Leadership Branding

Are you "Branding" Yourself in a Positive Way?

Do you know what attributes, beliefs and experiences distinguish one Brand from another? 

• Think about Apple, BP, or Miley Cyrus--how would you define these Brands? 
• Apple thinks differently; it is seen as an innovative company that has expanded worldwide access to education, created smaller products with a smaller impact on the environment. 
• BP is seen as irresponsible from the oil spill in 2010--how long until this Brand turns to a positive? Not until the spills stop and changes are permanently made, but another spill occurred not even 2 days ago in Lake Michigan, so probably not for a while... 
• Miley Cyrus- from Hannah Montana to twerking, need I say more? 
• These are examples give you ideas of how people view Brands, (and these are just examples to get you to think about the big picture and the importance of your Brand on your future). 

You need to identify your strengths, and determine a plan for growth that will help you develop your "Brand."

• Differentiation
• Are you presenting yourself as unique? How? 
• Will you stand out to potential employers?  
• Your identity and Brand will serve as a key differentiator
• Consistency 
• Are you consistent in your presence across all platforms (from family, to school, to work, and organizations) 
• This will help build trust between you and your connections 
• Clarity 
• Are you clear on your values, diversity, work ethics, etc.? 
• Authenticity 
• Are you being truthful in the way you are presenting yourself? (credentials, experience, etc.)

Suggestions to improve your Brand: 

• LinkedIn
• Connect with your Alumni and contact people in your field of study; let them know that you are interested! 
• Twitter
• Follow individuals and organizations in your field; tweet and retweet people to create that Brand for yourself.

*Think before posting... How are you Branding yourself on social media? Is your Brand consistent across all platforms? 

Resources: 

Workshop on Leadership Branding by the Ohio University Career and Leadership Development Center (January 2014). 

What is Your Digital Footprint?

Your digital footprint is everything on the Internet about you...

- All of your profiles on social networking sites
- Photographs that you, your friends, or your family has posted online
- Anything you have written, or that has been written about you (discussion boards, blogs, or articles)

Each time we add something about ourselves on the Internet, we enlarge our digital footprint. Whenever we mention someone else, we are expanding theirs. 

How to UNCOVER your digital footprint: 

• Do a "vanity search," and type your name into a search engine to see what already exists about you. 
• Repeat the search regularly using services such as Google Alerts (keywords of interest (eg. your name), and you will receive automatic alert messages from Google every time your name appears on the web; you can set these alerts daily, weekly, or monthly. 
• Check your social networking privacy settings--set your account to Friends only. Follow these steps to ensure your Facebook profile is ready for potential employers or colleagues to see.
• Also monitor your activity log--where you can unlike, delete or hide content
• Check out How You Leak Your Privacy Every Day (and How to Stop) Thorn Klosowski
• If you have a personal blog, remember that private blogs show up in search engine results as well.
• Go through your blog posts and edit them for language or delete anything that will hinder you professionally.

How to MANAGE your digital footprint: 

• Evaluate the content of your social media pages: ask yourself, will it affect current or future employment? Will it offend my peers or colleagues? 
• Consider the privacy implications of what you are sharing: don't post anything on friends/colleagues' profiles that could potentially breach their privacy. If in doubt, ask people before adding pictures or posting content to their profiles. 
• If you are seeking a new job or promotion: just remember that your digital footprint is important and can effectively act as your resume--particularly if you are using LinkedIn. Don't post or comment on anything that will hinder your chances of success. 
• Set goals: do some research and spend some time figuring out who you want to following and affiliate with, making sure your research is relevant to your industry. This will show that you are interested in keeping up to date with industry trends.
• Stay aware: be aware and stay active; what's new, what's getting old, what is exciting and what is shocking. 
• Have fun: potential employers want to see that you are still active and contributing to personal and relevant industry networks-but always make sure to do so in an appropriate way. 
• Delete abandoned social media accounts:
• If you still have a MySpace or Bebo account lingering around, its time to delete it

How to ENHANCE your digital footprint: 

• Build your online presence by showcasing your skills, experience, and interests. With most online sites, you can control the information about you that is publicly available. 
• Online sites that include your CV or resume (LinkedIn) can expand your range of contacts 
• Professional networking sites can give you access to potential employers, whose digital footprints you can also check 

Strengthen Your Profile and Connections on Linkedin

It is essential in this digital age to expand your network and build connections with others! Whether you are writing a paper and need some input, or if you are looking for job opportunities--expanding you network and building connections with others is so valuable to your growth and branding in the future.

