The Dos and Donts of LinkedIn Etiquette

The Dos and Donts of LinkedIn Etiquette With the wide adoption of social media over the last couple of years, the conversation has evolved away from “Why use social media?” to “How do you use social media?”.   A simple Google search for “social media etiquette” brings up 1,580,000 results. But do we really need all of those articles to tell us how to behave online? Sites like LinkedIn have shifted us away from anonymous internet usage to an age of personal branding and online identity ownership. So, if our online profiles are to be taken as extensions of ourselves or at least representations of our best self,  shouldnt  our actions online just be a reflection of what we are like offline? If social media is just a new tool to achieve the same end goal â€" to communicate â€"  shouldnt  the same etiquette for communicating in person or over the telephone apply? If LinkedIn was a real-life networking event, how would you react if you saw these behaviours? A person walks in and starts handing out his business cards without having spoken to anyone â€" This is what it looks like when you send out LinkedIn invitations to connect without personalising the message or introducing yourself. People exchange business cards but don’t speak to each other at all during the entire event â€" If all you do is connect with people but do not follow-up, you’re just building a collection of names. Without any past interactions, the likelihood of people being receptive to anything you have to offer in the future is pretty low. There is a group of people talking to each other. Among them stands someone who  doesnt  speak or react but insists on standing within the group â€" If you’re not contributing to the discussions happening around you, you’re not adding value to the community. Which begs the question, why should people connect with you in the first place? No one will think of “the guy who just stood there” when a job or an opportunity comes up and they need someone to fill it. A recruiter talks to everyone in the room but all she’s got to say is what jobs she has open â€" The scatter gun approach to advertising your jobs rarely work. If you’re speaking to a room of professionals with mixed skill sets, is it really appropriate to tell all of them about the 10 IT jobs you are recruiting for? The guy who can only talk about a position he worked in 5 years ago â€" Update your LinkedIn profile. When all people have to go on is your profile, give them as much information as you can so that they have an idea of why you are worth their time. Outdated information is not appealing to anyone. A woman gives a pat on the back to each person who starts a discussion or makes a comment â€" Likes are powerful social signals. They denote positive feedback and act as an endorsement for an article or status update.  They are snippets of online connection that hopefully add up and facilitate real conversations. However, over-usage lead will lead to fatigue and will eventually diminish the value of your “Like” within your network. Most interactions online are analogous to situations we encounter offline. This begs the question; do we really need to learn new set of written rules on social media etiquette to be able to function on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook? Let us know what you think in the comments. Image: Shutterstock

The 6 Most Unusual Tech Tools for Brand Building - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

The 6 Most Unusual Tech Tools for Brand Building - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Whats the most unusual tech tool youve ever used to help build your brand? How did it work? The following answers are provided by the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the worlds most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched StartupCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses. 1. Workflow email software Incorporate an effective workflow email software product into your brand building and marketing strategy. One to consider is Workflows by HubSpot. It allows you to efficiently build your brand by interacting with your customers via both email and social media, and it helps with lead conversion as well. Andrew Schrage, Money Crashers Personal Finance 2. Thunderclap I recently used Thunderclap to promote an Indiegogo campaign I was running for StartupBus Africa. Thunderclap is a crowdsourcing tool to gather pledges from people who are willing to authorize their social media feeds to post your chosen message at a specific time. This has resulted in more than 125 people posting our message simultaneously and has led to us closing the last 15 percent funding gap. Christopher Pruijsen, Sterio.me 3. Craigslist Funny enough, I built my team with craigslist arbitrage. I found my first employees and even my first clients on craigslist. It’s a simple catch-all site that more than 60 million people use each month in the U.S. alone.There’s definite power in craigslist. Rameet Chawla, Fueled 4. Boomerang As an entrepreneur, youve got to put in long hours. Many times you find yourself getting to emails at night, but thats not when everybody else opens their emails. The higher open rates are during the early afternoon while people are at their desk. Andy Karuza, Brandbuddee 5. Meetup Never underestimate the power of the community, especially in your local area if you are in one of the larger startup hubs. For example, we are fortunate to be in Seattle where theres a strong startup community, and weve utilized Meetup to organize, attend and speak at various events to build awareness of our brand. Think global, but start local. Brandon Wu, AdCrafted 6. Google Alerts I like setting up alerts for my brand as well as my competitors. As soon as something pops up from a competitor, I can see what their company is up to or get a few ideas of my own. Most companies will announce anything major with a press release, which youll see automatically with a Google Alert. Russ Oja, Seattle Windows and Construction, LLC Featured Image Attribution

