Social Media School

Buzzle and the team for Local Man in a Van have come together to sponsor and organise an event to help people get the most out of social media!

Social Media School will  commence on Saturday the 10th October, and running from 9-11am every Saturday until October 31st, Social Media School will provide answers on;

• What is social media
• Why is social media important
• Case studies of social media success

Along with providing an overview of the key social media tools, all ’students’ will be shown how to register, and get the most out of social media tools such as;

• Twitter
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• YouTube, and
• Posterous

The cost for the 4 week course is $395 – and this includes all course materials and instruction.

Register here and come along or tell your friends about our course they can come along and learn and have some fun!

Tags:Facebook, LinkedIn, posterous, Social Media, twitter, YouTube
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JobCAMP WIN a Personal Brand Campaign

What a great initiative!

Adam Shay and the team at The Face came up with the idea to award a lucky winner at JobCAMP a Personal Brand Campaign.

Effectively, the winner was to be interviewed by The Face creative team, and an advertisement was to be created and run in the Sydney Morning Herald and My Career!

Well, Colleen Chan (check her out here on LinkedIn) was the lucky winner…and the team at The Face created a fantastic campaign Check with Chan!

The campaign focused on Colleen’s skills, talents and unique traits to develop a catchy campaign that has already caught the attention of a potential employer!

This was such a simple but effective campaign – that has already landed Colleen a job interview!

JobCAMP was thankful to have great support form MyCareer and The Face to make this all possible…

Most importantly, this exercise should demonstrate one of the many different ways to promote your personal brand and stand out from the crowd.  This campaign was made all the more effective and compelling because The Face took the time to understand Colleen’s personal brand attributes…something you should do yourself!

We look forward to hearing more about the outcome from this campaign and wish Colleen the very best in her job search ventures!

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Is Twitter just a Fad?

We hear this a lot lately…that social media and Twitter are just a fad!

It was MySpace, LinkedIn, and then Facebook, and now Twitter is just the new thing on the block.

What do you think?

We have been using twitter for some time now, and have amassed quite a following.  We have used it to source new business, seek skills, and share news on events like JobCAMP and our workshops.

Something that needs to be understood is that there are over 2,000 different social networking tools, and new ones starting every day.  

But central to every one of these tools is the fact that ‘people like to connect!’  

People wanting to connect is NOT a FAD!

Our good friend Iggy Pintado recently published his book The Connection Generation which is an excellent overview of the importance and relevance of connection…and how tools like Twitter are making it easier to ‘connect’ and genuinely get to know other people!

So why is connection so important?  A lot of this has to do with the increasing complexity of our lives, and we also believe it has plenty to do with people’s need to be recognised, acknowledged and heard!  With an increase in social media, the internet and the media in general, we have all become a little more ‘anonymous’ 

This anonymity has driven our basic need to stand out and to be heard…and connecting with other people and being listened to is what is driving social media and tools like Twitter and Facebook.

If you think Twitter is a fad, then maybe being anonymous, not listening to other people and becoming insignificant in a fast paced world is also a fad?

If we want to see the demise of social media and tools that connect one another, then we need to start connectng in other ways and listening to one another and taking the time to take an interest in others?

Now that sounds like a fad worth starting!

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Tags:buzzle, Facebook, iggy pintado, LinkedIn, luke harvey-palmer, Social Media, Social network, twitter
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Your Virtual Identity

In a job market as difficult as this one, personal branding can really make a difference. NY1’s Monica Brown filed the following report.

IT recruiter Eric Wallen says he’s never seen a job market like this one.

“If you had someone with very outstanding technical skills, in high demand, you wouldn’t let that person sit out there for other employers to gobble up,” says Wallen, president of Primary Search Management. “Now employers don’t have a problem doing that because they know that there are other people out there in the market, and they don’t feel compelled to have to grab that person up.”

Competition is fierce, and employers are being ultra-selective. So how do you make yourself stand out from the pack? William Arruda, who owns a personal branding company called Reach, says you have to market yourself as a hot commodity.

“One critical factor is how you show up in Google,” says Arruda. “In the new world of work, what hiring managers and recruiters are using is your Google identity to determine if they want to bring you in or not. So you want to make sure you Google yourself and see what’s there.”

According to Arruda, if you don’t show up in Google, you virtually don’t exist. The key, says Arruda, is to first understand your brand and what it is that makes you exceptional.

