Gary Vaynerchuk has one of the strongest and most well-defined personal brands you will ever come across.  His message, style, and ability to connect with people truly make him one of a kind.  If you aren’t familiar with Gary or his internet TV show Wine Library TV, check out his infamous and inspiring Web 2.0 keynote speech.  Enjoy the interview!

Q:  You are widely considered the poster boy for personal branding success.  Yet, personal branding is not without detractors – some think it is a waste of time, others think it is  shameless self-promotion.  How would you respond?

Gary V: In response to whether it’s a waste of time, I’d ask one of the millions of unemployed workers if they didn’t wish they had spent time building a personal brand.  People just don’t stay in jobs as long as they used to, it just makes sense to let people know who you are beyond your job title.

As for the self-promotion argument, if you’re providing value to people, they’ll listen.  If not, they’ll tune you out.  The people who are just going out and promoting and treating all these new platforms like traditional media aren’t winning and they’re not going to win.  It’s about engagement now, and so the people who are only about feeding their own ego and dictating the conversation are going to lose, period, end of story.

Q: While building your personal brand, what has been the one quality that has fueled your success, and set you apart from the pack: personality, passion, or perseverance?

Gary V: It’s hard to choose between those three because I know that all of them have been important in getting me to where I am today.  If I had to choose one though, it would have to be passion.  I don’t think I’d have been able to be as patient or as personable if I was involved in something that I didn’t love with every ounce of my heart.

As for personality, I want to make a quick point. I always talk about embracing your DNA.  Some people think because they’re not ridiculously extroverted that what I talk about doesn’t apply to them.  People need to focus on their personality and determine what it is that they’re best at.  There are plenty of things I’m horrible at, I just concentrate on what I’m good at and have people pick up the slack on my weaknesses.  If more people did that, instead of focusing so much on their weaknesses, more people would be living happier lives.

Q: You have over a million connections across social networks, yet you still encourage people to e-mail you directly, and respond to every single one.  Some would call this bordering on “crazy”.  Why do you do it?

Gary V: I really really like people.  I feel like if someone takes the time to send me an email then they deserve a personal response.  It may not be the most scalable thing in the world and I’m still backlogged into the summer, but I think it’s important.  I’m just extremely grateful for everyone who takes the time to connect with me; I don’t take it for granted.

Q: You’ve typically been ahead of the curve with tech and social trends (video blogging, social media, etc).  What do you see as the “next big thing” – a technology or trend that will change the game yet again?

Gary V: I love this new site Daily Booth.  Actually, I love it so much that I became an investor in it recently.  You know the saying a picture’s worth a thousand words, and I believe that storytelling is probably the most important tool we have in building businesses.  Daily Booth makes it easy to interact using pictures.

It also has an incredible community already and Vaynermedia, the consulting company I just started with my brother AJ, has been having a lot of fun using it to help develop the Vaynermedia brand.

Q: What single piece of advice would you give to people who say they are doing everything you advocate, and aren’t seeing any results?

Gary V: They need to be patient.  People saw me on Conan and assumed that I just started Wine Library TV and all of a sudden I was on national TV.  There were a lot of days where I was grinding in the trenches, interacting with wine lovers for 16 hours a day and only getting 30 viewers on Wine Library TV.  If you’ve got the chops and you put in the work, you’re going to see results, but they don’t come overnight.

I’m hoping this interview inspired you and made you think differently about your personal brand.  If so, check out these 10 Ways to Crush It Like Gary V.  Or, if you are in the mood for a few hundred pages just like this, buy Gary’s book, I guarantee you will love it.

Thanks a million to Gary for taking the time to provide these 5 brilliant answers.

Ryan Rancatore can also be found attempting to Crush It at his own site, Personal Branding 101, discussing the tools and tactics that will help you build a killer personal brand in 2010 and beyond.

Ryan would love nothing more than to connect with you on Twitter at @RyanRancatore, or on Linkedin, Facebook, or Brazen Careerist.

Create a Remarkable Web Presence at Brand-Yourself.com

Once you’ve developed your personal brand, it’s time to create a visible web presence around it. Did you know that more than half of employers are more likely to hire you if you’ve spent time developing your personal brand across social networks? To help you do this, we built a platform to manage your online reputation from one central hub. Create your Brand-Yourself account today and see how our tools can help you build, optimize and promote a remarkable web presence that gets you hired.

Support me by sharing this post:

To continue with our series on job seekers getting jobs through social media, I would like to introduce you to Mark Cummuta. I found Mark via Twitter and found out subsequently that he received his latest job offer because of Twitter. Coincidence? I think not!

