What Is Your Personal Brand I Learned Something Interesting About My Personal Brand

What Is Your Personal Brand I Learned Something Interesting About My Personal Brand… On April Fools Day I did something pretty cool: I actually celebrated with a prank. It was fun, even though it was somewhat last minute.  I announced a new service allowing you to send a pink slip to the person who laid you off. Ill remember that as a brilliant idea hey, I gotta own up to each of my wins (just like you should, for your own wins!) I learned about my brand. My Brand: not what I think about myself, but what others think about me. I learned that people think I am normally optimistic. I got a number of comments, emails, facebook replies, tweets, etc. from people saying Oh no! Jason has gone negative whats going on over there??? People thought, with the announcement of that new service, that I had become negative. Newsflash: PEOPLE THOUGHT I WAS POSITIVE BEFORE? Honestly, I have been feeling that at least 30% of my posts have been negative.  I have been feeling like a negative nelly lately. But the perception of others, which is my personal brand, has been that I was positive, optimistic, and uplifting to others. Isnt that interesting? If you would have asked me, I would have said something diffferent than what others would have said. I bet thats happening to some of you. YOU THINK YOUR BRAND IS XXXXXXX, and everyone else thinks your brand is YYYYYYYY. You see one persective, and you hear the thoughts in your head, but others only see what is on the outside, and what you do/say/think/feel based on outcome and body language. How wrong are you about your own personal brand?  I bet you are at least slightly wrong thats why there are 360 assessments to send to your contacts to find out what they perceive! Interesting, eh? What Is Your Personal Brand I Learned Something Interesting About My Personal Brand… On April Fools Day I did something pretty cool: I actually celebrated with a prank. It was fun, even though it was somewhat last minute.  I announced a new service allowing you to send a pink slip to the person who laid you off. Ill remember that as a brilliant idea hey, I gotta own up to each of my wins (just like you should, for your own wins!) I learned about my brand. My Brand: not what I think about myself, but what others think about me. I learned that people think I am normally optimistic. I got a number of comments, emails, facebook replies, tweets, etc. from people saying Oh no! Jason has gone negative whats going on over there??? People thought, with the announcement of that new service, that I had become negative. Newsflash: PEOPLE THOUGHT I WAS POSITIVE BEFORE? Honestly, I have been feeling that at least 30% of my posts have been negative.  I have been feeling like a negative nelly lately. But the perception of others, which is my personal brand, has been that I was positive, optimistic, and uplifting to others. Isnt that interesting? If you would have asked me, I would have said something diffferent than what others would have said. I bet thats happening to some of you. YOU THINK YOUR BRAND IS XXXXXXX, and everyone else thinks your brand is YYYYYYYY. You see one persective, and you hear the thoughts in your head, but others only see what is on the outside, and what you do/say/think/feel based on outcome and body language. How wrong are you about your own personal brand?  I bet you are at least slightly wrong thats why there are 360 assessments to send to your contacts to find out what they perceive! Interesting, eh? What Is Your Personal Brand I Learned Something Interesting About My Personal Brand… On April Fools Day I did something pretty cool: I actually celebrated with a prank. It was fun, even though it was somewhat last minute.  I announced a new service allowing you to send a pink slip to the person who laid you off. Ill remember that as a brilliant idea hey, I gotta own up to each of my wins (just like you should, for your own wins!) I learned about my brand. My Brand: not what I think about myself, but what others think about me. I learned that people think I am normally optimistic. I got a number of comments, emails, facebook replies, tweets, etc. from people saying Oh no! Jason has gone negative whats going on over there??? People thought, with the announcement of that new service, that I had become negative. Newsflash: PEOPLE THOUGHT I WAS POSITIVE BEFORE? Honestly, I have been feeling that at least 30% of my posts have been negative.  I have been feeling like a negative nelly lately. But the perception of others, which is my personal brand, has been that I was positive, optimistic, and uplifting to others. Isnt that interesting? If you would have asked me, I would have said something diffferent than what others would have said. I bet thats happening to some of you. YOU THINK YOUR BRAND IS XXXXXXX, and everyone else thinks your brand is YYYYYYYY. You see one persective, and you hear the thoughts in your head, but others only see what is on the outside, and what you do/say/think/feel based on outcome and body language. How wrong are you about your own personal brand?  I bet you are at least slightly wrong thats why there are 360 assessments to send to your contacts to find out what they perceive! Interesting, eh?

