Threshold Consulting: It's Your Life, Own It!

What’s Love Got To Do With It?

In my last post, I discussed the importance of building community for career success. I’ve continued to think about this and to discuss it in my seminars on self-marketing and networking. So, I believe it’s worth spending just a bit more time on the immense value in building community.

Just about anyone working to improve their career or business success, knows networking is important. At its most pragmatic level, we know that growing a network creates access to information and to the connections of members of our network. And while we give a passing acknowledgement that “relationships matter,” many of us focus almost exclusively on making ever more connections to increase the span of our networks. 

Yet, too often, it’s the pursuit of opportunities that drives connection in the first place – e.g., sales people want qualified prospects and job seekers want job leads. In short, networking becomes transactional, leading to shallow connections lacking in heart. In reality, though, linking with people with whom you have only passing acquaintance, doesn’t often generate the kind of knowing, liking, and trusting that can lead to quality information and referrals. In fact, it often leads to frustration and circumvents the benefits that can come from deepening relationships.

So, what’s the remedy?

Well, if you get the idea that love has something to do with it, you’re right. But what is love in this context? Simply this: that you take the time to develop deeper and more caring relationships with the people in your network.

Traditionally, people have developed bonds via coffee, meals, and other shared activities. These are still important. Yet, we now have technology tools that enable us to add depth to our relationships by increasing our ambient awareness and supporting brief interactions over time – provided we follow basic off-line social niceties. You know, paying attention to the little things in folk's lives, like acknowledging their successes, sharing links to articles and photos, learning more about them both professionally and personally. And of course, communicating authentically about your own passions, interests and activities.

Over time, genuine sharing leads to genuine caring.

As you build more caring with more people, you develop a shared sense of community. Done well, you can build community with a diverse array of people. As well, and more pertinent to career and business success, you can create stronger bonds with people who are, or become, part of your professional or brand community.

Sure it takes effort, but there are clearly benefits. Not only do people in a community more freely share information and opportunities, but they also tend to thrive based on the very nature of the friendships they form. In short, love has every thing to do with it. In The End, it seems to me, The Beatles make the best argument for adding heart to your relationships: "And, in the end, the love you take/ Is equal to the love you make."

Cross-posted at The Personal Branding Blog

Showing Up: Gaining Visibility with Social Networking

As Woody Allen once said, “Eighty percent of success is showing up.” This is certainly no less true today – especially on line. As personal branding and online identity strategists, I and many of my colleagues recognize this, and can point you toward several useful strategies for increasing your Google Quotient.

Still, when a knowledgeable colleague asked about how to handle social networking decisions, I described my own journey from LinkedIn to Facebook and ultimately to Twitter. After a long narrative, I summed it up with ten guidelines that pretty much represented my advice. While I’d not planned to make this a blog post, a recent Shifting Careers piece, “Taking the Social Networking Plunge,” prompted me to reconsider.  In her column, Marci Alboher makes a compelling case for making social networking part of your career management strategy. I highly recommend reading her excellent advice. Beyond that, here are my own tips:

1. Decide on your objectives for using social networking sites. Social networking can help you gain visibility and build relationships, but you need to decide the best sites for you; so, set clear objectives for your use of particular sites. For example, you may choose Facebook purely for fun and LinkedIn for business.  Realize that joining several sites can be advantageous, but may not be right for you.

2. Be clear about your brand and core messages. Your online presence should be the best reflection of you. Injecting personality adds depth, as long as you’re true to your own values, passions, vision and purpose. Also, “Live in the Inquiry” with all you do online; always ask yourself, “how does this reflect on my brand?”

3. Go slow. You don’t need to establish lots of connections immediately, and you don’t need to reveal too much about yourself right away. Be thoughtful about your approach, just as you would with networking in “real life.”

4. Decide how much, and what, you are willing to share about yourself. You can and should control your online presence, starting with a well-crafted and branded profile that represents who you are. As well, where you have privacy options, make sure you understand how they work – and use them.

5. You can use social networking to promote your brand via updates. With several sites, you can promote what you do and even provide links to your own online publications. Make sure, though, to follow good etiquette by promoting yourself tastefully on your own space.

6. Accept that you will make mistakes. While you should be concerned about “digital dirt,” there will be the occasional off-brand moment. So, be prepared to recover, including deleting content where possible, or by making sure new content is more on brand. Recovery may even include an occasional private message of apology. (By the way, watch out for controversial topics, like religion and politics.)

