MBA Path to Online Professional Branding and Social Media
| MBA Path to Online Professional Branding and Social Media |
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| Written by Nnamdi G. Osuagwu |
| Monday, 19 July 2010 11:32 |
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On Saturday July 18, 2010, Renee Brown (CEO of Your Career My Advice) and I gave a "Career Branding" presentation to past and present Fordham University MBA students. Our presentation was part of a one-day conference that was hosted by the Metro New York Chapter of the National Black MBA Association and Fordham University's Black and Hispanic MBA Association. Participating companies included: L'Oreal, Deloitte, Ogilvy & Mather, Google and more.
My part of the “Career Branding” presentation focused on my specialty, “Online Professional Branding and Social Media Strategy.” To dynamically demonstrate some of the concepts discussed, I promised to write a blog summarizing the presentation, which will link to some of the attendees that asked questions and volunteered. Summary of the Online Professional Branding & Social Media Strategy Presentation: Current MBA Climate on Social Media The business market has provided feedback to the importance of Social Media in the workforce, which is discussed in a recent New York Times article “Business Schools Respond to Demand for Use of Social Media.” In kind, MBA programs have responded by offering new courses. Here are some new courses being offered at different Universities: 1. Harvard Business School, Professor Mikolaj Jan Piskorski, associate professor of business administration, is offering a second-year elective course on "Competing with social networks" offered since 2008 2. At Wharton MBA students of Professor Hosanagar’s course “Enabling Technologies” implement the lessons learned instantly: They run a blog, Twitter profile and Facebook fan page where their projects get published, tested and discussed by their peers. 3. At Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, Professor Jennifer Aaker teaches a course called "The Power Of Social Technology", which teaches students how to harness social technology in support of a clear single, focused goal for the cultivation of social good. Comparing President's Obama Online Brand to Senator McCain in 2008 Obama: 2,379,102 supporters McCain: 620,359 supporters Obama has 380% more supporters than McCain YouTube Obama: 1792 videos uploaded since Nov 2006, Subscribers: 114,559 , Channel Views: 18,413,110 McCain: 329 videos uploaded since Feb 2007 (uploads about 2 a day), Subscribers: 28,419, Channel Views: 2,032,993 Obama has 403% more subscribers than McCain Obama: @barackobama has 112,474 followers McCain: @JohnMcCain (is it real?) 4,603 followers Obama has 240 times more followers in Twitter than McCain *Statistics Gather by Jermiah Owyang Nov 2008 Basic Tips to Online Professional Branding 1. Separate Your Personal Brand from Your Career Brand 2. Find a Photographer and Take Professional Pictures 3. Engage in Informative Two Way Conversations 4. Create a website that contains all of your accomplishments, blogs, etc and make that the center of your social media efforts. In other words, all roads should lead back to your website. Social Networking In Class Statistics We presented the Career Branding Presentation at two sessions. The first and second session consisted of approximately 50 and 25 MBA participants, respectively. I used this opportunity to gather statistics from about 75 MBA participants. I selected volunteers from each session to assist me in my efforts. How many people have LinkedIn Accounts? Result: 97% How many have at least one recommendation from Linked In? Result: 24% How many people have Twitter Accounts? Result: 28% How many people used Twitter to find a business contact, job or post something in their field? Result: 12% How many people have Facebook Accounts? Result: 8% How many have Facebook Fan Pages? Result: 2% How many people have a Blog? Result: 11% Of the people that have blogs how many blog about topics in their profession? Result: 7% *The 2 survey volunteers each received a free copy of my book, "The Quick Guide To Starting a Business: Using Free and Cheap Internet Resources" for their help. Conclusions from Survey: LinkedIn Referrals: Having recommendations from past colleagues/managers adds creditability to your Online Professional Brand & allows for instantaneous reference review. Twitter: Allows professionals to establish a connection with others in their field when used strategically Facebook Fanpages: A person does not have to be your friend to be a Fan of your work. There is a misconception that Fan pages are only for celebrities or businesses. If you specialize in medicine and post useful information about health, I could possibly become of fan of your ideas or subject matter. Blog: This is the easiest way to express your ideas in regards to your professional occupation. It can also be used as a scrapbook to document lessons learned in your occupation. I wish I started one in 2001 and documented the countless Software Development lessons I learned in my various IT consulting roles at JP Morgan and UBS. *Remember all of these tools should lead people back to your website, which will host all of your accomplishments and information. **A Social Media Strategy customized for your profession is recommended to fully take advantage of various online technology. Would you start a business without a plan? Google Search Tips Some people want to blog, but have issues finding information. There is the basic Google search offered on Google's website, but there is also the "more" option and other options next to "Web", which are located on the upper left hand corner of Google's homepage. Here are some of the options:
This allows you to search specifically in Scholarly publications, Books, Actual Images, Videos, News and more. The best way to learn it is to actually use it. Try It !!! *Side Note and Honorable Mention: I've been spending some time at Temple University's Library learning techniques on information retrieval. That little tip was taught to me by the librarian, David Dillard. **I will post a separate blog covering conditional search techniques. Conclusion: All and all the presentation went extremely well and everyone learned something new. Renee and I both got rave reviews. I challenged the attendees to tweet me (@StrategicGen) regarding the presentation. Here are the results: From: @RobH14 @StrategicGen great presentation today. Will start working on my landing page now, didn't think it was important before. New Followers: The Twitter response is in line with the impromptu survey that was taken ... Numbers always tell the truth … LOL.
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