The Basics of Managing Your Online Identity
June 22, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
As social-media spreads and becomes even more ubiquitous you need the tools to manage and control your personal identity and reputation online. Use the the following 10 steps to enhance your toolset.
- Buy yourname.com Even if you don’t plan to start a blog or build a web site immediately, you should own your own domain. Having a single point on the web for authoritative information about yourself is key to managing your online identity. I recommend buying domains from GoDaddy (it’s only $8 a year!)
- Set up Google Alerts for your name.
- Google your name (or for a more proactive approach, set up a Google Alert for your name)
- Make a list of all the places where you have content on the web, discussion boards, chat rooms, blogs, news websites, comments, etc. All of this content is traceable back to you, make sure it reflects your online identity goals.
- Decide what social-networking sites you are going to spend more time on than others, also look at what an appropriate amount of conversation and information is acceptable at each site.
- Monitor what images, messages, and spam are hitting your social-networking site profile pages. Have a MySpace? Delete the spam from your wall. Have Facebook? Untag yourself from questionable photographs or ask the poster to take them down. And certainly if you have photos or messages in any of your social-networking sites that don’t fit well with your online identity goals, take them down or delete them.
- Don’t delete your social networking accounts! Having a presence on the web isn’t a bad thing, just make sure that the information available puts you in a positive light.
- Read and comment on blogs. This should probably be higher up in my list, but participating in the numerous conversations happening at any given moment is a huge opportunity to meet new people, gain knowledge, and share knowledge which is what social-media is all about.
- Give back what you take in. If you learn something online, spread it around. Share the love, both in the form of links, emails, instant messages, etc. If you appreciate what someone is doing let them know.
- Each of us has our own set of skills and knowledge, you know things that others don’t. It isn’t difficult to reach out and connect with others who have similar knowledge, or who know more than you. Find those people and connect with them. Social media isn’t social without you.
Managing your online identity takes some time when you’re just starting out, but it’s worth it in the end when you have networks and connections with people you never knew existed. The sharing and the knowledge and the conversations that happen each day are amazing, and if you’re a part of it, your online identity will prosper.
How To Get Hired Using Social Media
June 22, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
I was lucky enough to know and be on the bleeding edge of social-networking when it began several years ago. I also spent a lot of time cultivating and contributing to my online identity and making connections with people online. The good news is that you don’t have to be an early adopter, or an Internet wiz to get hired using social media.
Looking for a job isn’t easy, and it can be very frustrating. Social media can help, but it’s not a replacement for old fashioned phone calls, emails, and letters. When I graduated from the Missouri School of Journalism I had multiple job offers, and the best of those offers were ones that I came across or was a candidate for because of social media.
For some time, I had been Twittering, Facebooking, and Blogging. I spent money to make sure my blog looked good. I spent hours finding interesting people on Twitter. I stayed up late when I should have been doing other things honing in my online portfolio. And you know what? It all paid off.
One job offer came from a person who followed me on Twitter for two months and noticed that I was talking with increased frequency about finding a job. A couple phone calls and emails later, I was interviewing and had an offer before I got home from visiting.
The other job offer from social-media crossed platforms, I knew the person who knew about a job, but we follow each other on Twitter, and are Facebook friends. Again, my talking about finding a job was seen by this person and I got a Facebook message about openings where she worked. It just so happened that this job was a perfect fit, I got the offer, and took it.
In two paragraphs I just explained how I got a job using social media, but that’s not incredibly useful is it? To help with that, here are my tips and suggestions on finding a job using social-media.
- Put your portfolio and resume online. This is more important than you realize. You’ve just in an instant opened up your resume and portfolio of work to the millions of people online. Now you just need to help people find it.
- Sign up for Twitter and find some people with similar interests to tweet back and forth with. You’ll quickly understand by looking at some of the so called Twitterati how useful and powerful this service is. After you sign up for an account “follow” @chrisbrogan, @guykawasaki, and @scobleizer the three of them have thousands of followers already and actively tweet throughout the day and night. A lot can be learned by example.
