Sometimes resumes are cold. Here's an option for sharing a little more about who you really are with the (hiring) world.

OK, resumes are cold pretty much all the time - intentionally so. I mean, you are asking someone to get to know you on the basis of the facts related to your background: where you've worked and when, what you were responsible for. As someone who currently works in digital marketing (right now, I am working with Amazon's Consumer Division on their employment brand strategy), I do find the resume and even the LinkedIn profile a little limiting when it comes to showing an employer who you really are. It's like you need an extra place for all the other awesome you've got going on. Resumes lack the kind of appeal we expect in marketing, so maybe you want to think about how you are marketing your personal brand outside of your resume.

I like to think of the resume as simply a calling card - it's a foot in the door that invites further conversation. When I think about my own resume and compare it to the reasons why my clients hire me, well, there's just something missing. Kind of the essence of who I am as a person. You can only put so much of that into a resume before it looks a little nuts. So I try to put that stuff elsewhere, where potential clients can find it (I even point them to it). And that is personal branding. I know it sounds like a BS term but we all have personal brands - a personal brand is the reason why someone would want to consider you for anything (as a potential employee, date, friend or networking partner - what have I forgotten?). You can ignore it if you want because it sounds like a lot of work to build one. But you have one whether you nurture it or not.

I'm not going to recommend that you start tweeting or fill Facebook with boring articles related to your work. Frankly, if you aren't already doing those things, it's probably because you don't have lots of time and the amount of effort it takes to build up a personal brand on Twitter, for example, could take longer than your job search. Good long-term strategy but not super helpful right now.

 A few months ago, I was sitting with a friend who wanted to easily communicate an aspect of her work but she didn't want to put it on her web page as the focus of the work was inconsistent with her day job. She just needed a little pop-up space to talk about  this new work area - someplace she could point people to. The site I recommended to her is also one you can use as a place to develop your personal brand. It's about.me. You can set up a single page and tell the world a little about yourself. It's creative and fun. I use mine as a hub for my professional social media accounts - check it out here if you want. I also set one up for my business in case I want a little more polished version and don't want to send someone to my website -you know if I just want to deliver  my elevator pitch and links to my social media accounts.

About.me recently added a new feature called Backstory that  let's you add details of your professional history, similar to LinkedIn. I don't think about.me is going to rival LinkedIn any time soon for the attention of recruiters; I should be clear about that. But I do think it's a great place to point people that might have an interest in learning more about you. I include my about.me link in my auto signature. I expect very little organic traffic to this page so it's all about sending folks there myself. It's my "get to know me!"

If you want to have a little fun and have some time to spare (and let me point out that you are already in the interwebz so you have time to spare, friend), sign up for an account (it's freeeeee!) and hit the discover link at the top. You can see what other people are doing with their about.me pages. You might be inspired. I think you'll definitely notice that you feel you get to know people better on an about.me page than only a resume or LinkedIn profile (it's a great compliment to those other 2 things, not an alternative).

Besides, what else were you planning to do with the single best photos of yourself that you have ever had taken? It's sitting on your desktop right now, right?