10 Reasons B2B Companies Need Social Media

10 Reasons B2B Companies Need Social Media Not sure about why your B2B organisation needs social media? Well we spoke to  Jonathan Wichmann of Orca Social and Wichmann/Schmidt, he has all the answers about why you should be harnessing the power of social. You can listen to the podcast on iTunes  and  SoundCloud, or just keep reading for a summary. The 10 reasons B2B  companies need social: Basically we did a three-month research project in Orca Social, trying to sort of comprehend why is it that actually social in this thing we do, what kind of value does it add to B2B companies and why should they focus more on this. 1. Break down the silos:  So, of course, silos, thats been on the agenda for 25 years or something. But I think the problem is you need something to replace the silos with once you start, something to break them with and something to replace that flow of information. And here social technology is like an internal or enterprise social network, ESN. It actually gives us that solution. 2. Create a culture people value:  We also found that once you do break the silos, then you have a second opportunity, and thats to create a culture that people value. Employee engagement rates can go up as a result of social. We see that socially-enabled companies are better at retaining employees and they have a higher employee engagement rate. But also in terms of other stakeholders like partners and customers and what have you, even press and the public. 3. Strengthen the corporate brand:  Another reason is to improve the overall brand of the company. We see some really good results there, DSM the  global science based company, increased brand value by $800 million thanks to social media. #Science doesn’t just change the game, it changes the world for the better. #brightsciencehttps://t.co/XcfzG6PoWh DSM Company (@DSM) June 24, 2015 4. Build lasting business relationships:  You can use it for social selling and building more lasting business relationships. So moving away from short-term sales and into sort of actually focusing on lifetime value of your customers and on the real connections, business connections, instead of customers and brands. Then its peer-to-peer. 5. Care about your environment:  You can use it for CSR purposes in a way because often the CSR or sustainability people in these organisations, they have a lot to say. They have a lot to network about and they should be empowered and equipped with these social tools to go out and share all their passion points. Tetra Pak is named a sector leader for tackling #deforestation by @CDP. Sustainability is a key priority! #COP21 pic.twitter.com/pedqQGfmsy Tetra Pak (@tetrapak) December 16, 2015 And when you deal with that, you, of course, need to be aware, conscious of not doing any kind of greenwashing, whatever you call it. Where you actually just do it for the sake of looking good. But it has to be authentic. 6. Let the crowd help you improve:  You can  use social technologies to involve the crowd in developing your business. The most famous example, I think, is the My Starbucks Idea. The platform has been running for almost ten years now, where people can submit ideas for Starbucks. All the users can then rate ideas up and down and Starbucks can review it and reply and say, We already did this four years ago, it doesnt work, or actually, This is a good idea, we will review it further and maybe launch it. So you get all the validation and the ideas from the crowd to develop your business. 7. Identify shortcuts in the supply chain:  You can also use social for optimising or improving or even reshaping your supply chain. So connecting all the many parts of the chain in a more efficient way or even bypassing different parts of it by identifying shortcuts somehow. You can use it to just enhance communication so it becomes more coordinated between partners. And, again, using an enterprise social network, or you can involve the crowd to identify risk or exceptions in the supply chain so you can react to it very quickly and fix the problem. 8.  Spot and attract world class talent:  In the world of HR, I think recruiters are using social. I actually cant remember the numbers, but its a very high number. I think what were also seeing a little bit is that some of the tactics that external recruiters are using, they are being in-sourced a little bit by companies. Because they see that these tricks and tools and ways to search LinkedIn and Google for talent and sourcing the right talent. They simply need to be able to do this themselves. 