Higher Ed Solo

Figuring It Out: Revisiting LinkedIn

By: ronbronson
29-04-2013
Social Media, Tools

This is as much a “series” as much as it’s a reflection of the fact that people who are involved in the social sphere of the Higher Ed Community themselves struggle with certain things too. For me, that current beast is LinkedIn. I’ve had accounts on the site no less than four times over the years. At one point, I deleted my recommendation laden account with connections all because I sort of hated the site.

I don’t really like having my resume out there, because it just all feels a bit weird to me. Nonetheless, I show up only to leave again.  It’s not that I didn’t understand how to use the site, how to manage it or anything like that. I just think one of the advantages you have in personal branding is not giving it all away for free. That is to say, I think there’s a particular competitive advantage to people who are looking for the same jobs you are not knowing every aspect of your pitch.

This time, I’ve decided I’m staying. I came to this conclusion, because it’s not like I’m not already online. My rationale for years has been that if people were going to Google me, that I needed to have some control over what they found first. Maybe they’d dig up some old article I wrote when I was in my early 20s and impressionable. That’s fine. (After all, I can explain.) But it would be better if the first few things that came up (or in my case, the entire first page of what they get) are things that I’ve curated or intentionally want them to see.

I figured that highlighting my struggles with the site — and working through them in real time — might help one or two of you out there manage your own LinkedIn identities. This isn’t meant to be a definitive reference, but rather just how one random guy decides to use it — based on cobbled together information, but also just my limits. If you’d like a primer on LinkedIn before getting started, check this one out from Joe Ginese.

1. My public profile is intentionally sparse.

I don’t really want my LinkedIn profile to make the first page of my Google results. So I don’t go out of my way to elevate the content. For a long time, I didn’t have one at all. But I came around on the idea, figuring that if someone were looking for it it’d be better to make it possible to find it without being logged in. I make just enough information public to verify (along with a photo) that I am indeed that Ron Bronson, but anything more and they’d need to be 1) connected to me and/or 2) logged in.

2. Decide who you’re writing this profile for.

We preach audience a lot in the web content world anyway. It’s no different for LinkedIn. Your profile would be structured differently for recruiters than if you were just trying to use your profile for networking. Understand the “average” user that you’re targeting. In my case, it’s literally for networking purposes and even that’s confined to people I’ve met in real life, know from someplace (former colleagues, et. al.) or meet at conferences. To that end, I’m not doing things like filling in job descriptions. There might be a time when I feel like that’s necessary, that time is not now.

3. Don’t be afraid to shine

Look, you do good work. You shouldn’t hesitate to share those successes, because if there’s anywhere worth sharing them outside of a personal site, it’s a place like LinkedIn. I don’t think there’s a limit, though assessing what your goal is will determine specifically whether talking about the awards you won in 8th grade are relevant for your profile or not. Ultimately, it’s up to you.

Don’t be afraid to be toot your own horn, though. Other people will be, that’s for sure.

This is just a starting point. But with anything, starting is how you make progress. Good luck and don’t be afraid to reach out.

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The Hidden Benefits of (Social) Networks

By: ronbronson
26-04-2013
At Work, People

I don’t know about you, but I have a penchant for downplaying things I do. I’ve never been fond of bragging about accomplishments, even things I’m especially proud of unless people ask. One of the things you learn quickly in the “real world” is that people aren’t necessarily as focused on the good things as they can be the bad. When it comes to tooting your own horn, you sometimes need to be vocal about speaking up.

One of the valuable side effects of interacting with people in the larger community, is the perspective I’ve gained. You can be easily mired in your own world and feel like everything happening is the biggest, craziest thing. Then you talk to other people, hear their struggles and challenges and realize that other folks are going through similar things too. It’s not just about work. We share our struggles, our fears and how we’ve overcome challenges with each other.

So much of our talk about social media is focused on measuring impact, ROI and the gains we achieve from doing what we do. But the residual benefits and relationships we establish pay dividends that simply cannot be measured in Klout. Going back to my first point, creating community means sharing big ideas and small ones. It’s taking risks beyond the ordinary and fleshing out ideas that maybe you wanted to work out someplace other than a whiteboard. Maybe you’re a small school? Make friends at bigger ones. At a large school? Find out how the other half lives in smallsville. Resist your silo and reach beyond your circle to discover how it can you do your job better than ever before.

If you have set goals for yourself in the past year, it behooves you to implore your social network to hold you accountable. Even if you don’t, you can start by simply assess where you are and what you need and feeling emboldened enough to discover people who are likeminded. This doesn’t have to be a conclave of Twitter friends. It’s community where you find it. But wither the days where you feel alone, like no one else understand what you’re doing. Reach out and touch someone because I assure you that there’s another person thinking it, who wants and needs to hear from you.

You can start with us.

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Reflecting on Leadership

By: ronbronson
23-04-2013
At Work, People

I’ve been building things my whole life. I know developer nerds have a knack of citing all of the random programs they’ve built over the years. For me, that’s organizations.

Back when I was about 14, I took a summer off from tennis. You see, baseball is my first love in terms of sports. But I just never played it. Well, one summer I called the newspaper and had them print an article mentioning a new baseball league would be starting in the town next door.

I’m not quite sure how I thought this whole thing would work, I just assumed I could put a team together and that it’d all evolve. Schedules and even a sponsor for the team was secured. The fun began when parents from as far as 20 minutes away were bringing their kids to this thing. I’m not quite sure I understand why, either. There was no other team. I didn’t have coaches. Just lots of enthusiasm. We had some practices. We did end up playing a few games. The one time someone got hurt, it was me. (I was covering home plate. The ball went under my glove. Oops.)

Eventually the whole thing dissolved as these things tend to do. Still, I had won the admiration of a few of the parents for having the moxie to put something like that together in the first place. I recalled hearing my dad on the phone, talking to one of his friends about it. They were used to my schemes. But he said “when I saw that he’d managed to get a sponsor to print them jerseys, well..then I thought, he might be serious.”

In retrospect, it wasn’t that complicated. My hometown didn’t have a baseball league. So I made one.

My whole life has sort of been like this. I’m generally down to be a loyal foot solider. I want to follow inspiring people who get stuff done. Sometimes, it works great and we accomplish awesome things. For instance, this blog was one of those ideas. Tonya and I didn’t really know each other well before we had the month-long email conversation that resulted in this end result. She saw something I posted on my person blog, a conversation happened and the end result is what you see here. But it doesn’t always work that way. There’s a particular kind of burden that comes with always starting your own stuff. For starters, it takes identifying the right talent.

In the years since I started my little baseball league, there have probably been close to 100 or so things I’ve put together with varying degrees of success. Most of those situations were areas where I thought someone else would have thought of it already or come along with a better idea. In many cases, they had. But more often than not, it was simply not on the radar for one reason or another.

I’ve learned a lot along the way by simply not being content to let problems exist and being willing to step up when it’s necessary. The end result has been a lot of years of making awesome things happen and finding myself meeting with great people. Often, the first step is putting yourself out there.

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