How to Optimise Your LinkedIn Profile for Social Selling

How to Optimise Your LinkedIn Profile for Social Selling The term social selling has been doing the rounds for a while now on the interwebs, at conferences and in countless webinars. What does it actually mean? Heres a definition by Hubspot: Social selling is when salespeople use social media to interact directly with their prospects. Salespeople will provide value by answering prospect questions and offering thoughtful content until the prospect is ready to buy. Do you work in sales? Our great buddy Dan Pink would argue that everyone works in sales nowadays, regardless of what it says on your business card. Therefore I have now single-handedly decided that  the tips below from LinkedIn apply to everyone. Useful tips to optimize your LinkedIn sales profile Upload a professional photo. Think business card. Profiles with photos receive a 40% InMail response rate (that is in case you use the paid-for messages on LinkedIn). Write a descriptive headline. It’s the first thing people look at when they view your profile. So be descriptive. Heres How to Write a Killer LinkedIn Headline. Include your summary and experience. Tell your story! See more at Should You Write a LinkedIn Summary in First or Third Person? Get your LinkedIn vanity URL. Create a profile address  that closely matches your name (e.g. www.linkedin.com/in/reidhoffman). If youre name is already taken, add your middle name, a keyword or location and you should be fine. Get recommendations. Have people focus on your specific skill sets. Make meaningful comments when recommending others. Think quality, not quantity. More at  LinkedIn Recommendations: How Many Do You Need and How Do You Get them? Share updates… and share often! People that share 2-5 times a day see an increase in profile views and engagement. Some useful tips on this at  How to Do the Perfect LinkedIn Status Update. Join LinkedIn Groups. Meet Engage. Demonstrate your expertise. It’s that simple. More of this at  Are You Unlocking the Full Potential of LinkedIn Groups? More on this topic at How to Master the Five Pillars of Social Selling.  

Top 5 Creative Job Search Techniques

Top 5 Creative Job Search Techniques Youve got yourself a good degree, youve spent your summers completing unpaid work experience at relevant companies in the industry and youve spent hours polishing off your CV. Finding a job should be a piece of cake right? If only it were that easy. With such a high volume of graduates, comes a lot of competition and standing out from the  crowd sometimes feels like an impossible task. Sometimes you have to go the extra mile to  get yourself noticed amongst the other applicants and by injecting a bit of creativity and inventiveness into your job search, you may just demonstrate the initiative  that employers are looking for. These young graduates knew that they were going to have to step up their game to land their dream jobs. Maybe you can seek some inspiration. 1. Build a Billboard: Media Production graduate Adam Pacittis  campaign to  find employment, caused quite a stir across the UK back in 2013, when  he proved he would stop at nothing to land his dream job. He  kickstarted his  Employ Adam campaign by  building himself a promotional website, where he exhibited a video resume showing off his production skills, amongst other information about himself. The thing that really made him stand out from the crowd however, was the huge employ Adam billboard that rented, reading I spent my last £500 on this billboard. Please give me a job. His campaign rapidly  went viral and his job hunt featured on radio stations, TV shows and newspapers around the world. He soon  landed himself a job at the award winning digital agency Sea Change, which was one of a huge 60 job offers that he received as a result of the campaign. 2. Become a walking  advert: Adam may have sought inspiration for his billboard from history graduate David Rowe  who took a similar approach in his job hunt back in 2009, with a stunt involving a promotional sandwich board. David turned himself into a walking advert, as he roamed the streets of London, dressed in a smart suit and carrying a billboard printed with the words Job Wanted.  He even offered to work the first month for free as a trial period  for the employer before hiring him. Just hours after his outing in the sandwich board, David struck lucky and was offered a job at the international recruitment firm Parkhouse Bell after catching their  attention with his out of the box thinking 3. Boost your career with home-brewed beer: One  aspiring graphic designer from Canada knew he had to think of a creative plan to stand out in such a competitive industry and what better way to get the job offers pouring in  than with a few cold ones? Brennon Gleason had the idea of  creating a resum-ale, which consisted of sending beer that he had brewed himself to his target companies, labelled with samples from his portfolio and QR codes to his online resume.  He felt that it would help him to  stand out, as well as giving employers an idea of who he is and what he enjoys doing in his free time. He received a few offers in response to the resum-ales and  decided to accept a job at Techtone as the digital marketing agencys creative director. 4. Bake your way  into the bosss good books: Katie Oldham was in her second year of her Mass Communications degree when she was lucky enough to land herself an internship at her favourite magazine Cosmopolitan. She knew that she was going to have to think up a way of standing out from the crowd and rather than risking going unnoticed amongst the hundreds of other paper applications, Katie decided to take a more innovative approach. She had eight unique cupcakes made that were decorated with an edible QR code that linked to her online CV and explained why she would make the perfect intern. Well it certainly worked, as Katie was personally thanked by the editor on Twitter and was offered the internship  the following summer. The Cosmo team were so impressed, they even posted photographs on their official Twitter account. 5. Move  higher with  a CV on a flyer: Alfred Ajani who graduated from Coventry University with a degree in Marketing was having a tough time finding a job after leaving University last Summer, so after coming to the realisation that  he needed to do something that would set him out from the pack, he headed down to Waterloo station equipped with a stack of CVs to distribute. Suited and booted, he  displayed a sign that informed  passers by  of his Marketing qualification  and invited  them to ask him for a CV if they happen to be interested. He  managed  to catch the attention of recruitment company Asoria Group with this technique and they later offered him a job through LinkedIn. Five months on, the tables have turned and Alfred is now doing the hiring himself, so it looks like the stunt worked out for him!

