First and foremost, I believe social media is extremely important. On a scale of 1-10, I would give it a 9. Contrary to what some might think, this is NOT going away, in fact, it’s a new way of communication. I’ve also seen this overwhelming need to jump on the social media bandwagon, and it doesn’t even matter who ends up managing it.

Next, there has been a rise of social media “managers” and “experts” with little or no business acumen. Quite honestly – this is pathetic and you as a small business are paying way too much money to have Facebook “junkies” create scheduled posts.

So before all the social media experts get mad, let me explain why small businesses should never outsource social media.

You Care More

Let me first start by saying that there’s many people who are passionate, dedicated, and very successful at managing others social media channels. But let’s get real, you as the owner care the most about your business, not someone else. You are the heart and soul; you are the person that customers see on a daily basis. Your personality and service has created your brand. So why are you having someone else managing what is being said online?

I’ve worked with small businesses on their social media presence, but I’ve never managed the daily/weekly posting that should happen on these pages. Why? The truth is, I am not your brand. I am merely someone who you have hired to help you understand the role of social media in your business activities. I will help you with strategy. I will teach you the “dos” and “don’ts”, but I will never manage what you should be doing yourself.

Minimal Time Investment

In all honesty, managing your social media presence should take about ten minutes a day. It should look something like this:

1. Check for updates (notifications)
2. Create a post to connect with your current fans/followers
3. Monitor Conversation (1x/day)
4. Rinse and repeat

Intangible Opportunities

As a small business owner, you have certain experiences on a daily basis that are unique. These should be posted online and used as an opportunity to build your brand. If you have someone else managing your social media, they will not see these events, leading to missed opportunities.

Let’s say you were the person to send an email (or call) your social media “expert” to make these off-the-cuff posts. In reality, you just spent as much time reaching out, as you would creating a post!

Building Fanbase Excuse

Social media experts will throw a lot of numbers and statistics at you, with the intention to earn your business by explaining something you are clueless about. For example, they will say, “I can increase your number of likes.” I’ve seen many of these same people buying “likes” through shady third-party dealers. If you have 1000 fans, and 750 of them are located in India, is that really helping your business in Boston, MA?

From my experience, the only way to increase fans is:

1. Incentives (Coupons, Contests, etc)
2. Creative Content
3. Caring about your Customers

“Management” vs. Consulting

This part is the real kicker. I truly believe there is a role for social media consultants. These people are hired to oversee the strategic development of your social media efforts. They guide you as you navigate your way, teaching you how to post, increase engagement, and get off on the right foot. These contracts will typically last anywhere from a few weeks to a month. As a small business owner, this is a good idea. At the end of the contract, you should understand the basics, and be able to manage your own brand online.

What’s not a good idea is spending $200-$600 dollars a month outsourcing. Put simply, it’s a waste of money. This is what I call “social media management.”

If you are a larger business, management may be a good option, especially if people are interacting with your page on an hourly basis. From my perspective, avoid reoccurring bills at all costs.

Additional Advice

This is not a rant against social media experts, but instead my goal is to help small business owners realize that they can “do” social media, without a huge investment of money or time.

Lastly, if you own a small business, try reaching out to fellow owners. Many of them understand social media and they would probably give you free advice. It’s just a thought

Business Owner? How are you managing your social media presence? By yourself? Or are you hiring someone? Let me know in the comments below.

You see, I truly want to have tight control over my finances (who doesn’t), yet there are so many different traps that await. If I don’t use my card, I’ll be charged. If I overdraw, I’ll be charged. It’s a maze, and I have no loyalty to Bank of America at all.

Banking is a necessary evil, yet why aren’t there companies out there that try to simplify banking? It’s been something I’ve thought about for a while. I think startups are hesitant to challenge “the big guns” because there are countless laws and regulations – where is the freedom to innovate? Also, why can’t 99% of banking be done online? All I need is an ATM for cash, and that’s only 2x/month.

Hello Simple

Meet Simple (formerly Banksimple).

Simple is a new way to bank. Utilizing technology and user-friendly design, Simple seems to be an answer to my desperation with banking. Simple hasn’t launched yet, but they do have some beta users at the moment. There’s not a lot of information on what the backend is like, but this video gives a decent explanation of what they have been working on.

What about Laws & Regulations?

