Contributors — Lauren MacEwen

How Google+ Is Cleaning Up The Internet

05/21/2013 by Guest Blogger

It’s easy to write an article and put it up on the Internet. While that is encouraging for up and coming writers, it’s also a sure-fire way for more garbage to find an audience than can be done via traditional print media. All anyone needs is a computer and web access, and presto! Suddenly, everyone’s a writer! But fear not, o aficionado of non-crappy prose. Google authorship is here to help curtail the flow of trash!

Keeping It Real
By establishing Google authorship, writers link their articles from other sources (such as their blogs) to their Google Plus profile page. This shows Google and online readers that your material comes from a reliable source, an actual author, as opposed to junk articles generated by spammers.

The last thing you want is to be confused with some kind of spambot or other cheesey cookie-cutter content creator (try saying that three times fast!). When people see your name attached to an article, they need to be assured that what they read is genuine, awesome, genuinely awesome, and speaking of which…

Increased Visibility, The Incentive To Do Better
It is said that “character is what you are when no one’s looking”. Well, that’s true. But on the other hand, it can be argued that when everyone’s looking, you get fired up to give your best performance. Really now. Which makes you more eager to hit one out of the park, content-wise? The idea that no one knows (or cares) who you are, and thus no one sees your stuff, or the knowledge that people are following your posts and visiting your site, eagerly awaiting the next installment of deathless prose to emanate from your brain?

Google Plus lets you establish a stronger web presence, and a better showing on search results. By doing that, you’re less inclined to just cough up something and instead really put some time and effort into what you’re posting. The result? Less garbage, more readable content. Because let’s face it; at one time or another we all get lazy.

So, What To Do?
If you don’t have a Google Plus account and home page yet, get one. Fill out the profile, and link your sites to the page, and vice versa. You can even link your profiles from other social media (e.g. Facebook) to your Google Plus profile. Add other members to your circles, and start getting known! Link your articles and blogs to your page. Here’s a flowchart to walk you through the process.

Everybody Wins
By using the Google Plus model, writers’ content stands out and their reputations are solidified as exposure grows. This is a crucial part of online reputation management. Readers find their choices of online content narrowed a little more and made more manageable. The articles written by authors with solid reputations will rise to the top of searches while the crap sinks down into the dark depths where it belongs. And, of course, the sites that host your awesome stuff will benefit, since traffic will be driven there thanks to your solid reputation and search engine optimization. So yes, everybody wins.

Get moving, and in time, when people see your name, they’ll think “popular writer of entertaining articles”, and not “sketchy lapdog of spammer overlords”.

Bio
John Terra has been freelancing since 1985, and his work has appeared in diverse places like Inc Magazine, Computer Shopper, The Nashua Telegraph, and numerous online sites. An uber-geek and old school gamer, he’s also done extensive freelancing for role-playing games systems like Dungeons and Dragons , Star Wars, and others. John lives with his wife and three cats in Nashua NH.

GooglePlus1: “Here’s another batch of quality Internet articles!”

http://www.photos.com/royalty-free-images/the-bulldozer-on-a-garbage-dump/

Photo Credit: Photos.com

Filed Under: Contributors, Google+, Social Media Tagged With: google authorship, google plus, writing

Google Apps – Tips and Tricks for a more Efficient User Experience

04/24/2013 by Guest Blogger

Improving one’s efficiency in the world of Google Apps can not only save precious time, but can also lead to a more organized and productive user experience. Our elaborate resource of Google Apps tutorial videos – GoogleGooru, provides step by step guidance from basic to advanced features. In this post we’ve compiled a selection of tips and tricks to help make your Google Apps experience more efficient and enjoyable.

Gmail:

Multiple Inboxes – Keeping Your Inbox Organized:

If you are using Gmail on a regular basis, there is a very high chance that you might find yourself spending a lot of time prioritizing your emails. Have you ever imagined what it could be like to have your emails arrange themselves automatically across multiple inboxes of your choice? In our Top Gmail Labs series we’ve provided a detailed video tutorial as to how to do exactly that.

One of the more powerful Gmail Labs is the ability to create multiple inboxes. In order to enable multiple inboxes (Mail Settings > Labs > Multiple Inboxes) please make sure your inbox type is set to classic. Go ahead and enable it.

Now you can use the mail settings interface to easily specify what type of email you want to appear in each inbox; such as drafts, sent mail or a certain label.

