6
Image
There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept.
—Ansel Adams
I had the good fortune of attending a Master Class hosted by four-time Grammy winner and opera superstar, “the People’s Diva,” Renée Fleming. One of the many wise statements she said to a sold-out house at Carnegie Hall was in response to a question by a young singer. The woman asked what advice Ms. Fleming would give to those who are starting out in the world of opera. Renée without hesitation said, “Protect your image on social media.”
She went on to say that she vigilantly works at managing what is released about her, her life, and her career. She added that if one bad picture or unfortunate quote gets released into the great ether, you run the risk of it going viral.
You’re not an opera diva, but the same social media lesson applies to you, no matter what industry you’re working in or want to work in.
We just looked at how you look—your physical appearance. But in this day and age, you will likely never come face-to-face with so many people you need to impress. They will get to know you from your correspondence, your e-mails, and your social media presence. It won’t matter in these instances whether or not you’ve had your teeth whitened. What will matter is that, in the one-dimensional world of an end-user’s interface with a computer screen or magazine, you come across as an interesting, intriguing, and multi-dimensional person.
Easy enough, right? Ha! (Don’t panic.)
To present yourself in the most effective fashion, you first need to know yourself, inside and out. In this chapter, I’ll help you get to the core of who you are and understand how to present that person to the world beyond the screen.
In this chapter, you’ll also see how not knowing who you are wastes your time and others’ and sabotages your ability to connect with them. You’ll discover how social media has changed the way you present yourself. And you’ll learn how to present yourself multi-dimensionally in a one-dimensional world.
It’s All About Me!
Yes. Yes it is! But also, it isn’t.
Though it may have seemed somewhat surprising in 2006 that Time magazine’s Person of the Year was “You,” now it’s commonplace. Social media has cracked open the world, and you are now the most influential person in your world today. We live in an intensely “me-centric” world, increasingly “me-centric” actually, thanks to social media.
If you’re of the older generations, you may be cringing right now at just the words “social media.” Well, get over yourself. In the past decade, the world and your place in it has been changing rapidly. Consider that at the start of the 21st century, there really wasn’t any social media at all. Then:
LinkedIn reached out at the end of 2002 and formally launched in 2003.
Facebook showed its face on the scene in February of 2004.
Twitter “hatched” on July 15, 2006.
YouTube debuted in February of 2005 but really exploded when Google took it over in 2006.
Instagram popped up in 2010 but really took off in 2012 and hasn’t shown any sign of stopping.
Google+ added itself to the ring on June 28, 2011.
Pinterest got started in September 2011 and really stuck.
Then…well, heaven knows what’s being cooked up right now in college dorms. The point is, social media made a splash this past decade and it shows no signs of drying up any time soon.
It’s also not just “for kids.” I have had many older clients tell me that social media was not for them—that they felt, at their age, they were above it, that it was silly somehow to put yourself out there on social media. Think of it this way: in this world, if someone wants to know more about you, you are just a Google search away. Shouldn’t you want to have some control over what comes up when you get Googled?
Older readers take note: according to a 2013 study, Twitter usage for people ages 55–64 had grown exponentially since 2012—a 79 percent increase! For Facebook, it has been a 46 percent increase, for Google+, 56 percent.
So if you think social media is not for you, you’re wrong. It has a ton to do with you and with all of us. Younger users already know the value and impact of social media. The next generation won’t even have an experience of the world without it!
I want you to really think about how different the ways that you can express yourself have become over the past 10 years—whether you’re 25 or 40 or 65. The world has become, and becomes more so, “about you.”
Consequently, if you have the world right where you want it, why aren’t you fully capitalizing on the power of you and reaping all the benefits? Why aren’t you looking the best you can out there in this “you” landscape?
This actually has to do with a concept that predates all of this social media madness: personal brand.
Brand New You?
The idea of personal brand seems old and crusty by now, but it’s still relevant. And it’s evolving all the time. As important as it is for people to quickly understand and express themselves as their own personal brand, when I challenge participants to tell me in just a few words just who they are, 99 percent of the time I’m faced with blank stares.
The trouble is that many of us just don’t know who we are. Sure, we have an inkling, and we try to fake it where we can. But that’s just not an option anymore. Only when you understand and present the real you to the world, will you be able to advance. It’s high time you figured that out.
The idea of working with SPARC buddies will carry through in nearly everything you do in this book, especially in this chapter. Having someone to bounce off your idea about your image with is invaluable because it’s almost impossible to see oneself objectively.
Let’s look at SPARC as it has to do with image.
Strategy: What are you trying to achieve with your image?
Purpose: Why is presenting yourself in the best light possible important to accomplishing your strategy?
Analyze: Which elements of your current image are working for you? Which are not?
Rehearse: How will you focus your efforts to developing your image?