From my perspective, Simple is like the middle-man between a bank and the consumer. They don’t replace a bank, but a partner bank is still necessary in order to “stash the cash.” This is what their website says:

“Simple is not a bank. Simple replaces your bank. We give you the services and support you need to manage, understand, and automate your everyday spending and saving. Meanwhile, your cash is deposited with our bank partners in FDIC-insured products.

Through Simple, you can deposit checks using your smartphone, set up direct deposit, earn interest, pay bills, transfer money, make purchases with your Simple Visa® card, withdraw cash from over 40,000 ATMs, and more. We offer beautifully-designed web and mobile apps, no surprise fees, and real customer service.”

Why didn’t I think of this?

How does Simple make Money?

Simple makes money in two ways. The first is interest margin, which is split between the partner bank and Simple. Next, they make money off interchange, which is revenue earned from the purchases made with the bank’s card. This is also split with the partnering bank.

Since Simple doesn’t have physical locations, it enables them to have much lower overhead, and no hidden fees are the result.

What about Cashing Checks?

Once again, technology changes everything. According to the website:

Have a check? Just take a photo of it with your smartphone and the check will be deposited by our bank partner into your account. Piece of cake. Of course, you can also mail in a check or money order. In the future, we may offer desktop scanning of checks as well.

Extra Awesomeness

Simple also has (what appears to be), an extremely user-friendly app. Also, if you didn’t get a chance to watch the video, Simple has an intuitive way of searching back through past transactions (which are geo-targeted). You can also setup goals and set aside money for upcoming expenditures (something I still haven’t found out how to do with Bank of America’s online banking).

A Perfect Storm

Over the past few years, banking has caused quite a bit of controversy; from the housing market bubble to Occupy Wall Street, banking must change. Simple has over 90,000 people waiting in line, and I see this company exploding in 2012. There’s never been a more opportune time to disrupt banking, and Simple will do just that!

Can someone give me a beta-invite? PLEASE?

Over the past few years, higher education has become more and more expensive. Student debt has passed credit card debt at nearly 1 trillion dollars. Students attend school with the expectation of a good paying job, and when it doesn’t happen, they protest and camp out for months at a time. College has become more outdated, while technology and the internet are offering the world at our fingertips. Something needs to change, and it’s gonna be higher education.

Let me explain why higher education is going to be pummeled over the next decade.

Accessibility of Information

Let’s say the year was 1980, and I had a research project that was due. I would go to the library, sift through books for hours, and hopefully find information that was I could include in my essay. If I couldn’t find anything, I would visit another library and do the same thing again. Now, we have the internet. Search engines enable us to find relevant content in less than a second.

What’s my point?

Learning no longer has geographical limitations. Billions of books are available to us, all we need to do is search. No one is hoarding information, instead it is accessible and easy to find. While this change is less than twenty years old, it sets the stage for the rest of my post.

Quality Teaching

Universities like Harvard, MIT, and Princeton have some of the best professors in the world. They are top-notch, and in the past have only been available to students at these schools. Now, options like MIT OpenCourseware, Yale Courses, Stanford, and Harvard Open Learning are available, all for the low price of FREE. I have access to some of the best teachers in the world; all I need to do is show initiative.

Startups are trying to break into the education market. Companies like Udemy, Khan Academy, and Skillshare are all taught by “teachers” offering content for little or no cost. To be honest, I no longer think students can “blame it on the professor.” I understand that a professor can inhibit learning, but once again, students can learn everything they need to online.

Over the past few months, Sebastian Thrun has stopped teaching at Stanford, and has instead started Udacity. He recently finished up teaching his first class (Introduction to Artificial Intelligence) which had over 160,000 students.

Pace

I think one of the major complaints with education today is that overachieving students are forced to slow down with the pace of the class. While many teachers enable these students to work on other projects, technology has a better solution. Software driven learning has the ability to tailer certain questions to reinforce learning. For college classes, I have used the McGraw-Hill Connect program, and it works decent. Much more should be done, yet I’ve seen great results for the classes I have taken with this program.

Video technology has also allowed students the ability to rewind, and replay lectures. In class I have the tendency to lag behind – it takes time for me to understand concepts. As a result, I can become bewildered. With online education, I have control over how fast or slow I learn.

