Week 4 - LinkedIn is no Longer an Online Resume - it's your Digital Reputation

 I figured I’d jot down some notes about a web post I just finished reading that definitely aligns with skillset development and future-proofing strategic thinking in the advertisement world.  To be honest, I didn’t just stumble upon it while surfing the web. This was recommended in a course I’m taking, but I don’t think that takes away from its relevance at all.  Here’s a Link to the post in question. 


My take: Bottom line is that the information age and the advent of social media has fundamentally transformed the most effective methods that businesses use to communicate with their consumers or clients.  The post quotes Jill Rowley’s comments about a specific social media platform; “LinkedIn is no longer an online resume.  It’s your digital reputation.”  While I agree with the premise, I’m not sure that limiting the scope to LinkedIn is the right answer here.

My brother works in the digital communications realm, and his organization is reliant on the entire network of platforms to operate.  He leverages everything from email and test message alerts to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, along with any other emerging venues that would help both internal and external information sharing.

I can address a few questions here drawing from conversations I’ve had with him.


What are the implications for you and your personal brand?

These social media giants present another commonly used background source that differentiates you and your business from competitors.  It’s essentially a new maintenance responsibility in order to maintain relevance.  Routine posts, engaging content and up-to-date information is critical if you really want to participate in future markets.


What are you going to do about it?

Well, I’ve been admittedly passive on my social media presence – partly because I didn’t fully understand the implications, and partly because it’s not as relevant in compartmentalized organizations like the one I’m currently working in.  However, one of my goals during my studies is to develop a solid roadmap to my “post-military” life, and starting a business is at the center of that transition.  


What are the implications for my employer?

I brought up the larger picture earlier because that’s the piece that’s most relevant to the U.S. Army.  The organization maintains things like digital branding packages and mandatory social media etiquette training, but the level of engagement isn’t what really clicks with the target audience.  I’m thinking here, recruitment value and public image in the American public as the two primary categories for measures of performance.  

 

Simple, but effective.  The U.S. Army’s Brand Portal (Image Source).



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 4 - Guerilla Marketing

Image
Ladies and gentlemen, we are presenting a chapter of Guerilla Marketing that is the bane of every procrastinator on the planet: COMMITMENT. Now don’t get me wrong, the idea here actually outlines an effective strategy to overcome such “personality deficiencies”, but it doesn’t mean it’s not extraordinarily, mind-numbingly, pulling-your-hair-out difficult for some people to execute.  I say this tongue in cheek, since I most certainly fall into the category.  I like to think of myself as “deadline-oriented” instead of a hopeless procrastinator. I spent at least an hour looking at memes for this image instead of finishing my blog today. "Image Source" . So, let’s talk about how we get around this.  Set multiple deadlines!  Yes, nothing crushes the soul of a procrastinator more than realizing that development milestones should have their own deadlines.  So how do we do that?  With a plan!  The book puts it in no uncertain terms; build a plan and commit to the plan.  That commitm
Read more

Week 7 - Guerilla Marketing

Image
I actually found Chapter 7 of Guerilla Marketing more of a textbook read, rather than something that has captured my interest in line with previous chapters.  This week’s review focuses on reducing costs and improving efficiency – reminiscent of “Lean Six Sigma” perspective in process management.  While obviously beneficial, I find the topic to be mind-numbingly boring. I would rather discuss efficiency in the same scope as the feedback loops described in the last two chapters.  Reevaluating marketing needs on a continuous (or at least periodic) basis as a reaction to changes in business operations or consumer sentiments/needs presents the best opportunity to improve efficiencies.  This might also include reductions in time, energy and money that was initially placed into the advertising strategy. Image Source. This seems pretty logical: the majority of the marketing strategic mission is completed in the planning and product roll-out portion of the product life cycle.  As the dust set
Read more

Week 6 - Ascend your Startup

Image
One of the toughest parts of managing business growth is quality assurance, and this is particularly difficult for young companies.  I’ve been mostly blogging about establishing, marketing and delivering a minimum viable product (MVP) for these companies – but eventually you’ll need to move on to specialized or niche products as well.  The same self-monitoring rules apply to future rollouts as that for the MVP.  There needs to accountability measures in place to ensure ongoing quality controls, as well as feedback mechanisms to “adjust fire” when needed. Image Source. Ascend your Startup recommends using Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) to establish targets and milestones for ongoing operations.  The principle is to create business objectives that align with, and further, your long-term business strategy while creating related, functional-area metrics (based on results, feedback or outputs) that indicate success on the way toward said objective. This parallels how I’ve been taugh
Read more