Social media for professionals

May 5, 2012

Main Line School Night

Laura Nicholas, IBM North America

Social Media & Communications Strategist

How to use social media tools to enhance your professional reputation

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A caveat

� Social media is used to reinforce, not replace real life interactions and should be

used to find people, introduce yourself and

warm up relationships. Networking

conversations need to move beyond the

confines of online media to be truly beneficial.

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Learning Objectives

� At the end of this class you will have a better

understanding how you can use LinkedIn,

Twitter, and blogging to:

� Promote your expertise

� Grow your professional network

� Share knowledge and communicate with

people in your industry

You will build skill overtime by using the tools and observing

how others use them

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Agenda

� Module 1: Personal branding

� Module 2: LinkedIn

� Module 3: Twitter

� Module 4: Blogging

� Module 5: Tips for success

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Tools rundown

- Publish original content that showcases your

expertise

Blogging

- Share thoughts and opinions

- Advertise activities and original content

Twitter

- Promote your expertise, become wider known

- Network and ‘meet’ people in your industry

LinkedIn

Social media is all about creating & publishing content –giving you the ability to become your own publicist.

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Module 1

Personal branding

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What do people see when

they Google me?

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Do they see this?

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Or this?

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What kind of image do I want to transmit?

� What skills, talents, knowledge and attitudes do I have that create value?

� What do you say when someone asks: “What do you do?”

� What degrees and certifications should I highlight?

� What do I want to achieve in my career?

Use your resume, professional experience,

recent projects and internships as input.

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Workshop

� Write 3 bios� Short: One sentence� Medium: 100 words

� Long: 250 words

Each bio has its place. You will save you time and energy when the time comes time to post it, and establish consistency between every professional bio about you that is published.

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Module 2

LinkedIn

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LinkedIn Essentials

1.Photo – professional grade

2.Headline – short phrase that sums up your professional identity

3.Well written bio – this becomes your summary paragraph

4.Groups – groups that line up with your expertise and interests

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Workshop

� Complete your profile

� Write a recommendation and ask for one

� Join a few groups

� Post a status update

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Module 3

Twitter

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Twitter

� What is it? A micro blogging tool to share

ideas and links with followers.

� It is a useful tool to promote events, content

and announcements.

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Workshop

� Set up a Twitter account

� Search for people to follow

� Post a tweet

� Retweet someone else’s tweet

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Module 4

Blogging

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Blogging

� What does it take?

� Passion for writing

� Ability to use an html based rich text editor

� Time and creativity

� Top free platforms

� Wordpress

� Blogger

� Tumblr

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Workshop

� Visit blogs and comment on posts

� Play with some of the free tools

� Plan your blog

� Why? Define what you wish to gain from your blog

� What? Define a theme and establish a content strategy

� How? Define how you will promote it and build traffic

Blogging is like jogging. If you don’t jog daily or weekly, and only jog every now and then,

it’s not going to be of any value.

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Module 5

Keys to success

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Guiding principles

� It starts with your profile (bio). Make sure it is consistent across all social properties

� Decide what you want to accomplish, then evaluate how social media can help.

� Don’t get overwhelmed. Take time up front to try features.

� Observe how professionals you respect use social media.

� You will learn by doing.

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The three pillars of success

1. Stick to what you knowFocus on your area of area of expertise and what interests you.

2. Devote the time.It’s a lot of work to keep up with social accounts especially if you maintain a blog.

Read before you write and gather research. It’s not going to happen in 10 minutes

a day.

3. Keep active.A dormant account is worse than no account.

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Search your name periodically

� Use this as intelligence to continue to refine

profiles and what you publish.