Lastly, I believe fear plays a significant role. Many students will not ask crucial questions simply because they are scared. As a result, they can miss important concepts and fall behind very quickly, especially when each topic builds on another.

The End Result?

I think these changes are giving the power of learning back to the student. Quality instruction is readily available, all that is required is motivation.

Trust me, technology should not replace human interaction. Classrooms are important for developing social skills, yet I think we will see considerable movement towards “distance learning.” This is exciting; I am able to learn anything/everything I want from the middle of the woods in Maine!

Why do I need to go to Harvard to learn?

Traditional Indexation

In the “good-ol-days” of the internet, publishers would create a new page, and sit and wait for Google crawlers to find and index it. This was a process that required extensive amounts of patience, and sometimes certain pages wouldn’t even be found! Fortunately, we no longer have to deal with this heartache, and we moved onto XML Sitemaps.

XML Sitemaps

XML sitemaps are an easy way to organize the content on your website into xml code. For example, I have used the Yoast WordPress SEO plugin, and the sitemap is easily accessible, with links to all the pages/posts that I have published. This means, when Google bots come to find the content on my website, it’s all available in one central location, and makes crawling easy. Wait, it gets better…

Google Webmaster Tools

If you haven’t already submitted the site to Google Webmaster Tools, I highly suggest doing so. To be honest, any information provided to Google is beneficial for indexation. In addition, website owners have access to important metrics like keyword placement and external domains linking to the site. You can also tell Google where your sitemap is located. When working on a new website, I always setup Google Webmaster Tools as quickly as possible.

SubPubHubbub

Quite possibly one of the strangest names on the interwebs, SubPubHubbub pushes your content (no crawling needed) to a central hub, which is then distributed to RSS readers like Google Reader, Feedburner, and Friendfeed. This is actually my first post using SubPubHubbub, so I’m excited to see how quickly this post is indexed. For WordPress users, there’s an easy plugin you can quickly setup.

Twitter & Google+

For those of you who didn’t know, Facebook posts are not indexed in SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages.) On the contrary, tweets and Google+ posts can be indexed, which gives your page a better chance of ranking. While this method isn’t guaranteed, considerations are taken to these posts, and I’ve personally seen faster indexing after posting my content.

If you are interested in learning more, I highly suggest checking out this SEOmoz post about the SERP potential of these social media channels.

Ping-O-Matic

If your website is built on WordPress, don’t worry about this last option. WordPress sites automatically have Ping-O-Matic installed. Put simply, this service “pings” search engines and notifies them to crawl the pages requested. It’s a great tool, but I advise users to be cautious, simply because if you “ping” too much, it may tip search engines for spam.

In conclusion, it’s worth the effort to make sure your pages are indexed as quickly as possibly by search engines. Take the time, and make sure to use any/all of these tools!

I’ve been working on switching content from one domain to another. I’ve been going back through old websites I’ve designed, trying to make these updates. It’s pretty tedious, but I’m trying to maximize “link juice” to my new website. Link building is a huge priority, and I’ve been thinking of ways to receive links from valuable top level domains (.edu, .gov).

I was sitting in class today, and we needed to create a simple two-page html website, with some links, photos, and paragraphs. It’s something I learned a long time ago, so I was done within a few minutes. We were instructed to upload it to space on a UMaine server.

EUREKA!

This is a amazing link building opportunity. I first started by searching to see if Google bots had picked up other pages on the website. For example, I found my teacher’s personal space (shown below).

I opened up the mozbar (if you don’t have it, you NEED it), and it turns out Maine.edu has a domain authority of 75/100.

Great! So Google bots are picking up the website. Next, I decided to create my content and upload it via ftp. I added links to my social media profiles, as well as a brief description of what I do. I tried to “tie” all of the different profiles I have across the web, in order to create a sense of unity. To see the content I uploaded, visit my Maine Business School page.

Since I hate waiting, I then decided to submit the URL for Google crawlers. I’m not sure how long this will take, but the more information I give Google, the better results I will achieve when link building.

What’s the point of this article? As a college student, there are numerous opportunities to strengthen your online presence. The moral of the story? Always be attentive…even when link building.

Today, instead of counting ceiling tiles, I began to think how lean startup techniques could be applied to a traditional classroom setting. Granted, education is an industry that is extremely resistant to change, but there are ways that teachers can incorporate some of these principals with little resistance from school administration.

