Important as it is to establish your brand's unique and scary presence, it is only the beginning of your online networking efforts. "You want to find groups," Fielding suggests, "alumni, former employees of your last jobs, trade groups." The idea here is to join the group and then wait in hiding -- a cyberspace stalker -- for opportunities to "establish yourself as someone insightful" by "chiming in with your opinion."
Unfortunately, your opinions are usually quite lame, which is probably why you are looking for a job in the first place. But don't let that stop you from promoting Brand You. Demonstrate you are a team player by butting into online conversations with supportive messages, like "you guys are big doo-doo heads." Demonstrate your abilities as a "people person" by adding a smiley-face emotogram to every e-mail, even the e-mails that include threats and promises of retribution.
Now that's the way to build a brand.
The experts also suggest that you promote your brand in the offline world. Don't go out in sweats and old T-shirts; you never know who you might run into. In the same spirit, be sure to sleep in your best Armani interview outfit. You never know when a fire will break out, and you'll find yourself on the sidewalk with a prospective employer.
Another piece of good brand advice is from author Sherry Beck Paprocki, who cautions that you shouldn't hover over the free buffet at a networking meeting, because she "would hate to have three meatballs in my mouth and try to explain what I want to do."
This wouldn't be a problem for you, of course. As anyone who knows you knows, having three meatballs in your mouth is what your brand is all about.
