Personal Branding Through Social and Digital Media

Personal Branding Through Social and Digital Media

SDSU Coastal and Marine Institute Laboratory November 19, 2013

Mary Canady Comprendia LLC

comprendia.com/cmil

© Comprendia, LLC All rights reserved.

22

© Comprendia, LLC All rights reserved.

33

Who Am I?•Then

–Trained as a biochemist–Always gravitated to online tools & pretty pictures–Loved bench work and organizing events

•Now–Comprendia/San Diego Biotechnology Network

•Network of 20,000•Marketing, events, writing, speaking•Results

–People find me easily for business (and speaking!)–I have found my niche and am happy

© Comprendia, LLC All rights reserved.

44

© Comprendia, LLC All rights reserved.

55

Your Personal• Strategy

– What’s your personal brand?• ‘Research’ your interests, goals

– How does your current research translate to job market?

– What gets you up in the morning?• Tactics

– Online: LinkedIn, Twitter, Blog, Google– ScienceOnline– Be creative

© Comprendia, LLC All rights reserved.

66

General Guidelines• It’s not all about you

– Provide resources first, promote yourself second

• Consider audience, reach and goals when communicating– Public? Scientists?– What are my institution’s policies?– Always “test the waters” by watching and

asking first• Use IRL values when communicating

– Don’t rush to judgment• Consider pseudonymity fully before

deciding

© Comprendia, LLC All rights reserved.

77

RSS: Your New BFF• RSS Feeds & Readers

– Monitor individual website changes• Blogs• News • Pubmed

– Monitor the entire web• Tools

– Look for orange RSS symbol & subscribe – Google Alerts: a ‘catch all’– Aggregate with Yahoo Pipes– Use Feedburner to send daily emails

© Comprendia, LLC All rights reserved.

88

What Online Tools Should I Use?

Application

Description Good for How To Use

LinkedIn Professional networking

•Personal brand•Job hunting•Leads

•Complete profile•Join/start groups•Engage

Twitter Sharing information with short updates

•Personal brand•Connecting via content•Events

•Find a niche•Follow hashtags/users

Blog Dynamic website with daily-weekly articles

•Personal brand•Connecting with peers

•Create blog acc. To brand•Find others, interact via comments/Twitter

Google+ Social networking “back layer”

•Sharing information•Increasing search engine visibility•Hangouts

•Add colleagues to circles•Join communities•Use Hashtags

Recent presentation Academics Presence Online

© Comprendia, LLC All rights reserved.

99

Your LinkedIn Profile• Should be as complete as resume

– Headline: relate to personal brand– Use action words and bullets– Add past relevant positions with information

for each, helps others find you (leave out the Olive Garden)

• Get a ‘vanity’ URL, add to business card• Add a head shot• Check for spelling errors!• Link to your company or sites of interest

(blog!)• Include complete contact information• Get recommended

© Comprendia, LLC All rights reserved.

1010

Leveraging LinkedIn Groups• Benefits

– Directly email any group member (check out our howto)

– Can post questions to group– Searches give more results

• Join up to 50 groups• Choose large, relevant, active groups

– Your posts will not be seen in spam-y groups• Lots of great discussions going on

– Antibodies, recombinant proteins, medicinal chemistry…

– See our tips and list to start

© Comprendia, LLC All rights reserved.

1111

Scientists on Twitter?

Term#

TweetsScienceOnline Oceans 2013 #sciooceans 6,700Western Society of Naturalist Meeting #wsn2013 466Deep Sea News #deepsn 75/dayScience Communication #scicomm 120/day

© Comprendia, LLC All rights reserved.

1212

© Comprendia, LLC All rights reserved.

1313

Basics• Overview

– Provide 140 character updates, AKA ‘microblogging’

– @[user] to send a public message (reply)– D [user] to send private message (DM)– #[text] is a ‘hashtag’ to follow events,

subjects, or chats• Follow based on content, don’t need to

know– Hint: this is huge for meeting people

• Provide information based on your brand• Should be a conversation if you’re doing it

right!

© Comprendia, LLC All rights reserved.

1414

Tactics

• Fill out profile completely and carefully• Get followers

– Target: 1,000– To be followed, you must follow

• Twitterer will be sent message that you are following• Search Twitter, Social Mention for terms (e.g.,

‘marine biology’)• Conference hashtags (#sciooceans)• Twitter will make suggestions for who to follow

• Provide content from RSS or other Twitterers

• Engage with Twitterers

© Comprendia, LLC All rights reserved.

1515

• WordPress– Hosted blog at wordpress.com, or get a

server, host your own ($7/month)– Most flexible, our favorite

• Blogger– Only offers hosted solutions

• Tumblr– Less flexible, hard to write a post with both

image and text• Join an existing blog network

Ways To

© Comprendia, LLC All rights reserved.

1616

Link and courtesy @brianreid

Finding blogs:• ScienceSeeker• Researchblogging

Blog Networks

© Comprendia, LLC All rights reserved.

1717

© Comprendia, LLC All rights reserved.

1818

Google Yourself

• Google Author Rank– Your Google+ network affects search results– Big for your personal brand– Wackadoodles can be silenced

• Google+– Add colleagues using G+’s tools– Share information– Join groups, share hashtags

• Set up a Google Scholar Profile• What’s working well for others?

© Comprendia, LLC All rights reserved.

1919

• ScienceOnline– Cultivating science sharing online

• ScioSD Satellite Mission: get more local scientists online– Providing resources, events– Space for local bloggers

• Monthly hangouts to learn about social media– Connect via Google+

• Happy Hour Dec. 4th, join us!

© Comprendia, LLC All rights reserved.

2020

Facebook

• Living in the 10’s=professional FB presence– Manage privacy– Change to work name– Keep politics at a minimum– No passed out photos

• Follow marine science pages, engage

• Live your brand? You decide.– Controversy with family/friends?

Avoid the “deficit model”

© Comprendia, LLC All rights reserved.

2121

Get Creative

• Ocean science is INTERESTING• Use “Millennial” tools• Outreach• Can take many forms• Great way to network

• Provide resources to news outlets

© Comprendia, LLC All rights reserved.

2222

Packaging Yourself

<your

bra

nd

here

>

• All good marketers have a “30 second commercial” that summarizes their product—make one about you!– Short summary– Your “Position”– What you’re looking for– First 10 seconds should “stand

alone” for quick introductions (1-2 sentences)

• Write it down• Practice• Practice• Practice

© Comprendia, LLC All rights reserved.

2323

Getting Started• Determine your personal brand• Start small

– LinkedIn, Google+ Profile– Share your brand on Facebook– Volunteer to manage MEBSA Twitter– ScioSD bloggers?

• Be creative• Start NOW

© Comprendia, LLC All rights reserved.

2424

Questions?• Twitter

– @Comprendia– @SDBN

• LinkedIn– www.linkedin.com/in/marycanady

• Facebook– Facebook.com/comprendia

• Blog– Sdbn.org– Comprendia.com

• Slideshare– www.slideshare.net/marycanady