Personal Branding 101 is proud to present the following guest article by Tim Tyrell-Smith of www.TimsStrategy.com.  Tim clearly has a passion for helping others build careers.  His blog contains a wealth of information to jump start your job search, networking efforts, social media presence, and more  – enjoy!

Yes, I know what you are thinking.  ”Really?  Another article telling me what to do with my resume?”  But until I start seeing a better paper flow, I’ll keep bringing it up.

And, remember that this little two-pager is often the first thing people see from you.  The first flash of your personal brand.  It better be easy to read and worth reading. And while a lot of interesting formats for exposing your brand are now available (LinkedIn, Twitter, Visual CV, Facebook), people still expect a traditional resume prior to and during an interview.  Even if they didn’t find you that way.

So here today I’ll offer 5 reasons your resume makes me sick.  I haven’t left my breakfast on the page yet, but I’m getting a tickle in the back of my throat.  And will soon experience a queasy feeling.  One that compels me to move your information to the “other” pile.

#1.  Poor Or Over-Use Of Formatting

Style does matter in life and in the hiring process.  So if you are bolding, underlining and italicizing everything on the page, you are telling me that everything on the page is important.  Or nothing is.  Hard to read and makes me dizzy. Or maybe you are using multiple fonts or font sizes.  Or you’ve created a resume that looks like the front page of the NY Times.  And I don’t know where to start.  So I don’t.

#2.  “No White Space”

Great print advertising uses the page well.  It places just enough information in the ad to allow the reader to naturally find important content.  There is a flow to it.  And the eye is given room to work.  So when you use a margin of .2 all around to keep your resume to two pages, it leaves no white space.  No place for my eyes to rest as I am scanning to quickly learn where your resume fits against the job requirements.

#3.  Poor Use Of The “Top Third”

You have an opportunity in the top third of your resume to grab people.  To quickly communicate important and unique aspects of your skill and experience that will trigger a decision to keep reading.  I’m not saying that people will not look at last employers, positions and accomplishments if your top third is bad.  But it is kind of a shame.  Because with an enticing positioning statement, a strong career summary, and a short list of key strengths, you can brand yourself up front. Before someone drops you into a mental pile based only on their take on the facts.

#4.  Drowning In Responsibilities

Resumes should be full of relevant and tangible accomplishments.  Relevant in that they will make the hiring manager think “that’s the kind of impact I’m looking for”.  Tangible because it measures the impact and suggests a direct benefit and value.  We all want to interview people who can come in and make a big impact or solve a problem.  If your resume details the role you played for each company without detailing the value you added, you will look like everyone else.  So in two short sentences under each prior position, tell me what you did.  And in 4-6 bullet points tell me what you accomplished while there.

#5.  Who Did You Work For Again?

Maybe I’m not as worldly as I’d like to think, but I see a lot of resumes that include companies I’ve never heard of. Don’t know what they do, how big they are and how influential they might be in their industry.  Are they great at training their employees?  Are they global?  What brand names do they own?  If you are not providing a quick company profile, especially if your company is not well known, you are letting me assume things.  And if I assume that the company is “just OK” you may lose some credibility.  In short, it helps to know where you’ve been and how you’ve been influenced and educated in the world of business.

I don’t like to feel sick.  When I do, it compels me to get rid of the source.  If that source is your resume, then take action to control this aspect of your job search effort.  Make it easy and comfortable for people to learn about you.  And to find key points that create a growing sense that you might just be the one. To help my company grow.

There.  Now I feel better.

Tim Tyrell-Smith is the founder of Tim’s Strategy: Ideas for Job Search Career and Life, a fast growing blog and website.  Tim is also the author of: 30 Ideas. The Ideas of Successful Job Search.  Download the book and other free tools at http://www.timsstrategy.com and follow him on Twitter @TimsStrategy

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While engaging in social media, many focus intently on the absolute number of connections they’ve made – and assess progress based purely on the size of their network. Instead, I prefer to review social media efforts on a more granular level, making certain my actions are focused, effective, and received well by others.  Here are 5 uncommon ways to measure social success that can be calculated no matter the size of your network.

Since I only have access to my individual stats, I’ve used myself as an example for each metric below -  help me make this more interesting by providing your results in the comments section.

