Top-down management and the clutch of hierarchal authority no longer illustrate the strokes of success, but instead lead to siloed rows of depressed employees and opportunistic managers.

Gen Y, in contrast, is all about the team, preferring conformity inside the lines over pushing boundaries or ourselves. “In many respects,” psychology expert Jeremy Dean argues, “[these] norms have a beneficial effect, bolstering society’s foundations and keeping it from falling into chaos.”

We’re the soothing wall fountain over a fire of greed, instability and unethical behavior. We dislike ambiguity and risk and mitigate the risks that we have inherited accordingly. We “provide a stable and predictable social world, to regulate our behavior with each other.”

The world these group norms create are so safe and sound that one research study found that “groups don’t even need to be that well-established, people will conform to others with only the slightest encouragement.”

It’s incredibly easy for crowdsourcing and group-think to take over. The wisdom of the crowd is everywhere.

“The power of groups, the clout that crowds can exercise to get what they want, is nothing new,” one trend briefing reports. “What is new, however, is the dizzying ease with which likeminded, action-ready citizens and consumers can now go online and connect, group and ultimately exert influence on a global scale.”

We can no longer buy a camera without checking the product recommendations, go on a trip without researching hotel reviews, or visit a new restaurant without the prodding of a friend. Wikipedia is one of the best known examples of the concept at work. Revering social media “influencers” is another. Do other people like it? What do they think? Have they legitimized it, given it their stamp of approval and a gold star? And did their mother try it?

Such trends make it incredibly easy to live in society, but also threaten the individual mind, intuition and originality. Consensus isn’t all gravy.

“Unfortunately groups only rarely foment great ideas,” Dean reports, “because people in them are powerfully shaped by group norms: the unwritten rules which describe how individuals in a group ‘are’ and how they ‘ought’ to behave. Norms influence what people believe is right and wrong just as surely as real laws, but with none of the permanence or transparency of written regulations.”

Teamwork threatens creativity.

Reverting back to a command and control structure is obviously not the answer, but decentralized leadership doesn’t mean we all have to hold hands. We can’t let the pendulum swing so far from one extreme to the other that we miss that happy medium where innovation soars.

Groups do such a good job breeding mediocrity that we can’t be so afraid to be alone and listen to the sound of our own voice and let out a real note while we lip-synch. March to the beat of our own drum as it goes. We can’t be afraid to sit with our own thoughts where that nugget just needs some dedicated commitment to the state of flow to turn into something wonderful.

Groups are for brainstorms, not conclusions. Teamwork is for energy, not leadership. Conformity is overrated.

And while it’s important to be the healing generation, the calm ones, the group that will bring people together to make things okay again, there’s no reason not to leave some solitary footprints on another path for future generations to follow.

Breaking Out.

I cried like a druggie in rehab pleading with God and my dead father to help me. Also, I slept. Tried to sleep. To ignore. To escape. Between sleeping and crying, I tried to be normal.

“Nothing much, I ran some errands,” I replied on a Saturday night out at the bar, trying to be normal. Going out with friends for the first time in a long time. Friends that were good enough to forget that I ignored them for the past eight months. Because that’s what happens when I’m in a relationship.

Everyone likes me better when I’m single. If you lined up the town and asked them to raise their hands when they saw a cool person, and then presented Me, In a Relationship and Me, Single, the hands would most assuredly go up the second round, and I would raise my hand in line with the rest. I’m not good in a relationship. Perhaps because I don’t think I am, and perhaps because it never really mattered before now. Because when you date assholes, you can be a bitch right back. So dating a good guy is a complete shock in terms of how to act and how to behave and how to live.

So of course you push this cool person down the same worn-in path as before, and as you go, you look around and know that the two of you don’t belong there.

And I am angry that the Universe could present me with such a being when I’m not primed. I’m not prepared.

It’s not that I don’t feel worthy, exactly. But that I never saw myself with someone so all-American, so normal, so right. Because my life was messed up the moment my father died, and surely God doesn’t think I’m ready for a life that isn’t messed up. Surely, I should keep punishing myself. I am not ready for such greatness. Surely, I am not ready to lead a normal life yet, with barbeques and endless cuddling and television. Life is jaded. Always and forever. This will never heal.

Being single, it doesn’t matter. But being in a relationship – the good kind, at least - brings all this other responsibility. And I don’t really care for all that. To care about someone so deeply and they just might up and leave, or want you, or die, or get sick, or let you down, or need you, or care about you back. I get anxious. So anxious I can’t breathe.

Okay, so I have issues. The kind that should be capitalized and underlined, and you should take note of it.

But I’m working on that, and back to Saturday night, I declared that it was the beginning of “New Rebecca!” exclamation point, let’s take another shot, done and done. I was fabulous. I smiled and was totally level-headed and ingratiated myself back to the good side of the Universe through two hipster bars, three slices of bacon, spinach and yellow-tomato pizza, and a pair of four-inch heels. Cue the soundtrack as the shot pans up and fades out. Walk out of the theater with a happy ending. It was fun and I laughed.

Sunday morning, I got up and cleaned the wine bottles from the counter, threw away someone else’s cigarettes, and vacuumed the dirt from the corner. And somewhere in between, I found a little bit of normal.

Common Sense.

Then I get stuck. Interminably stuck. Because I’m really excited and pumped to work, but for what? I’m a lucky person, but I wonder is this it? Really? Because I thought there might be more.

Marcus Buckingham of the Wall Street Journal gets it. “This is a deeply anxious and insecure generation,” he argues. “On the surface they look self-confident, [but] deep down they know that they don’t actually know what it takes to win.”

Apparently it’s going to take a decade of wandering for us to figure it out. New York Times columnist David Brooks describes this new Generation Y life stage as the Odyssey Years - a decade of exploration and experimentation (via Tammy Erickson).

“During this decade, 20-somethings go to school and take breaks from school,” Brooks reports. “They live with friends and they live at home. They fall in and out of love. They try one career and then try another.”

And all this unbridled choice has us delaying marriage, children, and permanent employment – accomplishments that have traditionally defined adulthood. Not for Gen Y though. Brooks reports that fewer than 40 percent of 30-year olds have achieved these things versus 70 percent forty years ago.

The consequences of our aimless wandering delay adulthood, but also our chance at genuine happiness. Generation Y’s passion is defined by our idealism, not our pragmatism. So while it may seem like we’re enjoying our freedom, research shows that we’d be a lot better off with more structure, less choice, and working through problems instead of moving on to our next big adventure.

We need more accountability. We need restrictions. Because passion needs direction. It needs filters, and red tape, and four walls. Passion needs to be challenged to be passion at all.

This is the fascinating juxtaposition that is Gen Y. We crave structure, efficiency and effectiveness, and yet, we “have a huge willingness to believe in a grand vision of things — both [in ourselves] and the world,” Buckingham reports.

But grand vision makes it dangerously easy to be underwhelmed at the banality of everyday life. Too much choice keeps us reaching and searching and never doing anything at all.

“When our ambition is bounded it leads us to work joyfully,” happiness expert Daniel Gilbert reports. So Generation Y can keep wandering. Or we can open a door and see what happens when dreams hit reality.

Life limits.

1. Watch a lot of videos.
Write down what you find appealing and what you don’t like. I tend to like short videos with lots of personality. Pay attention to the video content, length, and the format.

Check out these places to start: Gary Vaynerchuk (Wine, Marketing),  Ill Doctrine (Hip-Hop, Political), Startup Lucky (Entrepreneurship),  Design for Mankind’s Dialogue (Art/Design), Momversation (Lifestyle & Mom Blogging), Brazen Careerist (Contest Announcements), Sam Davidson (Social Change & Motivation), and Shama TV (New Media Marketing).

There are many more out there, so feel free to share your own favorites in the comments as well.

2. Stop procrastinating on the technical stuff.
A big barrier is researching the right methods to use. Like, what camera should I buy? How do I transfer video to computer? What program do I use to edit with? What site do I upload it to? How do I embed it?

But these things are remarkably easy. Just trust me on this. If you can use blogging software to write, you can use a video camera to talk. I use a Flip Mino, Windows Movie Maker and Vimeo. You don’t need anything more to start. Even big media companies like Momversation have their contributors use Flip cameras. Fancy schmancy is out.

3. Create relevant content.
Video and written content is not the same. The content you present on video should be a better fit than if you wrote about it. Videos make it easier to be self-involved, so ask yourself, are viewers gaining value from watching?

I generally use videos to clarify or expand on previous posts, instead of presenting new information. This is because the medium is so different from writing that it’s sometimes difficult to present big ideas concisely.

Another good way to use video might be to start dialogue with your readers. Present a quick problem and ask your readers for input on the solution. Or use video to respond to comments in a more personal manner.

Whatever you do, make sure that your videos are good enough to stand on their own, whether they’re complementing the rest of your blog or are the main spotlight on your video-only blog.

4. You still have to write.
Your video should have a point if you want viewers to watch the whole thing. While a conversational tone is great, it’s good to either:

a) Write down two to three bullet points that you want to cover, and/or
b) Write your entire spiel out as if it were a speech

Don’t just ramble. I tend to jot down what I want to say (a page worth is usually one to two minutes in length), and then highlight the key points I want to remember. And okay, sometimes I just practice what I want to convey in the shower. Spontaneity is good too.

5. Practice in front of the camera.
Pay specific attention to your body language and how you present yourself. Video is, after all, a visual experience and viewers want to watch someone who is both authentic and engaging.

Take up space with your arms to project confidence (good for speeches as well), or frame the shot close to your face for a more intimate conversation. Emphasize your points and exaggerate your personality with your facial expressions for an energetic video, or keep your movements tight and slow if you’re trying to show authority.

Watch yourself, experiment and then re-record until you’re happy with the result. You don’t have anything to lose. No one is watching yet.

6. Post a video that’s not perfect.
Don’t worry about getting it right your first video. It will probably be too long, you’ll look like a huge dork, and the guys building a hotel next door will probably take the exact moment you’re recording to use their jackhammer. Whatever.

Look at one of Gary Vaynerchuk’s original videos and then look at one from last week. Big difference. HUGE. You’ll improve with time and confidence too.

Video Talk.

No worries though. Optimism is strangely abundant. “There is a newly forming society of people who are making the best of being laid off,” the Boston Globe reports.

So if you’re being a curmudgeon, stop it. The recession is a great time to advance your career. It’s a myth that there aren’t any jobs. Here are three places to discover your next position:

1) Companies that save consumers money.
“While most big retail chains are closing stores and radically cutting back on new outlets, the dollar chains are planning to open hundreds of stores this year,” reports the New York Times. Dollar stores are out-performing even the Wal-Mart giant.

Not only are these once-shifty chains grabbing up market-share, but they’re now considered hot. Not just for the prices, but because consumers are discovering their service is better.

Consumers opt for value and family time over shopping in a recession, so personal attention and conveniences like an easily-accessible staff, less-crowded aisles and traversable parking is tracking with the consumer’s re-discovered values.

The online coupon distributor Coupons.com is also rapidly expanding for similar reasons. Just look at their jobs page; they have twenty-nine open positions in engineering, finance, HR, sales, marketing, and operations. And my own company Alice.com has hired three additional employees since I began work in January.

Saving money, value and convenience are hot commodities during a recession, and these companies will need your help satisfying the consumer’s appetite.

2) Start-up companies that disrupt markets.
Start-up companies like Alice thrive during a recession not only because we will provide value to the consumer, but also because we will disrupt the traditional retail market.

Other start-ups with disruptive business models are poised to take a strong foot-hold as well, like Hulu. In a recent video interview, CEO Jason Kilar reported that Hulu is ahead of their revenue plan for 2009 and they have ten advertised jobs available.

Indeed, Business Week’s Mike Mandel cites evidence that 80% of the top-ten Fortune 500 companies were started during a recession. Recessions have historically weeded out bad ideas and enlivened entrepreneurship, all of which comes together in a perfect storm for job-seekers, innovators and new thinkers.

3) Public sector jobs that solve problems.
The shift in talent to disruptive markets and new growth industries (like green, tech and health care) will have a lasting effect on the nation and the economy.

Especially since traditional careers like law, journalism and finance are all suffering from an identity crisis drastically altering career paths towards public-sector jobs including positions in non-profits, cities, counties, states and other government agencies.

“New career directions are tethered less to the dream of an immediate six-figure paycheck on Wall Street and more to the demands of a new public agenda to solve the nation’s problems,” New York Times columnist Steve Lohr argues.

And those do-gooder jobs tend to be fairly recession-proof. The top ten cities for job growth in 2009 as reported by Forbes all benefited from plentiful government jobs.

Topping the list for job growth is Madison, Wisconsin, the city I call home. A spokeswoman for the city’s chamber of commerce claimed that Madison is “historically recession proof,” in part because the city is the seat of city, state and county governments, and they all provide jobs.

The tie that binds these three opportunities for job-seekers – smart retailers, disruptive start-ups and the public sector - is the emergence of meaningful work in the face of complex problems.

Hiring Revolution.

What do you think? Have you had trouble finding a job in the recession? What industries have you seen luck and growth in, and which have been more difficult? What companies are poised to hire the next generation of talent?

I am not the most articulate person in person. It’s something that I’ve had to work on. A lot.

Mostly, it has a lot to do with my personality type. What’s going through my head sounds quite coherent to me, but I tend to say things first and think second. That makes me stumble in the middle of sentences and prefer to put words to paper instead of lips.

I didn’t really know this was a problem until my last job. A position that was all about public speaking. Speaking. Out loud. All the time. But I did well and survived. Here’s how you too can turn your weaknesses into strengths:

1. Do it small and awkward first.
I practiced my first big speech in front of Ryan. Doing speeches is actually much more difficult in front of people you know. Ryan and I weren’t dating at the time and never really hung out, but I thought he was cute and I wore a cute dress in preparation.

And it was so ridiculously embarrassing.

I don’t know what possessed me to think I could speak publicly in front of the guy that I had liked since the moment we had met, but it was awful. I was sweating. I was hot. And then cold. And I couldn’t even look at him. I looked behind him. At the corner.

Lucky for me, it worked. It totally worked and I aced the speech a few days later.

Make yourself uncomfortable before you have to perform for real. Most bloggers I know had a blog before their current blog. Companies test imperfect products with small groups before a launch. Runners do three miles before ten. You’re not the exception. No magic fairy dust for you. Only awkward, pride-swallowing affairs that give you mad confidence and oh-so-valuable experience.

2. Appreciate that weaknesses are your best asset.
The second time Ryan and I ever met and hung out, we got into a huge argument outside of the bar. And then he walked me home and asked why I was so cute when I was so angry. (And no, I didn’t let him come up.)

It’s totally annoying to fight with someone you like, but when you realize that you fight because you care things get better. You see, weaknesses are inextricably linked to strengths. They are the manifestation of fear from the things you want the most. And we avoid things that are scary to us. Like success. And love. And hard work.

But really, it’s not scary to take the first step towards being promoted to bank manager, or writing a book, or learning to swim as an adult, because then you just take another step, and then another.

3. Stop buying into natural talent.
Ryan is constantly telling me, “Relationships take work.”

I huff and I puff and then I agree. Because really, what do I know. I didn’t grow up with an example of a good relationship. Ryan did. My father died when I was in second grade. His parents are still together. My examples were happy endings. His were real people, not characters in a movie.

Nobody is excelling without practice. In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell suggests it actually takes 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert in any area.

“The people at the very top don’t just work much harder than everyone else,” he reports. “They work much, much harder.”

And according to the 10,000 hour rule, I still have two or three years of serious relationship practice left before I get my happy ending. But even then, happy endings take constant vigilance because happiness is such an attention hog. Nobody ever tells you that, right? Like, usually when you reach your goals/success/nirvana the work is supposed to be over.

But since Tiger Woods isn’t taking a day off, neither can you (except maybe when it’s 83 degrees outside after a Winter in Wisconsin). The real meditation is in the constancy of habit.

Strong Side.

Facebook was like being at a college frat party with all the people from your school, but online.

Well, things changed. Facebook opened up, Second Life created a virtual world for everyone to live in, LinkedIn connected all the older white-collar professionals, Twitter jumped on the scene and let all the narcissists scream, “Look at me,” and Facebook followed the trend with their new redesign.

But Generation Y is not inventing the new web. Older people are. The new web is all about hyper-connectivity, real-time updates, and living your life online. And mainstream twenty-somethings aren’t buying into it.

Twitter
According to Comscore, the majority of Twitter users worldwide are 35 or older. Young adults 18-24 only make up 10.6% of the Twitter population in the US and are less likely than the average user to tweet. 45-54 year olds are actually 36 percent more likely than average to visit Twitter.

The traditional social media early adopters are 18 -24 and Twitter is the new social media darling. Why isn’t Gen Y biting?

LinkedIn
Gen Y is not on LinkedIn. The average age of a LinkedIn user is 40-years old. LinkedIn profiles do two things. They let you show the world all the great things you’ve accomplished (most twenty-somethings haven’t accomplished much yet) and they let you connect with other business people in your industry (Gen Y has no idea what industry they’re in and don’t have many connections yet).

Want more proof that LinkedIn doesn’t get Gen Y? They just did a major marketing and PR push to recent grads offering their premium service for 3 months free and pitching the site as a way to get jobs in a down economy. So far, this isn’t working, and I don’t expect it to anytime soon.

Facebook
Facebook is growing at an unparalleled speed, and the new adopters are older folks. The 35 to 54 Year old demographic grew at a rate of 276% over the last six months and the 55+ demographic grew more than 194% over the same time period, while 18-24 year olds only grew 20%. These same older adopters are joining sites like Twitter where it’s all about real-time updates and hyper-connectivity.

When Facebook made a design change to simulate Twitter, there was a major user revolt, of course, many of the angriest people were long time Facebook users (i.e. Gen Y). Sure, change is difficult and oftentimes people buy in after some getting used to. But this one just seems different.

Want More?
A recent Accenture survey concluded that Baby boomers, defined in Accenture’s survey as those 45 years old or older, are embracing popular consumer technology applications nearly 20 times faster than younger generations. Compared to a year ago, Gen Y consumers between the ages of 18 and 24, are decelerating their use of consumer electronics and related services including social networking, blogging, listening to podcasts and posting video on the Internet. Yet, there was a 67 percent increase among baby boomers reading blogs or listening to podcasts..

So why isn’t Gen Y buying in to the new web?

Are we simply not a group of early adopters? Would we rather be the followers waiting to see what our older, more experienced peers latch on to before we jump in?

Or, does Gen Y have an innate sense that too much connectivity and too much time online is unproductive and does nothing more than allow you to run in circles and chase something that you can never actually attain.

Or maybe, Gen Y is still all about being cool, and Silicon Valley just isn’t that cool. Facebook isn’t even pretending to be cool anymore.

Chris Cox, Facebook’s Director of Products says, “The people who started the company weren’t cool. I’m not cool, if you look at the people who work here, it’s much more nerdy and curious than cool….Cool only lasts for so long, but being useful is something that applies to everyone.”

He’s probably right. Useful does apply to everyone, but hip, early adopters are always chasing cool. They’re not chasing useful.

Personally, I think its a combination of the three and when the right tool comes along, Gen Y will take the lead. But whatever the reason is, the numbers show that mainstream Gen Y is not latching on to the newest social media tools, and for a group of people who are supposed to be the trend setters, this is a strange phenomenon.

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And while young people have the best intentions to be part of the communities we live in, we’re being challenged by a number of conflicting events that contribute to a lack of involvement in local community.

For starters, disillusionment towards faith and religion has forced the institution to turn its reign over to Facebook as chief community builder. And despite the fact that our social circles are shrinking and loneliness is increasing, we choose where we live, in part, by how easy it is for us to maintain our quasi-anonymity.

Our friends “move in the same circles we do and are exposed to the same information. To get new information we have to activate our weak ties,” Albert-Laszlo Barabasi explains in his book Linked (via Valeria Maltoni).

So all of our Facebook and Twitter friends (those weak ties) are actually “critical to the creative environment of a city” sociologist Richard Florida reports, “because they allow for rapid entry of new people and rapid absorption of new ideas.”