7. Realize that in joining social networks online, there will be “spam.” Usually this is in the form of invitations from people you don’t want to connect with, internal e-mails, or unsolicited promotional material posted on your spaces. Have an effective strategy for dealing with it.

8. Given a choice, go for quality of relationships not quantity. Well, that’s my bias, based on my real-life networking approach. There are people who connect with as many people as possible, and frankly it can properly meet objectives for legitimate self promotion – but is probably not for everyone.

9. Learn that social networking can get a bit…well, addictive. As I’ve continued to learn, you need to control the impulse to check Twitter/Facebook updates when you’re with others in real-life situations!

10.  Cross-leveraging two or three social networks can really accelerate building strong and trusted relationships. Just as in real-life networking, the more “places” you see someone (lunch, coffee meetings, events) the better you get to know them. Same for social networking.

Hope you enjoy the experience, and increase your visibilty while connecting with great people!

Cross-posted at The Personal Branding Blog

Your Brand in the World of Digital Intimacy

At a recent personal branding seminar, I identified Twitter as one of my favorite brands. This drew blank stares from people who had not heard of it. On the other hand, it drew good natured but relentless ribbing from those who had; so, I endured their suggestions to tweet my lunch menu and break times, and not to fail to tweet when I boarded my return flight.  Despite the running commentary, people actually did begin to grasp that Twitter, as Shel Israel indicated in his recent Business Week article, works “the same way your local neighborhood works” – conversations about mundane matters lead to real and lasting relationships.

Of course, updates about the seemingly trivial don’t stop with Twitter. You can stay up to date on the activities and newly formed relationships of people in your social and business networks through updates or news feeds on LinkedIn or Facebook – or any number of other social media sites that aggregate information for others to see. As well, your connections get to keep up with you. A big, and intended, advantage of this sharing is the ability to gain and provide information that can facilitate networking.

Such “incessant online contact” drives something social scientists call “ambient awareness,” which is discussed in the “Brave New World of Digital Intimacy,” an excellent article in the September 5 New York Times Magazine. As writer Clive Thompson points out, “... [the] ultimate effect of the new awareness” is that it “…brings back the dynamics of small-town life, where everybody knows your business.”

Clearly this has implications for privacy and for community. It also has implications for your brand. If the power of your brand rises or falls on clear, consistent, and constant communication, then participating in online social networks requires that your brand is an authentic statement of who you are.

As Anne Morrow Lindbergh said, “The most exhausting thing you can be is inauthentic.” Creating and maintaining an image through the countless bits of social information available on line takes work – so, avoid creating an image. Instead, get in touch with who you are across all aspects of your life by engaging in a branding process that will help you gain clear self understanding. This way you promote digital intimacy with who you really are!

Cross-posted at The Personal Branding Blog.

So, what are you doing?

I’ve just started using twitter, which bills itself as a “service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?”  Not heard of it? Well, according to Wikipedia, “Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send "updates" (or "tweets" …) to the Twitter website, via …cell phone… instant messaging, or a third-party application such as Twitterrific or Facebook.”

Since signing up, I’ve provided several updates, though nothing profound (after all, you only get 140 characters to work with). On twitter you can “follow” people, organizations, and media outlets. I’ve started following several people, and get to see their updates on my twitter home page. Mostly, I follow people I know, and they follow me. Yet,  I’ve discovered it’s easy to follow people you don’t know – and in some cases, they’ll follow you back!

Why can’t we be friends?

As a career management consultant, I spend a considerable amount of time conducting seminars and coaching people on networking. Among the key points I make are: approach networking as relationship building, establish a rationale for the connection, show genuine interest in the other person, and communicate how you can be relevant and valuable for each other. I also make people aware that these principles become even more powerful when they develop great clarity about their personal brand.

For me, these fundamentals apply not only in building professional relationships but in building relationships in all other parts of one’s life.

So, imagine my reaction when, out of the blue, someone who I don’t know adds me as a Facebook friend and fails to say why. Call it the New Yorker in me, but when someone approaches me out of nowhere, it’s a red flag that says, “walk away.” Yet, on Facebook, I will give a person the benefit of the doubt and look at their profile -- and even google them -- to see what we might have in common and how we might establish a beneficial relationship. When I find little or no information (or information that suggests a hidden agenda), it’s awkward. Okay, this may seem harsh, but the question is: why would I want to open up the details of my personal and professional life to some one I can’t be clear about?

