And there Bynum was, 8 feet away from the huddle, staring blankly into space while his teammates drew up plays without him.  Andrew Bynum showed the NBA in that instant the he’s not ready to lead a team.

A leader must inspire hope through all odds

The Clippers were down 27 points against the Memphis Grizzlies and made a historic comeback to win game 1 of the playoff series.  After the game, Chris Paul said that he didn’t let the coach pull him out of the game.  He told the coach to give him and the team a chance – there’s always hope for a win.

The Clippers came back and won the game because Chris never lost hope and inspired his team.

Similarly, our valiant CEO and leader Yu-kai Chou inspires us everyday.  When there is news about a competitor getting funding or if we don’t get a client deal, Yu-kai never stresses or falters; instead, he looks us all in the eye and tells us why this is actually good news.  ”A competitor got funded? Well that’s great because it shows we’re in a hot market and other investors will want to jump in.“

Andrew Bynum did not inspire; he kept to himself and showed his teammates that they shouldn’t depend on him.

A leader must stay humble and do what’s best for the team

Before close-out game 5 of the series, Andrew Bynum told the press the following:

“Close out games are actually kind of easy,” Andrew Bynum told reporters this week. “Teams tend to fold if you come out and play hard in the beginning.”

This added fuel to the fire and motivated the Nuggets to win game 5.

As a leader, it’s important to pick your spots and always understand that your competitors are watching every move that you do.  A leader must put aside his personal emotions, feelings, and wants, and always remember to do what’s best for the team.  In this case, the best thing that Andrew could have done was to stay quite and let his game speak for itself.

Instead, he made a brash quote that helped the Nuggets build momentum, carrying them to game 7.

Our company has chosen our PR presence wisely, staying hidden for the past 6 months to test our product and build our case studies.  When we saw our opportunity, we jumped at the chance and took it.  Our competitor received VC funding so we wrote a blog post about how we’re different from our competition.  Because of the post, we set up 3 investor pitches.

A leader demands – he doesn’t wait to receive

It’s true that Andrew Bynum has had many complaints about not getting enough touches or opportunities to score during the game – especially towards crunch time.  But that’s the thing: the way he communicates to teammates (verbally and physically) is through complaints.

A leader doesn’t complain; a leader pulls his teammate aside and tells him directly to pass him the ball in the low post on the next play.  A leader talks to his coach privately, not publicly, to ultimately get the result he wants.

A leader can’t wait outside of the huddle hoping for change, he needs to be in the huddle, listening when appropriate and telling others what needs to get done.

Andrew Bynum’s personal brand in the NBA

Andrew Bynum has the potential to take over the Lakers once Kobe retires.  But if his lack of mental focus and leadership continues, then I doubt that he’ll be able to lead the Lakers once Kobe is gone.  A team needs more than just a dominant force in the paint; a team needs an anchor, a shoulder to lean on when the going get tough.

Kobe was sick – he needed to lean on Bynum to close out the game and take them to Oklahoma City.  Unfortunately, Bynum just doesn’t have it in him yet.

At our company, Yu-kai Chou is the anchor, the shoulder that we can all lean on when the going gets tough.  If there is a client complaint, then Yu-kai steps up and talks to the client personally.  If there is a disagreement in the company, then Yu-kai makes sure that everything is resolved before we move forward and accomplish our tasks.

That is what a great CEO does, and what Bynum needs to learn how to do.

Author:

Jun Loayza is the Co-Founder of RewardMe, a digital rewards program for restaurants and retailers. In his entrepreneurial experience, Jun has sold 2 internet companies and lead social media technology campaigns for Sephora, Whole Foods Market, Levi’s, LG, and Activision. Jun currently lives in Mountain View, CA with his girlfriend and startup team.  On the side, Jun helps his girlfriend maintain an online store for day dresses and women’s apparel.

 When you return from a conference you had been planning for, sorting it all out in an organized, timely process is the key to beginning the conversion from connection to relationship.

I talk a lot about the importance of blending in person networking with social media. Integrating your personal marketing and branding activities. I delivered this very content recently at XPO NYC, the largest B2B conference in the northeast.

There is the planning to go, being there and the follow up, probably the most important way to leverage your RON-return on networking.

The follow-up after a conference

There are 3 important things to consider after going to any in person event but especially bigger conferences.

