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Use Social Media for Your Personal Branding

Use Social Media to Build Your Personal BRAND


 


Social media is all the rage these days. You see it EVERYWHERE! Virtually the whole world is one global online social networking village, between the 800 million users on Facebook and 120 million on LinkedIn.
 
How can you build your personal brand in this global network, without having your voice drowned out?
 
First, you need to understand that social media is another marketing platform through which you can extend your personal brand. Define your core competencies, values, beliefs, qualifications, and interests. Your strategy to build your brand online should supplement/suport your offline networking activities an more traditional marketing efforts (PR, print, broadcast, outdoor advertising, direct mail, etc.)
 
To that end, you MUST develop a strategic social media plan that integrates with your marketing plan and includes the following:
* A comprehensive and COMPELLING definition of your personal brand in significant detail with core messaging including your value proposition, core competencies and unique selling proposition – WHAT MAKES YOU UNIQUE?;
 
* The segments you plan on targeting;
* The 3-4 industries you wish to pursue;
* Industry associations, networking groups, blogs, events, think tanks, consortiums, journalists, and subject matter experts.
 
Armed with your strategic social media plan, you need to limit the scope of your approach so it is manageable. Begin by completing your FREE profiles on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and MeetUp. Commit to investing 15-30 minutes each weeknight and 45 minute to an hour each weekend day for 1-2 months.
You will need to create your own website and blog to serve as the core of your social networking efforts. Two of the more popular blogging services that are both FREE are Google Blogger and WordPress.
 
WordPress is a much more robust publishing platform. There are many free seminars/workshops/courses offered online and near you that can help you get started.
 
A blog is a recurring regularly scheduled article you publish on specific topics. The typical length is 600-800
 
Understand that there are certain guidelines you should follow when developing your social media strategy. For starters, it’s NEVER about the QUANTITY or size of your network but the QUALITY of your online relationships. A great TOP-10 list from Shama Hyder Kabani’s: “the zen of social media marketing“:
 
* Decide where you stand on the types of relationship you want to have and the kind of information you want to disseminate.
* Determine what constitutes social media and the social networking resources you can utilize.
* Clarify who owns what when it comes to the content you create directly or re-purpose/republish from others.
* Keep all your confidential information PRIVATE.
* Decide who is responsible for creating, distributing, and monitoring as well as performing analytics to gauge your social media ROI.
* Dictate the rules of engagement without being a dictator.
* Address taboo topics.
* Have a system for monitoring the social sphere.
* Make training easily available for all your employees that are tasked with being social media ambassadors in your organization
* Have a crisis plan – see Blackberry!
 
There are a Gazillion resources out there to get started. A random list of the more popular ones include:
 
All top
Digg
Mashable
Social Media Today
Delicious
Postling

High Employee Productivity Demands Are Killing the American Worker

How Work is Killing the American Worker

 
The #1 Killer of American Workers Is… THEIR WORK.
It’s TRUE! According to Center for American Progress, American workers are the most OVERWORKED developed nation IN THE WORLD.
* In 1960, 20% of American mothers worked. Today, 70% of all American children live in households where ALL adults are employed.
 
* The U.S. is the ONLY country in the Americas WITHOUT paid parental leave benefit. The average is over 12 weeks paid leave anywhere other than Europe, and 20 weeks in Europe.
 
* American workers work 137 hours a year more than Japanese workers, 260 hours more a year than British workers, and 499 hours a year more than French workers.
 
* In the US 85.8% of males work more than 40 hours a week, and 66.5% of females work more than 40 hours a week.
The increased work demands placed on American workers to achieve constantly high levels of employee productivity take a tremendous toll over time, as we struggle to maintain a healthy family/work/self balance. There is even a field of study dedicated to the phenomena of overworked Americans. Many books that have been written on the subject include:
 
* The White-Collar Sweatshop by Jill Andresky Fraser.
* The Overworked American by Juliet Schor.
* The Working Life by Joanne B. Ciulla.
 
Being overworked can lead to more stress that manifests itself in the following ways:
* Fatigue
* High Blood Pressure
* Heart Disease
* Substance Abuse
* Lost Time With Loved Ones
* Spousal/Child Abuse
* Anger Management/Road Rage
* Early Death
* Suicide
 
There is only 168 hours in the week. One way to deal with stress is to understand what is causing it. To effectively do this, keep a STRESS journal, or log of things that create stress in your life for THREE days. To get a better handle on your time management, I suggest you use a calculator to determine a starting point for your personal work/life balance.
 
 

 
 
 
The demands we face in trying to manage our time, keep our calendars in order and have time to ourselves manifest itself in increased stress levels.
 
