Marketing Me! Personal branding + pay it forward

Networking - Pay it forward before it pays off... read more...

The phone rings. It is a recruiter. Did he get your name from Monster or Career Builder? Maybe Dice?

The phone rings. It is a medium-sized, but growing company who is interested in your product. Did they get your number from the company website?

An email arrives. Someone wants information on a technology related to your product. How did they get your email address?

How did these opportunities come your way? Through your personal network.

Why did members of your network send your revenue and job opportunities? Because you did something for them.

That is the secret to personal and brand marketing - you must pay it forward before it pays off. Your network and the people in it have specific needs and goals. Help them meet them.

Sure, it's tough when you have so many other activities to complete in a day to spend time writing referrals, making introductions and digging up contact information. But it pays for itself over and over again.

When I looked for my last job, I spent a month making calls and sending emails to my network. Most responded quickly where others took their time. Invariably, those who responded fastest were repaying an introduction or opportunity I forwarded them another time.

Today you may be fat and pretty (I know it!) sitting where you are now. But what about tomorrow? Our bags are packed, but who is going to pick you up in the career van? Better start helping your network today - send them referrals, leads, prospects, a new employee, a better customer or a reference. Drive traffic to their product and web site. Blog about them. Link to them. Click them.

Pay everything forward and the returns will be ten fold.

Happy hunting,