On Tuesday, May 18th I had the opportunity to speak at the CareerConnection "Hire DFW First" Symposium at the Addison Conference Center. Below are a few notes from my presentation.
With the limited number of jobs and the high number of candidates, it is critical to have your Resume and LinkedIn profiles optimized for keywords which will increase the chances of being selected as a candidate.
As you may be aware when looking for a job you are now a sales and marketing professional. You are now the product you are selling and need to market yourself to be know. One of the task that we need to do in this role is to now our market and who our competition is.
First, we need to define a list of 10 keywords that help define what we do. My list is something like this:
SEO, Social Media, Internet Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, SEM, analytics
Once you have a list of your keywords, run a few searches on LinkedIn and identify the top 10 in your field. Review their profiles and look for terms that help in increasing your value.
While you are looking at the search results, see if you can find yourself. If you are not in the first couple of pages, you need to increase your keyword usage. Narrow your search to your local area. You can also change the relevance to keywords and have a broader result.
The quantity of keywords on your LinkedIn Profile and your resume is the key. You have to have one more instance of your keyword and you will be above the rest of your field.
For your LinkedIn profile, the Professional Headline, Summary, Specialties and all job titles are the key fields when search. Go through all these fields and add instances of your keywords. Don't forget that you can use parentheses to add more value as a definition to the job title.
Keep tweaking your keyword count till you are at the top of your field. At that time you will see inquiries about your skills and request for interviews increase.
Keywords are king, the one with the most wins. Know your competition and you will be on top of your market.
Showing posts with label LinkedIn. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LinkedIn. Show all posts
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
QR Codes???
Ever wanted to have your own bar code to do things with? They are limited to a certain number of numerical digits and don't do a lot more than inventory control. I have been hearing talk about QR Codes here lately and have been seeing some interesting uses for them.
What is a QR Code you may be asking? Well, here is one.
One of the uses of QR Codes is with smart phones and allow you to quickly point to a bit of information based on the code. It can be a phone number, SMS, or web address coded in the blob of squares.
There could be a lot of cool uses for this. Imagine having the code on a product package and have it take you to more information on the product or even suggested uses.
How about putting the code on the back of your business card and have it linked to your LinkedIn Profile, your website or portfolio.
Are you doing a trade show? How about putting on in your booth that take a visitor to your contact us page specifically setup for the show to capture date in to Sales Force?
Tomorrow, I have the opportunity to speak to a group about LinkedIn, I am going to put a small sign up that point to my contact page and see what happens. Or maybe I should do my LinkedIn profile.
Do you want to generate one? Check out Kaywa's website and have fun...
Then load up your smart phone with one of the free apps to scan your new QR Code.
Leave us a comment, tell me how you are using a QR Code.
What is a QR Code you may be asking? Well, here is one.
One of the uses of QR Codes is with smart phones and allow you to quickly point to a bit of information based on the code. It can be a phone number, SMS, or web address coded in the blob of squares.
There could be a lot of cool uses for this. Imagine having the code on a product package and have it take you to more information on the product or even suggested uses.
How about putting the code on the back of your business card and have it linked to your LinkedIn Profile, your website or portfolio.
Are you doing a trade show? How about putting on in your booth that take a visitor to your contact us page specifically setup for the show to capture date in to Sales Force?
Tomorrow, I have the opportunity to speak to a group about LinkedIn, I am going to put a small sign up that point to my contact page and see what happens. Or maybe I should do my LinkedIn profile.
Do you want to generate one? Check out Kaywa's website and have fun...
Then load up your smart phone with one of the free apps to scan your new QR Code.
Leave us a comment, tell me how you are using a QR Code.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Tips For Using LinkedIn Effectively #10
Making Connections With People
When it gets down to the root use of LinkedIn, its making connections with people. My philosophy with establishing connections is pretty simple. If I've meet you through networking, I will connect with you on LinkedIn. I do have one requirement, when you ask to link with me you have to state were we meet.
If you have been using LinkedIn for a while you have seen that there is no way to delete messages that you have received. Your only option is to archive the messages to remove them from your Inbox. I mention this to explain why I request that you tell me where I meet you. It allows me to go back at anytime and search my Inbox for people that I meet at a specific event. What a great way to recall how you met someone when that name is on the tip of your tongue.
So lets talk about the options that you have when connecting with people. The key as you may know, is knowing someone's e-mail address in most cases. Connections or links are defined by how you know the connection. These connections are Classmate, We've done business together, Friend, Group and I don't know... All of these options require a sub selection with the exception of Friend and I don't know...
I find for most of the connections that I do, that I use the Other option. This option requires an e-mail to complete the connection. Secondarily, I make a lot of my connections via the Group option.
The personal note section is where we can type a personal note to the person that we are wanting to connect with. I always encourage making the note personal. Again, tell them where we meet them this makes it easier for the other person to recall where they meet you. After all not all of us have photographic memory and remember everyone's name and face.