“Know what makes you different,” he says. “So there’s a great exercise you can do called same, different. Think about everyone else who’s applying for the same jobs you are. Take a sheet of paper, write same on the left, different on the right draw a line down the center and just start writing the same things about you and everyone else who’s applying for that job. And the things that make you stand out, maybe you speak three languages, or you’ve lived in five countries.”

“Then, ask yourself, now how do I make my career marketing materials, my resume, my bio, communicate that value,” continues Arruda.

Arruda says personal branding can be expensive. Prices at his company range from $12,000 to $40,000. But, he also says there are some relatively inexpensive ways to market yourself – and the Internet is the key.

“It doesn’t mean you have to have your own website,” Arruda says. “You don’t have to spend a lot of money to do it, just commenting on blogs and including your name is a way to build your online identity. A quick review of a book at Amazon.com is another great way to build your brand.”

Just make sure it’s a title you’d want to be associated with, Arruda says.

Finally, Arruda says, a powerfully-branded profile on networking sites like LinkedIn, can really go a long way toward establishing your identity. For a free assessment and for more resources, go to reachcc.com.

The Buzzle YOU.com programme can help you with this…

Tags:Brand, Google, LinkedIn, Personal Brand, Website, you.com
Posted in Social Media | No Comments »

Battle of the Brands

We always find David Armano’s work compelling and on the money when it comes to conversations and thinking about BRAND.

His recent post on his personal blog – Battle of the Brands is so topical right now, and I wanted to pick up on some of the concepts raised here.

David writes about the increase in employed, often senior people spending more and more time on social media and creating and communicationg their own ‘personal brand’ through channels such as twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and their own blogs…and what this means to ‘The Corporation’ and Corporate Brands; hence the Battle of the Brands.

David speaks in detail about the examnple of Scott Monty; who is a pretty well regarded Social Media junkie, who has built a very distinct personal brand online through the use of social media and commentary via his blog.  Scott has also recently been hired by Ford.  So where to from here?

Scott Monty has received plenty of criticism, and many of his followers or audience have asked “how can Scott remain transparent, and how can Ford let him continue to promote himself over and above Ford?”  Scott speaks about his role and ‘his brand’ as it applies to the Ford ‘brand’ in this video and he explains;

“We’re not interested in advertising on social networks—we’re interested in getting in there and interacting with people”

 

And if Corporations are simply a collection of people and individuals, then isn’t this what Corporations should be all about – interacting and engaging with people?

This intrigues us at Buzzle…and is central to our belief that EVERYONE in an organisation is and needs to be a MARKETER!

Given the recent turn of events, prospects and customers alike demand more human and personal interactions – it is the human elements of your brand that will endear yor corporation or organisation to your prospects and clients.

David Armano invented the term brandividuals which goes part way to explain the connection between the individuals and the corporations and organisations they work for.  We call this the Connected Brand and mostly see good from this notion; more people will bring meaning to their work, organisations will recruit more purposefully, and customers will be served by employees who CARE about what they do and what they represent!

For organisations – this is our point…EVERYONE in your organisation is a MARKETER.  If your customers or prospects don’t know, like or understand your people, then you will have NO chance of them knowing, liking or understanding your organisations (i.e. engaging with them).

We talk about the ‘Rules of Engagement” in the Corporation 2.0

• Communicating (listening and talking),
• Inspiring (energising, involving),
• Supporting, and
• Engaging

The Scott Monty example is the tip of the iceberg…organisations who recognise that people have an identity and a network outside of work which they engage with, and that these very same people are prospects and customers will prosper in the coming years.  Those organisations that believe they own the individual and that only work related networks are of any value may find the current climate a little testing…now is the time for these organisations to ask themselves ‘WHAT ARE WE SELLING?” 

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Tags:David Armano, Facebook, Ford Motor Company, LinkedIn, Scott Monty, Social network
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Do you need more prospects right now?

There is that magical formula again..the power of 3!

We have all heard the notion of the 6 degrees of separation?  The definition as explained by Wikipedia is;

Six degrees of separation (also referred to as the “Human Web”) refers to the idea that, if a person is one step away from each person they know and two steps away from each person who is known by one of the people they know, then everyone is no more than six “steps” away from each person on Earth.

