by Caroline Leach | Apr 5, 2018 | Social Media
Do you think your career story doesn’t lend itself to Instagram?
Do you believe your days full of meetings and screens aren’t visually compelling?
After all, Instagram is about high-quality photos and the overall vibe, say Brian Peters and Hailley Griffis in one of my favorite podcasts, The Science of Social Media.
The aesthetic bar is high. One strategy Brian and Hailley recommend is doing research to find top accounts and see what’s working for others.
Here’s a great way to fast track the research on people who are using Instagram well to tell their career stories: check out the Instagram for the Sparkset App.
Here you can see all kinds of work in a visual way. Lawyers, doctors, communicators, marketers, editors, social media analysts, cinematographers, scientists and many more are featured in the site’s posts.
Beyond that, you can check out the 1,700+ accounts that Sparkset App is following for more great examples.
Together, they show that your workspace, your presentations, your travels, and your interactions with people, data and things – plus so much more – are all ways to tell your professional story in a visual way.
Be sure, of course, to only post what can be shared in public. Always follow your employer’s social media guidelines, both the letter and the spirit. (Opinions expressed in this blog are my own.)
How did I find Sparkset?
In doing research about how people are using social media to build their careers, I invited people in my network to complete a survey and share it with their networks.
As a serendipitous outcome, Tom Henkenius, a storytelling expert, introduced me to a fellow USC alum in his network. Her name is Tiffany Frake, a senior account director serving the auto industry.
Tiffany’s three young sons were the inspiration for her to launch an app called Sparkset. Fascinated by how people choose their career paths – or mostly don’t consciously choose them – she wanted to help her children and others make better decisions.
Enter Sparkset.
As Tiffany explains, “It’s a visual platform for current and future generations to truly explore careers and job shadow professionals in a virtual way.”
Here you can:
- Job shadow contacts and professionals from around the world
- Explore and follow professionals in different industries
- Visually capture your professional responsibilities and accomplishments
- Discover new careers and companies.
Tiffany has a big vision. “The hope is that the platform can enable people to make conscious career choices,” she says, “and not just follow the path of least resistance.”
This is especially important as people make decisions about their first jobs, their next career steps, and their career transitions as their interests and the world change at an ever-increasing pace.
A 2017 report by the Institute for the Future estimates that 85% of the jobs people will do in 2030 haven’t even been invented yet. More than ever, we’re all lifelong learners. And we can share what we’re learning as one way of cultivating our personal brand.
When Tiffany embarked on this journey, she did research about current gaps in social media for developing a career and making valuable connections.
She asked two questions. The first: can people tell their professional stories through images? The second: who is doing this well?
She has captured her ongoing learnings in both her app and her Instagram. In each you can see all kinds of day-to-day work in a visual way.
Who else is sharing their career story well on Instagram? A few of my favorites …
TeNita Ballard, a diversity and inclusion champion
Chris Adlam, a top-producing realtor
Jessica Sterling, an LA event and portrait photographer
Young Guru, a hip-hop sound engineer and renaissance thinker
Willow Bay, dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
Jaime Lee, president of the USC Alumni Association Board of Governors
This brings up several more questions for me …
- How are people coming up with compelling content?
- How are they curating content from others?
- How are they using video?
- How are they thinking about the personal and professional blend?
These and many more will be the subjects of future posts.
In the meantime, whose professional stories are you following on Instagram?
by Caroline Leach | Mar 21, 2018 | Learning, Social Media
When it comes to social media innovation, I’m inspired by many colleagues at my employer.
One of those groups is Marketing Communications in Business Marketing. The team’s VP, Sarita Rao (pictured above), gets her far-flung team together on a regular basis for “open mic” meetings.
Last fall I got to work with John Starkweather, Sarah Groves, John Stancliffe, Knox Keith and others as influencers during The Summit, a ground-breaking inaugural event for the company’s business customers. Every day, I learn more about how to kill it in social media from this group.
So it was an honor when Sarah Groves invited me to do an open mic session at Sarita’s team meeting this month in Dallas at the company’s headquarters.
Here’s what Sarah asked and how the dialogue took shape.
How did you get started using social?
A few years ago, my colleagues and I launched a social business platform, to enable people to collaborate and work in new ways.
Just a few of the key contributors were Michael Ambrozewicz, Thyda Nhek Vanhook, Frank Palase, Brian Ulm, Miriam Smith, John Cloyd and Alan Lewis.
