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Archive for April, 2010

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How to Use Contest As An Effective Inbound Marketing Tool

April 30th, 2010 ::

I love participating in contests.  The idea of getting something great for free has a magnetic pull on me, as it does for many people.   You can sponsor a big contest (Win a Trip to NYC and a $1,000 Shopping Spree!) or a small one (Win a 30 Minute Massage!)—it doesn’t really matter.  As long as you are giving away something people want, a contest is a great way to drive leads and boost your inbound marketing program.

To get the message out as widely as possible, cross-promote your contest on your website, in your e-signature, on the social media platforms you’re using, and in your newsletter and/or blog.  People have short memories, so be sure to mention the contest fairly often.  And remember that the whole reason you are giving something away is to attract new customers.  You’ll want to capture their name, company name (if applicable), address, phone number, and/or email address so you can add them to your database.

I have shoes on my mind as I write this, so let’s say I own a children’s shoe store that specializes in high-quality European and American-made shoes.  I am going to give away a different pair of shoes every month.  Here’s what I’d do:

Set up microsite. I’d add a microsite to my website and use it as the contest page.

Follow me. From my microsite, I’d ask people to follow me on Twitter and Facebook, even though those badges are already on my website.

Subscribe to newsletter or blog. Right under the form that people fill out to enter the contest, I’d ask people if they’d like to receive my e-newsletter and/or blog.

Spread message to friends on FB or Twitter. Once people have submitted the contest form, a new page would open up and I’d ask them if they’d like to tell their friends on Facebook and Twitter about the contest.  I’d provide links to both social media platforms that includes the link back to the contest microsite.

Link contest page to website. When people are done telling their friends about the contest, I’d add a “Finish” button to the page.  When they click on it, they’d be automatically redirected to the home page of my website.

Publicize results of contest. Without revealing too much information about the winner (first name, city, and state at most), I’d publicize the results of the contest everywhere and include a quote from the winner.  Great way to build community!

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Posted in Branding, Marketing, social media | No Comments »

Ever Wanted to Go to a Tech Conference in Hawaii? The Search and Social Media Woot! Conference

April 30th, 2010 ::

The following is a guest post by Jenn Mathews – Managing Partner, Wappow!

I’m excited to share with you our big plans for the Search and Social Media Woot!—an event like no other. The Search and Social Woot! is open to anyone interested in joining in on the fast-moving, ever-changing discussion about natural search (SEO), paid search (SEM), and social media marketing. Thanks so much, Shashi Bellamkonda, for giving me this opportunity to share news about this all-together different kind of event experience with your clients and readers. To express our gratitude we would like to offer Network Solutions customers and readers a special 20% off registration.  Just use “netsol20” when registering before September 26, 2010.

The Woot! Difference

At Woot!, we listen to our attendees. Based on feedback from other conferences and our own personal experiences we don’t just present slides or talk at the audience. Woot! panel discussions are interactive with a heavy focus on back-and-forth idea exchange and lively debate with longer Q&A sessions. We tackle the real issues and how they’re affecting businesses today—things like understanding your demographic and how to target them, effective linking strategy for SEO through social networking sites, analyzing results and optimizing your ads for better performance, real-world social media techniques, and more.

Beginners will walk away with expert knowledge. And advanced users will return home with an even greater wealth of information about how to tackle today’s challenges—and prepare for tomorrow’s.

The When, Who, and What of Woot!

Our next Woot! is happening this coming September 27th-30th, 2010 at the Kaua’I Marriott Resort in Hawaii. We’ve already got some big names and leading industry experts lined up (with speakers from companies like Yahoo!, Microsoft/Bing advertising, MySpace, Real Networks, Logitech, and more), who are ready to share and speak with you about what you’re doing (or could be doing) with your search marketing and social media campaigns.

Woot! Connecting and Networking

At Woot!, we work hard… and we play hard. So when that closing bell sounds at the end of the Woot! day, be ready to get down, relax, have fun, and continue the conversation at networking events and out-of-the-ordinary activities designed to build relationships and strong connections. There’ll be fun ice-breakers that open the door for effective networking with fellow marketers, industry experts, and the speakers themselves.

Fun and Games with Woot!