Top 4 Reasons You May be Seen as Unemployable

Top 4 Reasons You May be Seen as Unemployable Over the past 10 days, I’ve talked individually to over 100 college students about their careers. Most of them â€" and for reasons we all understand â€" are scared to death about their pending entrance into the workforce. During these conversations, however, five primary areas of concern (please notice I did not use the word “excuses”) were the reported cause of their anxiety. Most important: working on each of these will make a huge difference being perceived as strong candidates â€" or unemployable. Here are the Top 4 reasons why recruiters may perceive you â€" as compared to your job search competition â€" as unemployable… 1. Confidence is King “I am way more qualified than my peers. And smarter. But they have job offers, and I don’t. Why?” (said sheepishly with little or no eye contact and with slumped shoulders). Recruiters have always been reluctant to hire those who fail to exude confidence; since the beginning of time recruiters have been measured by their ability to hire leaders and difference-makers. For candidates in our new economy, any failure to show sincere self-assurance â€" and the desire to compete at a high level â€" is death to their application. The good news: you have the rest of your college career to gain the experience and prepare the skills necessary to overcome this issue. Start now. Develop a dynamic, affable, confident job search style. Or, regardless of your talent or smarts, keep wondering why you are always the last kid picked for kickball at recess. 2. The Best Strategy is Rarely the Easiest “I’ve submitted 200 applications on www.BigJobBoard.com… and haven’t received a single call-back.” After hearing this same story over and over again for almost five years now… why do we still think this approach is an effective job search strategy? Here’s my theory: Job boards are easy Networking (especially for us introverts) and research are hard work Human nature dictates we try “easy” first â€" no matter how ineffective and frustrating the end result Ask millions of your unemployed or underemployed friends: easy doesn’t work. 3. The “Catch-22” “I’m only a college student â€" but employers want me to have all this experience. But if no one will hire me, how do I get the experience.” Bunk. Period. With no internships or volunteer positions on your resume â€" and without the development of soft skills through campus activities, clubs, fraternities or sororities, and much more â€" of course many recruiters looking for a “can do the job, right now” candidate â€" are going to pass you over. Even those with a 4.0 GPA counting on their academic excellence to carry them into the workforce are likely to soon face a cold hard fact: in many industries, your job seeking competition with a 3.1 GPA â€" the confident networkers with significant hands-on experience and abundant soft skills â€" is going to kick your butt in the real world. Simply put, there is No Excuse for No Experience. 4. Failure to Learn “I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. I can’t get a job offer.” I DO know what you are doing wrong… you are not making enough â€" or any â€" effort to learn what you’re doing wrong! Every draft of a wholly customized cover letter and resume, every application, every phone/Skype interview and every single face-to-face meeting is a golden chance to discover what worked very well, what part of the process you can improve a bit â€" and perhaps what went horribly wrong. Self-analyze your job search strengths and weaknesses. Discuss the process with a mentor. Ask for feedback from the recruiters you meet during your job search and while networking. Otherwise, you’ve just wasted a golden opportunity to learn â€" and improve. How many of these four “areas of concern” have rolled off your tongue lately? More important, with each experience…how are you making yourself more employable? About the Author:  A passionate supporter of Gen Y talent, CEO and Founder of YouTern Mark Babbitt is a serial entrepreneur and mentor. Mark has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, Mashable, Forbes and Under30CEO regarding internships, higher education’s role in preparing emerging talent for the workforce and career development. Recently, Mark was honored to be named to GenJuice’s list of “Top 100 Most Desirable Mentors”. You can contact Mark via  email  or on  Twitter.  Image courtesy of  David Blackwell.

