Monday…Afternoon Article Selection

Here are some interesting articles about the social world:

Timing Can Make or Break Your Social Media Marketing
“During the last SuperBowl Oreo spent $4 million on a 30 second commercial. Do you remember it? Maybe not but I bet you heard about their “dunk in the dark” tweet that went out during the 34 minute blackout. That simple image and social update garnered 10,000 retweets in an hour and probably hundreds of online mentions, links, and stories the next day. The tweet may not have been particularly clever but it had one thing going for it that you just can’t force—a great sense of timing.”

Search or Social Traffic? Which is Better for Your B2B Website?
“Both SEO and social media marketing can be used to introduce your B2B brand to new, potential customers. But the intent behind your search and social traffic can be very different. When someone searches for something, such as “business intelligence software,” they are looking for a very specific thing and have some end goal in mind. It may not be to buy right then and there but they are at least in the information gathering stage. Social visitors, on the other hand, might find your website/brand by accident because someone they know/follow shared a piece of your content.”

How to Improve Your Facebook Engagement Using Controlled Experiments
“Running controlled experiments from time to time will help you discover what works on your page so you won’t have to take someone elses word for it.  It’s also a great way to help you come up with a posting structure that may help you streamline your content creation in the future.   In your Insights section, you do have some data on your best post types (under Posts), but that can be a function of what types of content you have been posting lately. So you may not get the whole picture if you haven’t been posting many links recently. But it’s a good place to start your investigation.”

What did you do today?  Did you educate yourself on what’s IN in your industry?

All About the Job Search

This morning I want to point your eyes towards several articles that would help during various stages of your job search, everything from interview questions to reference checks.  Let’s get started!

Marc Cenedella from The Ladders writes a Monday Newsletter and from time to time does an update to some of the best questions to ask during an interview.  Here are the five that I thought were most interesting:

1. What’s one thing that’s key to this company’s success that somebody from outside the company wouldn’t know about?
2. What keeps you up at night? What’s your biggest worry these days?
3. These are tough economic times, and every position is precious when it comes to the budget. Why did you decide to hire somebody for this position instead of the many other roles / jobs you could have hired for? What about this position made you prioritize it over others?
4. If we are going to have a very successful year in 2015, what will that look like? What will we have done over the next 13 months to make it successful? How does this position help achieve those goals? (This question helps show your ability to look beyond today’s duties to the future more than a year away.)
5. What is your (or my future boss’) hiring philosophy? Is it “hire the attitude / teach the skills” or are you primarily looking to add people with domain expertise first and foremost?

Have you ever wondered about the best way to prep your references for a phone screen?  Do they even get called?  And if so, is it more of a courtesy to find out if you are or are not a looney?  Are references eventually going to go away kind of like the cover letter has in some instances?  What I mean is, you obviously wouldn’t list someone you didn’t trust as a reference, hence, is there really any point from a recruiters point of view to contact people you have identified as being in your corner?  If so, and until the times change, here are the questions your references may get asked:

1. Employment verification
2. Workplace performance
3. Personality and well-roundedness
4. Who the references are matters

Finally, how do you get that job you are so desperately wanting?  Well, Cathy Goodwin offers her advice on the secret job search ingredients that may get you in the door!

1. Look and Act Like You Belong
2. Get Comfortable Being a Pro
3. Avoid Desperation – Create Your Plan B

Now get out there and get ’em!

What did you do today?

Monday Morning Article Selection

Good Monday morning.  Here are the articles that caught my eye today!

On The Job: Just Say No, Tactfully, to Avoid Burnout
“The holidays are right around and the corner, year-end reports are due, co-workers are asking you to cover for them on vacation and the boss wants everything done yesterday.”

