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Career Development

Building your personal brand

Published by O'Reilly Media, Inc.

Intermediate content levelIntermediate

Raise your profile and be viewed as an authority and leader in your industry

Have you ever wondered how some people get the best job offers (when they weren’t even looking)? The technical job market is more competitive than ever, and, while the total jobs will still increase, many of the best ones will be filled before anyone knows they existed. The truth of the matter is that the best technical roles go to the people everyone’s talking about.

Expert Roy Weissman explains how you can raise your profile and be viewed as an authority and leader in your industry. These are the people invited to speak at seminars and conventions, the ones the recruiters call first for the best jobs. You’ll discover how to build an effective social media program that will generate great results and how to find the optimal audience that will be most interested in you. You’ll also learn the exact steps you need to take to create and execute the optimal social media plan quickly.

While social media can help you raise your profile, it can be a lot of work. Join in and take the first step toward creating an effective social media system that will position you to achieve the awareness and professional opportunities you want—and be the one the best recruiters call first.

What you’ll learn and how you can apply it

By the end of this live online course, you’ll understand:

  • The most critical steps for creating an effective social media plan
  • Which social media platforms will be most effective for you
  • The strategy necessary to reach your target audience and to be found for professional opportunities
  • What to do to create relationships with industry leaders and influencers

And you’ll be able to:

  • Develop social media content strategies and tactics that will differentiate you from your peers
  • Position yourself as an authority in your industry and area of expertise
  • Use content to put you in a position of strength for professional opportunities

This live event is for you because...

  • You want to have a network of executives and influencers who can help you in future job searches or other professional opportunities.
  • You want to be viewed as an authority in your industry.
  • You’re interested in having great jobs come to you rather than having to go after them.
  • You're a project manager, product manager, developer, or other professional who wants to become more competitive in a current or future job search.

Prerequisites

Schedule

The time frames are only estimates and may vary according to how the class is progressing.

Setting the stage for an effective social media strategy: Best practices (25 minutes)

  • Presentation: Why use social media?—differentiation, SEO, authority; 70% of employers use social media to find, research, and evaluate candidates; determining your objective; differentiating yourself; reaching the people that can change your life—finding your audience; identifying the optimal social media platforms for you; becoming the authority; core competencies—What are you good at? What are your success stories? What are you passionate about?
  • Hands-on exercise: Identify your stories and accomplishments
  • Q&A

Creating and executing your social media plan: Best practices (20 minutes)

  • Presentation: How to create your social media plan; how to be found for jobs and career opportunities; finding the tools—Hootsuite, Buffer, Sendible, Wordpress, Blogger, etc.; looking good—headshots, graphics, great content, being human/authentic, completing social media profiles with correct keywords; the target list—finding your audience; content—getting a great headshot, what to write, what content to retweet and share, completing social profiles with keywords; schedule—how often and when to write, creating an editorial calendar, using images and videos (75% more engagement), making your presence known (put it in your email signature); the tactics—blogging and promoting, retweets, hashtags, @ notice sign, being human, seeking relationships, keyword research; connect with industry leaders and influencers; monitoring your results; discipline or bust...
  • Q&A

Break (10 minutes)

Why use Facebook for your professional profile? (10 minutes)

  • Presentation: How to use Facebook for your professional presence; the value of Facebook Groups; growing your following; building professional relationships; issues with business and personal lives in the same place; Should you target individual influencers with a business profile page?; using Facebook advertising to reach your target; personal versus professional Facebook use; Are CEOs on Facebook?

Why use Twitter for your professional profile? (20 minutes)

  • Presentation: How to use Twitter for your professional presence; the value of hashtag lists; growing your following; building professional relationships; issues with business and personal lives in the same place; Should you target individual influencers?; using Twitter advertising to reach your target; personal versus professional Twitter use; Are CEOs on Twitter?
  • Q&A

Why use LinkedIn for your professional profile? (10 minutes)

  • Presentation: How to use LinkedIn for your professional presence; the value of LinkedIn Groups; growing your following; building professional relationships; issues with business and personal lives in the same place; Should you target individual influencers?; using LinkedIn advertising to reach your target; personal versus professional LinkedIn use; Are CEOs on LinkedIn?

Why use Reddit for your professional profile? (5 minutes)

  • Presentation: How to use Reddit for your professional presence; the value of Reddit subreddits; growing your following; building professional relationships; issues with business and personal lives in the same place; Should you target individual influencers?; using Reddit advertising to reach your target; personal versus professional Reddit use; Are CEOs on Reddit?

Communities: GitHub and Stack Overflow (5 minutes)

  • Presentation: A tactical versus strategic approach—code versus strategy; how to get seen by peers and recruiters on GitHub and Stack Overflow; how and what to post; How valuable is posting code in communities?

Other platforms: Instagram and YouTube (5 minutes)

  • Presentation: Should you use YouTube for your professional presence?; how to do it; Should you use Instagram for your professional presence?; how to do it

Wrap-up and Q&A (10 minutes)

Your Instructor

  • Roy Weissman

    Roy Weissman is a strategic senior leader in business development and sustainable sales growth. Roy teaches courses on negotiation at Northeastern University and consults on business development, sales, and sales enablement for companies in the media and tech industries through his consulting business, Octopus, based in New York City. With more than 15 years of experience driving business expansion and new market penetration for both top-ranking digital media corporations and agile, leading-edge innovative startups, he has a demonstrated track record of realizing significant results in revenue, market, and channel growth by forging lucrative online partnerships and shaping core strategies for ecommerce, branding, and media outreach. As both an employee and entrepreneur, he has worked at companies such as Infoseek.com, Viacom, General Electric, Playboy, and Next New Networks (acquired by Google). In his career in the media and tech industries, Roy has initiated, negotiated, and closed hundreds of deals with companies including Amazon, Comcast, News Corp, AT&T, Verizon, and Time Warner. However, his toughest negotiation to date continues to be with his 2-year-old daughter, who somehow does not always respond to negotiation best practices.