9 Strategies for Creating a Website to Showcase Your Personal Brand - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

9 Strategies for Creating a Website to Showcase Your Personal Brand - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career I want to have a website to showcase my personal brand. Should I set up a free site on Tumblr or About.me, focus on my own site and hosting, or something else and why? 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. Focus on Your Own Site Youre building your brand across the course of your entire career, and that can often last more than 50 years. Whatever the hottest service is now will no longer be hot in five years, let alone 50. Skip one lunch out, and buy a $10 domain name so you can control its content and shape it however you like. John Rood, Next Step Test Preparation 2. Control Your Own Brand Never give up control over your personal brand; its the only thing you get to keep in life. Using free sites to help promote your brand is fine, but its absolutely necessary to have control of your own website. Plus, when done professionally, it shows you are serious about your brand. Invest in your brand by investing in your own personal website. Mark Cenicola, BannerView.com 3. Use Your Own Site Accurate or not, dot-com sites always appear more professional than identical sites on Tumblr or other subdomain sites. Create your own dot-com, and youll appear as professional as can be. Brennan White, Watchtower 4. Try Medium If youre a writer, Medium is an increasingly well-respected way to showcase your thinking and interests. Its also easy to set up and even easier to make look good, which can be tough on Tumblr or about.me. Ultimately, it depends on the type of content youre interested in producing. Derek Flanzraich, Greatist 5. Host Your Own Site If you dont have a website, no one is going to find you. If your site is on Tumblr, WordPress, about.me or something similar, you dont own the data. Do you want to own your own data? Yes, so get your own site, and host it. This should only cost you $100 per year. John Rampton, Adogy 6. Get Your Own Website Setting up a professional site these days takes less than an hour and less than $100. I helped a friend do so, and we spent $50. We even purchased a new WordPress theme and launched it in about 45 minutes. Heres all you need a domain name, hosting, WordPress, a theme and a little content to put on your site. You can always upgrade the various pieces later if you want to spend more. Thursday Bram, Hyper Modern Consulting 7. Build a Sleek Site Without a doubt, set one up on about.me, Flavors.me, Squarespace or a similar site. Then, purchase your own personal dot-com domain name if available. These services make your website look extremely professional at a low cost and are easy to use. You will be able to link to all your social media profiles and incorporate a blog to help grow your personal brand even further. Jason Grill, JGrill Media | Sock 101 8. Start With LinkedIn It will be easier to rank a LinkedIn page on search engines than a self-hosted site, especially if your name is common. It may make sense down the road to set up a site and try to get it to rank, but its much more efficient to get a LinkedIn ranking first. Josh Weiss, Bluegala 9. Control Your Own Branding I believe the best solution for the long run is to focus on your website. I believe this is true for various marketing reasons, but most importantly, for empowering your brand. Hassan Bawab, Magic Logix