Life and community, my friends, just isn’t the same. And nowhere is this so obvious, in-your-face and damning than the current alarm of the real estate market.

Before the economy collapsed, young people were being locked out of the housing market by astronomical housing prices and by our predecessors, Generation X and the Baby Boomers, who grew even richer.

Now that the housing market has collapsed, it means more young people are content with not owning a home. But as the prevailing American sentiment goes, if you don’t own something, you don’t have a stake in the future of our country. Young people don’t buy that. Literally.

Ownership is an antiquated belief belonging to another generation. Generation Y abandons ownership. Today’s young people subscribe to a culture of services and leasing.

We subscribe to services that allow our lives to be easier – Peapod, Mint, Netflix, Pandora, Alice, and ZipCar to name a few. More and more individuals do this in order to pay less, acquire more, and change whenever the desire hits.

“Owning a car used to be the key to freedom,” one millennial marketer argues. “But now younger generations are seeing car ownership as a liability that ties them down.”

And being tied down is the last thing the transient Gen Yer wants. “Owning a home also ties workers down,” NY Times columnist Paul Krugman reports. “Even in the best of times, the costs and hassle of selling one home and buying another — one estimate put the average cost of a house move at more than $60,000 — tend to make workers reluctant to go where the jobs are.”

That’s cool with Gen Y because we plan to move in a month or two for that tech job, relish inner-city downtown life, or can’t see the sense in purchasing a home when we’re going overseas in June to work at a NGO anyway.

“Houses simply do not fit in very well with the demands for flexibility, mobility and continuous innovation in the creative economy,” Florida reports. “They cost a lot and suck up a ton of capital. They are energy sinks and most people and families don’t use or need all that space. They’re environmental disasters. There is a growing body of economics research which suggests home ownership is associated with lower rates of productivity, lower incomes, and higher rates of unemployment.”

Gen Y will certainly grow up at some point, make commitments, have a family and settle down – indeed, research shows that is our every intention. But we are doing so at a later age, and by then, it may be too late and the world too different for local community to thrive.

Changing quarters.

What do you think? Will the housing crisis and Gen Y’s attitude towards ownership change community forever? And if you don’t own a home and aren’t connected to any particular institution, will you have any reason to contribute to the local community? Does it matter?

This video is a response to the comments I received on my post, ‘Don’t Burn Bridges’ is Bad Career Advice, that was also featured on Brazen Careerist.

One frequent comment talked about the idea that you will someday need a reference from a previous employer to get a job. I argue that you may not need that type of reference, especially for “cool jobs.”

People burn bridges when they don’t like their jobs and their bosses. Or work with totally lame people or are completely bored. So you get fired, or laid off, or there comes a time when your job just isn’t what it used to be so you leave.

You shouldn’t just walk out. You should give notice and finish your projects and be polite (if for no other reason than your own sense of pride and accomplishment). But there’s no point in continuing a negative relationship once you’re out the door. The advice to not burn bridges is outdated.

Here’s why it’s okay to cut ties:

1) You’ll change careers too often for it to matter.

Most likely, you’ll change jobs six to eight times before you’re thirty and 40 million people relocate each year, while 15 million make significant moves of more than 50 or 100 miles, reports Richard Florida.

The old rule was that workers would move to another job in the same industry in the same town. This encouraged politics and the necessity of kissing butt. But work is changing, and now you’ll change careers and locations so often it won’t matter.

2) Your old boss won’t help you.

“Healthy relationships, whether personal or professional, are formed on the basis of give and take,” LaTosha Johnson argues. It’s rare that someone will help you if you can’t help them. And besides, you won’t benefit from forcing a relationship with someone that doesn’t share your values. When push comes to shove, these people will not help you. Why would you want to be associated with them anyway?

3) You won’t need a reference.
If you’re leaving your job, you’ll probably be looking for a new job that is more fun and more challenging. Most cool jobs don’t require traditional references. Instead, they require that you know someone to get you in the door and vouch for you. That’s usually never your current employer.

It’s quite easy to prove yourself and your work ethic in other situations like blogging, volunteering or side projects that show your worth and capability. Networking outside of your career and company is a great path towards success and is your best safety net.

4) You can have an enemy (or two).

But probably not more. Caitlin McCabe says that competition is motivation. Having competition and people that remind you of who you don’t want to be is actually healthy.

In a playful but entirely useful article, Chuck Klosterman argues for both a nemesis and an archenemy: “We measure ourselves against our nemeses, and we long to destroy our archenemies. Nemeses and archenemies are the catalysts for everything.”

5) You can start over.

Whenever you start something new, ask yourself, “If the worst happened, would you be okay? Can you accept the worst case scenario? Can you fail and survive?” Because you might just ruin your reputation, bankrupt your organization and turn an entire city against you. It happens to good people every day. Really.

Failure is an option. And it’s your best negotiating tool. That is, the ability to start over gives you unlimited opportunities.

None of these reasons excuse you from doing a superior job or give you an excuse to be a dick or a slacker. But there’s no reason to hold onto baggage that isn’t healthy. Remember, there’s a reason you’re leaving.

Blazing victory.

I recently had the chance to experience both the new Virgin America and Delta Airlines, on flights to and from Boston to LAX and Boston to Atlanta to New Orleans, respectively. Despite differences in weather conditions, flight times, delays, etc. I have to say I am ecstatic about the future of air travel, and now realize why Delta and other major carriers have found themselves nearing bankruptcy year after year.

I won’t get into specifics about why my Delta experience was so horrid, but I will say, that it’s no wonder why passengers have become increasingly more frustrated with big airlines and have chosen to try out newer, discount airlines. Also, in hindsight, if I had flown to New Orleans on Virgin America, I am positive that I would have had an enjoyable flight, despite any delays.

Like many others, I don’t fly well and tend to get a little anxious during flight. To my complete surprise, Virgin provided the most calming atmosphere while waiting to board and while in flight. Their boarding staff was cool, calm, friendly, and engaging as soon as we entered the gate (after it took only 15 minutes to travel from Beacon Hill through Logan security!!). The boarding process was just as easy as the online seat selection. The flight attendants made all the passengers feel at home, while swanky background music played and dim purple and red lights gleamed as we took their seats-in comfortable spacious leather seats.

The best part of the flight, which really sets the airline apart from all others–even Jet Blue–is Red, Virgin America’s in flight entertainment. Red kicks off with a witty video about in flight safety, which honestly puts all other hokey seat belt demonstrations to shame. Besides Wi-Fi access, the system offers numerous movies for purchase, TV shows, radio, games (touch screen and controller based), and a make your own playlist option. Furthermore, you can browse and order meals, snacks and beverages right from your seat, delivered promptly by the attentive staff.

Virgin’s slogan, This is How to Fly, really says it all. I don’t know how we ever expected anything less. Even if Virgin didn’t have such amazing low fares (I flew to LA for only $99 each way!) I would still opt to fly Virgin over another major carrier…now that’s value & brand equity!

-Sarah Hutton

I read a lot of posts on social media hoping someone will say something new, but that never happens. We need to stop masturbating to what the tool is and start using it to see how it works.

Some of my favorite bloggers have said recently that they want to stop their current blog and start writing a blog about social media. How unoriginal. You aren’t an expert because you write about social media. You’re an expert because you use it.

It’s like saying social media isn’t as individual as the style of clothes that we choose to wear, or the neighborhood we live in, or the brand of toilet paper we buy. Different things work in different ways for different people.

Social media is as expansive as every kind of book out there, and while there will be bestsellers and cult classics, there’s no one style or clear path to follow.

Innovators aren’t people that join the conversation, but interrupt it. Innovators ignore the should and should nots, and just act.

I get why people write about it – it’s a fixation — an obsession for many of us — that we all have in common. But you can’t define social media. You can’t package it up neatly in a box.

Here’s how I know this is true. I don’t like Scott Monty, social media guru for Ford, at all. I mean, he’s a nice guy (nice enough to email me personally when I ranted about him), but I don’t like the way he represents Ford, and I think his approach is slightly ridiculous. But it is working for him, and tons and tons of people do like him.

Also, Chris Brogan isn’t all that original, Guy Kawasaki can be annoying, and ProBlogger writes about the same thing every day. There. I said it.

Celebrities are not more interesting than you. They’re not smarter. They have skills. In social media, they have mad skills. Mad, crazy, enviable marketing skills. You can have respect for individuals and their game – and don’t get me wrong, I have a lot of respect for the Scott Montys and Chris Brogans of the world. They are succeeding and deserve props.

But it doesn’t mean you have to follow what they say, or emulate their game or even read them. That makes you an observer. An observer that sits in a wagon pulled around by “the influencers.” What chance do you have if you’re not even thinking on your own two feet?

Here’s how to escape the social media wagon:

1) Unsubscribe from one of the talking heads. How do you expect to be original and innovative when you read what everyone else reads? Lightning will not strike down upon you, I promise.

2) Subscribe to one of the thousands of other bloggers out there that are putting out real and original content. Content about politics, design & art, relationships, news, fashion, careers and issues. Content about things that matter. (Yes, fashion matters too).

3) Write about something else besides social media.

4) Repeat.

Novel idea.

I’ve been following BusinessWeek’s John Byrne since I first got hooked on BW and the Cover Stories podcast in college. John continues to teach me something fresh about the digital space everyday as he updates his Twitter feed and Facebook status with information on what’s happening in editorial meetings, uses his What’s Your Story Idea? blog to inspire or round out BusinessWeek stories with the perspective of average readers and finds time to share his playlist of classics and podcast intro tunes on Blip.FM (where his DJ name is JohnnyB by the way).

He was kind enough to answer some of my questions about his life and work in digital and I thought I would share them here. He discusses everything from shifting journalism and BusinessWeek from “a product writers hand over to readers” to an “intellectual campfire,” what it would have been like if he had grown up with social media, the liberating nature of a 140 character limit and some of his favorite sites on the Web. Enjoy and drop a comment with your thoughts.

AM: Describe yourself for readers (in 140 characters or less, of course):

John: I’m curious about the world and people in it, passionate about work, music, food & life, fascinated by the power of great ideas.

AM: When you wake up in the morning, what are the first three tabs you open on the Web?

John: BusinessWeek.com because I need to insure the site looks good and smart.
The New York Times to get my fix of the general news and their take on business.
TweetDeck to see what my friends, colleagues, and other people involved in new and old media are doing.

AM: How do you stay current? What sites, papers, magazines, blogs and podcasts are you pretty loyal to?

John: I have to read the competition daily to stay on top of what’s important in the world of business. I used to do that by reading in print The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Economist, Fortune, and Forbes.

More often than not, I’ll now visit their Web sites and surf through lots of other sources. Truth is, I find the collaborative filtering of media via Twitter a new way to sort through things. It was through Twitter that I found the superb article on Politico.com in The New Republic and James Warren on the current struggles of old media in The Atlantic. And it’s also how I have discovered my favorite blogs like Jeff Jarvis’ BuzzMachine.

AM: How do you think your life and work would be different if you’d started out as a digital kid and grown up with Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, blogging, etc. as kids are today?

John: It’s true that I’m a digital immigrant and not a digital native. But I feel entirely comfortable in the digital space. I podcast. I blog. I tweet and I Blip. I’m on Facebook and LinkedIn. I spend a lot of time on the Web.

Yet I fell in love with journalism at the age of 15 when I worked as an office boy for The Morning Call in Paterson, N.J. One of my jobs was to send back copies of the newspaper to readers who often wanted an issue for a wedding announcement or an obituary. I’d sit in the morgue on a stack of dusty newspapers and read the yellow, brittle pages of past issues bound in large black volumes: Charles Lindbergh’s flight across the Atlantic, Hitler’s invasion of Poland, the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the election of John F. Kennedy. From this small room, I discovered and traveled the world and its history. I fell in love with journalism and that affair never ended.

What I love most about the Web is that it provides access to the world’s information in seconds from anywhere. You don’t have to sit in a newspaper morgue or a library to get information you need or want. And despite the disruptive nature of the technology to print, it is the most creative space ever devised for journalism. And it has allowed BusinessWeek to have an audience of readers that is three times larger than it otherwise would be if we were only a magazine.

AM: What’s the best thing about NOT having grown up online?

John: I don’t take digital for granted. I grew up in front of a black and white television, watching Abbott and Costello, Walter Cronkite, and Soupy Sales. So I still have this gee whiz fascination about how technology can transform what we do and, more importantly how we can creatively use it to transform our worlds.

AM: How do you interact with your own kids on social networks? Are they super connected in the same places you are? Do they accept your Facebook friend requests or put you on limited profile?

John: I actually think, or like to think, I’m more hip to social media than they are. My son follows my tweets. My two daughters don’t. I haven’t friended them on Facebook because I want to respect their privacy. So we don’t really use social media to keep in touch. It’s more email and telephone.

One thing they all do that drives me crazy is text messaging. I can never figure that out.

AM: How do you interact with your employees, contributors and readers online?

John: Through my blog, What’s Your Story Idea?, and through Twitter. Increasingly, we’re using Twitter rather than email to communicate with each other. It’s simply easier to use, and the character limit is pleasantly liberating. That sounds like a contradiction so let we explain. Brevity allows you to communicate more in less time. That’s one of the reasons I really enjoy Twitter.

AM: What’s the coolest thing you’ve seen a brand or organization do online recently?

John: The New York Times consistently surprises me with new innovative digital ideas. Check out these roll-over pictures here.

And I think it was a brilliant for Slate and Flickr to partner up to take pictures of the recession. Wish I thought of that idea.

AM: One of the coolest things I saw on the Web this year was how BW began sourcing ideas, quotes and new perspectives for stories directly from real readers on the Web. Actually, you started this a few years back with the Blogs Will Change Your Business Issue. How has the process of opening the magazine up in that way affected sales, the editorial process and BW in general?

John: It’s affected everything we do. Our sales reps are in the marketplace talking about user engagement and why it’s so crucial to make meaningful connections with users. If they’re deeply engaged with your journalism, odds are they will be deeply engaged with the advertising, too. We’re still learning how to do this and how it can be used to not only build community but also vastly improve the great business journalism we do.

We’re doing nothing less than transforming what journalism is–attempting to change our craft from a product writers hand over to readers to a process that involves and engages users at every stage, from story idea generation and reporting to thinking of the story as an intellectual campfire around which you gather people and where the journalism comes alive through conversation.

I recently visited the offices of The Guardian newspaper in London and met with its community editor. She uses a wonderful metaphor to describe this post-publication role of the journalist. The writer is essentially a parent, she says, giving birth to a story that is a child. You wouldn’t abandon your child after birth, and journalists shouldn’t abandon their stories and the readers who consume them. Journalists have to get actively involved in the discussions their stories create. And like caring for children, they need to nurture and cultivate those conversations with readers.

Most of all, it’s just fun. This week before going into the studio to record my weekly podcast on our magazine’s cover story, I asked all my Tweeps to suggest songs that captured the turmoil in the stock market. One of the trademarks of my podcast is the song choice. Within an hour, I had about 50 great suggestions from Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m Going Down” to AC\DC’s “Highway to Hell.” I picked the Bruce song, in part, because three followers recommended it and because I think it was just perfect for our cover on how bad the market crash has been these past 17 months.

AM: What’s next for you and BW online? Any cool new features, podcasts, etc we should be looking forward to?

John: I think Twitter is going to become even more critical to our engagement efforts. Already, we have more than 40 writers and editors on Twitter. We’re using it for everything from crowdsourcing key editorial projects and stories to reaching out for advice from users.

We’ve also integrated Twitter into our site for a collaborative project with users on Obama’s economic stimulus measures. It was a very effective way to quickly gather smart stimulus ideas from people for Obama. Twitter itself is a powerful medium for collaboration and communication.

Only two weeks ago, an article on social media became the most-read story of the day due to Twitter. About 30 percent of the traffic to that one article came from Twitter, with just 8 percent from Google.

AM: Leave us with some cool links to check out (top five random picks):

John: FiveThirtyEight for political polls.
StoryCorps.net at NPR for a highly creative series on the lives of ordinary people.
Penelope Trunk’s Brazen Careerist for her witty prose and sensible advice.
Nieman Journalism Lab for intelligent analysis on the crisis in journalism.
Andrew Sullivan’s Atlantic blog because he’s so damn smart and entertaining.

-Amanda Mooney

It’s been a long time since I went on a real vacation. Since starting Brazen Careerist, I haven’t really taken any time off. Work is always on my mind, and I’ve found some way to work every single day for the past 18 months. In a lot of ways it doesn’t seem right to drop everything and take a real vacation. We just took in some funding, we’re gaining new users and readers faster than ever, and I’m full of ideas for where the site should go in the next six to twelve months. The truth is, shutting off for four days doesn’t even sound like fun.

So, Ive decided that I will be working on vacation. I won’t be sitting in front of a computer all day, but I will be running new ideas past my brother and Rebecca. I’ll be discussing our latest financing round and other issues with my parents. And I’ll probably put together a PowerPoint presentation for our March board meeting on the plane and at the airports.

I have allowed work to completely, totally, consume my life, and I couldn’t be happier. After years of discussing what work life balance really means I’ve realized that to me, at this point in time, working on vacation is my perfect work/life balance.

What’s yours?

For more thoughts on working on vacation, check out the post I wrote from Napa Valley, California (my last real vacation)

When Working on Vacation Isn’t Really Work

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The amazing Mr. Mayorga just emailed me this and it was too good not to share.

[Not sure where he borrowed the image from or I'd cite.]

-Amanda Mooney

Nine months later, the economy has collapsed and the workplace is changing before our eyes. This next year or two will be a defining time for our generation, and I believe it will shape our world view and work view in many ways. Based on this, I’ve come up with 10 more ways Generation Y will change the workplace. Hopefully it will strike up just as much conversation and maybe even some action, so things can start changing for the better.

1. We’ll reduce executive compensation for underperforming companies
It’s already happening. Obama put a $500,000 cap on executive pay at the banks that were bailed out. In 2007, the average CEO salary at the largest companies was more than $11 Million. It’s hard to justify paying anyone that much. In some cases, these executives probably do provide more $11 million in value to their respective companies. And when that happens, they should be compensated for it. But having a CEO expect $11 million regardless of performance is just bad business. The Obama administration is setting the precedent, and as Gen Y takes power we will follow through and reduce executive compensation for underperforming companies.

2. Discussing salaries will be completely normal
Transparency is king. You hear it everywhere these days. Social media is forcing companies to open up their doors and show the world what’s really going on. Obama has promised budget transparency to the American public. And the vast majority of the world’s under-30 population are living their entire lives online. Transparency is no longer an option. Websites like Glassdoor and Payscale let you compare your salary with others in the industry. My company, Brazen Careerist practices complete transparency. Even financial gurus like Suzie Orman say it’s great for business. As Gen Y continues to work our way up the ladder, it will just be a matter of time before companies of all sizes have transparent salaries.

3. Employees will be more loyal than ever before
Transparency does not just mean that everyone knows what everyone else in a company makes. It means that the company must educate their employees on everything that is going on. When Pepsi was ready to release their new “Gen Y Friendly” logo to the world, they wanted to make sure that their employees weren’t surprised when they found it in the grocery store. So they invited their staff to a party and introduced the product. The employees were excited and they felt like the company actually cared about them. When employees feel like they matter and the company thinks about them first, they feel a sense of pride and true loyalty to a company. Expect to see this trend continue as Gen Y comes of age.

4. There will be less mass layoffs, but more pay cuts
When someone feels a true sense of pride and loyalty to their company, they’re more likely to figure out a way for everyone to pull through when times are tough. We watched our parents and our friend’s parents being laid off when we were young and we’re going through it now. We know the hardship that comes with it. Don’t be surprised to see across-the-board pay-cuts instead of mass layoffs when times get tough. Start ups do it all the time – my company did it without thinking twice. And it’s already happening at large corporations; HP just instituted a 5% or more across-the-board pay-cut rather than laying off hundreds. When you’re part of a team, you want that team to succeed, and you’ll do what’s necessary to survive. And as we all know, Generation Y is the ultimate team player generation.

