Keppie Careers

Social media speaker, social media consultant, job search coach

What is your unique value proposition?

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Have you ever been to New York City? Near Central Park’s south end, you will find hundreds of horse and carriage proprietors — each hoping you’ll sign up for a ride around the park. In a more recent addition in the last several years, there are also many peddling tours pulled by a cycling guide. With so many choices, how can anyone make a living?

It made me think about how important it is to identify and focus on a unique value proposition — for people seeking business from tourists in New York City and job seekers trying to differentiate themselves in a crowded job market.

Walking along Central Park West, I saw one horse-and-buggy driver who would have earned my business if I were planning to take a tour of the park. He let me take his picture (displayed here), but I noticed he wasn’t sitting at the curb for long — he was soon galloping around the park with customers in tow. What was different about him? As you can see from the photo, he went the extra mile in terms of his attire and that of his horse. Most of the drivers were dressed casually, almost sloppily in comparison to this one proprietor. Despite the heat, he went the extra mile to “dress up” his horse with a festive feather, matching his own purple vest. A top hat was the perfect addition to his look.

Finally, his carriage was special and a bit unique compared to the other horse drivers. I envision tourists considering their photo opportunities. A tour is an investment; why wouldn’t customers want the most for their money? If they assume most of the drivers are capable of providing a safe ride and basic, useful information, choosing a carriage clearly depends on aesthetic considerations, and this driver made the most of that fact.

This month, the Career Collective (a community I co-coordinate with my colleague Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter) addresses the question of the mid-year job-search check-up. There’s nothing more important than knowing what makes you special when you’re looking for a job. If you haven’t already spent time thinking about this important topic, the mid-year point is a good time to re-evaluate (Please click through to the links at the end of this post to my colleagues’ ideas about the topic.)

Obviously, for the job seeker, neither attire (nor a top hat!) are necessarily distinguishing factors. (Although, make no mistake, how you dress can and does make a big difference in how you may be perceived.)

Aside from aesthetic features, what can a job hunter do to help him- or herself stand out?

Discover Your Hook

What is special about you? What skills and accomplishments set you apart from every other person in the room? In your industry? It’s not easy to determine what makes you special and unique, but it’s important to think about it if you’re going to market yourself. Think about your work. What do you accomplish better than anyone else? (Or, better than most people?) Have you been able to solve a problem and come up with solutions no one else could? Think about the results you create; how do you make a difference?

If you don’t know what makes you stand out from the crowd, it will be difficult to convince anyone else why they should hire you.

Context of Your Target Audience

Once you begin to focus on what makes you special and unique, don’t forget to consider how you fit into your target employer.

You will find out the employer’s needs via research, informational meetings and networking. Don’t forget to investigate industry conferences. Many post their speaker programs online, so even if it is not feasible for you to attend, it’s easy to learn your field’s major pain points. How do your skills and accomplishments help address the topics top-of-mind to people in your field?

Can you help the organization:

  • Earn more money?
  • Handle their work more efficiently — saving money?
  • Attract more customers?
  • Solve some problem?
  • Create a new product or service?

Focus on the target audience’s needs – not on what YOU want

Think about it…If someone approaches you and starts talking about themselves and what they want, how closely will you listen? Statistics demonstrate that people don’t typically have very long attention spans to listen to other people talk.

Now, think about talking to someone who focuses on YOUR needs. A little more interested? I bet you are! Who doesn’t want to hear someone describe how he or she solves your problems!

The lesson for job seekers: when you identify your unique value proposition, be sure it isn’t all about YOU!

Big brands like Disney decide what they offer before they create and place their advertisements.  When they want to advertise Disney World, they appeal to families and parents’ need for an affordable, yet magical vacation.  Their brand is all about magic and family fun.  Their television ads appear on shows with a high viewership of people Disney targets.

If Disney didn’t consider what they offer, they wouldn’t be able to target their marketing.  By defining themselves and what problem they solve, they can offer a hook (an affordable family vacation).

What is brand YOU all about?  What makes you special and unique?  Think about what you offer an employer.  Consider your top five work and personal accomplishments.  Write them down and think them over.

Marketing Brand YOU

It’s great to know your value proposition, but if no one has heard of you, it won’t do you much good!

Make sure you put together a 360-degree marketing plan, including a high-quality resume detailing exactly how you are a good match for the position. Optimize your LinkedIn profile with keywords and a story that makes people want to learn more about you.