Commit: How will you make your image impactful and indelible?
These threads will be woven in throughout this chapter, challenging you to really think through all the decisions you make. Collaborate with a SPARC buddy to ensure you are following the plan.
So Who the Heck Are You?
If you don’t know who you are, there’s no way you’re going to be able to go out there and sell yourself to others. Have you ever tried to sell anything, such as a glass of lemonade to neighborhood passersby when you were a kid? Or a new TV when you worked at the electronics store while you put yourself through college? Or a new creative package to a client who may not be sure he or she even wants a new creative package? You knew in all of these situations that the way you were going to sell these things was to understand exactly and succinctly what you were selling, and to make it appealing to your buyer.
It’s totally the same when it comes to selling you—in person or on screen. It all comes down to knowing exactly who you are. Only then can you properly present yourself.
What’s Your Point?
I have an exercise I do in seminars that really helps clients quickly and easily get to the nut of who they are. It’s something that’s really easy for anyone to grasp—anyone who has had more than a first-grade-level education. I call it “Personal Punc-h.”
I ask: If you were a punctuation mark, what would you be? It seems like an odd question, especially odd in a board room or auditorium packed with C-Suite executives for sure. But in my experience, I have seen that it’s actually the simplest way for people to encapsulate themselves and explain who they are to others.
Take me, for example. My corporate logo is a trademarked bright red “!”. It was inspired by my book, Get to the Point!, but through the years has resonated as a symbol of my message that people immediately get.
Recently, as I tried to come up with an easy way for people to start understanding their personality type, I happened to glance down at my logo and it just hit me: I am a quintessential exclamation point. I am optimistic and energetic; I am aggressive and sometimes a little over the top. But whatever emotions the mark conjures, I am easily and comfortably defined by it.
That led me to think of other punctuation marks, and to see my friends, family members, and clients as punctuation. I started asking people and they immediately got it:
“I’m a colon because I always have more to say.”
“I’m a semicolon because I am a connector of ideas.”
“I’m a question mark because I always want to know more.”
“I’m a period because I like closure and demand it from others.”
“I’m a comma, with semicolon rising…a work in progress.”
Take a quick look at the following chart to see the basic characteristics attributable to each mark and which best describes your Personal Punc-h.
Though every mark is important, a comma can be absolutely crucial to ensuring success. As Lynne Truss proved with her hilarious book on punctuation, Eats, Shoots and Leaves, one misplaced comma translates to a panda bear with a smoking gun.
One Word Is Worth a Thousand Pictures
When someone asks you to describe yourself, can you summarize who you are in a paragraph or in a sentence? Most people struggle with this. For that reason, I generally ask people to list those words—they could be nouns, verbs, or adjectives—that best describe them.
Most people don’t take into consideration who their audience is. You may be some version of yourself during a PTA meeting and another version of yourself at a business networking meeting and another version of yourself at a customer meeting, but there will be facets of you that blend into all aspects of your life.
When you craft your “about you” paragraph, you’re going to want to leave room for about 10 words that hit the target audience in the gut, the example of what you can do for “those” issues, “that” project, “their” charity event. So in a 40-word, 15-second elevator pitch, 65 percent of that pitch can be used across all audiences, leaving 35 percent for customization.
Who Are You?
Take out your journal and open it to a fresh page. Now take a few minutes to think about words that work to describe you and list 10 of them on the page.
Next, step back and take a look at that list. What do you see? Are most of the words one part of speech—more nouns than verbs or more adjectives than nouns? If so, which of these parts of speech is dominating?
Read off the words one by one. How do they sound when spoken out loud? How do they resonate with your SPARC buddy? Do any sound artificial and forced when they come out of your mouth? Do any really satisfy? Your SPARC buddy will be of enormous help to you in this case. It’s excruciatingly difficult for any of us to write adequately about ourselves for so many reasons. But more than ever we must write about ourselves daily, whether it’s simply e-mail in our company or being active with social media. And, once it’s out there, it’s there forever.
If any of your listed words sound forced when you speak them, you need new words. Go back to the list and keep trying out new words until they all feel right.
Making “You” Work
Once you have your list of 10 words, it’s time to create a short paragraph about you. Let’s say your list included words such as:
1. Enthusiastic.
2. Self-starter.
3. Team player.
4. Resourceful.
5. Well-connected.
6. Detail oriented.
7. Facile (effortless) thinker.
8. Proficient writer.
9. Articulate.
10. Innovator.
The next step would be to put an interrogation lamp on those words:
Enthusiastic—Big deal. Give an example why that’s important. Are you undaunted when obstacles fall in your path? Do you lead people through firestorms? When did this happen and what does it mean to your audience?
Self-starter—Excellent attribute. How did that help your organization? You’re a manager’s dream candidate or nightmare depending on how controlling your manager is.
