next week, i'll be doing a session in NYC for about 110 interns in the PR field at an event called Internfest which is hosted by the Council of PR Firms. my topic? using social media to brand oneself.
i'm going to bet that on the minds of pretty much most, if not every one, of these 110 interns is finding a job once they are done with school. some of them might have already graduated and are just biding their time in internships. but i'm sure... every single one of them wants a job. but when the market is saturated with candidates upon candidates, i'm sure all of them are wondering what can they really do to set themselves apart?
for now, my best answer is social media. especially in the PR world, it has to be social media. if you can brand yourself, position yourself, advocate for yourself, then you are showing employers that you could do the same for their clients and their issues or products or services. it's as simple as that.
but can social media alone get anyone a job? not really. and i'll be plenty clear on that... you can craft this online persona that grabs at people, that makes them believe you've got something, maybe even make them believe that you're an expert, but it has to match your offline/real life persona. and if it doesn't, then you're kind of screwed.
not that i'm not an expert though... but i've certainly had a. lot. of. koolaid... making me a total believer in using social media to brand oneself. i've also done a good job of this myself - so i'm a living example... and i've figured out how to use social media for employment branding as well... but for this session next week, i guess i need to step back and look at what i've done for myself and my company, take those lessons and then figure out how to steer the conversation into a practical one in which i share with these 110 eager interns how they can do it themselves too.
the catch for this session? no PowerPoint deck! eek! given some constraints with the room set up and such, i am the show. yikes! and i've got 30 minutes to wow them... but i don't want to talk about me the whole time though and how i've done it - so what do you suggest i fold into this discussion? and for leave behinds, what should i provide? i'm certainly going to link them to folks like Dan Schawbel and his personal branding empire... but what else?
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