Personal Branding

MJD Editor Rachel Kaufman’s Note: We’re beta-testing a partnership with Dan Schawbel’s Personal Branding Blog where we syndicate content from the blog on a weekly basis. This post is from Nance Rosen, a business communications expert.

These 20 questions cover five key areas that are critical to your accurately evaluating how well you’re doing at work. Your answers (or score) predict whether you’re likely to be promoted, fired or kept simmering in the same spot for years to come.

Score each question on a scale of 1-10 (10 = AWESOME). Add up your total score in each category. If you are totally awesome, you’ll have a total of 200 points. If you score below 30 points in any category, it’s time to take remedial action.

JOB MASTERY

How well do I?

1. Exhibit expertise of the particular knowledge and skills that make me a uniquely valuable employee

2. Continue to get educated to update my knowledge and skills for my position and the positions I desire to hold in the future

3. Understand the metrics by which I am evaluated as well as those that my department is judged, and work to excel at those measured behaviors

4. Manage my tasks and actions to contribute to the performance outcomes set for my department and company

COMMUNICATION WITH MY BOSS

How well do I?

5. Understand and articulate my boss’ top priorities and reasons for them, and approach my work in that manner

6. Know which is of greater consequence to my superior: people, projects or principles

7. Appreciate my boss’ sense of balancing the need to a) gather information and b) take action

8. Show that I understand and support my superiors’ professional aspirations

RELATING TO OTHERS AND GAINING VISIBILITY

How well do I?

9. Seek to create significant, lasting connections with everyone in my company

10. Communicate using all opportunities to strengthen my ties throughout the organization

11. Manage my intentions and actions to appropriaately compete and collaborate with my peers

12. Project my desire to be a resource to others as well as a willingness to be assisted by them

CULTURAL SENSIBILITY, BELIEF AND BELONGING

How well do I?

13. Keep a clear picture of the formal and informal reporting lines in my company

14. Like my company’s overall approach to business, people and the marketplace

15. Believe that I can contribute to the larger goals and vision of my organization

16. See that opportunities exist for me to grow and gain greater responsibility and authority in my company

GOOD JUDGMENT AND RESOURCEFULNESS

How well do I?

17.  Imagine I would be able to step up and fill in for my boss or another superior, if needed

18. Seek opportunities to be increasingly effective and efficient with the tools, workspace and funds allocated to me

19. Build relationships outside of the company that can be leveraged for its benefit

20. Relate to people who have the capacity to mentor me and widen my scope of influence

There’s a wealth of free and low-cost resources to get you back on track. Let me know if there are any areas you’d like to drill down on, and I’ll be happy to send you a list to kick-start your career. Email: Nance@NanceRosen.com

Nance is the author of Speak Up! & Succeed, and an expert on business communication who teaches at UCLA Extension, and speaks all around the world to audiences on social media and career trends. Nance is a former marketing executive at The Coca-Cola Company and currently is CEO of NanceSpeaks and executive publisher at PegasusMediaWorld. She has appeared on CNBC and regularly contributes to media outlets including the New York Times, ABC, CBS radio, Investors Business Daily, MediaPost and the San Francisco Chronicle.

Create a social media strategy, launch your campaign, and track the results in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. The online event and workshop will feature speakers including The Onion‘s Baratunde Thurston (left), Facebook’s Morin Oluwole, and bitly’s Tim Devane. Register now.

According to marketer Mark Schaefer, yes. He lists seven reasons why a blog will help you in your job search.

Blogging while job-searching will:

• Show what you’re made of. In any interview, you normally have to try to convince people that you know what you know.
• Build a professional network.
• Engag[e] versus advertis[e].
• [Serve as a] point of differentiation.
• Sharpen your professional skills.
• Expand your reach.
• Extend the interview. Here is the last thing you say to your interviewer: “I’ve enjoyed our time together but there is so much more I could tell you about my abilities. I hope you’ll take a look at my blog (the web address is on my resume) so you can see for yourself the way I think about things.”
• And you know what? They’ll do it. You have just extended your interview by another 15-30 minutes and that may make all the difference!

Yes x 7.