Traditional Education

Typically, a professor will lecture for a few weeks, which is then followed by an exam. After grading the exams, the professor is then able to see how well the students performed. If the majority of students performed poorly, the professor is to largely to blame. In the lean startup, it’s extremely important to have a continuous feedback loop. This is called the Build-Measure-Learn loop, and it’s illustrated below.

In education, a professor will build a curriculum for the class. Over the course of the semester, he/she will seek to measure progress by assigning homework, tests, and projects. At the end of the course, the professor will learn if the curriculum/teaching worked or not.

Traditional education offers a few opportunities to modify (or pivot) from the traditional education “process.”

How can this process be sped up exponentially?

How can teachers quickly learn and adapt their curriculum to serve students better?

The Clicker

I’ve only used a clicker for a few lecture classes. For those of you who are unfamiliar with how a clicker works, it’s very simple. The teacher asks questions, and the students respond with the device. The teacher is then able to see how the students answered. Every professor that I had who used the clicker typically asked questions at the end of the class.

This works and provides valuable feedback, yet professors can speed up their learning by using this system multiple times during class. Professors present many different concepts throughout a one-hour class, so it’s critical to “chunk” the class into multiple sections (or learning topics). This accelerates the feedback loop exponentially, enabling the professor to pivot many times throughout the class!

Validated Learning

Education is centered around the final grade. If a student receives an “A”, education would deem that the student has “learned” what is necessary for the class. I find it fascinating how certain students struggle throughout the whole class, while others have no trouble at all. Students shouldn’t be as worried about the final grade, and instead focus on how much they learn throughout the duration of the course (validated learning).

In the real world, this concept plagues many businesses. Generating income ASAP is the main priority, even if it means sacrificing long term financial success. Likewise, I think professors are focused on a student’s short-term performance, instead of long-term success.

The Minimum Viable Product

I think the minimum viable product (MVP) of education is still uncharted territory. Startups are trying to tap into this multi-billion dollar behemoth, yet resistance is strong, and the system is hesitant to change. In my opinion, the success of these startups will be determined by how quickly companies can tailor education on an individual basis.

What are your thoughts? How can teachers use Lean Startup principles to serve students?

Believe me, I’m not gloating about this, but the role of traditional libraries is diminishing very quickly. Think about it – libraries were a place to go and read, a place where you could learn nearly anything under the sun.

The consumer internet is not even twenty years old, yet if I wanted to learn something, I would begin by searching it online. In today’s society where instant gratification is prevalent, why would someone want to sift through books at a library?

I love reading a tangible book, yet I don’t see how this will continue with the rapid advancement of technology. Let me break it down for you…

Kindle Lenders Library

A few months ago, Amazon launched the Kindle Lenders Library, a digital platform that enables Kindle owners + Amazon Prime subscribers the opportunity to “borrow” certain books for free*. The selection is limited (about 1000 titles), but after Amazon successfully negotiates with publishers I expect to see accelerated user adoption (and marketing from Amazon).

Amazon is smart. They understand that content is king, but speed is the catalyst (think 1-click buying, & free 2 day shipping to Prime subscribers). Amazon has cleverly positioned itself to provide “library-like” lending services from the comfort of your home.

How will Amazon put libraries out of business? It’s simple – short iterations. Very few people (right now) would like the disruptive idea of killing libraries, so Jeff Bezos and Co. has decided to begin lending Kindle e-books from your local library.

At the moment, the library is the middle-man between a Kindle user and an E-book. That will change as technology improves, and lending will happen less and less at the local library. Mark my words..

The Growth of E-Books

Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Apple, and Sony are all trying to gain market share in the E-book industry. I did a quick Google search and found a plethora of readers available at very decent price points. Here’s a few that I found:

1. Kindle Fire – $199
2. Kindle Touch – $99
3. Kindle – $79
4. Nook – (Tablet, Color, Touch) $99 – $250
5. Apple iPad – $499
6. Sony Reader – $99

Clearly the cost of a e-book reader has diminished significantly over the past few years, and user adoption has skyrocketed. Look at the growth of Kindle book sales compared to traditional books on Amazon below. Insane!

