I Received Three Special Boxes Yesterday!

I Received Three Special Boxes Yesterday! My wife comes down stairs with a big smile, hiding something behind her back. It was my book the real, shiny, white and red book! She asked for my autograph :p It was surreal to flip through the pages of something that I had spent hours on to see what a layout professional could do was really neat. What a cool experience! Also, the book got listed on Amazon a few days ago, so if youve read it or blogged on it, and you have an Amazon account, please go leave a review there. Monday is the day the hard copy ships (if you want the eBook, order it from the Happy About publishers site), so Ill do one more post then, and then Ill move on to other things For now, though, Id like to bring attention to some of the bloggers who have posted about it since last time: Megan Fitzgerald is the expert that I would go to for any information on expat career advice. She works with expat professionals and expat entrepreneurs, is a career coach, and a personal branding strategist (and a JibberJobber partner). Ive worked with Megan in various capacities and have found her to be passionate, knowledgeable, helpful and a real delight (why the big deal with expat for me? Because I almost was one, and still have a lot of interest in moving overseas for a while). She says: I strongly recommend this book for those who dont want to waste time trying to figure out LinkedIns myriad of features on their own read more here. Clint James doesnt need an introduction on this blog heres a snippet from his post: LinkedIn caught my eye while I was doing my job search in April and while I picked it up and played with it there never really was any part of it that truly caught my fancy. But recently I read a book by Jason Alba at JibberJobber.com and I am on fire for this site! Most sites arent as good as say, Experience.com, about telling you what to do once you have signed up, and Alba has written the missing owners manual one of the hottest career sites. read more here. Joe Neitham, an IT recruiter in Singapore, very kindly says and I believe that anyone who is serious about networking through LinkedIn must grab a copy of this book he also says some pretty nice things about me read more here. Your HR Guy, who was another blog that was mentioned (along with the JibberJobber blog) by the Wall Street Journals Career Journal, says the book is what I consider to be the consummate guide to navigating through the waters LinkedIn. read more here. Mike Thomas, chief machete swinger at The Daily Machete, coins a new term (eat your heart out Jessica Alba, because hes not talking about you!!) Another Albanian strength his clear, down-to-earth writing style may also pose a challenge for the average reader. How can good writing pose a challenge? Simple: his words are too smooth, which can make his book a quick read. But breezing through Im on LinkedIn Now What??? would be a disservice to readers. Despite being content-rich, Albas writing style can lead you to believe youve absorbed everything upon first reading it. The best advice? youll have to read the best advice here. Daniel Schawbel writes Millions of people around the world use LinkedIn, but most either don’t use it properly or have little experience with many of the features. By reading this book you will have a great foundation for read more here. (sorry for not putting this up the first time I posted!) And a head nod from Jack, at MarketingMe, who even calls JibberJobber a neat site Thanks to all who have supported this venture, with e-mails, blog posts, comments, tweets and phone calls! Its fun to be at this point, and Im sure the best is yet to come I Received Three Special Boxes Yesterday! My wife comes down stairs with a big smile, hiding something behind her back. It was my book the real, shiny, white and red book! She asked for my autograph :p It was surreal to flip through the pages of something that I had spent hours on to see what a layout professional could do was really neat. What a cool experience! Also, the book got listed on Amazon a few days ago, so if youve read it or blogged on it, and you have an Amazon account, please go leave a review there. Monday is the day the hard copy ships (if you want the eBook, order it from the Happy About publishers site), so Ill do one more post then, and then Ill move on to other things For now, though, Id like to bring attention to some of the bloggers who have posted about it since last time: Megan Fitzgerald is the expert that I would go to for any information on expat career advice. She works with expat professionals and expat entrepreneurs, is a career coach, and a personal branding strategist (and a JibberJobber partner). Ive worked with Megan in various capacities and have found her to be passionate, knowledgeable, helpful and a real delight (why the big deal with expat for me? Because I almost was one, and still have a lot of interest in moving overseas for a while). She says: I strongly recommend this book for those who dont want to waste time trying to figure out LinkedIns myriad of features on their own read more here. Clint James doesnt need an introduction on this blog heres a snippet from his post: LinkedIn caught my eye while I was doing my job search in April and while I picked it up and played with it there never really was any part of it that truly caught my fancy. But recently I read a book by Jason Alba at JibberJobber.com and I am on fire for this site! Most sites arent as good as say, Experience.com, about telling you what to do once you have signed up, and Alba has written the missing owners manual one of the hottest career sites. read more here. Joe Neitham, an IT recruiter in Singapore, very kindly says and I believe that anyone who is serious about networking through LinkedIn must grab a copy of this book he also says some pretty nice things about me read more here. Your HR Guy, who was another blog that was mentioned (along with the JibberJobber blog) by the Wall Street Journals Career Journal, says the book is what I consider to be the consummate guide to navigating through the waters LinkedIn. read more here. Mike Thomas, chief machete swinger at The Daily Machete, coins a new term (eat your heart out Jessica Alba, because hes not talking about you!!) Another Albanian strength his clear, down-to-earth writing style may also pose a challenge for the average reader. How can good writing pose a challenge? Simple: his words are too smooth, which can make his book a quick read. But breezing through Im on LinkedIn Now What??? would be a disservice to readers. Despite being content-rich, Albas writing style can lead you to believe youve absorbed everything upon first reading it. The best advice? youll have to read the best advice here. Daniel Schawbel writes Millions of people around the world use LinkedIn, but most either don’t use it properly or have little experience with many of the features. By reading this book you will have a great foundation for read more here. (sorry for not putting this up the first time I posted!) And a head nod from Jack, at MarketingMe, who even calls JibberJobber a neat site Thanks to all who have supported this venture, with e-mails, blog posts, comments, tweets and phone calls! Its fun to be at this point, and Im sure the best is yet to come

