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Before we get into how to write a bio too deeply, let’s get some perspective:

1. It’s your bio, so do what you want.
2. There’s no right, but there are some wrongs.
3. There’s lots of conflicting advice. For example, Pete Kistler’s post about how to write a professional bio gives some advice that’s different from what you’ll read here.
4. So do what you want, after thinking about the repercussions…

Let’s start at the beginning: why do you need to learn how to write a bio? Here are some reasons – and note that some of them imply that you need different versions:

• You need a really short bio for social networking sites – you know, things like Twitter.
• If you do a blog, you need two bios – a very short “About” on your blog’s landing page, and a longer version for your “About” page.
• You’ll frequently need some kind of bio if you speak somewhere, guest blog, or otherwise volunteer your services.
• A bio is a great adjunct document to use in your job search.

I bet you can think of others as well. You can see right away that some need to be more condensed than others. Contrary to advice you’ve received from others, some are better written in first-person, and some in third-person. (“I am a blogger” vs “Feigenson is a blogger”).

It’s really pretty easy to do several versions if you start with the longest one first. Then you can prune it down for the shorter versions, and change the voice of the bio from first- to third-person easily. Just to be clear, if you’re obviously talking about yourself, it’s more natural to write in first-person. But if the bio is going to be used by others, then third-person is more natural.

How long should different versions be? There’s no hard and fast rule, but here’s what I’d suggest:

• The shortest version is your personal branding statement. I’ve written about this topic several times, and here’s a good starting point. Let’s just say that your PBS should be able to fit on a single line on your business card.
• Tiny version should be under 50 words.
• Short version should be about 100 words.
• Long version should be one page (but leave room for your picture).

Here’s why this is way less confusing than it seems: space constraints and/or requests from people who’d like your bio will dictate how long they should be. So you may end up with even more versions…

There are other posts on this site that provide more nuts and bolts instructions for how to write a bio (see “8 Tips to Write a Professional Bio” and “How to Write a Short, Professional Bio on Yourself”). Well, actually do a search for the word “bio” and you’ll find still more posts. And since these are pretty comprehensive, I’m going to finish up with some things people don’t normally write about on this topic.

First, everything you write should support your Personal Branding Statement. This focus is essential to promote the brand, or image, you’ve decided on. Everything you do or say needs to support that effort. For example, a fellow I know posted a status message on LinkedIn: “xxx is a Compentent Comunicator…” Some of you may recognize this as an announcement that the writer had just attained the level of competent communicator at Toastmasters. I hope you will all realize he spelled both competent and communicator wrong. So if you make a claim, please be sure to support it!

So, your bio – any length – starts out with your Personal Branding Statement. Then be sure to include the things you’ve done that support your PBS. And please – whether you write in first- or third-person – include something about who and what you are. When people read bios, they want to get some feeling about you, they’re looking for a personal connection.

Finally, you should consider making a single-page document about yourself – your personal bio – that will compliment your resume. It should be clean, well-designed, and interesting. There are times when this bio will be more effective than a resume in your job search, especially as you advance in your career.

Check out Brand-Yourself’s other articles on how to write a bio, see which tips work best for you, and get started on your own bio.

• How to Write a Bio: 8 Tips
• How to Write a Short, Professional Bio

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This is my first entry as a regular weekly columnist at Brand-Yourself.com.  I am thankful for the opportunity to contribute to an already powerful site – and to connect with all of you in the process.  For my first post, I want to explore how it is that career opportunities like contributing to established blogs present themselves.

In my experience, previous action creates future opportunity. Here are 5 ways you can take action to create your own opportunities in 2010.

1.  Build Specialized Expertise

Experts are highly valued in today’s job market.  Not “jacks of all trades” that can speak moderately well on a variety of subjects – but specialists that exhibit great authority on a given subject.  Find a niche that you excel in, and that you are passionate about, and knock it out of the park.

How exactly do you go about this?  By absorbing every drop of knowledge on your given subject.  Set up Google Alerts for relevant keywords.  Search Technorati for the best blogs on the subject.  Create a Twitter “Saved Search” for the topic, and check the stream of tweets every day.  Slowly, you will build knowledge on your subject that you can translate to “outward-facing” expertise, in the form of your own posts.

2.  Express a Unique Opinion

On my own blog, I’ve written posts that contain useful information on relevant subjects – and nobody cared.  Why?  Everyone had read the same take a million times.  But, when I posted my opinion that Twitter users should return follow all of their followers (as a result of Twitter Lists) – I suddenly received an influx of feedback.  Admittedly, both positive feedback and negative.  But from each camp, I formed lasting connections willing to engage in future discussion.