Every now and then, you may be wanting to connect with someone that you don't have their e-mail address or have a direct way to connect with them. This is when you may need to reach out using your network to get in contact with someone. This generally happens when someone is two degrees of separation from you. At this point you will be required to connect with someone that would act as a middleman. You will be required to not only type a note to the person you are trying to connect with, but you will also have the opportunity to send a note to the middleman. Please note that both notes will be seen by all parties. So keep the note to your networked acquaintance professional.
When establishing this multi-degree connection, it will take sometime and require the middle man to forward the request. When typing your notes, tell everyone why you are wanting to establish the connection.
If you are ever in a position that you are unable to find a way to connect with someone, remember to Google them by name and company. You never know, you might find their e-mail address in this manor.
In summary, tell everyone how you know them when establishing a connection. Know the people that you connect with. Do your part in helping to establish connections between people.
Next time we will be moving away from LinkedIn and start looking at tools for Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
And if you are your company is needing help with your internet marketing contact us at NosalCentral for all your Internet Marketing Solutions.
When it gets down to the root use of LinkedIn, its making connections with people. My philosophy with establishing connections is pretty simple. If I've meet you through networking, I will connect with you on LinkedIn. I do have one requirement, when you ask to link with me you have to state were we meet.
If you have been using LinkedIn for a while you have seen that there is no way to delete messages that you have received. Your only option is to archive the messages to remove them from your Inbox. I mention this to explain why I request that you tell me where I meet you. It allows me to go back at anytime and search my Inbox for people that I meet at a specific event. What a great way to recall how you met someone when that name is on the tip of your tongue.
So lets talk about the options that you have when connecting with people. The key as you may know, is knowing someone's e-mail address in most cases. Connections or links are defined by how you know the connection. These connections are Classmate, We've done business together, Friend, Group and I don't know... All of these options require a sub selection with the exception of Friend and I don't know...
I find for most of the connections that I do, that I use the Other option. This option requires an e-mail to complete the connection. Secondarily, I make a lot of my connections via the Group option.
The personal note section is where we can type a personal note to the person that we are wanting to connect with. I always encourage making the note personal. Again, tell them where we meet them this makes it easier for the other person to recall where they meet you. After all not all of us have photographic memory and remember everyone's name and face.
Every now and then, you may be wanting to connect with someone that you don't have their e-mail address or have a direct way to connect with them. This is when you may need to reach out using your network to get in contact with someone. This generally happens when someone is two degrees of separation from you. At this point you will be required to connect with someone that would act as a middleman. You will be required to not only type a note to the person you are trying to connect with, but you will also have the opportunity to send a note to the middleman. Please note that both notes will be seen by all parties. So keep the note to your networked acquaintance professional.
When establishing this multi-degree connection, it will take sometime and require the middle man to forward the request. When typing your notes, tell everyone why you are wanting to establish the connection.
If you are ever in a position that you are unable to find a way to connect with someone, remember to Google them by name and company. You never know, you might find their e-mail address in this manor.
In summary, tell everyone how you know them when establishing a connection. Know the people that you connect with. Do your part in helping to establish connections between people.
Next time we will be moving away from LinkedIn and start looking at tools for Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
And if you are your company is needing help with your internet marketing contact us at NosalCentral for all your Internet Marketing Solutions.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Tips For Using LinkedIn Effectively #9
The Art of Giving and Receiving Recommendations
Recommendations are way to give and receive feed back from coworkers, managers, clients and others that you have the opportunity to work with during your career. A common recommendation may be a manager giving a recommendation for a current or past employee.
The recommendation could be worded something like this:
“John is one of the more innovative and productive people that I have had the pleasure of working with. John's direct role was the manager of our Graphics and Marketing Department, but his strong abilities and teamwork attitude led him into involvement in many more areas of the company. His technical and organizational skills are excellent, and applicable to many things. John's high moral values and cooperative spirit gained him respect throughout our entire organization. I would strongly recommend John to any future employer, and I hope I get the opportunity to work with him again.”
Recommendations are associated to a specific company or listing in your work experience. I regularly speak with groups of pre-employed individuals and as a way to fill the gap in there experience, I will recommend that they list volunteer activities, these volunteer while are not a paying gig does allow for some great opportunities to receive recommendations.
One nice thing about recommendations on LinkedIn is that you have total control of what is displayed through an approval process. This approval process allows you to make sure that everything is spelled correctly and that it is painting you in a good light.
Another feature of the approval or the Management of your recommendations is that you can hide recommendations at will. This allows you to change up what people are seeing about you and may allow you to put your strongest foot forward with the best of your recommendations.
When you receive a recommendation, you can't edit a recommendation, but it is quite acceptable to return a recommendation to the person that sent it and ask them to fix a problem. Or I like to select the text, make the changes and send it back to ask that they re-post the recommendation. I have on occasion, even rewritten a recommendation to have a stronger branding of my abilities and add needed keywords to increase the overall value of the recommendation.
One of the most common questions that I am asked is, "does the person giving the recommendation have to be on LinkedIn?" Yes both parties have to be on LinkedIn for this to work.
What is the value of recommendations on your profile? This allows people or more specifically recruiters to see what others are saying about your abilities. And from the other perspective, it allows them to see what you say about others. What this boils down to is that it is good to not just receive, but to also give recommendations.
