Response to Will Ferguson

What is your favorite convenience product and why?

My favorite convenience product is gum. I used to be addicted to gum and would always buy a pack when I was in line at the grocery store, or a convenience store, or paying for gasoline. I'm not a gum brand person but every brand is usually about the same price as everywhere else so you don't really need to think about another place that would sell it for less. There is also a wide variety of brands and flavors so I can buy whatever flavor or brand I'm in the mood for that day. 

How do you feel about having such a wide selection of brands and flavors right at your fingertips? Do you think this excessive amount of choices causes subconscious brand loyalty by consumers always choosing the same brand and flavor without thinking about or taking into consider the other brands since there are just so many?

Will's post can be found here.

Marketing Yourself

Self Marketing

If you are a college student or unemployed you should become a sales person and learn how to sell yourself. There are many ways to approach this. I think that expanding your self online is the best way. You should become more active with social media like Twitter and Facebook (in a professional manner) as well as LinkedIn. Having these accounts allows you to network with people and express yourself. Keep in mind that the reason you are doing this is to attract potential employers.

In addition to Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn another great idea is to maintain a blog and develop a fan-base (followers and subscribers.) This shows potential employers your style of writing as well as your personal and professional interests.

The last thing, and I believe this to be the most important, is having your own personal website. Your website should be yourName - .com, .net, .me, etc. You should include pages like "About", "Resume", "Course Work", "Activities", "Contact", and links to your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and blog(s). You do not necessarily even need the basic knowledge of HTML and CSS, Wordpress, or Drupal to make a website. There are many websites that allow you to visually build your website as opposed to writing it with HTML and other languages. It is similar to a template you and just insert images and content. The next step would be purchasing a domain name and web hosting. The most popular place to do this is GoDaddy.com. After your website goes live, you can include the URL in your resume.

With these few things you can get yourself out there and attract more employers.

What are some other ways you can market yourself? Do you have a personal website? If so, what kinds of things do you include?