We did a pilot program before launch. Not surprisingly, there was the to-be-expected resistance to chance.
I launched a blog, for two reasons. One was to role model behaviors that fellow leaders and employees could follow. Another was to learn how to do it so I could advise our CEO and others on how to reach a broad audience through blogging.
Over time I discovered I enjoyed the process of learning through blogging, sharing that journey, and connecting with people throughout the company.
Three years later, I started my external blog at carolineleach.com. A few years after that, I began repurposing my blog content as weekly LinkedIn articles, in order to reach a broader audience.
One thing that’s important about blogging and any social media activity is to know and follow your company’s social media policies.
Generally, that will mean not sharing any information that is confidential or private, and making it clear that the opinions you express are your own and not the company’s. (Note: opinions expressed in this blog are my own).
When in doubt about the wisdom of sharing specific content, err on the conservative side and leave it out.
How do you fit social into your life? How much time do you spend on it?
It’s ideal to have a social media plan, and make social part of every day. Gary Vaynerchuk advocates simply documenting what you’re doing, rather than attempting to create all kinds of content.
Depending what goals you want to accomplish in social media, you can spent as little or as much time as your calendar and your lifestyle can accommodate.
My week in social looks like this:
Weekend blog post on carolineleach.com (this is easy to do when you have teens at home who sleep in, as I do, which gives me quiet mornings to write)
Wednesday LinkedIn article, repurposed from my blog and set up on Tuesday evening to post the following day
Daily scroll through LinkedIn home feed, liking, commenting on and sharing relevant content by people in my network and for people in my network
One tweet a day, plus looking at trending news in the morning and afternoon
A daily look at my employer’s Social Circle employee advocacy app to check for content I might want to share in my social networks
A few posts during the week on LinkedIn, as well as on Instagram, which is generally more personal in nature. Now I’m intrigued by and researching how people are using Instagram in their professional lives.
Some of this activity can be combined with other activities. For example …
If I’m waiting in line at the company cafeteria, I’ll scroll through my LinkedIn feed and maybe I’ll retweet something I see in Twitter
When I attend an event, I share pictures of speakers along with their best soundbites, or I share pictures or videos of other attendees
When I’m catching up with reading over the weekend, I share relevant articles in Twitter and LinkedIn.
What’s your recommendation for getting started?
Begin with your LinkedIn profile. Complete every field, until LinkedIn identifies your profile as “All-Star.” You’ll see “All-Star” noted in the upper right of the dashboard section of your profile, which only you can see.
You don’t have to complete your profile all at once. You can set aside time each week to work on one section at a time. Start from the top and work down, addressing these areas:
Your LinkedIn profile is ever evolving, as you and your career grow and change. Target adding something new to your profile every month, whether it’s a link to a company news release that relates to a project you worked on or an article sharing your expertise and thought leadership.
How do you see social playing a role for all employees driving engagement and advocacy for the company going forward?
Everyone can be a brand ambassador in social media. In addition to building your own career and championing the achievements of your colleagues, you can share the great news about your employer.
In the process, you can also get to know people in your company and beyond that it might otherwise be hard to meet.
If you have an employee advocacy program at your company, that’s an easy way to get started with on-target content. You can always customize it a bit with your personal take on the news and information, tailoring it for your networks.
Don’t forget to include the relevant hashtags for you and/or your employer, to maximize the reach of your content.
How do you know what you want to be known for?
You can ask yourself a few questions, to identify one or two subject areas you want to be known for in social media and in real life.
- What topics are important for success in your current role?
- What topics will be important for success in your likely future role?
- What topics are you naturally drawn to and interested in?
Here’s an example from my own career journey. This blog began in 2015 as an exploration of the future of corporate communications as a corporate vice president of that function.
When my employer was acquired later that year, I had the opportunity to move into marketing analytics. My blog then pivoted to learning more about that field. What then became paramount for me was learning how to learn quickly, which I explored in this blog.
As I searched for the topic I most wanted to explore, I was inspired by hearing Reese Witherspoon talk at a Fullscreen Media event in 2016.
She was asked about how she’s been super successful in social media. And she talked about social media content creation for people as being a big white space that’s not fully being filled right now.
That prompted a lightbulb moment for me. My blog then evolved into exploring how people are using social media to build their careers. And here we are today.
What blogs do you read?
This question made me realize I’ve migrated from reading blogs over to listening to podcasts. So I reacquainted myself with the folder of favorite blogs on my iPhone …
My favorite podcasts are an eclectic mix …
The Daily from The New York Times and Michael Barbaro every weekday morning to dip into a timely topic in the news.