Labels & Filters – Be More Efficient With Your Emails

One of the best ways to save time in Gmail is through the use of filters. By automatically applying actions to incoming messages, filters can help become more efficient in your workspace. According to the rules that you set – you can label, archive, star, forward, and delete messages automatically. Moreover, the process is rather easy: Gmail filters work just like search: just click the drop-down arrow in the search bar and set your own parameters.

Gmail also offers more organizational features such as labels. Unlike Outlook, Gmail allows you to apply multiple labels to a single e-mail. Using this method, you can organize, file, and later retrieve your emails more efficiently.

Canned Responses – Save Yourself Some Time

As one of the most popular Gmail Labs, Canned Responses allows you to create templates of emails that you send often, and quickly insert the entire template into an email. That way, messages that are composed on a regular basis can be prepared in advance and later extracted rapidly, saving precious time.

Drive

Keyboard Shortcuts for Google Docs

If you are using Google Drive, you must be using Google Docs on a regular basis. In order to save some time while working with Google Docs, you might want to consider learning some keyboard shortcuts. While most of you must be already familiar with the basic shortcuts such as cut, copy, paste, undo etc, our tutorials expose you to more advanced shortcuts such as copy and paste of formatting as well as keyboard shortcuts for headers. Check out the video on GoogleGooru to see a few of our favorites.

Advanced Search Operators

If you are a daily Google Drive user, your Google Docs must be rapidly accumulating within your Drive Library. While you can store and organize documents in different folders, it can sometimes be hard to find specific documents you’re looking for. Using Drive’s Advanced Search Operators you can find your Docs using not only their titles as the search word, but also through searching for keywords, frequent words and key phrases used within the Doc you are looking for. In addition, you can narrow down your search using sharing policies.

How to Copy a Collection of Google Docs

Another popular way to save time is through the editing of existing docs. In order to do so, most of us simply copy the docs we are interested in editing. However, Google Drive does not allow for the copying of multiple documents at a time. Fortunately, there is a way to do this using the offline version of Google Drive.

Open the desktop version of your Google Drive > Right click a folder of documents that you wish to copy, and click copy. Now right click again within your Google Drive, and click paste. You should see an identical version of your folder with ‘Copy’ in front of it. Next time you sync your desktop Drive with your browser version, you should see this copy in your Drive.

Matan Levin @thegoogleguru: The Google Gooru is your #1 resource for Google Apps how-to videos and for keeping up to date on the latest updates and new features in Google Apps.

Filed Under: Contributors, Strategy & Business Tagged With: google apps, google docs, google drive, google tips

Why You Need to Simplify Your Message

04/16/2013 by Guest Blogger

Developing the perfect user experience takes skill, a little bit of luck, and a whole lot of hard work. Perfecting UX is an ambitious project for any content management team to undertake. In order to succeed in our goal, every decision we make should bring our content platforms closer to meeting our audience’s expectations, while increasing sales and customer engagement.

But this isn’t always a happy marriage of goals, and nowadays commercial websites have become enormous, complicated structures that require FAQ pages just to answer site navigation questions. Meanwhile, competing websites will continue to offer audiences similar features and prices, but one will ultimately win out because it provided the better user experience.

The study of user experience involves many different aspects of web design and content writing. These are details that your users will always notice on their end, but will often get overlooked by management. Here we will focus on the idea of minimalism, highlighting the potential benefits of offering customers a more simplified experience on your website and in your other content platforms. We will also discuss why this strategy works, and what outcomes to expect. But first, let’s take a look inside the mind of a user and get an idea of where they’re coming from.

What Do Users Want?

People’s habits on a web page aren’t much different than their physical behavior in a retail store. They’ll quickly glance over your landing page, scan some of the text and then click on the first thing that really catches their attention. This could be some sort flashy new content or anything that would lead them towards that thing they came looking for in the first place.

If the new landing page doesn’t fulfill their expectations or wants, they immediately turn back and start the process all over again. As a result, there will be many different parts of your website that users will never actually look at or read through at all. This boils down to two distinct behaviors all users share:

Scanning – Users scan content. A study by the Nielsen Norman Group found that on the average web page, users will read through only 20% of the content. This isn’t a habit that reflects ignorance or disinterest on the user’s part, it merely shows us that people are busy and will quickly scan content to determine whether or not it is any good.

Intuitive Search – Users follow their gut. Most of the time, they would rather find their own way through a site than read through and introduction page explaining the process. Think of it as the equivalent of a guy refusing to ask for directions. As you might imagine, users won’t always make the best decisions as a result. They’ll either end up somewhere completely irrelevant to their goal, or get completely lost and assume that their solution isn’t offered on your site.