Keep in mind, opportunity does not appear magically – it comes from other people who think you are worth a shot.  What better way to stand out to these decision makers than by expressing a position that is uniquely yours?

3.  Form REAL Relationships

Engaging in social media represents a fantastic way to create opportunity, but not in the way you might expect.  So you’ve got 10,000 Twitter followers.  Great, right?  Well… maybe.  Definitely so, if you have 10,000 engaged followers who read your stuff and communicate with you regularly.  Definitely not, if you are only connected to bots and spammers.

My advice: Cover up the portion of your screen that shows your Twitter follower count.  Instead, focus on ReTweets and @Replies from those which you’ve TRULY connected with.  If the results are less than expected, take action of your own.  Reach out to Tweeters who you respect and admire.  ReTweet their stuff and send an introductory @Reply of your own.  Comment on their blogs.  Email them directly.  Whatever it takes.

Two great examples of widely followed Tweeters who manage to connect meaningfully with individuals are Chris Brogan and Gerald Weber.

4.  Experiment With Tomorrow’s Tools

Opportunity, if it is headed your way, will arrive in the future.  So why use the tools of yesterday to stir up that opportunity?  Lifestreaming, location-based social networking, augmented reality… all are examples of technologies don’t make a hell of a lot of sense to the general public today.  But if these tools (or others) make sense to you, there is opportunity.

Last year, while the economy melted like a stick of butter, a shrieking 15 year old from Nebraska made 6 figures with a flip cam and an internet connection.   What will be the YouTube of 2010?  I don’t know.  But I do know this – someone will cash in huge because they experimented and got in on the ground floor.  To stay on top of the latest tech and social media news, read Mashable and TechCrunch regularly.

5.  Ask For Nothing (But Get it Anyway)

I am a huge believer in giving away as much “value” as you can, for free, for as long as you can tolerate.  The seeds you plant today will eventually grow into something amazing – you just have to be patient.

My readers will know where I am headed with this… the example of Gary Vaynerchuk.  Gary V. has built one of the strongest personal brands around by airing daily webisodes of Wine Library TV for the past several years – every one of them for free.  He has grown his wine business into a multi-million dollar global empire.

How can you add value today, while asking for nothing in return?  One great avenue is by responding to questions posted within Linkedin Answers.  Here, you can help others and share your expertise with the community.  Each answer is another seed you plant that just might bloom into something special down the road.

Taking action today to create future opportunity can sometimes be a frustrating task.  But rest assured, taking steps to build a strong personal brand now will pay huge dividends in the long run.

What do you think?  Have I forgotten any key steps certain to light the spark for future opportunity?  Let me know in the comments section, and please, say hello on Twitter if we haven’t already met.

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Given the season, I thought this would be a good topic. Volunteering your services doesn’t just help others, it can help you too. And what better time of the year to think about giving your time!

There are many places you can volunteer your services; you only have to look around to find worthy causes. Helping others makes most people feel better about themselves, but it’s also an incredible way to network.

Networking is much more likely to find you a good job than Craig’s List, Monster or recruiters. Think about why this is true: you’re just as likely to find a well-connected person volunteering as a young person looking for work. You may even b e working next to a senior executive in a company you might be targeting. But please don’t go into your volunteer activities expecting to get anything other than personal satisfaction. If you get more – and you will if you keep trying – consider it good karma.

So where should you volunteer? If you’re doing it as a career move, try to volunteer where you’re likely to meet people you’d like to know. For example, many trade shows accept volunteer workers, and this can be a highly targeted way of exposing yourself to professionals in your field.

You’d be surprised at who you can meet volunteering for civic activities. Many local Chambers of Commerce plan and staff local events. If you call your local Chamber and offer your services, you’re going to get a warm thank you – these tireless souls are always looking for people to help, because they are chronically understaffed.

As a side note, I once thought Chambers weren’t very useful, but I’ve since changed my mind. I’ve made many good contacts and contracts through Chambers it.

To me, volunteering can be an indicator of leadership potential. The very fact that you’re willing to offer your services without pay puts you one step ahead of others who are competing for the job you want. It means you’re willing to go the extra mile – to offer before you’re assured of any return. And there’s another benefit, it can get you out in front of lots of people.