The Science of Social Media, every Monday from Brian Peters and Hailley Griffis from Buffer. It’s “a weekly sandbox for social media stories, insights, experimentation and inspiration.”
Disrupt Yourself by Whitney Johnson.
Hidden Brain by Shankar Vedantum.
The Tim Ferris Show
If you have other podcasts to recommend, please leave me a comment. I’m always looking for new ideas to explore through podcasts.
And on that note, how are you killing it in social media?
by Caroline Leach | Mar 11, 2018 | Learning, Social Media
The best part of a day of service? It usually turns into a day of learning and inspiration.
Students from Southern California high schools got an introduction to the power of personal branding at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism this weekend.
It was part of a broader USC Alumni Day of SCervice. Members of the Trojan family around the world came together to make a difference in their local communities.
At Annenberg, students and alums came together for mini professional development and mentoring sessions with students. The focus was on helping them build their personal brands.
What inspired me the most as an alum was the number of students who have already started their own businesses. They shared savvy social media tips for how they market their businesses.
An Instagram influencer with a large following shared what she learned from working with various brands and how to maintain her authenticity with her followers.
A provider of babysitting services talked about marketing her business on Facebook, because that’s where her mother’s friends, her potential clients, are on social media.
A maker of children’s toys talked about his plans to scale his business more broadly, and how he’s reached people through social media.
Annenberg’s Leticia Lozoya and Jaime Carias designed the delightful day, bringing together 40 alums and 40 students from partner high schools throughout the Los Angeles area.
Al Naipo on Personal & Professional Branding
Veteran news reporter Al Naipo kicked off the morning’s speakers. After many years with FOX 11 news, he launched his own business and he led communications for County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas. He’s now the Chief Administrative Officer at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission.
Al focused on sharing how to maintain professionalism with your personal brand when you’re in the spotlight – whether it’s politics, business, education or any arena of life.
He started by sharing a newsroom phenomenon – a large display listing reporters’ social media followings, and how everyone ranks compared with their colleagues as well as competitor newsrooms. A social media presence is critical for journalists to be effective today. By extension, the same could be said for all professionals.
Al told several compelling stories, including how career opportunities had come to him based on the power of his LinkedIn profile. Here are a few of Al’s nuggets of wisdom:
- Your social media presence could be a make-or-break reason to get a job
- Everything you do has to do with branding and how you’re seen by others
- People view your work life and your personal life as all one thing
- Stick with your brand, because people associate it with you
- Social media is a powerful way to connect directly with almost anyone
Ashley Tesoriero on the Power of Your Personal Story
A national marketing specialist at IMT, Ashley Tesoriero told the group the secrets to sharing your personal story, even if you see yourself as a more private person. She emphasized the importance of tying your personal and professional life together make one.
According to Ashley, your personal brand is, “your online and in-person resume you present to the world.”
She encouraged everyone to figure out what their story is, and what medium(s) best capture it. For her, it’s Instagram, LinkedIn and her WordPress website.
How do you get to your story? It starts with reflection on your mission, vision and values. Ashley led the students through an exercise to begin thinking about these big-picture questions of what they want their lives to be about.
The group outlined their personal experiences – complete with challenges, opportunities and who they are in their communities – in order to establish their personal brands.
Emma Forbes on the Power of a Personal Brand
Students got to practice their “one-minute me” pitches during the lively closing session with Emma Forbes. She’s a radio and television presenter from the United Kingdom, and the parent of a current Annenberg student.
Emma told compelling stories of her own career journey to help students shape and package their personal stories to launch their personal brands and be a positive influence in a social media world.
When pitching a “one-minute me,” Emma said not to read a list of qualifications. Instead, she advised, “talk about where you come from, where you’re going, and what you’d like to do.”
She called these the defining moments that happen in a face-to-face setting a pivotal moments in everyone’s careers. “You need to be the face of your brand,” she said. “No one can sell it better than you. Be you and speak your view.”
What do you do when nerves get the best of you?
- Start with deep breathing
- Make eye contact
- Pause instead of saying “um”
- Clasp your hands front of you
“You need nerves,” according to Emma.
Then the emotional, electrifying moment arrived.
She asked what would have happened, “if I wasn’t nervous about meeting you today?”
If someone so accomplished, so authentic and so poised felt nervous about speaking to students and alums, then there is hope for all of us.
Bring on the nerves!
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