How To Quickly Increase Sales - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

How To Quickly Increase Sales - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career A number of traits define the sales personality. They are listed here for you to recognize the three top actions to incorporate into your everyday practice as these will make a huge difference in your sales growth: Perseverance Consistency Working to solve problems and serving your clientele well When I began in sales the Internet did not exist. We were required to “cold call” business parks. Cold call refers to not having prior knowledge of the people you are about to contact. The advice was to contact 100 companies per week and out of those numbers, by the end of the month, 10% of the companies contacted would most likely purchase. Advancing in my career, the advice was to make ten new phone calls per day. This was in addition to appointments, demonstrations for product and writing proposals. The days were crammed with activity. Each time I followed the advice and by the third month I became the top producing salesperson. Fast forward to entrepreneurship the world changed. The online sales cycle is reverse engineered. Due to the excellent content delivered, people find us having familiarity of how we think piquing their interest prior to our personal connection. Over time, our followings get to know us and once again a modest percentage will request our services. So the question becomes as we slowly head out of a recession, how do we further increase sales? Some things never change. It’s a requirement to pick up the phone, send a personal email or have a Skype conversation multiple times per day. Modifying the original advice, I suggest you make three personal connections every single day when you are most energetic. High energy serves to put forth a more enticing message. Adapt the sales motto, “People buy from people they know, like and trust” to my entrepreneurial motto, “Call people you know, like and trust!” Making a sale should always be about finding the best-qualified matches to include being in sync for how you conduct business and level of integrity. The calls create sales momentum. Successful salespeople are very goal oriented and pursue them every day no matter the setbacks they may encounter. They are motivated to accomplish all in a short period of time. Even on a day where everything goes wrong, motivate yourself to get into a positive mindset to make three phone calls every single day. The qualifiers are to call the people with whom you like, feel synergy and with whom you know will be a great collaborator. Connect to update one another, brainstorm and find new projects that you may create together. You may be surprised to hear an immediate need for your service. Even if there is nothing you can do together at the moment, you may hear they have an upcoming event themselves. Volunteer to help promote online. It takes little time to promote and when your time is ready they will reciprocate. Cross promotion attracts increased sales too. Referring back to the three traits at the top, the consistency of making three calls every day to those with whom you are already acquainted and like will bring about a flurry of possibilities. Your next job will be to prioritize the activities that will meet your goals and say yes to just a select few. Over delivering on expectations will further build your partnerships, clientele and of course dramatically increase sales. As you build upon excellence in follow-up and delivery, you create an impeccable personal brand. You are now on the wave of the Smooth Sale! Author: Elinor Stutz, CEO of Smooth Sale, LLC, (800) 704-1499, www.smoothsale.net. Open View Labs selected Stutz to be in their “Top 25 Sales Influencers for 2012.” Elinor authored the International Best-Selling book, “Nice Girls DO Get the Sale: Relationship Building That Gets Results”, Sourcebooks and the best selling career book, “HIRED! How to Use Sales Techniques to Sell Yourself On Interviews”, Career Press. She provides team sales training, private coaching and highly acclaimed inspirational keynotes for conferences. Elinor is available for consultation.