9. Make your customers happy:  So essentially its about loyalty and customer service, and really just using these tools to solve peoples problems by reacting to their enquiries. Thats often not that relevant with a service channel on Facebook for a B2B company because your customers are professional buyers, they wouldnt use Facebook or Twitter, they would just contact their key account manager.  But forums is something that we see work, so its also social technology in a way. That people can go in there, like a live FAQ, ask a question, and maybe its already been answered before. 10. Dont cease to exist:  We see these social technologies be part of everything we do and its a change, at least in mindset and how we operate, and also in terms of culture and all of that.  Companies are not surviving very long anymore, not like in the old days, because disruption is in the air all the time. So if you dont at least adopt the technologies and the change, appreciate it even, then you will really struggle.  So you need to be ready on social, if you are not Then you are ready to be disrupted basically, I would say. So its sort of an insurance just to understand whats going on in this field, because the change is so often driven by technology these days. Mistakes that  B2B companies make on  social media: To design it:  A common mistake is to  be too elaborate about the design of it and the whole strategy building it before you are even out there. And so thats phase one for those companies that dont even have a presence, that they spend too much time thinking about it before they actually start doing it. And when they do then jump aboard, it will be a big disappointment in many ways because there is no audience. Not adopting a test and learn approach: I think its an opportunity to fail and to learn more than anything else. So again, the cultural aspect that you do this within an open mind and try to be very sort of test-and-learn in your approach right from the beginning. Its a wise thing to do because then you find out who are even interested in connecting with us and with our employees and what kind of content, and you dont know anything in advance really. How to  keep B2B social media marketing interesting: Story telling:  I think, many of these big B2B companies have great stories to tell and they have really brainy and fascinating people on the payroll. Which is a huge asset because you can put them out there and let them talk or maybe help them talk. So I think, and yeah, make it as authentic as possible, and then maybe talk less about yourself and more about what you care about. And then dont be afraid to let go of control a little bit. I think thats interesting. Think about the users first:  Be really cynical about your content. Is this something anyone would really care about? Honestly, would I want to read this? And then also sometimes you can do long-form content which only 30 people would care about, but maybe thats good enough if its the right people. Think about these different kinds of fronts, and short and long form, and figuring out, What are we all about? Are we here to entertain people? Are we just here to sort of create valuable content for those people who really matter to us? Let go of the corporate vibe:  I dont think anyone appreciates that, when its too corporate. Neither employees nor potential employees or the customers. The next big thing for the B2B social media space: Employee advocacy: I think for a while weve been talking about employee advocacy as being the next big thing, but maybe, I think, its already there now. So its also about getting wise in terms of what to do and what not to do, optimising the usage, how employees spend their time doing these things. So tools for optimisation and knowing when to engage with people and when not to, and how to. A collaborative economy for B2B:  I think the next big thing is said to be sort of collaborative economy for B2B, where we have seen that already in B2C. Well, no one knows how big it will be if its just Uber and Airbnb and stuff, but there are start-ups all over the place. But I think actually, again, the potential disruption is it could be even bigger in some of these industries with very rigid structures and very old school. They risk really being bypassed by tools where, for instance, you connect the crowd into sort of the supply chain and bypass them, the entire supply chain. Easier for buyers to find cheaper and better solutions:  Its already happening. So price comparison, sales comparison, all of these things. Which means loyalty is being threatened a little bit. How do you keep that relationship with your clients if its all a price game and a matter of comparing? Follow Jonathan on Twitter @JonathanWich.