- Start a blog. This is a GREAT way to show off your knowledge and skills. This doesn’t have to be complex, start it off on Blogger or Wordpress.com if you want (although I would highly suggest putting wherever you portfolio and resume is). Write one or twice a week at first about what you’re working on, what you’re thinking about (that relates to your job ambitions), and your goals. Some of the best job related feedback I got was on my blog by people emailing and commenting when I wrote a post about “My Ideal Job”.
- Drive traffic to your online portfolio and resume. Do this by putting links on your Facebook page, in your Twitter profile, putting it in big type at the top of your paper resume, and by having it on ALL correspondence online and off. You never know where emails or resumes may get forwarded, and if your online portfolio is linked right there for easy access it makes a world of difference.
- Make It Personal. This is your job hunt, and it’s not going to be easy, but by taking advantage of the basics of social-media your job hunt can expand beyond the traditional into the extraordinary. Social media doesn’t work unless you’re human and make it personal. Being professional and sharing ideas is going to increase your credibility, but not including personal moments will exclude you from the conversation.
New Research on Premium Branding
April 21, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
This weekend I got the chance to sit down and read some of the huge stack of magazines that I previously hadn’t had time to read. I certainly didn’t make it through all of them, but a couple caught my eye. One of the most recent ones is the April 28th edition of Business Week.
One of the first things I noticed was that they are really trying to be trendy in their page design. They’ve got highlighting, charts and fly-aways, and some interesting section headings (like BTW). Since this is the first time I’ve noticed these things, I guess that tells you how often I read Business Week. It’s no fault of their own, magazines just aren’t as high a priority as working through the 1000+ headlines in my RSS reader in the evening (I often cheat and hit “mark all as read” if in general the headlines aren’t grabbing my attention in any particular folder of feeds).
But back to the post at hand, in this week’s BTW there is a short blurb about premium branding. As in, another researcher just did the old “wine tasting” test again. Where essentially they blindfold people and tell them they’re trying a $5 bottle of wine, and then a $45 bottle of wine… People inevitably choose the $45 bottle as tasting better even though the wine came from the same inexpensive bottle.
It’s a nasty trick for those of us easily influenced by marketing. But it illustrates something larger, since people still respond to premium branding. Shouldn’t you be interested in branding yourself as a top-shelf whatever you are?
I think that in the age of personal, and professional branding that more attention should be paid to finding out what makes a brand premium or not on the web. Is it different than in the brick and mortar world? What makes an online brand premium? I would argue that it’s easier to “fake” a premium brand on the Internet. If by image alone, the raw talent of the magnificent graphic designers and writers out there should be able to pull off a premium distinction.
That’s not to say that consumers on the Internet are more more susceptible to being abused, in fact customer service and having the solid foundation to support a premium brand is harder to fake. People using the Internet for research, entertainment, or learning gain the skills necessary to figure out “fake” premium brands. There is no long-term shortcut. As in the brick and mortar world, your image can get your foot in the door but it’s your content and substance that makes the sale.
My Ideal Job
April 4, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
By way of looking introspectively at my self and my ambitions I have a pretty good idea of my ideal job is at this point. I’ve known for quite some time that being in the service of the public and working toward a greater good is in my blood. My mother was a teacher and my dad is a businessman. Between the two of them I acquired a passion for serving the public, and a business savvy entrepreneurial drive.
I’ve been on the path of working in the field of journalism for about 8 years now. Journalism attracted me in part because of the immense power of the press and how good journalism can be a cause for change. In addition, there are all kinds of cool toys that people in the news and information business can play with!
So that brings me to the ultimate point of this post, my ideal job:
- Serves the public interest, educating and informing them.
- Is collaborative with other smart people.
- Allows for the intelligent expression and discussion of ideas and suggestions.
- Brings people (both internally and externally) to have better, more efficient communication.
- Allows people to discuss and achieve.
Crossing The Skills Divide
April 3, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
There is an almost constant drone of phone calls and emails in my life right now, I’m right in the thick of finding a job for when I become available in May. It hasn’t been an easy road, but I’ve made great strides in my approach, the types of jobs I apply for, and the way I manage my personal brand.