Team player—Everyone says that, but can you be a team player who isn’t afraid of saying what everyone else is thinking, in such a way that doesn’t offend?
Resourceful—Oh sure, we all say that. But if you metaphorically pulled a rabbit out of a hat, tell us how.
Well-connected—Always a desirable trait as long as you have a track record. Give specifics.
Detail oriented—Maybe a fine a characteristic, but perhaps you get buried in the weeds. Again, provide an example of how this attribute helped in a real situation.
Facile thinker—Really? Prove it. How did you pull the proverbial body from the wreckage with your quick thinking?
Proficient writer—Your boss leans on you for research? You’ve published papers? Examples are needed.
Articulate—If you are to be a spokesperson for the team, or want to be, then your elevator pitch needs to be inspirational in tone.
Innovator—Wonderful. What have you designed or created? If ever there were a time in our history where innovators are applauded, it is now.
In your 40-word paragraph, you must give an example of how these attributes will help the audience to whom you are speaking or writing: 65 percent should be from your template and 35 percent customized for your specific audience. You’ll use this paragraph to become the base for your elevator pitch—40 words spoken in 15 seconds that hit the nail on the head about you. We’ll get more into this in the next chapter.
Crafting Your Paragraph
Now that you have interrogated yourself, possibly, hopefully, with your SPARC buddy, it’s time to put this in paragraph form.
1. Get rid of unimportant words such as, “My name is….” Just say your name and cite your specialty. In my case, I would say: “Karen E. Berg, Communication Coach. Message Development and Delivery.”
I don’t say, “I specialize in” or “my experience is” because these are useless words. This is where the Twitter 140-character model is especially helpful. Every character counts. Monitor your word choices and make every word count.
2. Identify your audience. Then you’re into what all those descriptive words can do for that audience, for that project, for that team, for that fundraiser. Sell yourself!
You’re now saying: “But, I’m not a salesperson.” Today, with social media and with employment, or lack thereof, we are all salespeople, 24/7. But we’re subtle in our sales; we’re not hammering people over their heads. We’re engaging them.
3. Time your elevator pitch. Listen to your voice (more on voice in Chapter 7). You want to strive for 15 seconds, but don’t talk fast just to make that time allocation. If you know newspaper editors, or maybe you are one, you know the anguish of having to delete what you might consider stunning prose. Less is always more in social media. We all have the attention span of a gnat nowadays. Is it a good trait? Nope, but it’s reality.
4. Revise, edit, rehearse, and re-record. Time it. I think you’ll be great.
5. Go out and win.
Words From the Wise—Scott Warren
Life Style Designer
Finding “You” In Words
The best 10 words that describe what I do would be as follows:
Listen |
Solve |
Innovate |
Mediate |
Focus |
Simplify |
Create |
Integrate |
Define |
Polish |
Words like “beautiful,” “elegant,” or “high-end” may sound more appropriate when thinking of a designer. However, I have found that, almost in order, the previous list pretty much sums up a regular project with a normal client.
Getting to Know Yourself
Here’s another quick way to get to know more about yourself. Open your journal and write your answers out as sentences (for example, “When I was growing up, I wanted to be Neil Armstrong”), then reflect on what you see:
When you were growing up, who did you want to be?
If a movie were to be made about your life, what would it be called and who would play you?
Are you religious, spiritual, or materialistic?
What truly motivates you? If it helps you, the mantra I live by is: time is money. Whatever I do, I have to get paid. There has to be some incentive, though that doesn’t necessarily mean cash. If it doesn’t feed my bank account then it must feed my soul.
Aside from work, name five things that interest you.
Aside from work, name five things that might interest you about others.
What are your top five books?
What are your five favorite movies?
What’s your favorite color?
What’s your favorite season?
Are there any themes running through these answers? For example, do you like action movies and/or spy novels? Does lighter fare light up your life? For instance, does comedy and romance factor in here? Are you more concerned with yourself or others? What drives you?
Your Image on Paper
When I give a seminar, I typically take examples of people’s business cards, company brochures, and other printed collateral, and demonstrate what works, what ties into the brand these items are supposed to represent, and what does not.
Most people have no idea about all of the elements they should include in their arsenal to reinforce their brand identity.
Look, as much as you want to believe it is so, paper isn’t dead in this digital world. You will always need a nice business card. Depending on your industry, printed post cards, brochures people can hold in their hands, and portfolios to actually thumb through with an actual thumb, can all be essential to your image.
Here’s something most people never consider in this day and age: having nice stationery. A handwritten note gets noticed. It’s a good idea to hone your cursive and start sending folks handwritten notes on nice paper that reflects who you are and what you do. Have you noticed that in our digital age, our handwriting has become unintelligible? Or is it just me? The texture, the color, the imagery—all of these matter in your printed materials. Think before you print!
