How Employee Advocacy Builds a Trustworthy Brand Presence

How Employee Advocacy Builds a Trustworthy Brand Presence Traditional marketing techniques are all good and well, but just how much do people trust the information shared by PR and marketing teams? Your team can be the biggest promotional tool for your business, when working as  advocates for for the brand  and people are much more likely to trust the opinion of existing staff over marketing content. This infographic by Everyone Social explains the benefits of employee advocacy and why your business should be doing it. The challenges being faced:  There is more and increasing amount of competition for brands to reach their customers. Only a small proportion of employees worldwide are truly engaged at work  63% of employees are not engaged in their jobs, whereas 13% say they are. Attention spans are getting shorter, dropping from 12 seconds in 2000 to just 8 seconds in 2012. Why does employee advocacy matter? Employee advocacy connects the dots between team engagement and brand thought leadership. 84% of people are more likely to trust a recommendation from somebody that they know, than from marketing content. 41% of people think that a companys employees are a more trustworthy source than the PR team, CEO or founder of the business. 40% of sales professionals said that social media has helped them to close two to five deals. How can you get started? Create a strategy that aligns with your brand priorities. Create and distribute a social media policy that everyone within the company must abide by. Nominate and train employees to test out  the advocacy program. Help your team build  their personal brands. Hold training sessions so everyone know what to do. For more tips and statistics see below. More on this topic at  Employee Advocacy: The Ultimate Handbook.

The Relationship Quiz - Getting Your Relationships Right

The Relationship Quiz - Getting Your Relationships Right Relationships dont seem to be my strong suit.  But that doesnt mean Ive given up on them.  Im totally open to the possibility that there will yet be someone who will share my heart, life, and bed.  Still, having done a few laps around the relationship track, I suspect there are a few things I could do to make myself a better partner. Over the years, Ive taken too many of those love, sex, and relationship quizzes to count.  Most of them were like, yeah, right, tell me something I didnt know.  Because you take the quiz, get reminded about all your shortcomings, and then they just leave you hanging.  Thats like being beaten with an ugly stick for being ugly, and then being told to stop being ugly. A Quiz With More A sucker for yet another self-help book, I couldnt resist the title.  Love, Sex, and Staying Warm: Creating a Vital Relationship.  Staying warm is good.  Love, sex . . .  both on my priority list.  And youre going to help me create a vital relationship?  Im in.  Im sooo in. The author, Neil Rosenthal, starts off with a quiz of his own.  But then he goes on to give a short course Id call it Love, Sex, and Passion 101.  Below are the questions, and you can take the live quiz and get it scored here. If you were to give yourself a grade for how effective, how responsive and how loving you behave in your relationship, what would that grade be? Lets  break the above question down into smaller segments.   On an A B C D F scale, decide what grade you would give yourself in the following categories. What Grade Would You Get in Your Relationship? How affectionate are you? How romantic? How sexy? How generous How trusting? How kind are you? How much fun are you to be around? How emotionally present are you around your mate? How physically present are you around your mate? How sensitive and compassionate are you to your mates feelings? How good a listener are you with your partner? How emotionally nurturing are you? How physically nurturing? How financially nurturing? How much of a friend are you to your intimate partner? How in control of your negative emotions are you, such as anger, volatility, insecurity, jealousy, anxiety, fear and mistrust? Showing your mate that you value him/her. Halfway done . . . How affectionate and physically tender are you? How affectionate and physically tender are you without ulterior motives? How responsive and accommodating are you to what your partner says s/he wants or needs? How financially responsible and accountable are you? How respectful are you of your partner? Overall, how much effort do you give to your relationship? Your level of commitment. Your flexibility and receptivity to other ways of seeing or doing things. Your willingness to address difficult issues or deal with conflicts proactively. Your willingness and ability to engage in a disagreement wisely and effectively Your overall attitude in the relationship. Your sense of humor. The division of chores, roles, responsibilities, duties. Behaving, thinking and planning as a couple rather than as two individuals. The time, attention, effort, skill and patience you bring to parenting. How you operate as a team player in the relationship. Your ability and willingness to make up after a fight or a disagreement. I scored.  Or not. I took the quiz, and got a solid B.  Pretty much like all through school and life.  Hey, what can I say, Im a solid B kind of person.  But I did learn a great deal about things I can do to improve as I went beyond the quiz into the book.  Who knows, I might be able to make it to the teachers pet, A list yet. If you want to learn about yourself and your way of doing relationships, its a worthwhile read.  You can find it here. About the Books Author, Neil Rosenthal Neil Rosenthal is a licensed marriage and family therapist in Denver/Boulder, Colorado, specializing in how people strengthen their intimate relationships. He is a nationally and internationally syndicated newspaper columnist. His column “Relationships” appears every week in The Denver Post, the Vail Daily, the Wellington (New Zealand) Dominion-Post, The Resident in Connecticut, the Daily Times-Call in Longmont, Colorado, as well as a variety of other newspapers around the world. The “Relationships” column is in it’s 24th year, having run in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, the Oregonian in Portland, the San Diego Union Tribune, the San Jose Mercury News, the London (Ontario) Free Press and a large variety of other newspapers in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Recently, Neil released his first book, Love, Sex and Staying Warm: Keeping the Flame Alive  published by Flagstaff Mountain Press. Learn more about the #1 best seller here. Regularly interviewed by the media, Rosenthal has appeared as an expert on ABC, NBC, Fox TV and Radio New Zealand. He has been listed in The Directory of Distinguished Americans, Who’s Who, Men of Achievement, Personalities of the Americas, and Who’s Who of Emerging Leaders in America. Neil Rosenthal taught at the University of Colorado in Boulder for 13 years, and has been a three-time president of the Colorado Association for Humanistic Psychology. He founded the Denver Free University in 1969, which became the largest adult education institution in the United States during the 1970’s and 80’s. He was student body president at The University of Denver from 1969-1970. Neil is a former elementary school teacher, and lives in the mountains outside Boulder.

