Update 1/21/2016:Building Your Personal Brand slides from Boston .NET Architecture Group (BNAG) meeting on 1/20/2016 are now available.
I am speaking tomorrow night to the group I lead: Boston .NET Architecture Group on building your personal brand. Here is the abstract:
I hope your new year has started off in great way. A year ago, I asked Jason Haley to speak to the group on "A Consultant's Life" (see: Boston .NET Architecture Group Meeting Jan 2015 - Jason Haley ). Continuing that tradition of focusing on career building in January, this month we will talk about the topic of "Building Your Personal Brand".
What does that mean - building your personal brand? Essentially, it means making sure people know who you are and what you do. If you are a software architect, a software developer, a software consultant, or all of these, but no one knows your name or the kinds of skills you bring to the table, it can be easy to be passed up for new jobs or new projects that are in line with what you would like to do. We'll talk about ways to build your brand through blogging, having your own website, being found through SEO, considerations for LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social media, writing a book, speaking at user groups and conferences, and many other ways of making you and what you do known to others.
I invite you to attend and be prepared to discuss and learn from each other as we also share what has worked and not worked through experience.
It should be an interesting discussion.
Update 1/21/2016: Great discussions last night! Some key take aways:
1. LinkedIn is NOT Facebook - watch what you post, and always be professional
2. Along the same lines, have a strategy about how you want to present yourself online - it must be managed.
3. Networking doesn't have to be in a large room - you can network with others in many places.
