Dec 24, 2008 | blog
I’ve been working in the technology field for a long time and the thing that really keeps me engaged is the fact that it’s always changing. Technology evolves and there is a constant need to be upgrading or planning on upgrading. It’s made a great career for myself with a number of great projects and experiences that I can look back on with fond memories.
"IT" as it’s called has also enabled me to push boundaries that were uncomfortable for me, allowing me to grow and continue to learn about things that I needed to but was uninterested in. To my mind, this is what a career should deliver; experiences, personal growth, team participation, leadership, and providing a decent living for a family. This is something that a technology career has rewarded me with for my investment.
So with that knowledge, experience and expectation, I wonder just how big the social media market is for it’s practitioners. As every site integrates more social media and "web 2.0" technologies and methods, how will social media professionals remain in demand? Ensuing generations will be even more well versed in the concepts, tools, technologies than even the much celebrated millennials today.
As the online world continues to circle around and pick up the once-forgotten "human face" that it lacked in the .com boom/bust, it becomes harder to distinguish just what a social media professional is. I fear that most of them will simply be absorbed into the existing professions as Marketing and Public Relations – already, the social media sphere is mostly made up of this demographic.
Am I off base here or is there really a career path for social media specialists or professionals as we know them today? Or will it just become another skill listed by bullet point on the resume of future marketing professionals? What do you think?
Photo credit: Jay Dugger
Oct 4, 2008 | happiness
Our lives are like a river. Always moving, carving it’s environment, adjusting to new things, growing in depth & breadth, flowing into a distant future that we’ll learn about when we get there.
Oct 1, 2008 | blog, happiness
About a year and a half ago, I started experimenting with the Aside feature of WordPress, and thought it was neat. While I didn’t like the way they lacked titles, I did like how they were supposed to be concise and to the point.
What came out of it for me was a growing series of posts entitled "Happiness". These posts started as Asides, mainly from a point in my consulting career where I was a little disillusioned as to the amount of success I was having at the time. Which is to say: "not much".
I started using these posts as inspiration, to point out to myself what made me happy at that moment in time. In the beginning, I truly just picked the first happy thought that passed through my mind and posted it.
Since then, I’ve done much the same thing, though from time to time, I do struggle with a "good one". I don’t like to repeat myself, though I know I do. Also, I’ve tried to be inspirational to others when the muse strikes. I succeed in that maybe 20% of the time I think. My real inspiration to continue these posts is that they continually reward me, and that’s all it needs to do at any rate.
So I hope this helps answer questions as to why I post "Happiness".
Oh, and you can get the "Happiness" RSS Feed here!
Photo credit: Amy Gwen
Oct 1, 2008 | happiness
Wanting to help people escape the cube farm.
Sep 30, 2008 | blog
New to personal branding? No you’re not!
You’re well aware of your reputation, and probably work hard to make sure it’s what you want it to be: a reflection of you and the work you do. Of course by now you’re aware that in this wonderful social media-web 2.0 world, that you are your own brand.
I was talking with a co-worker at lunch yesterday about things to do to get recognized within the company. It’s plain to me, but somehow wasn’t as obvious to my friend. All the work you put into getting noticed within any one organization, to "climb the ladder" as it’s put, can also be focused on building your brand outside the organization and can ultimately be put to better use as a foundation for your brand.
So, you ask, what can you do to start promoting my brand and how is it different than building your reputation? Glad you asked!
Like most things in the online world, it’s both very similar and rather different than what we do offline. Start thinking of yourself as a brand like your favorite cola or automotive company and you’re off to a good start. At the same time, you need to be as diligent and aware of the record you leave behind as you did about your reputation. By working to promote your brand online, you’re going to be leaving behind a permanent record that is easily searchable by anyone.
That can be a double-edged sword of course. If you’re not consistent and follow through, it’ll be remembered, likely written about at some point. It all comes back to word of mouth – the best & hardest type of advertising one can hope for. In the case of personal brand in the 21st century (heh, don’t you just love saying that – so futuristic), it’s a fully indexed and archived word of mouth – and that is the biggest difference. Our memories are now much longer because of the technologies we use.
My biggest tip is to check out resources on the ‘net to start learning more about personal branding and how to go about building a successful one. Starting with Personal Branding Magazine (and it’s fine contributors), and moving on to Googling "personal brand". That’ll get you to the best initial places to start reading up on the topic.
It’s really up to you to make it work. Start filling out some social networks, decide if social tools like Twitter, FriendFeed, Flickr, Brightkite, are for you, start blogging or podcasting. Whatever direction you decide works for you, the key part is to participate and give back as much as you can to the communities that help you build your brand.
(Disclosure: I write the "Social Media Exploration" column for Personal Branding Magazine)
Photo credit: BlueMoose