Analytical and Sensory Tracking Increase Results - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Analytical and Sensory Tracking Increase Results - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Tell your brain to meet you in the middle! Having trained in the corporate sales world, I was very in tune with critiquing situations from an analytical framework. Many times over, I heard Sales is a numbers game. Frequently I was asked the probability of closing a sale. Initially I wondered how on earth I could possibly know. Initially I predicted I would achieve the monthly quota to please the manager and worried the remainder of the month whether I would actually make it or not. As I became increasingly savvy, the numbers were easy to predict. Is interviewing a numbers game? Interviewing may also be viewed as a numbers game. It takes many resumes and screened calls for the job seeking candidate to be granted an interview. Building business and interviewing may be related to the sales funnel. You have to approach many prospects. The interested parties graphically fall into the top of the funnel. As you qualify what you are after, only some proceed through. Further meetings take place with proposals, presentations, and meeting the management team. Negotiation applies to both selling and acquiring a better package for the job. It’s not until you hear “Sold!” or “HIRED!” that your prospect converts to a client or your next Manager. The missing piece from strict analytics is recognizing upfront whether you will enjoy working with the people involved and if they are telling the truth. However, when you tap into your sensory perception and utilize all of your six senses, then you will have a good feel for whether this will be a good relationship. Unearthing who you are What does this have to do with branding? Everything. Before you accept a client or a job, you need to know who you are. What are your talents, passions, who are the people with whom you prefer to work? Where will you draw the line to say to yourself, “this is or they are unacceptable? Remaining true to who you are and paying attention to your inner thoughts develops your brand. Living your truth also brings greater respect and serves to attract the right people into your life. While a numbers game is involved in most everything you do, it is the relationships you form that most often make the sale. And to build successful relationships, you must pay attention to that feeling you get when you first meet someone. When you receive a negative vibe, it’s very difficult to build a sound relationship. In terms of working with a new boss or client, you may be sorry you took the job. Your better game plan is to combine both techniques of using analytics as well as the sensory side of your brain to measure where you stand. You will be far more inclined to have an accurate picture at your disposal. Upon implementing the two strategies, you will know what isnt working and what to keep, and whether or not you want to accept the work. When everything measures up to your satisfaction your odds for being successful will increase dramatically. Using sensory and analytical tracking will lead you to the Smooth Sale! Author: Elinor Stutz, CEO of Smooth Sale, LLC authored the International Best-Selling book, “Nice Girls DO Get the Sale: Relationship Building That Gets Results” and “HIRED! How to Use Sales Techniques to Sell Yourself On Interviews”. Elinor provides team sales training, private coaching and highly acclaimed keynotes for conferences.

How to Attract the Right Candidates to Your Vacancy

How to Attract the Right Candidates to Your Vacancy The number of job advertisements and applications are continuing to rise in the UK, and are making it more difficult for companies to attract the right candidates to their vacancies. The rate of applications to job advertisements has remained higher than pre-recession figures. A recent report from CV Library looking at job-seeking trends found that most industries have seen a surge in submissions in 2014 so far. The number of job vacancies being posted has also increased, leading to growing competition amongst businesses to secure the very best talent. So, what can businesses do to get the right candidates responding to their advertisements? Our guide looks at how to tailor job postings to make sure you get the responses you want. What should your job advertisement do? Any job posting that you promote should work to: Attract, interest and communicate to the right candidates Discourage candidates unsuitable for the role Portray a positive image of your organisation Adhere to legislation surrounding discrimination Provide clear instruction of what a candidate should do next Job advertisement checklist The content in your job advert needs to meet a certain criteria, as specific information is required in order for it to be effective. This list covers the basics: Job title Employer or recruitment agency Job location Job role and its timescale Responsibilities of the job role Outline of ideal candidate profile Qualifications and experience required Salary or salary guide Description of organisation Where the role is situated in the business structure Contact details You should also include details of any employee recognition schemes or benefits programs that you have available. These are becoming increasingly valued by employees, so can help you to attract the most talented applicants to the vacancy. By providing the above information in a clear and concise manner, you make it easy for the right candidates to recognise that they are suitable for the role and attract them to apply for the position. Top tips for appealing to the right candidates When putting together a job post, we would also recommend tailoring the following features so the advertisement can attract the most suitable candidates: Add a relevant and clear headline the job title should be a clear description of the job function. If this is not possible, include a small introduction to explain the purpose of the position so readers have a clear understanding of what to expect. Draw attention to your heading, strap line and main message the majority of your job advertisement should be devoted to these elements dont be tempted to add too much additional information in the space available. Brand up your job advertisement if you are a recognised or reputable brand, your logo or name should appear prominently, as talented professionals often want to work for businesses of stature. Make the text clear and easy-to-read write efficiently, use simple language and include vocabulary used by the candidates you want to attract. Also add bullet points and bite-sized paragraphs so that there is adequate space around the text and the focus is on your words. Involve the reader refer to the reader as you to draw them into the job advertisement and allow them to imagine themselves in the role. Add any unique information stress what makes the role or your organisation unique and interesting as people often want to work for exciting and special employers. Remember that you are attempting to get the right candidates to apply for your role, so should be doing everything possible to try and attract your target audience. Write in a manner that will catch a candidates eye and adopt a welcoming manner to encourage suitable professionals to apply. No-nos for job advertisements There are a few common pitfalls to avoid when writing job advertisements which can significantly impact on the quality of candidates you get applying for advertised positions. These include: Extravagant design work or graphics Excessive use of technical language and detail Excessive use of language Dull job descriptions and ideal candidate profiles Avoid any details that will make it difficult for the right applicants to read your job advert quickly and easily. Instead, focus on writing a post that advertises both the role and your organisation in a simple and straightforward manner. Also dont be tempted to copy and paste an old description from a previous job application. Instead, think about how the responsibilities and requirements of the role have changed, and how your company has grown since your last recruitment drive. By tailoring the job advertisement to meet your current desires and expectations, you are likely to attract candidates with the right attributes. By taking the time to craft job advertisements that clearly outline what you want from applicants, and what they can expect from your organisation, you can significantly enhance the quality of candidates applying for your vacancies, streamline the admin involved in recruitment and even improve the calibre of employees at your company. Author: Lauren Knowles is a digital content writer for portfoliopayroll.co.uk, a specialist recruitment agency with years of experience matching high calibre candidates with payroll jobs in businesses across the UK.

