If you’re a personal brand, or are looking to build your personal brand, you can use Twitter lists as well. Here are some easy things you can do to get noticed:

• Thank every person who lists you. While it may take only a second to add someone to a Twitter list, it also takes a second to notice that you’re on someone else’s list. If someone thinks you add enough value to warrant addition to their contacts, thank the person who adds you. If you’re not following the person who added you, give them a follow and then, once they follow you back, DM them a quick thank-you note.A thank-you note will get you noticed, and it’s yet another opportunity to talk to people in your network.
• Follow lists compiled by people you’re looking to network with. If you’re an ultra-networker, a job seeker or simply someone looking to be seen, one way you can get noticed is by following someone else’s list.Many lists have no followers, and if you can distinguish yourself by being the first follower of someone else’s list, not only does it distinguish you, but it gives you and that person something to talk about. Also, it shows you who they think adds value to their day.
• Create lists of people you meet offline. Some folks have thousands upon thousands of Twitter followers, most of whom they’ve never met before. As you meet people at conferences, networking events and through work, you may want to add them to a list devoted to people you’ve met.An easier way to do this could be to create a new list for each conference/event/etc. you attend. This way, your Twitter contacts would be organized for quick recall.
• Create lists to show how well-rounded you are. Some folks live, breathe and evangelize social media all day, every day, and quite often, their Twitter streams are filled with all sorts of social media-related blog posts, re-tweets and general observations.While this is great, it will cause their stream to be one-dimensional and, therefore, useless to most people who actually use Twitter.Create a list of useful people to follow in your city or town. Create a separate list about your interests. Create lists around your musical and/or artistic tastes. Show me that you’re a well-rounded person, and I’m more likely to follow you on Twitter.
• Showcase your happy clients. For successful consultants, whether their business grows depends in part on positive word of mouth. If you connect potential leads with your happy customers, you’ll find that there’s a good chance your business will grow.Twitter is just another channel through which you can connect your clients with potential customers. At the end of your projects, don’t just ask clients for LinkedIn recommendations, but ask if they would want to be added to a special Twitter list just for clients who recommend you. This way, a person who goes to your Twitter profile can instantly find people who like your work.Just keep in mind that it may be easy for business competitors to scour your lists and pick out your customers, and that a “client recommendation” Twitter list could be an incubator for negative word of mouth, or that there are some clients who just won’t want their names out there. Be very careful in who you pick.

These are just some ways to grow your personal brand through your Twitter lists. If I left anything out, please feel free to leave your suggestions as comments after this post!

Author:

Daniel B. Honigman is a digital communications supervisor at Weber Shandwick, where he works with clients like General Motors, Oscar Mayer, the Campbell Soup Company and the Milk Processors Education Program (MilkPEP) He also is the co-founder of the media blog Old Media, New Tricks. He can be reached on Twitter here or via e-mail at daniel [dot] honigman [at] gmail [dot] com.

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Today, I spoke to Lylah Alphonse, who is a full-time editor and writer at the Boston Globe and the managing editor at  WorkItMom.com.  In this interview, Lylah reviews how to become a freelancer, why you need to be a writer and an editor, and how to pitch the media.

How does someone get started in freelancing? How did you originally choose that type of career?

My advice to anyone who wants to get started in freelancing would be consider non-traditional media – that is, don’t turn your nose up at the idea of writing for an online publication. Start a blog to showcase your writing or as a place to collect all of your virtual clips. Read as much as you can, and write your take on events, your reactions, and your opinions on your blog. Don’t expect to make your living by writing (or editing, or shooting and producing video) right away, but keep at it and don’t get discouraged — every opportunity is a little more experience under your belt.

My freelance career came about by accident. I’ve been a full time editor at The Boston Globe since 1994, so I started my freelance career by writing for some of my colleagues. A few years ago, it occurred to me that I could write elsewhere as well, as long as it didn’t conflict with my work at The Globe, and so I dove in. I’m working on building my own brand outside of the editing work I do at the Globe, and so far it’s been extremely satisfying.

What would you say your major strength is: writing or editor or both?

