donnerwheelerconnect
Fall 2009
Marketing Yourself-Online
We are all connected digitally though such tools as e-mail, websites, facebook, twitter, blogs etc. yet the boundaries between personal and professional social networks are sometimes blurred. It has been estimated that 70% of potential employers are using Google to learn what potential employees have posted online about themselves.
We have provided tips in past newsletters on how to market yourself in person and on paper. For this newsletter we turned to our Associate, Chris Kebbel, who leads the technology component of our business for some advice on how to market yourself online. Here is what he has to say.
"Creating and maintaining social networks has in many ways become easier in today's world. The medium may have changed but much of the message remains similar. E-mail, your own website and all of the social media tools available online help you maintain and create social networks. The internet is helping create the reputation economy, ideas of branding and marketing previously reserved for big companies are now being pushed down to individuals. It is a tremendously powerful tool.
Be aware of your online footprint. Everyone now has left footprints on the internet, a post on a discussion forum, an e-mail to a group of friends, or a picture on an online picture sharing site. Somebody searching for information about you can usually find out a great deal about you and not all of it may be something you'd like to share. There are wonderful tools available for communicating, but be aware that somebody looking at these may not know or appreciate the context of the content. I'm not suggesting you avoid these tools -- but only that you be smart about them. Whatever information you discovered, can also be seen by potential employers, professional colleagues and those who are strangers.
Remember you can't control everything that gets onto the internet about you. Once something is on the internet, in most circumstances it can't be taken back. You can control what you continue to put on the internet about yourself now and in the future. "
Here are some tips:
- take advantage of this new medium
- if you don't know how, get some help from someone who does
- know what is private and public on these tools
- know what is online about you. Do a search of your own name on popular search engines. What comes up?
- if you are not pleased with what you find, don't despair and don't stop using these tools. Make sure the positive overrides the perceived negative.
What's New with donnerwheeler
We also are responding to the challenge of using the online medium to market our expertise.
- Mary was recently interviewed for the International Coach Federation online newsletter Coaching World. (http://www.coachfederation.org/includes/docs/November09.pdf)
- We are currently designing an online career toolkit targeted to leaders for a healthcare organization.
- We are in discussions with an international organization to design an online career development program for students.
- In 2010 we will be offering Career Directions©-Online to individuals and a podcast to complement our quarterly newsletter.