This isn’t only happening to Amazon. Barnes & Noble earnings show that Nook is a $220 million dollar business! When will this growth plateau? I don’t have a clue..

Save the Trees!

I live in Maine. I’m literally surrounded by trees, but apparently there’s about 30 million trees cut down every year for books in the United States. I’m not a tree hugger, but there will be more pressure to use digital books in the future, it’s just the way our culture is moving. From digital textbooks to E-banking, this trend will only increase. Libraries have a TON of books, but they won’t NEED to have them in the future.

Convenience

I’m a lazy American. Why should I drive to the library when I can read a book from the comfort of my home? I have a Kindle, and the E-Ink technology is mind-blowing. It reads exactly like paper, without the weight. I enjoy reading a book, but the Kindle provides a similar experience.

For those of you who don’t have a e-reader, it’s okay. It just so happens that Amazon has the Kindle Cloud Reader, which allows  users to read books online through the browser. The barriers to reading a Kindle e-book is extremely low, and many titles are cheaper than the tangible copy ($2 – $5). There’s really very little to lose, other than the weight of a book. Once again, Amazon’s short iterations are converting more and more die-hard book users into Kindle fans.

In the future, I see this trend exploding (even more than it already is). What are your thoughts? Is Amazon poised to put libraries out of business?

What happens next?

Start drawing. Seriously…

I’m not going to lie; I’m a horrible artist who draws stick figures like a five-year-old child, yet you need to start prototyping your business model asap. It’s critical for the health of your business idea or innovation. You need visuals as a reference point, but what steps can you follow as our idea moves down the pipeline from idea to reality? It’s a tough question, and many entrepreneurs will have differing opinions on what will work, but let’s look at a few steps to speed the process along.

(Disclaimer: I’m a firm believer in the power of the human creativity, as opposed to many who believe a “step-by-step process” is the way to go).

Napkin Sketch the Idea

The napkin sketch is where the business model takes shape. This rough, rudimentary outline is where your idea is born, so only highlight a few key attributes. Your napkin sketch should contain the following:

• The Basic Idea (keep it short and sweet – a sentence is perfect)
• Value Proposition (what sets your product/service apart from the competition?)
• Revenue Stream (How are you gonna make money?)

Refine the Business Model

Start refining your business model, there’s many more elements that need to be addressed before any testing is done. I highly recommend using the Business Model Canvas, it contains nine elements that every startup should take into consideration. These elements are:

1. Customer Segments – What’s your target audience?
2. Value Proposition – What differentiates your business from the competition?
3. Channels – How will you reach your target audience?
4. Customer Relationships – How will you treat your customers? 
5. Revenue Streams – How will you make money?
6. Key Resources – What technology or skills can you leverage to create the value proposition?
7. Key Activities – What is the most important thing that makes your business model work?
8. Key Partnerships – What partners/suppliers make your business tick?
9. Cost Structure – How are you gonna make money?

Still have questions? Watch this video. As you design, remember to create as many business models as possible, and don’t discard “pointless” ideas yet. There’s still much testing to do, and in reality, your target audience may want something completely different.

Examine Financial Potential

Now it’s time to start using the calculator (or an Excel spreadsheet). Start by calculating potential revenues, costs, and the break-even point. At this point in time, you still don’t know exactly how your target audience will respond, yet run tests based on your assumptions. Feel free to use the Business Model Canvas listed above as a reference point, and keep testing. If certain models are not viable, put them on the back-burner, yet never scrap an idea completely unless you have considerable evidence that it will not work.

Field-Test

There are a plethora of ways to field test and idea, yet always remember to listen to your customers. Test each part of your business model, and make sure to ask questions. Don’t be assertive. Instead, listen, take notes, and seek to find trends of concern with your business model. With every question, seek to learn something new. If you have additional questions on field testing, I highly suggest checking out the Lean Startup Book.

Building a startup is filled with risk, yet working out the kinks as early as possible can get you started on the right foot. I hope you enjoyed this, and feel free to give feedback in the comments below!

After looking at the recent news, it’s becoming more and more apparent that age-old industries (like the paper mills), are failing Maine workers, leaving many unemployed. It’s sad and unfortunate, yet instead of looking at the dismal news, we should focus instead on what the state of Maine is largely comprised of – small business owners and entrepreneurs.