Tips For Juggling Work And Motherhood

Tips For Juggling Work And Motherhood Are you tired of hearing people tell you that it’s unrealistic to try to have it all? Men expect to be able to have children without giving up their career, so why shouldn’t women? If you’re a single mother, juggling the two may be your only alternative to going on food stamps, and you shouldn’t feel guilty for trying to support yourself and give your child a decent future. If you have a partner who earns, it can still be important to work for your own self-esteem, to give yourself better options in later life, and to set an example to your kids. These days, it’s increasingly accepted, and there are a number of ways that you can approach striking a balance between work and caring for your kids. Working from home One of the most popular options for mothers is working from home, especially when children are pre-school age. It makes it possible to generate an income while being there for the kids all the time, and depending on your skill set, it can be quite lucrative. You could be doing anything from stuffing envelopes or selling garden produce to building websites or providing telephone consultancy services in your specialist field. What you will need is a way of entertaining your kids while you get work done. Skiphop.com has a good range of activity toys for infants, and you can also pick up a baby play mat there to help you create a safe play space. Once they reach the age of three, most children can be occupied with creative projects or educational puzzle games for significant periods of time. While you may hesitate to just leave them in front of the TV, it’s worth considering educational videos and children’s programming designed to help them learn the basics of a foreign language while entertaining them at the same time. Part-time and flexible working If you’re keen to get out of the house to work, you may be able to fit it around childcare commitments by working part-time. This can be a practical approach if, for instance, you have family members who can look after the children for part of the day, or if your partner is also working part-time and is able to look after them for a different portion of the day. It can also work well when children are going to school and are looked after there for several hours a day. Part-time work can still bring in a decent amount of money, and some employers can offer flexible arrangements whereby you work part-time at their premises but also do some hours at home, enabling you to bring in a full-time wage. You may be able to put in your extra hours while older children are doing their homework.  Daycare If you’re keen to get back to a full-time job, you should look at the options for daycare. There are all sorts of facilities to choose from these days. Prices can be steep, but some large companies offer free crèche facilities for their employees. Making use of your employer’s facilities or choosing a daycare company close to your work is ideal because it means that you can spend time with your children during your breaks and lunch hour, and can be summoned quickly if they have any problems. Some workplaces even allow well-behaved children to spend time in the workplace itself â€" for instance, diners often allow children to sit and do their homework there while their mothers finish their shift. This can have the additional benefit of teaching the children something about how work is conducted, preparing them for adult life.  Making your own rules The challenges of raising children while working has inspired some mothers to start their own company with rules that make it much easier to balance the two. This can be a more practical way forward than it might sound; there are a lot of other mothers out there who are highly skilled but are prepared to take a pay cut in order to have the chance to keep working without being separated from their kids, so even a new business with limited starting capital can find itself with an impressive talent pool to draw on. When mothers get together to develop an approach that works better for everyone, they can not only help themselves but also help to change the wider workplace culture. Seeing you go to work sends a great message to your kids about the importance of self-sufficiency. It’s also good for your kids to see you happy doing something that you love, and as long as you get the balance right, they will also be happy. . Image credits. Main.    Daycare.  

