The Wayward Celt

Just tried my hand at using Prezi.com to build a presentation. This is what I came up with. Enjoy 🙂

And, of course, I’d love your feedback on how I may improve, refine, or correct this presentation in any way. Feel free to leave your feedback in the comments section below or through whatever means you are most comfortable.

There is no such thing as a lack of time. Anyone who tells you they don’t have time for something is outright lying to your face. What they are really saying is that your request or idea just isn’t a priority for them. And yes, I am just as guilty as anyone for saying I don’t have the time….

Unlike finances (which have a more relative scale), everyone on this planet has 24 hours in their day: no more, and with few exceptions, no less. So as it stands, we are all on an equal playing field with the same boundaries and limitations. The differences are seen by how we prioritize that time.

Sometimes when looking at new requests, we may need to rethink our current prioritizations, or more deeply, what the actual time impact of the request is. Take, for example, the idea that you want to start blogging… if you’ve read my prior post on the hidden costs of social engagement you may be less than inclined to take on such an endeavor… but what if I told you that you really do have time for blogging and that you’re likely already 9/10ths of the way there? Don’t believe me? Well, you have time to send email, right?

If you are sending email to more than one person on cc:, then you have time to blog. As my friend and social business colleague Ryan Boyles recently pointed out via his tumblr post: Doc Searls explained back in 2004 that “Blogging is Email cc: World.”   I’ve previously called this concept “scalable communication”, but I think that misses the simplicity and understandable nature of “cc: world”. The simplicity of one-to-many passive communication is the brilliance of social media. And, of course, as Ryan notes: tweeting is just like texting cc:world.

No, I am not saying stop emailing and make everything you write a blog post. But what I am saying is that just one wider audience email message could be easily converted into a blog post allowing for blogging to step up in priority without sacrificing something else in that time slot. With just a quick shift in perspective, you now have time to blog without a heavy toll on your time.

As we progress towards more open and transparent communication, with sharing our own expertise online becoming more important to our future careers, why not re-prioritize and start blogging once a week or so as your own email cc:ing the world? So, where is social involvement ranked in your priority list now that you have the time?

We are in the midst of a global corporate culture change being driven by social tools and behaviours. One of the many ways this is occurring is within the hiring/recruiting processes.

No longer will a simple resume suffice to land you that dream job, or any job for that matter. Today, hiring practices have turned to Google as the defacto research tool; sometimes prior to an interview, sometimes even during the interview to vet the details you’ve provided on the spot. Imagine, for a moment, that nothing comes up in that search…. how likely are you to get the interview, or job if your knowledge and experience can’t be corroborated digitally? And what are your chances if the search returns no results for you, but does return results for another candidate?

Let us not kid ourselves: there is no such thing as “even footing” or fair playing fields when it comes to job searching and landing that right position. We all must do whatever we can in order to stand out as the right candidate for any job we may go after. In this new fluid world of corporate culture change, we have an amazing amount of tools at our disposal to help with that. Here’s a smattering of the easiest and most effective which can aid you as a buoy in your online presence:

• LinkedIn: For professionals, this is a simple must-have these days. More than a resume, it is a network of opportunity that goes well beyond just job-seeking. Build your profile and join in some group discussion and you’ll begin to see the deep professional value both during the hiring process and within your day-to-day activities after you’ve been hired. While you are working on your profile, make sure you avoid these 14 mistakes and ensure you are putting your best foot forward.
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• About.me: Some may call it a virtual business card, but this site is more than a simple card. It allows you to connect your other internet properties and act as a jumping off point, while also letting you stand out creatively with visual interest. Like LinkedIn, however, there are mistakes that can be made. Take the same advice above and apply it to this site as well to make sure you have a professional presentation and have the right text added to help with search engine optimization (SEO).
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• GooglePlus and Google Authorship: If you blog or write articles you are doing yourself a disservice if you haven’t setup/connected your Google Authorship to your GooglePlus profile. I’ve blogged about how to claim your authorship before, and I’ll say it again: this is the single best way to improve your search ranking/results when people look for you. Setting up your GooglePlus profile with relevant bits of information will help your Google Authorship show more robustly and help you stand out even further in search results.
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• Twitter: Yes, there is solid business value to Twitter. It’s not just a bunch of tweens speaking in acronymic code. Twitter is a great way to build a robust network of quick and easy shares pointing to even better content around the web. Links shared via Twitter and other networks also work to improve the SEO of that content, so when you share your blog posts or articles, you are increasing not only your reach but also your search results.
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• Facebook: My advice here is going to differ from the above (and from what I actually do)- lock down your publicly visible content to provide only a professional image to anyone whom you’ve not added as a friend. This will help you keep in lock-step with your about.me and LinkedIn profiles so you present a consistent and professional image. This will also let you use Facebook for your more personal/casual use with friends behind the security of a more tightly controlled public profile. But don’t lock it down too tightly, having a little bit of content publicly visible will help give people a sense that you are indeed there and active.
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All of these channels will work to improve your search-ability and allow you to focus and drive the right content found about you. Call it building a personal brand, or just managing your digital persona; making sure the right content is available and searchable will go a long ways to helping you land that next job. If you still think it is okay to ignore social media channels, think again: it could be the difference between extended unemployment and that next six-figure-income job. Sharing your expertise and knowledge to help others is the new paradigm of corporate culture.

I can’t say it more simply than this:  if you don’t have a social presence, you don’t exist. That job you want? It will go to someone else who does share their knowledge socially.