But here’s the rub: what do you blog about? An unemployment blog (this particular example chosen randomly) seems to work for some people but we don’t recommend you do it. An industry blog makes more sense.

We suspect, however, that the blog that will make you most impressive in the eyes of an employer is one with quietly compelling content that shows not just how you think about things but provides solutions. So instead of just blogging about the latest social media scandal, offer tips for what the brand should have done instead. Instead of pointing out that Pinterest is gaining popularity with journalists, provide new ideas for other ways journos can use the site.

In other words…yeah, you’re giving it away for free.

But employers want to see solutions to problems and creativity. Show them that on your blog and you’re that much closer to landing your dream job.

MJD Editor Rachel Kaufman’s Note: We’re beta-testing a partnership with Dan Schawbel’s Personal Branding Blog where we syndicate content from the blog on a weekly basis. This one’s from Dan Gershenshon, a Chicago-based consultant.

Hey, we all have heroes. Some of mine include a guy who wore #23 for the Chicago Bulls and my Dad. But we also have a lot of people we look up to in the social media realm – people who influence us and whose company we’d like to be included in (yes, no matter your level of expertise, it’s perfectly normal to have heroes too).

How do we actually get there and stand among those we admire in social media? I know, I know: Create remarkable content. I’ve heard that, get that and hopefully in the eyes of others do that.

But between all that blogging, tweeting and posting….do you know how you measure up to others on the social web? Step outside of looking at only your own numbers. Benchmarking yourself against those peers you admire is another component that can help tell you a lot about your level of influence and how close you are to reaching the levels you desire.

Where do you start?

Be realistic about the next tier “up”

It’s fine to aspire to reach the very top tier of industry thought leadership, but if you’re just dipping your toes into social media or only so active, you might find yourself discouraged in comparison to those top tier influencers – and that’s no way to feel.

I recommend starting with those influencers whose content you admire but who might also converse with you regularly. You don’t have to fight among a crowd of 100,000 for this person’s attention on Twitter or other channels.

To help identify these influencers, you may want to try using Listorious, which is a great tool for finding some of best people to search for on Twitter. Or Topsy, which lets you find experts related to your field on Google Plus and Twitter. Search by topic, region, profession, etc.

For a cool visual representation of profiles that helps you find people to follow, what they’re talking about and who they’re talking to, check out MentionMapp.

You’ll notice there’s some weight with these particular tools toward Twitter, but don’t let that fool you. It’s not about the channel itself as much as finding people who are relevant to your world. If you find them on Twitter, you can find the other channels they’re occupying.

As you accumulate a group of influencers within somewhat a range of reach, start small. 10-25 people in a list within the same industry or topic is a good place to begin. Remember, as you measure against them, if they seem light years from your current position, they may not be the best people to include in that first tier you’re striving for.

Metrics

So let’s get into some measureables. While there may be some variation on which ones are right for you, remember that less is more. Try 3-5 metrics that make sense, not 30 to overwhelm you.

A few good benchmarks to consider against your peers:

• Mentions
• Reach
• Website Traffic
• Inbound Links
• Share of Voice

Tools like SocialMention, Open Site Explorer and of course, the always trusty Google Analytics can help give you useful, usable data on both you and your peers.

I’m not a big fan of social media influence tools but PeerIndex serves a nice purpose here for comparison’s sake and tells you about your authority, audience and activity versus others.

Go deeper than followers, fans….

One last thing – I have seen people featured in documentaries, interviewed by respected sources and quoted in magazines who have Follower and Fan counts all over the place. If they were judged on that face value alone, they wouldn’t be given much credibility when they’d be deserving of more. Go ahead and look at where those peers stand but don’t get too wrapped up in quantity over quality.

Author:

Dan Gershenson is a Chicago-based consultant focused on brand strategy and content marketing. Dan has guided a variety of CEOs and Marketing Directors at small to medium-sized companies, providing hundreds of strategic plans to help businesses identify their best niches and areas of opportunity. Dan blogs on Chicago Brander, mentors advertising students and cheers relentlessly for the Chicago Bears. Dan graduated from Drake University with a degree in Advertising.