There are a number of opinions when it comes to reciprocating recommendations. You may be thinking, this person gave me a recommendation so I am now obligated to give them one. My thought on this is when someone gives me a recommendation, I like to wait a week or so to give them one back. This way you have a chance to think about what you could say and not have the instant reaction to their recommendation. It allows for your follow up recommendation to have a bit more validity.
So how do you ask for recommendations? I personally look for opportunities where someone thanks me for doing something for them. I will also use it as a way to help with customer service in my business. After completing a project for a client. I will mention that I would appreciate their feed back on LinkedIn in the form of a recommendation.
Next time we will be looking at adding to your network with invites. Until then, I would love to have your feed back on this blog. Let me know how I can help you more. Or if you have any questions that I can answer or even add as a topic for a future post. Interaction with an audience is what makes a blog a success.
NosalCentral is helping small companies around the country with a successful internet presence. Want to learn more, visit our site at NosalCentral.com.
Recommendations are way to give and receive feed back from coworkers, managers, clients and others that you have the opportunity to work with during your career. A common recommendation may be a manager giving a recommendation for a current or past employee.
The recommendation could be worded something like this:
“John is one of the more innovative and productive people that I have had the pleasure of working with. John's direct role was the manager of our Graphics and Marketing Department, but his strong abilities and teamwork attitude led him into involvement in many more areas of the company. His technical and organizational skills are excellent, and applicable to many things. John's high moral values and cooperative spirit gained him respect throughout our entire organization. I would strongly recommend John to any future employer, and I hope I get the opportunity to work with him again.”
Recommendations are associated to a specific company or listing in your work experience. I regularly speak with groups of pre-employed individuals and as a way to fill the gap in there experience, I will recommend that they list volunteer activities, these volunteer while are not a paying gig does allow for some great opportunities to receive recommendations.
One nice thing about recommendations on LinkedIn is that you have total control of what is displayed through an approval process. This approval process allows you to make sure that everything is spelled correctly and that it is painting you in a good light.
Another feature of the approval or the Management of your recommendations is that you can hide recommendations at will. This allows you to change up what people are seeing about you and may allow you to put your strongest foot forward with the best of your recommendations.
When you receive a recommendation, you can't edit a recommendation, but it is quite acceptable to return a recommendation to the person that sent it and ask them to fix a problem. Or I like to select the text, make the changes and send it back to ask that they re-post the recommendation. I have on occasion, even rewritten a recommendation to have a stronger branding of my abilities and add needed keywords to increase the overall value of the recommendation.
One of the most common questions that I am asked is, "does the person giving the recommendation have to be on LinkedIn?" Yes both parties have to be on LinkedIn for this to work.
What is the value of recommendations on your profile? This allows people or more specifically recruiters to see what others are saying about your abilities. And from the other perspective, it allows them to see what you say about others. What this boils down to is that it is good to not just receive, but to also give recommendations.
There are a number of opinions when it comes to reciprocating recommendations. You may be thinking, this person gave me a recommendation so I am now obligated to give them one. My thought on this is when someone gives me a recommendation, I like to wait a week or so to give them one back. This way you have a chance to think about what you could say and not have the instant reaction to their recommendation. It allows for your follow up recommendation to have a bit more validity.
So how do you ask for recommendations? I personally look for opportunities where someone thanks me for doing something for them. I will also use it as a way to help with customer service in my business. After completing a project for a client. I will mention that I would appreciate their feed back on LinkedIn in the form of a recommendation.
Next time we will be looking at adding to your network with invites. Until then, I would love to have your feed back on this blog. Let me know how I can help you more. Or if you have any questions that I can answer or even add as a topic for a future post. Interaction with an audience is what makes a blog a success.
NosalCentral is helping small companies around the country with a successful internet presence. Want to learn more, visit our site at NosalCentral.com.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Tips For Using LinkedIn Effectively #8
Groups are the bomb...
One of the things that I enjoy using in LinkedIn is the Groups. In the Groups, you can do additional networking with people that have common interest. And best of all, you have the opportunity to post and respond to messages that are specific to that group.
Lets first define what Groups are. First off, Groups are made by users of LinkedIn. Anyone can create a group even you and I. So if you want to create a group for Breeding Goldfish for Fun and Profit, you can do that. Groups are a great way to talk and connect with others with like interest.
Lets focus more on how we can use groups to our advantage. First lets look at finding a group that we may want to join. Using the Search option at the top of any screen in LinkedIn , you are able to search for any keyword or topic that you may have interest in. Everything from Abacus to Zooligy there is probably a group on the topic.
Many times you may find a number of groups for a given topic. Here is where you have to look at the value of a group. Look at the number of participants that are in the group. If you have a couple of good fits, join both and get a feel for the topics that are discussed. If after a week or so you see one group is better than the other, you can unsubscribe from the unwanted group.
One thing you will want to do is keep the groups that you are members of relevant to your professional branding. So you may not want to join groups for political, religious, or others that are controversial in a corporate environment.
Once you have joined a group or groups, you are able to start posting and answering questions. This is a great opportunity to establish yourself as an expert in your area of interest or expertise.