Stress takes a tremendous toll on individuals emotionally and physiologically in the form of:
Fatigue
High Blood Pressure
Heart Disease
Substance Abuse
Lost Time Not Spent With Loved Ones
Spousal/Child Abuse
Anger Management/Road Rage
Early Death
Suicide
 
You need to find the time to make your own personal time. Some strategies to this include:
* Pick a time of day that is ALL yours. Communicate to all there are NO exceptions .
* Rediscover your interests/passions.
* Make time to exercise to increase your energy level and makes you MORE productive.)
* Slowly introduce more activities that are important/special/relaxing to YOU.
* NURTURE YOURSELF – Eat healthy, get MORE sleep.
* Seek professional help – does your employer offer an Employee Assistance Program?
 
I have developed a new suite of programs for organizations to help their employees in the following areas:
 
* Manage Chaos to Seize Opportunities

* Work/Family/Self Balance…It IS Possible

* Time Management: OWN Your Calendar

* Reduce Stress…to Your Health!
 
Contact The Chazin Group to obtain more information on these exciting new programs.

America's Abysmal Future Employment Opportunities

The UGLY Truth About America’s Jobless Economy

 
Based upon the MANY conversations that I’ve had with people about America’s jobless economy and lack of abundant employment opportunitiesthe last few weeks, it is clear that we are LONG past due the time required for an honest conversation about the HORRIFIC state of America’s “JOBLESS” economy.
 
Our economy has been transforming at a tremendous rate of change since we evolved from a post-Industrial manufacturing society to an information and technology-driven market.
 
Entire industries have been transformed due to advances in technology (most notably the Internet.) Sectors of our economy such as printing & publishing, advertising, retail, accounting, manufacturing, banking, and financial services have all been transformed. Significant transformation demands the kind of new skills, training, certifications, and knowledge that threatens the entire American workforce and leads to a severe shortage of attractive employment opportunities.
 
Making matters significantly worse for America’ workers, the myopic short-term profit centric focus of our business “leaders ” has led to tremendous employee layoffs through outsourcing, off-shoring, downsizing, right-sizing and re-engineering as they pursued a scorched earth policy of seeking the cheapest available labor. We have become a society where there is no such thing as job security and the “contract” between employees and employers no longer exists.
 
The new “REALITY” for America’s workers.
 
The average American worker will now change jobs 8-9 times in their career (and the number is on a rapid rise.) One in four Americans can now be classified as contract/independent workers or consultants who are employed on a full-time basis and have ZERO guarantee of steady income.
 
The state of America’s workforce is SO bad, that wee can’t even determine an accurate accounting for our nation’s unemployed since so many people that are ready, willing, and able to work have given up on looking for work. Pick a number….how about 15-20% unemployed? The truth is, no one (especially the Bureau of Labor Statistics) knows for sure!
 
Remember the buzz in the media about a “recovery?” Well, it seems that recovery helped large corporations and the top 2% of America, but passed over the rest of us. Large companies have been performing quite well, but are hell bent on hording cash and paying senior executives exorbitant bonuses. No jobs creation there! Meanwhile, smaller companies (including the many I consult with) continue to struggle to meet payroll and keep their businesses afloat. Hire new employees? No way! They continue to be forced to operate with skeletal staffs they’ve had in place for several years since the last round of layoffs.
 
Insurance companies, banks, and credit card companies continue to prey on the balance of Americans that are in financial distress. This is where the public debate should be framed, and yet we hear nothing but the shrill sound of two parties not willing to compromise on a relatively minor issue of raising America’s debt ceiling.
 
The bigger issue is a lack of American leadership in politics, education, and business. For 40 years our leaders have taken the easy way out, kicked the can down the road and passed up on countless opportunities to move America forward. Well, that can is at the end of the road. Where do we go from here?
 
THIS is the broad debate that needs to happen NOW.
 
The fundamental question that DEMANDS a new kind of visionary American leadership to answer is this: “How can we put Americans back to work?
 
For three years, I have been working with all sorts of people from High School students to the mature workforce on ways to bulletproof your career in these turbulent times. There is an “across-the-board” fear at MOST levels of our society that people cannot find meaningful work, and our future is destined to be worse than today.
 
How did we bankrupt our future? How can we create jobs for our High School students and college graduates and a meaningful future for our children? When 2% of Americans control a majority of our nation’s wealth through Lobbyists and special interests, we are in danger. When a grassroots Tea Party movement of less than 10% Congressional representation can derail a nation’s political agenda, we are in danger. When our children finish well below the students of other nations in math and science proficiency…we are in danger.
 