My Story From Nobody to Brand Name Entrepreneur in Under 3 Years - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

My Story From Nobody to Brand Name Entrepreneur in Under 3 Years - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Ive been waiting a long time to share my success story, but now that I have my own business, I feel its worthy of a blog post. I really hope that this story inspires you to work hard and live your dreams, regardless of your age. Its been quite the journey, but most of you have only been following it for about three years. I have been involved in the branding and internet world since I was very young.   Here is my story From Nobody to Brand Name Entrepreneur in Under 3 Years The Story of 26-years-old Dan Schawbel Personal branding, or how we market ourselves to others, was an innate talent of mine. My real passion for the Internet came together when I started to learn how to craft websites for a hobby. My first website was a James Bond fan page, and I was very proud of it so I told all of my friends who shared the same interests, which was my way of marketing the site. Wired in High School I always gave nicknames to my friends, even if they didn’t want them, and I even invented my own buzz words that people would use around school. I had custom Nike’s shoes with my name on them, and even a shirt with my picture on it that my friend illustrated. After school, I would go to my best friend’s house and watch as he would use Photoshop to design impressive images and wallpapers. In high school, I never fit in with all the social cliques and was discouraged by the competition at school. I enrolled in my first marketing class during my sophomore year and presented on custom music CD’s as my final project, which, back then, was an innovative idea (now we take it for granted and don’t even use CD’s). During my senior year,  my parents connected me to a successful local entrepreneur and he gave me my first real summer job. I started my first internship with Galaxy Internet Services, which provided DSL and dial-up internet to households and small companies. I made about one thousand cold calls during that summer, with zero success, but with an understanding that I wasn’t cut out for sales, and that marketing was where I could excel. Before I graduated, I developed another website for my eight closest high school friends so that we could keep in touch. Each of my friends had their own profile page, and there was a discussion board so we could communicate. Building self-confidence in College I never considered myself an exceptional student in High School, as my report cards typically showed mostly B’s, and a few A’s and C’s. When I was applying for colleges, I applied “early decision” for Bentley College (now University), and was deferred to regular admissions.  I used this as my  motivator and finished senior year of High School with straight A’s. I even interviewed on campus and sent them a strong letter of how much I wanted to attend. I received my acceptance letter during the regular admissions period. I took College very seriously because I knew it was important for my career. After a lot of hard work, I received straight A’s my first semester, and proved to myself that I could do anything with a lot of hark work. This gave rise to my determination, ambition, and work ethic that I still have today. The real self-marketing begins During my freshman year, I realized that it was going to be very competitive to get a job in marketing when I graduated, so I built a development plan that linked me to a series of internships in all marketing disciplines to set myself up for graduation. I stopped relying on my parents and their networks, and started to figure a way to market myself. I created a toolkit (I call it a personal branding toolkit now), which had a business card, custom cover letter and resume, a CD portfolio, and a website. I would have multiple internships at a time, while attending relevant classes. I interviewed for an internship at the Reebok headquarters one summer,  and didn’t get it because they typically recruit sons and daughters of executives there, but I never gave up. When I get focused on a goal, it’s impossible to stop me. I spent over a year accumulating more experience, as well as starting my own web development company and taking on a few small business clients. I eventually got an in ternship at Reebok the following year. During this time, I became very entrepreneurial, which I got from my father, uncle and grandfather that had successful businesses. I had my own consulting company, creating websites and marketing plans for small businesses. After eight internships, straight A’s, and holding seven leadership positions in campus organizations, I was finally ready to enter the job market. The only problem was that I avoided professional networking for the past four years because I was introverted, shy, and didn’t know how to do it. As a result, it took me eight months, meeting fifteen people, and getting rejected twice, to finally become an EMC  product marketing employee, which was my goal at the time. I realized that networking would be my main priority for the rest of my life. A leap into social media On October 4th, 2006, I started my first blog called “Driven-to-Succeed,” which was a career development guide for college students. It was my way to share what I had learned in the recruitment process and how they can prepare for the real world. The challenge I had was that no one commented on the blog, and very few people would answer my emails because no one had heard of me. It wasn’t until I read Tom Peters famous “Brand Called You” article on March 14th, 2007, when my entire world changed. It was like a breath of fresh air, and I finally had meaning in my life. Upon reading the article, I realized that Tom’s words were identical to my own, and that I could become the Gen-Y spokesperson for personal branding because I had been living it all along. The rise of personal branding (and this blog) That night, after an EMC training