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Tag: Twitter

  • Building Your Personal Brand

    A few months ago I was invited to be part of a panel discussion on personal branding at the Australian Institute of Training and Development (AITD) national conference. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to attend so I asked Michelle Ockers (who lead the discussion) if it would be ok if I wrote a blog post on the topic, using some of her discussion questions as a basis of the post. She kindly agreed and so here are my thoughts…

    Michelle defines a personal brand as:

    “While we associate brands with large corporations and products, the idea of having a personal brand is relatively recent. It would be easy to dismiss the idea of building a personal brand as hype or inauthentic. Perhaps it helps to view your personal brand as another term for your professional reputation. It is about who others think you are, what your purpose is, and what you stand for.”

    This sums it up nicely and I would also add that it’s your actions both online and in person that both define and support your brand.

    Describe your personal brand.

    I started being active online about three years ago and I never intentionally set out to build my personal brand, its evolved over time. My driver came from seeing a lot of negativity towards eLearning and rather than just being a critic, I thought why not flip it around and do something about improving my own practice and helping others in the field do the same.

    This is why my website contains mostly practical (and hopefully helpful) content designed to give others some ideas that they can use in their projects straight away. I also use my website to reflect and show that I’m still learning as I go too.

    I’ve never been motivated by numbers of followers or connections and while it’s nice to see them grow (because hopefully it means that I’m reaching more people) I don’t set targets in terms of numbers.

    Why is a personal brand important?

    A lot of people (and I was no different) wait until something happens with their career – maybe they’ve become unhappy in their job, things change in their workplace or they lose their job altogether – before they take action and think about who they are and where they want to be.

    Most people have a resume and/or an online profile and often they are just lots of descriptors about what someone says they can do. They all start to look the same after a while but a personal brand can bring those words to life and show who you are, what you can do, what you’re good at and most importantly help you to stand out from the crowd.

    I’ve also found that having a personal brand can open up other opportunities career wise such as invitations to speak at conferences which in turn helps you to reinforce your message.

    What are some of the most valuable things you’ve done to build your personal brand?

    I’ve done a few things to build my brand – starting this blog, using Twitter and LinkedIn in a targeted way and being active in the Articulate E-Learning Heroes community. But with all of them the one thing I did was participate. While you might start off watching from the sidelines, you need to get involved and if you want to build a strong brand you’ll need to move from just consuming the work of others to also being a creator and putting your own work/thoughts/ideas ‘out there’.

    How do you find time to build your personal brand?

    It’s not always easy to find the time but if you learn to use your time more effectively you can fit things in, for example use the time you spend commuting to work on the bus or train (I wrote the first draft of this post on a plane trip home), get up a little earlier or set aside a couple of hours on the weekend. If you’re serious about building a personal brand, you either need to find the time or make the time. It takes effort to build and maintain your personal brand but the investment is definitely worth it.

    I’m also fortunate that my employer – B Online Learning – is supportive of myself and my colleagues having our own identities in the wider learning community.

    Any advice for those new/wanting to build a personal brand?

    Firstly, ask yourself: What am I passionate about? Building a personal brand is a bit like gardening, there’s a bit of work in the beginning to get things in place but then you need to maintain and keep working on it otherwise it will wither away. If you’re not passionate, you won’t be able to sustain the effort needed to grow your brand.

    I’d also suggest starting out small and building from there as there’s no need to do everything at once. Also keep in mind that you may not get much response to your actions initially but don’t give up as people need to get to know you and what it is you’re about.

    My main tool for building my personal brand is my website that started out as a blog and has grown to include samples of work, suggested folks to connect with, downloadable templates and more recently ‘how-to’ video clips. I also use Twitter and LinkedIn to promote myself (be careful not to overdo the self-promotion) but I also like to promote others via these same channels. You need to find tools that you’re comfortable using.

    When you decide on the tools you’ll use you need to be consistent in posting and sharing. Try to do something at least every day so that others will see your passion.

    In terms of an online profile a couple of tips would be have a good picture of yourself (not a cropped picture from a holiday or function) and also have a description of yourself that summarises who you are and what you want to be known for.

    Remember, your personal brand is up to you.

    Matt's profile picture

  • The Next OzLearn Tweet Chat is on 8/9/15

    OzLearn logo

    On Tuesday 8th September at 8:00pm AEST, @OzLearn is having its next monthly twitter chat. This month, our guest is Chief Learning Rebel, Shannon Tipton (@stipton) and we’ll be chatting about Twitter chats! You can view a post by Shannon by clicking here.

