Google is on fire with the headlines about the public company CFO who used Facebook and Twitter to complain about his job. Seriously? Obviously this Finance Chief hasn’t read any of my blog posts on the subject nor the excellent recent post by Jeff Ishamel. Barrett Peterson (@CFOBP) asked me this: “How does an individual with that level of judgement become a CFO? Clearly old enough to know better.” These headlines just might scare Finance Executives all the way back into the 19th Century. There are ways Chief Financial Officers CAN use social media to … – further positioning as a subject matter expert; – talk about passions and interests around a particular subject; and – drive brand differentiation … WITHOUT defaulting to complaining about their company or job or violating corporate confidentiality. Finance Executives can also choose NOT to Facebook, tweet, or blog … but please don’t pass on having a branded and compelling digital footprint on Linkedin. If you don’t know how, email me … we can effectively navigate the sticky wicket together.

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Social Media Stats

A recent article by Talent HQ indicates the following social media statistics from Spring 2012: Users

• Facebook – 850 million
• Twitter – 500 million
• LinkedIn – 161 million
• Google+ – 90 million
• Foursquare – 23 million
• Pinterest – 10.4 million

Daily Stats

• Facebook – 31% of users check-in daily for an average of 20 minutes
• Twitter – 175 million tweets per day
• LinkedIn – 11.5 million searches per day
• Google+ – 5 billion g+ buttons served each day (served, not clicked)
• YouTube – 4 billion video views per day

Personal Branding: Why These Stats Make It Relevant

“So what,” you say? “What do these social media statistics have to do with my personal brand, my IT resume or technical resume, and my job search?” It’s simple. Companies are going to expect to find you on one or more of these sites when considering you as a candidate for a job opening. As such, it opens the door for opportunity. I suppose you could try to be like everybody else out there is SoMe (social media) land. That’s easy enough. Just sign up for a few of these services and write the standard description of yourself that makes people reading it fall asleep within 3 seconds. The alternative is to craft a strong, compelling personal brand statement that is real to who you are, what you do, and what you want to do. Then put some creative messaging in place to effectively communicate this brand across all of the social media forums you’re a part of. Just keep in mind that these forums are all different, and the demographics are distinct for each…so the style you use to communicate your brand message should correlate with the site you’re on. ... Read more

Disappointment 1 Not laying the groundwork for being the candidate of choice (based on your competencies and abilities) for the ‘perfect’ promotion. “You are here… The skills and habits that have taken you this far, might not be the right skills and habits to take you further. You can get ‘there’. But you have to understand that what got you here won’t get you there.  Let the journey begin.”  Marshall Goldsmith, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There ... Read more

Stephen Van Vreede (http://www.ittechexec.com/) and Jennifer Hay (http://www.itresumeservice.com/) have joined forces to launch Tech Career Forum. Tech Career Forum is designed to provide advice to IT and technical professionals in all career areas, particularly those related to personal branding, the technical resume, and the job search process. Tech Career Forum also assists resume writers and career services professionals in expanding their knowledge base to enhance their engagements with IT and technical clients. Tech Career Forum has initiated a LinkedIn group (http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Tech-Career-Forum-4395590) with interactive discussions, which is available for all members. Tech Career Forum will be hosting live Twitter chats on Wednesdays at 3pm Eastern, with the first in the series beginning Wednesday 5/2. To view or join in the discussion, follow or post tweets at #TCFchat. ... Read more

This post actually started out as a comment to the recent post by my friend and colleague, Samuel Dergel. While we agree on almost everything related to Finance Chief careers, we are butting heads (albeit gently) on the issue of whether or not CFOs, who are passive candidates, need a resume. Where Samuel and I definitely agree is on this:  Finance Chiefs need a clear and compelling, branded marketable value proposition (MVP). It’s critically important to know your value and be able to articulate your value in order to be competitive today. Where we deviate is over the end product. If a CFO is going to ... Read more

Most of my CFO clients recognize the importance of social media as a career management strategy. Since networking today is about “who knows you,” being visible and “known” to a target audience is incredibly powerful for long-term passive positioning. But what about when the power of social media is reversed? When recruiters and HR use your digital footprint to “more accurately predict” your “likelihood to succeed in a particular job”? So says an article by Kristin Swagman on “The Degree 360.” This shouldn’t really come as a surprise to anyone. For candidates, it’s in large part … “personal branding.” Let’s look at how a couple of scenarios that your branded positioning, visibility, or lack thereof, can impact that predictive analysis by a recruiter. ... Read more

Facetiously speaking, of course! Ginny Schlosser, a Senior Finance Leader and Human Capital Strategist, contributed this job search tip to last night’s FENG newsletter, and with her permission, I’m re-posting her comment and her reasons … <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< I couldn’t agree with you more about establishing a LinkedIn profile.  I can’t believe it when a FENG member calls or emails me about something, then when I try to look them up in LinkedIn, either they’re not there or they’re there with no picture, no experience, and fewer than 10 connections.  REALLY????? So, with tongue-in-cheek, I offer up these Five Good Reasons Not to be on Linked In... ... Read more

I recently caught up with BrandYourself’s CEO, Patrick Ambron, to learn more about the BrandYourself platform and its implications for helping job seekers take control of their online identity. What is BrandYourself? BrandYourself is the only “do-it-yourself” platform that makes it easy for anyone to take control of their own search results. It started when our co-founder, Pete Kistler, couldn’t get an internship in college because he was being mistaken for a drug dealer when prospective employers searched his name on  Google. We realized Google is an incredibly important part of your reputation, but unless you know how SEO works–most people don’t–or have thousands to spend on a reputation company to do it for you, there’s nothing you can do. We wanted to put that power in everybody’s hands and create a free product that made it easy for anyone to manage their online identity themselves. ... Read more

Have you ever thought about whether you want services or products as your career focus? Understanding the differences between these two possibilities can help you to choose or change to a work direction that is best for your interests, personality, and skills. I interviewed people with both of these types of careers to get their [...] ... Read more

A recent post by one of my colleagues just made me shake my head. Here is the comment …

“Customizing your resume for each position you apply to can be critical in today’s job search.” 

If you are changing your resume every time you send it out, that tells me that you have:          

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