5. We’ll truly get over the “punch clock” mentality
It’s easy to say you have a progressive workplace and that you don’t care what hours people are actually working at the office or what they do outside of work. But the truth is, companies care and people care. At the typical company, everyone notices what time someone leaves the office and what time people get in. We’re still stuck in a workplace that was designed around producing widgets on an assembly line. As life moves more and more online, and new technologies are invented that allow traditional offices to be truly optional, the punch clock mentality will slowly disappear. By the time Gen Y is ready to retire, people won’t even know what a punch clock is, and maybe then we will finally be working in the environment that knowledge workers are meant to work in.

6. Independent contractors will become part of the team
Nearly every company hires independent contractors to work for them. Contractors are great. They don’t require health insurance and you don’t have to pay the extra taxes. But they’re often treated very differently than traditional employees. As more people develop skills that allow them to be effective independent contractors, and some form of universal healthcare is finally adopted, companies will begin to think of their contractors as their employees. When Brazen had a big budget, we worked with a ton of contractors. When people asked how many employees we had, I would always mention that our team felt much larger because of all the freelancers. As the number of independent contractors increases, they will become a vital part of the team.

7. Corporate branding will work in conjunction with personal branding
Companies spend a lot of money on branding. They throw huge budgets at PR firms and superbowl ads. It usually results in a ton of brand recognition. But brand recognition is no longer enough. Consumers want transparency, conversation and experience. Generation Y doesn’t want a company to talk AT us, we want to talk WITH a company. The only way for a company to talk with a person is to give employees the freedom to interact. It’s already happening as people like Sharpie Susan are branding themselves as social media players and helping their companies in the process. Who knows exactly how this will play out, but as Gen Y invents new technologies and new marketing strategies, corporate branding will never look the same.

8. Leadership will be a team effort
Jack Welch was a larger than life CEO. Everyone knew who he was and his personal brand may have been just as big as GE’s brand. In Good to Great, Jim Collins determined that dominant CEOs like Jack Welch actually have a lower than average ROI during their tenure. This is because CEOs need to be respected and admired by their employees, and they need to be selfless and always thinking about the organization. As a team-oriented group, Generation Y will not stand by and watch one person insert his will on the company. We will figure out a new form of leadership, where one person is the decision maker, but leading is a team effort. With all the new social technologies, there will always be a place for people with huge personal brands and huge personal egos. They will make a lot of money and still be well-known, but they won’t be the ones running large organizations.

9. We will really know people before we hire them
I can’t tell you exactly how they will look, but sooner than later, resumes will be extremely different. It’s not because a hard copy piece of paper is outdated, it’s because people are becoming more and more complex. Resumes were created when people went to school, graduated, got a job and maybe another job. But today people blog, job-hop and have multiple hobbies outside of work. We live our lives online. It’s too limiting to judge someone based on one sheet of paper. Social technologies give employers a window into people’s souls. As Gen Y become responsible for hiring decisions, you can bet we will know almost everything we possibly can about someone before we give them an offer.

10. Entry level employees will be students and teachers
In the old days, entry-level employees had to pay dues before they moved up. This makes sense, it’s impossible to know how a job or an industry works when you’ve never been there before. Young people had everything to learn and nothing to teach. Things are different now. For the first time in history, the youngest people in the workplace have the most knowledge about a very important topic – technology. And get this; we want to teach our bosses and managers how to use these technologies. This trend will continue. Young people will stay on top of the newest useful technologies. As Gen Y grows up, cross-mentor programs will be instituted. Old will teach young and young will teach old. Sounds like a great environment to me.

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On one hand, we are incredibly transparent and personal. We share a 365 day live feed of our experiences, thoughts, relationships, ideas… At the same time we are all guilty of and take some degree of pleasure in photoshopping our identities. Google “MySpace Angle” or check out how your friends’ well-tailored “Favorite Books,” “Favorite Movies,” or “About Me” sections are truthful, yes, but shape a pretty specific, and usually aspirational image of who they are. Don’t we always mix a little Lady GaGa with Bob Dylan to add credibility to our confectionary and pretty fleeting tastes?

I thought about this again over the weekend when I was reading a book on Richard Avedon. He was quoted saying, “Portraits reveal a truth about who we want to be. We dressed up… we posed… we borrowed… it seemed necessary.” As we reveal ourselves to the Web, we align ourselves with the people, entertainment, content and even brands that tell the right story we want to share.

And I thought about it again when I was flipping through one of my favorite Mobile Youth decks on Slideshare. In it, Graham Brown sums up our generation so well saying our two big asks are, “Help us belong and help us feel significant.”

“Help us belong and help us feel significant” perfectly answers what seems to be the contradiction of our identity online. We want to be a part of a collective and at the same time, completely stand out by publishing our personal mix of experiences and thoughts that can only be uniquely our own and reposting them all over the Web so they’re recognized by at least a small audience.

Anyway, it lead me to create this short little video message to brands. We’re in flux and there’s a huge role that you can play. Don’t underestimate that and don’t take it for granted.

-Amanda Mooney

I was rereading some of Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s poetry today and a few excerpts from Challenge to Young Poets and Poetry as Insurgent Art resonated with me as a digital kid writing on the Web…

-Amanda Mooney

As the 2.0 space continues to evolve, self-proclaimed “experts”, “leaders” and “visionaries” are a dime a dozen. They drop self-serving knowledge on you like a Sensei in a Karate class your Mom made you take. They demand you bow to them and follow their lead, because someday you might be lucky enough to reach their mythical stature (even though they really don’t care either way).

What kills me about these people is the sheer irony of it all. While preaching the gospel of feedback and engagement, they themselves don’t do either quite well. They plead for “transparency”, “relationships” and mock former clients /employers on their lack of social media know-how (often in public forums). This isn’t professional, nor is it productive.

If you’ve got a few hundred or thousand Twitter followers, a chance to speak in public or an opportunity to share your “expertise”, please do it tastefully, intelligently and respectfully. Be a teacher, not a preacher.

Take a hint from some of the pros that actually engage, actually converse and actually have enough credible experience to be worthy of these titles (which they will most often humbly defer) and do the right thing.

If you’ve got a message, I’m asking you to not let your ego overshadow it. I know it’s hard, but it’s worth it.

-Will Wheeler

Photo courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons

Since that time I have learned a great deal, and I admit to not knowing half as much as I thought I knew when I graduated. But on top of learning a great deal, I’ve seen a great deal. I’ve seen my older coworkers be too comfortable in their positions, I’ve seen them take themselves too seriously, and I’ve seen them continually be out of touch with the real world. I’ve seen what it’s like to work for a large company, and I’ve seen what it has done to the creativity of my coworkers. So in their honor, I’ve compiled a list of 23 things I know at 23 that I pray I remember at 43.

1. Just because your salary grows doesn’t mean your lifestyle should
2. Physical fitness is the best way to mental health
3. Don’t stop dreaming
4. The Industrious Gain Wealth, While the Wealthy Remain Industrious
5. Allow your inner Michael Scott to show Edit: I know he’s an idiot, but he always puts people first. That’s what I meant.
6. Think Different
7. Welcome other ideas
8. Look down, that’s the furthest you’ll fall. Look up, how high will you fly?
9. If you don’t let people blow you away, you’ll never be impressed
10. Make time for the things you love, they make you who you are
11. Laugh
12. Don’t be afraid to say no
13. Stay in touch with college students, they are where innovation comes from
14. Dream Big
15. Public Companies are where innovation goes to die
16. Share ideas: If you’re scared you’re going to get screwed you’re never going to get laid
17. If someone wants it more, let them have it, if you want it more, compete for it and prove it.
18. Observe behavior
19. Keep It Simple
20. Stay flexible and open to change
21. Stay Informed
22. Surround yourself with those you strive to be like
23. I can (still) Change the world

What do you want to make sure you remember in 20 years?

Related posts:

1. Why You Shouldn’t Be Scared To Share Ideas
2. How I Impress Older Coworkers
3. An Open Farewell Letter To My Co-Workers

1. Talk about technology
This is the first time in history that the youngest generation in the workforce has the most knowledge on a very important business topic – technology. This gives Generation Y a ton of advantages that past generations didn’t have. We can provide ideas for new marketing techniques and new recruiting strategies, and we can implement these ideas at very little cost. Regardless of whether or not it’s true, people assume that if you’re in your twenties, you are an expert on technology. The next time you’re in a room full of people talking about a topic that’s a little over your head, pick the right time to chime in and talk about technology. Explain how Facebook, or blogging or Twitter can help. People will listen because when it comes to technology, you’re the expert.

2. Ask questions
When you’re the youngest in the room, it’s important that you appear confident and competent. But you have to be careful that people don’t mistake confidence for arrogance. You’re not expected to know everything at 25, and older folks will expect that you’re always trying to learn. The best way to show people that you want to learn and that you don’t think you know everything is to ask a ton of questions. Be sure the questions are relevant to the topic being discussed, but remember, there’s no such thing as a stupid question (only stupid people…just kidding!)

3. When the kid convo comes up, keep your mouth shut
I hate the kid talk. But somehow, someway, a room full of 30 and 40 somethings will ALWAYS end up talking about their kids. Whether its little league, ballet, their latest illness or anything else, my only advice is to nod your head, force a smile, keep your mouth shut and pretend like you’re interested. At IBM I made the mistake of chiming in on a few of these, but all I could come up with were old war stories about my little league days. Relating to their kids is a quick way to remind everyone how young you are. Avoid this at all costs.

4. Talk about your weekend fun
This may seem a little counter-intuitive, but I’ve found that older folks love hearing your weekend party stories. I’m sure it’s fun for them to relive the old days of late night parties. Usually they will talk about a few stories of their own, it’s a great conversation starter and it allows them to relate to you. This is one case where it actually is ok to show your age because you are relating to the other people in the room, not their kids. Just be sure you don’t give too many less than professional details and you’ll be fine.

5. Be an expert, but don’t flaunt it
You should be an expert in something. There is no excuse for you not to have some sort of specialty or at least a career-specific topic that you are highly interested in. When that topic does come up, it’s the perfect opportunity to display all the hard work you’ve put into becoming an expert. Talk about your ideas and give some background on how you learned about the topic. Just be careful that you don’t flaunt your “expert status” too much. Nobody likes a show off.

6. Accept every favor you’re offered
In college, I wanted to be a psych major. Turns out, I’m much more into analyzing my own issues then other peoples. But that’s beside the point. One thing I learned in a Social Psychology class is that people actually like you more after they do a favor for you. It seems strange, but it’s true. And when you’re the youngest in the room you probably have the least money and least connections, so if they like you, people will offer you things like sports tickets, introductions to high-powered friends etc. Next time, remember that they want you to accept this favor and they’ll actually like you more if you do!

Depending on how you look at it, being the youngest in the room can be a good thing or a bad thing. Some people will never give you a chance if you’re under 30, but if you remember these six tips, you’ll have a better shot at fitting in with the older crowd.

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This reminds me of a post/itchingannoyancethought I keep having about the Web. We’re trying desperately to find, blog, tweet something original and with a single Google, you notice that you’re about to post something that’s really not original at all. I like this quote from Perks and itsalex. I guess it’s just a matter of perception. 

Background image via l*_*l Quote via l*_*l 

-Amanda Mooney

By all accounts, it was pretty terrible. I was used to having lots of friends, going out all the time, and counting on a good paycheck to come in every other week.

But then we raised some money. We took bonuses, we got regular paychecks, we hired people, we rented an office, and I moved in to a nice place with my brother and bought a flat screen TV. It was great. It was comfortable.

It was boring.

Any true entrepreneur will tell you that the best time in the life of a start up is the beginning. You work tons of hours and you can’t wait until you’re funded because that’s when you’ll be able to do the things you really want to do.

But once you get funded, the headaches just begin, and it starts to feel like a “real job.” It’s easy to get comfortable, to forget about all the hard work you put in before there was cash in the bank. And strangely enough, you end up wishing you could go back to the beginning or sell your company and start a new one.

Rather than being completely focused on the company, I found myself walking down the street, sometimes nostalgic about the little apartment Ryan and I lived in and sometimes dreaming about our big exit and all the money that would come with it.

Then, before we even realized what was happening, the market crashed, investors pulled back, and we didn’t have salaries anymore. The whole company had gotten too comfortable; we weren’t prepared to handle the downturn.

But oddly enough, three months later, things are going really well. We made a decision to switch up our business model and bring in revenue any way possible. Every dollar we make is treated like gold, we’ve managed to cut our burn rate by nearly 50% without losing any productivity, and we’ve realized just how many ways there are to make money, without begging someone for a multimillion dollar investment

I’m confident that we’re going to make it through, and I’m convinced that when Brazen Careerist does end up a success, we will have George Bush to thank (Did I really say that?). The recession allowed us, or some might say forced us, to reevaluate and start over.

In a way, I did get my wish, Brazen is like a brand new start up, except we have a site that’s already built, we have founders who have all done this part before, and we have a whole army of people that want us to succeed.

I’ve learned a lot from this whole experience, both personally and professionally. Difficult situations are the best learning opportunities; when things are good it’s very difficult to see how you can improve. But when times are tough you have the opportunity to make difficult, life-altering decisions. Great businesses and great leaders embrace difficult situations and thrive when times are tough.

The question is, when adversity is staring you in the face, will you get comfortable, or will you embrace the adversity and emerge stronger than ever?

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Pitching is integral to any young PR professional’s career. Despite it’s importance, many of my peers (myself included) find this to be the most challenging aspect of our profession. The only way to truly get better is to have experience, and many companies have policies that don’t allow interns to pitch.

So how do we learn about pitching without practicing? Doing a lot of research and reading numerous case studies helped me grow more comfortable when I first started doing media and blogger outreach.

Over the months, I’ve collected quite a few posts that have helped me enhance my pitching skills. They are all bookmarked and I refer to them often, especially when I’m stumped or uncertain about how to approach a new contact.

Below are some of my favorites that you might find useful, too:

Blogger Relations (and Social Media Release) Case Study by Todd Defren

How You Might View Bloggers by Chris Brogan

A Day in the Life of My Inbox – and When E-mail Marketing is Spam by Josh Bernoff

Open Letter to Fitness and Health Brands Pitching to Bloggers by Stephanie Quilao

Anatomy of a Bad Pitch by Dave Fleet

Great PR Manners Go a Long Way by Chris Brogan

Putting PR People on Notice by CityMama

e-Book: The Art and Science of Blogger Relations by Brian Solis

PR-Squared’s Blogger Relations Bookmark by Todd Defren

How Do I Get Placement on Blogs by Jason Falls

5 Wrong Ways to Pitch RWW and 1 Great Way by Marshall Kirkpatrick

How to Pitch Bloggers: 21 Tips by Darren Rowse

The PR Professional’s Credo: 7 Promises by Todd Defren

The Bad Pitch Blog’s Compiled List of Resources

How to Talk to the Press by Guy Kawasaki

Say What? A .pdf of What Not to Say to the Media compiled by the Bad Pitch Blog

5 Tips for Media Relations Success by David Mullen

America’s economic situation is dismal. The headlines are depressing, the outlook isn’t good, and Americans are struggling in a sea of unemployment. Despite this, I somehow managed to let my spending spiral out of control. I have finally acknowledged my problem – I was a spendaholic – and thanks to a slew of easy-to-use online tools I have found ways to regain control of my habits.

Now, a slight disclaimer: I didn’t go crazy and accumulate tons of debt on credit cards. I am still relatively debt-free, but when I analyzed my spending habits, I realized that I wasn’t saving as much each month as I could have been. Money that should be going toward my professional and personal development was being spent on… well, that was the problem: I had no idea where my money was going.

It all started when I got my first full-time job. Receiving regular pay checks after being a broke college student for so long made it a little less painful to check my bank account. In fact, those checks made it so much easier that I stopped checking my accounts altogether. I became a spendaholic because I knew the money would be there.

In January, I checked my account and realized that after 4 months of having a job, my financial standing had not changed as much as I’d hoped it would. My savings had little growth and my checking had stayed the same every month.

Then, it hit me: I was living in the moment, and not thinking about my future. I realized that if I continued spending money at the rate I was, I would never save enough to go back to school or buy a car or purchase a home or travel as much as I wanted. Something had to change.

I decided I would sign up for a financial service that tracked and analyzed my spending habits. Many of my friends and co-workers recommended mint.com, and that’s the service I went with. (I’ve also heard great things about expensr.com.)

I’ve been using mint.com for a week, and I’m hooked. I can go back several months and see where the majority of my money went. It was a brutally honest wake up call – one I desperately needed. Like most young professionals trying to get settled in a new city, most of my money went toward my social life: concerts, movies, eating out, and happy hours.

Using mint.com, I adjusted my budget so I was cutting back on these things. Even with slight changes in each area, I will be saving thousands of dollars this year that can be put toward future investments. Mint.com also sends me alerts when I am getting close to a certain budget, or if large transactions occur in my accounts which helps me easily track my monthly spending.

In this era of economic uncertainty, I decided to reel in my inner spendaholic so I can practice financial responsibility skills that I hope will serve me well as I get further away from the collegiate lifestyle.

Today I’m going to see He’s Just Not That Into You (from that simple little book that made us all a little too aware of the truth and a little too self righteous to do anything about it.) 

Recently, the bold and digital Libby Pigg passed on a little bit of yeahikindofknewthatbutdidn’teverwanttofaceit wisdom as well. As our dating lives become more intertwined with the Web, we’re no longer just waiting by the phone for our guy to call. We have Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and every other conceivable social network on refresh waiting for him to friend us, drop us a DM, maybe even send us a mixtape playlist via Blip (the ultimate sign of affection). 

Libby said we’re connected on every social network, so if he’s not responding, not trying to get in touch or poking back (and jeeze it doesn’t take 3 days to notice that on the Web), it’s completely deliberate. He’s just not that into you.

Delete. Delete. Delete. and move on. 

For better or worse (probably worse and I’ll still be single when I’m 85) I’ve always had the philosophy that if he or I wasn’t into it, it’s best to delete his # from my phone and move on. The beauty of the cell is that you never actually learn anyone’s # anymore so a deleted # is lost forever with no hope of reconnection via text during a moment of weakness. But now this requires deleting his #, unfriending, unfollowing, untagging… a little less simple and definitely more time consuming. And if you don’t, you’re doomed for a life of awkward wall posts, status comments and attempts to reconnect via the latest (and most annoying) app. No, I don’t want your pieces of flare… ever. 

But as Scott Brown described in Facebook Friendonomics, it’s complicated.

 ”Fine, you can “Remove Friend,” but what kind of asshole actually does that? Deletion is scary—and, we’re told, unnecessary…I realize that I may lose a few Friends by saying this. I invite them to remove me. Though I think they’ll find it harder than they imagine. I’ve never lost a Friend, you see, and I’m starting to worry I never will.”

What are your thoughts? At what point do you realize that he’s not worth a second attempt to DM? How do you end a relationship (or casualwhatever) when you’re infinitely connected online?

Image via Kate O’Connor. Discovered via Something Changed.

-Amanda Mooney

It’s going to happen so I thought you should be aware.

As a brand (or person), when you enter the digital space in the truest sense; when you’ve made a FULL commitment to shift gears and be a part of our world, you will have, without fail, feelings of…

1. Utter and total confusion (HOW did this happen? How did I get here and where AM I??)

2. Complete insecurity (Will people want to be my friend online? Will they even notice me? Will the cool kids think I’m lame or count me as one of their own???????)

Fears that…

People will talk about you behind your back

Some people may not get you- may completely misunderstand what you’re about

Urges to…

Buy them off (If you do [x] I’ll give you [x]!!)

Copy the cool kids (OMG I looooove [x] too and and we should tooooootally be BFForeveeeeeeeeer!)

You’ll mess up. you’ll experience things (great and scary) that you’ve never experienced before….

It is tough going digital and you’ll feel the growing pains but at the end of the day, you’ll come out knowing who you really are, what you really stand for, what you really care about, who your real friends are and you’ll be better for it. Trust me.

-Amanda Mooney

I remember folding these up in super secret note squares. Now they’re published on Flickr.

I’ve been totally captivated by 365 feeds on Flickr. Sharing one photo a day can give you a pretty clear window into someone else’s life and I find it incredibly generous that people share their lives like this online.

