Siloing Your Social Media

So in the last two posts I shared with you Lee Odden’s opinion on the first two issues that people face with social media.  To recap, those two are, not relating your social media KPI’s to your business KPI’s and talking about the five “sins” of social media, failure to plan, only talking about yourself/your company and the other three :).

His last take on this topic is that often times marketing folks silo social media from other functions. These companies need to become more of a social business in general.  What he means is that marketing, PR, and sales shouldn’t be the only ones out there creating buy in from current and potential customers.  Every function of a business should be truly customer facing, even customer service and HR.  All five of these functions within a company should help build a community and a true brand.  The marketers of the company shouldn’t be the only ones creating interesting editorial pieces highlighting how great the product and brand is, we should all be recruiters for our company.  Help your business become more social!

What did you do today?

P.S. There are so many great things that I am learning from this social media seminar.  If you’re curious what these presenters are presenting on, you can follow #IETraining on Twitter on Wednesday’s and Friday’s between the hours of noon and two, eastern time.
P.P.S Read this article about the online training!

Planning for Social Media Success

The last post was taken from a webinar led by Lee Odden and I told you that in this, and the next, post I would share the other two issues with social media content.

So, the first issue, as covered in the last post was not relating social media to true business and overlooking how each KPI relates to the other.  The goals must relate!  The second issue includes five sins of how you broadcast your social content.

1. Failure to plan – just because the platforms are free does not mean that you should go at this important component of your marketing mix without a plan.  I am always creating posting schedules for the month ahead so that I always know what I am posting.  I can always add to it, but I at least have a base to go off of.

2. Self Promotion – At first, you may want people to know what your company does or makes but don’t just talk about yourself. Once it’s been a few months and you feel like people have a good sense of what your company is about, move on to being a thought leader.  Provide your followers with news that they may otherwise had to search for before.  Make them come to you on their own.

3. Give to get – Again, you want to create a community.  You want people to know that you’ll listen to them and that they can also rely on you.

4. Content isn’t great unless it’s shared – this is what social media is all about.  You may have some amazing case studies, but no one knows about them.  Share them with your audience!

5. Analyze – metrics are key, this is the only way that you’ll know what is working and what isn’t.  What do your followers respond to? What do they dislike?

The failure to do the above may send you into a tail spin and will me than likely make you fail.  Don’t fail!

What did you do today?

Social Media KPI’s vs. Business KPI’s

Most of the courses that I have listened to so far in the Instant E-Training social media for business webinars have been very interesting to me.  However, I think the class that was led by Lee Odden was so far the most useful webinar in terms of how to relate social media KPI’s to business KPI’s.  He also covered some key issues that some corporations overlook, these I’ll save for a future post.  Again, these are things that I am learning and I can always give my two cents and experiences but the building blocks are what counts so here they are:

You need to make sure that your social content marketing KPI’s are aligned with your business goals.  How can you relate them?  Well,

Social KPI’s                                              Business Outcomes
Fans                                                             Share of Voice
Friends                                                       Improve Service
Followers                                                  Shorter Sales Cycles
Comments                                                Increased Order Quality
Likes                                                           More Referrals
Google Plusses                                       Grow Revenue
——————                                        Improve Profits

How have you been explaining your social media KPI’s?  Have you been explaining them at all?

I certainly hope that this information from Lee Odden’s presentation helps you get some corporate buy in or give you information as to how you should begin thinking about social media and how it can absolutely relate to every day business results!

What did you do today?

Social Media’s Essential Elements

I am still taking the Instant E-Learning social media for business classes on line, and last week one of the webinars we all listened in on revolved around the seven essential elements to a successful social media strategy.  You can follow Christopher Barger, who shared these elements with our class, on Twitter, @cbarger, and expect to learn a lot more from him.  As I stated in an earlier post, I want to share what I learn with you so that even though you may not be able to pay to take these social media for business webinars you will still learn something through me and my notes.

So here goes.  The top 7 essential elements to a successful social media strategy are:

1. You need an executive champion: this person has credible authority, can moderate disputes, can sell the importance of social media up the corporate ladder, can liason between the social media and overall strategy, can provide or raise a budget and has a strong relationship with the social media evangelist.

2. You need clear lines of authority: social media should not be executed independently from any other strategy, you must be in constant contact and collaborate regularly with all involved parties, don’t get stuck in a “box checking” mentality and not think of new/effective things that can help your overall marketing strategy.

3. The social media evangelist: this person is not just a “social media rock star,” this person should be more than just a community manager and instead be a strategist with a business focus.