    To join the chat, go to Twitter at 8pm on 8/9, search for @OzLearn and join in the conversation (don’t forget to add #ozlearn to your tweets).

    There is also an OzLearn LinkedIn group where you can view the Storify of the chat afterwards.

    Hope you can join us for the chat!

  • The Next OzLearn Tweet Chat is on 11/8/15

    OzLearn logo

    On Tuesday 11th August at 8:00pm AEST (11:00am UK time), @OzLearn is having its next monthly twitter chat. This month, our guest is Nigel Harrison (@NigeljHarrison) and we’ll be talking about Performance Consulting. You can read a blog post from Nigel by clicking here.

    To join the chat, go to Twitter at 8pm on 11/8, search for @OzLearn and join in the conversation (don’t forget to add #ozlearn to your tweets).

    There is also an OzLearn LinkedIn group where you can view the Storify of the chat afterwards.

    Hope you can join us for the chat!

  • Evolution

    It has been a while since my last blog post. In fact, it’s been so long that I had to have my password reset so I could login. I’ve had an exciting start to this year and a lot has been going on. But I’ll get to that.

    Choose a Path

    A little over a year ago I had a stable job that was close to home and one that if I kept my head down and did what I was told, I could have been there for life. However, it wasn’t particularly challenging, the leadership was uninspiring and I wasn’t feeling satisfied with what I was doing. The thing that kept me going was the big wide world of people I’d discovered who existed beyond the confines of my organisation, thanks to social media. There were (and still are) big thinkers, idea challengers, problem solvers, self-promoters, experience sharers, community creators, industry leaders and what some have become – virtual friends.

    Around this time I also scribbled down a few career goals as I needed to do something if I was going change my circumstances. I’d never been much of a goal setter, definitely not in a write-it-down-and-draw-up-an-action-plan kind of way. But I wrote them down and here they are (keep in mind that they’re eLearning related):

    • Get a job with an eLearning company
    • Do more ELH Challenges
    • Become an Articulate Community Super Hero!
    • Create a stronger eLearning community in Australia (this is a work in progress).

    In terms of a plan, all I really did was jump in, join in twitter chats, read other people’s blogs, comment from time-to-time, share what I found interesting, connect and follow others, look at what others who’d been around for while did and copy them and start my own blog (which itself has evolved into this site). What did that do for me? Apart from learning lots, it got me noticed. In a good way. I wasn’t particularly special but I was visible and that was an advantage I had of most others in the learning field.

    By the end of last year I had achieved three of my four goals (the top three) just by being involved and getting noticed. Doors and opportunities opened up that wouldn’t have been possible if I didn’t change my career trajectory. In my new eLearning role at a great company, I’m able work from home with one day a week in the office. I’m back into eLearning development which has (and continues to) sharpen my skills. I now get to travel to different parts of Australia to teach others how to use Articulate Storyline and I also now look after our Master eLearning Course helping others to learn how to create great eLearning. I’m also encouraged, yes encouraged, to be active on social media and in various communities both physical and online.

    Due to these changes I’ve been busy, hence the lack of blogging (I do have a notebook that contains many half-baked ideas). My perspective of others working in the eLearning industry has evolved because while I’m working in one organisation, I’m interacting with people working at the coal-face. I now hear about the challenges people face within their own organisations and have a better understanding for where they need to build their skills. Generally speaking, the focus needs to shift from ‘This is what you should be doing’ to ‘This is how you do this’.

    For myself, new skill sets are emerging – public speaking, webinar delivery, resource creation and curation. I guess these will become my new goals. Finding time can be hard but I need to make time and be more disciplined with using my time effectively.

    So, as my career has evolved so too has my thinking. I know this will continue. I have many ideas planned I just need to make them happen. I’ll probably need you to be involved too…..

    Image source: shutterstock.com

  • The Next OzLearn Tweet Chat is on 14/4/15

    OzLearn logo

    On Tuesday 14th April at 8:00pm AEST (UTC +9hrs), @OzLearn is having its next monthly twitter chat. This month, the conversation will be based on Lisa Minogue-White’s (@lisaMinogueW) vlog post – Learning Ecosystems. You can watch Lisa’s video by clicking here.

    To join the chat, go to Twitter at 8pm on 14/4, search for @OzLearn and join in the conversation (don’t forget to add #ozlearn to your tweets).

    There is also an OzLearn LinkedIn group where you can view the Storify of the chat afterwards.

    Hope you can join us for the chat!