Users want instant gratification

This involves the shortest, quickest route possible towards fulfilling their needs and wants. Maybe that’s the quality of your content. If users know that you’re going to deliver really good content on your end, they’ll usually put up with advertisements, call-to-action pop ups, and other intrusive materials on their end.

But the real question is whether or not that’s a necessary risk. If a website falls short on experience even for a second, then the user will bounce and you lose the sale. So instead of focusing on improving experience by adding, try to think about what you can omit.

Users Know Where Things Should Go

According to the many eye tracking studies conducted in the past, users tend to start scanning through the content of a web page on the top left corner of a site. They then proceed through the rest of the content in an F-like pattern, occasionally stopping whenever they find something particularly interesting or useful to them. As a result, users have become accustomed to looking for certain key elements of a web page on certain parts of a website. Let’s take a look at an example:

Category pages enable users to search through product catalogs quickly and efficiently. So where do you typically find category menus on a home page?

Users typically begin their search on the top left corner, so it’s easy to see that category menus are one of the most important aspects of an ecommerce website. Each of these websites is unique and has developed incredibly strong brands, and yet their site designs aren’t all that different when you take a closer look at it.

That’s because part of developing the minimalistic user experience involves understanding where audiences will expect to see certain elements of a website. Avoiding this altogether and doing your own take on it will cause users to waste time. Remember, users rely on intuitive search, so unnecessary site reorganization could ultimately lead to user disinterest and a loss of sale.

Users Want It Quick and Obvious

Content should be clean and out in the open. If a website provides a minimalist, simplified design, users will spend less time learning how to find what they want and more time actually finding what they want. The problem though is that we often have so many great ideas and content that we end up throwing it all up at once. It’s almost ironic when you think about it. We spend so much time thinking about cool new things we could add that we end up overwhelming our users with header art, signup sheets, FAQs, drop down menus and other excess materials.

There’s nothing wrong with constantly researching new ways to make the user experience better and more engaging, but it’s important to keep in mind that users want things quick and obvious. They want a clear road that will lead them to their goal, and they want to discover it for themselves. So why make it harder for them? Let’s take a look at this example:

OpenMile.com is a truckload freight broker that brings users with shipping needs to the companies who want to provide them these services.

Here’s their original landing page:

It’s a very clean and straightforward design. But the problem was that the cover art (original as it may be) proved to be too distracting to users looking to find where they could get a quote. As a result, many of them never noticed the solid “Get a Truckload Quote” button even though it was near the top left corner of the page.

Here’s there updated landing page:

Notice how the distracting cover art is gone leaving a plain “Get a Quote” button dead center of the page instead. The surrounding color complements the button by bringing it out in the open instead of masking it in the page. It’s literally the first thing you saw when you looked at it right? This is what I mean about providing a clear and obvious road. Users will discover it themselves and commit because of it. What were the results? Well a study by Visual Website Optimizer found that the change was responsible for a 232% increase in lead generation.

There’s nothing wrong with trying to make a website a new and fresh experience, but you have to remember to keep the ideal user experience in mind first. Don’t force them to relearn browsing concepts they are already familiar with and understand that sometimes less will really mean more.

Vincent H. Clarke is a Marketing Analyst for USB Memory Direct, a wholesaler of promotional USB drives. While he mostly writes about marketing and branding, he also enjoys writing about productivity, content strategy, and user experience. Connect with him on Twitter @_vhclarke.

Filed Under: Contributors, Strategy & Business Tagged With: web design

Can Technology Damage Small Business Efficiency?

04/01/2013 by Guest Blogger

Small businesses everywhere are constantly being told that the more they embrace technology, the better their opportunities to grow will be and the more efficient they will become. The thought of technology having a negative impact never enters their heads, and why should it. However, as they begin to grow and explore other areas, it is very easy for various technology platforms to start doing as much harm as they do good.

Don’t get us wrong; we are not saying businesses should ditch technology. What they do need to do, however, is ensure that they are cutting out complacency, and maintaining a focus on the products they do use at all times.

We explored some examples of business technology, and looked at how they can damage efficiency, and what they can do to deal with and prevent problems.

Poor IT Procedures

The biggest cause of data breaches in businesses is negligence. Even if you are a local company with no more than five or six employees, you need to have an IT policy and clear procedures in place. Not only does this protect your business, it means you can deal with people who decide to put your business at risk directly or indirectly, and it will improve the use of IT and the whole culture in your company.