4 Tips to Write a Career Blog That Gets You Noticed - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

4 Tips to Write a Career Blog That Gets You Noticed - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Google, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are all tools we use to research people weve never met. Over 50 million people are   Googled a day. A career blog lets you ensure that employers, clients and business partners find positive content that solidifies their decision to work with you. What is a career blog? A career blog is a journal style website where you periodically post content about your industry as it relates to your career goals. It’s a place where you can talk about current industry trends, ask and answer relevant questions, provide practical tips, provoke thoughts based on your career experience, connect to knowledge learned in the classroom, and turn the bullet points on your resume into a real, human story. Your career blog is the story you want to tell employers to convince them to hire you. Your goal is to make it clear through your blog posts what your strengths and unique skills are, making it obvious that you are the candidate for the job. What should you write about? our career blog should have five “pillar” articles. These are posts that back up the claims on your resume through stories and examples. They should generally revolve around the following themes: Growth. Write a story about a class, a project or a job where your thinking shifted. Where you learned something that changed the way you think, behave, manage teammates or solve problems. Always portray the experience in a positive light. Then, concretely describe how you will apply what you learned to your next company. Expertise. Write about a specific topic you learned about in class or in life. Let’s say you’re an industrial design major, and you just learned about the importance of identifying user needs. Show that you understand the concept by relating it to something that happened to you. For example, let’s say you just got in an argument with your mom about never turning the lights off when you leave the room. At first you bickered about it’s importance, but when you asked her why she needs them off, she explained that it saves money that she could be investing in the family’s vacation fund. By understanding her needs, it became obvious that the lights should be turned off. In the same way, companies that spend time understanding their user’s needs will more clearly understand the next course of action or new feature to develop. Relate the lessons you’ve learned to specific projects or experiences you’ve had, so employers will see that the expertise listed on your resume is grounded in reality. Then, describe how you will apply this knowledge to your next company. Knowledge of current trends. Whatever your field, there are a number of industry leaders blogging about it. Find them by doing a Google search for top blogs in your field. For example, if you’re in marketing, search “Top Marketing Blogs” in Google. Choose three, and read the last three posts from each. Synthesize those posts and write an article that summarizes the main ideas. Clearly write about how the ideas mentioned affect businesses in your industry, and how you’ll use that knowledge to benefit your next company. Ability to deliver. Write a post about a personal or professional project you’re proud of, and upload the end result. For example, upload the PowerPoint presentation of your thesis to SlideShare.net, embed it into a post, and write a blurb summarizing it. Upload images that tangibly show things you’ve created, embed YouTube videos related to you, link to PDFs of papers you’ve written, etc. The point is to give proof of your past performance. Provide the background story about each project and only upload your absolute best work. Remember that the purpose of your career blog is to get hired, not complain about what’s happening in your personal life. Avoid personal issues and stick to professional topics. When you go in for interviews, your blog is the story you want interviewers to have already read about you: the story of your growth, your expertise, your knowledge of current trends and your ability to deliver. Promote your career blog First, refer employers to your career blog on your resume. Invite them to learn more about you by visiting your blog’s URL. Put it in your email signature so that your contacts are aware of your career goals, and link to it on your LinkedIn profile so that employers can go from one to the other. On your LinkedIn profile, add the LinkedIn app that automatically pulls your blog posts into your LinkedIn profile. This improves the visibility of your blog posts. Conclusion Your career blog is the story that will compel employers, clients and business partners to work with you. Use your articles to make your unique value clear, compelling, tie points back to what you can do for other people or your future employer, and make it easy to contact you. Author: Pete Kistler is a leading Online Reputation Management expert for Generation Y, a top 5 finalist for Entrepreneur Magazine’s College Entrepreneur of 2009, one of the Top 30 Definitive Personal Branding Experts on Twitter, a widely read career development blogger, and a Judge for the 2009 Personal Brand Awards. Pete manages strategic vision for Brand-Yourself.com, the first online reputation management platform for job applicants, named one of the Top 100 Most Innovative College Startups in the U.S.