Words From the Wise—Scott Warren
Life Style Designer
The Impact of Color
Color is something that I find affects most aspects of our lives. We all identify with a favorite; we all have one we hate. It affects us on obvious levels, like when an advertiser uses green to connote “fresh” or a red to say “spicy” or “fast” (think about car commercials using red cars).
But there are also many subconscious uses of color we never notice. Would you feel comfortable if your surgeon or dentist wore bright red scrubs? I bet not, which is why they are always a soothing shade of green or blue. Why are men’s prisons beginning to use pink as their favorite paint and apparel choice? It’s because it has shown to create a much more docile population by increasing estrogen production and calming testosterone-flush inmates. Why are all the fast food logos red and yellow? Think of In-N-Out Burger; they want us to be interested to stop and feel hungry (red) and in a hurry to move on and get going (yellow).
As for the color association to punctuation I see things this way:
Exclamation points are undoubtedly red. They’re practically shouting at you. Red is high energy, bold, stimulating, invigorating, menacing, demonstrative, and fierce.
Question marks are blue—open-ended, like the depths of the ocean or the distant sky.
Periods are taupe, earth color. They are final, grounded, and expected.
Colons are black, tailored, and sleek, serving an exact purpose while adding structure and definition.
Semicolons are white because there is a blank slate ahead wanting to be completed.
Commas make me think “green” because after a comma something new must always follow. Think fresh, forward, next, and more.
The Man (or Woman) Behind the Screen
There’s no business like show business—and all business is “show.”
To an extent, this is true and definitely so on social media. Forget about the old “15 minutes of fame” here, though, because 15 minutes is an eternity in social media terms. Depending on how many others are reading your statuses and tweets, viewing your videos and Vimeos, sampling your pictures and your Pinterest, you’re lucky to grab 15 seconds.
Social media is incredibly visual, so before you open your mouth to speak, so to speak, on social media, you better make sure your image conveys what you want people to know about you in a flash.
Words From the Wise—Jeff Winton
Senior Vice President/Chief Communications Officer at Astellas Pharma
Communication Changes—For Better or Worse?
During the past five years, communications has changed dramatically, as we are now living in a 24/7 news cycle. In the early 1980s, you literally had an entire day to fix something that may have occurred before the next day’s paper was printed. We don’t have that luxury now. Any mistake or erroneous information travels like wildfire, and it can be virtually impossible to fix.
We are now using social media in the same way we once used telexes and faxes. Instead of calling a reporter or solely sending out a press release, we are now tweeting our news to these same target audiences, and responding to queries via e-mail rather than returning phone calls.
Because of this and the necessity of having staff members who understand technology and new tools like Twitter, we are now hiring “digital natives,” 23-year-olds right out of college, as people of my generation continue to struggle to keep up with the rapidly evolving world. But I believe that members of my generation need to try their best to keep up with the new technology and platforms, and not let the world pass us by. I think it’s important to at least be conversant about the new landscape and be willing to embrace it and keep pace with the changes.
Your Home Base
It doesn’t really matter what industry you’re in, in this day and age, you should have a Web presence. Even if you have presence all across the social media landscape, it’s important to have a place to come home to.
What you’ll feature as your Web presence will depend on what kind of profession you’re in. If you’re a journalist, you’ll have your articles or links to articles. A graphic designer might create an online portfolio. An attorney’s Website might be as basic as a home page with an interesting biography, photo, and contact information.
What is the easiest way to know what should go there? Google your profession and the word “Website,” and look at the sites of the top hits. Examine what colleagues and competitors are doing/have done. Take notes on what you like and don’t like about the Web presences of others, and develop your content around that.
You can hire someone to create your Web presence, though there are many programs available now featuring thousands of templates, some free and some that you may need to pay a small fee to use, that can help you create your own.
Words From the Wise—Jeremy Merrifield
Creative Director/Cofounder Jupiter Highway
Mind Your (Online) Business
One of the biggest mistakes businesses make for their Websites, and for their entire visual program, is that they don’t budget enough for marketing. People think that marketing is something to “add on” to an existing business when, in fact, it is your business plan. You can have a great product, but if your marketing isn’t amazing, no one will know about it. Instead, have a good product, launch with amazing marketing, and use the sales to iterate that good product into a great product. One of the best examples of this is Apple’s iPhone and its brilliant marketing and product evolution.
People also tend to think they’re smarter at marketing now because they can turn to social media, but social media is only as good as the strategy that’s been applied to it. In fact, social media shouldn’t be considered an advertising channel at all. It’s a content stream created to offer value to your consumer base, with an occasional bit of self-promotion.