I was particularly caught by this photo in Jessasaur’s 365 feed. She posted a break up note for all to see. She says, “I didn’t want this to be my 365. but 365 means you take one picture of something that occured or a self portrait. this is something that occurred that i hate, and is very personal, but you’re lucky i’m uploading.”

Have you ever shared anything like this online?

Image from here.

-Amanda Mooney

It’s no secret that I’m a social media geek, which is why I had no problem spending Super Bowl Sunday in the NMS office working with my co-workers to compile the 2009 Super Bowl Social Media Snapshot.

The snapshot, a quantitative and qualitative analysis, looked at how consumers used social media tools such as Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Wikipedia, and blogs to discuss not only the game, but also the brands featured in those million dollar commercials everyone keeps talking about – for now.

What I love about social media is that it allows companies to connect with their consumers on a deeply personal level. This is what most of us find fascinating about social media, right?

Unfortunately, most advertisers have not fully embraced this concept yet… which is why the Snapshot revealed that marketers may have missed a huge way to engage and connect with their consumers by not providing long-term relationship development opportunities.

Here are some of the findings I found most interesting:

• In the 24-hour period surrounding the game, there were over 191,000 blog mentions of 41 Super Bowl advertising-related brands, personalities and terms
• During the game itself, there were about 41 Super Bowl advertising-related brands, personalities and terms
• Movie trailers and car companies saw the highest volume of blog mentions; notable performers included Audi, Star Trek, Hyundai and Transformers 2

However, here is where advertisers missed out:

Despite Facebook’s ability to serve as a tool for companies to build lists, much like Obama did by building a database of 13 million, through the group and brand pages, this year’s crop of advertisers failed to leverage the free tools available to compliment and maximize their TV buys.

• The analysis showed minimal discussion on Facebook brand pages regarding spots aired during the game
• Companies were selective in the platforms that they used – most posted their ads on YouTube at some point, some also ran a Twitter account in the character of their ad spot; however, users proliferated on dozens of social media platforms and no one single company successfully activated and realized the potential that was out there
• For a significant number of online community members, social media usage surrounding this year’s game was centered on sharing and documenting their own Super Bowl Sunday experiences, including: preparing snacks for a planned Super Bowl party, watching the game with friends at a local bar and families tailgating in head-to-toe Steelers or Cardinals fan gear

Engaging consumers on a variety of platforms, such as promoting a Facebook fan page community or a highly interactive Twitter account (kudos to the brands that did this!), should have been the rule, not the exception.

The full report can be downloaded in .pdf form here: http://newmediastrategies.net/docs/NMS-Super_Bowl_Snapshot_Report_2-2-09.pdf

Update: The Wall Street Journal ran a story showing how advertisers used Twitter to “keep Super Bowl buzz going.” The brands are: SoBe, H&R Block, E*Trade Financial, and Overstock.com. Some of these brands have a lot of work to do when it comes to engagement and response, but at least it’s a start.

Last week, I attended the Wiki White House panel at the Google office in downtown D.C. The event, co-sponsored by the New America Foundation and Wired Magazine, featured an exciting conversation about the future of social media under President-elect Barack Obama’s administration. You can watch the video of the panel here.

We all understand the Obama era will fundamentally change how government, especially the president, communicates with citizens. It’s a moot point that has been blogged, tweeted, and podcasted about for months. Yes, the Obama campaign (and now administration) used social media to energize and educate millions of people about political issues. But how will that continue once Mr. Obama takes his seat in the Oval Office? Will the ideas translate well to other branches and departments? The panel and audience raised several questions that need to be answered:

Will government leaders understand social media?

The reason social media is so popular is because it builds communities and allows people to interact with others across a variety of platforms. People who are active online understand this, but many large businesses don’t get it.We’ve all read case studies where clients push to use the technology because everyone else is – they don’t think about the reasons for or implications of being active online.

So does the government, and everyone who would be using social media tools on its behalf, understand the importance of communication? For example, many of the government officials I follow on Twitter post a steady stream of press release headlines. They don’t respond to @replies or answer constituents’ questions. This isn’t communicating, it’s broadcasting. What measures will the Obama team take to overcome this?

How will First Amendment rights be observed?

Politics and government are topics that breed discourse and heavy debate. People don’t always agree, and sometimes disagreements can lead to personal, vicious attacks. What will the government do to monitor and regulate these discussions without infringing on the First Amendment?

How will the government engage those who aren’t online?

Not everyone is online, and not everyone who is online participates in social media. Will the government urge more people to be active online? Or, as a panelist mentioned, will people follow the adage “build and they will come?” What about Americans who do not have access to the Internet, especially those with disabilities? The new administration will have to develop comprehensive plans to overcome these obstacles.

What will communications’ positions look like in the new administration?

As someone with a PR background, I’m interested to see how positions in PR and communications will change in a Wiki White House. The panel stressed the need for a CIO and CTO (Chief Technology Officer), but I wonder how traditional positions like press secretaries will adapt to this era of wide open communication. Will these positions become more involved in the process, or will the role grow obsolete?

As always, I’m convinced that integration will be key. Those who work for or as press secretaries will be talking more openly with bloggers and implementing more Web 2.0 strategies to keep up with an administration that recognizes its importance.

I know this is a bare-bones list, but the panel only lasted an hour and a half – I’m sure it could have lasted for days with the numerous possibilities social media makes available to the government.

I’m interested in how you think government communication, both internally and externally, will change in the next four years. Will you be happier with Government 2.0?

This is the final post in a series about blogging your personal brand. I’ve written a post for beginners, as well as intermediate and advanced users. Please review those posts before reviewing this one.

1) Podcast your brand on your blog

Whenever I talk about podcasts, I typically think of video, but many bloggers choose to record their voice or an interview through the telephone or a voice recorder and then publish it. You can do the same and there are services that will aid in the publishing process, such as PodBean.com. Audio podcasts are great for people who are scared to show their face or are in situations where they don’t have the necessary equipment to shoot video.

Video is the best way to interact with your audience, especially if you’re charismatic and personable. People can get a sense of you from reading your posts, tweets and social network messages, but when it comes to real interaction and emotional connection, video is king. Purchase a webcam or a video camera and hook it up directly to your computer using a USB connection. If you want to be a professional, and possibly interview other people for an internet type show, then you may want to buy a microphone, a sound amplifier and possibly an HD video camera (they cost less than $1,000 now).

Then you’ll want to get the video on the top video sharing websites in the world. To do this, all you need to do is upload it on TubeMogul, using the name, description and keywords that you feel will be optimize the video for search engines (as well as the video sharing search engines). TubeMogul will put your video on YouTube, Vimeo, Viddler, and more.

Finally, you’ll want to use the embed code from the video on either sharing site to use on your blog. You can either post the video as a blog post or decide the transcribe it, in addition to placing the video on the post.

2) Lifecasting

The two best “lifecasting” sharing sites are Qik and UStream.tv. I recommend getting comfortable doing audio or video podcasting before you decide to do live video. When it comes to live video, you have to be authentic, and be cautious as to what you say and do. When you sign-up for one of these services, you are given your own branded web page, where you can use your phone or your webcam to film yourself or other people. While you are lifecasting, people can view this page and see you live, while having the ability to type messages to you. It’s your ability to get to know your audience more and visa versa.

The end result of your time spent lifecasting is a video recording that you can embed on your blog as a post. If you choose to do this, you should give a summary of how your session went!

3) Start your own mailing list

If you want to start a mailing list, then make it different than your blog. A lot of the best bloggers use mailing lists to give their most loyal subscribers additional tips and strategies for signing up. Typically, your readers or viewers that care enough about you and your material will signup for your mailing list to receive more content. Before starting a mailing list, you should think about how busy you are and if you’re able to spend time on such a project. Also, you’ll want to decide how many emails you want to send in a specific period of time and the value that list will receive.

Your mailing list and blog should market each other, which means you’ll want to add links to cross-promote both and any other products or services you want to sell. I recommend the following three email marketing services for your mailing list: iContact, Get Response and Contact Contact. For an example of how a newsletter is attached to a blog, please review Shoemoney’s blog.

4) Place advertisements

There are many different kinds of advertisements you can place on your blog to drive revenue (passive income). Before you start calling, emailing and Facebook’ing possible blog sponsors, you’ll want to create an advertising page on your blog, so people can see the sizes of the ads, what they’ll be receiving in terms of traffic/subscribers and the different options and packages you have.

To find advertisers, you should Google terms relating to your blog and click on company’s that are paying for AdWords. You can also find good sponsors by emailing people who comment on your blog and through natural (organic) search. Email them your pitch and then a link to your advertising page, so they can make a quick decision.

I’ve seen a few different kinds of advertisements on blogs:

• Text links
• 125/125 graphic (possibly animated)
• 468×80 header banner
• 180×180 single post banner
• Product / website review posts
• Sponsored blog posts

You should charge based on your monthly visitor stats, feed subscribers and overall blog credibility and reputation. If you want to see how much traffic you’re bringing in, I recommend Quantcast. Alex Shalman has a great advertising page on his blog if you want an example.

5) Setup an affiliate program

Affiliate marketing is an Internet-based marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate’s marketing efforts. You only get paid for when you people click on advertisements on your site and pay for a company’s products or services.

There are many affiliate programs out there, such as Amazon Associates and Yahoo! Affiliate Programs. Don’t expect huge returns unless you already have a lot of inbound traffic to your website. The money you make from affiliate programs (possibly with other bloggers) will help fund your ongoing blog initiatives and upkeep. If you have deeper interest in affiliate marketing, then you should visit Zach Johnson’s blog.

6) Poll your readers

As a blogger, you should be interested in what your readers think of your blog, the types of posts you’re doing and any topics they would like to learn more about. Also, you may just want to poll them to gather quick feedback, to measure your success or out of curiosity. The best poll service for blogging is Polldaddy, which is actually integrated into WordPress.com now.

7) Build a team blog

A team blog is a blog that has multiple authors. The are a lot of benefits of having multiple contributors to your blog, such as having a variety of voices, more content and saving your time for other purposes, such as marketing the blog. If you’re an expert blogger, you should have a strong network of fellow bloggers to select for your team blog. Using WordPress, you give bloggers permission to write entires and then submit them for your review. You should give them the right to use their avatar, name and a link to their own blog.

I’ve seen team blogs with over 10 authors and they are highly successful. Blogs like Mashable, TechCrunch and The Huffington Post have a lot of bloggers, which allows them to become more of a business media site. You can do the same!

8 ) Use your blog at a platform

A blog can lead to bigger and better things. The most notable are speaking engagements and consulting gigs. By showcasing your interest in receiving those opportunities, you are more likely to garner them. So setup pages with those titles on your blog and if you’ve spoke or consulted in the past, use endorsements, video and a topic outline to show people what you’re made of.

You can also use your blog to sell more of your products, services and introduce people to other sites you own. Your blog will allow you to promote anything you want!

9) Write an eBook / book

After writing hundreds of blog posts, you will naturally want to tie your writings into a book of some sort. Some of you will try and get a literary agent and a publishing deal in order to get your ideas out there, while others will draft an eBook that captures many of your posts. You can sell the eBook and market it on your blog. If you’re interested in having a physical book, you’ll want to have more original content for that, but the eBook doesn’t have to always be original.

10) Start more blogs

When a single blog (or team blog) isn’t enough, you can always start multiple blogs. Obviously, it’s going to take up even more of your time, so think through your current situation before you make the jump. There aren’t too many bloggers who are willing to have yet another blog to build content for. The one’s that do, usually do it on a completely different topic to satisfy their other passion.

This is the third post in a series about blogging your personal brand. I’ve written a post for beginners and one for intermediate users. Please review those posts before indulging in this one.

1) Host your own blog

Instead of borrowing someone else’s space and redirecting your domain name to that space, you have the ability to install WordPress on your own host. In January, I’ll be switching over to PersonalBrandingBlog.com instead of my PersonalBrandingBlog.wordpress.com because I want to own my blog entirely, have more control over the page elements, make money and turn it into a larger property. Advanced personal branding bloggers should strive to make the switch and not freak out about losing content or subscribers. As long as you are using Feedburner.com for your RSS feeds and have exported your content, you should be all set. The only issue you’ll have is that you will lose “Google juice” to your previous site.

For instructions on how to successfully install WordPress on Godaddy, please go here. If you want to save money on your Godaddy domains and host, please go here and remember to choose “Linux” hosting.

2) Select or design a unique theme

There are literally thousands of WordPress themes across the net built by some savvy professional designers and programmers. You might not have the funds or expertise in order to get a custom blog template made, but there are free themes floating around as well. When you start researching and discovering themes that you enjoy, remember that some themes are geared for specific purposes. For instance, there are “magazine themes” for people who have teams of content contributors, covering various categories. You want to not only select the best looking theme, but one that you can handle using.

If you perform a Google search on “top wordpress themes,” you should have more than enough to choose from.

3) Choose plugins

After selecting a theme, you will want to install a few necessary plugins. They will help enable people to share your content (more traffic and subscribers), as well as make your blog more interactive. Here are my favorite plugins:

• Akismet is a spam filter that checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they are spam or not, also checks the trackbacks for spam.
• Sociable enables small icons from various social bookmarking sites (like Digg, del.icio.us, reddit, etc) under the posts on many blogs, so people can share your content freely.
• Get Recent Comments gets the excerpts of the latest comments on your blog and displays them on your sidebar
• Popularity Contest is a very useful plugin that lets you automatically highlight your best posts to your readers.
• Related posts generates a list of related posts based on the text of blog entry.
• Subscribe To Comments allows readers to receive notifications of new comments that are posted to an entry.
• Twitter Updater automatically sends a Twitter status update to your Twitter account when you create, publish, or edit your WordPress post.

For more plugins, please go to the WordPress main page.

4) Integrate your social networks

As an advanced user, you better be on social networks. Since everything in social media is considered a list, you’ll want to leverage your blogs success to increase the readership of your other properties. This may include your accounts on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, SlideShare, Upcoming, Delicious, Stumbleupon, Digg, Flickr or FriendFeed. There are thousands more, and you should promote only the top 5-10 that you use the most often. If you include too many, people will completely tune them out and if you include too few, it will seem like you aren’t a power user.

Use either text or graphics to promote these profiles. For icons, please go here.

5) Search engine blog optimization

Search engine optimization for your blog is critical for a number of reasons. First, everyone uses search engines to learn about new things. Second, search engine ranking showcases authority. Finally, having individual posts ranking high can help build the brand of your blog. Your goal is to rank number one for your name, as well as your topic. Think about the keywords that reflect your topic and use them throughout your headline, subheadings and body. Use links within your posts to link to other posts you’ve written and try as hard as you can to write good enough content that people will link to it.

There’s also a WordPress plugin called “All in One SEO Pack,” which will help you optimize your posts for search engines. It helps to own a domain name with the keywords you want to rank high for, as well as a blog title that reflects those same keywords.

6) Try a few different types of posts

There are many different types of posts you can have on your blog. Experimenting with a variety of posts keeps people guessing and interested in your blog. You could scrape the blogosphere or a traditional news site for an interesting fact or article, then quote it and respond to it in a post. You could also email a few bloggers, asking them all the same question, such as “what is your prediction for 2009, and formulate a blog post around their answers. You could become the aggregator of news for a specific topic and links your five favorite blog posts of the week. A series of posts around a theme, such as this post, tends to work well too.

7) Allow someone to guest blog

As an advanced blogger, you are given the right and hopefully the authority, to reach out to other bloggers and give them the opportunity to guest post. As your blog becomes more popular, people may just come to you and ask to guest post, but when you are in infancy, you will have to be pro-active. The benefits of a guest post on your blog are that you save time from writing a post, it’s a great way to network with other bloggers and it’s a new voice on your blog.

8 ) Interview your favorite blogger

I’ve interviewed close to 100 people on this blog. It’s the single best networking tactic I’ve used in my entire life. I couldn’t have done it until I was a more advanced blogger though because I needed a promise of value to other people. You’ll want to interview people who are more successful than you are or that can provide some knowledge in an area where you aren’t an expert. You can do the interviews by either phone, through email or in-person (video). It’s really up to you and depends on your schedules.

9) Get ranked

A great way to gain visibility for your blog is to get ranked. There are a number of different sites that rank blogs out there, such as the AdAge Power 150, the Junta 42, the Viral Garden’s Top 25 Marketing & Social Media Blogs, the 2009 Bloggers Choice Awards, and the Big List of SEO Blogs. There are tons more, but these are the ones I’m most familiar with in the blogosphere. The purpose of submitting your blog to these lists is that you get added visibility and there’s an opportunity cost if your site isn’t on them.

10) Form content partnerships

If you don’t have partnerships with other websites, you are really missing out because your content will be isolated in one specific area. Every time I post, it ends up in Reuters, Hoovers, Chicago Sun-Times, Forbes, Brazen Careerist, CollegeRecruiter.com, HRM Today, Social Media Today, Marcom Professional, Sign-on San Diego, The Examiner, and Packets Online. Obviously forming these relationships took a long time, but they give my blog more credibility and my posts more movement. Just like submitting byline articles to magazines, you want to start small and work your way up. Research your topic area to find websites that might want to syndicate your blog and reach out to them accordingly.

Sometimes motivation hits me at the strangest times: late at night as I’m falling asleep or in the middle of an important client meeting. A sudden wave of determination strikes and my thoughts race as I mentally develop a plan of action that will help me achieve this new goal. Within minutes, I have it all figured out. But, lately, I’ve noticed that if my goals aren’t career-oriented, the motivation to achieve them disappears as quickly as it surfaced.

In the work place, I am ambitious. I hold myself accountable. Every morning, I create a task list and I don’t leave until every last “to-do” has a check mark next to it. But being as motivated about my personal life as I am my professional one is something I’ve been struggling with recently. To-do lists and writing down my goals just aren’t enough.

I understand the importance of achieving work-life balance; I wish I could transfer some of the drive I have at work over to my other goals.

Take the Cherry Blossom 10 Mile Run, for instance. Ever since I moved to D.C., I’ve been determined to finish this race. A week ago, I got the sudden urge to start a training program. So far, I’ve stuck to it, but in the back of my mind I’m wondering how long it will be before I lose the motivation.

It’s not just running. It’s starting a book club or finding an organization to volunteer with; it’s writing a novel or going on architecture tours once a month. When these ideas first occur to me, I am elated and passionate. But the momentum wanes as soon as I walk through my front door after a long, stressful day at work. Even though I know I’ll feel better after a late-night run or a morning spent volunteering, it’s maintaining the motivation to keep going for more than a couple weeks at a time.

For me, finding a work-life balance isn’t only about making sure I don’t overwork myself so that I have time for friends, family, and a social life. It’s having the motivation to achieve personal goals as well as professional ones. And, unfortunately, I’m not quite sure how to do ride the wave when it hits.

What do you do to keep yourself motivated after leaving the office?

Photo cred: treehugger.com

Gone are the days when you would pick up a magazine and read a professional review column, thinking it was the be-all-end-all say on a product. These days, people are putting their trust in blogs, choosing peer opinion versus expert opinion.

Word-of-mouth is not new, but this is new territory for companies constantly jockeying for the market’s attention. Trying to tap into something as organic as blogging has proven difficult. Sponsored blogging company PayPerPost ran into trouble when Google decided that sponsored blogs were unworthy of front-page rankings. The sponsored blogging business model still remains controversial and has yet to see full-fledged mainstream adoption.

The recent news about Bike Hero being fake reminds me that Gen Y has extremely fine-tuned BS detectors — it seems that we think something is even remotely fake, it probably is. It’s almost disillusioning and insulting to think that agencies are continually trying to camouflage adverts. Why pretend to be something? The magic is always lost when you discover something to be a lie, even if it’s just a YouTube video or a funny blog.

It’s a very fine line between corporatizing something natural versus being a contributing participant. For brands trying to infiltrate Gen Y and its media, the key factor is, and has always been, sincerity.

Thanks to Alx for the pic.

I’ve been asked by a lot of people for an article that introduces personal branding. I went searching through my archives and found that I really didn’t have an up-to-date article that goes over personal branding at a high level. More and more educators are interested in this space and most of my posts are for someone with basic knowledge and skills. Before we step into 2009, I’d like to go over the basics of what you need to know to get started on your brand for next year. “Building my personal brand” should be on all of your new years resolution lists.