Twitter “Follower to List Ratio”

Inclusion within a Twitter list is maybe the purest, most sincere form of appreciation in the social media universe today. The fact that one of your followers respects your opinions enough to single you out and closely track your communication is no small gesture.

When Twitter lists first debuted, I surmised that a new metric would replace absolute follower count as the measure of a Tweeter’s worth – the “Follower to List” ratio.  To calculate your ratio, simply divide your follower count by the number of lists you appear within.  (At present, my ratio is 4,529 to 124, or, 36 to 1. What is yours?)

As Twitter lists have matured and become more prevalent, my stance hasn’t changed a bit.  A high follower count is great, but show me how many of those followers care enough to include you within a specific list.

Retweets per Page View (Blog)

New bloggers (including myself at times) tend to judge blogging success based on page views.  The more readers the better, right?  Well – maybe.  Common sense tells us that more articles on a site will equate to more total site visitors – and in turn, more visitors per new post.  How then, can a blogger truly measure the success of new articles?  One metric I calculate is “retweets per page view”.

Simply put – how many people read the article, and how many of those retweeted it?  The beauty of this metric is that it works whether your article has 12 views or 12,000.  For example, my post on 5 Personal Branding Errors You Can Fix in 5 Minutes has received 800 page views and 74 retweets (or, 1 retweet for every 10.8 page views).  Measuring this post against others, I can easily see that it resonated with my audience in a way that others did not.

Comments per Page View (Blog)

Similar to the above, this metric pits page views against unique comments for each individual blog post (not counting your own comments).  For some, building a community and increasing engagement within their blog is the number one goal – if so, this metric is likely to be a huge indicator of success.

Personally, many of my posts rate pretty poorly for this metric, something I definitely need to evaluate.  But, when I compare ratios across articles, I see that it is “thought pieces” that receive more comments per page view, up to a ratio of 1 comment per every 24 page views.

Which posts of yours rate highest for this metric?  Why?

Linkedin Profile Views

I find huge value in the little-referenced “Who’s viewed my profile?” section of a Linkedin profile page.  In this section, Linkedin identifies how many visitors have viewed your profile in the last X days, and identifies these visitors by name, title, and/or industry.

If you are looking to build a solid, reputable network, the number of outside profile views should be of major importance to you.  Essentially, this figure helps signify how much interest folks have to connect with, or learn more about you.  A low number might suggest that your profile is difficult to locate, or that you’ve failed to provide folks reason enough to seek you out.  Make sure to snag a unique URL for your Linkedin profile.

What is your number of Linkedin profile views lately?  Who exactly has viewed your profile – and why do you think they chose to do so?

Linkedin Search Results Appearances

Like the above metric, you can determine the number of times your Linkedin profile has appeared in a search via the “Who’s viewed my profile” section.  For job seekers, this number should be routinely scrutinized.  A low or declining value suggests that your Linkedin profile is lacking the keywords that recruiters are searching for – not good!  The power of keywords in your social media profiles can make the difference between getting found and getting ignored.

Reconfigure your profile to include relevant keywords, and keep an eye on your number of search appearances.  See any difference?

The 5 social media success metrics above are not often quoted, yet I think there is value in each one.  How did you fare for each of the metrics?  Find any gaping holes in your social media presence or strategy – or any huge victories you hadn’t previously identified?  Let me know in the comments section below!

Tape measure by Darren Hester.  Comment Love by miss miah.

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In 2010, building your personal brand via mobile will no longer be a competitive advantage, it will become a necessity.  The ability to respond in real-time to that e-mail, job opening or blog comment will be more important than ever before.  Here are the 33 best iPhone apps for building a personal brand on-the-go.

Note: Links below go straight to iTunes, apologies to the non-iPhone users out there.  My guess is that most of these apps are available via other platforms as well.

Publishing

WordPress 2 (free, pictured)
Did you ever think of an awesome topic for a blog post at the most inconvenient of times?  Now, no matter the time or place, you can start a draft or fully publish your WordPress blog post from your phone.  Also, view and respond to comments, or update pages.

Flickr (free)
Most of your best photos occur while you are away from home.  Why not share them right away?  Or, search for photos from the community to use on your blog.

Photoshop.com Mobile (free)
What makes this one of the best iPhone apps out there?  It is even easier to use than the desktop version of Photoshop!  Really, it couldn’t be simpler.

