Get Noticed - Part II

Let us do a simple If-Then-Else statement. Following the last blog,

IF I follow all of the rules mentioned in the blog

THEN I should get noticed & the greener pastures all mine for the taking

Nope! Unfortunately it doesn't work this way. As rightly pointed out in a comment on the previous blog, those are but common courtesies one has to extend in any civilized society and an online persona that one builds should follow suit. Now what can one do?

ELSE??

Getting noticed encompasses a wide area, one needs to get noticed at workplace, one needs to get noticed by the right people, one needs to get noticed for the right reasons, one needs to get noticed in the personal front - with families & friends, one needs to get noticed online etc, the list could be endless. If I pick to talk about all of these topics, I would most probably have to write a saga and definitely bore you to death. So I will pick one, getting noticed online.

The most impactful of by-products of the times that we live in, is perhaps the ability to be anonymous. The ability to be connected to a vast majority of individuals without having to ever face them in person. This anonymity has its blessings but, as is with life wherein all good things come with a catch, it could be a bane as well. They would never get to experience first hand, all that makes me "me". May never see me work under pressure, never see how innovative I could be, how I could take failures and bounce back, they don't get to see how bad I am at coordinating colours on a PPT (which, of course, could work in my favour), all that one sees is what one puts forth as an online persona.

Here are, what I hope, some useful pointers that have helped me or I have noticed others use and have shamelessly copied.

Make yourself real:

I love this one so much, that I am making it my first point.

Recently, I received a request to connect and once I approved I received a customized message from the person thanking me for accepting his request. While this was impressive enough, he included a message in the postscript, it was a short message stating what his magic three points for life were. Needless to say, I was impressed. Not just because he sent a thank you message but because he shared a part of him with me. He shared something that he believed and modelled his life on. Thereby, making him very real to me.

We are social beings, we like to connect, we like to know each other's stories, we like to be real - so, find a way to make yourself real.

Network Aggressively:

Don't be selfish. I know folks who log into social media of any kind and are just interested in the number of likes on their posts or pictures. This may go well with our whole "selfie" culture and stroke our ego etc but let me tell you folks, this is not going to make anyone want to be interested in you (sorry, true story).

Visit other people' profiles, find out what has been happening in their professional careers, wish someone who has had a recent job change, congratulate someone who has a work anniversary, read what someone else in your network publishes, take the time to let them know what you think of what they have said. In short, do what you are in a platform like LinkedIn to do, network. Build your online presence & network aggressively.

Most often than not we give excuses that we do not have enough time in the day, I find that setting aside even 15 mins in the day helps, so copy the approach if that will suit you.

Connect via multiple platforms

One of the ways in which I have found it easier to ensure a quick recall value is to stay connected over multiple platforms. I had met someone working with LinkedIn at a conference (where I spoke about Diversity) and, as it happens during such events, we exchanged contacts, promptly added each other to our professional network and forgot all about it. A few weeks ago LinkedIn has this campaign during which they encouraged questions/discussions on Twitter over the topic of Employer branding, since this is the area of my new role, I was very interested. During the course of the Q&A I found that the very same person I had met months ago (& promptly forgotten) was someone who could be the one who could answer many of the questions plaguing me - Hallelujah! Right there my life was made easy.

How does this example fit in with the whole topic of getting noticed you might ask, it does, for one reason. In the mind of the other person, since I spoke about Diversity, I worked in the area of Diversity & that was that. But by connecting over a different topic, in a different forum, I have established the fact that I wear many hats and hence getting twice the benefit - the recall of me having addressed on the topic of diversity & also that I work in the area of Employer branding. Very much like somehow getting to hit two sixes in one ball.

Promote yourself

Sometimes, some of us, might suffer from a false sense of modesty. My convent education taught me to be humble, that only the meek shall inherit the earth & all that jazz. Trust me, it doesn't work like that. Celebrate your successes, write about them, write articles on the subject that you are an expert on or really good at doing, publish that certificate you worked hard to get, and go out there and ask for that endorsement - my convent education also did teach me that you need to ask in order to receive.

Promote yourself consistently

Many of us use platforms like LinkedIn only when we want to (refer to the point on networking), one cannot promote oneself only when they want a job and then leave things be until the next time a job hunt is in the horizon. Promoting oneself takes time & needs to be done consistently & continuously. By promoting oneself, we are making a promise, a promise of an online presence. After making this promise, one cannot disappear.

Let us say, I had written about Part I of this blog and promised Part II & then disappeared. Next time you see something from me, you would operate from a place of not great trust - I did break my word and I have only myself to blame. So get into the game, only if you are going to keep at it.

I am going to stop at this and ask you to suggest if there is anything else that you do that works for you and would help others too. And I shall follow up with another article in the coming week.

Stopping here, cause I have some endorsement requests waiting to be sent out to you folks :) Happy Networking everyone!