By Lindsey Pollak

In recent years, social media has transformed from a convenient way for college friends to stay in touch to an essential tool for professional networking and personal branding. In her new book, Social Networking for Career Success: Using Online Tools to Create a Personal Brand, career expert Miriam Salpeter shares the ins and outs of social networking.

Miriam was kind enough to answer some of my questions about how young professionals can maximize their professional use of social media.

LP: What does social networking have to do with career success?

MS: In a competitive market, success seekers need to do what they can to differentiate themselves and highlight their value propositions. Social networking is an amazing tool to do just that. Here are two major reasons why: 1) social media offers users a chance to share their expertise and 2) using these tools can connect them to people they would probably never otherwise know; those people may be exactly the ones to introduce careerists to a targeted contact.

LP: How can people use social media to illustrate their expertise?

MS: All of the networks I highlight in the book, especially LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and blogging, make it easy to let your network know what you do and how you solve problems. Sharing expertise can be as easy as sharing a link to a relevant article along with a smart comment on Facebook or Twitter. It’s as simple as answering a question via LinkedIn with insight and expert information. Don’t underestimate the potential these connections may offer.

LP: What’s the best social network for job seekers?

MS: The first place job seekers should spend time is on LinkedIn. It is the go-to hub of professional networking and continues to expand the ways it allows job seekers to connect and extend their networks, especially via the Answers section and by using Groups.

That said, my favorite network is Twitter, because it is so open, and allows users to find, follow and interact with people they otherwise would never know. Once users find a community of people in their field to follow and communicate with, Twitter can provide a constant stream of information, professional development opportunities (right on your desktop), information about specific jobs and the chance to connect directly with colleagues, mentors and prospective bosses.

LP: Most young professionals are primarily active on Facebook. Can that site be used in a professional way? If so, how?

I admit, I hesitated at first to suggest using Facebook for professional reasons. However, when you think of the sheer number of people using Facebook (so many more than any other network), and the fact that 27% of firms locate hires via personal referrals from employees, it makes sense to “be where they are” and consider how to harness Facebook’s power for job hunting.

I advise readers to do a careful audit of their Facebook profiles and to remove anything a potential employer may consider objectionable. This includes photos inappropriate for professional environments, “trash-talking” comments, excessive negative comments (no one wants to hire Debbie Downer) and memberships in groups such as “I hate Mondays” or “Working is for suckers.”

I advise setting privacy settings for “just friends” for everything except for “About Me” (write a professional bio), “Education and Work” and “Contact Info.” Opening these sections to “everyone” helps recruiters using Facebook find you and also allows various Facebook applications, such as BranchOut, Jibe.com and SimplyHired.com’s Facebook tool to connect you with potential opportunities.

LP: You say social media can connect people to others they’d otherwise never meet. How can that help a young job seeker?

MS: Any job seeker or business owner’s goal is to be found. Malcolm Gladwell’s book, The Tipping Point, outlines how important it is to broaden your network – to meet and connect with “weak ties,” people who previously had no direct relationship with you – in order to find contacts who can help. Touching base with people beyond your immediate network may be just the thing you need to connect with someone who can really help you propel your plans forward.

Another thing many not already involved in social media don’t realize: online connections have a tendency to be extremely generous and willing to help. The book is full of stories of people who received crucial help from strangers online.

• Phil knows his unique value proposition. When it comes to personal branding — an essential element of career success in the 21st century — it’s very important to differentiate yourself, to know what you do better than anyone else. Phil has this nailed. According to his website, Phil is “the only true weather forecasting groundhog.” I challenge you to create such a succinct and compelling pitch!

• Phil employs an online and offline personal branding strategy. In addition to being clear on his unique abilities, Phil is smart about employing in-person and online efforts to connect with people. In recent years, he has become savvy about leveraging his annual in-person (in-groundhog?) event online by broadcasting a live webcast, managing an informative website and frequently updating his Facebook fan page. How can you better combine your online and offline networking or personal branding efforts?

• Phil delivers on his promises. There are few things more irritating to an employer than an employee who overpromises and underdelivers. If you say, “I’ll have that report to you by Friday,” don’t send it the following Monday. Phil understands the importance of reliability. Looking back at the history of his work, you can see that Phil always emerges from his burrow on February 2 between 7:20 – 7:30am and makes his annual prediction. Where in your career can you do a better job of setting and meeting expectations?