A hidden gem that is part of being members of groups is that you now have access to the membership list for the group. You can access this from the More > Members secondary menu when you are on the page for a specific group. Here you will find the complete list for all the members in that group. Once viewing the Members list, you are able to search the members of the group for specific keywords.
When searching within the Members list you could look for contacts at specific companies for that you may be targeting for a work search or sales opportunity.
Groups allow us to add a whole new dimension to our networking with professionals in our area of interest. By responding to post we can establish our expertise in a given subject. Then using the members list we can find people in our area within companies that we may be wanting to connect with.
While Groups in LinkedIn are a great way to network, NosalCentral is a great way to gain control over your web presence. Weather it is Analytics, SEO or a Social Media we can help you with increasing your value on the web.
One of the things that I enjoy using in LinkedIn is the Groups. In the Groups, you can do additional networking with people that have common interest. And best of all, you have the opportunity to post and respond to messages that are specific to that group.
Lets first define what Groups are. First off, Groups are made by users of LinkedIn. Anyone can create a group even you and I. So if you want to create a group for Breeding Goldfish for Fun and Profit, you can do that. Groups are a great way to talk and connect with others with like interest.
Lets focus more on how we can use groups to our advantage. First lets look at finding a group that we may want to join. Using the Search option at the top of any screen in LinkedIn , you are able to search for any keyword or topic that you may have interest in. Everything from Abacus to Zooligy there is probably a group on the topic.
Many times you may find a number of groups for a given topic. Here is where you have to look at the value of a group. Look at the number of participants that are in the group. If you have a couple of good fits, join both and get a feel for the topics that are discussed. If after a week or so you see one group is better than the other, you can unsubscribe from the unwanted group.
One thing you will want to do is keep the groups that you are members of relevant to your professional branding. So you may not want to join groups for political, religious, or others that are controversial in a corporate environment.
Once you have joined a group or groups, you are able to start posting and answering questions. This is a great opportunity to establish yourself as an expert in your area of interest or expertise.
A hidden gem that is part of being members of groups is that you now have access to the membership list for the group. You can access this from the More > Members secondary menu when you are on the page for a specific group. Here you will find the complete list for all the members in that group. Once viewing the Members list, you are able to search the members of the group for specific keywords.
When searching within the Members list you could look for contacts at specific companies for that you may be targeting for a work search or sales opportunity.
Groups allow us to add a whole new dimension to our networking with professionals in our area of interest. By responding to post we can establish our expertise in a given subject. Then using the members list we can find people in our area within companies that we may be wanting to connect with.
While Groups in LinkedIn are a great way to network, NosalCentral is a great way to gain control over your web presence. Weather it is Analytics, SEO or a Social Media we can help you with increasing your value on the web.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Tips For Using LinkedIn Effectively #7
Using Apps to add interest to your profile.
Each week I look at a lot of profiles and after a while they all start to look a like. They all have a photo, a summary and work experience. All of this information is a lot like reading through a stack of 100 resumes. A little on the dry reading side.
What can we do to add a little bling to our profiles? Thanks to LinkedIn for opening the doors in early 2009 to 3rd party developers, which allows for extended functionality to be added to our profiles.
Lets look at a few of these third party add-on tools and talk about ways that you might use them to add additional interest in who you are.
The first that I like to recommend is the Reading List by Amazon. With this application, you can show your business focus and show that you are looking to improve your knowledge through reading. Or if you are a technology geek, that you have all the latest toys like the Amazon Kindle.
Use the reading list to make a list of recent books that you have read or would like to read. If you have read something, add a comment about what you read. However, you may not want to list the latest Zane Grey novel that you read. While it may have been a good read, it is not promoting your business focus.
Also use this reading list to help you open doors with people. Lets say you are getting ready to meet with someone for the first time. Take a look at their profile and see what they have read. Use that to help get the conversation relaxed and moving.
Another application that I like to add to my profile is the Box.net app. This application allows you to add any file to your profile. This would be great if say you were a creative writer or a graphic artist. You could place samples of your work or your portfolio on your profile.
Box.net allows you to also organize the files by creating sub-folders for the various needs that you may have. You may create a folder for presentations, Writing, PDFs or maybe a version of your resume.
Another handy application is SlideShare. Slide share allows you to take any PowerPoint presentation and add it as a self-running movie in your profile. So if you happen to be in a position where you are doing a lot of PowerPoint work, you might add a sample using this.
Or how about this option, create a 12 to 15 slide presentation about you. Use this as a way to sell yourself and tell people why they should hire you if you are looking for a job.
There are many other applications that you can add to your profile. There is one for Events, Blogging, Polls and Twitter. All of these applications allow you to add additional interest to who you are and best of all take your profile to the next level.
While we are mentioning ways to take things to the next level, NosalCentral can help take your companies web presence to the next level with Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Social Media Marketing.
Visit our website and give us a call to learn more about our services.
Each week I look at a lot of profiles and after a while they all start to look a like. They all have a photo, a summary and work experience. All of this information is a lot like reading through a stack of 100 resumes. A little on the dry reading side.
What can we do to add a little bling to our profiles? Thanks to LinkedIn for opening the doors in early 2009 to 3rd party developers, which allows for extended functionality to be added to our profiles.