Top 10 Tips that Fuels Employee Productivity CareerMetis.com

Top 10 Tips that Fuels Employee Productivity â€" CareerMetis.com For your business to develop, it requires both customers and employees; there is no shortcut towards that. Most of the time, people tend on concentrating on the customer side and forget the importance of their employees.This has to lead to businesses falling apart or even closing down. The production of your employees solely depends on their motivation towards the business.Here are the top 10 tips that will automatically fuel employees’ productivity and take your business to another level.1) Set measurable, small goalsevalevalInstead of envisioning the entire dream and working towards achieving it as one big goal, you can divide it into sections. Let your employees track their progress and notice changes in the process. Setting small goals that are easy to achieve fuels the motivation of your time and they feel the need for working extra towards the main goal.However, when you give the entire project as one, it feels like it will never end. Additionally, for a better productivity b oost, you can make a plan of ensuring after every project, there is a celebration of the accomplished work before progressing to the next goal.2) RefuelFor you to increase your mileage, you must feed. Make a policy that ensures none of your employees foregoes breakfast or lunch especially when in office.Whether there is an accumulation of work or not, food is a necessity for your business. It motivates productivity and keeps your team on track with task concentration.Food also boosts the health of your team, which in return translates to better engagements at the workplace.3) Provide clarityIf you are looking for your team to achieve a particular dream, then be ready to come up with clear instructions. Every person will perform to their best only if they know what they are working to achieve.When you are clear to your team on what you expect them to bring, they will be motivated to achieve that particular goal. It’s impossible to achieve what you don’t know or even work on somet hing you are not sure of.evalFor an employee to give their best, they require genuine motivation, and it all begins by understanding the mission concise.4) TeamworkEncourage teamwork among your employees. Come up with goes and strategies that will require the help of one another for your team to get particular results.Teamwork makes it easy for employees to uplift one another as they thrive to becoming the best team in the workplace.evalAdditionally, you can motivate the teams by providing cooperate gifts to the best time. This will motivate the other teams to work hard while the gifted team will get the desire to saw higher.Therefore, after a certain period, you will be surprised by the company’s development.eval5) RecognizeIf you want to keep your team motivated and productive for as long as they are working in your organization, ensure to recognize their efforts. When an employee produces exceptional results, don’t just assume it’s their duty to do so.Exceptional work must be recognized, and you must show the employee that you have noted their efforts. However, the way you recognize hard work also has an impact.Money is not always the way to go, and you should not wait until the annual meetings for to mention the efforts of a particular employee.If you often make recognition once you note the efforts, you will motivate your team to work extra, therefore, assuring you that you will see plenty of that often.6) Applaud resultsAlthough it feels like the responsibility of employees to work and meet your goals, it’s important to show recognition of good work. Everyone enjoys the small things that make their name known to others.Applauding your team every time they achieve a particular goal, refreshes their productivity. However, your applauding should come uniquely to ensure you get the same results in the future.evalTherefore, you must be specific and connect the achievements to the bigger picture making the employee feel like part of the dream.7) Reward themMost employers will only give rewards to their employees during annual meetings. Although the team will feel proud to get the reward, it does not guarantee that you will see the impact in production.However, if you make regular rewarding to your team, especially after achieving results, you are sure that they will be motivated.Additionally, you must ensure that your gifts are worth and equal achievements. The best way to find your gift is looking for co-operating gifts and enquire from experts about the types of gifts to buy if you are not sure.8) Bigger pictureRelate your employees with the bigger picture. Let each one of them understand their importance to the company and its dream by cooperating with their efforts in the picture.evalOnce they understand their purpose, it will be easy for them to focus on delivering the best to ensure the dream is fulfilled.However, when you keep the bigger picture for yourself, and you do not recognize your team, they will tend to believe yo u are the only interested in their services for personal interest.When you involve them in the bigger picture, and the company grows, it multiplies their effects in working much harder.9) Be accommodatingAllow your employees to have the privilege of planning their work. Once you have shared with them the expectations of your company, let them plan how and when to deliver the results.This way, you will give them the privilege of ownership in your company, and they will work hard without excessive supervision to ensure your company gets somewhere.10) Take restWorking all day, every day of the month is important, however, working that hard can affect productivity.Taking rests with and interval breaks is a better way of motivating your employees and enhancing productivity. The brain and body require rest for you to perform better and effectively.ConclusionLastly, the most important thing to do and ensure that the productivity of your employees remains motivated is ensuring that you rela te to their interests.