Both. I don’t think you can have one without the other. You need to hone your editing skills (copy editing and enterprise or story editing) in order to write effectively, since the way you write depends on the subject of the article and the medium in which it will appear.

You typically write about money and childcare, which are two completely different topics. How do you juggle both?

I’m a mom and step mom to five kids, age 16 to 3; I’m the breadwinner for our household, and I work full time outside of the home and freelance at night. So, basically, I write about what I know (or about what I know how to research): Parenting, work-life balance, career, and money. Parenting topics and career/finance topics seem very different, but there’s actually a good amount of overlap. A lot of the skills you develop in order to be successful in your career translate well to parenting, and vice versa. And a lot of the money management you do at work is similar to what you do as the breadwinner at home, just on a different scale.

Where do you think you’ll be in five years? Where will your industry be?

In five years, I’d love to have a good amount of flexibility in my career, so that I can set my own schedule and better juggle my life — work, family, and self. I’m not sure where the newspaper industry will be in five years, but I firmly believe that there will always be a need for good writers and reporters and solid editors, no matter the medium.

You must get a lot of pitches each day. How do you decide which ones you want to write about?

You’re right — I do get a lot of pitches! I try to respond to all of them, even if just to say that I’m not interested, but some days I’m just not able to. I wrote a post some time ago, about how to write a press release that gets noticed and I think the ones I decide to pursue follow those guidelines, for the most part. If it’s obvious that the PR person has taken the time to see what I write about, then I’m more likely to take a closer look at the pitch. But if a pitch is poorly written, gimmicky, has my name spelled wrong, or is for something that clearly doesn’t appeal to my main readers, I hit “delete” right away.

—––
Lylah Alphonse is a full-time editor and writer at the Boston Globe, where she’s worked since 1994. She’s also a freelance writer, editor, and blogger: She writes about parenting issues for the Boston.com/Moms parenting blog, Child Caring, and about juggling career and parenthood at The 36-Hour Day at WorkItMom.com, where she’s also the Managing Editor. She weighs in on work and money issues for Yahoo.com, and writes articles, profiles, book and product reviews for The Boston Globe.

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You have been in your new role after being promoted for close to one year – you have done an excellent job and executed on all tasks. As a result of your leadership your team has exceeded expectations.

You have even managed to keep up with your blogging – you are well known around the company because many of your colleagues read your blog.

While there have been the occasional naysayer you have dealt with it by ignoring the negativity and focusing on the positive. It has worked so far.

Through your blogging activities and social networking you have created a reputation as a thought leader in your field. You are respected both within and outside the walls of your company.

You have written a few articles for trade magazines and have even been interviewed by other bloggers that thought your ideas would be valuable content for their readers.

You have more job security than most people because of your performance at the company – but mostly because you have developed and nurtured a powerful social network safety net. If something were to happen and you lost your job – you have a strong network to help you.

Other mid to high-level managers have reached out to you from different departments of your company and asked for your advice. You have more relationships than most of your colleagues at your company.

Through your relationships at the company and solid performance you maintain a high level of influence at the company. Your colleagues listen to you.

Then early one morning you are sitting in your office and your phone rings – you are surprised that the person on the other end works for your biggest competitor. They have heard about you through your personal brand and would like to meet with you.

After a few meetings (on your time) this competitor of yours makes a very compelling offer – you have a very big decision to make.

You decide to meet with your boss and talk things over to see if they are willing to match or exceed the offer being made to you by your competitor.

After a few meetings your company decides to meet the offer being made by your competitor – you gladly accept.

Your personal brand just helped you receive a raise and a few more benefits at your company.

Personal brands have value – how much is yours worth?

Author:

Chad Levitt is the author of the New Sales Economy blog, which focuses on how Sales 2.0 & Social Media can help you connect, create more opportunities and increase your business. Chad is also the featured Sales 2.0 blogger at SalesGravy.com, the number one web portal for sales pros, the professional athletes of the business world. Make sure to connect with him on Twitter @chadalevitt.

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Lack of time is the most frequently-mentioned reason for failing to write a book, create a blog, or write a brand-building series of articles. Employees, as well as entrepreneurs, blame “lack of time” as the biggest obstacle holding them back.