session, I raced home and turned my current blog into PersonalBrandingBlog.wordpress.com (now PersonalBrandingBlog.com), and have never looked back since. From the blog, came the Personal Brand Awards, which was a recognition program for people who were building successful brands using social media. Then, I launched Personal Branding TV, which was an online video series with me as the host giving personal branding tips, helping students, and interviewing CEO’s on how they built their brands over the course of their careers. Then, I wrote an article for About.com and it was published, which was an incredible feeling since I was 23 years old and never had seen an article I wrote on any other website except my own blog. I used that published article to get my next opportunity, writing a best practice article for the American Marketing Association, and then I continued to build my profile by getting published in BrandWeek Magazine, and now I’m a colu mnist for BusinessWeek! Turning the tables on the recruitment process On August 1st, 2007, I launched the first issue of Personal Branding Magazine, with ten articles and an interview between Donald Trump and Guy Kawasaki inside. On the same day, Fast Company wrote about my six months personal branding journey, which was exactly ten years to the day Tom Peter’s article came out on the cover of Fast Company. I never understood the power of publicity until I received an invitation to speak at Google after they read my profile in Fast Company. EMC had no idea what I had been doing outside of work, and I didn’t feel that they needed to because I considered it a hobby. EMC public relations had caught wind of the article after receiving a Google Alert notice and sent it directly to a Vice President who was starting a team to manage EMC’s social media program. I received an email the next morning from the VP, and we met. I then met with the head of Public Relations and was ready to interview with him, and I even brought a press kit. I created the first ever social media position at EMC, and at a Fortune 500 company, without ever applying. Instead of pledging to the company like a fraternity, they were coming after me for my talent, thus I was able to make money doing what I loved. I knew at this time that I was onto something big! The Me 2.0 saga I wrote a book proposal for Me 2.0, a book on personal branding for students and young professionals because I saw the need for it, and knew I was the right person to share my story and inspire others. I sent it to a few publishers that rejected it and then was told that I needed an agent, yet seventy agents ended up rejecting my proposal. In January of 2008, I signed a contract with Kaplan Publishing. During this time, I would come home from my full-time job and start working on the book and even on weekends. I also learned that the author is charged with book marketing, not the publisher. I worked as hard as I could to build up relationships with the media, as well as other authors, and eventually built the brand of the book before it came out. It also had an endorsement from The Dean of Kellogg, and a few interviews with BusinessWeek and Entrepreneur. I ended up doing a massive launch, which catapulted the book to the #1 job hunting spot on Amazon when it came out on April 7th, 20 09. The book was dedicated to my Grandfather, who passed away when it came out. Brand leverage and network building Me 2.0 led to a lot of opportunities. I was featured in over 150 media outlets, from NPR, to ABC News, to The New York Times, and even Shape Magazine. In December, I was in Times Square doing a photo shoot for Details Magazine with Seth Godin and others. Also, I became a syndicated columnist with Metro US, reaching 1.2 million people bi-weekly, as well as BusinessWeek’s youngest columnist, and wrote for Mashable. I started interviewing major brand names, including Tom Peters (my hero), as well as Ivanka Trump, Perez Hilton, Timbaland, George Foreman, and others. I received a lot of speaking and consulting inquiries, from the likes of Time Warner, CitiGroup, Harvard, MIT, and others. My first blog became very successful, attracting over 60,000 people per month, and is one of the top marketing blogs ranked by AdAge. I recruited other experts to help me scale the blog, so that I could focus on the marketing outreach. I extended the success of my first blog into a new blog called Stude nt Branding Blog (studentbranding.com), which has branding and career advice for students of all ages and is written by the top college career advisers in the country, corporate recruiters and student peers. I even became one of the first bloggers to have their own iPhone application. From employed to entrepreneur It was becoming more obvious that I didn’t need a full-time job anymore. I had been building a business outside of work for three years, even before I considered it a business! After coming back from vacation on a Cruise in January 20, I resigned from my job at EMC, and thankfully my team was very supportive of my new career path. Later that month, I started my company called Millennial Branding, LLC (website coming soon). What started out as a vision three years ago had finally became a reality. I also signed EMC as a client, and am currently working other major companies and individuals. Millennial Branding, LLC is a leading personal branding company, focused on delivering online branding strategies for both personal and corporate brands, in order to help them stand out in the marketplace and achieve their goals. What you can learn from this story I believe anyone else could achieve this level of success with hard work, commitment, focus, and some creativity. I was able to turn my passion into a business without taking venture capital money and taking on debt. Everything youve seen here has been started from scratch and with very little investment. Its also a great case study for how taking a niche and using online social tools can help you have a successful career and live your dreams, regardless of your age.