My 5 favorite Coursera courses for happiness at work - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

My 5 favorite Coursera courses for happiness at work - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog My learning position Coursera is an AMAZING site that lets you take hundreds of university-level classes taught by highly respected people from different fields. Its also my latest addiction. Seriously I may have?a problem. Yesterday I finished one course, and immediately signed up for 4 more :) Ive taken courses on many different topics several?of which?have been directly?useful and relevant to happiness at work so?I thought Id share?the 5 best ones here: 5:?Unethical Decision Making in Organizations A seminar on the dark side of the force that?teaches you how strong organizational contexts push good people towards unethical decisions. You will also learn how to protect yourself and your organization against such forces lurking in the dark. 4:?Positive psychology A great overview and introduction to the science of happiness taught by Barbara Fredrickson, one of the leading researchers in the field. 3: Introduction to neuroeconomics Neuroscience, when allied with psychology and economics, creates powerful new models to explain how?we make decisions. Neurobiological mechanisms of decision-making, decisions under risk, trust and cooperation are?central issues in this course. 2:?Critical perspectives on management Using a wide disciplinary approach from economics and history to social theory and even a smattering of biblical criticism the course examines?several core management strategies and debunks them mercilessly as wrong and damaging, including: Forced employee ranking The idea that all companies should always grow Shareholder value Topics include: the function of the firm; the role of incentive; the ways in which narrative forces shape decision making, and how market relationships define the managerial culture in ways that can lead to sub-optimal outcomes. 1:?Social psychology The best and most interesting online course?Ive taken so far.?It examines how we affect each other in groups and almost all of the content is relevant to the workplace. But Ive taken so many other great courses as well. Here are my 4 favorites outside of the?field of happiness at work: Understanding the Brain: The Neurobiology of Everyday Life Revolutionary Ideas: An Introduction to Legal and Political Philosophy Philosophy and the Sciences Model Thinking Have you done any online courses? Whats been your favorite things so far? Let me know in a comment! UPDATE: As I was writing this, I stumbled on a course called?Classical Sociological Theory and signed up for that too :) As I said I?may have a problem :) Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related

Resume Writing Services For Nike

Resume Writing Services For NikeThere are many types of resume writing services that people can use to make sure their resume is top notch. By taking the time to have a professional write a resume, the applicant can get an idea of what his or her potential employer wants. This will help the person to create a professional looking resume and one that will show the employer that he or she is serious about getting the job.The main thing to remember when considering the use of resume writing services for Nike is to be professional in every aspect of the process. Many companies require a more formal manner to get a good position. Before someone can receive an interview at a company, they will likely be required to submit a resume. In order to get the best possible results from this step, the resume should show the reader that the candidate is able to perform the tasks involved in the position.When an applicant can demonstrate professionalism by having the necessary qualifications listed, it will show the company that the candidate is a worthy candidate. A good way to do this is to have a professional write a resume. The professional can tell the applicant what he or she can do to put themselves ahead of others.One of the first things that a Nike employee can do is write a resume that is designed specifically for Nike employees. A resume can be designed with certain styles of lettering in mind, so that a person will be able to match the lettering to his or her own style. A person's resume should also be able to show that a person knows what the job is all about and that the applicant is focused on getting the job.While a resume is designed specifically for Nike employees, it should be easy to read. A resume should be clear and simple, but it should be professional and written by someone who is knowledgeable of the position. Once a resume is set up, it should be taken to a professional so that the necessary information can be properly documented.The resume must not be overly long or formatted incorrectly, because the way it is presented will help determine the success or failure of a Nike employee. This is why it is important to choose a resume writing service that is able to get a resume that is best for the needs of the company. If a person has applied to several positions, then it might be better to hire someone to write the entire thing for them, rather than trying to write the resume individually.When a person has the ability to go in and edit the resume, they can get it even more professional and set it up for the person that is applying for a Nike position. This will be much easier if the person has a professional writing service that can handle the writing process. When the writer for the company feels like the resume is well done, they will be more likely to hire the applicant.Overall, it is important to use resume writing services for Nike to get a professional looking resume. The person that does not hire a professional will put thems elves in a bad position when the company hires them. A resume must be laid out properly in order to be properly read by the employer and it should show that the applicant knows what they are doing and is focused on getting the job.