Until an entirely new visionary leadership arises at all levels of our American education, political, and business systems, we are merely shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic American jobless recovery and will not see an abundance of relevant employment opportunities.
 

Women's World Cup Final And Achieving Greatness

Women’s World Cup Final Has GREAT Lessons for All

 
This Sunday at 2PM Eastern Time, I will be glued to my TV watching the US women play the ladies from Japan for the 2011 Women’s World Cup championship.
 
AND I HATE SOCCER!
 
So why will I sit and watch, riveted by EVERY play? As a career coach and business consultant…I SIMPLY HAVE TO! These women are showing what it takes for a top team and individuals to strive towards achieving greatness.
 
I ask you…has ANY other international sports competition brought together two more positive world role models for us to learn invaluable life lessons from than this game? It is truly RARE that a sporting event holds nearly universal appeal for teaching all the most important lessons on life, competition, teamwork, professionalism…YOU NAME IT!
 
On one hand is the lady’s team from Japan.

Hollywood could NOT have scripted a more improbable, against all odds David victory against Goliath win than when Japan beat a tournament favorite and host nation lady’s team from Germany. As a “reward” Japan got to face a VERY strong team from Sweden in the semi’s where the Japanese team was outsized 5′-4″ to 5′-8″ average per player by the Swedes…AND Japan STILL WON to continue the team’s phenomenal tournament play, in advancing to the finals.
 
The Japanese team plays for a nation still healing from a massive earthquake and the evacuation that followed due to the threat of multiple nuclear reactor meltdowns. The team has exhibited a “JUST WIN” mentality throughout the World Cup. They have taken on every adversary no matter how seemingly over-matched and has come through victorious in their path towards achieving greatness by winning a title.
 
The team lends credence to the notion that it’s not the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog. And they are already winners for how they have performed.
 
And then there are those crazy American ladies…
 

Favored to play in the finals before the tournament even began, they were a collection of stars that had won everything in their path as they racked up international wins. But clearly they likely had not faced adversity and may not have had to play as a truly unified team as when they faced the team from Brazil.
 
They ran into a Brazilian team that was up to the challenge of playing David to Team USA’s Goliath themselves. Brazil outplayed the US in the first half. Coupled with truly horrendous, heinous anti-American officiating the USA ladies faced a horrible position of having to play one player short a majority of the game.
 
As spectators we got to watch a team of stars rise to the occasion on a global stage.
 
Team USA put aside any egos and individual goals through clarity of focus on ONE goal…winning a championship! They pushed ahead and seized every opportunity and broke through against Brazil then they followed that win with a victory against France, for a date in the finals.
 
There are so many parallels for these two teams and so much that they represent that is best in sports. And can be in all of us. Can you see NFL and NBA players/teams performing like this (or the MLB and NHL, for that matter?)
 
Players on both sides elevated their games, put aside their personal needs, changed positions (roles), had the widespread support of their Nations behind them, all while exhibiting the highest levels of sportsmanship/professionalism as they pursued their lifelong passions.
 
On the American side, there was great coaching (management) by Sundhage, players becoming leaders (Wambach), rising stars who achieved success when called on to step up (Morgan and Cheney), and unbelievable saves from a woman named Hope Solo (how IRONIC!)
 
BOTH teams represent the highest standards of excellence regardless of the outcome.
 
Tune in to ESPN on Sunday at 2PM ET. For all those invaluable LIFE & CAREER lessons.

When Was The Last Time You YO-YO'd?

When Was The Last Time You YO-YO’d?


What was the last thing you did for fun that made you happy?
 
When was the last time that you smiled for no reason at all? Did you jump into a game of jump rope with complete strangers? Walk into a sprinkler…with all your clothes on? Laugh so hard that what you were drinking came out of your nose? Maybe you bought a YO-YO just to have some fun?
 
This is not an esoteric blog post about reclaiming a lost youth. I am amazed and shocked at the increasing level of anger and hatred that seems to be going on in every town of America. You see it on the streets outside our homes, all the way to Washington, DC and the tone of our national political debate. It’s PERVASIVE.
 
The other day I was walking my daughter to her swimming lesson. We got halfway across the street when the light changed colors. We hurried across, but a woman in the car at the red (now green) light honked at us, I guess for slowing her down. As we got onto the curb I turned to her, smiled, and waved as if to say “thanks for your patience.” What was her response? She honked again and flipped us the bird…you know, that finger you show people to express your extreme ill-will.
 
Sure, as an isolated incident we can laugh it off. But these past few years these exchanges of random hostility are becoming all too common. You hear it in the tone of people yelling at servers in restaurants, service staff in stores, people waiting in line for movies.
 