4. Metrics and measurements are a must! However, success must be defined and you need to decide what results you want to see before you even begin.  Have a “point of zero” from which to start.  Not all tools will fit in your toolbox, select the measurement tools that apply to your goals and your business.
Great stats:
* Up to 47% of Twitter accounts are abandoned
* 57% of Facebook users hide brand content in their news feeds. (stats from eMarketer via Chris Barger’s presentation for instant etraining)

5. You must have some kind of partnership with legal: At the end of the day, your goals are similar, to have the company’s best interests in mind.  Sometimes it must be realized that the “right thing” in social media doesn’t always line up with the best interests of the company, i.e. posting during a crisis or sensitive time.  Find someone in legal who is interested in social media and groom this interested party to become a social media expert.  This will help you explain certain situations to someone who actually understands.

6. You need a solid social media policy!  It protects the organization and its employees.  You should make sure that all functions of a business that affect or are affected by social media adhere to the policy.  The policy will be easier follow if it is line with business guidelines.  Keep in mind that a usage guide and an overall policy are not the same thing.  You can “use” social media at your digression, if it is for corporate purposes, but even when you do you have to do so according to policy and not share confidential information.

7.  Educate! There are three tiers of employees you need to educate on social media.  There are those in tier one who need just the basics, such as an etiquette guide, resources for learning, and most importantly a review of the social media policy.  Those in tier two need to be brought up on the advanced info, such as how to represent the brand, some case studies, and scenario planning.  Lastly, tier three employees are your every day reps.  These folks are your outside speakers and should know the ins and outs of the social media policy, etiquette when representing the brand, and know what to do in a crisis situation.

Thank you again for Chris Barger for an amazing webinar and now it is your turn to teach and implement the social media strategy in your corporation!

What did you do today?

Tweet for Work!

Oh my, have you heard of TweetMyJobs?  That’s right, the new platform is here. I am always retweeting new jobs in Boston to my Twitter network int he hopes that someone will see the tweet, apply and get a job.  When you are looking for work, every little bit of help…helps!  But I recently saw an article on LinkedIn Today about TweetMyJobs, a new tool aimed to put Americans back to work!

As the article I have linked to above states, “TweetMyJobs leverages Twitter and Facebook‘s social graphs to connect job seekers with available positions. The site looks for social connections who can introduce and refer job seekers to employers…When TweetMyJobs locates a match, it identifies potential employees via text message, Twitter or email, depending on an individual’s preference. Employers and job seekers pay nothing to use the platform.”

So get tweeting and find your next true calling!

What did you do today?

P.S. In the next several posts I will return back to sharing with you the things that I am learning in the social media web conference.  However, since this blog is supposed to be a balance between career advice, networking and fashion, I wanted to share some interesting and “of the moment” job search tips!  Best of luck!

The Importance of Having a Complete LinkedIn Profile

Hello jobseekers!  I have written time and time again about the importance of having a complete profile on LinkedIn.  To me, it’s a game, and I’m not even looking for a job!  Can you stay ahead of the changes and win the game of LinkedIn profile completeness?  Well Erik Qualman, from my social media webinar courses, shared an interesting stat.  People with a 100% complete profile get 40 times more jobs!  Read on…

Recently, LinkedIn updated what they consider to be a 100% complete profile.  I like to have things as up to date as I can.  I don’t know if this comes from my days of unemployment or just some personality trait that I’m not totally aware of.  Anyway, I keep things up to date because I feel like showing that I do know what I am capable of and, at the end of the day it makes me feel accomplished and good about my career choices.

Still not convinced that you “need” to have a 100% complete profile?  Well, this might help push you in the right direction.  “Users with complete profiles are 40 times more likely to receive opportunities through LinkedIn. ”  Yowza’s!  What are you waiting for?

An article came out in February of this year detailing all of the LinkedIn updates that really help guide you toward have 100% completeness.  Read it, and if you need some more information on the basics, take a read through my tips on LinkedIn Basics and you will be on your way to getting that call you’ve been waiting for, the call about your next dream job!  Good luck!

What did you do today?

Stats to Work With

I am currently enrolled in a six week web conference entitled, Social Media for Business.  Yesterday we had our first two sessions on Creating Digital Leadership in a Social World, moderated by Erik Qualman, and Building Your Social Media Strategy in 8 Simple Steps, moderated by Krista Neher who dialed in from SXSW.  Just as I shared what I was learning during my Inbound Marketing classes through Hubspot I also plan on sharing tips and stats that I think are truly interesting from these 19 sessions.  So brace yourselves, this is going to be a long and sometimes deep dive into social media for business but I’ll keep it light and share the most interesting factoids with you.

So, here are the incredibly interesting facts I learned from Erik:

* 92% of people under the age of 2 have a digital shadow!!!–>That is insane!  All those baby photos parents post are creating a digital shadow for their kids!
* 91% of pre interview research is done online by recruiters
* 35% of people who were initially going to be brought in for an interview are told not to come in due to something that was found out about them online!
* Multitasking decreases your IQ by 10 points–>don’t text and drive or talk on the phone and type an e-mail!
* We are interrupted every 11 minutes at work and it takes us 25 minutes from that interruption to get back to what we were doing
* Write down TWO things that you must accomplish in a day. This will make you feel like you really accomplished something and didn’t just spend the day in meetings and answering e-mails

Finally, think about writing your life compass in 140 characters. Erik encouraged us to think about what we want our life to mean and summarize it in 140 characters!