Perceived lack of time is the most common reason for not writing a book, or engaging in other personal brand-building activities. But, is this a valid excuse?

Yet, each year, hundreds of thousands of new books are published, and new faces suddenly appear with strong, respected, brands on the social media landscape.

So, obviously some people have managed to find the time? What do they know that others don’t know? More important, how can you find the time to create your personal brand?

3 keys to brand building time management

In the course of interviewing hundreds of successfully published, and personally branded, authors of career-building nonfiction books, three lessons emerge over and over again.

1. Daily progress. The vast majority of authors who have created strong personal brands work on their projects in short, daily, working sessions. They don’t suffer “deadline madness,” because each day they make consistent progress. This daily progress quickly adds up.
2. Efficiency. Successfully-branded authors don’t “reinvent the wheel” each time they sit down to work. Instead, they know what they’re going to accomplish and they work as efficiently as possible. They have the tools and the system they need to get things done.
3. Commitment. None of the hundreds of successfully branded authors I’ve interviewed enjoyed the luxury of 36-hour days or 8-day weeks. Everyone has the same amount of time; everyone has “day jobs” of one sort or another and everyone has family responsibilities. The only thing everyone doesn’t have is the commitment to recognize the urgency of personal branding and the discipline to make personal branding a priority in their daily lives.

Step 1: Commit to daily progress

One of the biggest misfortunes I had in college was the ability to turn out A quality work at the last minute. I was able to write term papers and my senior honors thesis at the last minute, and do the same for a couple of my close friends.

For a long time, I thought I was “beating the system.” Little did I know that I was seducing myself into complacency and learning bad habits that would take decades to unlearn.

Stress-filled, last-minute writing may work for term papers, but it simply doesn’t work for personal branding. Personal brands are built incrementally, a couple of pages at a time, or a couple of decisions at a time.

The best personal brands are built incrementally, based on consistent daily progress.

Now, I write to a different drummer–the same drummer that established writers follow.

Books and personal brands are created in daily working sessions as short as 30 minutes, and only rarely more than an hour a day. This is the formula that successful writers since the time of Cicero have follow.

Nulla dies sine linea – never a day without a line. (from The Essential Don Murray)

Build your day around your brand building

The biggest step an author or personal brander can take is to commit to daily progress on your project, then build your day around your writing.

The easiest way to do this is to create an online calendar–like the free calendar that Google offers–and schedule your week days around your daily brand-building working sessions.

But, don’t make the mistake of making this a personal online calendar, offer access to your co-workers and your family. Get their buy-in as early as possible! Explain to your family and co-workers why you need their support, and how they’ll eventually benefit.

Once your family and co-workers understand that you are not going to be available for calls or meetings during certain times each day, they’ll respect your commitment.

Tips for setting up your online calendar:

• Use the calendar’s “repeat” and “until” features.  This way, your working sessions will automatically appear each day in the weeks and months that come.
• Schedule a short review session each evening. Use this time to review each day’s progress and identify what you want to accomplish the next day. These 15 to 30-minute sessions keep your brain engaged and prime it for progress while you’re sleeping.
• Leave your weekends free. There are no rewards for martyrdom.  Work hard during the week, and–when you feel like it–invest time on the weekends. But, give yourself time to recharge your batteries.
• Start your week late Sunday night. Review what you want to accomplish on Monday, as well as each of the following days.

Step 2: Work as efficiently as possible

Avoid working harder than you have to, and avoid spending more time than you have to.

Readers don’t care how hard you worked, or how much time you spend on your personal branding projects. Readers only care about how you can help them solve their problems or achieve their goals.

Efficiency runs the gamut from big decisions to small working habits.

“Big” efficiency decisions involve answering questions like:

• How big does a book have to be to brand me as an expert in my field? Do I have to write a traditional 250-page book, or would a shorter book of tips that appeared a year earlier be more helpful to my career?
• Do I have to write every word myself? Or, could I “crowd-source” my book, work with a co-author, or hire a ghostwriter?
• Do I really need a “big name” publisher? Or, could and should I self-publish?