Many businesses say they don’t have time for social media or think just buying an ad is enough to say they’re “marketing.” Customized content, meaning video and imagery, for your customer relationships is more important than ever, and social networks allow you to scale those relationships and keep the conversation fresh and tailored to your consumers. Putting money into your local newspaper ad would be better spent developing custom content that would excite your existing consumer base and draw new consumers to you. You either need to make the time to devote to this, or you need to hire someone and work with them so they understand your business goals.
Also, businesses need to leverage technology. There’s a thriving digital community out there filled with your customers, potential customers, and competitors—your presence there is crucial.
If a customer can’t find you on Google Maps, peruse your services/products on their phone maps, peruse your services/products in your app, or tweet to you, you might as well not exist at all.
LinkedIn for Hooking Up?
Social media is a series of parties, all happening at once.
Think of Facebook’s dynamic to be like a family reunion in which you know, or sort of know, everyone and you’re connected by sharing experiences, many of them common. Communication happens informally at the group level; conversations spark in the comments threads.
Twitter is like a large, mostly anonymous cocktail party. You enter the room (feed), you twitter about, reading what’s trending, listening to the conversations of others. You break in quickly and succinctly, make your introduction (in 140 characters or less), there may or may not be interaction, and you quickly move on.
Thinking in those terms, LinkedIn, then, is like a professional conference. You exchange business cards (connect) and don’t interact quite as much, saving the information you’ve collected to reach out later.
Because LinkedIn is a professional site, it’s where you need to promote your professional self. You should have a photo in place on your profile, and it should not be a photo of you at a backyard barbecue or in informal wear. It should not be a photo of you with your spouse or kids or dog or anyone. It should not be a cutesy cartoon avatar.
You should interact often with LinkedIn because it is a proven fact that business comes from here. I learned that a few years ago when a client with whom I had had no contact with for nearly 10 years found me on LinkedIn. I metaphorically kiss that platform everyday because of its networking potential.
Keep your resume up to date. Your credentials should be impressive and succinct. You should try and collect endorsements from people who have worked with you and can recommend you at length—not the ones that say “Johnny endorsed you for…marketing” or “Mary endorsed you for…bookkeeping.” Rather, get statements that are several sentences long by people who have worked with you and want to recommend you to others. To get these, you may have to do some endorsement yourself, but be discerning. Don’t just recommend anyone. Like anything else in social media, once it’s out there, you can never take it back.
The people in my life are very engaged in discussion groups. I suggest that people start a group, lead, and manage it; become a thought leader of a specific topic or issue.
Words From the Wise—Chuck Pineda, PE/CGC/AVS
President/Managing Director, Trans-Infra PPP, LLC
Discussion Groups
Given the current environment, which includes many Web-based social and professional networking sites, I have found that it’s almost de rigueur to be “plugged into” this resource pool of information. As a professional in the architectural and engineering consulting business serving potential clients across the U.S., Canada, and abroad, it became apparent several years ago that an excellent and cost-effective way to connect to people and join the global conversation was by utilizing select networking site(s) that accommodated specific discussion groups, allowing sharing of information on specific topics and bringing together academics, professionals, and knowledgeable people in that field.
I regularly participate in various discussion groups on the Web, some of which I have joined and some that I initiated. Participation in these groups has been extremely beneficial for many reasons, including professional growth and development as well as identifying potential clients, professional resources/talent, and work opportunities.
Many highly capable people are eager to share their experiences with others. By doing so, they not only help to more efficiently progress general knowledge and prevent others from making the same costly mistakes, but they assist the development of young professionals as well.
Identifying the experts and knowledgeable people within a particular field or industry is one of the most useful aspects of the discussion groups. Headhunters and industry recruiters openly admit that they now use the Internet exclusively for identifying talent and regularly look into specific discussion groups to find talent in a particular area.
There’s Egg on Your Face(book)
What is Facebook for? To look at what some people post up there, you would think self-promotion, self-promotion, self-promotion, and also, self-promotion. Then there are others who post anything and everything, from questionable photographs (more common with younger users) to appalling detail about physical maladies, too much information about marital strife and other relationship issues, and gripes about work. Guess what, folks? Even if you’re not friends with your boss on Facebook, he or she might still be able to see what you post. Even if you’re meticulous about your privacy settings (and most of you are not), there are back doors everywhere for people to sneak through and spy on you.
Be careful.
I’m going to admit something to you. The first thing I do when I’m hired as a coach is I go and check out that person on Facebook. Many people have very loose privacy settings and there’s lots I can see, even if I’m not a “friend” of that person. If I’m a “friend” of a “friend” of that person, I can sometimes see more. I get a background on that person, and I judge what kind of person he or she is by what she or he has posted. And I look at your YouTube videos as well. Is it fair? Absolutely not, but it’s a reality of our digital life.