I couldn’t do it if I didn’t have the help of all you out there, my favorite bloggers, my Twitter followers, my family and my friends. I am very thankful for all of the support I’ve gotten so far in my search and am very thankful for the education I have and the life experiences that have prepared me for this experience.
I’ve been using my support network a lot lately. Part of the reason is that I have a very diverse skill set, not only am I good with producing and editing content, but I also hold technology skills that allow me to create things like this blog, Smart Decision, Contributr, and more. But even beyond that, I have an entrepreneurial spirit that lends me new ideas, new inspiration, and new ways of looking at old and new problems.
I feel like this variety of skills that I have is hard to explain and describe in the limited contact I’m given with potential employers. Doing my best to convey those thoughts, ideas, and skills is getting easier as I do it more of course, but it’s a different way of looking at the world that’s for sure!
Typically I think that people possess one side or the other, they’re either very good writers and thinkers, or they’re very good programmers and developers. Both are on an equal standing as far I’m concerned, it’s a mutually beneficial arrangement.
But then, where does that leave me? I’m someone who loves to think of new ideas, concepts, and products but I’m also aware of the technical abilities of current technology tools as well as their weaknesses. Taking that a step further, I also am able to clearly explain, teach, and lead developers to create technology tools that don’t exist yet.
The biggest problem I’m having during interviews these days is making sure that I convey my abilities and varied skill set while emphasizing that I do in fact prefer the idealization, and content side of the world.
Sure I can build web sites, blogs, Facebook applications, and other tools, but I recognize that there are people who can do those things much better than I can. It’s hard for people (including myself) to describe and explain how that works, yes I can DO those things, but no I’m not completely comfortable starting from nothing and building up on the programming and development side.
I feel like I have a good variety of skills and that I exert my leadership and entrepreneurship skills well, but I have to be careful not to pigeonhole myself into over-exerting my technology skills just because I think it’s cool that I can do both.
This post is a sort of stream of consciousness for me as I try to work out these details for myself. Be sure to visit again tomorrow as I look at the type of jobs and employers that I’m most interested in.
Personal Branding Knowledge Is Still Just Beginning…
March 16, 2008 by Jonathan · 1 Comment
UMass Students Are Sucked Into the World of Personal Branding « Personal Branding Blog - Dan Schawbel: “Blog About Dan Schawbel Publications Press
I often read Dan Schawbel’s Personal Branding Blog for insight and tips on how to improve my own personal branding. You did realize that I have a personal brand didn’t you? 
I do in fact have a brand that is pretty apparent right here on JonathanCoffman.com. It’s one that encompasses my abilities to take new and in-the-pipe technologies and make them work in the real world, right now.
In the blog post that I’m linking to, Dan tells the story of a recent visit to the University of Massachusetts and how the student he talked to almost all were on Facebook, but very few had even heard of LinkedIn.
This really exemplifies the need for personal branding and social-media strategy to be a part of the final curriculum at our nation’s universities. These students know and understand how viral messages get spread, how to network online, and how to control how they look, but they don’t understand quite yet how to apply those skills to multiple outlets across the web.
For the last 2 years I’ve offered extremely cheap web hosting to my peers at the Missouri School of Journalism. What I offer them is 10 gigs of storage space, email, etc all for $20 per year. $28 if they want me to buy and manage their domain name as well.
It provides plenty of space and help for building a personal portfolio (which every grad needs) and it’s not going anywhere, I have too many personal and professional sites to just walk away from the web.
But here’s the real story: I’ve gotten several signups lately and I setup times to meet with each student who wants the deal to talk to them one-on-oine about how they want to use it and how I can help.
One actually emailed me last week saying she was going to have to wait to get a portfolio because ‘I’m saving up for Spring Break and I didn’t realize I could move my files around so easily.”
Well I’m sorry folks, but if you can spend $20 for a full year of online personal web presence, (2 or 3 drinks in Cancun for Spring Break of your senior year in college), you probably don’t need to be trying to get any job that would require an online portfolio or web presence.
Let’s just hope this particular person is smart enough to not post all of those crazy Cancun pictures to Facebook after the vacation.
This is just yet another example of why we need proactive education on social-networking and identity management. Firms like Google, Facebook, etc all have enormous amounts of data about US, and if you’re managing that information yourself, you’ve left yourself open to all kinds of abuse and inaccuracies.