Dragon Dictation (free)
Say you’re stuck in traffic, you think of the next big idea, and you simply have to get it down on “paper”.  Instead of trying to write and drive, have Dragon Dictation convert your speech to text.  From within the app you can initiate and populate a text or email.

Your Own App (free-ish, pictured)
As Chris Brogan and Dan Schawbel have mentioned recently, via MotherApp you can create your own iPhone app that displays your blog posts and tweets.  The service is free if you allow ads and share revenue 50/50, or you can pay a one-time fee of $99 to avoid ads.

UStream Live Broadcaster (free)
UStream allows you to broadcast yourself in real-time to anyone and everyone.  How cool (and scary) is that?

GoDaddy.com Mobile (free)
Great domain names are hard to come by.  In a “you snooze, you lose” marketplace, the ability to secure a domain name from anywhere is priceless.

Speller – Free Spell Checker (free)
A single typo or misspelled word can kill any email, presentation, or blog post.  Wouldn’t you argee?

Networking

Tweetie 2 ($2.99, pictured)
Are there free Twitter applications out there that are pretty damn good? Yes.  Are there free apps that can match the power of Tweetie 2?  No.  Tweetie 2 is the best iPhone app for Twitter in existence, making tweeting from the road an absolute snap.  Twitter list integration and the ability to view saved searches pushes this app over the top.

Facebook (free)
Admittedly, the app I use the most day in and day out.  Needs no explanation.

Bump (free)
Bump allows you to exchange contact information with other iPhone users by literally “bumping” your phones together.  It makes for a pretty cool ice-breaker with a business contact you’ve just met too.

Skype (free)
Personal branding is a global activity these days.  Maybe your next consulting offer will come from a distant country.  Skype is a way to stay connected to anyone and everyone.

Linkedin (free, pictured)
This well-designed app lets you check your Linkedin inbox, send connection requests, update your profile and status, and more.  A must.

Cisco WebEx Meeting (free)
The next time you have 3 companies fighting over your services, why not schedule a WebEx meeting and have them bid for you in a live auction?  OK, maybe I’m dreaming…but there are lots of real reasons why a quick conference on-the-go might be necessary.  This app can help.

Business Card Reader ($1.99)
To me, business cards are like socks – you can never find the right one when you need it.  This app eliminates that problem.  Simply scan a business card and add the information straight to your contacts.

Job Search/Interviewing

Jobs by Career Builder (free, pictured)
In this market, good jobs go fast.  Real fast.  Don’t miss out on the latest job openings just because you are away from your computer.

Indeed.com Job Search (free)

Did I mention that good jobs are hard to come by in this job market?  It never hurts to have a backup source – and this app is a good one.

Resume PRO ($2.99)

The ability to update and send different versions of resumes from the road make this app an absolute must for job seekers.  If it helps land you a job, it just might be the best $2.99 you’ll ever spend.

vTie Necktie Guide (free)

Mainly for the male Gen Y-ers out there…let’s be honest, we have no idea how to tie a tie.  Until they outlaw this ridiculous piece of business attire, we can rely on this app to get us through.

Reference

Bing (free, pictured)

Sorry Google, for once you’ve been trumped.  The best iPhone app for web search is Bing – it includes voice search, business listings, directions and more.  Plus, you get those cool photos that Bing uses as its background.

Wikipedia Mobile (free)

A world of information at your fingertips.  And as you know, 60% of the time, Wikipedia is right 100% of the time.

Kindle for iPhone (free)

Why spend a few hundred dollars on an actual Kindle, when this app is free?  Provides instant access to literally millions of books.  Amazing, when you think about it.

Quickmark QR Code Reader ($0.99)

QR Codes are becoming more prevalent, thanks in part to Google distributing codes to thousands of small businesses.  Maybe you’ll even include one within your resume?  Either way, this is the best iPhone app for decoding any QR Code you come across.

Any Website You Want (free)

Did you know you can turn any website you visit into an “app”?  Just click the “+” and select “Add to Home Screen”.  If you are viewing this via your iPhone, give it a shot. (Overly sneaky tactic to get you to come back to Personal Branding 101?)

Organization

Google Calendar (free, pictured)
Available via the Google Mobile app – a simple, free way to keep track of appointments and to-do’s.

