I’m seeing more of these “mistakes”. (Mistakes imho)

• Folks put their “corporate” twitter on LinkedIn. It’s not “yours”; it’s corporate pr.

• Folks put their “personal” twitter on LinkedIn. With all the “social updates”. That definitely won’t help your “brand”.

(You know I disagree that you can “brand” yourself. A “brand” is a collective typing of related things to convey a standardization and imply value — Kellogg’s cereals, Big Bertha golf clubs, Hilton Hotels. You’re unique; you must sell your unique value equation <UVE>. You can have “attributes” which can be “standardized” (i.e., Degree; PMP; Outward Bound survivor); you can fashion your own UVE-advanicing attributes — if you can prove, demonstrate, or have external validation. But you can’t brand yourself imho. “Image creation”, maybe.)

• Folks put their “corporate” web page on LinkedIn. It’s not “yours”; it’s also corporate pr. (You are NOT your job.)

• Folks put their “personal” web page on LinkedIn. Or worse, FACEBOOK with “social updates”. Or worst, MYSPACE.

• Folks mix up their LinkedIn & Facebook effort. I tell my turkeys to use a “professional name” like Ferdinand J. Reinke and “personal name” like Fjohn Reinke to make it more difficult to “align” information. With different pictures. (My tin foil hat says that’s like a finger print. And folks use the same profile photo.)

• Folks put up the corporate email address on LinkedIn and / or Facebook. Or they use an email connected to something other than their own domain. (No joke; actually saw ‘studmuff @ free mail service dot com. Great image maker; not! Have also seen worse, but can’t cite them in mixed company.)

(I suggest that everyone have your own domain! The common wisdom, or is that common whizdumb, is to own your own name as a domain name. I own “reinke.cc”. (I like saying “sea sea me at reinke.cc”! me@reinke.cc will actually work!) I gives one quite a bit of control. And, it’s very cheap. I know three solutions at 15$/year using wordpressdotcom with gmail, 25$/year email only with 1and1, and 60$/year for domain+email+webspace also at 1and1. My point is not that you should use 1and1. I could care less which one you use. It’s that getting on to your own domain with email is cheap and easy. And, it’s not hotmail, yahoo, or gmail. It IS your own “personal permanent eternal locator”.)

I also caution that NO dikw (i.e., data, information, knowledge, wisdom) should be put online with out careful consideration. I use the “Mom test”. Would I be happy to show this item to my now deceased Mother? She expected the best from me at all time. That’s the standard I try to use.

• Folks don’t have a personal web site with all the good content that they create. Sanitized if done for work. Everything can be used if if is designed to communicate DIKW for the benefit of the reader. (I really don’t care if it is “how to clean a toilet”. Any thing can advance your image as a caring communicating human being who shares.)

Just some thoughts.

FWIW,
fjohn
the big fat old turkey hisself

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