I have come across another excellent posting from Ecademy co-founder – Penny Power. Be sure to view the source if you are looking for more articles like this one:
You are your greatest asset, not your experiences, not your CV, not your qualifications. Of course all these things are important, and you and your candidates are judged by these in order to get an interview. However consider that it is also your values, your thoughts, your opinions and your network that also makes you attractive.
The 20th century was focused on employment and ‘human capital’. Achieving education and experience to make you more attractive and valuable to a prospective employer. The 21st century is seeing a new personal ‘capital’ emerge and that is your ‘social capital’.
Social capital is becoming increasingly critical to your brand as you are being ‘Googled’. Your ability to have conversations online, write blogs, have a sizeable online business network and show clarity in the noise you make online is a further way for you to show that you have value to a company and can contribute to it’s success. Businesses are confused by Social networking. “Do we like them or not?” is something I hear a great deal.
Companies like social networking tools if they help them build business; they don’t like them if they are a distraction to the workforce. Here is a step-by-step process that provides a positive view of why social networks are critical to the development of you.
1. Don’t just belong to Facebook or myspace — ensure that you join social business networks like Twitter and Ecademy and take time writing your profile about YOU, what you stand for, what you care about, what you love about the skills you have chosen to develop.
2. Be visible online in your own right. Start your own blog on WordPress or Blogger, or blog inside communities like Ecademy, and begin to form a brand around who you are and what you contribute. If you are in sales, marketing, research, finance, operations — whatever your skill is — write about that skill and why it matters to you and business.
3. Build a strong business network of people that Know, Like and want to Follow you. Show potential employers that you are coming to them with a network of people who respect you and will respect the company you work for.
4. Learn how to leverage Twitter to be associated with the right conversations. Twitter is fast becoming a ‘search engine for conversations’, what is your conversation online, what do you stand for?
5. Build your ‘social capital’ in a positive way, learn from your network online and help them to learn from you. The online world is about sharing knowledge and sharing people and the more you share the more you increase your value to others.
6. Manage your reputation online as it is your legacy and your future provider. The Facebook generation, the teenagers of today, are building social capital from less than 12 years old. They are open, random and supportive in their philosophy online and look to help a friend not sell. Ensure you are learning this new world before they join the employment market with much more than purely ‘human capital’ to offer.
7. Use the online world as a conversational tool, not just as a directory of names or a broadcasting medium.
8. Spend time on your personal brand, think about who you are, what you offer others, where your true value is, how you want to be known, what ‘noise’ you want to make online. How are you found when your name is ‘Googled’?.
9. Have a good photo of you online that you use on all the networks — LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Ecademy. Your face is your brand, make sure it reflects the friendly business side of you.
10. Remember that these new world are called ‘social’ for a reason. Be a friend online, don’t just broadcast. Take time to get to know, like and trust others and they in turn will chose to trust and follow you.
There is a wind of change happening that everyone needs to learn and leverage. The online world is low cost, global, viral and exciting. It offers businesses the opportunity to be known and trusted and it offers individuals the opportunity to build their own brand. Build your brand so that you are attractive to others, focus on your social capital, and watch the opportunities and conversations emerge.
Penny Power is the founder of Ecademy — a social networking site forbusiness, a regular commentator on social networking and author of several books, including ‘Know Me, Like Me, Follow Me’.
