There is a natural tendency to want to hire someone who is already working, but in this economy, how do you convince those who you want to hire you that you are already doing what they want you to do?

When I decided I wanted to be a writing coach, I did two simple things. I added a “slash” to my business card (writer/speaker/writing coach) and to the signature line of my email address. Before I had even figured out the details of my coaching business — what I’d charge, where I’d meet with clients — people started asking me about my services. Within a couple of months, my coaching practice was off the ground.

The business card and email signature work well if you’re consulting or freelancing, but if you are looking for a full-time job, you’ll need to use different techniques. Here are some other ideas: {Read the rest at Yahoo!}

Personal branding has been one of the hottest buzz phrases ever since Tom Peters wrote a Fast Company article way back in 1997 that turned into the book, The Brand Called You. The notion is that individuals are all brands — much like our running shoes and kitchen appliances (though some of us are clearly more running shoe than refrigerator). And from that flows that logic that we all need to cultivate and nurture our brands so they thrive and prosper just as the brands managed by big business.

There’s a new kid on the personal branding block — Dan Schawbel — and he’s taken Peters’ principles to their next logical incarnation — branding in the social media age. I call him a “kid” because at 25, he is also part of the new generation of Internet wunderkinds who have become so adept at spreading their ideas online that they write their first books and hit the morning show circuit when barely out of college.

Now that we are all publishers — writing personal blogs, answering questions on LinkedIn, updating our status on Facebook or Twitter — Schawbel has a message that is very much of the moment. Which is that we need to harness these tools in order to convey our personal brand to the world. And once we do that, we will not only find career opportunities, but they will find us. (Read the rest at Yahoo!)

Just when those of us who use Facebook professionally were getting up to speed on profiles vs. pages, and friends vs. fans, Facebook has gone and changed all the rules. I haven’t yet had time to sort it all out, and the redesign won’t take effect until March 11, but since I recently had a two-part guest post about Facebook Fan pages, I wanted to make to do a quick follow-up. Sounds like we should all see how this shakes out before deciding on a Facebook strategy.
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By Katie Hellmuth

Once you’ve started your Facebook Page, you need to bring over the troops, your true fans. Make the page. Use a few applications on it to jazz it up. Profile HTML is a good one for ultimate coding freedom, but can be buggy at times. The YouTube Box application is another good one. When it is ready for prime time, try a few techniques to engage your audience to do what you want them to:
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Lately I’ve been wondering about whether it’s time to move from a regular profile on Facebook to a fan page. It’s a conundrum I’ve been noticing a lot of buzz about lately. 

Because I primarily use Facebook to interact with people about ideas around work/careers, it gets kind of muddy when I want to catch up with friends and family who are on Facebook, but whose news is lost amid the chatter of status updates from friends I don’t know personally. Say a friend from real life gets engaged or moves to Tahiti, there’s a good chance I’ll never know about it.

For now, my solution has been to create various “friends lists.” Using this nifty Facebook feature, I have one list called “friends I know,” which is a much smaller group of people than my total list of friends. That list allows me to view status updates from that limited group. I can also decide that only these “friends I know,” will see certain photos or parts of my profile. 

But this is really only a partial fix because Facebook caps the number of friends a user can have at 5,000 people. And while I’m not there yet, I can imagine getting there some time soon. Then what?
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In light of the shaky job market, it is a good time to start hanging out on social networking sites, if you haven't done so already.

What does it mean to be a friend online?

This is a guest post by Vanessa Carr, who has been working with me on Facebook and some other technology projects

There has been a great response to Marci’s call for slashes on her Slash ‘/’ Careers group on Facebook.

One stand-out site was that of Katreen Hardt, an actress/freelance journalist living in Germany. Katreen boldly foregrounds her slash identity on her homepage with a colorful grid of images—half popular magazine covers for issues to which she’s contributed writing and half stills from movies she’s acted in (which include Henry Fool and The Book of Life—beneath an equally bold title: Katreen Hardt, Freelance journalist and actress.

Part of what is effective about her site is its simplicity. From the homepage, you can navigate to one of four sections: about (bio), portfolio (writing), showreel (acting), and contact. On her about page, Katreen summarizes each of her slash components, highlighting a few of her most significant accomplishments.

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I have joined the growing numbers of authors on Facebook! If you’re already a Facebook member, check out the conversation that is getting started on my new Slash “/” Careers group, where people in all stages of slash careers are invited to share stories, tips, and questions. If you’re not on Facebook, consider checking it out. I was surprised to see how many people I know are already on Facebook, and it’s been fun/interesting connecting with people in a new way.

I’m hoping the the Facebook page turns into a rich discussion of slash living that so many people have been asking me for.

I am also looking for a handful of savvy slashes from the Facebook group to feature on the Heymarci Blog. If you have a website, blog, portfolio, resume, or video that showcases your “slash” identity in an innovative way, please consider sharing it on the Slash “/” Careers group discussion board – or just stop by for a little slash inspiration. I hope to see you there!