Lets look at a few of these third party add-on tools and talk about ways that you might use them to add additional interest in who you are.
The first that I like to recommend is the Reading List by Amazon. With this application, you can show your business focus and show that you are looking to improve your knowledge through reading. Or if you are a technology geek, that you have all the latest toys like the Amazon Kindle.
Use the reading list to make a list of recent books that you have read or would like to read. If you have read something, add a comment about what you read. However, you may not want to list the latest Zane Grey novel that you read. While it may have been a good read, it is not promoting your business focus.
Also use this reading list to help you open doors with people. Lets say you are getting ready to meet with someone for the first time. Take a look at their profile and see what they have read. Use that to help get the conversation relaxed and moving.
Another application that I like to add to my profile is the Box.net app. This application allows you to add any file to your profile. This would be great if say you were a creative writer or a graphic artist. You could place samples of your work or your portfolio on your profile.
Box.net allows you to also organize the files by creating sub-folders for the various needs that you may have. You may create a folder for presentations, Writing, PDFs or maybe a version of your resume.
Another handy application is SlideShare. Slide share allows you to take any PowerPoint presentation and add it as a self-running movie in your profile. So if you happen to be in a position where you are doing a lot of PowerPoint work, you might add a sample using this.
Or how about this option, create a 12 to 15 slide presentation about you. Use this as a way to sell yourself and tell people why they should hire you if you are looking for a job.
There are many other applications that you can add to your profile. There is one for Events, Blogging, Polls and Twitter. All of these applications allow you to add additional interest to who you are and best of all take your profile to the next level.
While we are mentioning ways to take things to the next level, NosalCentral can help take your companies web presence to the next level with Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Social Media Marketing.
Visit our website and give us a call to learn more about our services.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Tips For Using LinkedIn Effectively #6
Keywords and Branding
Our profile, resume and our social media presence are all key to defining who we are. One of the challenges that we have when defining who we are is defining things that set us apart from the rest of the world. We also want to be found if we are looking for our next career opportunity.
The way to stand out in the crowd is to have relevant keywords and a strong branding of who you are and what you do. Lets take a look at these two items, Keywords and Branding and how we can do this within our profiles on LinkedIn. Note: these same approaches can be used with our resume and other social media sites.
Lets first look at keywords. These are the words that are specific to who you are. For example, if you are a Project Manager: PMI, PMP, SixSigma, Green Belt, Program Manager, MS Project, Visio and any other terms or software that are specific to your expertise would be the keywords that you may have.
Another example that we could look at is a Administrative Assistant, they would have a list of software and skills that they are experienced with: Microsoft Office (MS), Excel, Word, Power Point, Outlook, FrontPage, Shorthand, Event Planning... Notice that I listed out all the pieces of Microsoft Office, I did this to cover the many ways that someone might be searching for your skills.
So why are keywords so important? Think about you being in a position where you are needing to find a person that has a specific skill set. You might search for specific software that this individual would need to have experience with in order to fill the position.
Now, do a search to find yourself, are you in the top 10 results? Take a look at the people that are higher in the ranking than you. These people may be your competition. Look at their profiles, what put them higher in the results?
You may be asking yourself, what can I do to get higher in the ranking. Here is the key... Review your profile and use your keywords as many times as you can in your Summary and Experience sections of your profile. Use the Specialties section as a place to put all of your keywords. Look at job posts or descriptions for your position and incorporate the terms and phrases that are used.
Now that we have identified keywords and looked at how we can increase the relevance of our profiles, lets talk about branding a bit more. In a recent marketing networking group, we had a lengthy discussion on branding ourselves. What can we do to set ourselves apart froom the rest of the crowd?
Work on developing a unique statement that defines who you are. It needs to be catchy and memorable. One friend of mine brands himself as "the Joe Montana of Marketing". As you might have seen with my company I am branding my company as "NosalCentral, Your Central Source for Web Solutions".
Develop a statement that you can use to brand you as... who knows, the "Stretch Armstrong of Admin Assistants". Have fun with it and you will come up with something great.
Keywords and Branding are an important aspect to having a strong presence on LinkedIn. These same tips can also be used for your resume and other social media sites.
Keywords are also a vital part of a corporate presence on the internet. Want to know what search engines see your keywords look like? Let NosalCentral help you get on top of your keywords and ultimately be at the top of the search engine results to increase your ROI on your website.
NosalCentral is your keyword for SEO, SEM and Analysis of your web presence.
Our profile, resume and our social media presence are all key to defining who we are. One of the challenges that we have when defining who we are is defining things that set us apart from the rest of the world. We also want to be found if we are looking for our next career opportunity.
The way to stand out in the crowd is to have relevant keywords and a strong branding of who you are and what you do. Lets take a look at these two items, Keywords and Branding and how we can do this within our profiles on LinkedIn. Note: these same approaches can be used with our resume and other social media sites.
Lets first look at keywords. These are the words that are specific to who you are. For example, if you are a Project Manager: PMI, PMP, SixSigma, Green Belt, Program Manager, MS Project, Visio and any other terms or software that are specific to your expertise would be the keywords that you may have.