• Phil surrounds himself with supporters. Did you ever notice all the guys in top hats surrounding Phil during his big moment? These men are known as Phil’s Inner Circle, and although I personally would like to see more gender, ethnic and generational diversity on his team, I commend Phil on knowing that no one can be a star performer alone. We all need a strong group of mentors, advisers, friends and colleagues to support us on the good days (early spring!) and bad (six more weeks of winter). Do you have a deep bench of supporters helping you as your career grows?

• Phil “does less and accomplishes more.” As previously mentioned, Phil works just one day a year for a few minutes (and people thought The 4-Hour Workweek was radical!), but he is undoubtedly at the top of his profession. While I’m not suggesting we should all adopt Phil’s schedule, I do think his success is a nice reminder that working smarter, not harder, is a worthy goal for us all. Is there an area of your career where you can do less and accomplish more?

Happy Groundhog Day!

Free Personal Branding eBook

Here is some info about the book from PwC:

In today’s competitive environment, students need a way to differentiate themselves from their peers. They need an “X” factor that makes them indispensable. In short, they need a personal brand.

Personal branding can be a powerful tool for professional success. Personal branding is not simply a cosmetic exercise but instead a process that helps to develop skills that increase the potential of standing out in the crowded job market.

As one of the largest employers of college graduates in the United States, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) has unique insights into what makes students stand out. But we’re not keeping those insights to ourselves.

In February 2010, PwC launched Personal Brand Week and dedicated each day to a different theme. The response from across the country was overwhelmingly positive. And now we’re taking it one step further and sharing the best personal branding tips and worksheets with you in this e-book.

Free Personal Branding eBook

In this podcast, we define personal branding, talk about Pete’s own personal branding process and explain why students and young professionals need to think about your personal brand — especially the image you’re projecting online.

For more on this topic, here are two great new resources that can help you create and enhance all aspects of your personal brand:

PricewaterhouseCoopers Personal Brand Week – a terrific collection of downloadable worksheets to help you create an elevator pitch, express your passion, build a network, promote yourself online and more. PwC is also collecting free personal branding advice on Twitter with the hashtag #pwcpbw.

Student Branding Blog – a new resource expressly designed to help college students with personal branding. This site was created by Dan Schawbel, who also launched the Personal Branding Blog.

Click here to listen to this week’s podcast.

How have you approached personal branding as a student or young professional? As always, I welcome your comments below!

Event: Personal Branding & Networking Panel, organized by Step Up Women’s Network
Time & Date: Tuesday, April 14th.  Networking reception begins at 6pm.  Panel runs from 7 – 9pm.
Location: NYU Stern School of Business, Henry Kaufman Management Center, 44 West 4th St (corner of Greene)

Event Description: Now more than ever, personal branding and networking is critical to an individual’s career success.  Join us for a dynamic panel discussion with female industry leaders who will share their insights on how actively build a powerful personal brand and network.

Speakers:

• Beth Schoenfeldt, Co-Founder of Collective-E (moderator)
• Christine Beauchamp, President of Ann Taylor Stores
• Carla Harris, Managing Director at Morgan Stanley
• Hope Hughes, Director of Deloitte Consulting
• Juliette Powell, author of 33 Million People in the Room

Topics to be discussed include:
•    How to build and manage your personal brand
•    How to follow up with people after a networking event, and ways to turn acquaintances into meaningful professional contacts.
•    How to network and build mentoring relationships with senior level women
•    Using technology to network — the do’s and the don’ts

Registration: Tickets are $35 for non-members and and must be purchased online by Monday, April 13th.  Click here to register!

For advice on creating your personal brand – and using it to help you land a great job – I turned to Dan Schawbel, the leading personal branding expert for Generation Y. Dan is the author of the brand new book, Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success (Kaplan, April 09), as well as the publisher of the Personal Branding Blog and Personal Branding Magazine.

I recently had the opportunity to interview Dan. Note that I’ve posted excerpts of this interview on other blogs, but the full text of our interview is only available here:

Lindsey: How do you define personal branding?