Dealing with this problem can cost time, money, and your business’ reputation, and the best cure here is always to be preventative.

IT Maintenance

This is where the line about “the more they embrace technology” comes into focus.

When first buying hardware or servers, you naturally go for the best product available, or at least the best you can afford. As you move forward, however, it is easy to neglect upgrading these services or products, either inadvertently or because you don’t want to invest any more money.

The efficiency you lose because of slow systems or out of date hardware will cost you more than an upgrade, so don’t shoot yourself in the foot!

Not Going Mobile

If a business hasn’t gone mobile, then there are huge opportunities being missed. Why have people in an office sat in front of a computer making appointments, when they could be doing that on the phone while physically traveling to appointments and looking up information and potential leads on a mobile device at the same time?

When you do go mobile, it is important that devices are subject to the same security levels and maintenance as office hardware would be, even if you use mobile as part of a BYOD setup. Many businesses have lost data or been breached because they have accessed data via a tablet or phone, for example, that is otherwise secured in other locations.

Ensure your business is not caught out!

It’s a Must

If you don’t put this advice into practice, then you had better be ready to learn the hard way the importance of maintaining your technology platforms and security. It might seem time intensive and costly, but rest assured, it is more efficient than what you are currently doing, and definitely more so than having to deal with any problems.

Jaguar PC is the original leader in VPS hosting, providing the best web hosting with 100% network uptime and free-domain transfer

Filed Under: Contributors, Strategy & Business Tagged With: business security, internet security, IT procedures, security

Customer Service: Your Social Media Tool Box

01/28/2013 by Guest Blogger

Jameson Brown of SocialMediaToday.com put it best when he called social media the “game changer” for the customer service industry. Instead of cold-calling and remaining in a stuffy call center, social media outlets like Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram have put a mega phone into the consumers hands. While they are tweeting or posting about their joys and woes about the products they use day to day, customer service reps are listening and (hopefully) responding.

One key factor that makes social media work for customers is the connection between the companies’ agent and the consumer. Without that connection, big name companies are using the networking opportunity to leverage their marketing position, which is only a fragment of what social media can do for a company’s growth. Here are a few ways that you can use social media and various networking tactics to broaden your scope of connection with your customer base.

Think Bigger

Think of the social media networks, like Twitter and Facebook, as platforms that allow you to make special announcements regarding new products, deals for your fans and followers, cancelations and service interruptions. Posting pics is great too, but customers really want to relate and interact with their company through these networks. After all, it is a “social” network, which implies that the customer is communicating a message to the company and the company lets the customer know that he or she is heard.

The Power of Twitter Connections

One great example of a social media/customer service connection happened when I bought a 2010 Ford Fusion. I was so excited, because it was my first hybrid car, that I immediately posted the pic on my Twitter page. About an hour later, I noticed that the Chapman Ford AZ dealership, that had sold me the car, had replied to my tweet saying that they were so glad that I was enjoying my new car. This connection made me smile and definitely made a difference.

In a recent study, conducted by Software Advice, four of their employees took part in an experiment where they mentioned in their tweets several large corporations, in various industries. For four weeks these participants tweeted complaints, compliments and requests for help, using Twitter handles (@nameofcompany) and the name of the company, so that the company could know who was mentioning them and respond. The results to the study were pretty alarming and showed how little customer service agents are using this extremely useful tool. Brands like Starbucks, Walmart and Apple were surprisingly non-responders, and their competitors took their sweet time and hadn’t even responded to half of the participants. If a customer is complaining about their awful experience at Starbucks and telling all of her friends to boycott the cafe on Twitter and Facebook and Starbucks doesn’t respond, they didn’t just lose one unhappy customer, it’s possible that they lost hundreds thousands if the customer was a celebrity with fans.

Be Efficient

Brown’s article in SocialMediaToday.com was singing the praises of a company that knows how to do customer service on social media networks the right way: Zappos.com. They have a customer service Twitter account that responds to questions in a timely and efficient manner. When a customer tweets about their Zappos shoes, they know that they will get feedback, even if it is just a smile emoticon and a quick “thanks!” Forbes’ Jenna Goudreau says that Southwest Airlines has been known to update flight delays on their Twitter page.

Most importantly, don’t let your Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook or even blog lay dormant. Content is king, even if it’s a gallery of images that is regularly updated or brief updates on products and services, staying current and present lets your fans know that you are present and available to field requests, questions, or praise at any time day or night.