Consider creating an online profile, or a social resume — YourName.com — to showcase your expertise and value. The site may include a blog focusing on your insights and accomplishments, or it may simply serve to help you own your name online and give you the opportunity to highlight what you want people to know about you if they search for you online.

Create a Google Profile. This has always been a good idea, but with the introduction of Google+, it is even more important, since Google+ draws on your profile information. (I haven’t had a chance to write about Google+, but it is a new social network combining elements similar to Facebook, Twitter and several other networks. Learn about it HERE. It’s still new, and not available to everyone, yet. The jury is still out regarding how useful it will be for job seekers, as right now, only early adopters have jumped on. Stay tuned for more information about Google+, but create a Google Profile even if you never plan to use the new social network.

Evaluate your Twitter and Facebook presence. Are you using them to your advantage? I could write a book about how to make these networks work for you…In fact, I did! 🙂

My book describes how to use social media tools (including Twitter and Facebook). The basics:

  • Be sure your profiles are suitable for anyone to view and represent the best, professional YOU.
  • Don’t waste the opportunity to connect with new potential colleagues.
  • Learn what you can via social media channels about what is happening in your field or industry Following Twitter hashtags during conferences is a great way to accomplish this.
  • Share what you know online to demonstrate your expertise and attract people to YOU.

Conclusion

Unfortunately, landing a job is a lot harder than donning a top hat and a purple vest, but with some planning and a real focus on what you have to offer your target audience, your mid-year career check-up couldn’t come soon enough. Let me know if I can help.

Here are links to Career Collective member responses!

 

4 Summer Strategies to Step Up Your Job Search, @DebraWheatman

Putting Your Job Search Up On The Rack For Inspection, @dawnrasmussen

Mid-Year Job Search Checkup: Are you wasting your time? @GayleHoward

It is Time for Your Check-up Ms/Mr Jobseeker, @careersherpa

Mid-Year Career Checkup: Are You “On Your Game?” @KatCareerGal

How to Perform a Mid-Year Job Search Checkup, @heatherhuhman

Reposition your job search for success, @LaurieBerenson

Mid-Year Job Search Checkup: What’s working and What’s not? @erinkennedycprw

Mid-Year Job Search Check-Up: Getting Un-Stuck, @JobHuntOrg

Mid-Year Check Up: The Full 360, @WalterAkana

5 Tips for Fighting Summer Job Search Blues, @KCCareerCoach

Are you positive about your job search? @DawnBugni, #CareerCollective

Where Are The Jobs? @MartinBuckland, @EliteResumes

Mid-Year Job-Search Checkup: Get Your Juices Flowing, @ValueIntoWords

When Was Your Last Career & Job Search Check Up? @expatcoachmegan

Is Summer A Job Search Momentum Killer? @TimsStrategy

Is It Time for Your Resume Checkup? @barbarasafani

 

 

On the radio on SIRIUS/XM with Maggie Mistal

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I’m excited to announce I’m Maggie Mistal’s guest on her radio program, “Making a Living” on Martha Stewart Living Radio, SIRIUS/XM 110 this week. Maggie’s show airs Fridays 4PM Eastern/1PM Pacific, and you can catch me this Friday, July 8th.

We’ll be talking about my new book, Social Networking for Career Success, and I’ll be offering tips and advice for job seekers and entrepreneurs about the right social networks to join and use.

If you haven’t listened in to Maggie’s show, you are missing out! Her past guests include: Martha Stewart, Deepak Chopra, Stephen Covey, Sally Field, Patricia Heaton, Ty Pennington, Barbara Corcoran, Dilbert creator Scott Adams and Henry Winkler.

Get your career questions answered on the career hotline by calling 1-866-675-6675. Tune in with a FREE trial of SIRIUS!

Photo by CarbonNYC

Prepare in advance for the job that may come knocking

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Last week, a prospective client contacted me. He was thinking about solidifying his “personal brand” and thought he could use some help firming up his job search plans. We spoke briefly, I explained how I could help him identify the stories that would relate and appeal to his target audience and how I could teach him to propagate those stories via social media. I agreed to outline a strategy/proposal while he interviewed other coaches (!), but the next thing I knew, he was contacting me with an urgent email:

“My dream job just came knocking on the door.”