Got a good golf game? Challenge Woot! speakers and fellow attendees at our official Woot! golf tournament. Like a good luau, dinner, or cocktail hour? Join us each night for a relaxing cocktails and appetizers followed by a friendly dining experience. Dig the beach-side action like volleyball, paddle boarding, kayaking, and more? Well, get on board!

Because at Woot!, there’s never a dull moment. Come with questions and a thirst for knowledge in search marketing and social media—and return home with big ideas as well as the power of new connections and friends.

Register for Woot! Today

Pre-registration is open now! Sign up before July 11, 2010 and get a full-access conference pass for just $1,879—that gets you access to all things Woot!  including presentations, panels, dining, networking activities, and more. Want to bring a friend? Add on a companion pass and that special someone can enjoy inner tubing, kayaking, the luau, cocktails, and more—right by your side. (Pssst. We’ve also got networking passes that allow you to bring along officemates and colleagues—so they can join the conversation and connect with industry experts, attendees, and speakers too.)

Check out the full details about registration now at wappow.com/Register

Learn more about Search and Social Woot! including agenda, activities, speakers, sponsors and more at wappow.com/searchandsocial

About our Guest Post Author:

Jenn Mathews (SEOGoddess) while most known for her work in Search Engine Optimization is the managing partner of Wappow! a company focused on staying ahead of cutting edge technologies and the digital world we live in. Jenn has previously worked for companies such as Classmates.com and Concur Technologies managing SEO as well as all of the online marketing both in director level and VP level positions.

After speaking at several conferences and other search marketing related events Jenn found a passion for the Search Insider Summit in 2007 and is now putting together the Search and Social Woot! and Emerging Media Woot! both in Hawaii this Fall 2010.
Jenn Mathews (SEOGoddess) while most known for her work in Search Engine Optimization is the managing partner of Wappow! a company focused on staying ahead of cutting edge technologies and the digital world we live in. Jenn has previously worked for companies such as Classmates.com and Concur Technologies managing SEO as well as all of the online marketing both in director level and VP level positions.
After speaking at several conferences and other search marketing related events Jenn found a passion for the Search Insider Summit in 2007 and is now putting together the Search and Social Woot! and Emerging Media Woot! both in Hawaii this Fall 2010.

Posted in small business | No Comments »

How to Kill Your Business, Or Lead Generation Gone Awry

April 29th, 2010 ::

During this past month, we, the Network Solutions bloggers, have been relentlessly driving home the fact that inbound marketing is vital to any business.  The whole point of inbound marketing is to continuously drive leads so that your sales funnel, and by extension, your back account, is always full.

So, I have to ask: Once you get those leads, what are you doing with them?  This is where you say, “I’m talking to them via email, Facebook, and Twitter and answering their questions. I’m also gently feeding them our value proposition while finding out what their needs are.  As a result, I’m converting them to new business.”

But if you’re not saying that, what’s going on?  It can be easy to focus so intently on the needs of your current clients that you forget about cultivating potential clients.  If you want to kill your business, here’s what to do:

  1. Ignore comments and messages on social media. You already make time every day to reply to email, so set aside additional time to answer direct messages on Facebook and Twitter and reply to comments left on your blog.
  2. Only market your business sporadically. To keep a steady flow of potential customers coming in the door, so to speak, you have to be consistent in your marketing efforts.  That means setting up an online ad program, making sales calls and going to networking events even when you’re really busy, and so on.
  3. Send out newsletters and blog posts randomly. As stated above, you have to be consistent.  Publish your newsletter and blog at regular intervals.  Your newsletter should go out at the same time every month and your blog posts should be published on the same day(s) every week.
  4. Don’t bother with a mission statement. You need to know what problem(s) you solve for your clients, so potential clients will instantly understand why they need your product or service.  You also need to have a concise elevator speech so you can quickly answer the oft-asked question, “What is it your company does?”
  5. Confuse people once they’re on your website. Is your company’s mission statement front and center on your home page?  Is your website easy to navigate?  Do you make it easy for people to reach you by phone and email?  Are the benefits of your product(s) and/or service(s) clearly stated?   If people have to search for any of this information, kiss them goodbye.  They’re busy, and they’re not going to bother.
  6. Keep messaging inconsistent. Use the same language, industry terms, tone of voice, and style in all of your messaging, including on your website and in your marketing materials, newsletter, and blog.
  7. Un-brand yourself. Not only does your messaging need to be consistent, so does your look.  If your company looks sloppy and disorganized, potential clients might think your work is, too.  Find a graphic designer you like, and use them for everything: logo, stationery, business cards, website, brochures, etc.