Maine Entrepreneurship is Growing

Entrepreneurship programs in Maine are growing – last week the Blackstone Group presented a $3 million dollar grant to foster entrepreneurship in Maine, with a particular focus on Innovation Engineering and the Top Gun Program. While Innovation Engineering focuses on advancing innovation inside of a organization, Top Gun is designed to empower entrepreneurs to establish businesses (specifically scalable businesses).

On November 4-5th, the Juice Conference will be conducting a business plan competition, with the winners walking away with $150,000 dollars. In additional, there will be the annual USM Business Plan Competition, the Maine Business Challenge, and other competitions geared towards college students.

There’s a Problem

Why do I think there’s a problem? It’s simple. I believe these programs (as awesome as they are), are focusing on creating entrepreneurs in a place that perceives starting a business as “risky” and idolizes the graduates who work their way up the corporate ladder. Please don’t get me wrong – college students can be entrepreneurs, yet we must look at alternative education (specifically technical education) as a goldmine of opportunity.

Many people know Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard, but did you know that he started a company that was acquired by Microsoft before he graduated high school? My point is that becoming an entrepreneur is not an event, but instead a process that culminates throughout someone’s life. Considering there’s over 95% of small businesses in Maine, shouldn’t we be focusing on fostering entrepreneurship a little more……..earlier?

Entrepreneurs don’t sit in classrooms, they create, build, fail, and start again.

My Technical Education Experience

I attended United Technologies Center for my junior & senior year of high school. Halfway through my senior year I noticed that high school sporting events weren’t being promoted, so I decided to start a website called GiveMEsports. I attended local sporting events, where I videotaped and posted the video online for download.

It was a great experience, I visited local businesses and tried earnestly to get sponsors for certain broadcasts. I shut down the website before I left for college, but in 6 months, I had 400 registered users, and nearly 20,000 pageviews with one sponsor (t-shirts).

Technical Education enabled me to devote two hours a day to the project – as long as I was productive and could account for my work, I was allowed to work at my own pace. My teacher was a great resource, and she provided her knowledge and expertise to assist my project.

I can’t imagine how different the outcome would have been if I had attended a traditional high school. Who could I have received advice from? My math teacher wouldn’t understand website design – who would I have consulted?

Mentorship is the Difference

Mentorship works. Programs like Y Combinator, Techstars, and 500 Startups all have mentors to guide entrepreneurs through the risky process of building a product/service that people actually want. Technical Education also has the keys for success- teachers typically have years of experience working in a specific trade, and they understand what it takes to succeed. In addition, they have connections, and can introduce competent students with a possible job or internship opportunity.

Low Risk

College students are viewed as optimal candidates to work on a startup, they typically don’t have a full-time job, many expenses, or the time commitment of marriage. I believe that with the rising cost of student debt, more and more college students are desperately trying to find a “steady” job when they graduate – and stray away from the risk of starting their own business. 

High school students are now the “low-risk” individuals – with the power of the internet, they have the potential to take college level classes online (i.e. – MIT Opencourseware, Stanford E-Corner, etc) for free. A motivated student can accelerate learning…in high school.

Untapped Potential

Technical education is not a utopia of learning, and the truth is that many students are reluctant to learn (just like traditional education), yet there is untapped potential to build something great. I am extremely fortunate to have attended United Technologies Center, and I would like to give back to students and teachers as much as possible. I believe in technical education, and I know that I can help grow entrepreneurship by doing what I can. So here’s my plan:

The FreshLearner Plan

I enjoy building websites, creating marketing campaigns, and videotaping whatever suits my fancy – so I’ll focus my passion on finding and highlighting students who are finding (or have found) success in the world of technical education. I’ll put a particular focus on students with a passion for entrepreneurship, and blog about the results.

In additional to highlighting these students, I eventually would like to pursue small amounts of funding (and apply for scholarships). With this money, I would like to create a small fund, in which, students are infused with a small amount of cash ($100-$250). If the student(s) are savvy and use the money wisely, they will then be eligible for a larger amount of cash. I have no idea how I’m going to raise money, yet If I was a high school student and someone invested in my idea, I would be very excited.

I’ve already started a blog called FreshLearner, and will utilize current connections to get my foot in the door – United Technologies Center will be my “test run” and will hopefully expand to other tech centers in the near future. I’ll keep you posted on my research!