Krista focused on creating a social media strategy and went through the 8 steps to do it successfully.  There really is no point for me to rephrase Krista’s words when she has a very eloquently written article titled 8 Steps to Building Your Social Media Strategy.

What did you do today?

Jobless Dating

Dating while unemployed is not a piece of cake.  You’re always considering the cost of everything, where your next paycheck will come from, how you’ll occupy yourself, and how to prevent cabin fever.  Here are my retrospective tips:

1. Go out.  I don’t mean go out and spend money.  I mean get out of the house and do something aerobic and physical.  It’ll keep you healthy and sane.

2. Allow the person you are dating to take care of you.  I don’t mean take advantage of it but don’t put a guard up and just be sad all the time.  (I should have taken my own advice.)

3. Don’t be needy.  Imagine if you were working, you wouldn’t have time to hang out every single day either.  You have to understand the other person’s point of view because, as is, your mood swings, and yes you have them, are a lot to handle.

4. Allow for moodswings!  Sh*t happens and you’re doing the best you can, so just roll with the punches.  The job search is a job and you’re allowed to have good days and bad.

5. Don’t be surprised if you are asked, sometimes daily, “what did you do today?”  After all, that is how this blog started and I always strived to have something insightful to reply with.  Now take a look at the article that goes deeper into what to discuss and not discuss when on a date, while unemployed.

What did you do today?

Springlike Fashion

Ladies of Boston, the next couple of days are going to be very spring like. Rejoice!  Here are some examples of what you could wear to work and still look professional.

All of these photos have been pulled off of my Pinterest page.

What did you do today?
P.S. We will return to regularly scheduled & career minded postings on Friday

Tricky Interview Questions

A friend’s husband is going on an interview today and when I came across an article about the ten interview questions that are designed to trick you, I simply had to share them with all of you.  But, instead of copying and pasting I wanted to pull out the five that really spoke to me.  I picked them because these are questions I dreaded when I was interviewing and ones I think are tricky overall.

So here are my top five, with my notes, out of the top ten.

1. Why have you been out of work so long, and how many others were laid off?
I dreaded this question because back in the 2009-2010 slump, and that’s not to say that getting an interview followed by a job is easier today, there were A LOT of unemployed people.  Some interviewers, and even friends who were employed, really did not understand why you couldn’t survive layoffs.  To some people it meant that you weren’t worth it or there must have been a true reason, other than cost cutting, for you being out of work.  I simply explained that I got laid off in the third round of layoffs and although very unfortunate, this time allowed me to focus on exploring other marketing avenues, such as social media.  I now had time for online classes and building a blogging following.  Just as you don’t want to say bad things about your previous employers you should always try and focus on the positives and explain what you’ve done since.  Look ahead, don’t look back!

2. If employed, how do you manage time for interviews?  Obviously, this is a very tricky question.  What do you say?  Oh, I just say I have a doctor’s appointment, or am sick?  Not the right way to impress a potential employer who from this moment on may not trust you and think that you re looking for another job, even if you really are sick.  My advice, do it on your own time.  What I mean, either during a three day weekend, not everyone has the same holidays, during lunch, or after work.  This way, you’re not lying to anyone and you have nothing to cover up.

3. Where would you really like to work?  This is tricky simply due to the fact that you don’t really know what the true environment, culture and people are like in a new place of work until you’ve been there a few months.  I would just focus on what you do know about the job and company. If this is truly the place you’d like to be you won’t fall short of positive things to say. You’ve either aspired to do this kind of work, worked towards it, or simply think that creativity wise this would really be a great fit.  At this point list your reasons why followed up by some points from the job description to really anchor your hopes and dreams to the reality of the job in discussion.

4. How does this position compare with others you’re applying for?  Ick, you don’t want to speak bad or highly about other places but you also don’t want to lie.  So what to do?  I would reveal as little as possible and just talk about the type of work you are seeking.  Are you after a managerial role? Those can be different across the board so you can’t really compare one to the next so you have to relate to each one differently and you can make that clear to the person asking the question, if you so choose.

5. If you won the lottery, would you still work?  My answer would be yes.  Yours may be different but I would focus on the positives.  Also, how likely is it that you might actually win?  As for the positives, are you going to give up working so you can spend me time with your family?  Are you hoping you will have opportunities to explore an interest you may not have a chance to explore otherwise?  What if these interests somehow tie in to the job you are interviewing for.  At the end of the day, this is a question that doesn’t really reflect on how well you may perform in a job so I would just find a way to get back to talking about the task at hand…landing a new job!

Good luck! What did you do today?