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Posted in Branding, Marketing, social media, Web Design | No Comments »

Should You Go to Grad School?

April 29th, 2010 ::

by Patrick Madsen

Image: Andrew Magill's Flickrstream, Creative Commons

I had the opportunity to read through an article posted on Yahoo! Finance’s page the other day titled “Valuing Another Degree”. Interesting article and something that is probably at the forefront of a person’s mind as they consider furthering their education or sticking it out in the workforce. I have to say, this is something that has been discussed by students all through my 10 + years of experience in the career counseling profession. This is not a new concern nor something that the recent economic downturn has caused to surface.

Here are my thoughts on the decision of furthering your education or staying in the workforce:

  • Are you satisfied with your current career path? Most students would say “no” and that the previous education they went for did not pan out like they thought. A graduate degree provides a person with a more specified set of skills, experience, and knowledge that not everyone in the marketplace may have. It is an opportunity to say, “Hey, employer, this is what makes me better than that person over there” or “this is the value that I offer your company to affect your bottom line”.
  • Did you learn the skills that you need to effectively operate in the workforce? Many employers would say you didn’t. Often times, an undergraduate degree is meant to provide you with an overall education, i.e., you get a little history, social sciences, math, composition, and other transferrable knowledge, but with a few exceptions, you likely didn’t get the specific training needed for a specific industry. Take, for example, a Liberal Arts degrees. I fully believe that students are gaining great experience in research, analysis, and thoughtful discourse, but many times they are not shown how these skills can be marketed to the workforce. So these bright and talented young professionals are stuck having to figure out how to target themselves and prove that they have the skills, experience, and knowledge for many industries. Thus… enter a graduate degree.
  • Don’t assume that a graduate degree alone will give you a higher salary. The concept of a graduate degree, by itself, was never meant to automatically give you a higher salary. Instead, it was meant to provide you an update in knowledge and practice to help you prove you deserve a higher salary. This is a misconception about graduate programs (and MBA programs especially). A vast majority of students entering these programs believe and expect that once they finish someone will just give them a job and a $100,000 salary right after they grab their diploma. FALSE. The graduate degree is something that helps you show your passion and motivation for a particular area. It helps “open the door” so that you can show the employer all the great experience and practice you have had and how you could apply it to their organization. When it comes down to it, an employer will most likely look to see if candidates have the degree, but then quickly go into their experience and skills to see if they can “do the job”. After that, the interview will help them see if you are actually a “motivated and professional person” that can fit in with their organization.
  • What does history say? I do not have statistics on this, but I bet they are out there! When you look at the history of jobs and their requirements you start to see an interesting trend. At one point, a high school diploma was the main driver for entrance into the workforce; many jobs asking for a minimum of such educational completion. Over time, you start to notice that the minimum has grown to a bachelor’s degree being the requirement for most jobs out there. I am beginning to see that a master’s degree will become the new minimum requirement for a majority of jobs. This is just something to think about. See if you can find a similar trend for the industry and job function you are looking to enter.

What do I say to students who have been debating this same question over the past 10 years? Simple. What do you see yourself doing with your life? How do you imagine being a part of society?

I want them to see that life is more than just a “job” that they do to earn money, but something that allows them to show the world “this is who I am”. A career is an opportunity to express your values and add substance to the world around you. Do you need a degree to do this? Not necessarily, but often times it helps you get through that door that society puts up to make sure you are motivated, professional, and proven.

Patrick Madsen, Director of Programs & Education in Career Services at the Johns Hopkins University Carey Business SchoolPatrick Madsen is the Director of Programs & Education in Career Services at the Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School. He manages the Programs & Education curriculum to include career advising services, speaker series, brand management training, and other events to help students prepare themselves for the world of work. His background includes a degree in Psychology from North Carolina State University, a masters degree in Counseling from East Carolina University, and a doctorate in Organizational Leadership/Student Affairs from Nova Southeastern University.