“Small” efficiency decisions involve:

• Do I know as much as I need to know about the writing tools built into Microsoft Word? Do I know how to automatically insert frequently used phrases, apply text styles, count the words, and check for common grammar mistakes?
• Should I work with a mind mapping software program? Mind mapping software programs, like Mindjet’s MindManager, make it easy to analyze your market’s needs, create content and marketing plans, schedule your time, track your progress, and identify back-end products and services.

Step 3: Commit to discipline and the right habits

Recognition that successful authors write as efficiently as possible in short daily working sessions doesn’t do a thing to advance your personal branding goals.

The only way you can break out of the “undifferentiated multitude” of other qualified individuals competing for your jobs and your clients is to commit to applying the formulas that work to your specific circumstances.

Taking action by committing to daily progress–even relatively small steps each day–and continuing to take action is the best way you can take control of your career and your future.

Think about Keith Rosen. Keith is the author of Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions: A Tactical Playbook for Managers and Executives.

Keith had a lot on his plate as he was writing his book. He was a nationally-recognized executive coach, his wife was pregnant, and he had numerous other family responsibilities. He could, legitimately, have asked for a deadline extension.

Instead, he got up every morning at 5:30 and went into a unheated room to work on his book. That’s the spirit that drives personal branding success!

Author:

Roger C. Parker is a “32 Million Dollar Author,” book coach, and online writing resource. His 38 books have sold 1.9 million copies in 35 languages around the world. The NY Times called his Looking Good in Print “…the one to buy when you’re buying only one!” Roger has interviewed hundreds of successfully branded authors and shares what he’s learned at Published & Profitable and his daily writing tips blog.

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I’ll go first.

Actually, I don’t remember exactly where I first heard about personal branding, but I do remember when it happened.

Introduction to personal branding

In the summer of 2006, up to my eyeballs in a trans-continental job search after having been laid off a few months before from a job in Paris, France, the idea to blog about job search came to me.

I’ll spare you all the details (for now…) but as I began working on the launch of what would become JobMob, I spoke with a graphic designer friend of mine whose studio spent a lot of time on identity projects branding companies, their products, and sometimes even specific employees.

My friend recommended that before I begin executing on my idea, I had to read a marketing book by Al Ries, the name of which he couldn’t remember. After some quick browsing on Amazon, I discovered it was The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding.

So I bought it.

And I didn’t read it.

And I still haven’t.

However, the book has a sub-section (or ‘BONUS’, I can see in block letters on the cover of the book as I write this) called The 11 Immutable Laws of Internet Branding. And I skimmed read that, which alone was worth the price of the whole book.

Al Ries’ 11 Laws really got the branding juices flowing and played a critical part in designing JobMob’s branding. It also got me thinking about how I can apply some of those lessons to my own brand, but I wasn’t using the actual term ‘personal branding’ just yet.

That came a few months later in late 2006/early 2007 when I discovered the original version of the Personal Branding Blog, left some comments and met Dan online. A few months after that, ‘personal branding’ got its first official mention on JobMob during an interview with Jason Alba.

What about you?

Where and when did first hear about personal branding?

And what were you looking for when you discovered it?

Author:

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

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Today, I spoke to Michael Watkins, who is the international bestselling author of  The First 90 Days and his latest book is called Your Next Move. In this interview, Michael goes over how to succeed on the job in your first three months, tips for career transitions, opportunities that exist at a time of massive change and much more.

Do you know if you’ll succeed at your job after 3 months?

Your success or failure won’t be cast in stone at the 3-month mark, but significant momentum will have built up in either a positive or negative direction. You either will have built personal credibility and begun to generate some positive momentum, or you will have dug a hole for yourself and set up some vicious cycles that will be hard to reverse. People very quickly reach conclusions about whether you are effective and ineffective. Once these opinions harden, they will focus on evidence that supports their assessment (the so-called confirmatory bias).

Why is the 3 month mark the breaking point?

Often it’s not. The break point could come earlier or later. However the first 90 days is typically enough time for knowledgeable observers to make good assessments of whether a leader is on a good or bad trajectory. It’s therefore a good planning horizon and also a good time to take stock and make adjustments.