When Writing Jobs, Ask For a Resume

When Writing Jobs, Ask For a ResumeWhen writing jobs, the first thing you should do is find out whether you can send a resume to any job in the company. This may be a bit more difficult than it sounds; it may be a case of 'website searches'searching the web', but it can be done. In fact, some job boards have found that having your resume on their site has been quite useful.The idea of using 'special search engines' for finding a job is actually not such a bad idea. Most webmasters use search engines in order to find out what they need, and to find out what someone else's website is like. You can use the same approach to find out what jobs you might be eligible for if you are seeking employment. If you don't want to be turned down, though, you will need to pay for the option to search through the company's website.It's a great idea to ask for a resume, because then you can get it before sending it to the company. This will save you having to deal with some unpleasantness after you sen d in the application, and you will not be wasting your time writing things that you might not really have the chance to finish or rewrite later. This means that you will be able to focus on the main objective of your job search, which is finding work. Asking for a resume allows you to spend as much time as possible on the main goal.An easier way to get a resume from a company, though, is to send it by email, and this is particularly handy when it comes to internet based jobs, since there are only a few companies that will have a separate website, and the rest of them will be using one of the many service providers that have an online presence. This method allows you to have your resume ready before you even start your search, which is really helpful if you are looking for a specific position, or for a specific role within the company. You should use the same concept with mail-in job application: you will send it by email to a company and then wait until you get your reply. In fact, there are companies that will offer this service for you for free. Usually, this is just a matter of registering for an account on their website, and then you can enter in the information you are interested in. You will be asked to confirm this information, and then you will be given the address you are supposed to send the application to.You will also need to indicate the person's name that you are after. In some cases, you will be asked for contact details, and sometimes it's a matter of placing a phone call to the company's home address.Some jobs will require you to provide documentation or references to prove that you are fit for the position. In this case, it is a good idea to have a list of those that are professional in the field, and that have been successful in their jobs. You may also find it useful to find out how you can be contacted to find out if they have received your application.Don't forget that there are many different job opportunities, and the chances are that y ou may have to go looking for a job all over again. Using a resume will help you deal with the embarrassment of trying to find a new job, and will allow you to concentrate on your job search.

Important Company Changes That Will Make the Biggest Impact on Your Business Growth - CareerAlley

Important Company Changes That Will Make the Biggest Impact on Your Business Growth - CareerAlley We may receive compensation when you click on links to products from our partners. There are many different ways to ensure that your company remains stable for many years to come. After all, stability is one of the most important things to think about. Job security is always going to be a major concern for your employees and no one wants to suffer the fate of a company that cant survive past its startup stages. In order to make a big impact and grow your business, its going to take a lot of big changes and mentality shifts in your business workflow. To help facilitate your business growth, weve put together a list of sweeping company changes that are guaranteed to help you make an impact. Photo by You X Ventures on Unsplash Realigning Your Workforce Its not just important to hire the right people, but also to realign your workforce so that your employees are capable of more than what they were hired for. When youre a humble startup you probably arent making the most out of your employees for one simple reason; youre not sure what roles you even need in your business. When there are just a dozen people working for you, youre fully capable of being their manager. In order to make a big impact and grow your business, its going to take a lot of big changes and mentality shifts in your business workflow. Tweet This However, when that number triples or even quadruples, youll need to train some employees with leadership training courses to help them become managers and not just employees. Shifting roles around is important, so make sure you focus on it as a primary concern when growing your business. The 1-Page Marketing Plan: Get New Customers, Make More Money, And Stand Out From The Crowd Price: $2.99 To build a successful business, you need to stop doing random acts of marketing and start following a reliable plan for rapid business growth. Traditionally, creating a marketing plan has been a difficult and time-consuming process. Buy Now from Amazon We earn a commission if you click this link and make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Last Updated: March 2, 2020 Building a Customer Profile As a startup, your customer profile is probably nothing like the actual audience youre drawing in. This is natural because as you first start up your business, its unclear what type of customers youll actually be attracting. Your concept of the ideal customer is probably entirely different from what it was when you first drew up plans for your business idea, so its never a bad idea to refresh your idea of the ideal customer and build a new profile for them. Focus on the type of audience youre appealing to by using your experience and knowledge. Once youve developed a new customer profile, youll have a much easier time drawing new customers and spreading your brand. A good business needs to start as a functional, basic idea. Lets say you want to start a baked goods company. First, you should be able to make, package, and ship a great cookie. If you can create a cookie which could, theoretically, sustain your business indefinitely, then your idea is a good one. From the cookie foundation, you can build into other baked goods, expanding your business model. But youve started from a solid platform. Many businesses do not start from a sustainable mode, and its challenging for them to grow from that point. Is Starting a Business Right for Me? Diversify or Specialize The main fork in the road for every startup that wants to upgrade its business is whether to diversify its products or specialize. Diversification usually goes the route of appealing to as many people as possible and growing your company to a point that its instantly recognizable to people all over the world. Specialization usually involves making your brand recognizable within your industry and becoming a first-choice among people with specific needs. The Secrets to Writing a Successful Business Plan: A Pro Shares A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Plan That Gets Results Price: $19.95 Secrets to Writing a Successful Business Plan: A Pro Shares a Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Plan that Gets Results by Hal Shelton will open your eyes to insider tips, hints, and techniques for creating a winning business plan. Buy Now from Amazon We earn a commission if you click this link and make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Last Updated: March 2, 2020 A good example of this would be Amazon versus Apple. While theyre both widely successful companies, Amazon caters to a wider audience, but Apple is a household name that people think of when talking about tech such as smartphones, tablets, and computers. What you choose to do ultimately depends on the type of company you want to make, but its important to start thinking about which path you want to take so you can start investing resources into one or the other. What's next? Ready to take action? Choose the right tools to help you build your career. Looking for related topics? Find out how to find the opportunities that help you grow your best career. Subscribe and make meaningful progress on your career. It’s about time you focused on your career. Get Educated Contact Us Advertise Copyright 2020 CareerAlley. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy + Disclosure home popular resources subscribe search