How to Use Social Media to Promote Your Podcast

How to Use Social Media to Promote Your Podcast How can you use social media to spread the reach of that podcast you put so much time into every week? To find the answers, I spoke to Delaney Simmons from WNYC, the largest talk radio station in the United States.  We talked about the futures of radio podcasting, and how theyre using social media to deliver their content. You can listen via  iTunes,  SoundCloud  or keep reading for a summary of our conversation.  Our tip of the week is to use Sponsored Geofilters on Snapchat when youre organising an event,  and this week’s big shout goes out to Carlos E. Valdivia, a  digital strategist at  Show of Force. Which Social Channels  are Most Important to WNYC and why? Theyre all my babies. So making me choose is kind of difficult. I would say theres a lot of clout in our podcast brands. So if you look at the Radiolab Facebook page, I think were over a quarter of a million fans now. That brand has been around for a long time. Weve been grandfathered into a really amazing community of listeners. The 2 Dope Queens accounts have taken out from scratch. And as we all know, I think everyone listening will know how hard it is to grow organic fan audiences nowadays with all of our platforms being pay to play. So weve been really pleasantly surprised at the success of those accounts. The WNYC Instagram is a really unique place. If people want to go check it out, we post pictures of weird things that we see around the city, like a mattress on the street that says, free hugs, or youre beautiful, or something like that. So theres just like quirky, weirdy New York moments that is captured there. It really speaks the tone of our audio. They see us rollin A photo posted by WNYC (@wnyc) on Jun 29, 2016 at 9:33am PDT Where are you Experiencing the Highest Levels of Engagement? I think were still seeing the highest levels of engagement on Facebook. When we talk about radio, we do talk about a little bit of an older audience. I mean, that lives on Facebook primarily. We are seeing great engagement on Twitter with our podcasts when there is a journalism component. I think we still see a lot of news junkies on Twitter in that real time moment when our content has hit that breaking news strife. But we talk about social media for audio in a really specific way. It is hard to get people there and to get people to engage with content that isnt visual, so most of our engagement is probably happening when we build engagement projects into our podcasts. So a good example would be a podcast called Note to Self, hosted by Manoush Zomorodi, leading a project once a year, and its usually a huge project. Our most recent project was called Infomagical, and it was actually a five-day challenge, asking fans of the podcast to listen to a new episode every single day and do something that edits their behavior. So when audio can actually come into your life and challenge you to be better in certain aspects or change your behavior to increase your productivity, thats where we see a lot of engagement. Because then, we see people flooding to all of our accounts across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or email newsletter, or our texting system letting us know how the podcast has actually influenced their life. And thats like a meaningful engagement for us, more than a like or more than a comment. Whats the Scoop with Audiograms? So what weve done is weve built a tool. Its currently only available for WNYC, but were looking to open-source it in the next month or so. Well definitely have to give you the info. But its a tool that producers can go in, upload a clip of audio, and turn that audio into a movie file. So the movie file can then be uploaded on video.twitter.com, on Facebook Native, on Instagram, if its less than 30 seconds, on Tumblr. So were actually visualising our audio content in a really interesting way. The way weve set it up is that its 30 seconds maximum. The show like Radiolab or Freakonomics would pick their brand and so then they would take the audio, pick their brand, the logo goes on it, and then theres an equaliser across the screen that is actually reading the highs and lows of the audio. And Im not an audio engineer but it does like peak minutes slide or it will make a blippy moment when its little bit more quiet. So if youre scrolling through your news feed, the hope is that you see a piece of content that looks like an audio player. Youre actually like, Oh, this looks like audio. I have to click to play to hear the sound. And were actually working on close cap on those videos because, as we all know, videos play, audio play with no sound. So were really looking to try to capture that in line, scrolling through your news feed sampling moment and finding audio thats super shareable. Youll have to listen to episode 1 next week for the whole story, but heres a @msjwilly sneak peek. #2DopeQueenshttps://t.co/EXKkoHy43s 2 Dope Queens Podcast (@2DopeQueens) March 31, 2016 Weve seen incredible results. I have been really, really happy with them. Weve seen upwards of 50% increase in engagement on Twitter. Weve seen them do organic reach on Facebook about on par with our regular videos. And I think that that success isif you can take a piece of video content that isnt really video and its doing just as well, I think that that speaks volumes. And weve also seen, I think its about 30% increases in completion rate on Twitter. So people are actually sticking around for the whole 30 seconds. And I think that 30 seconds is that magic number of like, Ive got 30 seconds to kill. Sure, Ill listen to this piece of audio. And hopefully, people want to go find the long form audio. Were really doing this to get people back to our long form content, where we monetise, and make sure that people are excited about what were doing. How can you Calculate the ROI on Social Media? It is a lot of estimation. I think in podcasting, were still on the wild wild west of analytics. Everyone is measuring a download or listen a little bit differently. But from social media, we do see number of clicks. We dont know if they clicked over and listened but number of clicks is a pretty good estimation of how many people got to that landing page where the long form audio does live. So we just shorten all of our links and we just track click-throughs that way. Video.twitter.com and also Facebook Native have the ability to do a custom call to action which is like a link overlay on top of your videos. So if youre hitting clay, theres a little button that goes up in the top right hand corner that says, Watch more, or, Learn more, and you can click over, and it either links to iTunes or to wnyc.org or to the WNYC app. How can new Podcasters Attract Listeners While Moving Beyond Just the Sound? I think it is still a pay-to-play situation. Social buying has become incredibly inexpensive especially on Facebook. We still see Twitter as being a little bit more expensive. But doing highly targeted posts on Facebook can be really effective to get people aware of what youre working on. We always start with a really great influencer strategy. Its the same as any industry, but if you can get some big people or some big brands excited about what youre doing, if you can work on booking the right people that have a large social following to post about your new episode, I think that thats still a best practice that we should all be following. I dont have a ton of Twitter followers but I will post about this episode when its live. And if I did have a ton of followers, that would be an awareness for my audience in that regard.