Challenging discrimination a guide to positive action in employment

Challenging discrimination a guide to positive action in employment You may have heard the term “positive action” and wondered what it was or who might benefit from it.   This post aims to give you some background information and to help you decide if it might be relevant to you. The Equality Act 2010 introduced a number of changes to reduce discrimination for individuals with protected characteristics, one of which was the ability to take positive action in relation to recruitment and promotion.   The protected characteristics are:  age,  disability,  gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership,  pregnancy and maternity,  race,  religion or belief and  sexual orientation. These voluntary positive action measures must aim to: Alleviate disadvantage experienced by people who share a protected characteristics; or Reduce underrepresentation in relation to particular activities; or Meet particular needs. Such measures must be  proportionate to achieving the aim. Examples of positive action measures might include for example,  the use of targeted advertising to encourage underrepresented groups to apply to work with an organisation;  taking steps to remove barriers for groups of individual underrepresented in particular areas;  providing alternative processes to meet different needs.   So what does this mean for students?   If a sector or employer has undertaken statistical analysis which shows that a group with a protected characteristic is under represented they can take positive action to try to level the playing field.   This is most commonly seen with employers offering programmes to specific groups of students to encourage them to apply to the sector and may include mentoring or adjustments to the recruitment process as appropriate.   This is all allowed under the legislation. What is not allowed? An employer cannot positively discriminate in the recruitment process.   In other words if one applicant is deemed to be more capable of undertaking the role than a second applicant with a protected characteristic, the employer cannot offer the job to the second applicant just because it would address under-representation.   This is very important to note as students with protected characteristics may be reluctant to engage with a positive action programme believing that it will give them an unfair advantage.   In reality, it can only come into play if they are equal in merit and there is under representation in the field.   Positive action is not about giving jobs to less capable applicants. Some examples An example of how this might play out in graduate recruitment would be where the technology sector identified that the proportion of women being recruited into the industry was lower than the number of students studying technology related subjects.   It would be appropriate for employers to encourage females to apply to the industry and to support their personal development to help them succeed.   Employers such as the BBC offer internship programmes which are only open to students from a protected characteristic group in order to increase the diversity of their staff to be reflective of society. Some employers are part of the two ticks scheme which guarantees applicants an interview if they have a diagnosed disability and meet the requirements of the role.   This again encourages applicants to feel supported in their application and to request reasonable adjustments. Here are just a few highlights: Women in Technology myPlusStudent Club â€" supporting students with disabilities Diversity Careers MyGWork Business Community â€" for LGBT students If you would like to find out more about positive action schemes keep an eye on your careers service which will often help to promote such initiatives.   And if you’re unsure if a scheme is right for you, talk it through with someone impartial such as a careers practitioner.   TargetJobs has some useful information on diversity and organisations linked to the specific protected characteristic often have great advice for students and links with employers.   At Warwick we have pulled together the relevant information on our website. “We are committed to making sure that the opportunities within our firm are equally accessible for everyone â€" regardless of background or gender”,  Dave Dunckley CEO Grant Thornton.

The Best Resume Writing Service

The Best Resume Writing ServiceWe all know that the best resume writing service should be one which is not only affordable but also meets the needs of their clients. The best resume writing service should also produce a quality work product in a short period of time. The requirements for hiring the right resume writing service are equally important as they determine how much you will have to pay for their services.The best resume writing service should also deliver good results. They should create a resume that showcases a candidate's academic, professional and work experience. The resume should also contain the best employment information such as years of experience, educational attainment, work field and more.A resume should also contain all the important details of the job. It should explain the position as well as its nature. In case of a job that is not publicized, the resume must include the basic details about it.The resume should also include the candidate's educational backg round and his or her work experience. The resume must also mention the areas of expertise. The best resume writing service should have the ability to produce a great resume within a short period of time. They should be able to use this resume to obtain new jobs.The resume should be user friendly. It should have an easy to understand format that will ensure that the candidate doesn't get lost while reading it. The resume should also contain bullet points so that the candidate can concentrate on the skills. The best resume writing service should know how to write a well-written resume.The best resume writing service should also be able to produce a great resume within a short period of time. They should have the required skills and should also have the capabilities to write a good resume. The resume must also follow aspecific format.The services which are best should also meet the requirement of different legal needs. They should be able to provide products and services which are flex ible and can meet the needs of various legal services. The best resume writing service should be able to produce documents that can support the need of different legal issues.The best resume writing service should also have a reputation for creating quality products. The best service should be able to produce a lot of products in a short period of time. The resume should also be able to attract the attention of the company.

Small Business Saturday Grow Your Visibility

Small Business Saturday Grow Your Visibility I was recently asked what social networks I would recommend for a business that wants to grow visibility. Yes, social networking tools are a great way to grow your businesss visibility; however, and this is a big however, in order for this to work, you have to invest some time. Think of investing in social media as an efficient way to meet with more people even during times when you are not physically at an event, meeting, coffee shop or conference.  You probably already belong to a professional group, tips group or another networking group; social networks are just one more way to interact with people and grow awareness about who you are and what you deliver! Beware- social networking is not a magic wand which will deliver new customers immediately. Networking and Marketing Rolled Into One An important thing to remember when embarking in this new arena is that no matter which social network you use, your messages should be a blend of relevant information, interesting conversation, helpful advice mixed with a small dash of advertising/promotion. No one wants to see your constant self-promotion. That isnt what these networks are about. Be helpful, provide value and have something unique to offer. Which Network Will Reach Your Potential Customers? If it were me, I would focus on one network, master it, then move on to another, rather than launching them all at the same time. (Thats a lot to learn at one time.) 2016 Pew Research Social Media Use Go ahead an follow me on Pinterest or check out my Social Small Biz board for lots of great infographics. My Number One Pick My personal favorite, but also the social network I think can grow awareness about you and your business the most is Twitter. The huge user base, growing breadth of user demographics and openness or friendliness of the users make it a natural first choice. You can see more on getting started on Twitter in these posts. How To Find People To Follow Using Twitter chats to meet new people How Not To Use Twitter So what is your biggest concern about getting started? Time? Technology? Best practices? Let me know! Ill be writing more often about social networking for small business success.

