Last year I interviewed social media expert Dan Schawbel, the publisher and founder of “Personal Branding Magazine.” He is also the author of Me 2.0: Building a Powerful Brand to Achieve Success and was a very quotable guest.
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Dan Schawbel quotes from John Lawlor interview on September 29, 2008:
“Personal branding is how you market yourself to others.”
“The age of privacy is gone.”
“The lines between applying for a job and actually working there are diminishing.”
“The connection between us and the hiring managers is getting closer.”
“80% of jobs are not listed.”
Mr. Schawbel calls himself a personal branding expert for Generation Y. “Personal branding,” he says, “is how you market yourself to others.” As he explains, over 92% of Gen Y owns a cell phone and are connected to other individuals via technology. “We are hyper-connected,” he says. This hyper-connectivity has both negative and positive aspects. “The age of privacy is gone,” warns Mr. Schawbel, and he believes that identity theft should not be a surprise in today’s environment. But, the many positive aspects outweigh the privacy sacrifices we make.
“The lines between applying for a job and actually working there are diminishing,” he says. “The connection between us and the hiring manager is getting closer.” This is happening in several ways, including the widespread use of social media. Over 80% of jobs are not listed, and looking for jobs on job boards is not the most effective use of one’s time. “You have to play where the people are,” he says. He maintains that the best approach is to advertise your personal brand on social media networking sites.
Employers today want to recruit the top talent, so they, in the words of Mr. Schawbel, play where the people play. The corporate sites on Twitter and Facebook are there to recruit and, more importantly, to interact with prospective employees and customers. “These are valuable channels you can use to get your name out there,” says Mr. Schawbel. Corporate branding is not so different than personal branding. A person who works at a company personifies the company, and this person is an ambassador of the company.
Mr. Schawbel offers some valuable advice to today’s college students. “I wouldn’t work hard until you discover your brand,” he says. He advocates finding a niche, becoming expert in that niche, and becoming a content producer. Once you have the expertise in a niche, you can network within that community and “you can give value.” This, explains Mr. Schawbel, is one of the fundamental concepts of personal branding.
Dan Schawbel quotes (part 2) from John Lawlor interview on September 29, 2008:
“You have to play where the people play.”
“These are valuable channels you can use to get your name out there.”
“I wouldn’t work hard until you discover your brand.”
“You have the ability to tell the world who you are and what you want to do…that is one of the most amazing things about social media.”
“You will have a subscription base of people who like you and know who you are.”
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Dear John:
Thank you for sharing this informative summary of Dan Schwabel’s increasingly relevant views of how the Web 2.0 world has changed.
While so many blogs and books focus on the needs of self-employed professionals, Dan Schwabel is unique in his emphasizing solid, practical advice for career success in corporations–with a special focus on advice and tools for young people during the first 10 years of their life after graduating from college.
As always, John, your interview style is both pleasant and extremely focused.
Roger
Thanks for this well-written and thought-provoking review and interview summary.
The idea of Personal Branding is very appealing in these post-modern times but we must be careful so that it does not become an ego-trip and/or inflating our sense of our own self-importance. American philosopher Ken Wilber has been outspoken about the dangers of what he dubs ‘Boomeritis’ or the ‘Me generation’.
This is not, I understand, what Mr Schwabel has in mind. Indeed, he emphasizes honesty and ‘joining the conversation’ once we actually have something meaningful to say!
In that sense, his advice is sound and his job-searching tips truly useful.