• prioritize contacts
• customize follow up messages
• timeliness

Here are 8 steps for converting the information and connections into actionable relationships after a big conference.

1) Sort through your cards and the people you met.
Hopefully, every card you got was a person you owned a moment with, or had a meaningful exchange with. I like to write a word or two or note on the card to remind me of what we exchanged.

2) Review all the sessions you attended.
Take the program and review all the sessions you attended and what was presented. Add notes to the notes you actually took during the session while reviewing it.

3) Review all the notes you took.
Go through all your notes and highlight the key ideas from the speakers and that you wrote down.

4) Review the handouts and information you got.
Take the time to review all the handouts, leave behinds, worksheets, post cards you took home with you. Take advantage of any incentives offered to you by the speakers and conference presenters.

5) Prioritize and define who to follow up with and why.
Although we gather cards at these events, prioritizing the warm connections and ones that make the most sense to follow up on should be followed up on first.  Qualify why, and be specific about what you will follow up with them about.

6) Draft a customized follow up letter to each group.
Divide your connections into groups and customize a follow up letter to them, that makes sense and is appropriate for why you should continue. Being thoughtful about this to them will make a big difference. 

7) Invite them to follow up on social media.
This is the bridge that can help you get into people’s communities, stream, conversations and get you started in building commonality. Use LinkedIn as a starting point, add Twitter and then if appropriate Facebook. Comment on their blog, or invite them to yours.

Create a 30 day follow up plan.
For the contacts you make that you want to develop, make a 30 day plan for each person, or the group of contacts that you met. Be consistent, and interact as regularly as possible. Show up, be a part of and join. Relationships don’t happen in a week!

These 8 steps should be started and worked through immediately. The timeliness of follow up is critical. You will want to get back to people while you are both fresh in each others minds.

How do you follow up after a networking event and conference?

Author:

Deborah Shane is an author, media host, speaker, writer and branding strategist. She hosts her Toolbox Blog and is in her third year of hosting a weekly business radio show called Deborah Shane’s Metropolis that has over 32K downloads! She is a regular contributor to several national business, career and marketing blogs and websites. Her new book Career Transition-make the shift is available on Amazon.com and all major book sellers. Deborah delivers smart, no-nonsense ideas and solutions, which make her a popular go-to resource for clients, national media and influential blogs.  Visit her at www.deborahshane.com.

The handshake

Everyone knows the limp fish shake that makes you think the person’s decision-making might be as weak as his handshake. Then there’s the clammy palm creating a discreet, desperate move to wipe your hand on the nearest surface and plot the goodbye handshake escape within the first 10 seconds of hello. And, then, the perfect medium-firm handshake walks through the door and bells ring, butterfly wings flutter, “aha, I’ve been hoping you’d arrive.”

The outfit

Smudged glasses, wrinkled shirt and pants two inches too long make a strong first impression. The few minutes it takes to iron a shirt (or pants) and the $15 investment in nicely tailored pants provide great return on your personal brand and job search. An outfit conveys as much about a person’s professional acumen (e.g. if they care about the attention to detail in their appearance they will care about it with their duties, as it does) as their experience.

The arrival

An unexpected car accident that creates distracting traffic or food poisoning from a bad order of take out the night before; when these things happen the majority of people are understanding. Heavy traffic, inclement weather, poor planning, arriving 5-10-15 minutes late, getting lost; these types of excuses are merely excuses that, with proper planning, can be avoided. If this happens, call at least 15 minutes before your scheduled interview time to advise you’ll be late in order to minimize the damage to both your personal brand and first impression.

From the moment we meet, before a word is spoken, our eyes glance over each other to determine where we file you in our mind. Are you intelligent? Sophisticated? Charismatic? Creative? Mostly, do we ‘fit’ together? Companies and individuals dating are much alike in this way. Go forth and date, I mean, job hunt and prosper.

* Source: Career Sudoku: 9 Ways to Win the Job Search Game

Author:

Adriana Llames is the Division Vice President, Social Media Marketing for Sears Holdings and the acclaimed author of “Career Sudoku: 9 Ways to Win the Job Search Game”. Llames led a boutique career coaching services firm for over a decade and has been featured on ABC, CNNMoney, CBS News and Yahoo! For more information, visit www.adrianallames.com

Its true — and A-Players choose to do this all the time.