All of the sudden, a longer-term, “let’s think about it” plan became an immediate need — how to impress the telephone screener to land a chance at an interview for the job he’d been yearning to have. (Incidentally, this was the second client in a week I’d convinced NOT to offer to “scrub toilets” for the privilege of working someplace!)

Luckily, I was able to schedule a just-in-time coaching session and identified the salient points from the job description I believed would be most valuable to highlight and discuss in an introductory meeting. Success! The meeting went well; the client is waiting to firm a date for the second interview — and is ready for the next “just-in-time” session to help him hone in on what he wants to say.

Could this be you? Absolutely! Do you need to wait to the 11th hour to get some help to get you where you want to go? No! Start preparing now.

Are you ready to present yourself — in line with what your audience wants to hear? Could you pass an initial screen? If not, maybe it’s time for a coaching session?

photo by Feuillu

Important information about work-life fit/flexibility

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One issue for many job seekers is landing an opportunity offering “flexibility,” “balance,” or, what consultant,  Cali Williams Yost, CEO and Founder of Flex Strategy Group and author of Work+Life: Finding the Fit That’s Right for You, would call “work-life fit.”

Today, I’m happy to share research Cali sent me from from the 2011 Work+Life Fit™ Reality Check Survey. It illustrates that, “Work life flexibility is no longer a bright, shiny, novelty item that only a few people have.  In fact, most full-time employees have some form of work life flexibility and they are much less afraid to use it than they were five years ago.”


The following tips are directly from survey findings to help you get the most out of the work life flexibility that’s become a foundational part of the way we live and work:

Tip 1: Don’t let too much work and too little time keep you from work life flexibility, instead use that flexibility strategically to get your work done and have a life. When asked, respondents ranked “increased workload or no time for flexibility” as the top obstacle (29%) that kept them from using or improving their work life flexibility.  Looked at another way, flexibility could also be the key to managing that greater workload and having more time for the other parts of your life.  A periodic shift in hours, or working from home now and then could restore a sense of productivity and well-being.  Be creative.

Tip 2: Remember that work life flexibility comes in many forms.  It includes both day-to-day, informal ad hoc shifts in how, when and where you work, as well as formal plans that officially change your work+life fit. Even though 62% of respondents said they had some type of day-to-day, ad hoc flexibility, it’s easy to take it for granted as a given.  Use it thoughtfully and strategically to manage the way work fits into your life every day. If you are interested in more formal plan, learn ahead of time how to present a proposal that’s a win for you and the business.

Tip 3:  To make informal, day-to-day flexibility a success for you, your team and the business, make sure to communicate and coordinate with all of the key stakeholders, not just your supervisor. According to the survey, when respondents made occasional changes in how, when and where they work, they discussed those changes with:

  • 79% their supervisor
  • 63% their spouse, family or partner
  • 52% their colleagues
  • 45% those they supervise, and
  • 7% no one.

You don’t need to tell your colleagues and those you supervise why you are using flexibility, but let them know how the work will get done and how they can reach you if needed.

Tip 4: Challenge any lingering fears that may be keeping you from using or improving your work life flexibility. Make sure any fear or concern is based on fact, not invalid assumptions.  The good news is that individuals are much less likely to let fear or negative perceptions keep them from using or improving their flexibility than they were in 2006:

  • You might make less money:  21% in 2011 versus 45% in 2006
  • You might lose your job:  16% in 2011 versus 28% in 2006
  • Others will think you don’t work hard:  11% in 2011 versus 39% in 2006
  • You worry that your boss would  say “no”:  13% in 2011 versus 32% in 2006

However, obviously some fears and concerns linger.  Learn about the compensation policy related to flexibility where you aren’t working less, just differently.   Understand the employment climate in your organization.  Make sure you continue to work hard, communicate and coordinate well (see Tip 3) and learn how to present a flexibility plan that’s a win-win and hard to turn down.

Tip 5: Understand that work life flexibility is more than a perk, or benefit.  It’s a strategy that your employer can use to “retain talent, manage workload and grow.”  And without it, the business will suffer particularly in the areas of health/wellness, morale and productivity.  One of the surprising findings for the 2011 Work+Life Fit Reality Check is how many respondents either think work life flexibility is a “perk or benefit” (36%) or “don’t know” what it is (14%).  Just as work life flexibility can help you strategically manage your workload and resources, it can also benefit the business in other areas.  Specifically, a majority of respondents (66%) felt that without work life flexibility health (48%), morale (41%) and productivity (36%) would suffer.