Local TV News Online
January 23, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
I worked at KOMU-TV8 in Columbia, Missouri for 3 years. All of that time I have been involved in content, design, development, editing, and producing for KOMU.com. I started as a web editor writing and producing content to go into a new content manager that the station had licensed (Avid Active Content Manager). From there I build up quite a list of stories that I worked on, over 1,400 before leaving to concentrate on social media and online community building.
In addition to the daily editing and producing work, I periodically managed teams of reporters and field producers to ensure that online and new media needs were being met in the field. My management and producing skills allowed KOMU.com to see a lot of growth and new online features including slideshows, behind the scenes video, raw interview footage, and the beginnings of an online community building effort.
Here are some examples of stories and web packages that I worked on at KOMU.com:
In addition to working for KOMU News, I also have had a summer internship with FOX 4, WDAF-TV in Kansas City, Missouri. While with WDAF I,
- Researched, developed, and launched a Kansas City Pets micro site
- Implemented and wrote a Before You Go daily email update
- And worked breaking news like the Kelsey Smith Murder case, all while moderating blogs, discussion boards, and chatrooms.
My sound news judgement has allowed me to take on leadership, and team cooperative roles in television newsrooms. Through my creative and entrepreneurial drive I’m able to take stories to a higher and more interactive level for online and on-air viewers.
Public Radio
January 23, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
My time Columbia, Missouri gave me the opportunity to work with KBIA-FM the NPR affiliate station for central Missouri. This nationally recognized and award winning news organization took me in and provided me with the tools and experience needed to produce long and short form radio pieces, further enhancing my multi-media and convergence journalism skills.
Here are some radio packages I did for KBIA (Flash, and MP3 Versions Available, also visit my Podcast page to subscribe):
- Meningitis Long Form (MP3)
- Meningitis Short Form (MP3)
- Home School Short Form (MP3)
- Islamic School Short Form (MP3)
- I also produced a 6 week series of ‘Coffee Chats’ with local and regional politicians where I sat down and discussed issues of importance in n informal setting prior to the 2006 election cycle.
Television News
January 23, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
Television news has been a passion for me since I was in Junior High School. Throughout my younger years I was always enamored by ‘the news’ and wanted to be a part of it. I’ve always been big on conversations and the knowledge you can gain by talking to people.As I went through high school, my journalism bug got worse, I was the News Director of the schools television news magazine program, award the National Student Television Network journalist of the year, was Editor in Chief of my highschool’s nationally award winning news magazine and more.It was only fitting that I then attend the world’s first and finest journalism school, the Missouri School of Journalism. There I was able to hone and develop my journalism bug and gained a lot of news judgement and leadership skills.My time at the Missouri School of Journalism is accentuated by the numerous opportunities I was afforded to work in real newsrooms on real news products. Including at KOMU-TV8.Here are some of the convergence packages I reported, produced, or edited for KOMU News.
- PetAssage
- Columbia Regional Airport Woes (airport microsite)
- Risky Hands (poker addiction microsite)
Technology Skills
January 23, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
Because different types of content demand different usage of technology, I strive to stay abreast of the latest ways to create and distribute content in multiple media formats. From creative and collaborative, to vision and video, Software and technology tools shouldn’t dictate the way content spreads I’ve broken down the tools that I use into categories according to how much I’ve used them.
I’m very comfortable with and have trained others in the professional use of the following tools:
- Adobe Acrobat
- Adobe Bridge
- Adobe Photoshop Extended
- Adobe Dreamweaver
- Adobe Flash Professional
- Adobe InDesign
- Apple iLife Suite
- Apple iWork Suite
- Apple Final Cut Studio
- Avid iNews
- Avid Active Content Manager
- Avid Newscutter
- Fox Interactive Media CMS - FOX licensed content management system used by FOX affiliates
I’m very comfortable in using the following tools and know how and where to get assistance when needed:
Open-source software that I have used and developed using:
Web Technologies that I have developed with:
- PHP
- Ruby/Rails
- Django
- XHTML
- HTML
- CSS
- MySQL
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OtherProfiles