Yasmin Rose
A real go-getter, Yasmin encourages others around her to shoot for the stars and be the best in the world of business. She loves sharing tips on how to build your own start up and make it into a success.

Filed Under: Contributors, Featured, Social Media Tagged With: facebook, social media, social media tool box, socialmediatoday.com, twitter

Simplify your Business Life with Simple Productivity Tools

12/28/2012 by Lauren MacEwen

Time yourself for efficiency

Many people tend not to refer to themselves as minimalists. We simply buy, use, and collect too many things to think otherwise. Yet with all our gadgets, trinkets, and supplies, we usually find the most value in minimalist tools and methods that help increase our productivity.

Despite the appeal of multi-featured products and multitasking, I’ve found that having fewer tasks and options to focus on at a time makes getting things done a whole lot faster and easier. Here we’ll talk about three incredible tools you can use to simplify your business life, home life, and possible even your social life.

They are simple tools that focus your attention on very little at a time, and yet make sure that you excel at the little you set out to do. You’ll be able to accomplish what you need to do first, finally making time to do what you enjoy as well.

Evernote

Evernote has grown significantly since it was launched back in 2008. Reaching more than 11 million users last year, it has easily become one of the most popular productivity tools of our time.
Evernote is an organization tool for iPhones, iPads, and other mobile devices. The application can also run on Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and various Internet browsers. On your computer Evernote can copy selected windows on the screen, including web pages if your browser supports it. You can then mark these copies with titles and organize them into notebook, archiving them in a number of ways.

On mobile devices, items you’ve copied can be synced directly to the Evernote cloud service, so you’ll never lose any of the information that you’re organizing. You can also take pictures from your smartphone or tablet and save them directly onto your Evernote account. You can also add GPS tagging and audio comments to each of the pictures you save.

There are hundreds of ways you can use this tool to your advantage. Many companies have switched to Evernote as their central filing system, abandoning physical paperwork altogether. Students use it as a great way to take written notes and keep track of their school work. Families use it as a cheap way to store their photos through a cloud service, versus an unsecure hard drive.
As you begin to use it, you’ll notice other little ways you can be more productive with this tool. For example, let’s say you’re going to a major mall, airport or other commercial area. Before you leave the parking lot, take a picture of your car, GPS tag it, and then you can use the GPS on your mobile device to walk right back to it later.

Evernote can be a valuable productivity tool if used correctly and consistently. Give it a try for a week and see how it works. There’s no downside and its basic service is completely free.

Pomodoro Technique

Developed back in the late 1980s, the Pomodoro technique is an incredible time management system that involves working in short focused waves. The basic idea is to use a timer and work on a single task for 25 minutes without any interruption, and then take a short break for 5 minutes. This takes a lot of pressure off a particular task while discouraging unnecessary multitasking.
The Pomodoro technique allows you to make calculated progress on all of your tasks by encouraging deep concentration without distractions instead of tackling it all at once and feeling overwhelmed. It’s simple, but very effective, and keeps you focused on what’s most important.

Steps:

Select a take you need to accomplish today.
Set a timer for 25 minutes and begin working on that task.
When time is up, take a short 5 minute break.
Repeat.

Every 4 cycles, take a 25 minute break.

You’ll notice after trying it that the Pomodoro technique is very easy to remember and follow. It doesn’t require any special software, lists, or other medium. You can practice it with anything.

Zendone

Zendone is complementary software to Evernote. It further explores the organization and productivity features that Evernote offers by creating a task management system for you.
When you connect Zendone to Evernote, you’ll choose one of your Evernote folders as your main task inbox. In the future, anything that you upload to that Evernote folder will also pop up in your Zendone inbox as a task. So with Evernote you have a fantastic way to collect and organize vast amounts of content on one digital interface using text, pictures, and audio recordings.

With Zendone, you can now designate what you want to do with this information and prioritize it in the form of daily tasks. If it’s just information for the file then you can archive it for reference, but if it something you need to get done at a later date, like paying a bill or taxes, then you can title it and organize it as a task in your Zendone inbox.

Try utilizing each of these three productivity tools to your advantage. Collect and store information on Evernote while using Zendone to organize it into tasks. Then use the Pomodoro technique to accomplish those tasks. Rinse and repeat. It’s a simple way to maximize your productivity while lowering your stress. Give it a try and let us know how it worked for you in the comments below.

Vincent H. Clarke is a Marketing Analyst for USB Memory Direct, a wholesaler of promotional USB drives. While he mostly writes about marketing and branding, he also enjoys writing about personal improvement, productivity, and start-up culture.

