8 Ways To Put Your Career On Autopilot

8 Ways to Put Your Career on Autopilot No Title Given by Kevin Hale from Flickr “If you build it, they will come.” This iconic line from Field of Dreams is powerful. While this line makes for a fantastic movie plot, building a product (or in our case, a personal brand) isn’t enough to guarantee success. You can build your reputation at work as a great employee, but very few people outside of your company will know about your personal brand and all of the great services you have to offer if you don’t advertise. Let’s look at a scenario that outlines how advertising a personal brand can be immensely helpful. Dan is a brilliant IT Project Manager. His projects are consistently done on time and within budget. He always kept his team motivated and on task. Dan has a reputation for being a clear, concise and effective leader. He always had a great relationship with his employer, but he knew he’d eventually like to move on to a larger company. He was confident in his abilities and knew he could command a higher salary from a new employer. Dan wanted to look for jobs on his own terms. That meant creating a two-way street where in addition to asking contacts within his network for leads, the leads would also come to him. The IT Project Manager decided to create a campaign to advertise his personal brand to achieve those results. Dan’s job search took the form of an advertisement campaign, not unlike a political campaign. The level of involvement went beyond completing his LinkedIn profile and staying active on social media. Dan made plans to meet and greet influential people within his industry, attend events, and garner name recognition. A campaign allowed him to market himself to potential employers and raise his industry influence. He was literally “running” for his next job! Dan created a website to serve as a hub for all of his social media accounts and used a landing page to acquire more information from his visitors. He began to blog about the difficult problems he faced and the solutions he had devised. On his social media accounts, he shared the content of other influential leaders within his industry. He bought ads from Google in order to promote himself and his achievements in the search results. He attended industry events, volunteered and offered to help others. Dan’s efforts produced a constant stream of job offers, a big boost in confidence and the ability to control his own professional and economic destiny. In my scenario, Dan was passionate about controlling and advertising his personal brand. Every small and large company advertises their brand in order to promote their services or products, raise awareness about the benefits of their product, differentiate themselves from the competition, and retain their current customers. The same can apply to anyone who’s serious about putting their career on autopilot. How else will people know you are great? A well-advertised personal brand can generate momentum in your job search, more leads and the satisfaction of being better able to determine your job search outcome. Here are several tactics you can use to put your career on autopilot:   Create an infographic postcard and mail it to hiring managers at companies where you would like to work. We offer our own one-page infographic services that can be fully customized to your style, tastes and personality. Once your infographic is developed we can distribute it digitally via social sites like Pinterest or in print. Our infographic can also serve as a training document to teach your network how to develop great leads for you. You want your infographic to convey the value you would bring to a particular company and why you’re the solution to their problem. An eye-catching graphic as a first impression can capture the attention of a potential employer. Combine your infographic with a customized cover letter and you’ll definitely elicit interest in your résumé. The point isn’t to ask for a job, but to bring awareness to your personal brand. Websites such as Zoominfo and Data.com can be used to find hiring managers within companies. I wrote extensively about using we bsites to find people in my article, “10 Surprising Websites and 2 Secret Places Where you Can Research Employers.”   A personal website can serve as a portal for your online identity. It is a simple and elegant way to invite visitors to learn more about you and to connect with you. Links to social media accounts, blogs and a landing page can be added to your website. You can consider creating a landing page to capture information about your visitors in exchange for something such as a newsletter, small eBook (if you have one), or even access to a webinar.   About.me and Flavors.me are great services that can be that can be set up quickly and easily as a landing page or a small personal website. Once you have your personal website established, you can use Google Adwords to place an ad. When a potential employer searches for you on Google the first thing he or she will see is your personal ad. Set your website as the URL. The space you’re given for an ad is limited, 70 characters including spaces, so your ad needs to be tight and focused. Phi Rosenberg has an excellent tutorial on how to use Google Adwords in his reCareered article. You can use keywords and search terms to target your audience. Alternatively, you can also use Google Adwords to target a hiring manager at a specific company. If you buy the Adwords for their name, you can craft an ad grabbing their attention and direct them to your website. I wrote about how Alec Brownstein used Google Adwords in just this manner in my article, “5 of the Craziest Ways People Found Jobs”.   You may be intimately familiar with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. Expanding your presence online and joining new social media sites is a great way to find and connect to a wider audience of influential people within your industry. If you have a person or potential employer in mind, search for them on a new network to see what you can find out. Here are a few suggestions: Google+, YouTube, Tumblr, Pinterest, Snapchat, Reddit and Plaxo. And for good measure, if you’re not on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, join those services. Once you’re on those services, don’t just follow people in your industry, share their content and create content of your own!   