Mashable brings up an interesting (and somewhat horrifying) thought: perhaps Facebook Timeline is the new resume.

Yeah. Not that LinkedIn is going anywhere, but employers have been checking Facebook profiles to get the skinny on candidates for years. Timeline does two things: it makes it easier for those old posts of yours to surface, and since it makes it easier to make a really nice-looking profile page, those who don’t may be penalized.

Here’s what Mashable contributor Gerrit Hall says: “Until now, the Facebook profile has provided a current slice of a user’s life. If you want to get into the nitty-gritty details or look a week, month, or year into the past, it takes some searching and clicking. With Timeline, employers can learn more about users by searching specific time frames and seeing how the details mesh together.

“Ultimately, Facebook is going to become the go-to site for more curious employers and clients. Personalized and manicured Timelines are simply going to be more attractive.”

Smart tips: double-check your privacy settings, make sure that embarrassing stuff from way back in 2005 is truly hidden, not just hard to find, and highlight your best stuff.

Courtesy of AG Beat, here are some cool Facebook timelines that put a jobseeker’s best professional face forward.

Read more

MJD Editor Rachel Kaufman’s Note: We’re beta-testing a partnership with Dan Schawbel’s Personal Branding Blog where we syndicate content from the blog on a weekly basis. This one’s from Dan Gershenshon, a Chicago-based consultant.

Back when I was in High School, our cross country team coach had an unusual and corny yet strangely motivating expression. Prior to the beginning of each season, during the summer, he would say, “Make sure your hay is in the barn.”

What did he mean by that? I’m no farmer, but I’m pretty sure he was describing one of the important steps of preparation a farmer has to make before a long winter. And since cross country is a sport that requires longer distance running, the preparation you put into building up your endurance beforehand by running 300 miles in the summer – instead of waiting until the beginning of the actual fall/winter season to begin training – will give you greater results for the long-haul.

Strangely, my old coach’s expression has merit all over again for personal brands.

It’s time to re-examine how you position yourself now. Because the preparation you make now in terms of personal brand development and then executing that strategy give you a much greater chance of establishing and strengthening your presence in the marketplace.

Why now, you ask? After all, why not wait until sunnier days come upon us?
Think about how you view sources you now trust. Even when you had a need for a solution from an expert in that category, was that trust always instantaneous and so compelling each and every time?

No. I’ll bet you didn’t have that instant connection. I’ll bet in some cases, that connection and trust took time to sink in. You had to absorb it. You had to hear and read things from this person multiple times to get the whole story and reinforce the feeling that, yes, this person was one you could feel good about.

That’s how people work because like it or not, they’re naturally skeptical of many claims. No matter how genuine those claims are.

With this in mind, let’s fast forward to a time and place where the economy is not recovered but at least better than where it was. Some would even say that day is today. Your competitor has laid the groundwork for personal brand building with multiple efforts. He’s ventured in social media more than he ever did. And he’s revamped the look of his company’s website to encourage greater repeat visits.

And you? Well, let’s say at this point you’re just now ready to start talking about how you’re going to strategize your personal brand’s direction with some efforts that take place months from now – you know, the stuff your competitor’s been doing well ahead of you.

Provided the message is on target, which do you think the audience is more likely to respond to first — the brand they’ve been hearing from multiple times or the brand that just shared its first new message in a good long while? My money’s on the one that put itself out there in an effort to establish a rapport long ago.

Now let’s come back to the here and now. If you’re interested in taking proactive steps, then take a good, hard look within and ask yourself some tough questions that are not the no-brainers they appear to be initially. For example:

Who is your target audience?
You say you know who they are? Good. Tell me exactly which zip codes they live in and their purchasing behaviors. Then tell me where a potential secondary audience might be.

What are your competitors doing better than you?
It’s fun and easy to say where they’re failing in comparison to your strengths. Work harder than that. Tell me where they’re kicking your butt. Your personal brand is not perfect. Nobody’s is.

What’s the state of your website?
Is it a 1-time-only experience where people get what you’re about and then leave? Most are, unfortunately. No interactivity and fresh content….no reason for them to come back.