After all, what would it be worth to you to be able to get into the inbox of your most-desired mentor? Or the game-changing client? Or your future boss?

Yes, it takes guts to email someone for the first time.
Yes, you need to make sure that your email is well written.
Yes, you need a subject line that absolutely POPS!

But, none of those things matter if you don’t know how to reach your target.

Three strategies that work

There are three extremely effective ways to get someone’s email if you don’t currently know it. Between these three, you can get 95% of people’s email addresses. Seriously.

Strategy One: Tap Your Network

Okay, so this one is kind of obvious. Ask around.

Start on Social Media. Linked In, Facebook and Twitter all have easy ways to determine if you have connections with someone. If so, you’ve got your target — so send a nice, candid email to your mutual contact. Include why you’d like to be connected to their contact and exactly what value you will be able to offer the person.

If you don’t have any luck there, try sending out a semi-mass email to your nearest and dearest with the subject line: Anyone know such and such?

Finally, it can be very effective to send out a handful of more targeted and personal emails to people that you quite as close with (that ex-co-worker who you haven’t spoken with in a year who now works with the person). Yeah, send them an email. Be honest and open about what you want — but be sure to lead with generosity if at all possible!

Step Two: Get-a-Googling

LOTS of people are readily available online. You can find their email addresses on a personal home page, you can find them on twitter and simply introduce yourself. You can send them a message on Linked In. Some people’s emails are even up on their company website. Go internets.

Your list of places to check:

• Google their name. If it is a common name, try adding in their location or expertise to narrow your search. Explore, its great research and may turn up their email!
• Their company site. See if you can find their email, if not theirs, another persons (you’ll see why later)
• Check out social media: where to they have profiles? Where are they active? How do they talk to people in these places? Remember — relationships are not built with one tweet. Introduce yourself and add value to them!

Still can’t find a way to meet them? Don’t worry there is still one more, nearly fail-proof strategy:

Step Three: My favorite — Guess!

If you’ve worked at a company before, or even just sent someone who works at a company an email, you know that they are pretty straight forward email addresses.

So you should go ahead and gasp GUESS!

If you don’t get it right the first time, try a different address. The absolute worst case scenario is that someone in IT sees that you are trying to email a person 6 different ways… not exactly a big deal.

Here are some common email permutations of company emails:

• r.rapple@companyX.com
• rrapple@companyX.com
• rebecca.rapple@companyX.com
• rapple@companyX.com
• rebecca@companyX.com (mostly small ones!)

As I said before, there is no “worst case scenario” here. There is nothing to be afraid of. So, start hitting send.

What would your dream relationship mean to you?

Consider what value your dream relationships could add to your life. To your business. To your job search. Relationships are easier to build than ever, but it still takes guts to step up and make the first move. To reach out and introduce yourself.

Relationships are the primary source of success, power, happiness and money. So, tell me, what are you waiting for? Go out there and email your dream.

Author:

Rebecca Rapple has been featured in Harvard Business Review, Business Insider, Keith Ferrazzi’s My Greenlight and more. You can learn more about the fundamentals of a remarkable job search on her site, The Resume Revolution.

When you’re reading blogs like this one, you hear about all those things you should be doing to promote your brand.  Write a blog, do a webinar, etc, etc.  But it’s really not enough to just do the blog or webinar – you need to engage people and pull them in when you do so.  And that’s the harder part – as I saw so clearly in the boring product development webinar I witnessed the other day.

Here are two things you must do if you want to bring people in when you’re making a presentation about your personal brand.

Show your enthusiasm

At the end of the über boring presentation, I was shocked to hear the speaker say in his dreary monotone: “I hope that you’ve come out of here today inspired by my enthusiasm and motivated to get to work.”  What?!!! Honestly, I had no idea that he was really interested in the subject. I thought he was just going through the motions because not one aspect of his voice conveyed that he was engaged.

If you’re enthusiastic about something, you need to show it. That can make all the difference in the world about getting your message across and make people want to learn more. Not sure of that approach?  It works.

When I was in middle school, the high school economics professor stopped by my math class to interest the incoming 9th graders in taking his AP Microeconomics class. I’d never considered taking an economics class, much less an advanced, intense one. But Mr Rowe spoke with such enthusiasm about economics that by the end of the class, most of us has signed up for the next year. And throughout the year, he never let up. He pounded college-level economics into the brains of 9th graders with such enthusiasm and interest that we absolutely adored his class.