What’s your background and how did you first get started with Social Media?

I’ve been in IT product development and international business process improvement for almost 25 (twenty-five) years. I’ve been using Social Media for almost 10 years. Back in 2000-2003 I helped create the underlying technology for systems like Skype, WebEx & GoToMeeting when I was CTO & VP of R&D for a company called I-DEP. [After Microsoft, Real Media and Apple all told us it would be impossible.] We created video chat, chat rooms, private chat within group chats, whiteboarding, file sharing and more. So I’ve been a long-time believer in Social Media and Social Networking, especially as a means to improve business efficiencies, collaboration and communications.

When you first heard about Twitter, what were you initial thoughts about the service?

When I first heard of Twitter I thought it was just another IM (instant messaging) service.

When was the first time you actually used Twitter and why?

I created my first Twitter account in late 2008. For the first several weeks I simply watched, researched and learned. I then decided what voice and subjects I wanted to tweet about.  Specifically, I decided I would tweet on CIO/CTO, IT, Six Sigma, BPM, ITIL, SMB, startups, executive job search strategies and US defense topics.  I also thought ahead and created Twitter accounts for other aspects of my business.

Now you were able to get a job through Twitter, which is amazing.  How did you come upon this job opportunity and how long did it take for you to get hired?

Yes, I landed my job as CIO (Chief Information Officer) for JobAngels through Twitter.  I write / blog for CIO Magazine on executive job search strategies from a first person CIO’s perspective, so I frequently tweet about this subject and post my blogs to Twitter, as well.  The CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) of JobAngels, Charee Klimek, started following me and commenting/retweeting my tweets. We eventually met in person, and she introduced me to Mark Stelzner the Founder of JobAngels. I think the whole process, from initial introductions between Charee and I, to me starting with JobAngels probably took about 4-6 weeks.

In your current job, do you use Twitter for businesses purposes and has this changed your perspective of Twitter based on your initial reactions to it?

I wear several hats — the CIO of JobAngels, the President of Triumph CIO Group, a writer and blogger for CIO Magazine, and as a leader for several national and regional IT groups and TLA Evening Session. For each of these roles I use Twitter to connect with other leaders in each of these spaces, to communicate with others, and to learn and share knowledge. As I’ve used Twitter more, I’ve realized its potential as another means of not only connecting, communicating and learning, but also for marketing, sales and branding opportunities.

So what is JobAngels? And how has Social Media – especially Twitter – helped you in your role there?

JobAngels is a grassroots non-profit organization dedicated to helping job seekers find meaningful and financially rewarding employment – one person at a time. We do that through our over 24,000 mentors nationwide, and even internationally now. Each of our mentors has agreed to helping at least one person in their goal of finding a new job, primarily by assisting them with things like resume reviews, interviewing tips and practice, networking strategies and assistance, etc. So while we are not a placement, search or temp service, rather what we provide is training in job search skills from both experts and every day people like you and me who want to help.

As for how Social Media and Twitter help me in this role, I am able to connect with and communicate with thousands of JobAngels mentors, job seekers, hiring managers, recruiters and HR specialists. Because of how Twitter is structured, I am able to communicate directly with interested individuals and organizations, with minimal interference and disruption.  Across a broader scale, JobAngels has a presence on LinkedIn, FaceBook, and on the internet itself as JobAngels (we hope to have our all new website out very soon), which we use to reach an even wider variety of markets.

Closing Thoughts

As you can see from this story, Mark got his job using social media because of his proactive attitude to get involved and provoke thought. This opened numerous possibilities for him when he started to interact with other professional in his industry and specific niche. While a lot of what Mark touched on may seem daunting, it was a process that took place over time as he had to prove himself to the outside world. I hope that this encourages everyone to start being proactive today and to get more involved! There are job opportunities everywhere, you just have to make sure you are looking in the right places and connecting with the right people.

If you have any questions for Mark about his story to clarify any part of it, please leave a comment below and we can talk!

Support me by sharing this post:

To continue with our series on people getting jobs via social media, I give you Hans Mestrum. Below are a few questions I asked him to get a more in-depth look into how social media landed him a job. To make this story even sweeter, I come across him on Twitter.

What is your background, and how did you first get started with social media?

I am a teacher from Origin and worked at a school for 9 years. After that I moved to Tulip Computers and worked there for 19 years in the education business as a trainer, product manager, training manager, business unit manager and managing director. My last job there was Sr. strategic business developer/trend-watcher.

