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High $ + High IP = Strategy, Low $ + Generic Offerings = Tactics

Usually this formula applies. I jotted it down in my Moleskine after a conversation the other day with Robert Lavigne, The Social Business Mentor. it was a very clarifying conversation.   Then it occurred to me that other people might benefit from Robert’s ability to really quickly distill what is being discussed in to clarity, direction and action.  I like conversations with Robert because they are interesting, his questions are… Read More »High $ + High IP = Strategy, Low $ + Generic Offerings = Tactics

Does Your Business Have Klout?

Someone quoted the other day that the amount of information being generated each day is greater than the last several thousand years combined! Regardless of whether that is true or not, the biggest challenge for all of us is finding the time to seek out the relevant information and consume it. This is why services such as Klout are becoming increasingly popular and they represent a great opportunity for your… Read More »Does Your Business Have Klout?

You Gotta Give Before You Can Ask

This is the core message of Gary Vaynerchuk’s latest book Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook – How To Tell Your Story in a Noisy, Social World.   Although the book is referring to business brands and marketing, the tactics and approach can be applied equally to your own personal brand. either way ignore this book at your peril! Here is my recent quick Amazon.ca review; @GaryVee has done it again… Read More »You Gotta Give Before You Can Ask

Do You Make This Profile Damaging Mistake on LinkedIn?

Some of the top professionals and career experts on LinkedIn are making a very basic and in many cases obvious mistake with their profiles. The danger for all of us is if this continues, LinkedIn becomes more of a flea market than a professional network.

Martha Amanda Pamela Ninja AmeliaDebra

But you might be doing the same, without knowing. This collection of well taken headshots are all purported to be of various professionals on LinkedIn. One of them even recently reached out to me to make a connection. But I noticed that her image had a watermark from one of the stockphoto services which immediately made me suspicious.

I uploaded their image to Google Image Search and discovered the same image was available for purchase on Shutterstock and 123RoyaltyFree as well as being used on a national women’s association website and in an industry magazine. She was also used on more than one LinkedIn profile.

Usually when receiving a new request for a connection I do not immediately recognise I look to see who else in my network might know them. Considering other perspectives I wondered if this was this being done out of a desire for some level of privacy? Or was my instinct correct, were there other phantom profiles?  Sure enough I started to find some of Amanda’s ‘friends’.

What was even more shocking was how many leading career experts and professional ‘gurus’ (some even networking and social media experts) had these types of profiles as 1st level connections. How was this so?  Maybe it was a…….

Read More »Do You Make This Profile Damaging Mistake on LinkedIn?

How to build your personal brand using social media

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This past week I attended a webinar by Chris Brogan, author of a great book with Julien Smith called 'Trust Agents' and Lewis Howes an expert on webinars. There were three good take aways for me as a small business owner, especially with regards to Google+ which had given up on. I summarised them in a short video that you can watch here. (Apologies the weather was so nice I… Read More »How to build your personal brand using social media

And the award goes to……….

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So let me get clear on this…….it is personal branders who are narcissists – right? Maybe its just me, or maybe it's because it is awards season, but there seems to be an increase in the number of self congratulations flying around from 'gurus' -  several recent examples spring to mind: – The marketing expert that continues to decry all other forms of marketing other than their own and then litters their stream with self… Read More »And the award goes to……….

STOP your social media branding

 Last week I was delivering a workshop to a group of senior professionals and executives who had been let go by their previous companies, many of them after one or two decades or more of service.  One of them observed that with the advent of social media, in particular LinkedIn, it highlighted for him how important networking was in the job search process. It also equally was observed by another… Read More »STOP your social media branding

How do you communicate your personal brand via social media?

  In several discussions with clients recently, the whole area of social media and how they should be thinking about their personal brands has come up. At a recent presentation by Kevin Durkee of The Jet Star Group, he talked about the fact that the use of social media is "a conversation happening at the speed of light. Also he outlined 20 tips for companies to consider when communicating their brand via… Read More »How do you communicate your personal brand via social media?

I Can See Clearly Now The Cloud is Gone!

Getting clear on your personal brand is about as easy as trying to get a flight out of Western Europe at the moment! And like getting up in the air too soon, jumping in to communicating and publishing your personal brand online could mean that your brand ends up spluttering a little, not performing optimally or at worst causing you to stop all together and come tumbling back down to… Read More »I Can See Clearly Now The Cloud is Gone!

Mitch Joel at The Art of Management

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I had just finished reading Mitch Joel's new book before coming to his talk at The Art of Management recently, so was very pumped to see him present. He and I had the opportunity of meeting a few years ago in Montreal and have kept in touch , particularly around the subject of personal branding. Here are some of his thoughts: Compared to 2007, banner ads are being clicked on 50%… Read More »Mitch Joel at The Art of Management