Live Streaming on Twitter Can Increase Visibility for Personal Brands - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Live Streaming on Twitter Can Increase Visibility for Personal Brands - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Videos and webinars are now a main driver for brands for leads, sales and visibility. People today are turning to networks to get the latest information quickly, and what better way to offer that than live streaming? Twitter has risen to the occasion with its release of Periscope after the explosive popularity of Meerkat, and there are several strategies you can use to take advantage of this growing trend. You can quickly connect with your community on Twitter with a live broadcast for your personal brand. This involves creativity, great planning, and execution. Here are 5 steps to help you get started: 1. Follow other brands in your niche. Not sure where to find the right people to reach out to on Periscope or Meerkat? Both platforms make it easy to search with hashtags, and names in addition to viewing other live streams. Connect with others in your Twitter network and ‘grow’ from there. 2. Research who others are following. Want to see what’s working for your competition? Follow by example of other successful broadcasts that generate the most views and comments, and then create your own unique spin. This can include an event, webinar, announcement, ect. depending on your target market. 3. Use the correct hashtags. Like any branded tweet you will benefit by using the right terms for your topic, and always include either #Meerkat or #Periscope, depending on which network you are using. 4. Send out a broadcast ahead of time Let your followers know on Twitter and other social networks when your live stream will taking place and where with a call to action that encourages your community to share. 5. Build and encourage engagement. Answer questions and make comments during a live broadcast on Twitter. This way your community is getting the full experience of interacting with your brand in real time. The world is watching your personal brand. Engaging on Twitter in live stream events not only shows a personal side of your brand, but also attracts more followers who will be more apt to become a customer.