Another example that we could look at is a Administrative Assistant, they would have a list of software and skills that they are experienced with: Microsoft Office (MS), Excel, Word, Power Point, Outlook, FrontPage, Shorthand, Event Planning... Notice that I listed out all the pieces of Microsoft Office, I did this to cover the many ways that someone might be searching for your skills.
So why are keywords so important? Think about you being in a position where you are needing to find a person that has a specific skill set. You might search for specific software that this individual would need to have experience with in order to fill the position.
Now, do a search to find yourself, are you in the top 10 results? Take a look at the people that are higher in the ranking than you. These people may be your competition. Look at their profiles, what put them higher in the results?
You may be asking yourself, what can I do to get higher in the ranking. Here is the key... Review your profile and use your keywords as many times as you can in your Summary and Experience sections of your profile. Use the Specialties section as a place to put all of your keywords. Look at job posts or descriptions for your position and incorporate the terms and phrases that are used.
Now that we have identified keywords and looked at how we can increase the relevance of our profiles, lets talk about branding a bit more. In a recent marketing networking group, we had a lengthy discussion on branding ourselves. What can we do to set ourselves apart froom the rest of the crowd?
Work on developing a unique statement that defines who you are. It needs to be catchy and memorable. One friend of mine brands himself as "the Joe Montana of Marketing". As you might have seen with my company I am branding my company as "NosalCentral, Your Central Source for Web Solutions".
Develop a statement that you can use to brand you as... who knows, the "Stretch Armstrong of Admin Assistants". Have fun with it and you will come up with something great.
Keywords and Branding are an important aspect to having a strong presence on LinkedIn. These same tips can also be used for your resume and other social media sites.
Keywords are also a vital part of a corporate presence on the internet. Want to know what search engines see your keywords look like? Let NosalCentral help you get on top of your keywords and ultimately be at the top of the search engine results to increase your ROI on your website.
NosalCentral is your keyword for SEO, SEM and Analysis of your web presence.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Tips For Using LinkedIn Effectively #5
Personalize your Public Profile
The Public Profile is the URL that people can use to quickly get to your profile on LinkedIn. By default, it is a long alpha-numeric soup that is hard to type or worse verbally tell someone.
In my previous post I mention the need to develop strong branding for yourself with your profile. One of the ways we can do this is to update our Public Profile or more specifically, the URL that can be used to quickly access your profile on LinkedIn.
The default, like I mentioned before is a bit tough to memorize or for that mater type. Here is an example of this:
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/name-changed/1/548/6b6 (not a valid link to protect the innocent)
Once it has been edited and made a bit more personal, it is much easier to remember, here are a couple of examples:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jnosal - simply using your name.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/mothernaturemarketing - or use your branding name.
Now that you have a personalized URL or Public Profile, you can use this to make it easier for people to see your profile. Add this link to your signature line in your e-mails, add it to your business cards, put it on your blog profile, or add it to the links on your web site. I would however, not put it on my resume, but that is a another post.
Once you have your personalized Public Profile have fun using the address to increase your exposure to the market with an easier to read URL and stronger branding.
Also, if you have a request for a specific blog topic, leave a comment.
NosalCentral is your central source for web solutions. Check out our site at NosalCentral.com to learn more about our services.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Tips For Using LinkedIn Effectively #4
Update your status/profile regularly
We have all received that weekly LinkedIn e-mail update and seen what has changed in your network. This could be a change to someones status, updated their experience or even updated their photo. Lets not over look this as a great resource for us to keep our network active and best of all communicate with our network. Why not take advantage of this free service of LinkedIn and get a little extra exposure for yourself in these e-mails that are sent to those in your network.
First lets look at how we can use this e-mail and or our home page to keep up with our network. Don't just delete the e-mail when you see it arrive in your e-mail box. Take the time to do a quick review. Look for the opportunity where you could send a comment or congrats to a member of your network. This could be a new job, a promotion or any other information that is communicated via the status field.
The home page is also a great location to monitor the same details but can be reviewed at anytime. And best of all is constantly being updated as the members of your network make changes to their profiles.
Up to this point we have looked at how you can monitor your network. Now lets look at how you can stay on the radar of your network and become a common person on the e-mails and home pages of those in your network. It all boils down to updating your profile regularly. Make some kind of change every couple of days.
Updating your status is the easiest since it doesn't require navigating through several pages to make a change. It is also the first thing you see in the e-mail or on the home page. This update could be as easy as copying the current status and pasting in the edit field.
Other updates could be simply adding a space or other character to the end of an item in your profile. Then a couple of days later you could back and remove the change you made.
On a side note, I am regularly asked what should I say in my status. Think of the status field as a way to communicate professionally what you are doing or what you are needing help with. When I was looking for a new job, I would post that I was looking for my next great career opportunity in the internet SEO and SEM field. I would also regularly post when I was looking into a given company to see if anyone had info or knew someone.
A really powerful way to use the status field is to develop a strong branding statement and post that statement. Use it to create buzz around who and what you do. You never know when you will have some one contact you based on your status. It worked for me when a clients spouse saw my status and contacted me to do work for them.