Collaboration Trumps Integration in New Marketing
“Integration is a red herring. Integration suggests organizational change, new reporting structures, matrix-layering – a term I just made up to describe the complex triple-reporting structures that dissolve accountability in the name of “integrating” teams in different tribes. This is all hard stuff. And in a business universe that seems to repeatedly reward the flexible and fast, replacing one structure for another more complex one seems a bit beside the point…Many organizations still rely on email as the lifeblood for communications. That will change as new social platforms improve our business experience. In the meantime, we can all support more collaborative behaviors just by using email better. Better basics: clarity in subject lines, short and to-the-point with clear ‘asks’ in the body, scannable contents. Better addressing: whoever is on the “to” line is either accountable or responsible while those on the cc line are likely consulted or informed”

Are You Easy to Get Along With or a Pain in the Neck?
“…determine your dominant personality style using the Mini-DISC graphic. People who prefer to make decisions with limited information are on the right side, and those who would rather have more information and consider all of the options are on the left. Those who are more results focused are on the top half, and those who are more sensitive to the needs of the people are in the bottom half. With just this limited information, you can categorize yourself into one of the four dominant personality types.”

What did you do today?  Did you educate yourself on what’s IN in your industry?

Highly Promotable People

“One of the most common questions asked by an employee of his or her company is, ‘What can I do to get promoted?’” 

Personally, I’ve never really asked this question before.  I, perhaps naively, assume that if I keep my head low to the ground and work hard, it will get noticed and I will be rewarded.  The same goes for any kind of praise.  I humbly thank the person and move on to the next task and hope to do an equally good job.  My motto for self evaluations has also been the same, shoot low and if what you have done is worthy of a higher mark then let someone tell you that, rather than assume it yourself.

However, if you are someone who is dying to find out if there is some kind of secret formula for “movin’ on up,” this article, titled “Essential Qualities of Highly Promotable Employees,” confirms that there really isn’t.  Deep down, it really depends on the kind of person you are and how you go about executing your tasks. 

What did you do today?  Did you humbly accept any praise or did you seek out a compliment?

Monday Morning Article Selection

Good morning readers!

We are one Monday closer to stuffing ourselves full of stuffing…Here are some articles that caught my attention this morning:

Here’s a New Way to look at Competitors
” The X/Y axis competitive analysis slide is a used by existing companies who plan to enter into an existing market. In this case the basis of competition on the X/Y axes are metrics defined by the users in the existing market…But today most startups are trying to resegment existing markets or create new markets. How do you diagram that?…I’ve always thought of my startups as the center of the universe. So I would begin by putting my company in the center…”

Four Social Media Platforms to Empower Your Employees
“Who knows your business as well (if not better) than you do? The people who work in your business, of course!…In today’s socially connected world, employees are often an untapped resource that (with a little guidance) could exponentially expand your company’s word-of-mouth reach. Empower them so they can power your business.”

To Persuade People, Tell Them a Story
“Paul Smith had 20 minutes to sell the CEO of Procter & Gamble, and his team of managers, on new market-research techniques for which Mr. Smith’s department wanted funding. As associate director of P&G‘s market research, Mr. Smith had spent three weeks assembling a concise pitch with more than 30 PowerPoint slides.

On the day of the meeting, CEO A.G. Lafley entered the room, greeted everybody and turned his back to the screen. He then stared intently at Mr. Smith throughout the entire presentation, not once turning to look at a slide…”

What did you do today?  Did you educate yourself on what’s IN in your industry?

Monday Morning Article Selection

I have decided that I will share some interesting articles with all of you on Monday mornings.  So let’s kick off this chilly Monday with the following:

Creating Strategic Impact: Questions of Business Strategy and Business Survival
“Business Strategy isn’t the layer on top.

Strategy is the foundation that directs your organization toward maximizing what makes you successful. Strategy helps the organization act to realize success AND ANTICIPATE and avoid disasters—the disasters awaiting businesses mistakenly thinking they are going to be successful without the benefit of strategic thinking…”

How to Introduce Your Kids to Social Media
“If your kids are even thinking about logging on, you need to talk to them about it. Introducing your children to social media can help open up channels for discussion.Your children will be more honest about what they do online, and they’ll feel more comfortable coming to you with issues…”

4 Big Trends in 2014: Social/Mobile/Cloud/Wearables
“1. Social-mobile-data in the Cloud is the competitive advantage
2. Predictive matching in B2B content
3. Workplace transformation
4. Wearable technology”

What did you do today?  Did you educate yourself on what’s IN in your industry?