What are your top three tips for a successful job transition?

1. “If you don’t own your transition, it will own you.” It’s essential to be proactive and to begin planning for a successful transition as early as possible, ideally before you are formally in the new role. Too many people taking new roles are dangerously passive in terms of how they approach the first few months.
2. “Effective learning is the essential foundation.” Early on, newly appointed leaders should focus on “organizing to learn.” This means figuring your what you most need to learn, from whom you can best learn it and how you can be most efficient at extracting actionable insight.
3. “Focus on securing early wins.” By the end of the first few months, you need to make substantial progress in energizing people. This means identifying and solving some key organizational problems. It also means pursuing the right kind of wins in the right ways, being careful to factor in the culture of the organization.

What opportunities exist at a time of organizational change and how can you take advantage of them?

This is a tough question because it depends on what “time of organizational change” means. If you mean the organization is in trouble and your have been brought in to fix the problem, then crisis provides opportunity. You typically have more scope to drive change in a turnaround situation than you do if the organization is in better shape. That’s why, unfortunately, that proactive change is so much harder than reactive change.

Can you name a few hurdles that any leader will face upon transition?

Moving out his or her comfort zone and embracing the adaptive challenge. I always ask the leaders I work with, “What are things that you are good at and enjoy doing that you need to do less of?” and “Are there things that you don’t like or don’t feel competent doing that you need to do more of?”

Avoiding the temptation to come in with “the answer. Even if you are 100% sure that you know what needs to be done, you still need to build awareness and support for your plan. Otherwise you risk creating unnecessary resistance.  Staying focused on the “vital few” priorities. There typically is so much going on in transitions, and it’s all-to-easy to take on too many things and get spread too thin. So focus, focus, focus.

What went into the branding of your books since they all look similar?

I believe that focus and branding go hand-in-hand. My work is all about making successful transitions into new roles. So both the form and the content of the books reflect this. I also wrote Your Next Move to be a complement and companion to The First 90 Days so they really fit together. Also I think my publisher has done a great job with the titling and visual design for the books.

——–
Dr. Michael Watkins is the world’s leading expert on accelerating transitions.  He is author of the international bestseller The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at all Levels, which The Economist recognized as “the on-boarding bible.” There are 500,000 in print, 420,000 copies sold in English, and translations in 27 languages. Recently it was named one of the best 100 business books of all time.  Michael is the Chairman of Genesis Advisers, an executive on-boarding and transition acceleration company located in Newton, Massachusetts. Previously he was a professor at IMD in Switzerland, INSEAD in France, the Harvard Business School, and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. He has designed award-winning programs in accelerating transitions, Future Enterprise Leadership™ development, negotiation, and corporate diplomacy.  Michael’s new book is called Your Next Move: The Leader’s Guide to Successfully Navigating Major Career Transitions.

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With the news last week about the shootings at Fort Hood and the unemployment rate soaring into double digits for the first time since the 1980s, it’s so easy to stay focused on the bad things happening around us and never take a moment to reflect on the good things that have kept us going all year.

That’s why I declared 11/11 as Network Appreciation Day, so we can devote some thought and energy on the great people in our lives who’ve helped us stay sane, optimistic and motivated.

Because there are wonderful folks around us who make time for us, listen to our needs, and help us in any way they can. As well as people who make us feel welcome and include us in activities that help us grow and connect us with more people.

Who is that person for you? We want to know, and more importantly we want them to know what a difference they’ve made in your life, business or career.

Post a comment about them below. I’d love to hear your stories.

If your style is to give gratitude in a less public way, then take a few minutes today or tomorrow and do one or more of the following:

Send a written note. You might have already shared your thanks in an email, by phone or even in person, but a hand written note is something that people can keep forever.

Offer help in return. Check in and see if there’s anything they’re working on that you can help with—whether they need some quick feedback or help spreading the word on an upcoming marketing promotion.

Make a connection. Think about who else in your network—whether in person or online—they should know and who should know about them. My favorite thing to do is to make a Twitter intro (Twintro?).