Make use of the weekly e-mail and home page updates on LinkedIn to stay visible and communicate with your network. Take the time to review the e-mail or your home page to keep your network active. After all networking is a lifetime activity and LinkedIn is a great tool to help this process.
Next time we will be looking at personalizing your Public Profile URL on LinkedIn.
As always remember NosalCentral, LLC. is your central source for web solutions in SEO, SEM and Social Media.
We have all received that weekly LinkedIn e-mail update and seen what has changed in your network. This could be a change to someones status, updated their experience or even updated their photo. Lets not over look this as a great resource for us to keep our network active and best of all communicate with our network. Why not take advantage of this free service of LinkedIn and get a little extra exposure for yourself in these e-mails that are sent to those in your network.
First lets look at how we can use this e-mail and or our home page to keep up with our network. Don't just delete the e-mail when you see it arrive in your e-mail box. Take the time to do a quick review. Look for the opportunity where you could send a comment or congrats to a member of your network. This could be a new job, a promotion or any other information that is communicated via the status field.
The home page is also a great location to monitor the same details but can be reviewed at anytime. And best of all is constantly being updated as the members of your network make changes to their profiles.
Up to this point we have looked at how you can monitor your network. Now lets look at how you can stay on the radar of your network and become a common person on the e-mails and home pages of those in your network. It all boils down to updating your profile regularly. Make some kind of change every couple of days.
Updating your status is the easiest since it doesn't require navigating through several pages to make a change. It is also the first thing you see in the e-mail or on the home page. This update could be as easy as copying the current status and pasting in the edit field.
Other updates could be simply adding a space or other character to the end of an item in your profile. Then a couple of days later you could back and remove the change you made.
On a side note, I am regularly asked what should I say in my status. Think of the status field as a way to communicate professionally what you are doing or what you are needing help with. When I was looking for a new job, I would post that I was looking for my next great career opportunity in the internet SEO and SEM field. I would also regularly post when I was looking into a given company to see if anyone had info or knew someone.
A really powerful way to use the status field is to develop a strong branding statement and post that statement. Use it to create buzz around who and what you do. You never know when you will have some one contact you based on your status. It worked for me when a clients spouse saw my status and contacted me to do work for them.
Make use of the weekly e-mail and home page updates on LinkedIn to stay visible and communicate with your network. Take the time to review the e-mail or your home page to keep your network active. After all networking is a lifetime activity and LinkedIn is a great tool to help this process.
Next time we will be looking at personalizing your Public Profile URL on LinkedIn.
As always remember NosalCentral, LLC. is your central source for web solutions in SEO, SEM and Social Media.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Tips For Using LinkedIn Effectively #3
Smile for the camera.
Having that great professional portrait of yourself in your LinkedIn profile is a great idea. It allows your connections at minimum to see your face and keep that mental connection between your face and your name. If nothing else it allow you to reach 100% complete for your profile (it is worth 5%).
Lets say you have a great picture of you and your spouse on your profile. This is great except, your name is Pat. If you do have this situation you will want to make use of the photo editing options in LinkedIn. After all, most don't have Photoshop around to do some serious image manipulation.
Navigate to the My Profile Photo option in the Settings. Next, click the Edit Photo link under your photo. The next window that opens, will be a copy of your photo with a yellow box around a portion of the image. This yellow box can be used to crop and define the exact area of the image you would like to use. Note the yellow square in the lower right corner allows you to change the size of the box. This will allow you to crop out your spouse, yes they will understand.
If you happen to be prematurely gray or, like me, loosing the mullet in the bad way where it is falling out. No I did not have a mullet, so get that image out of your head. There are instances that you may not want to put your mug up for your profile. How about using your alumni logo from college. Or maybe a logo associated to a certification that you have obtained. Or if you want to be real anonymous, create a simple white box that is 2" square and use that.
What ever you use as your photo, you want it to be professional. The great photo of you in the swim suit on the beach in Hawaii is a great memory, but unless you are a Pool Service Technician it will not work for a Marketing professional.
Another thing to keep in mind with regards to your photo is privacy. Some of us may be concerned about putting to much information out there. If you don't want all 50 Million LinkedIn users to see your photo you will want to adjust the settings that you have. Again take a look at the My Profile Photo settings and adjust the setting for who your photo is visible too.
The first option is My Connections, these are the people that you have a one to one connection with. The second option is My Network, there are all your connections and their connections out to the 3 degrees of separation.
If you have any comments or questions please feel free to post a comment.
And if you have a website that is not performing as well as you would like, contact me and I can show you options to increase the effectiveness of your website.
NosalCentral is your central source for web solutions.
Having that great professional portrait of yourself in your LinkedIn profile is a great idea. It allows your connections at minimum to see your face and keep that mental connection between your face and your name. If nothing else it allow you to reach 100% complete for your profile (it is worth 5%).
Lets say you have a great picture of you and your spouse on your profile. This is great except, your name is Pat. If you do have this situation you will want to make use of the photo editing options in LinkedIn. After all, most don't have Photoshop around to do some serious image manipulation.