For more details and to download the study, visit Work Life Fit Tips.

You may also want to read a study addressing the issue of inevitability of work-life flex, Findings from the Flexpaths – LinkedIn study.

photo by ellajphillips

How having your own website helps you

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I always think one of the most frustrating aspects of job search is believing you’ve “done everything,” but aren’t finding an opportunity. I’ve never met a job seeker who actually has “done everything,” though, which I think is good news! Most people are very focused on out-dated tools and spend a disproportionate percentage of their time doing the same thing, over and over, without different results.

This month, the Career Collective (a community I co-coordinate with my colleague Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter) addresses the question of how to use social media in a job search. (Please click through to the links I’ll add soon at the bottom of this post to the other responses to this question.)

There are so many great ways to use social media in your search, most of which I address in my book, Social Networking for Career Success.

There’s no doubt social media tools offer an underutilized opportunity to:

  • Help you connect with new people and keep track of contacts.
  • Easily learn new things.
  • Share your expertise and expand your brand.

LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook all provide easy-to-use, free tools to get-in-touch (and keep-in-touch) with people who may be interested in learning more about you and what you have to offer. However, I think the best, and most important tool the majority of job seekers do not have is a personal website, or social resume.

Why have your own website?

  • Hiring managers will Google you. What will she find?
  • A personal site is a way to control how your name appears online.
  • Statistics show your online presence matters, and that employers are looking for personal and professional data about you.
  • NOT putting up your own site only gives people an incentive to look deeper in the web for information about you. Take a look at these sites to learn what the “deep web” knows about you: pipl.com, Polymeta.com.
  • Managing a site is important for career insurance and professional development. Showcasing your expertise online (even if it is in a new field) helps demonstrate what you have to offer, even when you aren’t looking for a job. An online presence can grow and change along with your career and help attract people to learn more about you. This could result in opportunities to speak at conferences or events, or even invitations to apply for jobs down the road.
  • Having a website suggests you have some technical savvy and understand how to use online tools to communicate. That, in and of itself, is an important skill many employers value. It’s known as “social proof.” You may say you know about technology on your resume, but actually using it to showcase your own information goes a long way to prove you have what employers want.

Especially if you are transitioning to a new job or an experienced job seeker who needs to overcome age discrimination, having an up-to-date online presence and maybe even a viable blog helps show prospective employers you’re willing to learn and are perfectly capable of keeping up with technology.

In my book, I suggest starting out using WordPress.com to try out an online presence. It’s a great resource, and it’s free. However, there are limitations to free tools — not the least of which is you don’t really “own” that online real estate. With some know-how, or an investment in someone who does know how, you can have your own site. If you’re lucky, you can even have “YourName.com,” which will help you rank high for your name in search and help direct people to find the information you want them to find about you.

I hope you’ll visit my site, GetASocialResume.com, to learn more about what you’ll want to include in your social resume. If you don’t want to figure out how to do this yourself, I can help. With a relatively small investment, I can offer you an online presence you’ll be proud to use as a hub for your social media activity, and help you create a site to tell a compelling story describing your background and experiences.

The following are posts from other Career Collective members answering this question

Make Your Career More Social: Show Up and Engage, @WalterAkana

You 2.0: The Brave New World of Social Media and Online Job Searches, @dawnrasmussen

How to Get a New Job Using Social Media, @DebraWheatman

Social Media: Choosing, Using, and Confusing, @ErinKennedyCPRW

How to Use Social Media in Your Job Search, @heatherhuhman

Updating: A Social Media Strategy For Job Search, @TimsStrategy

Your Career Needs Social Media – Get Started, @EliteResumes @MartinBuckland

We Get By With a Little Recs from Our Friends, @chandlee

Expat Careers & Social Media: Social Media is Potentially 6 Times more Influential than a CV or Resume, @expatcoachmegan

Social-Media Tools and Resources to Maximize Your Personalized Job Search, @KatCareerGal

Job Search and Social Media: A Collective Approach, @careersherpa

Social Media: So what’s the point?, @DawnBugni

Tools that change your world, @WorkWithIllness

HOW TO: Meet People IRL via LinkedIn, @AvidCareerist

Effective Web 2.0 Job Search: Top 5 Secrets, @resumeservice

Jumping Into the Social Media Sea @ValueIntoWords

Sink or Swim in Social Media, @KCCareerCoach

Social Media Primer for Job Seekers, @LaurieBerenson