Category

Social Media

Aug 13
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The 10 Critical Actions to Take Online When Searching for a Job

By Social Media
I always know at least three people looking for a new or different job. Sometimes it’s a shock to the person looking. They can barely get their bearings, never having expected to be in the position of “job seeker.” I’m keeping this list simple and manageable so anyone can dive in and take immediate advantage of the advice that follows:

10 Critical Actions to Take When Searching for a Job

  1. Google yourself. In fact, set up a Google alert so you know if anything new bearing your name is published. Can you find yourself? Do you like what you’re seeing?  Is it what you want a potential employer to find?
  2. Buy the URL of your name. I own www.marijeanjaggers.com — if your name isn’t half as unusual as mine, you may need to use your middle name as well.
  3. Put your resume on your website. What website? See number 2. (Domain name and registration will run you about $120 total for a year. Spend the money.)
  4. Blog a little. It’s important to position yourself for the role you want to assume. Write about your interests, your experience and what you enjoy about your chosen field. Feel free to be personal and write about your collection of spoons or your passion for skeet shooting. It lets the universe know a little something about you.
  5. Clean up your Facebook profile. If you’ve been a cussing, beer drinking maniac in your social network, knock it off and make sure you manage the privacy settings so no one can see your misspent youth.
  6. Get your LinkedIn profile ship shape. Here’s advice on how to do that.
  7. Start connecting online to everyone you know; DON’T publish that you’re looking for work in a public place; DO engage with others and individually share your interest in pursuing new opportunities.
  8. Create a Twitter account (please create a profile with a photo of you) and use it to begin following the businesses you’re interested in working for and others in your community that may be instrumental in helping you in your search.
  9. If the place you want to work has a Facebook page — LIKE it.
  10. If the companies you’re interested in have blogs, start reading them and leaving comments. Use your online footprint to demonstrate who you are and let your future employers get to know you a bit online.
Aug 09
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Social Media Success Story: Finding a Job through your Network

By Public Relations, Social Media

Our friend Kim Connolly, @cvillekim on Twitter, vice president of Marketing & Communications with United Way-Thomas Jefferson Area, wrote me an email with the subject line: My Social Media Success Story.

 

This is actually YOUR success story, too. I went to your get-together at Commonwealth Skybar in lieu of the first cancelled Meet the Media Tweetup event. While there, I struck up a conversation with a young man, John Kowalski @theoriginaljage and learned that he had just graduated from VCU with a degree in media and communications and was looking for his first real-world job to get him started on his career. There was something about him I really liked, and I wished that I had an opening for him here. I did tell him he should widen his search to include nonprofits because of the opportunity to be flexible and creative and not relegated to some cubby in a bigger organization.

I invited him to come by the United Way the next week and we talked some more. I sent him some nonprofit marketing job listings and then saw an opening at the United Way in Fredericksburg for a Communications Coordinator that listed all his skill sets. I also saw from their staff list that this position was the only purely marketing position there. I sent him the job posting and told him it would be the perfect starter position. He did apply and I called their president to encourage an interview. Coincidentally, she had his resume open on her desk when I called, and told me he was in her “maybe” pile, but based on my referral, she would include him in her first round of phone interviews. Long story, short – he got the job!

All because of Twitter, and because of your Tweetup, which started the ball rolling.

 

We LOVE success stories like this — thank you Kim and best wishes in your new job, J.J. — we’ll be staying in touch with both of you!

Aug 08
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Two Great Options for Running Promotions and Contests on Facebook the Right Way

By Marketing, Social Media

I know, I know; I’ve been railing on the many businesses violating Facebook terms of service for some time. I’m done. I’m trying to be more positive here and in doing so, want to share two GREAT options we all have for running contests and promotions on Facebook the right way.

Offerpop is a great option — free up to 100 fans/followers and very low priced for larger audiences, this tool gives you a great selection of ways to market your business.

Promotions like photo contests, quizzes, deals, fan profiles and more can be easily run from the Offerpop dashboard.

For more advanced users there’s ShortStack. It’s more complex and easier for the experienced user to navigate, but if you’re starting out with fewer than 2,000 likes on a Facebook page (that’s a lot) it’s a good, free option.

We have clients who have used Offerpop happily and recommend it — if you launch a trial campaign let us know — we’d love to get your feedback on these tools.

Jul 31
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Facebook Promotional Guidelines: Are you breaking the rules?

By Social Media

In our business, if you care about your clients — really care about them– you don’t lead them down a primrose path. You don’t tell them it will be OK to do something even if “everyone else” is doing it. You don’t encourage them to break rules or laws; you don’t ask them to look the other way while you do so on their behalf. Facebook has very specific guidelines about promotions and contests. They are explicit. They do not want the liability of being in the middle of a contest, promotion or other rewards system. If you’re confused about what Facebook promotions are, read this page thoroughly: https://www.facebook.com/page_guidelines.php

Let me quote:

iv.    You must not use Facebook features or functionality as a promotion’s registration or entry mechanism. For example, the act of liking a Page or checking in to a Place cannot automatically register or enter a promotion participant.

Over and over again we see violations of this guideline.

What does Facebook say?

We reserve the right to reject or remove Pages for any reason. These terms are subject to change at any time.

That’s right. They can reject or remove Pages at any time, for any reason. Do you really want to be the consultant whose client pages are taken down due to an infraction?

 

Jul 30
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Facebook Likes Are Back On My )@(#*$ List

By Social Media

After a blissful, serene quiet period, I have somehow started getting more and more “opportunities” to “like” one or another business on Facebook, usually in exchange for a CHANCE at some future benefit. Sometimes these opportunities are delivered in bulk, like a case of Pepsi (I’m a Coke man, myself) or doses of bad tasting cough syrup. What gives? Haven’t we already decided this is a bad idea over the long term? It feels a little smarmy, selling out the goodwill of your brand for a short little burst of happy. For we all know that these likes are fleeting, don’t we?

There are many articles on this. Here is one from ZDNet. Here is another from Fresh Networks, and yet a third from Social Media Today. They all say basically the same thing: once someone comes to your page and hits “like,” they rarely, IF EVER, come back. There is typically no reason to in their minds. 47% of potential  customers in a recent survey said that liking a page has no influence on a purchasing decision from that brand, and that 67% only liked the page to get better deals.

Facebook is a great platform for sharing the human side of a business and giving customers a glimpse of the people behind the operation. Sharing content, thoughts, and ideas with your customers in turn builds trust, which can enhance sales over the long term because we all feel better buying from trusted sources. But in order to earn and KEEP that trust, you have to be prepared to make the page a source of value EVERY DAY. If you promise one thing and deliver less, you will undo all your efforts.

So why would you undermine that trust by baiting “likes” with false or weak “deals” that will never be repeated? Moreover why would you PAY to do that?