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Posted in Advanced Degrees, Patrick Madsen, WhatsNextGenY | No Comments »

8 Signs You’re Spending TOO Much Time on Social Media… even if Social Media IS Part of Your Day Job

April 28th, 2010 ::

by Robin Ferrier

Image: M i x y / Mixy Lorenzo. Flickr Creative Commons.

No one would question that in the current job market, it’s important to understand social media — what it is, how it works, how to use it for business purposes, etc. But recently, Jibber Jobber founder Jason Alba posted the following query to his Jibber Jobber blog:

When is social networking… LinkedIn, Twitter or whatever, TOO much? In other words, how do you manage your time and efforts and have the right balance between what you do online and what you do offline?

In honor of his question, I present my list of 8 Signs You’re Spending TOO Much Time on Social Media… even if Social Media Is Part of Your Day Job

  1. You only know your “friends” by their Twitter IDs. Many of us have twitter IDs that aren’t our name – people like @thejobsguy and @dontgetcaught. I can say I know @dontgetcaught personally and I know her real name. (Hello, Denise Graveline!) But @thejobsguy is someone I follow and occasionally converse with on Twitter. If you don’t know someone’s real name, he or she is a social media colleague/friend, but not a “friend.”
  2. Your boss joins Twitter to communicate with you because you’re more likely to respond to a message on Twitter than you are a phone call or voicemail.
  3. When you’re asked about your last social outing, you discuss a tweet up. (Hint: If you’re sitting at a desk or on a phone and there’s no one else in the room, it’s not a social outing… even if you are conversing with other people.)
  4. When you get engaged, you don’t even think about what your invitations will look like because you plan on inviting all of your friends via a Facebook event invite. (At least, I hope this idea is still considered crazy, even to those members of the “digital native” generation… some traditions should remain traditions!)
  5. When you meet someone new – in real life – you refer to it as “friending” them. (For those of us who grew up before Facebook, we made new friends on the playground, we didn’t “friend” them there.)
  6. You start to speak and think in 140 characters or less. All the time. (Don’t get me wrong… less is often more. But there is a thing as being too brief.)
  7. Your definition of networking is attending TweetUps, conversing in LinkedIn groups, and meeting new people via other social media channels. (Sorry, guys, but face-to-face networking is still key in business.)
  8. You’re engaging in ANY social media activities while at the gym. Ignoring other reasons, let’s just focus on the fact that when you’re using weights or machinery, you should focus on the task at hand. (I wonder if there are any statistics on gym injuries due to cell phone social media use…)

But seriously now…

I think, like everything else in life (including bad-for-you foods and alcohol), it’s all a matter of moderation and balance.

You can’t live so far in the world of social media that you’re ignoring other aspects of your job. But at the same time, you have to be far enough in it that you understand how to use it and, more important, use it effectively.

I try to intersperse my social media activities between my other responsibilities. I know I’m spending too much time in that world if other items on my to-do list aren’t being crossed off. Rudimentary way to measure, maybe. But it works for me. You just need to find what works for you.

But if you start showing any of my 8 signs above, it may be time to admit you’re a social media addict and do something about it!

Robin Ferrier is the editor of What’s Next, Gen Y? and Communications Manager for the Johns Hopkins University Montgomery County Campus. She is also the President of the Capital Communicators Group and the co-chair of the Marketing Committee for the Tech Council of Maryland. She has inadvertently become a frequent career / professional / job hunt resource for friends and colleagues due to a career path that has included five jobs in 12 years.

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Posted in Robin Ferrier, social media, WhatsNextGenY | No Comments »

Twitter Marketing for Your New Business

April 26th, 2010 ::

If you are doing any kind of online marketing these days and social media is in the conversation, you have probably heard of Twitter. However, knowing about it is very different than knowing how to use it. The basic premise is to say what you are up to in 140 characters. Yeah, that is very short and it requires some lessons in brevity and getting to the point.

Twitter has been around for a few years and has evolved into a whole new layer of communications. People use to talk about their lives, put out their content (like this blog post) and do cursory business communications. I see Twitter as a layer between e-mail and instant messaging. Email is a dialog that has almost unlimited space and is good for longer communications. Instant messaging is shorter and is usually best for short conversations when you don’t need to use e-mail or interrupt with a phone call. Twitter is somewhere in between and its biggest fundamental differences is that you can have a public conversation. You can bring people into the dialog, others that are “following” you and see your message or “tweet” can join in as well. There is the ability to have private conversations or send direct messages, but two people must follow each other for that to happen. This reduces and almost eliminates spam (auto-dm people take note) which is why people really like the service.

