Q & A from the webinar "Managing Your Brand Through Social Media"

Q & A on Managing Your Brand Through Social Media

Question: What do you think of a candidate who sets up a profile under her maiden name so that her current employer will not know she is trying to change careers?

Answer: From the employee who is looking for a new job, changing your last name can be a very risky move and may create unnecessary work in the process. Using LinkedIn as the example, if you are to set up a completely new profile, with a new last name, you will have to build from scratch, including your summary, skills, work experience and any recommendations. There is also a high risk of being found, as once you start adding connections, your current employer/boss can still find you based on the keywords you are using on your profile and your previous work experience.  You should also consider having an image of yourself on your profile - no matter what channel you use - so the risk of your boss finding your 'incognito' profile will remain. My suggestion would be to keep your current online profiles, that way you do not risk an awkward conversation with your boss or colleagues if you get found using a different name. Like recruitment, the job hunt game is also changing, and it has become the norm for employees to add recruiters to their networks without employers suspecting that they are looking for a new job. Simply avoid mentioning that you are looking for a new career and avoid communicating publicly about open positions/opportunities, and the situation should be fine. From the employers' perspective, this can be a tricky situation, as even with a robust social media policy, employees typically have the right to create as many profiles as they wish so long as they are truthful and they do not defame the company. If you, the Manager, have found one of your employees' incognito profiles stating they are looking for a new job/career, it might be worthwhile to use this as an opportunity to discuss why your team member is unhappy or looking for a change. By tackling the issue head-on, you may be able to work together on a solution and learn from the experience.

Question: With RSS feeds and auto postings, you are in effect posting items that you may not have read, is that correct?

Answer: This is correct, as you may not be able to read every new post from your RSS feed. RSS feeds automatically pull content from your favourite websites/blogs, and if you have the feed set up on a social media platform, the platform will automatically update your Twitter/Facebook account with the content from the RSS feed.

Question: How can you promote yourself to get followers on Twitter?

Answer: There are several things you can do to promote yourself on Twitter.  From a professional standpoint, be sure to include your Twitter handle (name) on your LinkedIn profile. This can be done by editing your profile under settings.  With Twitter, it's also considered kosher to follow friends from your network, so promoting your Twitter handle on your Facebook Page will help in building visibility for yourself.  If you have your own business, I would suggest adding social icons to the homepage of your website, your email signature and any marketing communications you send to clients. This will help build your professional brand over time and also will provide your clients with a new channel of communicating with you.  You can also guest post on blogs within the industries you are interested in. Whenever you guest post, you should always ask to link to your social profiles to help build your online following.  Lastly, within Twitter, there are a few things you can do to help build your following.  You should be sharing about 7-10 Tweets per day of relevant industry-specific content. In addition to this tactic, try using @mentions and RTs (Retweets) to engage in conversations with industry professionals and help build your online credibility within the Twitter community.

Question: What is SEO?

Answer: The term SEO stands for "Search Engine Optimisation", which relates to having your online content (particularly websites) found on search engines such as Google and Bing.  This post from SEOMoz explains the basics of SEO and how it works. I would recommend taking a read-through to better understand the general idea of SEO and how it affects the online content you should be publishing.