Dan: Personal branding is the process by which we market ourselves to other people.  The process that I’ve developed in my new book, Me 2.0, is “discover, create, communicate and maintain (DCCM).”

The first step in this process is to discover what you’re passionate about and your area of expertise, while establishing goals and forming both a development plan and a personal marketing plan.

The second step is to create marketing materials, which could include a business card, portfolio, website, blog, social network profiles, a podcast, a video resume, as well as traditional documents like a resume and cover letter.

The third step is to become your own personal PR person and communicate your brand to others through speaking engagements, commenting on blogs, writing for magazines, pitching journalists and more.

The final step is to maintain your brand, which consists of online reputation management and keeping your profiles up-to-date and accurate with changes in your career.

Lindsey: You are in your 20s. How have you established yourself as a personal branding expert at such a young age?

Personal branding came naturally to me because I marketed myself extensively through college, including eight internships, seven leadership positions and straight A’s.  Instead of networking with other professionals, I applied and interviewed through job boards and corporate websites, which really forced me to differentiate myself.

I had never termed this to be personal branding until I read Tom Peter’s article in Fast Company magazine.  The second I read his article, I realized that personal branding was my passion and since I was blessed with entrepreneurship genes, and skills that I collected from middle school (graphic design and website development), I was able to execute on my dream and build a brand faster than most.

When I first branded myself, I considered myself a “personal branding spokesman,” because my theories weren’t proven and I was a prolific writer on this topic.  As I started to see results from my brand building, including being recruited for a new social media position at EMC Corporation, and press mentions in BusinessWeek and The Wall Street Journal, I transitioned my brand to “personal branding expert.”  Instead of being this general with my title, I decided that my audience would be Gen Y, because that niche was wide open and because I felt that the millennial generation required extensive help to prepare them for the real world.  As a millennial myself, it was easy to connect to this generation and thus my personal brand statement (who you are and who you serve) became “the leading personal branding expert for Gen Y.”

My genuine enthusiasm and knowledge in this field has allowed me to break through the clutter and establish myself as a top marketing blogger, magazine publisher, video producer, consultant, speaker and book author.  If I lost everything today, I’d still pursue my passion for personal branding.

Lindsey:  Does personal branding change (in definition or activities) based on the stage of your career? In other words, should Gen Ys think of personal branding differently from more established professionals?

Dan: Personal branding is based on who you are as a person.  Depending on your career status, you’re branding strategy will change.  For instance, you would position yourself differently if you were a job seeker, instead of an entrepreneur trying to raise venture capital or a marketing consultant.  The personal branding process is still the same, but your marketing strategy will differ based on your audience and goals.

For example, Gen Y college students should start this branding process freshman year and invest in networking, so when they graduate, they don’t have to spend eight months applying for jobs and interviewing.  Gen Y needs to understand that business is changing, but it’s taking time, so I encourage them to use social media tools as a competitive advantage in the workplace and when applying for jobs.  Gen Y’s disadvantage is experience, not age, and their advantages are technology and hyper-connectivity.

Lindsey: Can you share 3 personal branding tips from your book that are most important for Gen Ys graduating from college this spring?

1.  Have a targeted approach to applying for jobs.  Most college graduates will furiously apply to hundreds of jobs online, praying that they might get a few interviews and hopefully a job.  Regardless of what the economic situation is, a focused job search will always prevail.  Instead of getting a job that will pay your bills, try your hardest to create your own job at a company that you’d love to work for.  Write down the top five companies that you want to work for and the job description you would like to have.

2.  Conduct a people search, not just a job search. Job boards are fading away and aren’t as useful as they were a decade ago.  Now, everyone is on social networks and can be contacted, without having to go through chains of command.  The best way to navigate the recruitment process is to contact employers directly, instead of applying for a job that might not be available anyway.  Use search engines, including Twitter, Facebook, Technorati and Google to locate employees who work at companies you’re interested in and reach out to them.  By doing this, you’ll appear genuine and have a better chance of getting the job you actually want.