Recently, Harvard University finalised a piece of research (covered here in the Harvard Business Review, and the article The Dynamics of Personal Influence)  that suggests that people are only influenced by those who are 3 degrees away?

The article quotes;

“… a person’s influence progressively diminishes as the degrees of separation increase. For example, the risk for smoking in a person connected to a smoker (that is, at one degree of separation) is 61% higher, on average, than would be expected as a result of chance. It is 29% higher if the friends of that person’s friends smoke, and 11% higher if the friends of the person’s friends’ friends smoke. By the fourth degree of separation there is no longer an increase in risk.”

What does that mean for your personal brand, and your marketing efforts?

“Efforts to foster creativity or innovation might depend on the degree of separation of the relevant parties. And groups of customers – including customers who have online connections – might be strategically targeted so as to take advantage of their influence on one another.”

Is this really that surprising?  This research just confirms what we have always known at Buzzle…that people buy people, and the more people know about you (and like) the more likely you are to influence them, persuade them, or meet their needs; in other words SELL.  

The opportunity for you is to think about those you are connected to; or 3 steps away from you, who know you and what you stand for?  Do they know you at all, and if they do, how close is your relationship with these people?  This should form the basis of an extremely effective networking plan for you (online or offline);

• Who is 3 steps away from you,
• How do you access these people,
• What is your message for approaching these people in the first instance?
• What is it you are going to do to develop a relationship with these people?
• What are you selling?

How targeted is your networking? How great are you (and your people) at seeking out and developing new relationships? How much do you use LinkedIn, ecademy, Facebook or other social networking sites to connect with these people? How many potential prospects are there in your 3 degrees of seperation (if every person knows 250 people, then I guess this is 250 to the power of 3!)

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Tags:buzzle, Creativity, Facebook, Harvard University, LinkedIn, networking, Personal Brand, personal branding, Six degrees of separation, Social network, Wikipedia
Posted in Entrepreneurs, Leadership | No Comments »

You 2.0

Dan Schawbel has recently finished his book “Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success”

Given the title of the book, I wanted to explain what this means for YOU 2.0.

We have all heard of Web 2.0, and we all know the 2.0 stands for the 2nd version of the web right?  WRONG.  This is part of the story, but the interesting thing to know is that the 2.0 also means there are now 2 people in the conversation.  Web 1.0 was all about direct advertising, and pushing messages at you with little engagement or consultation.  As consumers, we now demand more than this, we want to be engaged, involved, listened to, and asked of our opinion.  Web 2.0 is all about the online tools that allow for this interaction – like Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter and blogging!  Media now needs to engage others, and involve them in the conversation…if you doubt this, just spend a moment to reflect on Barack Obama’s recent successful Presidential Campaign!

So what does this mean for YOU 2.0?

Not only does the media need to reflect the values of Web 2.0, but so too does your personal brand!  Like any successful web 2.0 and Social Media campaign, you should be considering how your personal brand delivers on the four essential stages of the 2.0 world!

1.  LISTENING – what are your target audience talking about, and what are they demanding from your personal brand.  Do they need you to be available or knowledgeable or to simply respond when they ask a question…either way, you need to be listening to you target audience (this is difficult if you do not know who you target audience is!)

2.  TALKING – do you encourage conversation about your skills, talents, products or services..what are you selling?  How do you encourage this conversation.  Do you take 2 or 3 customers to lunch on a monthly basis, do you introduce your network to one another?  You know your personal brand is powerful when others do the selling for you!

3.  INVOLVING - when was the last time you asked a customer or prospect for feedback on your services and your brand attributes?  When was the last time you asked friends or colleagues to explain you in 3 words or less.  If you ask for this feedback, be sure to thank them for it, and then demonstrate how you have taken this feedback on board.

4.  SUPPORTING – you know your personal brand is super effective when your prospects and customers are now solving one another’s problems, and speaking to one another about your services in a positive light!

5.  ENGAGING – the final stage in the YOU 2.0 process is the engagement of your target audience in the process of product and strategy development.  Who developed your last product or service..your customers or you?

So, how are you going to start listening to your target audience?  Think about these 5 steps and how you can integrate them into you business or life.  You can be assured that by following these 5 steps, you will find your personal brand will engage others, and draw them to you.

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Tags:Barack Obama, Dan Schawbel, Facebook, LinkedIn, Social Media, Web 2.0
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