Thursday, July 26, 2012

Thursday Tools: Toss that Resume for a Graphical Bio

For the modern, socially connected workplace, an electronic representation of a paper resume is so 2004*. Today that changes. Take your LinkedIn profile, and create a graphical bio with Vizify.
 

 
Just an hour ago, Vizify launched, revolutionizing the way people make a great first impression. A disclaimer is needed before I can continue. Vizify is the brainchild of my brother-in-law, Todd Silverstein, and a couple of his friends. And, yes, I totally pulled the family card to get early access (check out my graphical bio). Okay, now that we've got that out of the way, let's continue.
 

 
"Vizify shows the best of you by creating a highly visual, interactive profile based on the sites and services you already use." They add color to your LinkedIn profile with information and insight pulled from your Facebook profile, Twitter stream, and Foursquare checkins. Now if your Facebook profile is something you don't want prospective employers seeing, just skip connecting it to Vizify. Vizify lets you choose which services to source from. Currently, they support LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare. And, once you link your chosen services, you'll have the option to edit what's displayed.
 
Getting started is easy; simply, connect the services you want Vizify to pull information from. Vizify then generates a draft bio for you. You can keep this bio or you can customize it. I immediately switched up the color, selecting the purple color set. The other thing you'll want to do is snap up your custom URL. You won't find this through clicking Edit. It's tucked under Account on the Vizify URL tab.
 
I modified all of the page titles for my bio. I kept the quote they selected from my Twitter stream. And, I changed up my initial factoid. Originally it highlighted my years of experience (found in my LinkedIn profile).
 
One page I spent a lot of time on (and I still want to do more with) is the Words page. Vizify populates the page with ten words you use the most on Twitter. I frequently tweet about new blog posts so "blog" was one of my initial ten words. When I'm participating in conversations or come across something someone would like, I use "cc/." Neither really speak to the subjects I'm tweeting about. Once you narrow your list to ten words, you can view the number of times they've appeared in your stream as well as the number of responses they've gotten. In my list, I'd like to showcase the ten words that have gotten the most responses. Maybe in a future release, Vizify can present times in stream and responses for the words in the Edit view to make selection of words a little easier.
 
The Activities page doesn't support much customization at the moment. Unlike the Words page, you can't remove types of locations. Depending on how you use Foursquare and where you checkin, you might come across as a social butterfly or a homebody. I'd like the ability to delete categories, especially since I'm most likely to be found in Apartment Buildings.
 
Run don't walk to Vizify today, and add some color to your life. Highlight what makes you unique. So, I showed you mine, why don't you show me yours?
 
Need an invite?
 
Comment below or connect with me and I'll hook you up. Ciao Bella!
Eden
 
* 2004 is the year I joined LinkedIn.
 
Credits: All images taken by Eden Hensley Silverstein for The Road to the Good Life.