Filed Under: Contributors, Featured, Success Tagged With: organization, time management, tools

How to Create a Business Model

11/19/2012 by Guest Blogger

Think of your business model as a football playbook, as a way to implement
and execute your plan of success. The touchdown is your revenue. As the coach
(or small business owner), your job is to sift through the variety of ways
that will show how you are going to achieve your ultimate goal. By “drawing out”
your plan of action, you are simply showing how you will implement your
plans and what outcome is anticipated.
The purpose of a business model is to let others know about your product, the
value it brings to your target market, who that target market is, how you will
compete with similar companies in the same market, and how you will make money
using all of these components. Once you know the components of your business model,
structuring it will be easier to do, but first you need to know what type of
business model you should be looking at. This will be completely dependent on the
product or service you are providing and what you ultimately decide to do with the business

Though there are many different business models to consider, a basic structure
of a business model is a good place to start. Knowing how you will get your product
or service to the end user or customer will give you an idea how to choose the model
best suited for you. For small business owners in this day of technology, creating
a business model that will include social media is a key point for any market.

Traditional business models for example would include:1) direct marketing to customer
(think Dell), 2) retailers or sell to distributor and allow them to sell it for you,
3) exclusivity (rights to certain distributors only, such as music), 4) franchise and
5) advertisers (that sell ads for others). New business models are emerging with the
expanding technology of online. You will do well to utilize the social media platforms,
blogs, websites, content marketing, email blasts, and SEO.

Companies like Amazon, EBay, and Dell have captured the online
market with their business model. Some of their components allow the customer freedom
to shop whenever they please and have their items shipped straight to their home.
However, brick and mortar companies, such as Wal-Mart and Best Buy have amended their
business models to give customers the convenience of online shopping capabilities
combined with the ability to same day pick up.

So how do you draw out the business model once you’ve finalized your final draft?
Consider using PowerPoint or Google Docs for creating your model. Both
provide the tools you need to create professional looking business model designs.

An example of a simple business model created in PowerPoint:

As you can see, a business model can be as simple or as complex as you like.
Just keep in mind that the most important points of your business model should
be included. If your business is going to place the focus online, include that
as a point. Do not confuse a business model and a business plan. A business
plan is far more detailed and complicated than your basic model. Remember, your
business model is only to represent your plan of action, a visual of your ideas
and the ultimate goal in a simpler way.

Ryan Franklin is a guest blogger who writes about small business issues and technology on behalf of Ordoro.

Filed Under: Contributors, Featured, Strategy & Business Tagged With: business, business model, business plan, business strategy, social marketing, social media, startup

A Social Message For My Children (And You)!

11/13/2012 by Guest Blogger

My husband often jokes that growing up he made a fool of himself too many times, but “thank goodness it wasn’t on Facebook or a reality TV show watched by millions.” While he is being humorous he is also being insightful. Today’s generation is growing up in a time when mistakes can be damaging and publicized to the world for infinity. It may have been fun for my husband dancing with a Sake bottle on his head in the late 70’s, but that was then and this is the day of social media when the photo would be sent worldwide and possibly misunderstood in corporate America.

According to a survey conducted by CareerBuilder, 37% of employers use social media sights to research job applicants. “Because social media is a dominant form of communication today, you can certainly learn a lot about a person by viewing their public, online personas,” said Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources at CareerBuilder. “However, hiring managers and human resources departments have to make a careful, determined decision as to whether information found online is relevant to the candidates’ qualifications for the job.”

If you are a teen or young adult (like my children) the choices you make today may end up posted on someone’s Facebook or web sight for eternity. As your career sky rockets one of your teen friends may become jealous and decide to pull out those old, destructive, image destroying photos and post them online. We have all seen it before with celebrities, but it is a real concern for those of us who are unknowns as well. Your friend in high school or college may become jealous with your success later in life and decide to show the world events you would prefer to remain in the preverbal closet.

While social media can destroy a career it can also enhance your chances of being hired. According to CareerBuilder, “employers are also looking for information that could potentially give a job seeker an advantage. Three in ten hiring managers (29 percent) said they have found something that has caused them to hire a candidate…”

CareerBuilder’s Haefner says the company’s research reiterates the value of controlling your online persona at all times. “Job seekers should be mindful of what potential employers can learn about them online,” she said. “If you choose to leave social media content public, tailor the message to your advantage. Filter out anything that can tarnish your professional reputation and post communications, links and photos that portray you in the best possible light.”