Pay it forward. If they don’t need anything now, then do something nice for a stranger, or even someone you see at the office every day but have never gone out of your way for. Gratitude is meant to flow.

But, if you are comfortable showing your gratitude in public, then I do hope you’ll share your story or a quick comment below. That will brighten their day AND ours. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Author:

Liz Lynch is author of Smart Networking: Attract a Following In Person and Online. Connect with Liz on Twitter at @liz_lynch.

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I got in trouble quite a bit growing up, but not necessarily for misdeeds I had actually committed. My parents were firm believers in “guilty by association”—guilty for just being present when something went wrong.

As social media becomes more ubiquitous, I bet your brand is in the same position I was all those years ago.

Be careful who you friend

Both Facebook and LinkedIn have privacy settings to control who sees your connections, but Twitter doesn’t. Although the ethics and legalities are still being debated, forty-five percent of employers reported in a recent CareerBuilder survey that they use social networking sites to research job candidates, a big jump from 22 percent last year. Another 11 percent plan to start using social networking sites for screening.

As a hiring manager myself, let me tell you that it’s not enough to watch your own online behavior. You must also carefully monitor the behavior of your friends. Are they writing inappropriate content on your Facebook wall? Posting less-than-professional tagged pictures of you? Even though you didn’t put these items on the Internet yourself, they could still count against you. The lesson? Don’t friend anyone who might hurt your brand.

Wisk away unwanted photos

Last week, detergent brand Wisk introduced a Facebook app that allows you to send requests to friends who’ve posted photos you’d rather keep off the popular social network. Although the application cannot—as the name implies—“wisk away” any photos without consent of the original poster, one would hope your friends would respect the request. If not, you might want to reconsider connecting with them in the first place.

Create your own social media rules

Many organizations are releasing guidelines about how their employees can engage on social networks during work hours. It might not be a bad idea to do the same for yourself.

I actually have a strict rule about Facebook. I use it only to keep in touch with my family and really close friends whom I no longer live near. (If I don’t accept your request, it’s nothing personal!)

On LinkedIn, I’m a bit more liberal. As long as the individual seeking to connect is someone in public relations or the career space, I will typically accept. (Although, custom invites certainly help assure a connection.) I use LinkedIn for a completely different purpose than Facebook—mostly for connecting job candidates and employers.

My Twitter strategy has changed several times since my first tweet in November 2008. I used to follow people back on a regular basis as long as they were job seekers, employers, university staff, public relations pros, or HR/career experts. But since being named to CareerBuilder/CNN’s “Top Job Tweeters,” I’ve had a hard time keeping up with demand. Now I follow back individuals who actively engage with me in an appropriate manner—and I’m not afraid to unfollow people for behaving badly.

Every rule I set for myself on a social networking platform is an effort to maintain control over my personal brand. After all, if those looking to me are anything like my parents, my brand could become guilty simply because of association.

What do you do to control the impact others have on your brand?

Author:

Heather R. Huhman is a career expert and founder & president of Come Recommended, an exclusive online community connecting the best internship and entry-level job candidates with the best employers. She is also the national entry-level careers columnist for Examiner.com and blogs about career advice at HeatherHuhman.com.

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This is the fifth in a series of Personal Brand Audits to make sure you’re keeping your personal branding efforts fresh and effective. (See 1: LinkedIn Audit, 2: Facebook Audit, 3: Google Audit, and 4: Visibility Audit).

Twitter is a powerful tool to connect with people who can advance your career, to engage your target market, to establish credibility and to build your personal brand. Let’s see if you’re using it effectively.

1. Is your Twitter handle consistent with your brand?

Use your real first and last name so that your Twitter profile ranks highly in Google searches for your name. Variations like “BettySuePR” that relate to your field also work.

2. Is your headshot consistent with your brand?

If you want people to remember you, a picture is worth a thousand words. Snap a few pictures of you doing something related to your career goals and keep your headshot up to date.

3. Is your bio compelling and targeted?

Use the 160 characters of your bio to concisely describe the unique value you provide. Include an interesting fact that makes you stand out from the crowd. Your bio is one of the most important parts of your profile. It’s the first thing people read to find out who you are, what you’re all about, and what you’re up to today. Keep it concise, compelling, and current.