3.  Protect and promote your brand as much as possible.  Protecting your personal brand is extremely important because there are other people in the world with your name and if you fail to register your name on social networks and your domain name, someone else will.  Also, you’ll want to command your Google results because employers will be searching for you.  Promoting your brand is required to gain the necessary visibility to be recruited based on your expertise.  By using social media tools to get your name out there, you have a better chance at obtaining a great opportunity.

Lindsey: You and I are both big fans of Twitter and use it to enhance our personal brands. In your opinion, why should college students and young professionals try Twitter?

Dan: Twitter is a platform the disables corporate hierarchies and enables direct connection and relationship building.  Through Twitter, I’ve met some very successful people, such as ex-model Kathy Ireland and others, who I would have never met otherwise.  We always talk about how you should build your network before you need it, and with Twitter, if you gain enough followers before you need their support, the chances of tweeting yourself to a new job increase substantially.

Twitter is a great tool for actively listening to your audience, while learning about news quickly.  Twitter is actually more effective when you’re branding yourself on other platforms and when you can link to a site that best represents you, such as your blog or LinkedIn profile.  Despite Twitter appearing as a mainstream tool, it’s still fairly new, with “only” five million users, so you’ll appear as a forward thinker just by joining.

Lindsey: Why should Gen Y college students and recent grads read Me 2.0?

Dan: Gen Y is entering a job market, where there are 22% fewer jobs available (NACE).  Being able to differentiate yourself can be challenging, but Me 2.0 is packed full of advice that will help you unearth your passion, master your niche and enjoy life.  Me 2.0 teaches you how to command your career and create your future and will guide you through a proven process that will take you from self-discovery to celebrity in just over 200 pages.  Me 2.0 is the handbook for surviving and thriving in the digital age.  Read it before everyone else does!

Here is an excerpt:

Dan: When you go to speak to students across the country, how have you accessed their proficiency in job searching and resume building through online means?  Most students I talk to don’t know what LinkedIn is.  What are your experiences?

Lindsey: A year or so ago, very few students I met had even heard of LinkedIn. Today, I’d say about 1/4 of students at my workshops are aware of the site, but most don’t really know how to make the most of it. I believe that an active presence on LinkedIn is no longer optional for a career-minded person of any age, so I talk about it in every speech and workshop I give.

1. First, I advise students (and everyone else!) to set up a complete profile including keywords a recruiter or business owner might use to find someone with your skills and interests.

2. Then I recommend joining groups on LinkedIn (such as the Personal Branding group, of course) to build connections and become part of conversations about industry news.

3. Third, I recommend customizing those little “I’d like to add you as a connection” messages – that’s a great way to stand out and show that you are someone who takes the time to personalize your communications.

Another important tip, particularly for those who are just starting out in the workforce, is to scour other people’s LinkedIn profiles to look for companies you may want to apply to, job titles or professions you didn’t know about, professional organizations where you might network and people with similar interests who might be willing to offer some job search advice. If you’re trying to build your own personal brand, LinkedIn is incredibly valuable as a massive database of other people’s personal brands and career paths to research.

Click here to read my full interview with Dan.

A few months later, you might have come across a group of job-hunting, 20-something recent graduates promoting their skills though sidebar advertisements on Facebook and links to their online resumes.

What intrigues me about these methods is not just the guts these job seekers displayed. It’s the different generational approaches to self-promotion. The baby boomer gravitated to in-person, face-to-face networking; the Millennial went right to the Web.

If you are looking for a job in the current recession, my best advice is to borrow from the playbook of both of these self-promoters: combine “old-fashioned” methods with new technologies. Diane K. Danielson, my colleague and co-author on the book The Savvy Gal’s Guide to Online Networking, calls this a “clicks and mix” strategy, and it’s an important marketing strategy if you’re looking for a new position.

Here’s why: Young adults are competing in the job market with much more qualified people who have been laid off and need to find any job they can. At the same time, older professionals are competing with younger workers who are willing to be hired for less money and security. And, in this economy, every job seeker has to try every job-hunting method available.

Here are some self-marketing tips for job seekers of all generations: click here to read the rest of this article on ABC News on Campus…

One of my favorites posts by Dan is about branding yourself when your name is difficult for people to spell. I’ve been struggling with that my whole career and I love that Dan wrote about it.