The solution of not being on Facebook isn’t a solution for the younger generation. According to Forbes magazine writer Kashmire Hill, “I’m seeing the suggestion more and more often that a missing Facebook account raises red flags.”

I predict that in a dozen years from now people will be proud to have invisible sightings online. Companies will develop that not only help manage an online presence, but also helps create a stealth mode of social media that is as private and hidden as it is visible today. In the 70’s and 80’s some American families paid for an unlisted phone number for privacy. In 2024 American’s may once again be paying to keep all their online information private. The world doesn’t need to know how much money you paid for your house or your salary if you’re a public school teacher. Privacy will come with a price, but it will come.

Today, however, Hill expresses a growing concern, “But it does seem that increasingly, it’s expected that everyone is on Facebook in some capacity, and that a negative assumption is starting to arise about those who reject the Big Blue Giant’s siren call. Continuing to navigate life without having this digital form of identification may be like trying to get into a bar without a driver’s license.”

According to Reppler, a firm dedicated to managing people’s internet visibility, the Top 5 reasons hiring managers hired a candidate based on social presence include:

1.The candidate gave a positive impression of their personality and organizational fit.

2.The profile supported their professional qualifications.

3.The profile showed that the candidate was creative.

4.The candidate demonstrated solid communication skills.

5.The profile showed that the candidate was well-rounded.

Bidhan “Bobby” Parmar, professor at the Darden School of Business, may have sage advice when he states, “Before posting information and photographs on Facebook, remember that in the virtual world, our houses are made of glass. Every piece of data is permanent and stored in a digital archive. More than half of employers cite provocative photographs as the biggest factor in the decision not to hire.”

My message for my children (and you) is to make wise choices that you are always happy and comfortable having the world view. While you aren’t on a reality TV program being seen by millions, you’re on social media being seen by a select few that may matter more to you than all the millions watching an invasive, destructive show. Be yourself, but don’t risk your reputation on a moment of insanity. And, finally, if you want to make a fortune, develop a program that people can buy that will keep their personal life private and
invisible.

Sheri Staak has served in many Vice Presidential roles at both large privately held and publicly traded global companies. She’s a corporate powerhouse and has been the recipient of numerous sales awards and recognitions. In addition to her key position in a highly aggressive, extremely competitive industry, Sheri is a regular contributor to a travel newsletter, lending her expertise by writing articles that provide tips and advice for business travelers. She also shares her wisdom and business perspectives with regular postings at her leadership-focused blog, The Staak Report.

Filed Under: Contributors, Featured, Guest Bloggers, Social Media

Three Examples of How to Succeed in Social Media Marketing

11/08/2012 by Joseph Baker

Social media has made tremendous gains in recent years with both individuals and corporate users. While people use the popular sites as a means to stay in touch with friends and share important life events, companies have used Facebook and Twitter as a means to connect with their customers and fans.

Some companies use their social media as a way to deal with customer feedback while others use the unique channels as a way to market their products and services. Regardless of how they interface with customers online, the most successful companies have found the proper balance between the “what” (product) and the “why” (story and branding) of their marketing campaigns.

Oreo

We’re all familiar with the slogan that Oreo is “milk’s favorite cookie.” The iconic snack’s advertising has always had fun with the simplicity of the treat while incorporating an absurd sense of humor in its celebrity endorsements, such as the DoubleStuf Racing League. This sense of humor extends to their Twitter feed, which frequently retweets fans, drives discussion as to how their cookies are best eaten and shares contests and other opportunities for fans to compete for prizes. The strong unity of their central theme keeps the company’s voice from differing on its different media channels and keeps fans involved.

Try to develop a strong narrative voice for your company and incorporate it into all of your media efforts. Keeping the tone fun and self-aware can encourage more interaction and personal relationships with fans.

BodyForm

When a fan posted a mocking post on Bodyform’s Facebook page pointing out the misleading advertisements of feminine hygiene products, the company was given a golden opportunity: to better brand its company by being transparent on social media. In the popular viral video response, an actress portraying the company’s CEO breaks down the stereotypes of feminine hygiene commercials, all while breaking preconceived notions of accepted female behavior. The company has enjoyed more than 2.8 million views of its video and increased awareness and appreciation of its brand as a result.

Social media is full of jokesters and trolls. Sometimes when one serves up such a golden opportunity to better your brand, you must take it. Being honest with yourself and your public helps to drive brand transparency and build trust with consumers.