Small Businesses Are Using Twitter, So How Do I Get Started?

1.) Create a Username

When starting to use Twitter, the first thing you’ll have to do is create a username. You should probably use your company name for your business. You can create an account for yourself but that should be your personal account. You could use your Twitter personal account to tweet about your business, but you should have something dedicated and separate.

2.) Add a Profile Picture

You will also need to add a profile photo to your account. Samir Balwani has a great approach to this, “Once you’ve set your username, the next thing you should do is decide on a profile image. If you’re the business owner and are tweeting yourself, it may be best to use your own picture. However, if an employee is tweet as the business, it may be best to use the business logo.”

3.) Customize Your Account Profile

The most basic thing you can do is customize your account profile. The first thing you should do is create a custom background. There are places like Twitterbacks that can help you or you can simply display your logo. You can see the Network Solutions twitter account as an example of a customized background that helps make your profile stand out. Samir Balwani has some good advice – “On Twitter, it’s important to customize your account as much as possible. Creating a relevant, branded username, image, and background increases how much other users trust you. The more effort you put into creating a strong account, the less likely you are to look like a scammer or fake.”

Now You Are Up and Running, So How Do You Utilize Twitter?

Use a Twitter Application or maybe a few applications

Sure, you can use Twitter.com and watch your stream, but it is not very good at really getting the most out of Twitter. You should look at software like Tweetdeck, Seesmic or Hootsuite to bring in your twitter streams and build lists and search windows. There are a ton of applications out there and I would recommend going to a site like OneForty.com to find applications that suit your needs.

Using Twitter Search

Search is one of the more interesting aspects of Twitter. If you go to the Twitter home page you will have the search engine as the primary visual cue. You will also see topics trending below it. This shows in real time what things are relevant and what people are talking about. It is fascinating to watch especially during events like the Olympics or to see what trends are shaping the conversation.

Get People to Follow You

Build Loyalty First and People Will Follow You

Now that you have everything set up, you need to ask and honestly answer the question “Why do people want to follow you?” Now, don’t expect to have thousands of followers immediately. You must focus on building true customer loyalty. The initial goal is to get a core group of fans interested in telling their friends about your business. There are a few approaches you can use in your small business to build your following:

Customer Service – This works really well for companies like Comcast and Network Solutions that provide their customers with another channel to communicate.

Tips and Advice – If you are a small business that needs to establish your expertise in a certain area, providing tips and advice are perfect. You can also automate your blog feed to Twitter. A word of caution – don’t be a bot – I was guilty of this for a long time and lost a lot of followers on my personal account. Advice is great, but be a human a use the channel to talk to the other humans.

Be Human and Have Some Personality – I just mentioned the problem with the “info link bot” accounts. The only way Twitter works is for humans to talk to other humans and have a personality. Even you are a big corporation, you have some one managing the Twitter account. People want to connect with that person even if there is a corporate logo as the profile picture. There are numerous examples of companies that fail because they don’t put a human face or personality on their social media communications.

What Are You Waiting For? Get Started.

I hope this covers the basics and now that you have the basics down, get started. If you want some people to follow, you can find me on Twitter at @stevenfisher. Network Solutions @netsolcares is another great one to follow. See you online.

Photos: Twitter.com

Posted in Uncategorized, UnintentionalEntrepreneur | 1 Comment »

Social Media in Action Part One: How a Farm Cultivated Dedicated Fans via Facebook

April 26th, 2010 ::

If you live in northern Virginia and have kids, you have either heard of or been to Great Country Farms (GCF).  It is a Great Country Farms Logo200 acre working farm owned by the Zurschmeide family nestled at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains in small, historic, rural, and beautiful Bluemont, VA.  GCF is just part of the thriving tourism industry in Loudoun County, VA that is heavily promoted in and around the metro Washington, DC area and the Mid-Atlantic region.  The undeveloped and scenic western part of the county is bursting with charming bed and breakfasts, numerous award-winning wineries, quaint, Revolutionary War-era towns and villages, and gracious, historic manor homes.

