Photo by stevendepolo

Last week, I launched a new project. Fairly softly. I wanted to get it out there but I just wanted it to be discovered. The question is probably why would I launch another blog when my current one has been keeping me quite busy with new clients.

Anyone who knows me well knows I am anything but bored!

But ever since I started with social media marketing, I have gotten questions from people who wonder how I do what I do. Design Resumes dabbles in social media from the standpoint that I do create LinkedIn profiles and coach my clients how to be social media savvy in job searches. But I was finding that there were more and more people who asked for my help with their blogs or wondered what strategies I use when I am tweeting. Or wondered how I seem to be out there all the time.

The out there all the time diminished when the job search makeover story ran in the local paper but I believe that the prompting for the story was the fact that many reporters now know that I am out there. It didn’t hurt that this blog was ready to go for higher volume when it came. The Google rankings on this blog have been growing for the past two years and my clients from throughout the United States frequently find me from my social media connections.

I have been blessed with many partners on this journey. Some of them are more formal partners like Jason Alba, who created the JibberJobber Partner program which has been very helpful to me. I’ve used Jason’s resources for years and enjoyed the friendship that we have developed as we both grew in the knowledge of this space together.

What I have learned in this space made me want to share it with others.

To do that, I needed new space. Design Resumes can only dabble in blog marketing strategies without sounding like I left the career space. I don’t plan to quit the career marketing world and so The Marketing Results Blog was born. It lets me talk about things like my views on Protected Tweets and ways to make your blog more searchable without confusing people. The full URL is themarketingresultsblog.com but you can get there from many links on this page as well as my sidebar.

Now there is a degree of confusion. I was advised that to try to keep the direction of each blog separate, I have two Twitter accounts now. JulieWalraven has been around for a long time. And JulieMarketing is the Twitter account for the Marketing Results blog. Yes, there are times when I forget who I am and tweet from the wrong account. Marketing is all about testing so we will see how this works. If you hear from the wrong me, bear with me!

So if you are just now learning about the new blog, come visit! You will find my voice there too only you will hear more about marketing, customer service, online identities, and other discoveries I have made as I grew this blog the past few years.

Photo by mikebaird

It has been a very busy January and though I like adding new content to my blog regularly, this was one of those days when I couldn’t get a post started before the first client was here and then all the ideas I had, flew the coop so to speak.

Sometimes when I am looking through Flickr for a photo for whatever post I am writing, I save photos to my favorites. As I looked at them today, the one above caught my eye. It made me think about having all your ducks in a row, you know, that old saying.

To get one’s ducks in a row essentially means to ensure all of the small details or elements are accounted for and in their proper positions before embarking on a new project.

It’s a bit problematic because those are not ducks, they are avocets. No, I didn’t know what those were either. “The four species of Avocets (pronounced /ˈævəsɛt/) are waders in the same avian family as the stilts. They are typically found in warm climates.”

But you get the idea. When I am working with clients, we talk about this often. This morning’s client mentioned that he had no idea that creating a resume could take so much energy (from him, not me) or be so much like being in school. To create a resume that sells you, you need to define your value to the next employer by demonstrating what you did for that last employer.

Listing your duties will never get you hired because the employer is left wondering what is the reason to hire you. Just a few minutes ago, I told the last client who called to schedule, “Just remember that you need to think about all the things that make you valuable.

Think in terms of Challenge, Action, Result. (CAR) What challenge did you have to overcome, what action did you take, and what result did you end up with? She was a nurse so I gave her this example:

Another client had told me that they had struggled with the patient’s with Alzheimer’s being all over the facility. As part of a committee, they brainstormed a way to consolidate those patients into one wing. After they implemented this change, the patients were happier, more manageable, and there was more control of medications so they wouldn’t be accidentally taken by a patient with Alzheimer’s.

When you are starting your job search, you need to have all your ducks in a row. You need to remember the CAR examples which will serve you well in your resume, in your cover letters and when you are challenged in an interview to come up with examples.

Photo by Pink Sherbet Photography

I was talking to my colleague, Dawn Bugni last night on Twitter and I was telling her that I was editing and rewriting some of my older blog posts. She was laughing at me because I already have a large amount of new content and now I am going backwards.

This blog is now two years old. Posts I loved when I hit publish can use a face-lift. I’ve changed graphic strategies, using Flickr photos tied to the content of the post.

Then there’s the actual post content. When I reread it, I often find myself cutting paragraphs or words, editing, or rewriting to clarify and tighten the writing.

You know what? I do the same thing with resumes I wrote a few years back. I edit, rewrite, change the formatting, tighten the focus on the value proposition and accomplishments.

Resumes and job search marketing strategies have changed dramatically in the last few years. To think that you don’t need to re-evaluate your marketing materials (resume, cover letters, references… LinkedIn profile, Executive Bio, Project Profile, and more) may mean the difference in whether you are the one offered the job.

Have you taken a close look at that aging resume? Perhaps you need to give it a face-lift!

Photo by schoschie

Today it seems that everyone has an online presence of some sort: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs, or blog comments. The growth of “social media” involvement expands daily and this leads me to my pet peeve of the day.

What do you look like online?

As I look at my Twitter stream, Facebook news feed, LinkedIn feed, my own blog, and blogs I comment on, I see people who are out there but their online presence is either the filler image from the media or it is a cartoon character.

We are in a digital age, friends. Though I use a professional photographer for my images (thanks, Scott!), you can just have a friend or family member shoot your photo and upload it to your hard drive. I would recommend a shot that you would be proud to show your mom, so let’s omit any of the party photos that show you chugging a pitcher of beer or the beach photos in your bathing suit. You can be casual but don’t go overboard.

From there, free programs like IrfanView can resize your photo into an appropriate size for web applications.

Using Gravatar, you can then set up an account, upload the photo and everywhere you comment, you will look the same. (GRAVTAR = A Globally Recognized Avatar.) Your Gravatar is an image that follows you from site to site appearing beside your name when you do things like comment or post on a blog. Avatars help identify your posts on blogs and web forums, so why not on any site?

On your other social platforms (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn…) upload the photo and you now have a consistent image. If you want to use a different image for different platforms, go ahead but remember that if your network knows you as one image and if you have a different one on every platform, it will be hard to identify you.

One of the worst images – actually more than one – etched into my memory is someone on Facebook who consistently uses ridiculous images on her profile. At one point, it was the back end of an animal (a rhino)… what does that say about you?

Why Bother?

In most cases, you have a reason for being online. Michael Lunsford makes a very good point in his post, Burn that Star wars T-shirt! Image matters.  If you are looking for a new position or new career, think about the image you are projecting. If you are trying to attract the attention of hiring managers, your image will make a better impression that a cartoon.

If you are a business trying to build a network, your potential customers want to know who you are too. Personally, if you are blogging or tweeting for your business, I don’t want to talk to your logo. I want to see you as a person. I am not a fan of logos as avatars. I am sure some of the marketing experts may disagree with me but I believe the concept of social media is being social. Social to me means people.

So, that is my pet peeve of the day – and your assignment. Go and become recognizable!