Enthusiasm matters. Twenty minutes after the monotone product development webinar I listen to last week, I couldn’t remember what it was about. Nearly 15 years after my 9th grade economics class, I – a Classical Languages major in college who never took another economics class - can still discuss supply and demand on a high level.

Tell Stories

The presentor in the webinar gave us plenty of useful information. I think. To be honest, the only part I remember is him saying “It’s all about getting the right product at the right place at the right time.”

Why didn’t I remember anything from a webinar that was really relevant to my field?  Because the entire webinar was conducted in boring generalizations. “You should do this…” “It’s really important to do that…”

The human mind isn’t designed to remember particles of information. Instead, stories are what stick. We might not remember where or when Benjamin Franklin was born, but we’ll always remember that story about him taking a kite with a key attached out into a thunderstorm.

If you’re talking about your business or something that you personally do, you have all the stories you need.  You just need to bring them out.  Instead of talking in general about the right product at the right place at the right time, talk about how Steve Jobs timed the market perfectly in bringing out the iPod/iPhone/iPad. Or use an example that you worked on for your industry – and how it came about.  It’s the story that will make the difference.

Trust me, making sure you include enthusiasm and stories in whatever personal branding vehicle you choose will make a huge difference. They will draw your audience in and help them to remember you – which is the whole point of doing those activities in the first place.

Author:

Katie Konrath blogs about creativity, innovation and “ideas so fresh… they should be slapped” at www.getfreshminds.com.  She works for leading innovation company, Ideas To Go.

I’ve heard this many times by people in blogs, TED videos, books, webinars, etc. I get it. But can I tell the Gurus and Visionaries something?

Duh.

Of course you have to be different to help yourself stand out from others. Easily said. Not easily done. Yet the people who say it with such ease create witty presentations with this sentiment, collect a check and gain a few more disciples.

I call BS on it. Because being remarkable definitely has merit, but it’s not enough. It’s been conveyed in a way that suggests all an idea needs is originality but as many people in Advertising, Marketing, PR and similar industries can attest to, we could fill graveyard after graveyard with remarkable ideas that should’ve been used but weren’t.

We even have award shows for remarkable ideas that never made it.

Strive for the remarkable. But remember the logistics of what you still have to navigate that brilliant idea through – it’s a Lord of the Rings-level journey to get your idea to fly. Twists and turns of presentations to higher-ups.

So how do you do it?

Part of what I’ve done in my career to help the “really different idea than what the client is used to” medicine go down with a client is really what they deserve – tying strategy back into the rationale for why I’m suggesting what I am. If I’d just gotten up there in a boardroom and said, “You have to be different, which is what this idea is, because there’s no reason to keep doing what you’re doing like everybody else,” that’s not convincing enough. Sure, maybe they do honestly want to change. But how can they be sure your change the right one?

You want to speak to how the concept can resonate with the specific audience it’s intended for based on the research you’ve done. And the metrics all parties intend to use to measure the idea’s success.

See, what you’re doing here is methodically peeling away the risk and building in greater comfort with concepts the client can relate to. There’s a method and a reason to why the change is good. Not just, well, because it’s change.

It’s time to demand more of ourselves than simply demanding others be different and calling it a day. We have to show them on a regular basis. With real research, real metrics, and real tools, we can select to guide others on the path that’s right for them.

Think different? You should. But if you want it to thrive for years to come, recognize that there’s still a lot of work ahead of you once you have the idea. It’s not going to be as easy as some make it out to be.

But then, achieving anything worth the label of “remarkable” rarely is.

Author:

Dan Gershenson is a Chicago-based consultant focused on brand strategy and content marketing. Dan has guided a variety of CEOs and Marketing Directors at small to medium-sized companies, providing hundreds of strategic plans to help businesses identify their best niches and areas of opportunity. Dan blogs on Chicago Brander, mentors advertising students and cheers relentlessly for the Chicago Bears. Dan graduated from Drake University with a degree in Advertising

Taking a look at Curalate

Let’s take the story of Curalate as an example. Curalate recently launched, and it’s basically a monitoring and analytics platform that specifically caters to socially curated sites such as Pinterest. It’s an excellent example of how a company found a void in the current market today and set about filling it.