The Zurschmeides have done a great deal of work to promote their farm.  Without even looking at their website, I can tell you that GCF offers us city-folk a chance to experience farming in a fun, innovative way.  I can join their CSA (community supported agriculture) and receive farm shares from May through October, hold a wedding, corporate retreat, or birthday party at their facilities, or visit their farm and pick produce, let my kids climb and play on old tractor and farming equipment, go on a hayride, buy their produce and other delectable homemade goods at their farm market/store, pet and feed animals and sample wine at Bluemont Vineyard, which is directly across the street from GCF (and which the Zurschmeides co-own, too).

Now, farms aren’t normally associated with social media, but GCF have embraced it.  Because the Zurschmeides are so busy running a farm and managing special events, they were smart enough to quickly realize that they couldn’t keep up with social media and PR, too.  Last summer they hired someone to do it for them.  Christine Geno, President of Geno Communications (website under construction) and a Loudoun County-based PR, social media, and event planning expert in the hospitality and travel and tourism industry, stepped in and delivered incredible inbound marketing results with Facebook.

When Chris took over GCF’s Facebook page last summer, they had around 350 fans.  In 8 ½ months, their fanbaseKids feeding goat at Great Country Farm grew by 580%.  When you realize that GCF is basically closed for 4 ½ months (from mid-November to the end of March), those stats are even more impressive.  Chris told me that a couple of weeks ago, they gained 139 fans in one week.  Here’s what Chris does to cultivate such rapid Facebook fan growth:

  • Cross-promote GCF. Chris posts whatever she posts on GCF’s Facebook page to her page (she is very well connected), community and mom pages (of which they are apparently a lot), and a few really popular local pages, like the Northern Virginia Real Estate Times (who knew?).
  • Encourage dialogue. People are eager to share, and Chris encourages it.  She asks people what their favorite feature of the farm is or if they have photos of a recent visit to share.  And they do!  They post photos, videos, questions, comments, and what they did while at GCF.
  • Build a community. When people ask questions, other fans are eager to jump in and answer.  Chris will also do quite a bit of behind-the-scenes research to answer questions, too.  As a result, GCF is becoming an important player in the sustainable, organic, and all-natural food movement.
  • Link to other social media networks. Chris has GCF’s Facebook page linked to GCF’s Twitter account, and she has her personal LinkedIn and Twitter account linked to her personal Facebook profile, so GCF posts get automatically reposted to 2 other networks, too, increasing each post’s reach.  (Chris uses HootSuite to manage all of these accounts.) Other FB users and Twitter followers then repost or retweet, which broadens the outreach even more. The FB posts also help with GCF’s ranking on Google.
  • Links to media: Chris’s Facebook posts are followed by a wide range of local, regional, national, and international print and online travel and news media, thus enabling her to reach them with news of events and updates from GCF.
  • Promote Facebook constantly. “Become a fan” is prominently featured on all press releases Chris sends out, and the FB and Twitter buttons are right on the GCF website’s home page.

GCF’s numerous promotional efforts don’t begin and end with Facebook, though.  In my next post, I’ll share their other highly successful marketing efforts.

All photos courtesy of Great Country Farms.

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Posted in Branding, Marketing, social media | No Comments »

How Are Dating and Interviewing the Same? Part 2

April 26th, 2010 ::

by Allison Kapner

What's in Your Bag? Know the Company. Know Yourself. http://www.flickr.com/photos/joi/ / CC BY 2.0

How are dating and interviewing the same? Let’s examine Step 3: Prepping for the interview or date, otherwise known as: Doing Your Research!

Research, research, research!!
I cannot stress this enough: Before any interview, do your homework. (I’m sure you’ve heard this before, but it still bears repeating. You can’t imagine how many people ignore this advice.)

Know the company inside and out. Look at their press releases. Read their annual reports. Find out who works there. (You can use a little thing called social media/social networking to do this.)

Why is this so important? There are hundreds of applicants for every job, and you have to prove that you did your homework on the company and the position if you want to make it to round two.

Be able to answer the question: Why do you want to work at XYZ Company? If you give a generic answer to this question, you’re done. Focusing on the culture shows that you understand the type of people that work there and that you believe you would be a good fit. As someone who interviews candidates for our team, if someone doesn’t tell me something unique about Carey Business School, and instead says “I want to work here because it’s Johns Hopkins,” they are automatically disqualified in my eyes.