Imagine all the potential clients, employers, casting directors, and admissions agents who are actively on Facebook and doing the same.
Before you slap anything onto your Facebook, take five minutes away from it. At the end of five minutes, things that seemed impulsively interesting do sometimes (or even most of the time) seem less so. So although you can’t technically be fired over something you post on Facebook, you can always be fired for another reason that’s given, aside from posts like “My boss is a troll,” or “Work is so boring, I could die.”
Words From the Wise—John Frazier
EVP at Quinn Lifestyle Public Relations Agency
Social Media as a Business Tool
Social media has changed so much about communication. It seems people often revert to some digital platform or another rather than speak to each other. I’ve actually seen people at work tweeting at each other when they were within 10 feet of each other! Is that healthy?
Facebook, I thought, was for college kids, which I guess it originally was. Once I gave in, I was very glad I did because it has become an amazing channel for communicating with so many corners of my life. At Quinn, we have a popular Facebook page with more than 15,000 fans.
We also have a very active Twitter handle for the agency, as we’ve found that it is an excellent channel for communicating with journalists. Journalists and editors don’t seem to answer the phone anymore or even listen to their voicemails, and sometimes Twitter can get you through.
I was an early adopter of Twitter. I had to nudge a lot of people at our PR firm into using Twitter because I thought it was going to be important for our industry. I was right about that, but now I feel like I created a bit of a monster if our people are tweeting each other rather than talking to each other. I’ve kind of backed off Twitter, though I do find it extremely helpful as a research tool.
As of today, @QuinnPR has 5,599 followers and a huge number of them are the writers and editors we constantly seek to engage. We very often pitch the media via Twitter, and often find the best leads by monitoring the Twitter feeds of the top media we are following. We even once saved a honeymoon from total doom. We saw someone tweet that they’d just checked into our client’s hotel for their honeymoon and their room was not as promised. We contacted the resort immediately and voila! Problem fixed equals happy couple!
I personally feel liberated by technology. Though I may now be working just about any time of day or night via my iPhone, it and other means of connection and communication allow me to walk out the door at 5 p.m. on most days. In an odd way, I feel like I have a better work/life balance than ever before.
Don’t Be a “Twit”
As with Facebook, Twitter is not intended as a platform for narcissism and yet it has become one. Scan through your newsfeed and what do you see? Buy me! Read me! Look at me! Love me!
What was intended as a forum for active, international engagement sometimes reads like a wall of advertising posters. Don’t be one of those posters. You will find yourself not only ignored but unfollowed as well.
This is not to say you shouldn’t market yourself, your product, or your services on Twitter, because it’s an excellent forum for reaching your customer. You just have to be smart about how you do it.
Remember this formula: 20 percent promotion, 80 percent engagement. For every five tweets you post, only one should be selling. The others should provide a link to an informative article you enjoyed, useful information, or even to engage another Twitter user: “Thanks @bergonpoint, for your book #smartread” or “Love that @panerabread roast beef sandwich #bestfood.”
Don’t go nuts with the hashtag (#); too many make your posts look like spam. Decide on one or two strategic hashtags per tweet and move on.
If your Twitter account is a mess, it’s easier to fix than your Facebook account. On the plus side, depending on how many people follow you, your tweets are there and gone within seconds, minutes, or hours. Unless someone is specifically on your profile reading through all your thousands of tweets, they get buried fast. Also, if you take down a tweet before someone else has engaged with it (retweeted it, favorited it, replied to it) you can make it disappear. Though someone else is not going to take the time to scan through your tweets, you should make that time and make sure everything that’s there is something the whole world can see.
Your Twitter profile should feature a photo of you. People tend not to follow profiles that aren’t yet “hatched.” Your description should be short and succinct. (Remember your elevator pitch.) You should also include your Website in your description. Again, we’ll get more into this in the next chapter.
Words From the Wise—Andre Mechaly
Marketing/Strategy Director—Network & Infrastructure Systems at Thales
Social Media Matters
I love live tweeting in conferences. This is the best way to get in touch with people who usually are interested in the same topics as you. Live tweeting has allowed me to get in touch with a lot of journalists with whom I would have had many difficulties to get in touch with. And the beauty is that when the journalist reads your tweets, and likes them, you can have very good discussions afterward. It also allowed me to get in touch with a couple of ministers (that I unfortunately didn’t meet afterward) and MPs (that I met!).
When somebody looks at your tweets and retweets you, he will usually Google you before deciding to follow you. You need to ensure that your LinkedIn profile is up to date, that it refers to posts you want people to see associated with you, and that your Facebook profile shows things that you want associated with you. When you get a new follower on Twitter this way, it is usually a strong relation so worth the effort!