The history of personal branding

Tom Peters crafted an article for the August 1st, 1997 issue of Fast Company Magazine, entitled “The Brand Called You,” which explored the evolution of career development, and exposed a new mindset for the new millennium. Basically, instead of relying on a company for career guidance, it’s up to you to take ownership of the brand called you. Personal branding called for everyone to become a “free agent,” which not everyone bought into back then. Now there are tools available for you to grasp your brand and shape it (social media).

Web 2.0’s impact on personal branding

Before web 2.0 changed our world, it was really hard to get enough press to really stand out. There weren’t blogs, so you’d have to get your local newspaper, or mainstream media to write about you. You could go to a networking event and meet five to ten people each time. You could sit in your college class and meet ten new people. Web 2.0 amplified how we network, first impressions and personal visibility and self-promotion forever.

Me 1.0 was hidden behind a corporate brand, without an outside voice and not being able to afford excessive promotion (PR & advertising). Me 2.0, as I call it, is when you get to stand in front of your company, at the cost of your time and with the ability to carry your voice across the world in a matter of seconds (think Twitter). I’ve captured this change in my new book, rightfully called, Me 2.0.

Why personal branding was inevitable

There are two main reasons why personal branding is becoming a core part of our culture. Sadly, it’s nothing revolutionary! First, we are all being judged all the time, even when we’re sleeping (our online profiles are still up!). Second, we have to constantly sell our ideas to teachers, managers, venture capitalists, our friends and family, to make things happen in our lives. We have to convince them to take action.

Personal branding defined

In 2007, I gathered a group of international brand and career experts to collaborate on a single definition for personal branding. After analyzing the definition and reciting it in a few presentations back then, I felt it was too long, thus no one could remember it. For 2008, I shortened it to “how we market ourselves to others.” Personal branding is a process.

Personal branding: how we market ourselves to others.

The personal branding process (DCCM)

1. Discover: The first thing you need to do is to figure out who you are, what you want to do in life, while focusing on your strengths, passions and goals. After that, you should create a development plan that aligns your short-term and long-term goals and, finally, a personal marketing plan.

2. Create: There are traditional and non-traditional ways to create your personal brand. The traditional ways include a business card, professional portfolio, resume, cover letter and references document. The non-traditional ways include, a video resume, LinkedIn profile, blog, Twitter and your existence on the various other social networks. While you create your brand, ensure that the content, including pictures and text, are concise, compelling and consistent with how you want to represent yourself.

3. Communicate: After you’ve created your brand, it is only natural (and human instinct) that you want people to see what you’ve done. Depending on your audience (hiring manager, teacher, clients), you may want to tweek your materials accordingly. To properly communicate your brand, through self-promotion, you need to have your story down pat and find the right sources that would be interested in what you have to say. I would recommend promoting others before you promote yourself as well. Communication consists of guest posting on blogs, writing articles for magazines, becoming your own personal PR person (pitch to the media), attending networking events and speaking.

4. Maintain: As you grow, the brand people see has to grow at the same time. For every new job, award, press article, and client victory (to name a few), everything you have created has to reflect that. The reason is simple:

You want to use what you did in the past to get what you want in the future.

Also, as you become more popular, your reputation will be knocked around and tossed throughout the web, from blog post, to tweet, to video, and more. You’ll want to keep a close eye on where your name is. To do this, I have created a post giving you free tools to do so.

Personal branding depends on your career status

High school student: If you’re in high school, personal branding still applies to you because getting into a top college is very competitive. Your goal is to position yourself as worth of a top school, so getting good grades, good SAT’s, interviewing at schools, networking with alumni who can endorse you, writing a compelling essay and all things social media, will help you.

College student: A college student is interested in either getting an internship, starting a business or getting a corporate job upon graduation. They have to compete on experience and network extremely hard in order to get a job. They need to position themselves as superior relative to their peers. This means, becoming a leader in college organizations, meeting as many people as you can, forming a personal branding toolkit and starting when you’re a freshman are critical to your success.

Corporate employee: If you work for a company, and enjoy doing so, then personal branding becomes the cornerstone for how you move up the hierarchy and become recognized as a leader.

Entrepreneur: An entrepreneur needs to think about branding his or her company, as well as him or herself in the process of establishing a business. The entrepreneurs brand must reflect the company, yet be set apart from it simultaneously. The entrepreneurs brand is VERY important in securing venture capital. For instance, if Jason Calanis wanted seed money, he has a better chance of getting it than someone without a track record of success (he sold Weblogs Inc for millions).

Consultant: These individuals are obviously all about personal branding because it’s all they got. Many consultants brand themselves as masters of a specific trade (at least the good ones). They are able to track value and attribute it to the work they provide for clients.

3 laws of personal branding

Authenticity: You need to be yourself because everyone else is taken and replicas don’t sell for as much. Furthermore, you need to define your brand before someone else does for you!

Transparency: It’s better to be straightforward and honest, then lie, and have your actions work against you.

Visibility: The notion that if you aren’t known, you don’t exist.

5 benefits of personal branding

Promotions: Anyone who is ambitious and works at a company will want to move up. By building your personal brand, you become the best choice for a promotion.

Happiness: By aligning who you are with what you do and appending goals to it, you can turn “work” into a “hobby.” You can position yourself on a topic you love, so you get paid to do what you would count as a hobby.

Compensation: Personal brands command premium prices. Just like Apple and Gillette can charge more for products you can get for less, you can do the same.

Business: People want to purchase from other people who they know, like, trust. When you make those people happy that they chose you, by giving them great results, they will refer you to even more people.

Perks: Strong brands get perks. For instance, I get free books from authors and other bloggers get free products, such as limited edition Pepsi cans. Celebrities, like Halley Berry, don’t have to pay for anything because of who they are.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, or in your financial case, too-easy-and-effective-that-you’d-be-silly-not-to-do-it measures. I’ve got one word for you: orange.

I was first turned on to this little nugget of monetary sanity by an article posted on Ramit Sethi’s Blog, I Will Teach You To Be Rich. When I looked further into the ING Orange savings program I truly found no down side–and that’s a rarity for any service in general, much less a service offered in this recession.

So if you haven’t already check it out. It has great interest rates, no fees and is super easy to manage online. And what better way to start out 2009 than by making the effort to store away a little cash for a down payment on a house or that sweet new mint green Vespa you’ve been eyeing?

-Marilyn

*photo courtesy of canadian pacific’s public Flickr page

It recently hit me how dramatically my life has changed in the past year that I’ve been blogging. In twelve months, I have graduated from college, moved from Florida to the Nation’s Capital, left my family, interned at a prestigious public affairs firm, landed my dream job, and interacted with brilliant people from around the world.

Almost all of these milestones are a direct result of this blog. That may sound exaggerated, but it’s not. Launching my blog has significantly influenced my life in many ways, especially in my professional career, but more importantly – blogging has made me more appreciative of everything I have achieved so far and more willing to help others reach their own milestones.

When it comes to professional development, I might be the poster child for how beneficial blogging can be to one’s career. Looking back at the recognition I have received in the past year because of my blog is very humbling. Since creating this blog, I have been offered numerous freelance writing opportunities and professors have asked me to speak to their students about blogging. As someone making the transition from college student to full-time professional, these experiences allowed me to develop skills necessary for a successful career in communications.

Last spring, I was awarded second place in the PRSSA/Edelman Outstanding Public Relations Student competition, and the nominating team mentioned that my blog showed how passionate I was about my education and the PR field. When my last semester of college was ending, I sought advice from bloggers who had re-located after college and, with their advice and encouragement, decided that leaving Florida to pursue my career in PR was the best decision for me to make. Then, I used my blog to develop a professional network on LinkedIn and Twitter, both of which earned me informational interviews at several prestigious PR agencies in Washington, D.C. Because of my blog, I landed a summer internship at one of the best public affairs firms in the country. There, my supervisors tapped me for insight into the digital space and pulled me into important client meetings I never dreamed I would attend as an intern. I met former congressional members and presidential press secretaries – and got paid for it!

After my internship ended, I needed to find a full-time job. I wanted to work at a forward-thinking company that understood social media. Connections I made and conversations I had through my blog and Twitter led me to my current position – my dream job – at a company that embodies those exact qualities.

Though these opportunities enhanced my resume and portfolio, they are not the reason why I love being a part of the blogosphere as much as I do.

Perhaps the most substantial impact blogging has had on my life has been helping me push aside my shyness so that I could talk to people with more ease and confidence. After receiving insightful comments on my posts from prominent professors and professionals, I felt my bashfulness gradually subside. With this newfound courage, I reached out to people I respected and admired; something I’ve never been comfortable doing in the past.

The hospitality and encouragement I received from my mentors blew me away. Blogging made it easier to connect and build friendships with intelligent people like Karen Russell, Robert French, Les Potter, Constantin Basturea, Paull Young, Melanie Seasons, and countless more. Their kindness showed me the importance of community and that building relationships is the foundation for everything, especially in PR and social media.

Considering all of the professional goals I have achieved in the past year, you might be asking why something like gaining courage has had the biggest impact on my life. Well, it’s the circular nature that resonates so well in the blogosphere. My blog gave me more confidence in my abilities as a writer and communicator, so I felt more confident reaching out to bloggers I admired, and when they were so open to helping me, I knew that I had to give back in some way, too. The blogosphere frequently reminds me how important the pay-it-forward mentality is: help and be helped, what goes around comes around, sharing is essential.

The communities I have gotten involved with through blogging made me realize how much I love helping people, especially college students and recent grads. Each week, I receive comments or e-mails from students saying my blog has helped them in some way, whether it’s encouraging them to start their own blogs or inspiring them to apply for awards that seem out of reach. These kind words are never taken for granted – in fact, they are often what keeps me going when I find myself frustrated with blogging (or even life in general).

Blogging has helped me achieve many of the goals I made for myself, and all of the wonderful things that have happened to me would not mean as much if I did not try to inspire other people as others motivated me during my rough times, life changes, and professional pursuits.

So how has blogging affected my life? It helped me come out of my shell so that I could somehow interact with industry geniuses, move to a big city by myself, land my dream job, and share these experiences with others who are going through the same things I did. For me, this blog is about developing confidence in my own voice so that I can help others in the same way others helped me. If being vocal online helps other people along the way, I’m more than happy to pretend that I am a gregarious extrovert who doesn’t even know what the word “shy” means.

H/T to the phenomenal team over at Brazen Careerist for holding this outstanding contest and motivating me to write the post that should have been written a long time ago. Those guys really know how to challenge me!

The question everyone is asking right now, after hearing about the 1.9 million layoffs in the past year figure, is “how do I get a job”? This is the wrong question to ask yourself because it forces you to apply to positions that aren’t the best-fit for your personality, passions and possibly, expertise. You have to think more broadly!

The real question: How to get a job, keep a job, advance in a job and then get another job.

You might be at different stages, but the movement and cycle is all so familiar. The old way of thinking, which is staying a job for a decade or more, is a total failure these days because that’s not how the economy works. The real way to succeed, I promise you, is to do everything you would now, and leverage everything you’ve already done in the past, in order to be successful in the future, while setting “flexible goals” because things change.

This means that you need to have a “career commander” mindset. It doesn’t mean that you should let people know you’re looking, unless you have no choice.

Two career situations and two sets of results

Situation 1: One woman has felt job security after 5 years as an employee of a company. While working at this company, she decided that networking events were a waste of time and that meeting people inside their company was the path to career advancement. She had very little experience with the internet and got her current job through an old friend she doesn’t speak with anymore. She had a great relationship with her group members and executive management and was feeling really good about her current position, despite hearing about the economy. She woke up one day and walked into her managers office, only to find out she had been laid off.

Results: She struggles really hard to recover, forcing her resume into the inbox’s of her old friends, yielding no positive outcome. She emails her coworkers at work, that can’t do anything about the situation, as they are struggling to keep their job. She realizes that she might not be getting a job she’d be interested in for a long time, so she takes up a job as a waitress to feed her children.

Situation 2: Another woman (let’s keep the gender the same ) is doing great at work. She’s only been there for a year, but she’s worked really hard to not only build relationships throughout the company, not just her own domain, but also outside of work. In the past year, she started a blog, went to professional networking events, signed up for social networks and kept in close contact with many of her friends of the past. She also was smart enough to gain new skills in her field, which led to her becoming the go-to-person in her company. She worked for an additional hour or two each day, making a strong case for why she should be working there. The woman wakes up one day and poof, her company decides that they are going to layoff her business unit.

Results: She remains confident (career commander) and sends out a Tweet that says “Just got laid off, looking for an internet marketing job in Sanfrancisco.” She also sends an email to her email list of 400 that she had built up and starts sending nice notes to her Facebook network. She also blogs about her experience getting laid off and ends by talking about the jobs she’s be looking for, with a link to her LinkedIn resume. She also sends a note to her LinkedIn database of contacts and asks the people she worked with for references for the great job she had done. She ended up finding a job within 2 months.

Dan, quit the storytelling and tell us how to get a job!!!

Before reading my strategies, please be open-minded and remain calm. The new way to get a job requires that you invest time in creating content, building relationships and learning skills that you can apply elsewhere. You need to be a commander and not wait around for someone else to tell you what to do next. This involves having confidence in yourself and taking things seriously. OK, now please read this…..

1. Conduct a people search

If you were ever a Facebook stalker, then you should be good at this one. The first thing you need to know is that you get jobs through people and not random submissions or “hail marry’s.” The second thing you need to know is that most companies have people who can be contacted online. The third thing you need to know is how to talk to people you don’t know and ones that don’t know you. I want you to name a company you want to work for. Let’s say you that you choose DELL (this one is easy to explain because Dell is rather “naked” on the web).

If you want to work for DELL, you need to find people who work there, especially the one’s in HR and managers in your field. For the record, let’s say you want a social media job there. I would start finding out names of people who are in those positions by searching for “social media interview Dell” or “Dell blog” or “digital media dell” or something like that. Let’s say you come across the name Richard Binhammer, who is part of the digital media team. You notice he has a blog and a Twitter account. You should subscribe to his blog, actively comment and do the same with his Twitter feed. Next, you find out that Dell is on Facebook in many locations. You become part of that community, by asking questions and talking to people on there. Next, after figuring out the names of more people that work there (possibly finding a Dell press release and a PR contact), you search for their name(s) on Facebook.

Once you find them on there, you should send them an “informational” message. Something like “Name, I just discovered that you work for Dell. I’m really interested in your social media job there and enjoy participating in your Facebook group. I was wondering what your day-to-day job requirements are and anything else you could tell me about it. Thank you.” Wait a bit to hear back and then send a follow-up. If that fails, then do the same routine with your second company choice. This strategy works better if you have an online presence to point people to.

2. Put up your billboard advertisements

Aside from being proactive, you will want to be reactive in your job search. Companies like passive candidates, just like girls and guys like challenges in dating. I would recommend stationing your personal brand on the leading social networks (LinkedIn, Facebook), joining social networks that are related to your field, establishing a blog, website and possibly advertising yourself using Facebook social ads or Google AdWords as mentioned before. The idea here is to have your brand exist where people are searching for qualified candidates. Every minute your brand isn’t there, another person is getting interviewed instead of you. I think VisualCV offers a great product for capturing most of your professional brand in a clean cut and precise website that is searchable in their database. I’d also recommend that you ensure your resume is on Monster.com, eRecruiting.com and Careerbuilder.com, in addition to JobFox.com and Jobster.com.

3. Sleeping is not an option

I’ve talked about how sleep is an opportunity cost in a web 2.0 world. Sleep is unnecessary if you’re in a job search because every hour you don’t have a job, that’s money you can’t use to support your life. Instead of sleeping for 8 hours every night, why not try 5 or 6. The more time you invest in your job search, the better chances you’ll have. Work on posts for your blog, become part of communities on social networks and blogs and do some crazy research to find people who are in companies that you want to work for (see #1). Conduct job searches on corporate career pages and vertical search engines, such as SimplyHired.com and Indeed.com.

4. Find “head hunters” the web 2.0 way

There are a lot of headhunters around and they are easier to find than ever. I think the easiest way to find people who can be your “job search agents” is to join Recruitingblogs.com, which has over 14,000 recruiters and is situated in a Ning network. Many of these recruiters have blogs, as well as corporate HR people. If you want to find the top bloggers in this area, go to Alltop.com. Head hunters are great aids in a job search because they’ve placed candidates before, have connections, industry knowledge and can help position you for a good job. They also get paid based for helping you, so the incentive gives you a better chance.

Conclusion

I pretty much just handed over many secrets that I’ve had for a while and haven’t gotten on “paper.” Please note that if you aren’t an extraordinary candidate, with a strong brand, even these tactics might not help you in the short-term. If you’re smart, you’ll work as hard as you humanly possibly in these times. Realize that we have to work twice as hard for the same salary now. I would like to reiterate that you need to treat your entire life as a networking event (including your friends, family, teachers, etc). One person you meet can change everything for you!

Leave comments if you have any other secret strategies that can help people.

From time to time, I get asked certain questions that I think could benefit a larger audience. Many of my blog readers are still in college right now, so I figured today would be the perfect day to go through two questions, so you can think about them this weekend. If you, like me, are a college graduate, you might want to take this time to reminisce, laugh or give suggestions in this posts comment section that can benefit us.

Question: “Thinking back when you were in college what would you have done differently with the knowledge that you now have?”

The context of this question relates to career development, branding and getting a job upon college graduation. It has nothing to do with partying really hard, hooking up with girls/guys and alcohol abuse (not that we have done any of that ). This is a tricky question because social media wasn’t important or heavily used back then. I didn’t know about it and I bet you didn’t as well (I graduated Bentley University in 2006). I learned about social media in late 2006.

I was a marketing major and did everything I possibly could to get a job back then, including holding (self-promotion alert!) 8 internships, 7 leadership positions on campus, my own consulting business and high academic honors. I didn’t understand the significance of networking back then (I feel old) and as a result it took me much longer to find a job. For example, one of my friends has an uncle that is an executive at my company. The uncle made a single call and my friend had the job. I, on the other hand, went through 15 people, over three different positions, to get the job I wanted out of school. The entire process took me a total of 8 months. The smart thing I did was start applying for jobs early and as a result I started work a little more than one month after graduating.

Lesson: Avoid networking in college at your own peril.

A lot of the knowledge I have now, I had back then, minus some philosophies and social tools. I never called it “personal branding” back in college, but instead preached about “marketing yourself.” I think a lot of college students now are behind the times, which surprises a lot of people when I tell them that. Most college students don’t know what LinkedIn is, nor how to properly leverage it to get a job.

Since LinkedIn wasn’t popular back then and Facebook was solely for college students, I had to figure out where to go to network with others. If I were to go back, I would have networked more with the people in my “major classes,” meaning the ones where you definitely have something in common with everyone else. Also, your teachers, parents, career counselors and friends are great resources. I’ve mentioned the network strength pyramid twice before and it’s in my book. It emphasizes how your family will go out of their way to help you when you’re in need of a job. As you move down the pyramid, there are more people (friends and then acquaintances), but fewer will help you out. Attending networking events and career fairs can help as well.

I also submitted my resume to Careerbuilder.com, erecruiting.com and Monster.com, while searching through their databases for open positions. erecruiting was the best of the three because it connected me to “pre-qualified positions,” where the school had a relationship with the employer. I got a few leads off of Monster, such as Timberland and a few leads off of erecruiting, such as TJX. I’m glad I didn’t avoid these services, but I couldn’t imagine claiming a great job through them.

Lesson: The 80/20 rule of job hunting says to “spend 80% of your time networking and 20% of your time on job boards.

If I were to go back to freshman year, I would have made more friends in other dorms, instead of staying confined in my dorm because that limited my social circle (network). Also, I would have hoped to start pulling together a career plan freshman year, instead of just focusing on grades. I feel like I did the right thing joining a fraternity sophomore year because it enabled me to spend all of my energy on my career and none of it on figuring out my social situation. I think it really helped me that I did internships early in college because I was able to apply what I was doing inside the classroom to real life situations and visa versa. I also think that taking leadership positions as an undergrad was beneficial because it helped me get other positions as an upperclassman (I had a track record). Leadership positions are great because they are a sign to employer that you have that critical skill.