Using LinkedIn and Google can also help you lean about the people with whom you are interviewing. For all you know, you can might share an alma mater with the hiring manager… but you’ll never know that unless you look.

So how does research play into dating?
Well, let’s be honest. In dating, research can be a bit stickier. But if you’re anxious to get a head’s up on the person before you go on a date there is always Google, Facebook and LinkedIn. You’d be lying if you said you never Google-stalked someone before going out or hanging out with them. Here’s a hint for you: Make sure to clear your internet browser history when you’re done, because if things go well, this new special someone may be on your computer before you know it and see you’ve been doing your “research.” (Trust me I learned this the hard way!)

Know yourself
In an earlier post knowing your brand and who you are is stressed. This is 100% true!

Before going on an interview, understand who you are as a person, what you want, what your strengths and weaknesses are and what value proposition you provide to a company. For example, are you someone that will bring energy and enthusiasm to a job? If so, how do you articulate that? It’s not enough to just say you bring energy and enthusiasm. You have to show how. With concrete examples, preferably.

Likewise for dating, know what your goals and objectives are and the type of person with which you could see yourself. (I’m not advising to pick out the person down to their eye color but know what your “must haves” and “can’t stands” are.) Why is this so important? Everyone is in their own unique place in life. Knowing what you are looking for will be a great compass in pointing you in the direction of someone who is looking for the same things, meaning (hopefully) less disappointment.

If you’re unclear of what I mean by this, I’ll give you a personal example. When I was living in NYC and accepted the job offer to come to JHU, I wasn’t going to be leaving New York for a few months. I didn’t actively seek out dates during this time. I had dated someone long distance for a year and didn’t want to get back into that situation again. However, if I met someone cool, I also wasn’t about to turn down dinner! Instead, I would enjoy the time with the person while knowing in my head – and heart – that I wasn’t about to jump into a relationship. On the flip side, now that I’m here and settled, my expectations have shifted and a relationship is the goal.

Bottom line, research yourself and the players and you’ll be successful!

Allison Kapner headshotAllison Kapner is a Relationship Manager in Career Services at the Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School where she is responsible for building partnerships with employers to ultimately create job and internship opportunities for students and alumni. She also advises and coaches students on job search techniques and brings a unique corporate expertise to assist candidates, as her past experience was as an Executive Recruiter in financial services in New York City.

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Posted in Allison Kapner, Dating, Interviewing, Personal Brand, WhatsNextGenY | 1 Comment »

5 Tools to Make Managing Inbound Marketing Easier

April 22nd, 2010 ::

For most business owners, the problem with inbound marketing isn’t that we don’t want to do it. Instead, it’s an issue that there are only so many hours in the day. Without the right tools, it seems impossible to get the job done. There are tools out there, though, that can help make managing your inbound marketing efforts.

  1. Website Grader: Not sure how your website ranks in terms of social media? This tool from Hubspot will tell you how you’re doing on optimization, content and other criteria. The analysis it offers provides you with actionable information that you can use to decide how to improve upon your website. Hubspot also offers Blog Grader and Twitter Grader, as well as numerous resources on how you can create an in-depth inbound marketing plan.
  2. Cotweet: Twitter can be difficult to manage if you’re trying to use it to connect with potential customers. However, Cotweet offers a set of tools you can use to interact with Twitter, such as posting tweets in advance, managing multiple accounts and maintaining standing searches for certain keywords. There are a variety of similar tools out there, including HootSuite.
  3. WordPress: A blog is considered a necessity by many inbound marketing experts and there are plenty of reasons to use WordPress to set up a blog. There are a variety of plugins that make it much easier to implement your strategies, such as the All in One SEO Pack, which allows you to optimize your posts for search engines as you write them.
  4. Facebook Ads: Even if you aren’t ready to start advertising on Facebook, it’s worthwhile to try out the advertising tool on the site. That’s because you can take a very close look at your target demographics. You can see numbers on how many male 20-to-24-year-olds that live in your area list paintball in their interests, along with other, equally specific groups. Not everyone is on Facebook, of course, but taking a look at how the 400 hundred million users of the site break down can offer some insight that you can use locally.
  5. Google Alerts: Getting an immediate email whenever someone mentions your company’s name online can come in handy. Google Alerts can provide you with that capability, but you can also use it for a variety of other automatic research. Setting up alerts on your competition can give you up to date information on what they’re up to. You can also set up alerts that will bring you industry news, which you can immediately turn around and use in your own marketing efforts. There are also a variety of tools that can give you alerts if your name is mentioned within a specific social networking site. Cotweet, for instance, can provide you with that information for Twitter.