How to Deal With an Annoying Co-Worker Without Getting Punched - CareerAlley

How to Deal With an Annoying Co-Worker Without Getting Punched - CareerAlley We may receive compensation when you click on links to products from our partners. Brian Jenkins writes about a variety of topics related to the workplace for The Riley Guide. An annoying co-worker may be condescending, an overachiever, an egomaniac, a kiss-up, an intimidator, a loud talker, a gossiper, or, if youre extremely unlucky, he or she may have all of these traits. Annoying co-workers often prevent people from doing their jobs efficiently, and this can easily cost companies thousands of dollars per worker per year in lost productivity. Being direct, yet sensitive, with an annoying co-worker usually works best. Co-workers often have no idea they are annoying and most of them, when asked nicely, modify their behavior to fix the problem. Mitchell Kusy, Ph.D., professor at Antioch University and a Fulbright scholar, studied the causes and effects of behavior of toxic co-workers. He and his colleagues surveyed 500 corporate leaders, identified by co-workers as toxic. Most of the people said they had no idea how people at the workplace perceived their behavior. The Manipulator This co-worker ingratiates himself to you, proceeds to use you for his own advantage, and then dumps you and seeks another victim. He sees manipulation as a tool for success. His compliments drip with insincerity. He may even offer you a future reward that you wont get, and he will also try to take credit for your work. At first you may not realize youre being manipulated, as skilled manipulators get the gold star for subtlety. Dont let a manipulator see your weaknesses. Dont make any comments you dont want repeated in the office; manipulators will twist your words. Keep the conversations short and work oriented. When he begins using sneaky strategies to get you to do his bidding, find an excuse to leave, such as you have to go to the bathroom or make a telephone call. After a few failed attempts at manipulations, he may realize youre on to his game. Whatever you do, dont let manipulators do you a favor because youll likely repay that favor many times over. They skillfully use favors to get others under their control. The Bully Bullies are often bossy, impatient, quick-tempered, and make snarky comments. Hold your ground with the office bully. Theyll gain respect for you and soon back off. Simply ignore his obnoxious behavior. If he fails to annoy you, he will likely move on to someone else. Asking the boss to intervene on your behalf may lead to resentment and revenge. Loud Co-Worker These people simply talk too loud, especially on the telephone. Their loud, annoying laughs resonate throughout the office. They may not realize their voice surges in volume during telephone conversations, or perhaps they actually crank up the volume to demonstrate to co-workers that theyre extremely important. What can you do with these co-workers? Discuss the problem privately. Be sensitive and say something like, Im one of those people who have a hard time concentrating when people talk loudly. I hope Im not being rude but could you please lower your voice a little bit? I would really appreciate it. The Hoverer The hoverer may be the biggest productivity destroyer. The hoverer comes over to socialize but hides his true desire with a question and then hangs around for no good reason. Courageously tell this person, Thanks for coming over, but I have a deadline I have to meet. I have to get back to work. Being assertive is not the same as being aggressive. Simply let them know you need to focus on your work. Other strategies include staring at your computer screen as if youve just discovered how to make gold bars from gelatin or talking about subjects you know they have no interest in. If they talk about a silly reality show, talk about government spending. Theyll likely cut the conversation short. Or, you could put the person to work. Ask them to perform a task you cant complete until youre done with youre current project. After you try this a couple of times, theyll likely get the hint. You could also try to be boring for a few minutes, and theyll probably go away. In general, when dealing with annoying co-workers, make requests instead of complaints. A complaint is essentially a negative description of a persons behavior, which often makes a person defensive and creates resistance. Requests have a much better chance of success, especially when made with a few drops of kindness. This is a Guest post. If you would like to submit a guest post to CareerAlley, please follow these guest post guidelines. Good luck in your search. Visit me on Facebook