4. Have you used TwitterImage.com to customize your background image?

The background image on your profile is prime real estate. Make sure it provides more information about you and is relevant to your target audience.

5. Have you used a site like Twellow.com to follow thought leaders in your field in the past two weeks?

Twitter is an open conversation where you can put yourself on the radar of the thought leaders in your field. Use services like Twellow and Mr. Tweet to find out who to follow. Use a Twitter app like TweetDeck to organize them into groups. Then pay attention to what they’re saying to keep up with industry trends and start engaging in conversation with them.

6. Have you used Twitter search to follow people talking about your industry in the past two weeks?

Do a Twitter search for keywords relevant to your area of expertise to quickly build a network of users actively participating in your field. Interact with them, add value to their day and bring them into the fold of your professional network.

7. Have you posted relevant articles, information, quotes or links in the past two weeks?

Twitter is about adding value to everyone else in your network. Do not Tweet what you had for lunch. Do Tweet links that are useful, interesting, helpful, funny, enlightening or that help someone else’s day.

8. Have you answered relevant questions in the past two weeks?

Do a Twitter search to find people asking questions you can answer. If you’re a resume expert, type “resume tips?” to find people looking for help with their resume. Answering questions establishes yourself as an authority in your line of work.

9. Have you retweeted (RT) other people’s Tweets in the past two weeks?

Whenever you find someone’s Tweet valuable, retweet it and give them thanks by including their username. For example: “RT @bettysue What will you do today to change the world?” This helps strengthen relationships, builds your Twitter karma and exposes you to their audience when they reply.

10. Have you tapped your network in the past two weeks?

Let your network know what you are looking for. Searching for speaking gigs? Organizing a workshop? Building a mastermind group? Message people directly and Tweet what you’re looking for to build your brand.

Conclusion

In the end, you want to make sure you are engaging your network. Ask questions, reply to others using the @ function, ask for feedback, and make sure you are always part of the conversation. Meet people with common interests by participating in discussions related to your personal brand. Make yourself known as someone with thoughtful insights and a helpful attitude.

Twitter allows you to connect and interact with your target market (whether that’s clients, business partners, customers, potential employers, investors, etc.). So don’t haphazardly Tweet random and insignificant things (”My ham sandwich this morning was soggy”). Instead, tap the power of Twitter by using it specifically to advance your career, connect with the right people, establish trust and credibility, and strengthen your personal brand online.

Tally Up: What’s your Twitter score?

Tally up your answers to determine your Twitter score. If you scored 0-4, take a few minutes right now to improve your standing. If you scored 5-8, set some time aside this weekend to improve your score. If you scored 9-10 you’re on the ball – keep up the great work.

Here are the audit points, to recap:

1. Is your Twitter handle consistent with your brand?
2. Is your headshot consistent with your brand?
3. Is your bio compelling and targeted?
4. Have you used TwitterImage.com to customize your background image?
5. Have you used a site like Twellow.com to follow thought leaders in your field in the past two weeks?
6. Have you used Twitter search to follow people talking about your industry in the past two weeks?
7. Have you posted relevant articles, information, quotes or links in the past two weeks?
8. Have you answered relevant questions in the past two weeks?
9. Have you retweeted (RT) other people’s Tweets in the past two weeks?
10. Have you tapped your network in the past two weeks?

Author:

Pete Kistler is a leading Online Reputation Management expert for Generation Y, a top 5 finalist for Entrepreneur Magazine’s College Entrepreneur of 2009, one of the Top 30 Definitive Personal Branding Experts on Twitter, a widely read career development blogger, and a Judge for the 2009 Personal Brand Awards. Pete manages strategic vision for Brand‐Yourself.com, the first online reputation management platform for job applicants, named one of the Top 100 Most Innovative College Startups in the U.S.

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As far as houseguests go, the one we had this week was benign. No extra meals to cook, no extra housework, and really no disruption in our lives as usual. However, he was unnerving. He didn’t speak to us. He wasn’t mad. He just didn’t make conversation, and frankly, he’s been here before and I just wasn’t up for working that hard in my own home. So, I was pretty quiet, too. Very strange behavior because my personal brand banks on communication. Talking is right there with air and water when it comes to my survival instinct.