Leveraging Social Media in Your Job Search - CareerAlley

Leveraging Social Media in Your Job Search - CareerAlley We may receive compensation when you click on links to products from our partners. Many of us belong to social networks, but most of us do not think of them in terms of business or work. There are a few social networks that focus on business and careers. LinkedIn is one of those sites (and the most popular by far). Business social network sites are geared towards anyone who wants to build connections across business and industry contacts, regardless of career or industry. The benefits of business social networks have been well proven.Business social network sitesallow you to either reconnect or stay connected to current and past friends, college alumni, industry contacts, coworkers and former colleagues. LinkedIn is a great place to leverage connections especially when trying to find a job (see 5 Tips for Creating a Professional LinkedIn Profile). What manyjob seekers do not realize that most of the popular social networks can also be leveraged as job search networks. How to Write a KILLER LinkedIn Profile Price: $9.97 Specific line by line instructions on how to create your LinkedIn profile to maximize your job search. Buy Now from Amazon We earn a commission if you click this link and make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Last Updated: March 2, 2020 Social Networks for Job Search: LinkedIn According to Wikipedia, LinkedIn is a business- social networking site founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003 mainly used for professional networking. This site is the gold standard for business and career social networking. There were more than 500 million registered users across well over 100 industries on LinkedIn. The site allows users to link to colleagues from current and past employers, schools and any other group that may be defined. One of the features I like best is the degrees of separation. The site will show you how you may know a third party through an existing connection. Linked has job search functions as well as formats that allow you to showcase your background. Clearly the best in class from what Ive seen. Meettheboss This site has not been around as long as I can tell and seems to be focused on Financial Services (a way to differentiate from other sites). One item I do not like is that it forces you to add your company website URL as part of the registration. Two issues with this. First, you may not want to advertise the company you work for and second, what happens if your company is small and does not have a website (yes, there are still companies without websites!)? Unlike LinkedIn, there does not seem to be a way to search for people you may know. The interface is nice, but the site looks thin on functionality. I will keep an eye on this site to see how it fairs, but Im not sure I get it yet. Facebook.com This is not a typo. Facebook is also a great site to help with your job search. Even thoughFacebook is mostly used as a general social network, 54% of employers leverage Facebook to find job candidates (seeUsing Facebook to Find Your Next Job). In fact, according to JobVite, 67% of job seekers who use social media for job search use Facebook as a resource. The best way to leveage Facebook for your job search is to include your professional (and school) history in your profile. This will help employers find you. Posting industry (or career) related content will help as well. Twitter.com Who would have thought that Twitter could be leveraged for job search? When I first joined Twitter, Twitter was fairly new and very limited in the way it was used. Times have changed, and Twitter has become a great way to search for a job and get job leads. Why you may ask, would you want to use Twitter in your job search? Well for one, you get information real-time in many cases. One of the more important theories of job search is to get there first as this gives you the best chance. Clearly, the value of any of these sites is determined by the number of people and companies leveraging them for job search (finding candidates and finding jobs). Leveragingsocial networks for job search has become very popular. Whilenew sites pop up from time to time, you will get better results sticking to the most popular sites. Most people shouldfocus on one or two of these sites,spending the rest of their job search time leveraging other sources (seeThe Four Legs of Job Search). Career Tip of the Day:Tweet Your Way to a New Job Twitter for Job Search Suggested Reading: Love Your Job: The New Rules for Career Happiness ZipRecruiter Price: Never miss an opportunity. On ZipRecruiter, top companies reach out to you. Complete the required steps to get started. Get Recruited We earn a commission if you click this link and make a purchase at no additional cost to you. What's next? Ready to take action? Choose the right tools to help you build your career. Looking for related topics? Find out how to find the opportunities that help you grow your best career. Subscribe and make meaningful progress on your career. It’s about time you focused on your career. Get Educated Contact Us Advertise Copyright 2020 CareerAlley. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy + Disclosure home popular resources subscribe search