• Update or refresh your profile
• According to LinkedIn's Career Expert, Nicole Williams, your profile is 12 times more likely to be viewed by a hiring manager if you have a detailed list of work experiences--this means the more chances you have to be discovered for new opportunities or advanced positions.
• "You never know what about your past will be of interest to the recruiters, potential business partners or clients," Williams said. "Recruiters are on LinkedIn and by virtue of the way they're searching, such as using keywords and the duration of your career, they'll be able to find you better." 

Ways to Update Your Presence

1. Edit Endorsements: Under the "Skills and Expertise" section, you can add endorsements to your profile; and while endorsements can be a good testament to your proficiencies, it has also been controversial because some people may endorse you for irrelevant skills. But, the more people that endorse you for relevant skills, the more you profile's likability will instantly boost!
2. Add A New Profile Picture: According to LinkedIn, adding a profile picture makes your profile 7 times more likely to be viewed by others. You can change the privacy settings on your picture as well; the default setting allows everyone to see it, though you can change it so only your connections or those in your network can view it. 
3. Update Your Summary: The "Summary" section of your profile should detail who you are as a professional: your title, role, skills, and expertise. According to LinkedIn, to increase the chances you'll appear in someone's search, your "Summary" section should contain at least 40 words. 
4. Include Pictures, Videos, and Presentations: You can upload rich media to make your profile more engaging to show off your work. 
5. List Volunteer Experience and Causes: According to LinkedIn, 42% of hiring managers surveyed said they view volunteer experience as equivalent to former work experience. You can also add information about volunteer opportunities that you are interested in, and add organizations that you support. 

** Check out this AWESOME site that allows you to create a visualization of your resume visualize.me

Options for Connecting Your Connections

Whatever your endgame is when it comes to LinkedIn, extending your network and creating new contacts is a key part of that. This is the essence of good networking.

• You can write to two people that should connect in a single message
• Compose a message in your inbox and select both connectors as recipients. Simply make an introduction to each other (or a summary of the situation/benefits) and make sure that the box remains checked that allows them both to see the other person's name and email address 
• Under Send a message, there is a link Share profile, which allows you to send it to another connections
• Click on this and add a short explanation before sending it to the other person-it's for them to follow up between the two of them. 
• Send a message to one of your connections suggesting that they request an introduction to the other person-and don't forget to add a link to their profile to make the other person easy to find 
• You can send a message to one of your connections encouraging them to add the other as a connection, using a personalized message and stating that you have been encouraging them to get in touch 

These options might simply allow you to put two individuals in your network in touch with each other than may benefit from being in contact. It could also be the ideal way to help a colleague extend their own network by putting them in touch with your own connections who could be of value to them. 

*Think about the connections you may be able to foster-it will strengthen your own network at the same time as extending theirs, so it's ALWAYS good to keep an eye out for where these opportunities may exist!*

Resources 

• Your LinkedIn Playbook: Tips for Tackling the World's Largest Professional Networking Site (Nicole Williams)
• LinkedIn Tips: 5 Ways to Strengthen Your Profile (Kristin Burnham)
• Strengthen your network - connect your connections! (Mark White)
• How Connecting Your LinkedIn Contacts Builds Social Influence (Stephanie Sammons)

Ways to Focus and Succeed in Your Classes

Keeping your eyes open and your mind alert is sometimes difficult in your college lectures. Regardless if the professor is an easy grader, or the course is a breeze-you should try to stay focused if you want to learn new material (remember, you are paying for this education!), and it helps passing the midterms and finals Below are a few strategies you can use to help you do better in your classes.

What YOU can do: 

• Eat a healthy breakfast and/or snack before class
• Eating a small, nutritious snack before class and taking a water bottle/something to drink to sip on during class can curb any hunger or thirst that can potentially cause distractions.  
• Get sleep and exercise
• Review your previous notes
• Reviewing your notes from the previous class before the next session begins give you the opportunity to get back on track to where the last class left off--and you'll be more likely to pay attention since you'll remember what your professor was talking about. 
• Turn off distracting devices
• This includes laptops, cell phone, and tablets--all which can lead to serious distractions. Even if you promise yourself you won't browse the web and check your Facebook, most of the time you will stray away from the lecture--so don't even tempt yourself. 
• Take notes on the least distracting device
• As mentioned previously, don't use devices that are going to distract you--if you doodle, maybe typing your notes on a word doc (without the internet) is best, and if you browse the internet, pen and paper is probably best. 
• Check out these other online tools that can help keep you focused
• Sit up front
• It may seem intimidating for some, but being up front will help keep you focused. You'll avoid being distracted by the people behind you playing games on their laptop, and you'll be forced to pay attention and take notes because you are clearly visible to the professor. 
• Avoid relying on stimulants
• Whether it be caffeine, cigarettes, or prescription meds--these often cause disruptions in your sleep which can affect your memory and concentration. 

