Oscar Wilde once said, “Be yourself. Everyone else is taken.” I took his advice. When I was a junior in college, I went to a Halloween fraternity party dressed as a chicken leg. Yes, a chicken leg. My homemade costume consisted of brown tights and turtle neck and a stuffed, drumstick-shaped burlap mini-dress. I donned this burlap fowl appendage and hung a sign around my neck. The sign was provocative – something that you might not state on a professional website – but you would definitely wear to a fraternity party. It described the appealing taste of said chicken – and the desire to self-clean one’s digits after eating. (Although KFC did use it as a slogan way-back-when. The Phrase Finder.) It was original. It was brazen. No one else came as a chicken leg – especially with that epitaph. It took guts to attend a fraternity Halloween party dressed as a chicken leg. Did it reveal the "real me"? (Glimmers of future articles on the ERE.) At least I was a hit at the party.
Which brings me to my subject today - Being yourself. This really comes into play in social media. I am currently teaching a series about using social media for my company. Social media is about communicating one on one. I look at the individual profiles of each of my students and lend advice. My advice is to let your profile speak in “real voice.” Your real voice. Individuals visiting your profile need to know, like and trust you first before interacting with your company.
What I most commonly see in profiles is a strong desire to appear professional. In an effort to do so, lots of “cut and paste” from company web-sites and proposals – or what I call “corporate-ese” – is utilized. These are words and phrases that are commonly used to describe what the company will do for the client. Sometimes whole company mission statements are cut and pasted. Examples of corporate-ese?
Functionalities, Paradigms, Solutions, Methodologies
Innovative, Bleeding-edge, Value-added, Granular
Strategize, Deploy, Orchestrate, Empower
If you find these in your profile, ask yourself, “Is this the way I really talk?” If you were at a cocktail party and someone asked you what you did, could you read off your profile description and engage the listener instead of having his/her eyes glaze over while backing away.
You can be professional AND be yourself, speaking in your real voice and engaging the listener.
“So, who are you and what do you do?”
“My name is Sue Danbom. I’m a trainer. I tame headhunters. Headhunters have suffered a bad rap. They’re assumed to be uncivilized recruiters who are only interested in what’s in it for them. Not true! My recruiters are exceptional. They care about their clients and candidates and create career-long relationships. Enough about me. What do you do?”
It simply states who I am, what I do in plain English. No “corporate-ese.”
Just for fun – what’s the best costume or Halloween memory you’ve had? Were they “glimmers” of your real self or just plain fun?
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