You see, though there are already many social monitoring and analytics platforms available in the market, most of them cater toward social networking sites that involve written content such as Facebook and Twitter. These platforms help you make sense of how your Facebook and Twitter campaign is doing: if you’re getting the results you want or not, and so on.

But Pinterest is no ordinary social networking site. It’s become highly popular due to the fact that connecting within the site involves visuals, not words. People enjoy creating the most fabulous virtual pinboards showcasing the things they love, as well as visiting, liking, and commenting on other pinboards.

Since Pinterest has become so popular, it’s no surprise that brands, both personal and business ones, have started adding it to their marketing mix. They want to know the best way to connect and engage with the users of Pinterest, in order to promote their brand, increase brand awareness and engagement, and increase their sales.

Finally the ability to measure Pinterest

And so Curalate arrived just at the right time, finding and filling a void. Brands wanted to know how to track their content on Pinterest, whether or not it’s driving traffic to their site, who their top responders and repinners are, how they measure up to other brands, and if this platform will drive revenue. Curalate gives you all that and more.

As the brainchild of Apu Gupta, Curalate’s CEO and co-founder, Curalate already has a seed funding of around $750,000 from NEA, First Round Capital, and MentorTech. It’s also recently signed up more than 150 brands and agencies that are ready to take their Pinterest campaign to the next level.

Why exactly has Curalate quickly become an invaluable tool in the market? It’s because there was a void before – the lack of a social monitoring and analytics platform that specially caters to socially curated sites – and it has materialized to fill it. There was a current lack in the market, and Curalate’s founders decided to address the problem, turning their product into an invaluable tool for those who aim to monitor and track the success of their campaign on socially curated sites such as Pinterest.

What can a personal brand learn from this?

There are valuable lessons to be learned here. As a personal brand, it’s essential that you don’t blend in with the crowd. Don’t offer just the same old thing that hundreds of other people offer. Stand out. Be different. Look for a void in the market and fill that void. Be the solution to a problem that is begging to be solved.

Don’t be a statistic. Don’t be a random face in a sea of strangers. After all, every person is unique in their own way, so it’s important that you really understand yourself and what unique traits and skills you have so that you can be an invaluable brand.

Take a lesson from Curalate. The company saw that there was a lack of tools that specifically catered to socially curated sites, and so they created the perfect tool to meet this need. Finally, brands no longer have to rack their brains trying to understand if their Pinterest campaign is working or not. They only have to use Curalate, so that all the information they need is laid out in its easy to use interface.

They can see how their Pinterest campaign is driving traffic to other social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. They can see who their top repinners and commenters are, and can even respond within the platform. They can see how they measure up to other brands that offer similar products or services. Basically, they can easily monitor and track their brand’s progress, so they can adjust and make changes if their campaign needs improvement.

Find a void in the market and work your behind off to fill it, so that you can ensure that you will always be an invaluable brand who will never run out of clients or customers.

Author:

Maria Elena Duron, is managing editor of the Personal Branding Blog, CEO (chief engagement officer) of buzz2bucks.com – a word of mouth marketing firm.   She helps create conversation, connection, credibility, community and commerce around your brand.   Maria Duron is co-founder  and moderator of #brandchat - a weekly Twitter chat focused on every aspect of branding that is recognized by Mashable as one the 15 Essential Twitter Chats for Social Media Marketers.

Once the above has taken place, the question immediately arises: which is the first practical step I should take to take charge of my personal brand? (never forget that your personal brand already exists whether you are cognizant of it or not). And the answer almost invariably is: get the best possible photo of yourself. For if logos are quintessential to commercial brands, photos are quintessential to personal ones. Even in the case of people who are already acquainted with you in a personal or professional capacity, pictures – when they display a lucky blend of originality, quality, artistic merit and manage to capture the essence of what you stand for – send a powerful message about you and your brand that colors the perception other parties will have of you across the board. Underestimate the importance of a portrait picture at your own peril.