What you can do with OTHERS: 

• Discuss content with students
• Chat with other students after class about the lecture/class. Further discussions leads to a better and more comprehensive understanding of the material.   
• Study and work with other students who are serious about succeeding
• If you know others who are serious about doing well in the class, study and work with them! If you are able to find a reliable group of students that share a common interest--learning and doing well in the course--stick with them, they can be essential to your success in that class. 

Resources 

• Tips and Tricks for Staying Focused in a Lecture (Kristen Healy)
• Ways to Focus (and Maybe Even Participate) During Dull Presentations (Kevin Daum)
• Tips to Help Stay Focused in College Classes

Best News Aggregators

Are you interested in finding apps that help you discover new and interesting news, and things you wouldn't have found on your own? Below are some top apps that deliver a curated news experience!

Criteria for good news aggregator apps: 

1. Right content: includes the right mix of content sources and quality content that you actually want to read 
2. Personalization: the best aggregators learn based off your preferences, what you read, rate, and share with others; content relevancy 
3. Speed and ease: from updating new content to scrolling through screens; make sure your news aggregators are fast, efficient, and simple standout 
4. Social sharing: from email, to Twitter to Facebook, good aggregators have simple ways to share help with content curation and discovery with others 

Free Apps 

• Feedly
• Has become the RSS reader for the choice for many news junkies, especially since Google Reader went into retirement
• Quick and responsive, with a fleet of powerful apps on iOS, Android, and the web
• Flipboard
• Offers a visual and straight-forward means of building your own personalized magazines 
• Select your general interests, and then immediately dive into a pre-generated set of articles, laid out in the style of a newspaper 

Useful Participatory Websites

Forums

• Goodbye Ugly Forums! Moot Is A Flexible and Modern Platform For Online Discussions (And It's Free) Sarah Perez 
• Moot is a new take on commenting and forums, and is designed to be flexible and customizable 

Blogging 

• WordPress allows you to start a wordpress blog or create a free website in seconds 
• EduBlogs is a blog created for educational purposes; supports student and teaching learning by facilitating reflection, questioning by self and others, collaborating and providing contexts for engaging in higher-order thinking 
• Blogger is a blog-publishing service that allows multi-user blogs with time-stamped entries 

Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarking is a practice that allows those with sufficient attention, collaboration, and network know-how to multiply value of a public good which serves one's own self-interest

 

• Delicious is a free and easy tool to save, organize, and discover interesting links on the web 
• citeulike is a free service for managing and discovering scholarly references 
• Scoop.it! is a site where you can build engaged audiences through publishing by curation 
• Zotero is a free, easy-to-use tool to help you collect, organize, cite, and share you research sources 

Recommender Systems 

• digg has the most interesting and talked about stories, videos, and pictures on the web
• breaking news on technology, politics, entertainment, and more! 
• StumbleUpon is the easiest way to find cool new websites, videos, photos, and images from across the web 
• bubbl.us allows you to create colorful mind maps (brainstorming) to print or share with others 

Music 

• Spotify is a free music streaming website available on all mobile devices and computers for unlimited durations; features like offline listening and ad-free playback are available for premium subscribers 
• last.fm is a music discovery service that give you personalized recommendations based on the music you listen to 

RSS Feeds

• Bloglines is a web-based news aggregator for reading syndicated feeds using the RSS and Atom formats 

Participating in Online Class Discussions

How to Participate in Online Class Discussions (Jamie Littlefield)
1. Prepare, prepare, prepare
2. State your point, demonstrate your point, back it up with a quote
   - use a subject line that relates to your post--which will help create interest in your post
   - write clearly and with expressions (careful and concise writing)
3. Respond to your classmates
   - be supportive, considerate, and constructive when replying to your classmates
4. Practice chat room "netiquette"
   - keep your post focused on the topic
5. Be friendly but formal
   - proofread and review your response
6. Have fun
   - participate regularly

For more information regarding participation in online discussions, please see: How to get students to participate in online discussions