Certainly, there is no shortage of material on Facebook etiquette. Yet, I think it comes down to this: as in life, so on Facebook. By following the rules for successful networking, you make it easier and more attractive to connect.

Cross-posted at The Personal Branding Blog

Andy Warhol Never Imagined the Internet

Andy Warhol, the iconic American pop artist who came to prominence in the 1960s, is perhaps most associated with his Campbell’s soup can paintings. Well, okay, and maybe for getting shot, his Marilyn Monroe prints,  his association with The Velvet Underground, his avant-garde film making, and his association with a diverse array of people including bohemian street people.  He is also well known for saying, in 1968: "In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes."

As prescient as his 15 minutes of fame idea has seemed, over the years, it’s clear that Andy Warhol never imagined the internet. Today, in our flatter, faster, Web 2.0 world, it’s possible to become world famous 24 /7! Fame in this sense, however, is defined by Google results that support you in reaching career, business, or even social success.

Now, several online tools and activities make it relatively easy to show up online. For starters, you can sign up for LinkedIn, or for an account on one of several other social networking sites, where you can set up your profile and begin making network connections online. You can also put up your profile on other sites, including naymz.com, zoominfo.com, ziggs.com, or even qalias.com. You can then step up your activity by writing book reviews at amazon.com or barnesandnobel.com. As well, you could comment on blogs of interest – or even start a blog of your own. These are just a few ways to produce searchable online results.

Of course, the critical question is: What do you want to be famous for?

So, before you start to build your online identity, consider what you want to be known for, the audience you’re trying to reach, the value that you deliver to them, and what sets you apart from your competitors. Your online identity should reflect a personal brand that makes you digitally distinct and supports your goals. If you’re getting started, or if you’re not happy with your current results, you can work with a qualified personal branding and online identity strategist to express your brand and develop a web-based strategy to stake your claim to world-wide fame.

Cross-posted at The Personal Branding Blog

Web Portfolios: A Powerful Way to Present Yourself Online

If you’re looking for a way to extend your online visibility for job search, you may want to consider a web portfolio. More than a simple online resume, a web portfolio allows you to present information about yourself in a variety of forms, including your profile, your photo, statement of your philosophy, a Q & A about your expertise, highlights of key results, samples of your work, press, and even audio or video clips. In short, anything that best represents your talent and accomplishment to a potential employer.

Until now, you could hire a web designer and developer to create, upload and host your portfolio; or, you could go to specialty firms such as Kirsten Dixson’s Brandego, or Louise Fletcher’s Blue Sky Portfolios for outstanding professional guidance. Recently, Reach Communications colleague, Tara Kachaturoff, discovered another way: VisualCV. At their site, you can sign up for a free account and start building your own web portfolio. The site not only offers ability to add dynamic features to build a case for yourself, but it also gives you control over who sees your portfolio.

I think this could be a great resource, provided you have great clarity about the value you deliver and have crafted key messages to underscore that value. In other words, I think that your first step in creating a web portfolio is to put some work into your personal brand. After all, it’s what you uniquely offer, communicated in a compelling way, that will make you stand out both online and off.

Cross-posted at The Personal Branding Blog

LinkedIn, Facebook, and Online Community

Lately, several people have asked me if they need to be on Facebook, LinkedIn, or both. Certainly each provides the opportunity to build an on-brand, online identity, as well as the ability to connect with others. Yet, for me, there is another important difference: the more personal level of shared experience on Facebook.

I’m on LinkedIn and nearly everyone in my business network is there too – and so are members of their networks. In fact, with yet a third level of relationships, I’m currently connected to 1.9 million “trusted professionals” – who I don’t know! Of course, the real magic of LinkedIn is that if I discover I need to know one of these folks, there is someone I do know, among my first-degree contacts, who can help me connect.

While LinkedIn is a great tool for sharing business information and connections, Facebook is a site where business people can connect to friends and share life experiences that support a richer sense of community.  Since opening my account in January, I’ve enjoyed getting friends’ updates, seeing their photos, learning about things they like, and getting news of their online activities. I also appreciate the level of informality and immediacy on Facebook where I can simply “poke” someone if I want to say “Hi.”

So, should you be on LinkedIn, Facebook, or both? Personally, I think if enriching your relationships online is important to you, then the answer is both.

Cross-posted at The Personal Branding Blog