What are the threats on the horizon for your industry?
Tell me how people in that field may be affected and what you intend to do about it from a marketing perspective right now. Don’t tell me you’re going to wait until the threat is here and very real. Give people the guidance they’re looking for.

How are you showing that you’re a trusted authority people can turn to?
I’m not talking about what you do. I’m talking about speaking to events and trends in your industry or in the news that you have spoken to consistently through blogging, podcasting, video, newsletters, articles placed or another option.

This is only the beginning. The point is that from answers to questions like the ones above, you can begin to get honest with yourself about what you need to do from here. I’m quite certain that your house is not in perfect order at this point, which is fine. The time to ask them and then execute answers to them is now. Not later.

Animals go into hibernation for the Winter. Personal brands don’t have that luxury.

Dan Gershenson, a veteran of several advertising agencies, is a Chicago-based consultant focused on brand strategy and content marketing. Dan has guided a variety of CEOs and Marketing Directors at small to medium-sized companies, providing hundreds of strategic plans to help businesses identify their best niches and areas of opportunity. When not providing people with a road map for their brand or showing agencies how to position themselves differently, Dan blogs on Chicago Brander, mentors advertising students and cheers relentlessly for the Chicago Bears. Dan graduated from Drake University with a degree in Advertising.

MJD Editor Rachel Kaufman’s Note: We’re beta-testing a partnership with Dan Schawbel’s Personal Branding Blog where we syndicate content from the blog on a weekly basis. This one’s from Dan Gershenshon, a Chicago-based consultant.

Sit up straight. Don’t talk with your mouth full. Write thank you notes to people who give you gifts or attend events in your honor.

These are the kinds of things that we learn early on in life. But good manners, with several updates that apply to this stage of your life, can say a lot for who you are as a person, which ultimately can translate well into your brand. Business etiquette, dining skills, how you dress…all of it has a significant impact on the customer’s image of you, your employees and your company, whether or you like it or not.

 

Shake Their Hand, Not Their Confidence

As someone who used to get caught having to shake someone’s hand just after I’d eaten something, don’t do that patented move of wiping your hands on your pants just before you do a handshake with someone. Nobody wants to press the flesh with someone who has greasy or clammy palms.

 

The Best Pen Is Mightier

Once when I was formalizing a business relationship, I pulled out a pen that was handy nearby for the prospect to sign. The gentleman signing the document gave me some good-natured ribbing when he said, “Wow, you’re really going all-out with that pen. A real Mont Blanc you’re putting in my hands.” While he was sort of kidding, I got the point. You don’t have to spend hundreds on a pen, but don’t sign important documents with a cheap ballpoint. A pen is not just a pen.

 

Put The Ball in Their Court For Lunch

I would sometimes anxiously sweat over choosing lunch meeting locations like crazy. I put so much pressure on myself due to how I felt it meant everything to how that person would judge me. Well, it’s not everything but it’s still important. The easy route is to let them choose the location, which most of the time they do. That way, if it isn’t to their liking, at least they can’t say that you were the one who made the bad call.

 

A Better Pre-Game Warmup

Don’t go into the meeting looking like you know nothing about the other person giving you their time. Ideally, both parties should do this studying up (really, if you were hiring someone, wouldn’t you want to know a little about them in advance?).

Check out their website, their LinkedIn profile and some other sources online. Showing that you’ve taken some to learn about some aspects about them (personal and professional) in advance to avoid them retelling a story that you should probably already know going in. I’m not talking about a full report. Even when you’re crunched for time, just a 10-minute scan on your smartphone can help set a better impression from the beginning.

 

Order Wisely

Some items are messier for lunch than others. I’m a fan of Italian as much as anybody, but if you’re wearing white, avoid marinara like the plague.

 

Oh, Was That Your Water?

Yes. It was on the left side and you just drank it. Your water is on the right. And your bread is on the left near your main plate, not the right.

 

Who Pays?

If you invited the person to the lunch meeting, you should strive to be the one to pay. Once I had a person invite me to lunch and it was clear that he had no intention of paying. He didn’t even offer. That’s bad form in my book. Sure, there have been times I’ve split the tab if the other party fights me hard enough (after all, part of etiquette is not making a scene), but definitely go in expecting to be the one who pays if you invite them to lunch.