If you’re an introvert and you dislike networking, volunteer activities allow you to meet people in a comfortable, non-networking environment. It could be the key to networking if you’d really rather stay at home. In fact, this is how I network – like many, I hate the idea of flitting around from one person to another exchanging a few words and moving to the next victim. But I don’t feel that way at all if I’m helping at a public event. I find it much easier to meet and talk to people that way.

While we’re thinking about this, let me also suggest that blogging is another way of volunteering. You write articles that may touch people – may even change their lives. You don’t get paid for it (usually), and you’re never assured that more than a handful of people will ever read your precious words. Bu you never know: I was asked to join a startup after one of the founders read some articles on my blog. This could happen to you!

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One of the most challenging parts of the job search process is breaking through the clutter and getting noticed by employers. This is especially true when it comes to the interview.  While being selected for an interview may mean that you are one of the top candidates that the company would like to investigate further, you are now going up against other top candidates like yourself.  How do you differentiate yourself from the crowd?

Here are five tips from both me and four fellow career experts to help you more effectively stand out, or “brand” out, in your interviews:

1.    Be sure to have your personal brand and pitch ready to communicate to your interviewer(s). Having a one-to-three-word personal brand and supporting pitch not only makes you look more professional, but also makes you more memorable when answering questions like, “Tell me about yourself,” and/or “Why should we pick you?”  It provides you the opportunity to more concisely present your unique and differentiating value and more importantly to be remembered for it.  Your interviewers aren’t going to remember everything you say in your interview, but they are much more likely to remember a strongly-communicated personal brand and how well everything else you said reinforced and supported it. - Chris Perry, CareerRocketeer.com

2.    Did you know that getting a job today is based on 70% presentation and only 30% skills and abilities? In order to help applicants stand out from the hundreds they are competing against for that ONE POSITION, I always coach my clients to bring a “First Impressions Binder” to the interview. This binder showcases your resume, awards, letters of recommendation, bio, any articles or white papers you have written, and the research that you did on the prospective company.  The binder with “view thru” cover allows you to slip a custom cover into the binder with the company’s logo, your name, date, and person with whom you are interviewing. It shows that you can focus on detail, you have supporting documentation and you did the research before showing up for the interview. - Angie Maizlish, WordsImpress.com

3.    You must instill trust by making a personal connection. Interviewees need to connect with their interviewers in order to instill trust.  There are three behaviors that can help interviewees instill trust almost instantly:  (1) make eye contact and try to smile with your eyes, (2) be sincere and, if appropriate, offer compliment that you really mean about the company, why you want to work there, etc., and (3) be a person with whom a conversation is easy (i.e., even though you are possibly nervous, try to avoid looking overly anxious in your body language and speech).  Remember that an interview is still a conversation, an interactive communication between two people and, as humans, trust is critical. - Paula Caligiuri, PaulaCaligiuri.com

4.    My first interview tip is to use stories. Every human being, including hiring managers, loves a good story.  People who tell good stories are memorable and compelling.  So if the interviewer asks, “What is your greatest strength (or weakness)?” or “Why did you get into this line of work?”, answer in the form of a short, one-minute-or-less, story.  In fact, aim for three sentences.  Sentence #1 is the set-up, usually a problem of some kind (“my company was losing money on inventory”).  Sentence #2 is the action or what you did to solve the problem (“I designed a new system to track incoming and outgoing shipments”).  Sentence #3 is the happy ending with you as hero (“after a year our inventory costs went down 50%”).  Your story can be longer than three sentences, but strive for short!   Practice your stories until you can tell them quickly and clearly. - Karen Burns, KarenBurnsWorkingGirl.com

5.    When interviewing with multiple people from the same company separately, do not ask the same questions of each person. They will talk and it will look very unimaginative that you asked the same question as well looking like you can’t think on your feet or make a connection with each individual interviewer. Make each interviewer feel special by asking specific questions to their position or what topic they are talking to you about. Also, come prepared with questions! Sounds basic but so many people don’t do it! At the end of an interview if they ask you if you have any questions, that’s still an interview question. Look smart, ask insightful questions. It will make you look like you are really processing what the interviewer has said and are internalizing this information to determine whether it’s a good fit for you and them. - Jennifer Spencer, Spencer-Group.com

Special thanks to these experts for their contributions!

Chris Perry, MBA is a Gen Y brand and marketing “generator,” a career search and personal branding expert and the founder of Career Rocketeer and Launchpad.

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