We are the nation of walking TIME BOMBS, and it makes me wonder how this extreme stress that we all deal with given the uncertainties of our jobs, our homes, and family security, how this is manifesting itself in our own health and personal relationships.
 
You have to wonder how this rising tide of anger is affecting levels of alcohol and drug abuse dependency, spousal and child abuse, road rage, obesity, the divorce rate, violence in our schools in bullying, conflicts in the workplace such as harassment. It truly is all inter-related.
 
Clearly the prolonged strain on our society of double digit unemployment, jobs being outsourced and off-shored, our failing education system, our two-party political state of hatred and ineffectiveness…these are all leading us down the road to ruin through anger and unhealthy living.
 
So, what can we do to reclaim a sense of individual calm, quiet, peacefulness, and a bit of (dare I say it?) happiness?
 
For starters we can all re-discover what made us happy as children. In honor of July 4th, use the extended weekend to play with a yo-yo or a slinky. Go buy some bubbles, jump in a pool fully clothed. Buy a used saxophone or trumpet, take an art class, pick up that old guitar. Find a friend or stranger to play tennis with. Take a basketball out to the courts and shoot around. Go to the movies by yourself in the middle of the afternoon. Heck, celebrate with a huge tub of popcorn and a soda.
 
Make a pact with yourself to treat EVERY person you come into contact with in the most civil and friendly of terms, whether a best friend, strained family relation, or complete stranger. You aren’t doing this for others…it’s for yourself.
 
While you’re at it, spend some time this weekend thinking about the dreams you had when you were younger. It is NEVER too late to revisit your passions. It is certainly NEVER too late to be happy. Try skipping with a child, niece, or nephew, draw chalk on the sidewalk. Go bike-riding.
 
Take this pursuit of happiness a step further. Remember what you dreamed of doing for a living before you settled on a career of failed hopes and dreams. Rekindle the passion. Find what you are REALLY passionate about AND that you are really good at. Where those two worlds collide…that is your DREAM job. Go for it! If you don’t know how, find someone that can help you.
I dare you. No…I DOUBLE dare you.

HAPPY JULY 4TH!

Don't Count America Out, Sweetie

 
<h2>Don’t Count America Out, Sweetie</h2>
Last week, I was working on-site at a client’s office to develop a coaching and mentoring program to deliver to her employees.
 
While we were sitting together discussing the course outline, she asked me out of the blue: “Why are you so down on America?”
 
Talk about your ‘out of left field’ question. I was blown away.
 
“What do you mean?” I asked.
 
So she tells me: “Your last few blogs have been so critical of America. Do you think our best days our behind us?”
 
As a consultant I’ve learned to be a straight shooter while mastering the art of evasiveness simultaneously. In her case bluntness was expected.
 
“I find it hard to dispute the facts,” I replied. “For starters, 15-20% of Americans are unemployed, one in four Americans can be categorized as contract/independent workers without the benefits of full-time employment, entire industries are imploding and transforming, and our skyrocketing debt may bankrupt future generations,” I answered.
 
So, yes I am bearish on America right now.
She smiled this ear to ear grin and she said to me: “Sweetie, these are all serious issues but nothing we haven’t seen before. We’ll manage, like we always do. You’re forgetting,” she said. We are Americans. This is what we DO.”
 
And that was that.
 
The trouble is, I keep thinking about the state of America, our short and long-term prospects especially for our children, not to mention my job seeker and small business clients.
 
But we HAVE seen this before. It’s what “creative destruction” as defined by Joseph Schumpeter in his book: ‘Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy’ is all about. A special thanks to Ray O’Connor for introducing me to this awesome read.

 
You see America shifting gears now with a surge in new business pursuits around alternative, fuel sources, green technologies, cloud computing, etc. While Best Buy, Blockbuster, Circuit City declare bankruptcy, Netflix, Google, Facebook, Apple continue to shine.
 
Yes, American students continue to drop down the ranks in global math and science skills rankings. On the flip side, more and more college students are banding together to form business ventures while they are in school.
 
They’ve seen what has happened to their parents and grandparents. They understand that future employment post graduation is no longer a certainty.
 
In times of great upheaval and crisis, new opportunities continue to present themselves. So perhaps it is not so foolish to discover a renewed faith in America. Times have been tough these past few years, but perhaps the best is still yet to come, with the right leadership politically, academically, and in business and industry.
 
Need another perspective? Check out what David Brooks had to say in his op-ed article: “Relax, We’ll Be Fine” that appeared in the New York Times on April 5, 2010.
 
Let’s not count America out. We are a nation of DOERs.