 

I have work to do on some of these issues above, as I’m sure many others do. So even though it might hurt your sensitive side just a little, take a look at contacting a Corporate Image Consultant for a consultation. There were times I wondered why I needed to pay attention to these little things. Well, you don’t want these little things to derail you from the big things you want to accomplish for your personal brand’s success.

Things like tipping at restaurants and body language may or may not seem small to you, but if they’re bigger issues to your client, can you afford to chance it? I didn’t think so.

Dan Gershenson, a veteran of several advertising agencies, is a Chicago-based consultant focused on brand strategy and content marketing. Dan has guided a variety of CEOs and Marketing Directors at small to medium-sized companies, providing hundreds of strategic plans to help businesses identify their best niches and areas of opportunity. When not providing people with a road map for their brand or showing agencies how to position themselves differently, Dan blogs on Chicago Brander, mentors advertising students and cheers relentlessly for the Chicago Bears. Dan graduated from Drake University with a degree in Advertising.

MJD Editor Rachel Kaufman’s Note: We’re beta-testing a partnership with Dan Schawbel’s Personal Branding Blog where we syndicate content from the blog on a weekly basis. This one‘s from Skip Freeman, a headhunter who’s turned to helping jobseekers get hired. This particular post is an adaptation of the chapter entitled, “Never Rebut an Objection—Roll with it!,” in “‘Headhunter’ Hiring Secrets: The Rules of the Hiring Game Have Changed . . . Forever!. Do you want to see more of these posts? Let us know.

What is your first “gut” reaction when you encounter an “objection”—“We’re not hiring right now,” “You need to call HR,” etc.—while telephone prospecting for a new job among hiring managers or the companies they represent? It’s to immediately rebut or counter the objection, right? “I’ve already tried to call HR numerous times and all I get is a busy signal,” you might respond, probably with even a slight edge of frustration in your voice. This of course would be a very normal, quite human reaction. It is not, however, likely to work in your favor or get you where you want to go—to land a new job.

In this blog I am going to review some of the more common objections you’re likely to encounter while job prospecting by telephone and then show you how you to effectively handle them by resisting the temptation to “push back” by offering a rebuttal or countering the objections in some other way. By learning to effectively use this approach you will brand yourself as someone who is different from and better than the typical job hunter who is perceived as “just someone else looking for a job.”

(Coincidentally, the suggested ways of handling common objections featured in this blog work best when you precede your telephone prospecting by the direct mail campaign outlined in these previous blogs: http://www.personalbrandingblog.com/frustrated-by-%e2%80%98post-and-hope%e2%80%99-job-hunting-try-this/ and http://www.personalbrandingblog.com/still-job-hunting-online-never-hearing-back-try-this/)

In my executive recruiting firm we coach all of our job candidates that the best way to handle objections they’re likely to encounter during their job hunt is, first, to think in terms of the martial arts, wrestling or similar forms of hand-to-hand combat. To be effective in these disciplines, one must learn to “roll with the punches” or other aggressive tactics and not attempt to “block” them. This same approach also works quite well with objections you’re likely to encounter during your job hunt. The basic rule is this: Never, never rebut or counter an objection, “roll with it.”

Let’s start with the number one objection you’re likely to encounter during your telephone prospecting activities:

“You need to call HR.”

The best way to handle this objection, which will occur often enough to become an issue, is by using a response such at this:

“Sure, I can call HR. But before I do, may I ask if I am the type of individual you could see making a contribution to your team?”

Notice that you made no attempt to block or rebut the objection. Rather, you “rolled” with it when you said, “Sure, I can call HR.” You merely agreed with the person making the objection, which they probably were not expecting at all. So, when you asked the follow-up question (“. . . may I ask if I am the type of individual you could see making a contribution. . . .”), the person is far more likely to work with you, at least for awhile.

Here is another, very common objection you likely will encounter while telephone prospecting:

“We are not hiring.”