 What are your thoughts on Entrepreneurship in Maine? Do you agree or disagree with my article? Let me know in the comments below!

Many students have the impression that a great job is going to fall out of the sky, when really that is far from the truth. According to the Bureau of Labor, the unemployment rate is 9%, and is lowered to 5% upon graduation with a 4 year degree. Personally, I would prefer to work at a place that I enjoy; a place where I feel like my opinion is valued and considered. If you have the same desire as I do, you must set yourself apart from your peers. You must create a personal brand.

What is Personal Branding?

Personal Branding is the way you market yourself to the world, both personally and professionally. Imagine yourself as a brand; what makes you different from your friends? Why should someone hire you? What knowledge and experience can you bring to the table?

Imagine everything you look for in a product; it needs to be unique, fun, worthwhile, valuable, and able to get the job done. Likewise, you should market yourself in a similar manner.

How Should I Start?

If you are a college student, you are probably between the ages of 18-24. I’m sure you have had experiences and opportunities to partake in something that you were passionate about. It may have been volunteering at a soup kitchen, or teaching soccer to a group of rowdy young kids, but there are certain hobbies that you are passionate about. View your passion(s) as your mission and vision. A company will create a mission and vision statement – you should do the same. The mission statement will be a short few sentences explaining your purpose. My mission and vision is “To build businesses in Maine and assist non-profits…to be creative and challenge the conventional.“

Create a Strategy

What are you doing right now? Do the activities that you participate in build on your mission and vision? Are there opportunities to build your personal brand? Create a short and long term strategy outlining what you would like to accomplish in the next few years. Be reasonable with your goals, yet don’t be afraid to “shoot for the stars.”

Start Building Your Brand

How can you show future employers that you are serious about getting your “dream job?” Start showing that you are passionate. There are a few simple ways to accomplish this:

1. Start Blogging

Imagine the situation: You send a resume to a job that you’ve been dying to get. On the resume is a link to your personal website, which includes everything that you have been involved in (both personally and professionally). To top it off, you have a blog where you have multiple posts about your passion. It turns out, that your passion aligns perfectly with the company goals, and the next day you are hired. In my experience, blogging has been extremely beneficial – I’ve become a better writer. I’ve also gained business opportunities, and networked with individuals all over the world. Be warned, blogging may not come naturally, yet over time (like everything), it can be something you enjoy.

2. Create/Update your LinkedIn Profile

If you haven’t heard, a LinkedIn profile is extremely important to your personal brand. Many employers are using LinkedIn to find the perfect hire. A LinkedIn profile is a virtual resume, and make sure you portray yourself in a professional manner. Also consider joining LinkedIn groups, and network and converse with others who have similar passions.

3. Network Locally

It’s great to develop connections over the internet, yet make sure you set time aside to get off campus and network locally. It’s extremely important to meet up with others, it’s a great chance to work on your networking skills. I used to hate talking to someone I didn’t know, but over time (and with a little motivation), networking becomes exciting. I’ve also learned it’s good to ask questions – don’t pretend to know everything. Make sure you have business cards with your name, email address, and website URL, and make sure you follow up with them after the event is done.

 4. Read Stuff

Take time to read the latest news, both locally and nationally. Stay updated on current events, these can be your best talking points when networking. Also, make sure to read magazines, books, and research on your passion. Study what experts have to say, and don’t be afraid to develop your own pattern of thought. If you disagree with an expert, write a blog post explaining your point of view. The individuals I follow are Paul Graham, Gary Vaynerchuk, and Seth Godin.

5. Be Social Media Savvy

Every time I see party photos, I want to cry. Silly college student, don’t you know that 50% of potential employees are rejected after the potential employer visits their Facebook profile? Did you also know that nearly 50% of employers will preview you on Facebook or Twitter before they hire you? Don’t post party photos, and please, if you do, have the decency to hide them from the public (and your mom). Learn how to use privacy settings – your future job may hinge on it.

Above all, work hard. Unless your grandparents owned oil wells, don’t expect everything to be handed to you on a silver platter. If you don’t want to work hard, maybe you should find something that you are passionate about. When you find it, start building your personal brand, and maybe you’ll land the job of your dreams.

What other ways can you build your personal brand? Let me know in the comments below!