Recruiting.com

As you all probably know already, I’m highly connected on the career front.  Recently, I crossed paths with the Bonnie and Clyde of the career world.  Bonnie and Clyde were notorious outlaws, robbers and criminals during the great depression.  Back then, they were publicity superstars, appearing just about everywhere.  J.T. O’Donnell and Dale Dauten, may not be criminals, but they are journalists who appear just about everywhere as well.

Pamela Skillings is an author, journalist, blogger and entrepreneur who spent twelve years working as a marketing executive for major New York companies. In 2004, she realized that corporate life wasn’t working for her anymore. By 2005, she left the world of steady paychecks and free office supplies to launch her own company. She met other people like herself and decided to write a book capturing her experience and advice to help others make this big leap. Along the way, she married Alex Andrei, who is one of the best PR people I’ve ever received an email from, yet that’s not his day job. I get approximately 5 pitches a day and Alex’s stood out because he told me who he was, who he was representing (in this case his wife) and that she needed help. I received a review copy in the mail (me holding it on the left) and started reading. Those of you who purchase the book, you will be receiving the bright yellow copy on the right. Below is my interview with the fabulous Pamela.

Out of everything I’ve learning on my personal branding journey, the Theory of eBrand Attraction is one of the most significant. I say this because the whole idea of eBranding is to expose exactly who you are, in a very authentic way, to the world. When this occurs, there are those that are attracted to your brand and others that are repelled. For you, this is really important because websites and blogs are “people filters.”

Here is my TheLadders.com column for this month:

In 2005, Jeff Jarvis made every company think twice about customer service and brand management with his famous “DELL Hell” blog post. In his blog post he stated “I just got a new DELL laptop…the machine is a lemon and the service is a lie.” It is now 2008 and the conversation has been buried inside the social media playground, where citizen journalists carry a company’s reputation, more than any CMO, and customer service influences brand reputation more than ever. A recent survey by the Society for New Communications Research shows that almost 60% of participants view social media as a place to vent about customer support experiences. Although most CMOs would view this as a threat, the report also explains how 81% view blogs, online rating systems and discussion forums as places where customers gain a greater voice.

Today I want to talk about endorsements. In my opinion, this is one of the more important posts on this blog because, at the end of the day, endorsements are currency. Most people don’t start off trusting your brand, but everyone has at least one person that they do trust. In order to alleviate a potential customer or employer’s potential fear that you may not be the right candidate for the job, an endorsement is a pacifier. At the same time, an endorsement puts someone else’s name on the line, so if someone is willing to back you up, you better deliver on that promise because it’s a reflection on them.

There are two perspectives on personal branding and today I want to highlight the corporate view. The non-bias way to do that is to let someone else introduce it and Rand Fishkin is the chosen one. Rand is the CEO & Founder of SEOmoz.org and is a well-known SEO speaker and expert. He recently released a podcast with his 50-foot view of personal branding, relative to corporate branding and share’s some interesting insights that many of you might not be aware of or overlook. Enjoy the below podcast!

I recently had the privilege of speaking to Alexandra Levit, who is undoubtedly a career queen in the traditional and new media streams. She just sent me her book, entitled “How’d You Score That Gig?“, which helps you learn more about yourself and about the coolest careers available today. She’s done the research, is the expert and this book tells all. Alexandra is the founder and president of Inspiration @Work, a career consulting firm. She is a blogger for The Huffington Post, which is rated as the #1 blog in the world by Technorati and has her own blog as well. Below is our interview and have a great weekend!

This week has already been amazing because I’ve finally gotten to posts that were in the queue for months. My last few posts have helped you understand the importance of reputation management to secure your brand and how to leverage various media types to get your message across. Today, I want to talk about how to craft a consistent brand image across all social networks. This is timely because I switched my profile picture and avatar across all my networks within the past 24 hours, which you’ve probably already noticed.