Insta-Fame/lnsta-Failure
An instant of fun can lead to a lifetime of liability. The fun about Instagram is the impulsive aspect of it. Take a selfie! Any time! Anywhere! Post it immediately for the entire world to see! Before you post that moment, ask yourself if that’s really something that needs to live in perpetuity. Take the five-minute rule you do for Facebook. If it’s still interesting five minutes after the fact, it may be okay to post. Just make sure the photo is in good taste and is something you wouldn’t mind your boss or your parents seeing.
YouTube Equals the New “Boob Tube”
YouTube gets used for a lot of things these days, but, like all of these areas, I urge you to use it wisely. Many unfortunate things end up on YouTube—many humorous things. But you should be using it as a place to market your brand.
It’s become more common than ever now to use video to promote yourself. As a public speaker, it’s a medium I’ve been familiar with for years. But you don’t have to be a speaker to have a video of yourself speaking.
Words From the Wise—Douglas DeMarco
Executive Producer/Owner Brown Paper Bag, Inc.
The Five Mistakes People Make About Headshots
1. Over Retouching. The headshot must look like you, not an idealized version of you. Because retouching is so easy with digital photos (Change your eye color? Make your neck longer? No problem!) people often go overboard. The rule of thumb is that retouching should involve no more than a makeup person could have done when the photos were taken. This leads to…
2. Their clothes don’t fit. A workshop I took on portraiture showed “before” and “after” photos in which the only retouching was done on the subject’s clothes. The results were amazing. Fixing wrinkles, creases, fabric “pops,” crooked lapels, and so forth did more for the shot than you could imagine. Your clothes should always be what you feel you look best in (appropriate to the needs of the photo), but they have to fit well.
3. It’s not the DMV! A headshot should never be taken straight on, and a good photographer will know how to pose you. One trick that works well for men and women is to lean in toward the camera; put your weight on the leg closest to the camera and lean in. The photo will look dynamic, engaging, and natural.
4. They don’t audition the photographer. Many people will go to a photographer on a friend’s recommendation and never look at the work. Go to the photographer’s gallery and see what the work is like. Remember, he’s putting what he considers his best work online. If all the photos feature outdoor or “natural” photos, you may not get a great “studio” shot.
5. They pick a photo from the first “roll.” It takes a non-professional (not a model) time to get comfortable in front of a camera. When I shoot headshots, I consider the first hundred photos as “warm-up garbage” and won’t even show them to the client. Every shot a client selects as a “potential” or “keeper” comes from the last hundred or so. By then they are warmed up, comfortable with the lights and clicks, and have had time to establish a relationship with the photographer.
Fools on Film
Always remember: There’s no business like show business but all business is show!
One of my most successful programs is Communicating The Message: How To Be Camera Ready Anytime Anywhere. In it, I teach that corporations can learn a lot from creative people when it comes to being filmed. We can take a page out of the entertainment industry playbook to really learn how to present ourselves on video. For instance, I know a Tony Award-winning actor who never goes to an audition without being dressed and in makeup for video. She doesn’t know if they will be recording her, but she’s always ready. The same should be true for you.
Even I have had instances in which I haven’t been prepared for video and have been caught in an unflattering moment. For an interview I did about my singing group, I was sitting with the interviewer waiting for the camera to roll. Well, there was no point that the camera began rolling—the filming had begun before the interviewing started. The camera was rolling and I never knew it. Pay attention to the first few seconds of this video clip which you can access through this Web link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVvdDoWAMK0.
Yes, that’s me, media expert, swiping at my nose as the first image anyone will see of me in an otherwise successful five-minute piece.
You need to be ready at all times because you can’t assume the person filming you is going to be doing any editing. You need to be “on” before you know the camera is on. You need to be aware of your face, your body, and your actions. See yourself outside yourself.
Let my rubbing my nose waiting for the roll of the camera be a cautionary tale for you. I have been a spokesperson for 30 years. The standards have changed.
Your Video Arsenal
You don’t have to invest a lot of money to have a professional platform for video making. You really only need:
A backdrop of blue, green, or soft white. You want the background to be plain, not distracting. You can pick up a fold-up screen that you can easily store when not using for about 70 dollars.
If you prefer a background representing your profession, say a physician’s lab or a professor’s library, make sure the background enhances rather than distracts. You don’t want the viewers’ eyes trying to read the titles on the books on your shelves. You want them focused on you!
A tripod, available for a video camera or even a smart phone. You can pick up a sturdy tripod for less than 50 dollars; for an iPhone, a tripod can run around 30 dollars, but there are some cute models you can get for as little as five bucks.
And don’t forget about lighting. If you don’t consider yourself savvy about lighting, there are tutorials on YouTube. What you don’t want is to end up with “raccoon eyes,” that dark shading around your eyes. You want your content to “pop” off the screen rather than the green hue of your skin under poor lighting.