An often effective way of handling this objection is by saying something like this:

“I didn’t necessarily think you were at this point. If someone were to resign, or when business increases at some point in the near future, am I the type of individual you would be interested in speaking with?”

This answer (as well as virtually all of the other suggested responses in this blog) presupposes, of course, that you have adequately and thoroughly laid out your credentials beforehand by initiating your direct mail campaign and including your credentials in it. Otherwise, you can say/ask:

“I didn’t necessarily call thinking you were hiring right now. What is the best way for me to get my information in front of you, so that if someone were to resign, or when business increases at some point in the near future, I will be “top of mind” in terms of being able to bring value to you in a position?”

At this point I can practically “hear” what some of you reading this blog are probably thinking: “This would never work in ‘the real world!’” “This is all merely theory,” “pie in the sky.” Au contraire! Admittedly, these approaches certainly do not work each and every time you use them—no approach works every time!—but they work often enough to seriously consider using them! How do I know? Not only do the job candidates I present to hiring companies effectively use them, as a “headhunter,” I also regularly and effectively use them when I am prospecting for “job orders,” i.e., positions companies want to fill, among hiring companies.
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MJD Editor Rachel Kaufman’s Note: We’re beta-testing a partnership with Dan Schawbel’s Personal Branding Blog where we syndicate content from the blog on a weekly basis. This one‘s from Nance Rosen, an author, speaker, sales trainer, and marketing consultant. Do you want to see more of these posts? Let us know.

Only two types of people matter when it comes to connecting yourself or your business: 1) your ideal prospects and 2) your referring sources.

The trick that turns all business development into success is to know exactly whom you need to connect with in order to maximize your time and income.

1. Prospects

This includes anyone who has a need and a budget you can serve.  It sounds simple, but actually you may have more requirements than prospects do. We always think that we’re being judged when it comes to connecting and competing for business. In fact, you have a lot of thinking to do before you begin to develop business relationships, or re-start your business development campaign.

You might have several constraints that narrow down who would be your ideal prospect. For example, given your overhead and business expenses you may be able to work only with clients who have a budget of a certain size. Conversely some clients may be too large for you to successfully serve.  To manage large accounts, you might need administrative support you currently don’t have, or partners with whom you haven’t yet connected.

There might be geography involved as well. For example, you might not want to travel farther than a 50-mile radius from your location. While it’s fashionable to say no one needs to physically meet with anyone to do business with them: actually meeting may be a condition of your getting the first deal at least. For example, to provide a proposal  you might first need to walk a manufacturing floor, see the condition of a property or simply meet the staff you’d be evaluating or interfacing with. Sometimes, to really see if you’re with a real, trustworthy and motivated prospect, you simply need a face-to-face meeting before it makes sense to start a relationship.

So spend a lot of time developing the profiles of your ideal prospects. Exactly what are their needs, ranges of budget, demands on your time and attention, typical deadlines, types of deliverables and even their corporate cultures and communication styles? Decide what clients you serve best, and you can maximize your time and resources in business development. Of course, this works for job hunting and career changes as well.

2. Referring Sources

This includes anyone who knows anyone with a need and a budget you can serve. The surprising thing is most everyone you meet is a potential referring source. That’s because almost everyone knows someone who would be a perfect client for you, if you are able to articulate who is the perfect client for you. You only get referrals when you are able to crisply tell other people about the ideal clients you serve. Then add how you uniquely, competently and with great care serve these people and businesses.

The best suspects for giving you referrals are your current clients, your past clients or employers, and your own professional consultants including your accountant, bookkeeper, attorney, business coach and the like.

Overlook these people at your own peril

The most overlooked referral sources are the service people you patronize. For example, consider the person who cuts your hair. Almost everyone gets a haircut. It’s likely your ideal prospects are getting their haircuts from a professional hairstylist, including yours. Therefore, it’s likely your hairstylist has several ideal prospects for you. They are the people sitting in the same chair that you do, just getting their haircut at a different time or a different day.

Ask yourself: am I talking about the right thing to people who know me?

