I used to work at a consulting firm. My name meant nothing to the consumer. To them, I was a spreadsheet and a slide deck. But now, having worked for a few months in marketing, I can see how valuable one’s name is! Personal branding is a MUST for any individual and should be given some thought. Here are a few ideas:

1) Start a blog: Keep the topics of the blog in line with how you’d like to brand yourself, or in other words, how you’d like others to view you. I try to keep this one mostly professional, with insights into economics, energy, startups, etc. The URL should be UNIQUE, so go out and buy a domain (they can be cheap so don’t worry). Post this link everywhere you comment. Have it in your emails. Everyone should see this!

2) Create an email address using your blog URL as the domain. Mine is alex@aneris.us. When I was looking for jobs a few months ago, recruiters would see the unique address and go to the site. ALL of them commented on my blog when I later interviewed with them. Because they were able to view my blog, they all saw that I was capable of indepth analysis far more than a resume will allow. Plus they are able to see that you have a personality…always a plus.

3) Get on twitter: user your name and NOT a company name. This is going to be your account for a long while, and your name stands the test of time. I started an account for my company 2 months ago and now have a handful of really powerful people following me. Its pretty cool when VC’s, consultants, etc, start to care (at least a bit) about what you say. twitter is their way to easily track you, and your way to easily communicate with them.  (optional: use the twitter app in facebook so your status automatically updates whenever you tweet something). 

4) START COMMUNICATING: find bloggers you like and start commenting on their blogs. Become a part of the conversation. Post articles to your blog and have twitter automagically tweet them via twitterfeed.

5) Something which I need to do soon is post my resume online.  VisualCV should be a good place to do this. I started my resume (but since I have a job that I love now, didn’t feel compelled to finish it).

Thats a good start. Let me know how it goes!

Looking for a little snark in your life? Check out Jess Martin’s blog “Hawaii Five-O Snark-O”. It’s clever (sometimes ). It’s full of pics about Hawaii. It will make you jealous.

I was recently interviewed by a blogger about WebNotes and how we fit into the Annotation space. Read more here.

The latest, though arguably, not greatest WebInno was last night and was attended by a packed audience. Unfortunately, the convention has outgrown the Royal Sonesta and meant that it was nearly impossible to talk to any of the “side-dish” companies until about 9:00pm once everyone had left.  It was also nearly impossible to  hear the main presentations due to all the side chatter (pretty disrespectful in my opinion).

Regardless, there were a bunch of cool companies that came out of it. To name a few:

webnotes

paperg

wordchamp

Webnotes allows users perusing the web to easily highlight and add notes to various webpages, and the software will track and organize these for you. This seems ideal for internet research, something I do all the time at my job.

Paperg is a local advertising platform that allows businesses to post “flyers” to local websites to promote their events, services, etc.  As opposed to trying to trick users into clicking their ads, the cool thing about this is that it is blatant advertising that users know is for local businesses. There’s no chicannery in order to get click-throughs.

Wordchamp is a language learning site where teachers can post homework, create lesson plans, see homework results, and students can find tutors, buy additional classes, find help, etc. It should be noted, though, that I love languages, so I’m more than a little biased.

Most useless company I saw? Zeer. A company that allows me to rate and review my groceries… Ironically, this company won the “best idea” at the conference. Riddle me befuddled.

Today, I met with an interesting guy named Tom O’Keefe (http://tomokeefe.com/), who is a “startup consultant” based in Brookline Village. I had no definite outcome in mind for this get-together, but I did want to get a feel of the various opportunities available for a kid interested in the startup ecosystem (VC, consulting, small biz, etc). The end result, in hindsight, was pretty cool. I walked away with not only a good contact but also his developer/designer contacts, a few different firms that might be hiring, advice to start my own “blag” (term courtesy of Xkcd), and a rekindled interest in one of my own ideas. The next year could be full of big changes.

Stay tuned for my inane musings.