The importance of taking photographs

This lesson was well understood by one of the forerunners of the modern personal branding movement: the Anglo-Irish dramatist, philosopher, novelist and wit Oscar Wilde. Perhaps no one was as successful as Wilde in developing almost from scratch a highly idiosyncratic and controversial personal brand that allowed his genius to flourish and attracted the attention of the prejudiced and corseted Victorian society he had the misfortune to live in. All the same his achievements are remarkable and have stood the test of time: I can think of no better example of a man who created a niche that nobody else dared to occupy as an art critic, brilliant conversationalist, connoisseur and lecturing aesthete across the English-speaking world. And at the start of it all was the picture displayed above alongside the one taken by the great Napoleon Saroni in New York in knee-breaches that launched Oscar to stardom in the US. (Lesson for personal branders: Want a smashing picture? Get a smashing photographer!).

The purpose of your photograph

Needless to say technology has moved on greatly since the end of the XIXth century and today even home-made pictures can have astounding quality and do the job for us – at least temporarily. If you ask me, however, I would never recommend trusting such a crucial piece of your personal brand to luck and my advice has consistently been to always engage the services of a professional photographer after you’ve made clear what the purpose of the picture is and its place within your overall brand strategy. To maximize the return of your investment bear in mind the following:

- Consistency pays. Even when it is becoming customary to exclude pictures from résumés/C.V.s for certain position in some countries (the same is happening to age, marital status and other irrelevant factors) to avoid unfair discrimination, the truth is that in the social media age almost every social network requires a picture. Using the same picture across the social media and internet sites makes it easy to find and remember you and reinforces the branding attributes you are seeking to emphasize with your image. There are of course exceptions to this rule, but using at least a picture from the same set is usually a good idea.

- Your picture must tell a story. The acme any photo (an indeed any portrait painting) can reach is to encapsulate within itself the art of storytelling and, in effect, tell a story and highlight key concepts intimately attached to your brand. Are you all about creativity and innovation? Thorough professionalism and time-tested experience? Not afraid to break conventional rules like Oscar Wilde? Let your picture speak for itself.

- Your picture must evolve with your brand. Brands are not static but dynamic, and changing your picture at the very least every three years is an unwritten rule that shows your followers, peers and clients that you are a dynamic as opposed to a static individual. It also offers you the chance to reflect on the passage of time kindly and underscore your accomplishments in the best possible light.

- Remain flexible and do not ignore feedback. Some of us have better judgment than others when it comes to our own image. Regardless, at the end of the day the feedback you get is what will determine whether the picture you have chosen is serving you well or not. Personally I always prefer what I call the ‘a-ha effect‘: time and again people have been pleasantly surprised when they’ve met me in person and told me how I look ‘definitely younger than in the picture’. This is not only a great ice-breaker but helps me start conversations, networking and business dealings in the right frame of mind. Be it as it may, ideally you should never look significantly worse than your picture, which is another reasons why using dated pictures is inadvisable.

A whole treatise could be written on this hot topic but I hope the message by now is clear: getting a good picture is often the first practical step towards the strategic strengthening of your personal brand. Your presentation picture – especially if it will be included in your portfolio and social profiles – deserves your full attention and care and is one of the best investments you can make.

Your photo speaks volumes about you: make sure those volumes are filled in with your hopes, aspirations, personality and talent and not the result of a haphazard occurrence that you have been too careless to display. Your quality picture will pay off big: and the more visible you are, the higher the return. So get ready to collect.

Author:

Oscar Del Santo is a lecturer, consultant, key speaker, blogger and populariser of online reputation and inbound marketing in Spain. He has been extensively featured in the Spanish and Latin American media and is included in the ‘Top Social Media Influencers’ and ‘Best Marketing Tweeters in Spanish’ lists @OscarDS. He is the author of ‘Reputacion Online para Tod@s’ and the co-author of ‘Marketing de Atraccion 2.0’.

What has been the single most effective personal branding tool for you and why?

Elinor Stutz: Twitter

In regard to the most effective personal branding tool, I never thought of it in this light before, but for me Twitter has been exceptional. By posting helpful tips and personal insights, a large following (over 29,000 to date) came to know me well. Incredible opportunities came my way due to this phenomenal tool. The crowning glory was inclusion by OpenView Lab’s on their international list of “Top 25 Sales Influencers for 2012″.

Jun Loayza: Blogging

The most effective personal branding tool for me is my personal blog at http://www.junloayza.com/. I’ve raised funding through my blog, closed client deals through my blog, and written for leading online publications because of my blog. I stick to a strict schedule of two posts per week (Tuesday and Thursday) and write at least 1 guest post per week on an external blog.