Getting Set Up
Making a good video is not as simple as whipping out your iPhone and recording. Even with a good script and a focused message, there’s much preparation you need to do before you even think about turning on that camera.
First, make sure your appearance is the best it can be. Get your hair done. Get your roots touched up. Make sure your teeth are clean. Go get a free “makeover” at the makeup counter of a department store, or pay to have one professionally done.
Next, do you wear eyeglasses? Make sure they’re not outdated. Along with a bad hairstyle and bad makeup, nothing makes you look older than wearing outdated eyewear.
Now, what are you wearing? Answer: Not black. Black absorbs the light. Not busy patterns. Small patterns are terrible and can “buzz” on camera; they distract viewers from focusing on you. Women, jewel tone blouses and jackets are lovely on camera. Men, whatever your profession, you can’t go wrong in a light-blue or other pastel collared shirt. (Choose your wardrobe to contrast with your background color so you will pop.) Depending on your subject matter and profession, you don’t necessarily need to wear a tie, but be neat with clothes pressed.
Lastly, test different angles and distances in the camera. This is a case of don’t “lean in” on the camera on the computer. I once attended a video conference call given by the CEO of a large corporation. His face was so close to the screen that it was like watching a giant tuna in an aquarium, eyes bulging out and everything. No one could keep focused on what he was saying because he was so, well, “in your face.” Don’t let that happen to you! You want to make sure that only your warmth and intelligence comes through.
Grab, Hit, Heal
People sabotage themselves in videos because they don’t grab their audience in the first few seconds. And then they ramble on without focus for minutes at a time. They distract the viewer by pacing back and forth, have vocal and/or physical tics, and don’t have a clear message. A successful video of you is going to be around 60 seconds and not longer than 90 seconds. Anything more will bore the pants off your audience and completely dilute what you’re trying to say.
How can you ensure your video will be a success? Start with knowing your audience. Then tailor a script to speak to that audience. Write out what you want to say and memorize it. Break out the message into five parts.
First, startle and grab. Say you’re a graphic designer looking for new Website clients. Start off your video with information that will get their attention, like a startling statistic or a provocative statement like “Did you know you’re losing 90 percent of your business?” or “If your Website is more than two years old, it could be a liability for you.”
Next, you should convey “I can help; here’s how.” Again, be sure you tailor your message to your audience with a statement like “For the past five years, I’ve helped businesses like yours improve sales by helping drive traffic to strategically planned Websites.”
Then, visual and voiceover. Create a slide show that shows what you can do. Explain to the viewer what they are seeing and share information to help them absorb the images.
Now, offer a plan to fix and heal. Tell them what you’re going to do to help optimize their success. Lay it out for them.
Finally, reinforce and repeat. Remind people in one sentence or less why they need you. Tell them how to find you (reinforced by captions at the bottom of the screen).
Craft a script to cover these bases and you’ll be on your way to creating a successful video.
In all of this, don’t forget to reach out to your SPARC buddy. From the first draft of your script to the final cut of your video, listen to what they have to say and take their critiques seriously. You may not like everything they’re saying, but if you trust that their main objective is to help you improve (and you should, or you need a new buddy), you should follow their advice and make your piece the best it can be.
Words From the Wise—Jeremy Merrifield
Creative Director/Cofounder Jupiter Highway
Using Social Media
Social media isn’t free. The platforms themselves may be, but it’s incredibly difficult to break through the social media noise without putting dollars behind the effort. Businesses that are serious about social media allocate a budget for promoting their brands via posts and tweets. Facebook has admitted that only 16 percent of a page’s followers will see a brand’s unpaid post, but paying to promote scales this number significantly the more you spend and constantly target your posts.
Not every business needs to be on every social media platform. Don’t dilute your efforts. Pick the ones that best serve your business’s goals. What are the best channels to share the content you can create? Where are your audiences?
Even though social media feels like a place for the masses, ultimately your social media followers should feel like a close-knit community of “insiders”—people who are getting information tailored to them and they can’t get it anywhere else.
Also, don’t think of social media for “selling”—not directly. It’s a place for content. Provide valuable content and you’ll create fierce customer loyalty. Remember, we’re humans and we can recognize selfish advertising, and so we’ll be quick to unfollow, unlike, unpin, or run screaming into the hills.
Lastly, think of social media as essentially a 24/7 conversation, a conversation that will go on with or without you, one held among customers saying what they want about your brand, a conversation filled with potential customers who don’t even know they want to hear about your brand. Be a part of that conversation. Hire someone to manage your social media, either an in-house person or an agency.
Bottom Line
Knowing who you are and tailoring your image accordingly can be a springboard for personal and professional success, especially in the world of social media where in-person interaction is rare and where you could very well be interacting with thousands of people at once. It only takes one failed tweet to lose hundreds of followers.