Google Docs (free, pictured)
Also available via the Google Mobile app.  You might be on the road, but all your documents are stored “in the cloud”.

Evernote (free)
Because fleeting moments of brilliance are just that – fleeting.  Record your every thought via Evernote in a variety of ways, and don’t let those great ideas escape.

Personal Assistant (free)
Let’s face it, who can afford a real personal assistant these days?  Keep track of travel, finances, subscriptions and more.

On The Road

Yelp (free, pictured)
If you’ve yet to explore “Monocle” mode, prepare to be amazed.  Never take your clients to a terrible restaurant again, put the power of peer review to work wherever you are.

Mint.com Personal Finance (free)
If you’re putting in late hours at work and blogging the night away, chances are your personal finances could use a little help.  Let Mint.com pick up the slack.

Kayak Flight and Hotel Search (free)
Whether you are traveling for business, or just getting away, this app will ensure you get the best possible deal.

OpenTable (free)
Your presentation ran long, and you forgot to book reservations for your anniversary dinner?  Never fear, OpenTable will book your table at almost any restaurant you can think of, right on the spot.

That is my list of the 33 best iPhone apps for personal branding.  But, given that there are over 100,000 apps out there, I’m sure I’ve missed a few.  Know of a great app that is absent from the list above?  Let me know in the comments section below – thanks!

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For job-seekers today, the most difficult hurdle to overcome is simply getting noticed.  Even with impeccable credentials, you will need something extra to separate yourself from the stack of identical-looking resumes or business cards on the hiring manager’s desk. Why not try something innovative?  Including a personalized QR Code just might catapult you to the top of the stack.

A QR Code is a 2-dimensional “quick response” bar code that contains a set of data (text, numbers, or a hyperlink).  This data can be decoded by QR Readers, which are widely available as Smartphone apps.  Free options are available for iPhone, Droid, and Blackberry – simply take a picture of the QR Code with the phone’s camera, and the embedded information instantly appears.

If you have a Smartphone, let’s give it a try.  Click on the QR Code to the right, print it out, and scan the image with a QR Reader.  The data embedded within is a hyperlink to this very web page – like magic, it should take you straight to this page from within your phone’s web browser.  Definitely cool, but how can this help your job search?  Here are 3 ways:

1. Include a QR Code within your resume that links to your blog’s “About Me” page.

If you are pumping out awesome, niche-related content, your #1 goal should be directing hiring managers to your blog.  Will they type in a URL included within your paper resume? Maybe, maybe not.  Try capturing their attention by including a QR Code in the header of your resume.  Maybe they won’t scan your QR Code either.  But I guarantee they will take note of this unique aspect of your resume, which in itself is a major victory.

In all instances recommended here, be sure to include both your URL and the QR Code, so those without Smartphones can still reach your web destination.  Also, consider optimizing your blog for mobile browsing.

2.  Include a QR Code on the back of your business card, linking to your blog’s “Contact Me” page.

Chances are strong that the back of your business card is a blank slate, just waiting to be thrust into action.  Why not include a QR Code?  Link to your “Contact Me” page, and encourage folks to actually contact you.  After all, isn’t that why you handed out the card in the first place?  See below for a quick example of what this might look like.

3.  Run a print advertisement in a trade show program or local newspaper, linking to your blog’s “Hire Me” page.

This option works particularly well if your industry holds local trade shows or conferences, and small, cheap ads are readily available.  In this instance, you might be the only individual placing an ad – and if you aren’t, you are certain to be the one to stand out!

An alternative to linking to your “Hire Me” page is linking to a particularly relevant blog post, and making certain that your “Hire Me” call to action is extremely visible.

Want to create your own unique codes?  Try this QR-Code Generator Tool.  To really put this method to the test,  monitor the results of your QR Code placements by using bit.ly to shorten your link before creating the code – and use the bit.ly analytic tools to track specific site visits.

Are you skeptical that QR codes are too obscure to become mainstream?  Just yesterday, Google  sent QR stickers to 100,000 small businesses, for display in storefront windows.  These little codes just might make it big before we know it.

What do you think?  Are these ideas crazy, or just crazy enough to work in one of the toughest job markets in recent memory?

Spark image by JonPayne.

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