Lesson: Get internships and take classes in your field simultaneously for cross-learning purposes.

It is very rare for me to single people out for bad personal branding, especially when I made mistakes when I first entered the blogosphere a few years ago, such as spamming the press/bloggers and leaving self-promotional comments on blogs. Those days are over and by learning from mistakes, it’s helped me teach you how to do it right!

I’ve spoken before about how personal branding is not about you, but the audience or community that you serve. I’m never going back on that mantra, I promise. I constantly promote others, which in turns helps promote my brand. You should do the same if you want to be successful!

Today’s personal branding case study comes from the crazy self-promoter known as Matt Bacak. Now, I’m sure he had great intentions in all that he’s done on the internet, but the perception is terrible and his brand has been engulfed with negative tweets and blog posts as a result. I wasn’t going to originally blog on this today, but Scott Bradley told me that it was a “must-post” for my blog.

Who is Matt Bacak?

Matt Bacak is Entrepreneur Magazine’s e-Biz radio show host. He has branded himself as “The Powerful Promoter.” He considers himself a sought-after internet marketer but also has marketed for some of the world’s top experts whose reputations would shrivel if their followers ever found out someone else coached them on their online marketing strategies. Matt, an entrepreneur from the time he could pull a wagon, started his first company with employees at the age of 12.

Selfish press releases

Within the past few months, Matt has paid for two press releases (PRWeb Wire Service) that have bragged about the number of friends he has on Facebook and the number of followers he has on Twitter.

• October 13th: “Matt Bacak Hits Facebook’s 5000 Friend Limit”

• December 2nd: “The Powerful Promoter Promotes Himself Straight to the Top of Twitter - Matt Bacak Achieves Another Social Networking Milestone”

Branding analysis

Matt’s Twitter profile isn’t branded whatsoever. In fact, it’s completely white, which in no way matches his personal site or his corporate website. He has almost 2,000 followers, but doesn’t follow almost any of them. I know many people with thousands more than him. This comes off as very selfish and shows that he doesn’t care about his community. I’m still not even sure what Matt does because of the amount of focus he’s placed on his own achievements.

In the Facebook release, he starts naming successful people that he’s “friends with,” yet I can bet you $100 that he’s not and they don’t know who he is. Also, I’m sure he didn’t get permission to use their names in commerce (for the release), so they could sue him, if they even cared. He’s not the only person with “5,000 friends” on Facebook. Anyone can get 5,000 friends in Facebook if they dedicate an entire day to adding random people. Is it worthwhile? No. Spend time posting on your blog instead please.

Results

• If you view the Twitter hash tag for Matt, you will notice all the harassment he’s gotten today.
• Matt gets laughed at on Digg for not having skills.
• Digg users have named him “The biggest douche in social media”
• He has an entire website dedicated to mocking the amount of people that know him.
• There have been countless blog posts, some of which have called him a fraud for labeling himself as a top Twitter user when he’s not.

Final word

I’m sure Matt is a nice guy and probably has some credibility and “raving fans,” but having thousands of Facebook friends and Twitter followers isn’t a big achievement. If he had 100,000 RSS subscribers to his blog, then I think that would be noteworthy, but you can’t force that type of loyalty. I’m sure Matt has learned a valuable lesson here and I hope to God that he doesn’t send a press release entitled “Just got 500 LinkedIn contacts, you should do business with me!”

Let this be a lesson to all of you: You gain the privilege to promote yourself, after you’ve promote everyone else.

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It’s very challenging to network with people who are more successful than you are. I’ve been able to do this over the course of the past few years pretty successfully. I’ve spoke with over 70 successful people, just on this blog alone. The magazine I publish, Personal Branding Magazine, has highlighted even more. How am I able to do this?

Well today, I want to reveal the best way to network with people that you may be intimidated by or scared of. These individuals are the ones that can help you out significantly. People who are influential have large spheres of influence, so they can help promote your brand to a larger audience. The problem is that most of these people don’t need your help, or do they? Today, I’m going to tell you how to network with celebrities like a champ!

1. Offer them something they don’t have

The number one reason to start a blog or to be a journalist isn’t to position yourself as an expert or get your thoughts out there. The truth behind all the BS you hear every day is that blogging and journalism is about networking. 99% of bloggers and journalists make almost nothing (relatively nothing), but the network that they gain from giving value to successful people, is priceless. See, the one thing that all successful people have in common when it comes to needs is that they need visibility and promotion for their brands. With a blog, you can provide that to them. When you first start your blog, you can’t because you won’t have enough readership to prove the benefit to them.

2. Give it to them for free

Unless you have something of extraordinary “one of a kind” value to give to successful people, you are better off giving them something for free in exchange for an endorsement or referral later. A lot of consultants choose to do this or have to do this when they are first starting out, so they can build credibility and a track record. Obviously, people are more inclined to accept that type of generous offer than pay a complete stranger or someone who isn’t as wealthy or successful. If you receive an endorsement from them, you can use it on your website or on LinkedIn to attract new business or opportunities. Also, if they talk about you or promote you back, you gain visibility with other influencer’s, which can further your career.

3. Take genuine interest in their brand

If someone emails you and is sincere, you are more inclined to answer their email. If someone is reaching out to you asking you for favors, especially when you are more successful than they are, you are going to disregard the email. Genuine interest goes a long way in this world, especially because people are so used to being “used and abused,” as well as spammed daily. There is a great opportunity right now to locate people who are closely aligned to your brand and reach out to them. Even if you’re less successful than they are, they will at least answer you based on flattery.

4. Get noticed by them

Successful people take notice of other successful people. There are like secret code words and there is an ancient language they all speak ;). A great way to connect with them is to be where their eyes already are. For instance, if you speak at an event they are speaking at, it’s easy to start a conversation around that and for them to already know who you are. Also, if you write an article for a blog or traditional news site that they read, you might earn some respect from them.

5. Find people who know them

The shortcut to meeting successful people is by meeting them through your personal contacts. Your friends’ endorsement can save you from a random outreach and make it more personal. LinkedIn is so important because you can see who knows you and then strategize. Networking gets easier once your network gets larger. When you’re first starting out, it will be hard to implement this strategy, but as you grow older, it will become much easier to meet successful people this way.

I want to wish you all a happy thanksgiving and would like you to enter my latest contest, when you have a minute. I’m still giving away a few more free books! Other than that, I have a few announcements from my friends and a few new books that I just finished reading.

Friend announcements

Jim Kukral is one of the top internet marketers around, as well as someone who constantly provides value through video and his blog. His latest creation is called TheBizWebCoach.com, which helps small businesses solve their biggest problem, time. Small business owners do everything from taking out the trash to marketing. So what they don’t need is another 200-page ebook to read or 12-set DVD guide to spends months learning. They need small, time-saving, quick and actionable tips and guidance about how to improve their business. That’s what TheBizWebCoach.com provides.

Rajesh Setty is a long-time personal branding evangelist and the author of “Beyond Code,” which has a forward by Tom Peters. He is giving away his entire book for free over the internet. This was a gesture from Rajesh because it’s thanksgiving and he wanted to give back in a big way.

Jason Alba just finished a 2nd edition of his book “I’m on LinkedIn — Now What???.” This book is available as an eBook and as a paperback book. The book tells you all the ways that you can use LinkedIn to enhance your career, find a job and locate new business. If you want to make 30% on the sale, you can sign up as an affiliate on happyabout.info/linkedinhelp.php.

Jack Humphrey, a columnist for Personal Branding Magazine and an expert in blogging and web 2.0 stuff. He just launched a contest around his new site, BlogSuccess.com. There are going to be incredible prizes, such as The Bellaggio Deluxe Package for Two Nights in Las Vegas for 2 people, which is valued at $3,500! The other prizes include a 42 inch LCD Vizio HDTV, an Apple Macbook and a Flip Mino video camera. The Blog Success JV contest runs from December 2nd 2008 until December 15th 2008 at 12:00 PM EDT. The top 10 affiliates that sell the most Blog Success memberships will each receive highly valuable prizes. The affiliate who generates the most downloads of our free Blog Talk Monitor software but does not make
it into the top 10 will also receive a prize.

Book recommendations

Scott Shane is a Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies, in the Department of Economics at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University. He just released his 12th book called Fool’s Gold?: The Truth Behind Angel Investing in America.

In Fool’s Gold, he draws on hard data from the Federal Reserve and other sources to paint the first reliable group portrait of the lionized angel investors. Surprisingly, he finds that angel investors are fewer, contribute less, and involve themselves in fewer start-ups than the conventional wisdom suggests. Most angels typically still have their day jobs, make investments of $10,000 or less, and take little or no role in assisting entrepreneurs build their companies. Drawing on his rich store of data, Shane offers recommendations to entrepreneurs and angels alike for the most productive use of angel investing, and suggests how policymakers can encourage it. Massively researched and briskly written, Fools’ Gold offers the first real resource on this misunderstood aspect of our entrepreneurial system.

Leonard Mlodinow teaches about randomness to future scientists at Caltech. Along the way he also wrote for the television series MacGyver and Star Trek: The Next Generation. He is the author of The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives.

A drunkard’s walk is a type of random statistical distribution with important applications in scientific studies ranging from biology to astronomy. Mlodinow leads us on a walk through the hills and valleys of randomness and how it directs our lives more than we realize. Mlodinow introduces important historical figures such as Bernoulli, Laplace and Pascal, emphasizing their ideas rather than their tumultuous private lives. Mlodinow defines such tricky concepts as regression to the mean and the law of large numbers, which should help us navigate the daily deluge of election polls and new studies on how to live to 100.

As a brand, you need to learn how to sell yourself persuasively and with haste, when communicating your message to others. Aside from being in an elevatar, you may have to pitch yourself during an interview, at a networking event, to someone at work and in other situations, possibly concerning the media. If you fail to do this, both accurately and consistently, you will miss opportunities and your brand image will sink.

Contest rules

You have no more than three sentences to promote your personal brand. This means you can’t talk about your personal life, unless of course there is a major crossover. Within three sentences, you should convince me and my readers who you are, what you do and what you can do for us. To enter this contest, all you have to do is write your pitch in the comments section of this post.

Example:  My name is Dan and I’m a personal branding expert, as well as the author of an upcoming book, entitled “Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success.” My entire career revolves around my mastery of personal branding, starting with my award winning blog, a magazine that I publish, podcasts that I produce, an award I give out, and I speak to various audiences. I’m also a social media specialist at EMC Corporation, involved in their external social media communication program and have been with them for over two years.

Prizes

Marcus Buckingham is giving away five free copies of his new book, “The Truth About You,” to the contest winners! Marcus is famous for selling millions of books, and making millions of dollars on speaking all over the world. He’s even been on Oprah and P Diddy’s show. His new book includes a DVD and is valued at $29.99 a piece. I’ve already read it and watched the video and enjoyed it. I even blogged about it not too long ago.

Good luck and happy thanksgiving!

If you’re a beginner, please see my previous post on blogging your personal brand.

1) Start adding links to your posts

All of your new blog posts should contains links. The links should link to blog posts you’ve created previously, other people’s blogs and additional resources that may support your thesis or commentary. Make sure your blog is setup so that people can advance to the next post and go back to a previous post as well. When you add links, try to highlight a word of phrase that makes sense for the location you’re sending people to.

For instance, if I wanted to link to a marketing blog, I you could write “There are other marketing resources on the web that can help you too!” When you create links to your content and other peoples content, it’s benefits you in these ways: you’re giving attribution, you’re helping other bloggers (and may receive reciprocation with a future link), and you’re increasing the page views of your other posts.

2) Get consistent with formatting

If you’ve read my blog for a week, then you are aware that I have the same formatting for every post. My subtitles are all in blue, I highlight key phrases in bold and underline keywords. I also align most of my images to the right side of the screen and more. Aside from finding your voice, you need to find your format. Ask yourself “what colors should I use to represent brand me”? If you can keep things consistent, it will be easier for people to read because they will adjust to your blog rhythm.

3) Create your “About this blog” page

In my beginners post, I spoke about having a page that highlights you, as the blogger, but now I want you to create a page about your blog. Before you even create your blog, you should have an idea of the niche you’re going after and your unique value that you bring to the blogosphere. Your about page should describe what your blog is going to be talking about. Give people a general idea, so they know to come (or subscribe) to your content to receive that type of information and nothing else. Remember, people can get information elsewhere, so you only want a piece of their attention.

Your about page should scream enthusiasm for your topic and you might have a picture as a way to describe it too. The best about pages I’ve seen are one paragraph long. Mine has more because my topic is more complicated and because I’ve run out of room on my blog (I’m launching a new one next year).

4) Comment like a champ

I’ve spoken about branding yourself with comments previously. In order to get comments on your blog, you need to comment on other blogs. A comment signifies that you’ve taken the liberty to read and reflect on someone else’s material. To me, that is like starting a conversation at a cocktail party. As long as you fill out the comment field with your blog URL, the receiver of that comment will want to reciprocate by either commenting back, subscribing to your blog or writing a post promoting brand YOU (maybe all 3 if you’re lucky). Subscribe to topics that reflect your blog and comment on what you can lend expertise to.

You’ll notice, after a while, that people will comment back on your blog. When this occurs, you benefit by having more subscribers, viewers and a stronger TRIBE. Plus, those bloggers will keep blogging on your topic because you’ve given them a reason too

5) Find out who your visitors are

Some bloggers use MyBlogLog and others use another website called Blog Catalog. MyBlogLog is much more popular, especially because it’s endorsed by Yahoo!. By signing up for an account, you are strengthening your personal brand and that of your blog. First, you can use a MyBlogLog widget on your blog, which showcases the avatars of those who’ve already signed up for MyBlogLog and have landed on your blog. Second, when you go to other blogs, your avatar will appear (it’s like face-time with your manager). This is how you continue to build a community around your brand.

6) Guest post on another blog

If you’ve written a number of posts for your own blog and are interested in getting more traffic and networking, then guest posting on another blog is a good strategy for you. Do not randomly email bloggers asking them to guest post or to comment on their blogs with a request or they’ll be turned off immediately. The top bloggers get these requests all the time, so in order to stand out, you need a long term relationship strategy. You need to comment on their blog over the course of a month or so before you engage in a guest post conversation. When you write for another blog, be sure to only link back to your blog and make sure the content is as good, if not better, than your own blog content.

7) Integrate your blog URL/feed throughout your digital kingdom

Promoting your blog through all of your current materials is key. Your email signature should have a link to your blog and blog feed. The presentations that you give should have a link to your blog. Your resume should have a link to your blog. Your website should have a link to your blog. Your business card should have a link to your blog. You want this link almost everywhere your name is cited because that’s how people will remember it.

8 ) Promotion on discussion forums

One great way to get your name out there and to promote your blog is through discussion forums. Find threads where you feel your website would benefit those people and comment, while including your blogs address in your signature. The more you do this, then more people will click on your site, especially if it’s targeted appropriately.

9) Use at least one picture per post

Don’t publish a blog post without including a picture. Sometimes I struggle pressing “publish” without multiple pictures. I know your writing is good, but without a picture it is faceless. Your voice needs to be matched with a picture that gives an experience to your readers. A picture says more than 1,000 words in the blogosphere; it says everything. The pictures you select for blog inclusion, will tell the reader what your main point is immediately, so they can connect with it and follow your content trail.

10) Allow for search and organization

Instead of waiting two years to organize your content, do it right now. This includes, deciding on categories for your posts, using a calendar or archiving widget, as well as giving people the ability to search through your content. By creating categories and organization your content now, you will save hours later. You will also help readers navigate your content much faster, so you get more views.

I made it! Today marks the official one year anniversary of the day I starting tapping my fingers until little thoughts starting pouring out all over my tiny chunk of cyberspace.

Instead of “celebrating” with a “what’s happened as I’ve grown as a blogger and a person” post [that will come next week sometime], I’m going to give a shout out to an amazing project going on in the blogosphere that proves why blogging is an engaging and addictive medium.

Chuck Westbrook, a blogger I’ve admired for some time, wrote a post a couple of weeks ago featuring his “big idea.” The big idea? Helping a community of people find little-known blogs with great content, and fostering this community through forums, comments, and advice.

This week, Chuck introduced us to Zoë Westhof and her blog, Essential Prose. After reading her interview and a few of her posts, I quickly added her to my Google Reader. Not only is Zoe a talented writer, she’s incredibly honest and real - something I’m always looking for when searching for new content to read.

So, celebrate my blogoversary with me by checking out Chuck’s project and Zoe’s blog. You won’t be sorry you did.

It was just a year ago that I was sitting in undergrad classes wondering where I would be and what I would be doing in fall 2008.

Then came the birth of Life Before Noon in February, 2008. Fast forward my life to living in four states in five months when I made the transition(s) from undergrad to internship to grad school. What has been a common thread through my transitions are blogging and the blogosphere community.

Last night I was lucky enough to speak at a Social Media Workshop at MIT set up by Dhruv Garg, a MIT student. I shared the stage with the talented Dan Schawbel, personal branding expert, who also discussed his new book Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success.

What I learned while preparing for this presentation is that blogging is not just about making connections and establishing an online presence, but also about starting a conversation with people through developing technologies. These conversations have guided my development professionally and personally.

My presentation focused on blogging as a conversation. Blogging should be an investment in yourself, your career and your network. However, if done correctly, it’s not a one time deal. Continuing a conversation is key.

Below are a few slides at the end of my talk about how students can set up their own blogs following a framework I created- R.E.A.C.T.

Although I still have a lot to learn about blogging and the digital space, I am glad to have started my conversation and will hopefully inspire others to do so as well.

-Carla

Blogging is one of the best ways to grow your personal brand.

I truly believe that through blogging, students and young professionals can learn more about themselves and what they want in their lives-professionally and personally (myself being proof). There are countless posts, articles, videos and Web sites devoted to helping people of all ages start their own blog.

But, guess what? Just starting a blog doesn’t mean anything. Blogging is work. And just like anything else in life, success in blogging comes with a plan, time and energy.

From talking with friends and other Gen Yers, I have found that sometimes GenYers think their blog exists in a vacuum. And technically, if you don’t connect with anyone else in the blogosphere, your blog will float in the middle of cyberspace. To some, that is fine. Writing can be therapeutic. But for people who want to use blogging as a means to establishing credibility and being involved in a conversation, blogging will take time.

There are some big players out there. While us Life Before Nooners have been writing for 9 months, we still have a lot to learn from some great forces in the field.

Here are some tips that I have learned, from my brief time in the blogosphere, for students who want to start blogging:

1. Read other blogs. See who are the big players in your blogging field niche. Align yourself with them. Think about how your messages will add to the conversations they are involved in.
2. Devise a plan. Think about your blog as a brand-what value will it bring to the customer (readers)? How will you communicate it’s attributes (the main ideas)? What promotion strategy are you going to use (Twitter, networking, etc)?
3. Network, maintain, and spice it up. Blogging is about a conversation. Network with other bloggers in your niche. Comment, ask questions, be involved. Maintain your blog content, while spicing it up every once in a while. Do guest posts and extend yourself. Join a blogging network.

Obviously, this list could be quite extensive. Blogging is one avenue to build credibility in your field and make connections. The more time you put in, the more you will get out. I’m still learning the ins-and-outs of this everyday.

You have a blog? So what. Join the conversation.

-Carla

My absentee ballot came three weeks ago and I haven’t mailed it in yet. In fact, I haven’t even been looking for it; I found it last night by accident, carelessly stuffed between a bill and my bank statement. The reason my ballot hasn’t been shipped off to Florida yet is because I’m still undecided. Not about a candidate - I’m undecided whether I even want to vote this year.

Before everyone jumps on a soapbox and preaches about how important voting is–I’m writing this post out of frustration with the campaigns, today’s election process, and my own shifting ideals. I already know voting is important and a privilege. I don’t take it lightly, which makes it even more difficult for me, since neither candidate evokes the excitement that many in my generation are feeling.

