10 Plus Reasons You Need A Digital Presence

Friday night I spoke at a career conference. This week I have a new business call. Neither of which would have happened without my digital presence. 

The conference happened because of a Facebook connection who had been following me. It was because she liked what I shared and how I presented myself that I received the invitation to speak.

The second was the result of a Google search for digital profiles that brought up a Forbes article I had written. They liked what they read enough to research a bit more about me  - online - after which they reached out in an email.

That's enough to convince me that the time I spend on my digital self is worthwhile. But perhaps you are not as easily convinced. For you, I offer ten more reasons.

• You are your own brand. Jobs will come and go but the brand that stays with you forever is you. Today the way you, as a brand, show up online is as important as the way you show up in person.
• Your online footprint is a reflection of who you are, what you've done and what you'd like to do.
• If you don’t tell the story you want people to find - Google will.
• 94% of recruiters use or plan to use social media in their recruitment efforts.
• Prospective clients, employers and business opportunities are searching for you - online - in advance of a meeting just as they do with any major purchase.
• The lack of a digital presence sends a signal you may have something to hide.
• Traditional resumes are a formality. They don’t engage - they bore. 
• Sharing is the new currency in a digital world. Your digital presence allows you to share your views and relevant content with like minded people and to position yourself as an expert and influencer. It's an opportunity to grow your business and expand your networks.
• The line is increasingly blurred between professional you and personal you. You may run your company - but your company's brand presence alone is not enough.
• First impressions still count. The difference is now they happen on line.

The reality is - no matter who you are - business professional  to entrepreneur - CEO to salesperson - your digital you opens doors, creates new connections and keeps you marketable and relevant. It deserves your time.

The Way

When I first started working at CBS in the late eighties I was introduced to The Way.  The Way referred to how we did business. Adapting to the way and understanding the way was in direction proportion to the way you fared in the company.

I welcomed the way.  The company I worked at previously was at the time a fledgling broadcaster. There was no way there. You made up the way as you went along.

The idea of a having a distinct set of rules and parameters seemed refreshing to me. I didn't question the way, at least not immediately. After all CBS had a history of success. Whatever the way was it must be the right way. Sounds rather naive now, doesn't it?

When we 'merged' with Westinghouse in the early nineties I saw for the first time what happens when two different ways join. It didn't take long before it was clear that the Westinghouse way was the new direction. There was nothing particularly new or innovative about their way. It was just a different way. Some things would prove beneficial  and others, like the brief period they decided to list the new company as Westinghouse, only to discover it did not help the stock price because people thought of Westinghouse as light bulb manufacturers and not broadcasters, would prove short lived.

But it was also the first time I started to hear the choruses of but that is not the way we do things and but we've always done it like this among my colleagues, myself included.  Change was coming and it didn't feel as exciting and wonderful as it was being spun.

I thought about that time today when I was reading about  Lewis D'Vorkin's new editorial model for the Forbes website in Advertising Age.  I'm still not clear on how innovative it actually is. From my advertising and writing background it seems to be putting the television concept of paid advertorials on line in the form of advertiser provided blogs. The controversial part, as it always has been in television, is how to make clear the distinction between what is unbiased news and what is advertising.

In any case I can hear the internal chorus of that is not they way things are done here all the way uptown. Change is uncomfortable. Change is questioned. Change is resisted.  Change is scary.

And we never really know for sure as change is occurring that it is the right way to go. Sometimes we fall flat on our faces. But shaking up the way things have been done is a necessary part of our culture at this moment in time. So we try.

What I learned from those naive CBS days is that sometimes having a way is good and sometimes being able to make it up as you go is even better. But doing something just because that is the way we've always done it is never good. And in today's ever changing world serves no one, least of all ourselves.


What are you doing today just because it's "the way" you always have?
What one thing can you try that will be different?

What If Working For "The Man" Was Working For "The Woman"?

There are a lot of things that will catapult one to reinvention. But when it comes to career reinvention, especially for us Corporate expatriates, most will agree that the idea of working for "the man" ever again brings on a raging headache and nausea. 

Anyone who chooses their career as their point of reinvention experiences stress. The fears of failure, the financial worries, the self questioning.  They might talk about, but it rarely shows on their face, at least not the way you or they remember it did when they held that corporate job. I'll let you in on the reason 

reinventors are generally such happy people. The stress of ever working for  "the man" again is far greater than the stress of recreating their lives.  They are doing what they want to do, their way, on their time schedule. What makes them smile, that look they have that makes you wonder if they had a face lift since the last time you saw them is because they are no longer working for "the man." 

What I want to know is why we call it working for "the man" and not for "the woman" ? And if we did, would there be as many of us willing to flee the steady paycheck and health benefits?

If working for "the man " is no longer gender specific and refers to the Corporate structure that creates cultures based on driving stock prices, managing with a sharpened pencil, eliminating waste  and making sure those in control get big bonuses, why is it when I write working for "the women" it sounds so much less ominous?

There are a lot of women running  corporations now, enough to warrant their own list of the most powerful in Forbes. But it hasn't been that long.  Things really only started changing in this country for women in the 1960s. Fifty years is a speck in time when you consider we are now living in the 21st Century. Not long enough for us to stop referring to it as "the man."

This morning I watched a video of Eve Ensler  at TED  on the subject of Embracing Your Inner Girl. She talks about how we are all brought up, men and women "not to be a girl". It got me thinking maybe that's it. Maybe that's the very simple reason we say it's working for "the man".  And maybe if as she says we all valued the girl gene in us a little more, it wouldn't sound so ominous. Maybe we might even start mixing it up and call it working for "the woman."