Top 10 Googled Career Pivot Posts for 2016 - Career Pivot

Top 10 Googled Career Pivot Posts for 2016 - Career Pivot Top 10 Googled Career Pivot Posts Every year I like to highlight the top pages/posts that were found by people searching using Google. Check out last year’s list and you tell me what you see different. The Career Pivot website was googledâ€"do you not love the term “googled”â€"over 111,000 times in 2016 and that is up from 66,000 in 2015. This means thatpeople have searched using Google and found a post or page on the Career Pivot website almost 10,000 times per month.That has increased to almost 13,000 visitors in January of 2017. Let’s look at the top 10 googled posts to see what it tells us about what people want to know. #1 Googled Post What If You Are Not Passionate About Anything?was written back in 2012 but is still googled over 83 times a day. This moves up to #1 from being #2 in 2015. When I originally wrote this post, I received two kinds of comments: Don’t you have a pulse? You have to be passionate about something! Gosh, I am not alone! There are others like me. I am a multipotentialite, which means I have so many interests that I am not overly passionate about any one thing. You will find a post on this list about being a multipotentialite. Multipotentialites make up 10-15% of the population, but society wants to say we are broken. We are not. #2 Googled Post Talents versus Skills â€" Do you know the difference?was written back in 2013, but was googled over 48times a day in 2016. Listen to the most recent episode This is a topic that so many struggle with. We develop skills based on what the market will pay for. Just because we can do something does not mean we want to do it. #3 Googled Post College Degree After 50 â€" Worth It?was written in March of 2015. I wrote this post based on my observations of so many in the baby boomer generation who went back to college to re-invent themselves and who mostly gained nothing but student loan debt. This post jumped from #7 in 2015 to #3 in 2016.What does that tell you? #4 Googled Post Are you a Multipotentialite?was written in August of 2015 and is rapidly climbing the ranks of the posts most googled. This article is directly related to the #2 post on this list, What If You Are Not Passionate About Anything?It jumped from #9 in 2015 to #4 in 2016. #5 Googled Post Perfect Fit for the Position? Expect to Lose!was written in 2014. This post was written based on a presentation given by a well-respected recruiter at Launch Pad Job Club, where I serve on the board of directors. The presenter said, “If you are a perfect fit, we ain’t going to hire you. We want to hire someone at a lower starting salary but who can grow into the job. If you are a perfect fit, we assume you will leave when you find something better.” #6 Googled Post Who is Really Making the Hiring Decision?was written in 2015 and it is the first time it appeared on this list. This post is part of theNegotiator Job Search Series. #7 Googled Post What is Strategic Networking?was written back in 2011 and is about to go through a major overhaul in the next few weeks. Obviously, the term strategic networking is a common term. #8 Googled Page CareerPivot.com Home Pagethe Career Pivot homepage is found frequently. #9 Googled Post What is Your Current Salary? How to Answer!was written back in 2014. The economy must be getting better because this is the first time this post has appeared on this list. #10 Googled Post Re-entering the Workforce â€" Marketable Skills After 50was written in 2015. Along with the post College Degree After 50 â€" Worth It?there must be a lot of baby boomers looking for information on how to prepare themselves. Trends Google searches were up over 90% in 2016. What I detect is baby boomers are trying to figure out how to get back into the job market and many are succeeding. Things are getting better. What do you think? Comment below with your thoughts! Marc Miller Like what you just read? Share it with your friends using the buttons above. Like What You Read? Get Career Pivot Insights! Check out the Repurpose Your Career Podcast Do You Need Help With ...