I grew up admiring the U.S. political process. I thought moving to D.C. during this historic election year would make me even more passionate about voting. I hoped for a candidate who would inspire me to attend rallies and volunteer at campaign offices. Our country is in desperate need of a change in direction, and I wanted to find a champion who would lead us.

“Change we can believe in?” “Country first?”

Those are slogans I’d love to vote for, only both candidates seem to have forgotten them along the campaign trail.

When I first realized it would be an Obama/McCain election, I was elated because I thought both were exceptional choices. I was proud of the U.S. and the major parties for nominating the first black candidate and a former POW who had been a powerful force in the Senate. Both senators are inspirational for very different reasons, and while I still admire them, I find myself disagreeing with too much of their platforms and campaigns to aggressively align myself with either.

Campaign advertising from both candidates has gone overboard. I am so sick of the ads telling me how liberal/conservative one candidate is or how much money I’ll lose in a given administration. Don’t tell me what the other person is doing wrong or push sound bites taken out of context. Tell me what you are going to do. Tell me how American life will improve under your administration.

Also, the media has played a huge role in my disillusionment and apathy. For weeks, I couldn’t read the Washington Post or New York Times without seeing countless negative articles that delved into personal issues rather than policy. The media made my stomach turn, and it frustrated me as a citizen and a student of mass communications. It looked as though all major papers had turned into gossip rags instead of asking tough questions and examining complex issues. With an economic crisis and the situation in the Middle East, do I really care about Obama’s 1983 thesis or Palin’s college transcripts?

Despite watching all the debates and studying both candidate’s platforms, I still don’t think I’m educated enough on all the issues to make a sound judgment about who can lead this country best.

I’m jealous that so many other people think they know who the best choice for our country is. I eavesdrop on the political discourse taking place around D.C., and everyone seems to be ecstatic about this year’s election. But when I ask them how they really feel, almost all of my friends say, “Well, the candidate I was pulling for didn’t make it, so I’m settling.” And that’s what I really want to know: why should we have to settle?

My absentee ballot shows 13 presidential tickets. There are twenty-two people I have never seen before campaigning for the highest office in our country. Why weren’t these candidates represented throughout the political process, especially at the debates? Obviously it has a lot to do with funding and the debate access laws, but these seem like poor excuses in a country that stresses equal opportunity for all.

Another reason why this election is difficult for me is because I have grown into a new set of ideals and beliefs over the past few years. I was raised by devout Catholics who taught me the importance of community service and generosity. And those values stick with me. I value the freedom that provides people with opportunities to do what is best for them so long as their actions do not infringe on the rights of others. That’s where I split with my family on issues such as gay marriage and women’s healthcare.

So, socially, I’m liberal. And fiscally, I’m conservative. But for the most part, I’m moderate. But as a moderate, I feel like I’m sacrificing too many issues that are important to me by declaring an allegiance to either ticket. Until I can vote for a candidate I believe in, I don’t think I can settle for either Senator Obama or Senator McCain.

photo credit: Question! from -bast-

I’ve been thinking about my personal brand recently.

A brand represents a solution to a need. Successful brands have a unique selling proposition or an added value for the consumer.

What solution am I bringing? What need am I fulfilling? As a college student or young professional it is difficult to find answers to these questions.

Describing your personal brand in a few sentences shouldn’t be hard to do. But, describing your personal brand in one word as Dan Schawbel, personal branding expert, has suggested, may be more of a challenge. Brevity is everything in marketing.

Before you start going through the dictionary to find your “word,” start with yourself. Truly, branding comes from within. We each possess personal characteristics, soft skills and technical skills that make us employable. What makes our brand ours is the perceived value that we each add to our employer, clients, co-workers, professors, classmates, and even family and friends.

First, your brand needs to start with confidence in yourself.

I have seen many fellow Gen Yers limit themselves. They don’t reach for the stars because there is a chance of failure, a chance that their added value won’t be enough. They don’t try to do everything they can to better themselves when the world is at their fingertips.

Confidence doesn’t grow on trees. It is found through experimentation, with new experiences.

Although Gen Y has been criticized for being overly optimistic, belief in one’s own abilities and acknowledgment of weaknesses is critical for success. Confidence is an abstract concept that can grow with time. Your link to who you are as a brand starts with your confidence in your abilities. Before you go fishing for your personal brand word, start within. Do a personal brand SWOT and assess who you are as a person.

The better you can understand yourself, the more value you can add to the world around you and the stronger your brand will become.

-Carla

*Thanks to class and friends’ discussions that helped these ideas stem into a post.

We Millennials bounded out of the womb with a laptop and IPod in each hand and a Bluetooth in our ear. We check our Gmail accounts religiously via our Blackberrys and frequently use the term “tweet” in everyday conversations.

We are synonymous with technology.

So it doesn’t surprise me that when it comes to etiquette a lot of us aren’t as responsible when using this technology as we should be and as newbies in the workplace that can be a big disadvantage.

The following is a list of suggestions to help you successfully navigate through a seemingly second-nature task while making the right impression on your new co-workers.

1. Frequency–even though sending an IM to your roommate who is five feet down the hall is normal communication behavior for most of us, it can hinder our ability to meet new colleagues and build bridges to effective work relationships. Make it a point to deliver at least one face-to-face message a day, or at the very least use the phone for quick notes or questions. Relying on e-mail for every little thing is annoying–don’t be that kid.

2. Content–learning the typical protocol for communication in your office is key. You have to learn what’s professional vs. what’s personal and tailor your notes accordingly. Also stray away from jargon unless absolutely neccessary to keep messages clear and clean in case anyone outside your immediate circle is copied.

3. Grammar and Spelling–two words: spell check. This is absolutely the easiest thing you can do. Make sure your messages are free of punctuation and grammar errors too. Nothing labels you faster in my mind than by misusing the word “their” for “there.” And please learn contractions–”your” does not mean “you are” or subsequently “you’re.” Seriously people.

4. Streamline–pleasantries are nice but don’t play them out. Keep subject lines to the point, for example I try to tag on a deadline after the question or project note. Typing in “answer needed by ___” with a specific date gives people a to-do item and not just another email to respond to. Simplifying word choice by using the most appropriate language keeps your email succinct and avoids annoyingly unnecessary and superfluous banter. Don’t use five words when two will do. 

These four points are my personal pet peeves but there are a ton more e-mail faux pas out there. What are your top e-mail blunders to avoid?

-Marilyn

People are getting the bulk of their news from the Web, and many traditional news outlets are nervous about the future of print journalism. But should they be as worried as they are?

This article from ESPN.com inspired me, not only as an athlete but also as someone who studied mass communications.

The piece is a riveting account of two strangers overcoming the same tragedy – the first fatal shark attack in the San Diego area in a half-century. Instead of a typical online article that is brief and straight-to-the-point, this one is detailed and personal, and fairly lengthy. Usually, I can’t finish longer articles because even the most interesting topics can seem monotonous on a computer screen with long blocks of text, bolded subheadings, and static pictures.

Tom Friend’s “Back into the Water” held my attention, and it wasn’t only because of the unexpected story. Friend’s writing was excellent, but the ESPN designers did a great job laying out the piece. The title and heading resembled those found in magazines. Large pictures and short videos made the story even more personal, and simple elements such as detailed subheadings (not just the standard bolding and large font size used on most sites) helped break up the large blocks of text.

It’s one of the first online articles I’ve seen that seemed more like a print magazine piece. I’m sure I’ve missed others, but I hope this is the beginning of a new trend for journalism on the Web.

I recently wrote about my internship and how positive that experience was in my transition from college life to corporate America. Now, I have completed my first week as a salaried employee in the real world. What’s even better? I’m pretty sure I’ve landed my dream job at New Media Strategies.

So how did I do it? Easy – I built up a personal and a digital network, discovered what I was passionate about, and did a lot of research to find a position that would challenge me and fit my criteria for workplace values.

Okay, so it wasn’t that easy. With our economy in its current state, it’s a difficult process to find a great entry-level job. No matter how many times I rewrote my cover letter and reviewed my résumé, getting interviews at companies was practically impossible without help from my friends and network.

For example, I read about New Media Strategies when I first got to D.C. Since I’m slightly obsessed with this new digital era I wanted to connect with others who shared this passion. I checked out the company’s site NOT to look for a job, but to find people. I discovered the blogs of Leslie Bradshaw and Andre Blackman, so I started following them and a few other NMSers on twitter. I reached out to Leslie telling her how I’d just moved here and was always looking for social media events to go to, and we ended up meeting in person at an event a couple of days later.

As my internship reached an end, I noticed that NMS was hiring. I sent a DM to Leslie saying that she had inspired me with some of her recent work and that I was thinking about applying. She quickly responded and told me to e-mail the head of HR, which I did, and here I am!

Yesterday, I was talking to a close friend of mine who is finishing up her CPA and trying to land a job at a big time accounting firm. She’s very smart, organized, experienced, and has a near perfect GPA. And, it doesn’t hurt that both of her parents are respected accountants. Then, she told me she wanted to get a job without using her parents’ networks. While I understand her desire to get a job on her own without any help, I told her that this was no time to be humble and that she should make use of the people she knows, especially with our the entry-level job market as fragile as it is right now.

What do you think? Did I give her the right advice? How did you get your first job after college?

By the way, be sure to check out my new blogroll with a list of my very talented co-workers’ blogs.

I shouldn’t be in grad school.

Ok, technically I am in school. And I thought long and hard about my decision. The fact is, I never wanted to go. I wanted to dive into the workforce from undergrad. I wanted to head straight to New York City, into a corporate office, and work my way up to the top.

I have always been a hard-working, practical person. I was always the “planner” in my group of friends-organized and keenly aware of the people’s needs around me.

So I had a plan: New York. And no one gets in the way of a twenty something heading to New York.

Casually looking online during the summer of 2007, I found my current grad program. I couldn’t believe there was a curriculum that fit all of my needs for furthering my education- a hands-on program focusing on the global marketplace.

But I didn’t want to let it interfere with THE plan. New York. Big office. My vision of early twenty-something life.

But I couldn’t help it; I was drawn to the program web page every couple of days. I started to develop a passion for the program and for the opportunities, places and people I would meet. So, I worked really hard- I took the GREs twice, revised my resume countless times and spoke to every quasi professional about my options. Despite the attempts I made at convincing myself, I was still scared about straying from my plan.

Then I realized-

Life is not a plan.

You make your own opportunities.

Do what you want to do.

Under one rule: Live with passion.

So, I shouldn’t be in grad school- according to my plan. But it’s ok, because I am loving it. I am learning so much, branding myself, my work, making contacts and lifelong friendships from people all around the world in a city that I would have never explored.

Plans are only in pencil, it’s ok to erase.

-Carla

Welcome to Gen Y Guyland, where you can take part in binge drinking, casual sex and a series of dead end jobs.

According to a recent Newsweek article, there are over 22 million young men ages 16-26 who have entered this evolving phase of American “guyland.” With these ‘guys’ composing more than 15 percent of the total male population in the United States, this reported lack of responsibility is alarming.

The article highlights the book Guyland written by sociologist Michael Kimmel. According to his web site, the book is:

based on more than 400 interviews over a four-year spam with young men, ages 16-26. Kimmel’s study shows that the guys who live in “Guyland” are mostly white, middle-class, totally confused and cannot commit to their relationships, work or lives. Although they seem baffled by the riddles of manhood and responsibility, they submit to the “Guy Code,” where locker-room behaviors, sexual conquests, bullying, violence and assuming a cocky jock pose can rule over the sacrifice and conformity of marriage and family.

Seems a little extreme.

Despite the hype and language used to describe his book, I think Kimmel does highlight aspects of a sociocultural trend in American culture. Kimmel describes the Guyland lifestyle in his Today Show interview.

Kimmel highlights three recent changes in American culture that has lead to this Guyland lifestyle:

1. Longevity- People are living longer than ever in the past. While previous generations had to marry and start a family in their late teens and early twenties, Gen Y has the luxury of establishing careers and finances as a priority. Kimmel says that young men don’t see the point of settling down with a stable job and relationship when that can wait a couple of years.
2. Helicopter Parenting- Gen Y has been micromanaged by their parents, often causing negative effects as they transition to young professionals.
3. Roles of Women- Gen Y women are professional and competent. Kimmel says that Gen Y men are often intimidated and confused by these changing gender roles.

I think there is a transformation of young American men. With the likes of Tucker Max, there does seem to be a trend of idolizing the stereotypical frat boy, even ten years post grad. But who is to say this is just a male phenomena? I think the Sex and the City mentality could be just as pervasive. Is female empowerment, both in career and personal life, indirectly hurting our Gen Y men?

What do you think about the concept of Guyland?

-Carla

The hustle and bustle of New York City quieted as my parents and I drove through New Jersey back home after my summer internship.

We decided to stop at my grandfather’s cemetery, as it was only a few miles from the route. As I entered the cemetery, images of that rainy March day when we laid him to rest flashed through my mind. How, as the oldest of my siblings, I tried to be so strong. How to this day, when I hear Frank Sinatra I smile to think of us dancing at a faded family gathering.

I sat on the grass of his grave. Holding back my tears, I said to him, “I hope you are proud.”

My grandfather was a distinguished man: a war veteran, shipyard mechanic, electrical engineer and college professor. He was the epitome of the “Greatest Generation.” He was also my first mentor.

There is one lesson my grandfather taught me: Work hard and have a kind heart.

And even as a member of the Greatest Generation, my grandfather’s advice is even more necessary. Working hard, and most importantly, working smart is crucial for career advancement for Gen Y.

Having a kind heart simply involves being a nice person. Living life simply. Living life with a bigger purpose. Helping others, while caring for yourself.

Coming from the city full of busy, successful people, I was always looking for a mentor and luckily found one at my job. But lying on the grass of my grandfather’s grave, I realized that sometimes the greatest mentors aren’t at a job, in a classroom or on the blogosphere. Sometimes the greatest life lessons and values can come from someone who made an impact on us a long time ago.

My only hope is I can live up to his mantra, even when I find myself faltering as a twenty-something navigating through life.

-Carla

It is officially the third week of August. In my mind, this means summer is pretty much over. It’s hard to believe that just a few months ago I was simultaneously excited about graduation and apprehensive about the future and starting life in the “real world”.

I’ve started thinking about everything I’ve accomplished this summer. I did, despite my worries, find a job and now I’m finally settling in at the office. I have even begun budgeting and saving my money, something I was dreading but somehow managed to handle. I’m successfully handling each project thrown at me and have already made lifelong friends at my office. I can happily say I’ve transitioned into the post-graduate world and conquered all the fears I had about whether I was ready.

Yet, I feel that something is missing, something I let slip by me in a way I never have before.

And then it hits me – I forgot to have fun this summer. I was so busy worrying about interviews, potential job offers, money, moving out of my college apartment, moving into my post-grad dwelling, money, meeting new people, too much responsibility, failing miserably, money, etc, etc, etc, that I somehow let summer slip away. Sadly, and despite everything I have managed to achieve these past few months, I have a nagging feeling of regret. How could I have let this happen? I love summer; why did I not realize it was moving so quickly?

I don’t think this feeling is uncommon; many people start working and forget how to do anything else. However, I vow to find a way to balance my work and personal lives so that I can actually go out and do the things I want to do. This doesn’t mean slacking off or using all those vacation days I just discovered I have. It simply means taking that list labeled “Things That Might Be Cool To Try” and actually making it happen.

- Haley

In the past, several Life Before Nooners have talked about the influence of fast, convenient technology in the workplace and for personal use. These discussions always seem to come back to the king of this genre: Google.

Now, a new search engine has been created that may, shockingly, give Google a run for its money.

It’s called Cuil (pronounced “cool”), which is an Irish word for knowledge. For the most part, it seems the reports find the title suitable. Cuil, which claims to be “the world’s biggest search engine,” is apparently three times as big as the competition, including Google and Yahoo, and has an index of over 100 billion web pages.

Cuil results are listed in three columns, not one long list, and include both picture and text descriptions. The results also suggest possible alternatives to your search and ways to have more refined results, as do most search engines nowadays, but Cuil displays them as browsable tabs. This is supposed to make browsing easier than ever before (the Cuil Web site itself says that sometimes the Internet can be”too much”). In addition, Cuil boasts that it has taken privacy to a whole new level, caring less about its users private information and more about what they need from a search engine.

Interestingly, many people involved in the creation of Cuil worked for Google until they decided to try something new. There are still a few kinks in the system, as with any new technology, but clearly the Cuil team has the intelligence and knowledge necessary to create something people will love. Only time will tell if Cuil can gain as much momentum as Google has. For the time being, it’s worth the effort just to test it out and see what you can make of it. Who knows, you may walk into the office in a few months and discover that “Cuilchatting” is the newest, hippest way of communicating.

- Haley

Check out this technology from …where else…Japan that allows advertisers to customize the content of billboards using cameras. The cameras use face-detection technology to analyze the person walking by, then tells the billboard to serve the appropriate ad (link)

On the surface, this is harmless. Quite innovative and novel, actually. But this could also go really really wrong, really really fast.

This is what Times Square looks like today (click):

Ideally, this would transform into:

Sufficiently targeted items for my interests and the interests of my demographics. This is the ideal situation, everything is relevant and the ads actually intrigue me. It would be depressing to see that the world thinks that all 20-something males need to survive is beer, condoms and slacker movies, but that’s a different post for another time.

However, that’s an ideal situation. What if I deviated a little from the average?

What if I’m walking around with my buddies? They’d find out instantly that I might want the special edition DVD of Hairspray, that I’m addicted to Gossip Girl, that I have erectile dysfunction and that I need butt cream.

Then again, Generation Y is so used to giving away their privacy that this might actually not a big deal…

A couple months ago I walked into my bosses office after a few weeks of pure boredom in my job:

“We need to talk,” I said, “I enjoy working for you, and I feel like I have gained a great deal of priceless experience, but I’ve been increadibly bored over the past few weeks and when I ask for more work I get bitch work. I need to know where my job is going.”

He was caught a little off guard, but responded “Well, to be perfectly honest, there is no vertical growth in our department. If you were to stay at this company it would be in another department. You aren’t thinking of quitting already are you?”

I smiled, “You know I always look for more responsibility.”

I appreciate his honesty, but I was caught off guard a bit by his frankness. On one hand it’s good to know, but on the other I was just told I was in a dead end job and I needed to figure out my next move. My lingering question became, do I start to look for a new job then (after 6 months on the job, the last person in my job lasted 7), or do I do as I’ve been told by most people I’ve met with…stick it out for at least a year.

Fast Forward 2 weeks. I have breakfast with a powerful HR executive who I met through my father-in-law (networking extraordinaire). I ask him about my situation to further our conversation, and because as a general rule… effective networking occurs when you ask for advice. His response was just as I imagined. “Stick it out for at least a year,” he then caught me off guard, “then send me your resume.”

I was flattered, to say the least, but I still had 6 more months to stick it out… I’m fine with being worked to death, but pure boredom is another thing all together. I would later find out from a co-worker that the girl who had my job before me watched Grey’s Anatomy and anything else she could online, and that the guy before her brought in DVD’s to watch at work. This is something I could NEVER do, I view it as wrong on any number of levels, so I would need to find other things to busy myself.

Today I’ve been on the job about 10 months, and I have become the unofficial corporate webmaster, in charge of maintaining our less than par website that was put up in the mid ’90s. I have since made it my goal to get us a new corporate website, actually this is something I told my boss we needed right after I was hired.

I began lobbying slowly, but gained some backers and was able to successfully create a presentation on why we need a new website. The presentation was successful and I got the corporate funding for it (very surprising because of the cost cutting measures my company has taken). Now I am the point man on working with company executives from all departments and a 3rd party firm to develop the site. I’ve been balancing schedules and putting together an advisory team to watch over the development. I got much busier when working towards the new site, and I even took stuff home with me one night (something I never do).

By broadening my exposure and working toward my goal of getting the new site, I now have something that gets me excited for work. It is well outside of my job description, but it has enabled me to gain invaluable management experience and exposure that will surely look good on my resume and aid me in the search for my next position.

Gen X-ers had a little more fun. They could’ve emailed each other over 28.8 or used their pagers to send 1-sentence messages back and forth.

Here’s what Generation Y uses to stay in touch.