Southwest Airlines

Making travel plans in an increasingly expensive economy has become difficult as many different travels sites are available. How can you be sure you’re getting the best deal? Southwest Airlines, an affordable travel provider, has used its social media to share deals and perks for travelers, as well as direct complaints to a customer service page. While the methodology is simple, the classic approach to connecting with consumers puts the focus upon its customers and how to better serve them through special deals and offers.

Remember that your focus is on your customer. Put plain details in place to help direct them to proper channels to solve their issues and share offers to add value to their time on your site. Without the consumers that make up social media, you would have no business to run. Don’t forget that – most of the social media failures are big box companies focused more upon marketing than interfacing.

Social media represent a special opportunity for companies to interface with their consumers. Whether you tie your company’s voice, transparency or service to social media, be sure that the approach unifies your company and meets customers’ needs.

Filed Under: Contributors, Social Media, Strategy & Business Tagged With: analytics, blog, facebook, online social networking, social networking

Tweak and Repeat

10/25/2012 by Joseph Baker

Any business can apply multi-channel marketing, but cross-channel marketing is the ideal way to increase revenue and customer loyalty, especially when marketers apply the Pareto principle. Cross-channel marketing is more challenging than multi-channel marketing. Instead of focusing on disseminating a message via multiple channels, cross-channel marketing is customer focused. Companies must expend significant resources to capture adequate information about users and track their needs across all channels. Applying the Pareto principle cuts down the time needed to discover client needs while maximizing ROI.

The Pareto principle

Although originally not related to marketing, the Pareto principle stems from work by an Italian economist named Vilfredo Pareto, who discovered 80 percent of the land in Italy was owned by 20 percent of the population. Surveys he conducted confirmed other countries had a similar ratio. The economist even discovered 80 percent of his garden peas came from 20 percent of his pea pods.

Pareto did not actually come up with the principle, however. A business management consultant named Joseph M. Juran discovered 80 percent of quality control issues stemmed from the top 20 percent of problems. He named the principle after Pareto. Over time, people have expanded the principle to explain other business matters, such as:

80 percent of complaints stem from 20 percent of customers
80 percent of profits come from 20 percent of time spent
80 percent of sales are by 20 percent of sales staff
80 percent of sales are made from 20 percent of products

Perhaps the most relevant discovery for cross-channel marketing is knowing 20 percent of the customers are responsible for 80 percent of the profits. Knowing this, cross-channel marketers should focus their efforts on identifying and tracking those 20 percent.

The efficiency of the Pareto principle

Cross-channel marketing requires companies to track users across all channels, meaning each customer must have their own profile and sales staff must be able to match content to the customer. Taking the time to track all of a company’s customers is a waste of time and resources, according to the Pareto principle.

Only 20 percent of the customers possess exceptional brand loyalty. These one out of five customers are really the only people worth tracking because they produce most of the profits. Tracking the top 20 percent is a more realistic goal than tracking everyone as well. Once the top 20 percent is identified, sales staff can not only concentrate on marketing to them but they can also see who those people influence socially and push to expand their ideal customer base.

The Pareto principle and staffing

For the most effective cross-channel marketing, a company should identify their best salespeople and then expand. Cross-channel marketing relies on well-trained sales staff, especially in a call center. For example, a customer sees a product on TV or in a magazine he likes. He goes online to view the product on the company website, perhaps even scanning a QR code with his smartphone, before calling the company to ask questions. All of the data about what the customer wants is available. When he calls in, a salesperson has the chance to study the data and anticipate the customer’s needs, increasing the potential of a sale and the chance the customer will become part of the core 20 percent.

Companies can use sales figures to find the most effective employees, but they should also look for people who display leadership qualities, are self starters and who influence others. These people will attract more high-quality workers, ensuring the sales staff comprises only the best employees. The remaining 80 percent should be retrained, reassigned or possibly let go.

Companies can even use the Pareto principle when recruiting workers by looking for the natural leaders at other companies. Often times, recent college graduates who have not yet had the chance to prove themselves with sales numbers or a customer service history can become part of the top 20 percent. They are highly educated and motivated to prove themselves.

Bridging the gap between marketing within channels and creating integrated customers takes significant effort. Narrowing down the targeted group with the Pareto principle simply makes sense. After brainstorming the best ways to accomplish this goal, companies can even use the principle to narrow down ideas as the top 20 percent are most likely to result in 80 percent of the results.

Filed Under: Guest Bloggers, Strategy & Business, Success Tagged With: blog, Blogging, business, business development, facebook, facebook features, google, google plus, marketing, online social networking