Here’s the other questions to ask yourself. Does everyone who know me, know exactly the type of client I serve well and that I want more of? Can my referring sources easily tell other people what I do and how I do it? Have I shared some simple to remember – and easy to repeat – success stories? Do I regularly speak in positive terms about my business and my business development goals? Would I be top of mind when my referring sources meet with people – or sit next to them at a holiday dinner?

Take advantage of holiday “down time”

Take one day at least to profile whom you want to do business with. Identify all the details about your ideal prospects. Use adjectives and descriptive phrases that make it easy for you and other people to recognize them. It’s kind of like creating the composite sketch that professional illustrators make for police when they are looking for a suspect and need help from the community to recognize and locate that person.

Once you know exactly what type of person or company you want to meet, make a list of everyone who can help you find these ideal prospects. Then, speak up! Use the gratitude attitude to make it not so “pitchy.”

Even when it’s not Thanksgiving, give thanks

Thank your referring sources, every time you bring up the topic of your business development goals. Here the trick: thank them for helping you – BEFORE they help you. That creates a need to in them to have earned your gratitude. And, what’s a better attitude than gratitude for all the new business you’ll be creating?

Author:

Nance Rosen is the author of Speak Up! & Succeed. She speaks to business audiences around the world and is a resource for press, including print, broadcast and online journalists and bloggers covering social media and careers. Read more at NanceRosenBlog. Twitter name: nancerosen

This has Dan Frommer, currently an indie journalist but formerly Business Insider co-founder, steamed.

According to Romenesko, Frommer applied to have SplatF, his new indie site, included in the Google News index. That means that people searching “news” for certain keywords (undoubtedly tech keywords, given Frommer’s bent) would be able to find SplatF content along with Nick Bilton, TUAW.com, and more.

No such luck, Frommer says. Why? Because Google has a policy of not indexing any one-person news outlets. “Never mind solo shops practicing entrepreneurial journalism,” Frommer says. “Google wants news with overhead!”

Frommer (and we) understand why this policy is in place. Most one-person shops are not really news sites. Most are opinion blogs or even just “what my cat did today” blogs. Putting a Google employee in the position of arbiting which blog is “news” and which is “opinion” is probably not a road down which Google wants to go.

But, Frommer points out: Google does everything else algorithmically. Why can’t data determine what’s worthy of being called “news” and what isn’t?

The problem with that, as Frommer unintentionally points out, is that a lot of stuff on legacy news sites isn’t really news: “Like this ABC News story yesterday (linked last night from the Yahoo homepage) rewriting a scandalous MacRumors forum post in the format of a news article, but adding little value and not doing any work to confirm that it is actually true. (“The whole thing may have been a joke,” it admits at the end. Yet it’s news! because it’s from ABC.)” To write an algorithm that studies one-off blogs on a case-by-case basis to determine whether their reporting is “news” would also require that algorithm to be applied to legacy news outlets. And that would have a lot of people pretty upset. Google can’t just upset the status quo that quickly.

On the other hand, maybe writing an algorithm to determine what “news” is actually valuable is still a tough nut to crack. Google’s been in the “regular” search biz since its inception, and we still have people gaming the system.

Photographer Kirk Tuck has been writing a blog since 2007 on gear, the industry, and inspiration.

He’s got over 700 entries and sees 12,000 pageviews a day, which is pretty darn good for a one-man shop.

But he’s calling it quits. He says:

I should have been on the phone continuing to make calls to prospective clients. I should have been working on the two book projects I have in front of me. I should have been swimming or running. But instead I was writing a piece about a $499 camera that will be obsolete in a few months and lost to nearly everyone’s memory in a year.

Sure, there’s an ego reward that goes along with putting out a blog…My name recognition among photographers is currently strong. If I liked doing workshops that would be a good thing. If I had products to sell to other photographers that would be a good thing. But the time spent here is time stolen from things that are more important for me….I’m done spending time creating content for free.

If Tuck’s viewpoint spreads, this has troubling implications for the Huffington Posts of the world. Here’s a guy who was doing everything right according to the laws of the new media economy: give something away for free in order to build a brand, then sell your work. If it wasn’t working to Tuck’s satisfaction—if blogging doesn’t help you sell photos—then there are suddenly a lot fewer reasons to do it.