen. No one had heard of me, and I was a perceived expert in … nothing.

I knew that I had expertise, and could bring value to the equation, but nobody knew that, nor did they know me. My job search was a lot of push-marketing, and it was painful.

The power of a personal brand changes all of that. Create your personal brand, be on-brand, let your brand permeate your market, and you’ll see pull-marketing. People will call you and want to get to know you better. Your job search will be completely different (be aware, this doesn’t happen overnight!).

In my JibberJobber re-branding exercise I’ve been amazed at the feedback. Not only have the votes and comments been powerful, I’ve received a lot of advice outside of the Survey Monkey poll (hey, one more day to vote - go do it now!).

How would YOU do the same thing for YOUR brand? A lot of times, in order to figure out what our brand is or could or should be it’s helpful to understand how we are perceived. This has been huge for me, and it could be huge for you.

It’s actually quite easy. There’s a company called Reach Communications Consulting, which helps professionals like you develop and execute your own personal branding strategy. One of the tools they offer is a 360 Personal Branding Assessment. For less than $30 you sign up and get started. The idea is many of your professional contacts get a survey about YOU, and they anonymously enter their thoughts on who you are… helping you understand how you are perceived.

Maybe you think you are a hotshot, CEO-type that excels in strategic planning and motivating the worker-bees.

And then you get your Reach 360 feedback and learn that most people think you are more reserved, very logical and detail oriented - perhaps you are better suited for a Project Management role right now.

Just knowing that empowers you to make a better decision for your career path, or can encourage you to get better training and mentoring to become that motivating CEO.

There’s power in knowing how you are perceived. If this is interesting to you, I encourage you to check out the Reach 360 program. Again, it’s less than $30. If you need help there are over 200 certified personal branding strategists in 21 countries who can help you. My JibberJobber partners who are certified can be found on my career expert partner page. The partners who are sponsoring this contest who are also Reach Personal Branding Strategists are:

• Deb Dib
• Walter Akana
• Megan Fitzgerald

If you do it, let me know how it goes! I think it’s a great investment!

Today I’m announce a new, special part of the JibberJobber offerings. I’m a firm believer in You, Inc. and the care that we all need to take with our own career management. You are the CEO of You, Inc. and I want to help with your training and continuing education.

Over the last two years I’ve learned a lot. None of it has really come easy, but I tell people “you can do a lot with fourteen hour days!” Whether you are busy with a job search, your family or your job, you probably don’t have the luxury of spending as much time as I have learning things the hard way.

I’m now ready to share certain topics with you - topics that I’ve been sharing in webinars with various associations and organizations. These webinars are meant to help you cut through the fluff and walk away with knowledge and tools.

Each of the webinars will be $49.95 per person (or $24.95 per person, if you have a one-year-or-more premium upgrade). You can get more details on this page. Here is the schedule of webinar presentations through June:

Blog Marketing 201 - 501

February 14 1pm MST
February 26 6pm MST

Hands on LinkedIn

March 6 1pm MST
March 18 6pm MST

Write your Book!

April 3 1pm MST
April 21 6pm MST

Hands on Facebook

May 8 1pm MST
May 20 6pm MST

LinkedIn for Companies

June 5 1pm MST
June 17 6pm MST

For detailed information, or to sign up for a webinar, click here. If you have any questions please let me know.