Dan Gershenson: Blogging

For me, having a blog transformed my perspective from a person who is defined by where he works to a personal brand who is defined by his thoughts. I can’t tell you how liberating and exhilarating that’s been. I have met people and re-acquainted myself with colleagues who have said, “Yeah, I like what you’re doing with your blog!” Not only has this been pleasant surprise to me but the growing visibility of the blog over time has also led to opportunities from brands I may have never otherwise have encountered.

Roger C. Parker: Book

Without a doubt, writing a book. Income-wise, I had been successful before my first book. But, the 6 months following the appearance of my first book eclipsed everything that I had gone before in terms of income and opportunities. And, each book reinforced the foundation.

Nance Rosen: Facebook

Facebook works most effectively for me because the majority of my “friends” are not just friends, they are brand evangelists. I use my personal page to announce what I’m doing professionally, because on my Facebook are mostly people who have been in my audiences. Hence, they’ve understand what I do, they’ve benefited from my material and they personally know how I can help others.

Oscar Del Santo: Twitter

Twitter, twitter, twitter. For me it has turned out to be the single most powerful tool to transmit my brand’s core messages, publicize my contents (including my book) and become a referent in my country and Latin America. One of the distinct advantages of Twitter as far as I am concerned is that you can work out a targeted growth strategy.

Devin C. Hughes: Social Media

Relevancy and consistency. Social media flavors appear almost weekly but my messaging and keeping my eyes and ears open to what’s going on in the world and translating that to my tribe (how it impacts them) is where my secret sauce is right now. In some ways, it feels like a translator at the UN allowing all parties to decipher what’s being said so they walk away with a common understanding. That said, it is grind to keep coming up with fresh content.

Jacob Share: Blogging

Growing my blog JobMob into one of the most popular job search blogs in the world has built my personal brand on a global scale, leading to appearances on other major blogs and mainstream media while providing value to millions of visitors and growing my network in ways I could never have imagined. While social media is also a great tool in extending my reach, everything leads back to the blog as my main personal branding hub.

READ NOW: 10 Reasons Why A Blog Must Be Your Main Personal Branding Hub

Author:

Jacob Share, a job search expert, is the creator of JobMob, one of the biggest blogs in the world about finding jobs. Follow him on Twitter for job search tips and humor.

As I point out in “Headhunter” Hiring Secrets: The Rules of the Hiring Game Have Changed . . . Forever!, “tell me about yourself” doesn’t really mean, “tell me about yourself” in the traditional sense. Still, the overwhelming majority of job seekers usually respond to the question with an inane, irrelevant answer such as this:

“Well, I grew up in rural Minnesota and I graduated from high school  in 2005, and I really am a BIG baseball fan, etc., etc., etc., ad nauseum.”

When asked at the beginning of a job interview, the “tell me about yourself” question is certainly not a request for a brief personal biography! Your answer to the question definitely should be laser-focused on the specific task at hand: Getting the position for which you are applying!

A three-part answer works best

The recommended, correct way to answer the “tell me about yourself” question is by utilizing a three-part, pre-planned and prepared marketing/branding statement approach. (Each part, of course, is delivered consecutively to comprise the entire answer to the question.)

Parts One and Two can normally be used from interview to interview, while Part Three will need to be customized for each unique career opportunity. Let’s briefly examine the makeup of each of the three parts.

Part one

Normally, Part one will consist of a one-sentence statement of your career history, i.e., essentially the condensed version of your entire career history. But that’s not as challenging as perhaps it might first appear. Here is an example of how Part One can easily be constructed:

“I am a five-year veteran of LAN/WAN administration and systems engineering, with substantial experience using Novell, NT, Cisco and Lotus Notes/Domino.”

Part two

Part two consists of a one- OR two-sentence summary of a single career accomplishment that you are especially proud of and one that can reasonably be expected to capture the potential employer’s attention. It must also be an accomplishment that can be easily explained and/or illustrated and it absolutely MUST highlight a “bottom-line” impact for the potential employer. Here is an example:

“Recently, as a long-term contract employee at a local regional bank, I learned that the bank was about to install Lotus Notes/Domino and they were planning to use outside consultants for the project. I let them know that I had done a similar installation at my last assignment, outlined how we could get the job done with in-house staff and successfully complete the installation for $55-$65K less than it would have cost with outside consultants.”