The young man came from New York City to attend a huge sporting event in Los Angeles, where he works in the media as a freelance sportscaster. He has a Clear Channel radio program for an hour each week and occasionally writes for the sports section of an important metropolitan newspaper. His personal brand is well established in his field, and there’s really no one in his field he can’t access: owners, trainers, athletes, pundits, analysts, and other members of the media.

He is a friend of a friend who is staying with us this month, a joyful, full of life young woman who is in the same field. She has an almost equally well-known personal brand, in the same sport, and she is at 24, a decade and a half younger than the man. She is confident, beautiful and most important to me, as a civilian not involved in their sport: she can create conversation with anyone. She makes you feel good when you speak to her. She’s interested in your life, your pets, your job, your clients, and your aspirations – at least as far as you know. You feel like you are a very important person when you talk to her.

I take her conversational generosity for granted because I know her very well. She’s the type of person I make time for, even on my busiest day. Nearly everyone I introduce her to, always wants to get more deeply connected to her. People fight for “networking” time with her, not because she’ll have a job or deal to recommend, but simply because she is so engaging. She turns down a whole lot of invitations simply because there is just so much time in her week.

Her brand “personality” comes across the same way in her social media communication.  She has a ton of fans and friends.  None of this interaction is hard for her, she says. She has a tremendous curiosity that drives her to find out more about anyone or anything, when she has the opportunity. It might not turn out to be important, nourishing, or even vaguely useful, but she doesn’t know until she engages.

She also values everyone she meets: the president of a professional sports league and my cleaning lady, for example. Our house was cleaner this week, because she was here (and not because she’s neat – she’s not).

Your ability to make conversation is critical, if you need to connect with other people in order to succeed in business or life. That should come as no surprise. But, the widespread inability to create conversation is surprising.

Your ability to smile and project positive energy is critical, if you are seeking work, clients, promotions, or people to come over to your point of view. A smile is your signal, like the beam from a lighthouse. It draws people to you.

Why? Because looking down into your phone, indulging your shy side or appearing aloof doesn’t generate: “Yes, I’d love to work with you!”

Dreamworks’ Jeffrey Katzenberg in Sunday’s NY Times says the quality he looks for most in a potential new hire is “somebody who believes in themselves. If you don’t have a strong sense of you are and what you have to offer, and a strong conviction about that, then you cannot expect somebody else to have that for you.”

The only thing I’d add to Katzenberg’s comment is this. If you can’t connect on anything other than your skill set, you may be very lucky to get something, but not get anything richer, broadening and more lucrative once you get in. The young man whom we hosteled this week has been doing the same thing for 15 years, and has not moved an inch forward in his chosen field. He finds his life both stable and depressing. It shows.

Here’s what to do now

1.   Make a list of 5 questions you can ask anyone. Hint: with the job situation right now, switch from “what do you do?” to “what keeps you busy?”

2.    Talk to 5 strangers a day. Remember, talking might just be: “Have you tried Starbucks’ ‘perfect’ oatmeal? I love oatmeal, so ‘perfect’ is a really high bar for me.”

3.    Find your curiosity bone. If you have to connect it to your ability to get a job or build your personal brand, connect that wire in your brain. If it feels uncomfortable to approach people in a friendly manner and ask them questions, it’s a sign you’re doing something right.

Lastly, a plea from my sparkling young woman friend who looks over my shoulder right now. She says, “If you update your tanning color or your haircut – change your Facebook profile photo.” Otherwise, when she meets you in real life for the first time, she has no idea who you are. So, she’ll pose her signature newcomer questions, and miss the opportunity to greet you like the old friend you are. Believe me, that greeting makes your day. It’s an indelible part of her personal brand.

Author:

Nance Rosen is the author of Speak Up! & Succeed. She speaks to business audiences around the world and is a resource for press, including print, broadcast and online journalists and bloggers covering social media and careers. Read more at NanceRosenBlog. Twitter name: nancerosen.

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