Jason Spector.com

As many of you may have noticed, my presence on this site lately has been a little sparse. Since my fun wrap up of 2009, a lot has happened and I took a small hiatus to soak it all in. In short, I’ve made the move from an employee to an independent consultant and entrepreneur . Why? To be honest, it was thrust upon me as so many others before me. And like many others before me, I took it as an opportunity to explore what I want to do, where I want to be and how I can make the greatest impact.

But before we look forward, we should take a look back…

As job losses and business closures continue to increase, more and more people are turning to social media to give them a boost – both in the job market and as a tool of self-promotion. There isn’t a place more evident of this trend than on LinkedIn, where the site’s foundation is based on business and other professional connections. Looking through my connections list, for example, I see a sharp decrease in business names under “Company Name” and an increase of more generic terms like “self-employed” or “independent consultant”.

Seems innocent enough, but what you may not know is that labeling yourself this way adds you to the growing number of employees of the “Self Employed” company.

Anyone in the business of getting business for themselves (and others) has heard of the elevator pitch, that 5-30 second monologue/dialogue that gets you the big deal or the big fail. If you don’t have one, no worries. There are a multitude of blogs, articles, books, applications, consultants and unsolicited advice dedicated to the subject.

But what seems to be lacking in most of them is the tie in with social media. To be successful, your social bio needs to be as much as, if not more, of an elevator pitch as it is a personal brand. So in an effort to do justice to the real world and the online world, let’s take a look at both pitches – the elevator and the twittervator.

When you’re a designer first starting out, you work hard (as you should) to present yourself as a professional. You pump up your resume with “work” you’ve done, stack your portfolio with class projects & neighbors’ websites and practice your elevator pitch until it’s just right – all in the hopes of landing that first job or that first batch of freelance clients. Now you’re feeling good and ready for the “real world” of professional design. I hate to break it to you, but no, you’re probably not.