How to Spot a Toxic Workplace

How to Spot a Toxic Workplace What are the indicators that a company’s culture or workplace could quickly turn toxic? Toxic company cultures at big companies like Uber and Google have recently been in the news, turning the spotlight onto the subject, but no one is talking about the root causes of a toxic workplace. So what IS the root cause? People trying to interpret subjective rules, expectations, and policies are at the root. If the rules, expectations, and policies of a company are subjective left open to interpretation â€" it invites differing opinions, which invites conflict and can result in the toxicity we have been witnessing. I spoke to Rex Conner, Lead Partner and Certified Instructional Technologist at Mager Consortium, about ways to not only identify but fix those toxic situations. How to spot a potential toxic workplace Whether you are employed by or are on the outside of a company looking-in there are some indicators that you should look for: Use whatever access you have to people in the company and/or company materials such as job descriptions, policies, and procedures, to identify subjective language, that is, language “open to interpretation.” For example, if a job description consists of vague, subjective phrases such as, “must be a team player,” “have strong communication skills,” “be a power user of authorware;” how is the performance of those skills going to be evaluated in that job? Someone, inevitably, will be making subjective decisions about job performance. When you ask people in the company, informally or during an interview, how to qualify for pay raises or promotions and the responses are subjective descriptions such as, “excel in your job,” “go the extra mile,” “stay out of trouble,” “keep your quality scores up,” you will probably find that same kind of subjectivity applies when it comes time for pay raises and promotions. How to remove subjectivity that can lead to a toxic workplace Most workplaces are full of subjectivity that can cause conflicts and the associated toxicity, however you may be able to do some damage control even if you aren’t the boss. At least bring some objectivity to your own workplace responsibilities. The more objective the job descriptions, policies, procedures, and processes in a company, the less chance there is for conflict and the workplace turning toxic. Start with your job description. The ideal, objective job description defines the primary tasks you accomplish in your job, the conditions under which you perform those tasks, and the objective standards by which your performance on each task is evaluated. Take whichever parts of that formula are lacking to your boss with the humble, sincere intent to turn the subjectivity into objectivity. You can eliminate the subjective language out of the job descriptions, policies, procedures, and processes through a relatively simple process taught by human performance guru, Dr. Robert Mager. He calls it Goal Analysis; where subjective language is translated to observable performances. Conner says that calling this a simple process does not mean the effort to review and revise work processes to rid them of subjectivity is easy. It’s work, but the process is not complex. In addition to the job description, some of the processes that you want to be objective, include: Performance evaluation Compensation and bonuses Promotion opportunities Work schedules and assignments Awards and recognition “If any of these are open to interpretation,” says Conner, “they are open to the possibility that the interpretation may not be in your favor. A subjective process puts bosses in the tenuous position of being the judge. Yes, you want bosses to have good judgment, but you don’t want subjective guidance applied to your work processes or evaluation.” A bad process will beat a good person every time When you drill down to the root cause of most workplace conflict, you will most often find a disagreement over a work process that is subjective â€" left open to interpretation. Even a good boss will find it difficult to be fair and even-handed when they are trying to defend subjective work processes and systems. As W. Edwards Deming â€" the acknowledged Father of the Quality Movement â€" put it, “A bad process will beat a good person every time.” Join Dana Manciagli’s Job Search Master Class now and get the most comprehensive job search system available!

How to Write a Resume Statement

How to Write a Resume StatementNow that you have written your resume, it is time to include a resume statement. A resume statement is similar to a cover letter, except you are not writing a letter for a job interview, but for an employer.When you send a resume in, do not include a letter to the company. It has never worked and will never work. This is a bad way to begin your letter. Your letter should always tell the prospective employer why you are applying for the position and how your skills and experience will benefit the position.So what is a resume statement? In order to write a resume statement, all you need to do is take a quick look at the resume that you are about to send to the company. You should have a few things on the resume that will show potential employers how you can help them.First, if you have any work history with the company, you can include that. Most employers are more than willing to look past a non-expert in the field of their choice.Second, you can put you r educational background on the writing resume statement. College or university courses can be included with the application for the company, or you can write a statement that includes your academic major, your degree, and why the company is hiring you.If you know what kind of work you do, you can include those as well. This way, you do not have to explain your specialization, and it will make it much easier for the company to understand.Lastly, you can include any experience or skills that you have acquired in the past. Doing this will give you a little more credibility, especially if you have the skills and experience that the company is looking for. It will also make your resume statement more interesting to the employer.Writing a resume statement should not be too hard. All it takes is a little bit of research, and it can easily be done in under 10 minutes.