There has been much debate in the blogosphere about Seth Godin’s Twitter account. He never registered his name on Twitter and someone took it. This individual used his avatar, information and actually tweeted using this account. Fake Seth now has 4,375 followers and has sent 476 updates. Luckily for Seth, he blogged about this and the person who owns the Twitter account has only syndicated his blog, rather than torture his brand by misrepresentation. I’ve also seen fake Chris Brogan accounts and a few other “internet celebrities” being taken on Facebook. Truth be told, many of these individuals don’t seem to care because they are so high above the status quo that they feel their reputation can’t be burst into oblivion. Some may register their domain names, while others may forget to sign-up for the top social networks. Today’s post will tell you how to protect and secure your name, so you don’t suffer later.

As a blog owner, podcaster, magazine publisher and soon to be book author, I’ve learned a lot about media creation, distribution, marketing and branding. Today I would like to discuss differences, benefits and how to build and market each type. I firmly believe that various media supports each other and that with the proper combination, you can be successful in reaching your audience and making a positive impact. I will compare each to a type of television: basic, cable and ppv.

False! Personal branding is not about you, it’s about everyone else. This post is required reading for everyone who believes that myth.

Now that’s a headline to get excited about. Although I cannot provide all the answers in a single post, Shawn Graham’s new book “Courting Your Career” may help you. The same dating game that we all go through is similar to our job search. For you to stay at a company for over a year, there needs to be some kind of match.

Today, I wanted to discuss how different generations communicate. The more you understand how to reach people properly, the more successful you will be with responses. Imagine yourself as the receiver before you send messages. This discussion will wrap around new and traditional methods of communication and serve as a resource for you, prior to engaging in conversation or sending a message to another person.

Within 24 hours, I’ve been given the impression that college students ask for jobs from alumni, without trying to start a relationship or at least network. I just got through speaking with one of my friends who is a freshman in college and we have a networking event today for our fraternity and he goes “its not gonna matter for me cuz no 1 looks for a frosh for a job or internship.”

In light of the launch of the sample of issue 4, I would like to hold a contest. The sample issue has been made available since Monday and you can download it for free. There are only 5 articles and if you want to quench your thirst for personal branding, you have to purchase the full subscription for $12.95 on the main website.

Volume 1 Issue 4 ends the first full volume of Personal Branding Magazine. As personal branding becomes the differentiator for career development, many new channels have opened up and the internet is a recruiting stomping ground for all those who leverage it’s power. Between hiring candidates by viewing video resumes, employer brand websites, and even job aggregators, the times have changed and we must be ready.

Typically, I leave breaking news about social networks to my peers. Nick O’Neill is world renowned for covering this space (Update - Nick found out about this 3 weeks ago), so I hope he doesn’t mind. I went into my Facebook account tonight and saw that the IM functionality was already in place. I asked 10 of my friends if they could view the IM feature on their screens and they said no. I am one of the first beta testers of this instant messaging feature. We are all used to AOL Instant Messenger or Yahoo’s Messenger, but Facebook already had our attention. Would you use this new feature or are you going to stick to your guns? Facebook uses this integrated approach to make you spend more time on their website, thus they can claim better statistics and get more advertising money or funding.

I get a lot of books by authors looking to promote on my blog. Sometimes I receive press releases, or a PR person contacts me without being authentic. When an author contacts me directly, with a personalized message, then I take more interest, especially when they send me a copy of their book (see right). I will discuss how to pitch a blogger/magazine publisher in the future, but today, it brings me great pleasure to endorse my friend’s book.

This will be the last “personal brand stereotypes” post I do for a while, to make room for all the other special content I have lined up for all of you. I was thinking about doing a Greek stereotype post (fraternities and sororities) or a racial stereotype post (Black or Asian people), but today I wanted to focus on the workplace. I want to start a discussion around how people are perceived when they enter the workforce because of an executive referral. From my research, I haven’t seen anyone touch on this issue and I think a lot of people get jobs because of it.

Gretchen Neels is the president of Neels & Company. Her company is the leading provider of soft skills training to professional services firms, covering all areas of business communications. Gretchen has over ten years of experience recruiting and retaining top talent at a number of prestigious professional services firms, including Bain & Company, Bank of America and Gordon Brothers.