SlideDeck is a service that allows you to tell an engaging story that connects with visitors and compels them to take the actions you want. It is a sleek presentation that lets you communicate the value of what you’re selling in an easy and simple manner. Once you’ve set up and customized your SlideDeck, share its content through social media. Start with SlideShare and integrate it into your LinkedIn Profile. Mark Williams has an excellent tutorial. Double check to make sure your network notifications are on so that your connections will know when you share new content. Now that your SlideDeck has been shared on your profile and your network has been notified, write a status update to ask anyone if they’ve seen it and what they think of it. If your account is linked to Twitter, share there as well. You can also share your presentation through LinkedIn groups. Ask for feedback on the presentation and try to get a discussion going. Sharing with a group gives you the opportunity to create a message, tell people what you’re up to and what you hope to do for your next employer. After you integrate SlideShare into your social media accounts, you can go beyond just being found by others. You can also search for others on SlideShare, which brings me to the next strategy…   Follow presenters on SlideShare and share their presentations on social media. If they have a profile, find and tag them when you share their presentations. Reach out to three of your favorite presenters. Use more than one method of contact to ensure you actually reach them. Several methods you can use are: Choose two of these methods and prepare your pitch. Tell your favorite presenters that you saw their presentation on SlideShare and explain three things you liked about it. This will open up a conversation to talk more about the industry. Once you have their ear, tell them you’re looking for an opportunity to do X, in a certain organization and that you value their expertise in the industry. Let the presenter know you’ve shared his or her slides because of the valuable information. Also ask them how you can support their professional ambitions.   Search LinkedIn and find out to which professional organizations the executives in your target employers belong. Go a step further and find out when their events are happening. Some executives may have their groups publicized while others won’t. You’ll have to dig deeper to find those hidden groups. Try checking their biographies on the company website, check their LinkedIn profile groups section, and search for their information on Zoominfo.com. These areas will help show you online mentions for that person. After you identify an executive and his or her professional organizations, go to the website of that organization and browse the event calendar. Attend the event, join the organization and volunteer. Volunteering brings you to a greater level of visibility, and you may even be thanked publicly for your contributions. People are connected to others and an event at a professional group can lead you to more members, one of whom could possibly be your next employer.   If you blog frequently about industry topics, you may want to try writing for someone else. Target influential bloggers in your industry, approach them with your ideas and ask them if you can create a guest post for their blogs. Posting on someone else’s blog can further expand your audience. You’ll gain more exposure on a platform that already has an established audience. You can also use this platform to build your credibility as an industry leader. Additionally, you can connect with other influential people and have your content shared with their social media followers. Guest posts are also a good way to help out a fellow blogger. These posts provide the fellow blogger with new content and credibility of their own as a destination where people want to guest post.   Joining a group is one thing, creating your own group is an entirely different beast. Forming your own community is a major step in establishing yourself as a leader within your industry and to promote your personal brand. You can start a group on LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+ or even on your personal website. If you go the personal website route, you can use a discussion platform on your blog such as Disqus, or you can go the forum route with a service like phpBB. Pick a particular niche within your industry that you’re passionate about and encourage others to join. You can help encourage and drive conversations, in addition to having a dedicated following for your content. It’s another great way to show potential employers that you have the ability to lead others outside of your workplace. You can take your community-building further by starting a group based on a personal interest. That professional momentum will be a byproduct of the personal connections you make. It has been s aid many times, in many ways that more deals are made on the golf course than in the boardroom. This is an opportunity to surround yourself with people with whom you already have something in common, and, therefore, a great foundation for building rapport and synergy.   If you brand it, you advertise it. Advertising your personal brand allows you to control the narrative of your job search and to put your search on autopilot. Just imagine the places you can go with a well-advertised brand. You’re constantly active in your industry and you’re one of the first solutions that come to mind when people have a problem. Your brand is visible and you’re a well-known leader within your industry. Suddenly, you’re a valuable commodity on the job market and your well-advertised brand has given you a huge competitive edge. When employers need a new position filled, they want to hire you. You’re a hot commodity and, like a popular and beloved product, people can’t get enough of your talent and your leadership. Just think of the opportunities that will be presented to you, and the greater economic stability and freedom that comes with choosing your next employer because of a strong and well-known personal brand.   0 comments on “8 Ways to Put Your Career on Autopilot” Pingback: Career Coaching, Personal Branding, Résumés, Social Media Strategy for Career & Income Optimization » Networking for the Introvert Pingback: Career Coaching, Personal Branding, Résumés, Social Media Strategy for Career & Income Optimization » How to Create the Ultimate Leverage in Your Job Search