To an outsider, it can be a confusing to understand how Gen Y uses those channels just to talk to each other. After all, Boomers just had three channels and they made friends just fine.

To put things in context, here’s what my communication habits are like and how I use the above.

Looking at that chart makes me envy my father’s generation. They didn’t have to worry about drunk texts. Or having personal information all over the internet.

Honourable mentions for Blackberry PINs and Twitter.

Gen X-ers had a little more fun. They could’ve emailed each other over 28.8 or used their pagers to send 1-sentence messages back and forth.

Here’s what Generation Y uses to stay in touch.

To an outsider, it can be a confusing to understand how Gen Y uses those channels just to talk to each other. After all, Boomers just had three channels and they made friends just fine.

To put things in context, here’s what my communication habits are like and how I use the above.

Looking at that chart makes me envy my father’s generation. They didn’t have to worry about drunk texts. Or having personal information all over the internet.

Honourable mentions for Blackberry PINs and Twitter.

This experience also confirmed that yes, Gen Y presents an interesting challenge to the marketing and sales teams of the future. There was a distinct difference in the way my transactions with Gen Y-ers went, as opposed to Gen X and Baby Boomers.

Selling to Boomers vs Gen Y

Here’s how a typical interaction with a Boomer would go, let’s say, for a printer.

Me:: “Hi! Welcome to ABC Electronics. How can I help?”
Boomer: “Hi. I need a printer.”
Me: “Alright, that’s something I can help you with. Let’s take a look at the printer aisle.”
Boomer: “You know what, I don’t know anything about printers. Just recommend me something.”
Me: “Sure, but first, let’s find out what you need from the printer. Do you have a printer now?”

This interaction would continue for a while as I probed for information to make an appropriate recommendation. It would take a lot of energy — I’d constantly be asking questions, gathering feedback and leading the interaction. If at any point there is an impasse between similar printers, I would inevitably get this question:

Boomer: “So which one would you buy?”

Depending on the day — sometimes we had certain goals, wanted to move particular units, or whether I just wanted to test my abilities — I would recommend different things. 99.9% of the printers we had could do everything the customer was looking for, so it didn’t really matter which one I recommended. However, a big part of how much they spent that day was dependent on me.

Let’s compare this to a typical experience with a Gen Y customer.

Me: “Hi! Welcome to ABC Electronics. Is there anything I can help you with?”
Gen Yer: “Hey there. Do you have the Canon Pixma 3000?”
Me: “Let’s check the printer aisle.”
Gen Yer: “Alright. And how much are your USB cables?”

Millennials had already done their homework, making their transactions much faster. In many cases, I couldn’t even engage the Gen Y customers, since they typically just walked in, grabbed the product they were after, then walked out before I could do my spiel.

Gen Y Customers: Smart but Unprofitable

As a salesperson, Boomer customers were great for the department. Since they often relinquished control of the interaction, I could persuade them to purchase my recommendations, as long as they were within a reasonable price. It was much easier to sell them high-margin accessories and services.

Gen Y-ers were also great customers, because they took very little time to serve and I didn’t have to spend half the conversation explaining what a gigabyte was. Generally, they knew their stuff and sometimes corrected me if I had my product info mixed up. They’ve looked at reviews online and know everything they need and what to buy, so it was hard to sell them accessories and services.

Google and Gen Y

Boomers can’t be faulted for their lack of preparedness. They don’t have what I call the “Google Reflex“. Gen Y instinctively looks something up online to get informed, where Boomers, in my experience, are much more comfortable hearing it from a “certified” person. This made them much more susceptible to upsells (which, by the way, aren’t always bad…just expensive) and pitches for accessories (which could be bought elsewhere for cheaper).

During a sale, it’s all about who has the information. Whoever has the information has the control. Whoever has the control wins the transaction.

This experience also confirmed that yes, Gen Y presents an interesting challenge to the marketing and sales teams of the future. There was a distinct difference in the way my transactions with Gen Y-ers went, as opposed to Gen X and Baby Boomers.

Selling to Boomers vs Gen Y

Here’s how a typical interaction with a Boomer would go, let’s say, for a printer.

Me:: “Hi! Welcome to ABC Electronics. How can I help?”
Boomer: “Hi. I need a printer.”
Me: “Alright, that’s something I can help you with. Let’s take a look at the printer aisle.”
Boomer: “You know what, I don’t know anything about printers. Just recommend me something.”
Me: “Sure, but first, let’s find out what you need from the printer. Do you have a printer now?”

This interaction would continue for a while as I probed for information to make an appropriate recommendation. It would take a lot of energy — I’d constantly be asking questions, gathering feedback and leading the interaction. If at any point there is an impasse between similar printers, I would inevitably get this question:

Boomer: “So which one would you buy?”

Depending on the day — sometimes we had certain goals, wanted to move particular units, or whether I just wanted to test my abilities — I would recommend different things. 99.9% of the printers we had could do everything the customer was looking for, so it didn’t really matter which one I recommended. However, a big part of how much they spent that day was dependent on me.

Let’s compare this to a typical experience with a Gen Y customer.

Me: “Hi! Welcome to ABC Electronics. Is there anything I can help you with?”
Gen Yer: “Hey there. Do you have the Canon Pixma 3000?”
Me: “Let’s check the printer aisle.”
Gen Yer: “Alright. And how much are your USB cables?”

Millennials had already done their homework, making their transactions much faster. In many cases, I couldn’t even engage the Gen Y customers, since they typically just walked in, grabbed the product they were after, then walked out before I could do my spiel.

Gen Y Customers: Smart but Unprofitable

As a salesperson, Boomer customers were great for the department. Since they often relinquished control of the interaction, I could persuade them to purchase my recommendations, as long as they were within a reasonable price. It was much easier to sell them high-margin accessories and services.

Gen Y-ers were also great customers, because they took very little time to serve and I didn’t have to spend half the conversation explaining what a gigabyte was. Generally, they knew their stuff and sometimes corrected me if I had my product info mixed up. They’ve looked at reviews online and know everything they need and what to buy, so it was hard to sell them accessories and services.

Google and Gen Y

Boomers can’t be faulted for their lack of preparedness. They don’t have what I call the “Google Reflex“. Gen Y instinctively looks something up online to get informed, where Boomers, in my experience, are much more comfortable hearing it from a “certified” person. This made them much more susceptible to upsells (which, by the way, aren’t always bad…just expensive) and pitches for accessories (which could be bought elsewhere for cheaper).

During a sale, it’s all about who has the information. Whoever has the information has the control. Whoever has the control wins the transaction.

I don’t think Gen Y has an appreciation of the permanence of the internet. Once you upload a piece of your life — a blog post, a picture, a video of your cat dancing on YouTube — it’s online FOREVER. I’ve had a Facebook account for about 3 years now, and it only recently dawned on me that there are pictures of me that I’ll never be able to really delete, as they’re stored in a server farm, in a datacenter somewhere, backed up several times over several hard drives, housed in a building guarded with security and alarms. Mark Zuckerberg owns those pictures as much as I do.

The Three Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Dear reader, we have probably never met…but you can write my obituary. All you need is the login information for the sites that I use.

Let’s say you got your hands on my Google login. You would learn a ridiculous amount of information about me:

• GMail: who I know and what we talk about
• Google Search: things I’ve thought about and looked for
• Google Maps: where I’ve been
• Google Calendar: a detailed list of what I’ve been doing in the past year, complete with date and location

You could also have the following if you accessed my Facebook:

• Wall and Messages: conversations with people I know
• Photos: evidence of what I’ve done, where I’ve been and with who
• Events: date and location of events I’ve attended (can cross-reference with Photos)
• Relationship Status: who I’ve been involved with, the type of relationship and for how long
• Personal info: birthday, interests, activities, education, work history

Combine my Facebook data with my Google data and forget the obituary, you have enough to write a small autobiography complete with pictures and memorable quotes from friends.

the girl Riot recently got me thinking about signing up for Twitter, and in the process, made me realize the following information about me could be publicly available:

• What I’m thinking
• What I just did
• Where I am
• What I am going to do

Google and Facebook already have an intimate detail of my life up to the present. Twitter kicks things into overdrive and brings strangers into this surreal fifth dimension by letting them inside my mind, as they can read about what I’m thinking about to the second.

Get Over Yourself, Dave

I was one of those people who were vehemently anti-Facebook when it first became available. Like all anti-Facebook people, I eventually learned that resistance was futile and got an account.

My capitulation was fortunate, as Facebook has tremendous value in my social life. I quickly got over the hesitation of posting pictures and writing messages that could be seen by everyone. Once I realized that no, Nigerian scammers weren’t going to somehow use that info to scam my bank account, and no, my body parts weren’t going to be secretly harvested while I was asleep, I became more comfortable using Facebook.

It’s a weird lesson Gen Y is learning. Trade in your privacy for really cool social toys. Sooner or later, there’ll be no such thing as a private life, and things that rely on mystery will be dead. I am a firm believer that blind dates and high school reunions will cease to exist.

Despite all this, I’m giving Twitter a shot. I figure that as long as I make sure my boss doesn’t see my tweets while I’m supposed to be home with the flu, I should be ok.

Here’s what a random day in my life looks like, told through the eyes of brands:

0900. Good morning, Dave.

0930. The costume

1047. Rise and shine

1105. What’s going on in the world?

1247. Let’s do lunch

1442. You’re on

1807. Refuel and reconnect

2028. Productivity

2345. Y halo thar, internets!

0108. Power down

The brands listed had a somewhat significant impact on that particular day. If I took a crack at putting down every single brand I came into contact with, this post would be larger by several orders of magnitude. For example, I could have included the bands I listened to, the ads I saw, the branded clothes of people that I saw walking around. If I went into a grocery store or a mall, this could have gone on forever.

It’s amazing at how much of your daily life is comprised of interacting with or talking about brands…and how you become self-conscious of publicly associating yourself with certain brands. It makes me wonder whether I’d put down Metamucil, Barry Manilow or Vagisil if it applied to me. In short, it made me think about how much of my identity is ascribed to brands.

Whether this is isolated to Gen Y is debatable. Though I’m still not convinced that this exposure to brands on this scale makes us marketing savvy.

Here’s what a random day in my life looks like, told through the eyes of brands:

0900. Good morning, Dave.

0930. The costume

1047. Rise and shine

1105. What’s going on in the world?

1247. Let’s do lunch

1442. You’re on

1807. Refuel and reconnect

2028. Productivity

2345. Y halo thar, internets!

0108. Power down

The brands listed had a somewhat significant impact on that particular day. If I took a crack at putting down every single brand I came into contact with, this post would be larger by several orders of magnitude. For example, I could have included the bands I listened to, the ads I saw, the branded clothes of people that I saw walking around. If I went into a grocery store or a mall, this could have gone on forever.

It’s amazing at how much of your daily life is comprised of interacting with or talking about brands…and how you become self-conscious of publicly associating yourself with certain brands. It makes me wonder whether I’d put down Metamucil, Barry Manilow or Vagisil if it applied to me. In short, it made me think about how much of my identity is ascribed to brands.

Whether this is isolated to Gen Y is debatable. Though I’m still not convinced that this exposure to brands on this scale makes us marketing savvy.

It’s no wonder that many boomers and gen-xers think we are the worst generation. We’ve had our helicopter parents swoop in and save us when we’ve gotten into rough situations, we’ve been told our whole lives that we should dream big and that we have the power to change the world (and we believe it!), and most of us have never seen our parents struggle so we “don’t know what it takes.”

Our elders look at those of our generation who decided to take “a year off” to travel, are still jobless because they haven’t found the right fit, on the 5-6 year plan, or moved home to live with their parents after graduation and they tell us that we have ”failed to launch.”

I am not defending my generation in this regard. I’m almost 23 (next week!), I have a wife, two dogs, and I’m buying a house. At times I’m disgusted by my own maturity, but at other times I’m disgusted by the lack of maturity that many of my peers show. I have made my decisions, and I am happy, others have made their decisions and I hope they are happy, but in order to change the world like we have been told and taught that we will do; some of us need to camouflage ourselves.

There are some great companies who realize that they need to adapt and appeal to us in order to thrive, you know who they are because you most likely researched them as a place you want to work. But when the reality of being a college grad steps in and you don’t get your dream job, you’ll learn that at most companies it will be a struggle to make the company more gen-y compatible. It will be a struggle that will last until we are in positions of power and can effectively fight for what we believe. Until then we must fall into line, we must play the game, we must appeal to Gen-X and the Boomers. We need to act more mature than we are and we will climb the ladder. Then, when the time is right, we can grab the reigns and make the changes that are needed.

What this entails:

• Do not allow your parents to involve themselves in your workplace.
• Dress up. If your dress code is business casual, wear dressy casual.
• Stay clean cut. Shave and get a haircut, long hair is not boomer compatible.
• Imitate. Older people love younger people that remind them of themselves.
• Go out of your way to impress them.

I know this goes against much that we believe to be true and what many people try tell us about ourselves, but unless you work for one of the few companies that is truly gen-y compatible this cammo will be necessary to make the changes we want. Our fault as a generation is thinking that we can have our dreams now, but we must realize that in order to achieve our dreams and the changes we wish to see we need to plot out a realistic path and work towards acheiving them.

As gas passes $3.50 per gallon and rapidly approaches $4.00 per gallon (or it’s already there…sorry CA), Mary and I can’t wait to move into our new house and cut our commute from 32 miles to 15. However in the meantime, we have taken measures to get the most out of our tanks of gas. So here are 10 tips that could help you increase those MPGs and decrease those gas bills!

1. Carpool. Mary and I are lucky enough to work at the same company, so it makes sense for us to carpool. By our calculation, we are saving at least $200 per month by this little step. Sure, it sucks sometimes when one of us has to work later, leaving the other with nothing to do, but we always remind each other how much money and time (Carpool lane) carpooling saves us.

2. Change the oil on time. Staying up to date on engine oil changes helps your car run better and get the most out of your gas. I make sure to change the oil in our Acura every 5,000 miles (Oil Co’s recommend 3,000 miles, car makers say 5,000), and every 7500 miles in our Volvo (synthetic oil).

3. Get a high performance air filter. K&N air filters are expensive, but they pay for themselves in the long run. They come with a 1 million mile warranty because you clean them instead of replace them, plus you can get up to 10% better gas mileage because they allow your engine to breathe better and give you better performance. I received 10% better gas mileage in my old Jeep when I put in a K&N filter. Note: Mr. Dave points out in the comments, that high performance filters are not recommended for some engines like the VW TDi engine. Though if you have that engine you’re beating all of us on MPG anyway.

4. Inflate the tires. Making sure your tires are inflated to the recommended PSI will increase your gas mileage because a fully inflated tire offers less resistance when you are coasting.

5. Coast. If you have an onboard computer, have you ever set it to give you the instantaneous MPG? You will probably notice that when your foot is off the gas your MPG skyrockets. So if you see a read light ahead let off the gas, there is no need to speed to a stop, it’s just a waste of gas and you’ll have to replace your brakes sooner.

6. A/C or Windows Down? It’s summer, it’s hot, so what do you do? This all depends on what you are doing. If you are driving at highway speeds, roll the windows up and use the A/C, because the drag of the windows being down really hurts the gas mileage. Driving around town? Roll ‘em down!

7. Don’t carry around extra crap! Weight directly affects your gas mileage. The more stuff you have weighing down your car the worse MPG you get. So lose the golf clubs, toolbox, and other random stuff unless you need it.

8. Plan your routes. UPS saved millions of dollars a year in gas by rerouting their trucks to limit the number of left turns, and you can save money too! Plan your routes in the most efficient way possible. Generally right turns are faster and they use less gas waiting at lights than left turns, so why not try it out!

9. Get a gas card! Many credit card companies offer cash back on gas purchases, so why not!? You’re going to be spending the money anyway, so you might as well earn up to 5% cash back. Or even better get a gas company card, brand loyalty pays you in savings!

10. Don’t use E85. What? But the government said it’s going to be our saving grace and I want to help save the environment! I’m all for saving the environment when it is in my financial interest (like compact florescent lights that will pay for themselves), but if it will cost me more money, I’m less likely to do it. E85 is cheaper, and your car may run on it, but according to AutoTrader it contains 27% less energy than 87 Octane (the cheap stuff). That means you get 25% less MPG using E85. The only time it’s in your financial interest is when E85 is less than 73% of the cost of 87 Octane. At my local station, E85 is about 30-40 cents cheaper per gallon than 87 Octane. $3.20 / $3.50 is 91%… not in your financial interest.

I hope you can put these ideas to good use, and if you’ve got any more, feel free to leave them in the comments!

“He get’s bitchy sometimes. Just understand that it has nothing to do with you, it’s just his personality.”

The words of wisdom from a co-worker on my fourth day in the office, and subsequently his last, rang through my head today as I entered my bosses office and realized he was in one of his “moods.” I quickly turned on my comedic relief to ease the tension in the room and help to lighten his mood.

Allow me to backtrack, I have a great boss, I have the kind of boss most employees would love to have, he’s not about facetime, he’s about getting work done, and he understands the concept of a work/life balance. He fights for his employee’s rights and for these reasons I love him. If we had 360 degree feedback, and I were to write his review, it would definitely be a good one.

The words of my co-worker while I was still in my first week stay with me. There are days where my boss is one step from seemingly taking it out on me, so I have learned to defuse the situation by making him laugh or letting him vent. Occasionally I have to stop him and remind him that he isn’t mad at me. This relationship is my other serious relationship. Penelope Trunk often writes of having a friend at work who you can work with and who helps you work better. For better or for worse, for me that person is my boss.

I’ve learned how to cope with my boss, and I’ve learned to defuse situations by comedic relief or just calling him out on it, but I wonder if I would be working where I am now if he had given me his references when I interviewed for the job. Afterall, I do spend just as much time with him everyday as I do with my wife.

So I ask you this, why is it expected for employers to check references for employees, but the employee doesn’t get to see a reference for his boss before accepting the position?

Many interview books recommend that you spend upwards of 24 hours with a person before hiring them or accepting their offer, however, no one actually does this, we don’t have the time, so we are forced to base major life decisions on what we can learn in about an hour (if we’re lucky).

So I ask again why don’t we, the employee, get to check references?

Unfortunately, you and I have been gravely misled.

Some researcher, somewhere, decreed that since Gen Y grew up with advertising, they have grown thick-skinned to marketing. This made sense to journalists and media agencies everywhere, and thus began the wave of articles about how Gen Y was some kind of superintelligent consumer. These consumers are apparently like an antibiotic-resistant viral strain. Substitute where needed to make that analogy work.

Exposure does not make you an expert
I moved to Canada from the Philippines when I was ten. One of the first ads I saw on Canadian soil was in Pearson Airport, where a Toronto Maple Leafs player was posing in a “got milk?” poster. Hockey, I would soon find, was everywhere. Someone was always talking about it, every third commercial seemed to relate to it and my street was always home to pickup hockey.

The mere exposure to hockey did not make me hockey-savvy. I knew that whoever had more goals won the game, but I didn’t know anything about the strategy or tactics involved. I knew that Doug Gilmour was one of our best players, but I didn’t know what he did that made him “the best”. All I knew was that my friends liked him, so I also liked him.

Similarly, if someone grows up surrounded by advertising, does that make them advertising-savvy? Do they know the psychological tactics involved, the purpose of brand messages, and all the work that goes into making an ad say “you need to own this product“?

Generation Y is a bunch of marketing suckers
Gen Y’s lifelong exposure to media hasn’t “thickened their skin” to marketing. Lifelong exposure makes them accept advertising as a normal part of their lives. We were introduced to brands so early in life that they’ve contributed to large parts of our childhood. This exposure has taught us that it’s normal to become emotionally attached to brands. Hell, just writing about my childhood reminds me of McDonald’s Playplace and Happy Meals.

As advertising continues to slowly permeate every piece of our lives, kids are implicitly being raised by corporate logos and “brand experiences”. My two-year old nephew can’t even pronounce his own name, but whenever someone mentions “Toys R Us” he loses his mind.

The archetypes and values of this generation are embedded in commercials, slogans and marketing. Young, aspiring golfers don’t look up to Tiger Woods. They look up to Tiger Woods as sponsored by Nike.