A Résumé or a Social Media Portfolio?

March 28th, 2008 by

I’ve been following a few posts that have been debating the purpose of having a resume in this world of social media. In Seth Godin’s post, “Why bother having a resume;?”, he posits:

I think if you’re remarkable, amazing or just plain spectacular, you probably shouldn’t have a resume at all.

The rationale? It’s an excuse to reject you. A resume makes you ordinary.

And I agree.

Having a boring, play by the rules resume can be the kiss of death. resume, personal brand When I was a hiring manager at my last company, I had a recruiter begging me to meet with a candidate of his for a technical marketing position I had open. I told him based on her resume, she didn’t have the qualifications. But he convinced me, I met with her and we hired her because of her personality (she fit right in) and she was extremely intelligent. In the end, she was a rock star! What a shame it would have been to have passed over this candidate (and thank goodness the recruiter was a good sales person!).

If you are remarkable, you need to market yourself in a way that you stand out from the ordinary and be noticed by those who are interested in your products and services. Whether you own your business or are marketing yourself to a company to get your dream job, you need to develop and nurture your personal brand to build visibility and credibility.

But just like the world isn’t totally ready to abandon traditional marketing activities for a plan of exclusively social media, the world is not totally ready to abandon the traditional resume for a purely social media portfolio. Even Google requires a resume!

Everyone, whether you are an independent professional, business owner, or entrepreneur, should have the following in your social media portfolio:

  • Complete profiles on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and other social networks relevant to your expertise.
  • A blog written with authenticity and expertise.
  • An about page on your blog that gives the reader a sense about who you are.
  • Comments on other blogs within your expertise that are thoughtful, professional and add value to the blog.
  • Put presentations you’ve given up on SlideShare and link to them from your About page. If you have a recording of the presentation, you can sync the audio with the slides.

For those seeking a new career opportunity, add your well-developed resume to the mix.

There is certainly more you can do, like develop a regular podcast, but you should create the basics and keep adding to them.

Then when someone is interested in what you have to offer, hand them the resume with a list of all the places they can find examples of what you can do on the Internet.

Posted in Personal Brand | Permalink | 5 Comments »
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  • http://www.linkedin.com/in/rogerwp Roger Pilney

    Great article. I have been suggesting this way of things as well for a while. Great minds think alike! :)

  • http://www.sleepywhisper.com/guy Guy Cross

    Great ideas.
    I am certainly going to take these on board. I am going to use the link above to develop an online portfolio page.

    Guy

  • http://masterful-marketing.com Debra

    Roger and Guy – thanks!

    Interesting that this post was written a year ago and nothing much has changed. The only thing I might add now is to use your domain name of your name to create a centralized hub for your social media presence and add video in place of a podcast. Otherwise, the advice still holds true.

    Cheers!

  • http://www.cminyc.com Brian Jones

    This is an interesting phenomenon. Everyone is unique and special, but maybe NOT remarkable or spectacular. If everyone was “remarkable or spectacular,” there would be no differentiation. So it’s really a matter of distinction and positioning rather than being #1.

    • http://masterful-marketing.com Debra

      Hi Brian,

      I agree with you. I reserve remarkable, amazing and spectacular for Bono, Tom Brady and Tiger Woods ;-) . However, part of your marketing activity is to define what makes you unique. This characteristic may not be remarkable, amazing or spectacular but does separate you from the rest. Something as simple as caring more about your clients than your competition can set you apart.

      Thanks for the RT for this post as well!

      Cheers,
      Debra