Author: Monica O'Brien

Monica O’Brien is an MBA candidate with years of experience in business, strategy, and technology. She currently consults start-ups in the Chicago area on establishing their social media strategies. Monica attends the Chicago Booth School of Business (at the University of Chicago), currently ranked the #1 MBA program in the country by BusinessWeek, and is one of the 2007 Chicago Business Fellows. She concentrates in Marketing, Strategy, and Entrepreneurship. Monica holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, with a minor in Physics, from Truman State University. Her blog, Twenty Set, gives career advice to young professionals. Monica writes candidly about her own experiences. She has also written for Mashable and ProBlogger, and has been featured in major publications like the Christian Science Monitor.
eBrandPRRelationships & Personal GrowthReputation ManagementSocial Media

How to Deal With Your Hacked Twitter Account

I should be writing about my recent trip to Cancun, and my safe return without the swine flu. But instead, I’m writing about this stupid person who hacked my Twitter account and started following hundreds of spammers who started sending me hundreds of direct messages with hundreds of stupid links that I’m afraid to click. …

Brand Identity & Self-DiscoveryeBrandRelationships & Personal GrowthReputation ManagementSEO

3 Search Engines You’ve Probably Never Heard Of

Move over Google – the future of searching is no longer just about you! Check out these 3 new search engines below, then consider how to manage your personal brand on them in the comments section.

OneRiot

OneRiot looks at what’s happening on Twitter and Digg in realtime results. They write, “Increasingly, the web’s most …

Brand Yourself Asgen-yLifestyle & Habit BuildingPositioningRelationships & Personal GrowthReputation Management

Two Questions About Personal Branding Issues

Here are two posts that caught my eye this week. Neither was about personal branding, but both raised questions about personal branding that are worth discussing. What do you think?

If you want to be successful, be worth sharing by Jamie Varon

Do we damage our personal brands by overdoing the self-promotion? Jamie Varon writes, …

Brand Yourself Asgen-yLifestyle & Habit BuildingPositioningRelationships & Personal GrowthReputation ManagementSocial Media

How To Transition or Expand Your Brand to Two Topics

I have a dilemma. I have a blog about Gen Y topics with nearly 1000 subscribers. I started a new blog about marketing and consumer insights this week, and I am worried about transitioning my personal brand. My second blog is far more important than my first one because it’s the platform for my company, …

Career & WealthCommunication & NetworkingJob SearchLifestyle & Habit BuildingNetworkingRelationships & Personal Growth

A Simple Networking Meeting Checklist

As a consultant, I am constantly going on informational/networking meetings to convince clients to hire me. Through these experiences, I’ve learned a lot about how to conduct a networking meeting.

Here are six tips I have for managing networking meetings:

Be persistent

It’s not easy, but I get meetings with many CEOs and other executives …

Brand Identity & Self-DiscoveryBrand Yourself AsRelationships & Personal GrowthReputation ManagementSEOSocial Media

How to Measure Your Personal Brand

Today I was going to write a post about different ways to measure your personal brand. Then I realized, there is only one way that we all measure our own personal brands: through how we stack up to competitors.

Don’t believe me? See for yourself.

How do you measure your personal brand on twitter? Through …

Book ReviewsBrand Identity & Self-DiscoveryCommunication & NetworkingMarketingNetworkingRelationships & Personal GrowthReputation ManagementSocial Media

How to be Popular on Social Media

Have you ever read the book How to Be Popular by Meg Cabot? (Probably not, because it’s a young adult novel written for 12-14 year-old girls, who probably don’t read this blog.) I read it this weekend as research for another project I’m working on, and was surprised by how much I enjoyed the book.…

Career & WealthCommunication & Networkinggen-yInterviewJob SearchLifestyle & Habit BuildingPRRelationships & Personal GrowthReputation ManagementSocial MediaSuccess Story

An Audacious Way to Build an Online Brand

Last week, Jamie Varon made waves in the Twitter and Gen Y communities with a career advice post about her last job and a new website to get Twitter to hire her. I caught up with her to talk about what she’s doing to build her online personal brand – and ask how she comes …

Brand Yourself AsCommunication & NetworkingFuturesInterviewLifestyle & Habit BuildingNetworkingRelationships & Personal GrowthSocial Media

Five Tips for Creating Video Posts

Now that my blog has gained some traction, I’ve been thinking about how to introduce video blogging to my audience to stretch myself and my blog. After getting advice from many people on how to get started, here are five tips I’ve heard:

Tune in to what others are doing

Good bloggers read a lot …