How Good Is Your Executive Brand Elevator Pitch - Executive Career Brandâ„¢

How Good Is Your Executive Brand Elevator Pitch Have you ever been trapped in a one-on-one with someone youve just met, maybe at a networking event, who over-anxiously monopolizes the conversation, making you listen endlessly to their career achievements and goals? While youre trying to figure out how to extricate yourself from the agony, youre thinking, This guy needs to work on his elevator pitch. I dont care what hes selling. I dont want to get stuck talking to him again. When I worked on branding for myself several years ago, I came up with my tagline, Your unique value proposition . . . differentiated, strategically positioned, helping you land your next great gig. Im still very happy with that statement . . . on paper and web page  . . . but it doesnt make for a smooth verbal introduction of who I am and what I have to offer. So I worked on my verbal pitch. I recently introduced myself to someone with a statement similar to this: Im an Executive Branding and Job Search Strategist. I  partner with top level executives to define what differentiates them from their competition and strategically position them to land their next great gig. The person I was speaking to said, Just what do you do for your clients? At first I thought I hadnt done a good enough job describing myself. Then I realized, his reaction was just what should have happened. He wanted to know more. He was giving me the opportunity to give him details. Excellent! Heres an elevator pitch for an  actual client of mine Tim  . . .  for networking, job interviewing and even  social events or when introducing  himself to people in line at the supermarket: Im a turnaround management expert in the Federal sector. I take on challenges no one in their right mind would touch and transform losers into profitable organizations. People  always say, If its broke, give it to Tim.' Things to keep in mind when crafting your pitch: Of course, you cant work on your message without first working on your executive brand. The exercises in my 10-step branding worksheet will help. Just like your executive brand, its all about them . . . not you. Build your message around your potential value to your target employers. Differentiate yourself through your pitch. If youre a CIO in high-tech, your message should be unique to you. It shouldnt fit any other CIO in high-tech. Identify what youre most known for and most relied on for. What are you the go to person for? Keep it short and conversational for easy flow  â€" about 10 seconds, at most. These days, everyone is in such a hurry and we all seem to have shorter attention spans. Your message should pique peoples interest and compel them to want to know more about you. Give it a punch! Practice saying it in front of friends and family. Get their feedback. Practice it by yourself so that saying it becomes second nature and doesnt sound forced. Related posts: Get Personal With Your Executive Brand Statement Brand New Year. New Personal Brand? Bullet-Proof Your Executive Career in the New World of Work photo by Steve Snodgrass 00 0