These tools are just a starting point. Depending on the specifics of your marketing strategy, there are thousands of other tools out there that can help you make sure that prospective customers can find you online.

Image by Flickr user Fran Pregernik

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Posted in social media | 3 Comments »

Outsmarting your competition is easier than you think (but it does require some effort)

April 22nd, 2010 ::

By Jennifer Nycz-Conner

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pshan427/ / CC BY 2.0

I’ve been out of college for … well, let’s just say longer than I’d like to admit. Plenty has changed since then. Today’s twenty-somethings don’t have to battle the eternal questions surrounding the job application process: how many pages a resume should be, sending it flat versus folded in a regular envelope, to use a staple or paper clip.

But there are still plenty, less tangible, attributes that remain constant. A big one? How to make yourself stand out from the masses. In a good way.

With many years as someone who’s both been hired and done the hiring, I’ll let you in on a secret: It’s not really that hard to do. It will require some effort, however.

Steve Buttry has a fantastic example of this on his blog. As the Director of Community Engagement for Allbritton Communications’ new Washington, D.C. yet-to-be-named Web site, Buttry is on what in this economy could be referred to as a hiring spree, with plenty of qualified candidates from which to choose. But in his latest hiring announcement for a social media producer, candidate Mandy Jenkins popped to the top of the pile:

“Other excellent candidates interviewed before Mandy, though, and I thought of this as a crowded field when she arrived for an interview. I saw good signs even before she reached the office. She checked in from the Metro station nearby about 20 minutes before the interview, then from a nearby coffee shop. When I commented on that as I met her in the lobby of our offices, she told me she was using the beta of check.in, a new service that checks you in on multiple location-based platforms at once. There’s a good interviewing tip for you: If you’re applying for a social media job, start the interview right by telling the prospective boss even before you sit down that you’re using something he’s never heard of.”

That is a classic example of doing your homework, getting into your potential boss’ head and finding a way to use actions, not words to demonstrate why you are the right choice.

Here are some tips to make yourself stand out throughout the entire life cycle of the application process. It sounds like common sense, but many people do not do any of these, let alone all:

  • Spelling. Yes, this is basic, but you’d be amazed how many people don’t check their spelling. Want to show, not just say, you’re detail oriented? Spell your potential boss’ name correctly.
  • Do your homework. There is no excuse not to have done research on a potential employer today. It’s too easy not to. Don’t stop at the first two Google links you see. Go on LinkedIn and see where that hiring manager has worked previously. Check the news sites to find out what the company, and more importantly, its competitors, have been grappling with. Looking through social networking sites to find people you may know in common, or people that have worked at that company in the past. Ask them for guidance on what life is like inside the company. All of this is critical to prepare for the dreaded, “So, do you have any questions for me?” question. Which brings me to the next point…
  • Have a topic — or topics — ready for the dreaded, “So, do you have any questions for me?” question. You know it’s coming. Prepare for it. Better yet, use it as an opportunity to show what you know about the industry, your critical thinking skills, and your ability to add something to the team.
  • Think like your potential boss. If you were him or her, what kinds of questions would you ask? What kinds of answers would you want to hear?
  • Outthink your competition. What are your best competitors likely to do? How can you do it better, faster, different?
  • Follow up. Send the thank you note, and quickly (yes, it matters, says the girl who cringes at the thoughts of the ones I should have sent). Stay in touch, about the job, about the company and particularly with the person.
  • Be passionate. Anyone can have experience, or be shown how to do a job. Enthusiasm and passion cannot be taught. If you have it, show it.

Jennifer Nycz-Conner is a Senior Staff Reporter and Media Strategy Manager for the Washington Business Journal. You can read more great advice from Jennifer on Working the Room, her blog for the Washington Business Journal.

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Posted in Cover Letters, Interviewing, Jennifer Nycz-Conner, Job Search, Networking, Resumes, WhatsNextGenY | No Comments »

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