In this job I used a lot of social media and did a lot of presentations and workshop on social media (about 5 years ago) and set up my blog and my online presence (just type “hans mestrum” in Google).

When you first heard about Twitter, what were your initial thoughts?

First I did not see the potential of it but after a couple of weeks I started tweeting. I think someone invited me to join.

You were able to get a job through Twitter. How did you come upon this opportunity, and how long did it take to get hired?

I just tweeted the fact that I was in search of another job and someone of the university who was following me on my blog and Twitter saw this tweet and introduced me at the dean of the faculty of technology. I did not know him. Just followed his blog and he followed mine. He wrote 2 pages as a recommendation letter, based on my online presence. It was amazing to read how accurate it was, thinking of the fact that he did not know me personally.

An interim manager who wanted to set up an interview ASAP contacted me that same evening. The next working day I was meeting with the dean and two directors of the faculty and next day I was hired. So this is really twitterspeed.

There was no job, no vacancy, no description whatsoever online.

I was hired as new media specialist/blogger on the staff of the dean of the faculty. I report directly to her.

In your current job, do you use Twitter for businesses purposes? Has this opportunity changed your initial perspective of Twitter?

I am using all kinds of social media now to present the faculty and myself. I blog, tweet, yammer, video blog and anything interesting that students and teachers need to know about. People like it although some of my colleagues wonder what all this stuff does. But by just doing it they see the relevance of it.

What is HAN University of Applied Sciences, and how has social media – especially Twitter – helped you in your role there?

HAN University of Applied Sciences is a high school in Arnhem en Nijmegen (towns in the east of the Netherlands) with 25.000 students and about 2400 employees. We have an education, management/economics, health and sport and technology track.

I work on the faculty of technology and I am responsible for putting the faculty on the map by means of social/new media.

Do you teach others about Twitter now?

I did some presentation and guest lectures about new media. On some websites I am a HRM case in which my case is explained as the new way of job hunting.

Congratulations to Hans! Tell us if you know anyone who got a job using social media so we can feature them next.

Support me by sharing this post:

With the job market so tough, we constantly encourage our readers to distinguish and promote themselves in unique, innovative ways. We tout personal branding and social media as ideal methods to get your message and qualifications out to the right audience. Does it work? Do people listen? We like to think  so, but it is always reaffirming to see concrete examples.

Like many recent grads, Al biedrzycki was having trouble finding opportunities. When he exhausted all traditional techniques, he decided to create a viral cover letter. Since then, he has been interviewed on CNN and employers are now reaching out to him. I recently spoke with Al. Our interview should be encouraging and helpful to young job seekers everywhere.

Like many graduates, you were having trouble finding any opportunities. What methods were you initially employing?

At first, I was trying the basic networks– eRecruiting, Monster.com, CareerBuilder, LinkedIn, etc. I would look for entry-level marketing positions with qualifications that matched my own, write a cover letter and send in my resume.

How often were you getting responses?

The only responses were basically from the auto-mated “do-not-reply” email bots. It was really depressing writing so many cover letters (some were creative!) that most likely got tossed away or not even noticed.

Were you tapping into any of your networks (parents friends, alumni, etc)?

Yes, before I made “Hire Me” I asked some of my professors to see if they knew of any open positions. Also, I asked my employed friends if they knew of any open positions at their current jobs. But, with the economy so tough they couldn’t guarantee anything, especially since most of them just started working at their respective positions.

What was the breaking point. What finally made you say I NEED to try something and make “hire me”?

I just wasn’t getting any responses. I really wanted to convey to employers that I can be very creative–something that’s hard to display in the typical resume. If all the applicants for a specific job say they’re creative, then how do you make yourself stand out? I thought a musical rendition of my qualifications might break the ice a little more easily.

Describe what happened after you posted the personal branding video?

My initial goal was to just show my friends and send it off to prospective employers, but it spread relatively quickly. The media got a hold of it which was good for my exposure, but the viral aspect of it really reduced contact from employers. Sure, people viewed it, but since I didn’t anticipate it spreading so fast and so far, I never really made it accessible for employers to contact me. I still had to take the initiative in sending it to companies I was interested in. But this wasn’t an issue once I sent it in– people liked it so much that they forwarded it to co-workers and people higher up. As a result, I’ve gotten lots of referrals and contacts who are volunteering to assist me in finding a job. It’s really great.

So when do you anticipate any offers in the near future?

Hopefully in the next 2-3 weeks. I have several more interviews lined up and I’m positive more are on the way. I’ve just got to keep up sending out the video and reaching out to employers.

Support me by sharing this post: