November 2006 “You Get It” Award goes to… Heather Henricks!!!
November 30th, 2006This month I got a number of submissions, some of which I’m holding for future months, but I wanted to recognize Heather Henricks’ site this month. It is quite different than the past winners, and I’ve been thinking about those differences for quite a while! But in going over Heather’s site I’m convinced that this is an excellent model for anyone to help them substantiate their personal brand.
It should be noted that this is a site that (a) was not created from a simple template like what a blog platform would offer, and (b) she actually worked with a personal branding company (Brandego) to get this done. More on Brandego later. Let’s check out some of the things I liked (in no particular order):
- Testimonials from coworkers – hey, why put something like “references available on request” when you can plug in a concise quote from someone that supports how great I am? This is a nice touch, and the formatting is very classy.
- Choice of verbage increases her value way over what a resume could do – “Heather was recruited from PayScale” (sounds prestigous), “recruitment by Microsoft’s MSN Gaming Zone” (not only an awesome company but an awesome division!), “the keen ability to translate consumer research in a way that resonates with internal stakeholders” (so she’ll care about me, as an internal stakeholder, if I hire her) – this isn’t stuff that doesn’t belong in a resume, but there is so much, and it flows so well, that it is… different.
- Pictures bring her down to earth and share her personality – her with dog, her with bike, by the lake, etc. This is a cool, relaxed, adventurous person, and I can tell she has work-life balance (whatever that means :))
- colors are warm and inviting, relaxing – coming from a guy that doesn’t know much about colors, that’s all the color-analysis you’ll get from me
- navigation is very simple to follow – if I’m the hiring manager I see exactly what I want to see – about, strengths, career highlights (that doesn’t fit on a blog like it does here)… you can see this in the little image on the top right of this post.
- Outside stuff, like the quote on the Volunteer page isn’t specifically about her, but it resonates the altruistic nature of volunteering – and you can see that she is involved in various organizations. It is nice to have quotes be about a purpose and not all about how great she is.
- Testimonial and images right in her resume – that’s cool and only looks good on the web (wouldn’t look good on paper).
I would really really like to see her blogging, but since she doesn’t have one I’m assuming that perhaps she is just too busy (hm.. so does this mean I’m not too busy 😉). A blog can really help her community and readers understand her breadth and depth, where her mind is at, etc. At the same time, she never has to worry about “open-mouth-insert-foot” like the rest of us bloggers. But she seems so cool that I could see her blogging and sharing more of her personal and professional life like Heather Hamilton over at Microsoft.
Overall, what I see here is a professional site representing a professional person. No comment on whether she is employed or not (I’m guessing she has a job, and is a very active networker), so I’d say that this is an excellent example of creating a personal brand when she doesn’t necessarily need it.
Way to go Heather! You get the cyber-high-five as well as 6 months (that is up from 3 months) of free Premium features in JibberJobber! … and don’t forget that you are linked over on the left, under the “You Get It!” category