Dust Off Your Resume - Jane Jackson Career

Dust Off Your Resume - Jane Jackson Career If you are exploring the job market, you will need marketing material to let your potential employers know what you have to offer.   There are many ways to promote yourself during the job search process working with recruiters, making applications for advertised roles, target marketing and networking.For all of these methods, you will require a resume in some form or another.   You may need a soft copy of your resume for emailed applications, a copy to attach to an internet application through a job search portal, a hard copy to produce when chatting over a coffee during a networking meeting, or the content of your resume readily available to include in your LinkedIn profile so your online presence is working for you.Is yours up to date?   Does it contain what is required to capture the attention of your desired audience?   Is it easy to read, concise and impactful?   Is it just a list of responsibilities or have you included relevant accomplishments to demonstrate the tangible valu e you have added to your position?   Have you included information that might create a negative bias in the reader’s mind (information such as your birth date, marital status, religion or health)?   You might be amazed to know that I still see original resumes from clients that include information that does nothing to highlight their suitability for a specific role but may even hinder their chances of being selected for a screening interview.Here are a few suggestions to point you in the right direction:Choose a fuss-free layout, ensure you name and contact details (mobile phone and email address are requirements) are at the top, include a career summary or professional profile that highlights your relevant experience, core competencies and technical skills.   This should capture the attention of the reader instantly and place you in the ‘yes’ or ‘maybe’ rather than the ‘no’ pile for your target role.What else do you need in the resume?   Professional experience, compa ny names, job titles, dates that you held each role, scope of your roles and the all important bullet points with your accomplishments documented as impactful as possible.  Academic qualifications, professional development courses, professional memberships and affiliations all have their own section in the resume too.   In an initial application references can be ‘available upon request.’How long should the resume be?   Please keep it to 2-3 pages if possible.   No-one wants to read a long rambling dissertation on your entire work/life history.   Make sure it’s easy to read â€" there is no point in squeezing a lengthy tome on to two pages in 8 point font with very narrow margins!   No-one will want to read it â€" especially those people, like me, who have to get out their reading glasses for anything smaller than 10 point font.   10-12 point font is user friendly.   Ensure decent margin widths and enough white space, which will make the resume more attractive to read.    Reme mber that screeners look for good reasons NOT to read a resume, especially if there are hundreds of applicants.Of course you will have to tailor your resume to suit each and every application you make, highlighting what is most relevant to the potential employer.Proof read, proof read, proof read!!!   Get someone else to proof read it too â€" sometimes you can work so hard on your resume that you don’t even notice the little mistakes anymore.The resume is important, as a foot in the door on your way to your dream job â€" and so is your effective online presence after that you need to project your professional image, brush up on your interview technique and negotiation skills.   More on that in future posts.If you need professional assistance to produce your resume, give me a call. I’d be delighted to coach you through the process to ensure your resume is as strong as it can be to help land you that all-important interview for a role that you are qualified to secure.Would you be nefit from being coached?   Check out my LinkedIn profile and see what others have gained from coaching: No matter where you are we can work together through Skype or telephone coaching.       Email me jane@janejacksoncoach.com or visit www.janejacksoncoach.com

What Are the Rules For Writing a Professional Resume?

What Are the Rules For Writing a Professional Resume?I'm sure you've heard about the 10 rules for writing a resume, but not everyone knows what they are. And there are many common misconceptions about the tips that have been shared. Let's take a look at some of the most common ones.First of all, the rules of the game are pretty much the same for any kind of resume, regardless of skill requirements. The resume that you write will be the centerpiece of your entire application package, and people are going to see it a lot. So make sure that it is as professional as possible. A well-written resume can set the tone for the rest of your application package.Second, it's true that the better your resume is, the better your chances are of getting the job. And while it's true that it doesn't necessarily have to be perfect, or even the best one in the class, it certainly helps. Don't skimp on your resume.Third, don't underestimate the power of professionalism in your efforts to create a profess ional resume. When you're working on it, make sure that you don't get overly obsessed with the details. Instead, focus on the big picture: who you are, what you know, and what you can do.Fourth, it's a good idea to put yourself on paper at least three times before you turn it in. That way, you can check the formatting on it a few times before you commit to the final draft. The draft you turn in will also give you the opportunity to examine your potential employer's reaction.Fifth, when you get to the end of the letter, make sure that you look back and see if there's anything that could have been improved. Ifyou think that it needs to be shortened, cut it up, or clarified, do it right now. While you're waiting, you'll be doing a lot of other things. So make sure that you improve the quality of your resume as quickly as possible.Sixth, another common misconception is that it's okay to leave out parts of your education. It's important to remember that employers are looking for more tha n just a bachelor's degree. They want proof of your work experience, including some kind of proof of that type of experience. If you do leave out some years of experience, don't expect that your employer will realize this immediately.Finally, one more common mistakes that lots of people make is to use the word 'successful' too often. They want their candidate to sound smart, but instead, they come across as self-absorbed and unempathetic. Be honest in your application and always include the value that you bring to the table.