Part three

This final part is the most dynamic, as well as the part that must be customized to fit the particular career opportunity being sought. It needs to be a one- OR two-sentence summary of specifically what you want to do in your next career move AND it must be relevant to the position being sought. Here is an example of how Part Three might be constructed:

“For the next step in my career, I would like to move away from contract work and find myself as a direct employee of a large firm where I can join a substantial IT team and be involved with a group that focuses on email and network security applications, while having access to the knowledge base that would come with a large, diverse IT group.”

OR, here is yet another example of how Part Three might be prepared:

“For the next step in my career, I would like to find myself as a direct employee of a small- to medium-sized firm that is looking to hire an in-house IT generalist so I can continue growing my career by getting exposure to multiple IT areas, such as networking, help desk, security, and application issues for the users of the organization.  As the firm’s IT needs grow, I would love to apply my past team project management skills to managing the members of a small, growing IT team.”

As you can see, two very different endings but ones that perfectly match what two different employers are looking for in a candidate.

Putting it all together

Let’s assume that Suzanne Smith is applying for a chemical engineering position with XYZ, Inc., and at the beginning of the job interview, the hiring manager asks, “Well, Suzanne,  in order to get the ball rolling, tell me a little bit about yourself.” Here is how Suzanne might answer the question, in order to brand herself, right off the bat, as certainly not being just an “average” candidate:

“I am a chemical engineer with eight years of experience, four which were in process engineering at Clorox working on improving plant productivity and four in specialty resin chemical sales where I help customers develop new products that improve their competitiveness in the marketplace. (Part One)

“Recently, through networking, I learned of a company that had great products except for their concrete coating line. I knew that we had a resin that would enable the company to develop a faster drying concrete coating, thereby improving the company’s ability to compete more effectively in their marketplace. I called on the decision-makers, got their interest, worked with R&D and helped them develop a product line that resulted in $2 million in new sales for the company in the first year, which meant $400K in new sales for us. (Part Two)

“For the next step in my career, I would like to be with a larger firm with more resources so that I can continue to drive business and grow sales for both the company and my customers in a wider variety of applications. Once I have proven myself and earned the right to get promoted, I would like to use my skills to lead and develop a sales team.” (Part Three)

Does Suzanne’s answer adequately address all THREE criteria (parts) recommended in an answer to the “tell me about yourself” question”? You bet it does!

First, she provided a brief history of her career up to that point. Next, she cited a significant career accomplishment and it was one she knew the potential employer certainly would—or should!—be very interested in learning more about because it (or a related accomplishment Suzanne might come up with) could potentially and positively affect the hiring company’s “bottom line.” And finally, she made it abundantly clear as to what her future career goal was and it certainly was relevant to the position for which she was applying.

Just for the record, if you read Suzanne’s answer at a normal speaking pace, you will notice that it would take about one minute to deliver. Yet significant to note, during that brief time, she clearly and immediately branded herself as a true professional who knows the value of what she has to offer the potential employer and has communicated that information in a very convincing, believable manner. You can accomplish the same thing—if you anticipate this question (and I can absolutely assure you that you will be asked the “tell me about yourself” question in one form or another during virtually any job interview!) and adequately prepare your answer to it.

By taking the three-part approach to the “tell me about yourself” question recommended in this blog, you will automatically set yourself apart from the overwhelming majority of your competition, i.e., other candidates seeking the same position. You will automatically brand yourself as certainly not being just another “run of the mill” candidate.

Why?

Because the vast majority of the other candidates can be expected to take the approach mentioned above to answer the question: “Well, I grew up in rural Minnesota. . . ,” and the hiring manager’s eyes will start to glaze over . . . his/her mind will begin to wander . . . he/she will start thinking of ways to conclude the interview as quickly as possible in order to move on to the next candidate.

That’s why!

Author:

Skip Freeman is the author of “Headhunter” Hiring Secrets: The Rules of the Hiring Game Have Changed . . . Forever! and is the President and Chief Executive Officer of The HTW Group (Hire to Win), an Atlanta, GA, Metropolitan Area Executive Search Firm. Specializing in the placement of sales, engineering, manufacturing and R&D professionals, he has developed powerful techniques that help companies hire the best and help the best get hired.