Navigate to the My Profile Photo option in the Settings. Next, click the Edit Photo link under your photo. The next window that opens, will be a copy of your photo with a yellow box around a portion of the image. This yellow box can be used to crop and define the exact area of the image you would like to use. Note the yellow square in the lower right corner allows you to change the size of the box. This will allow you to crop out your spouse, yes they will understand.
If you happen to be prematurely gray or, like me, loosing the mullet in the bad way where it is falling out. No I did not have a mullet, so get that image out of your head. There are instances that you may not want to put your mug up for your profile. How about using your alumni logo from college. Or maybe a logo associated to a certification that you have obtained. Or if you want to be real anonymous, create a simple white box that is 2" square and use that.
What ever you use as your photo, you want it to be professional. The great photo of you in the swim suit on the beach in Hawaii is a great memory, but unless you are a Pool Service Technician it will not work for a Marketing professional.
Another thing to keep in mind with regards to your photo is privacy. Some of us may be concerned about putting to much information out there. If you don't want all 50 Million LinkedIn users to see your photo you will want to adjust the settings that you have. Again take a look at the My Profile Photo settings and adjust the setting for who your photo is visible too.
The first option is My Connections, these are the people that you have a one to one connection with. The second option is My Network, there are all your connections and their connections out to the 3 degrees of separation.
If you have any comments or questions please feel free to post a comment.
And if you have a website that is not performing as well as you would like, contact me and I can show you options to increase the effectiveness of your website.
NosalCentral is your central source for web solutions.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Tips For Using LinkedIn Effectively #2
Does your profile make you look over qualified?
While we know discrimination is illegal, we have to face the facts that it does happen. How many of you have heard the statement, "you are over qualified"?
Lets look at a number of ways that we can limit the information that makes it easy for people to figure out your age.
• You generally want to limit your experience to the last 12 to 15 years. This of course might be an issue if you were with Nortel Networks for 31 Years. If you are in that predicament, try breaking up that 31 years into some of the smaller responsibilities that you had. This "project" from 1997 to 1999. Then this project from 1999 to 2003... So again this would allow you to show your most recent activity.
• In your "summary" and other areas, don't announce that you have a bazillion years of experience in a specific field. You could soften it a bit by stating the you have "10+" or "more than ten" years experience in your field. It still allows you to have expert status but not come off like you were a member of Noah's IT department on the Arc.
• A big culprit is the education portion of your profile. Don't define the years for your college time. If you have to, go back and delete the entries and create new entries, this time don't define the years, it is not a required field any longer.
• Don't be nostalgic and list old software and hardware in your skills. For example, TI-99/4A Basic Programing. Or how about... Certified in Word Perfect. DOS 4.2 or dare I say it, Windows 3.11. It is fun to reminisce with they guys at lunch but not on your professional branding.
Remember, we want to produce interest with our profiles on LinkedIn by having a solid skill set. But we we don't want to appear too old, expensive, or dare I say; over qualified.
Check back next week when we will be talking about your Profile Photo.
Have you wondered about the effectiveness of your web site? Why is your competition ranking higher in the result on Google? NosalCentral is the answer, we can help by evaluating your site and your competitions site to help understand your current rankings. And best of all do this for a lot less than you think. After all, NosalCentral is your central source for web solutions.
While we know discrimination is illegal, we have to face the facts that it does happen. How many of you have heard the statement, "you are over qualified"?
Lets look at a number of ways that we can limit the information that makes it easy for people to figure out your age.
• You generally want to limit your experience to the last 12 to 15 years. This of course might be an issue if you were with Nortel Networks for 31 Years. If you are in that predicament, try breaking up that 31 years into some of the smaller responsibilities that you had. This "project" from 1997 to 1999. Then this project from 1999 to 2003... So again this would allow you to show your most recent activity.
• In your "summary" and other areas, don't announce that you have a bazillion years of experience in a specific field. You could soften it a bit by stating the you have "10+" or "more than ten" years experience in your field. It still allows you to have expert status but not come off like you were a member of Noah's IT department on the Arc.
• A big culprit is the education portion of your profile. Don't define the years for your college time. If you have to, go back and delete the entries and create new entries, this time don't define the years, it is not a required field any longer.
• Don't be nostalgic and list old software and hardware in your skills. For example, TI-99/4A Basic Programing. Or how about... Certified in Word Perfect. DOS 4.2 or dare I say it, Windows 3.11. It is fun to reminisce with they guys at lunch but not on your professional branding.
Remember, we want to produce interest with our profiles on LinkedIn by having a solid skill set. But we we don't want to appear too old, expensive, or dare I say; over qualified.
Check back next week when we will be talking about your Profile Photo.
Have you wondered about the effectiveness of your web site? Why is your competition ranking higher in the result on Google? NosalCentral is the answer, we can help by evaluating your site and your competitions site to help understand your current rankings. And best of all do this for a lot less than you think. After all, NosalCentral is your central source for web solutions.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Tips For Using LinkedIn Effectively #1
We have all heard that it is not what we know but who we know. Today networking is even more important since most people are not landing career opportunities from posting a resume on the major job boards or reading the newspapers classified ads. It is also known that only 30% to 40% of jobs are posted anywhere.
LinkedIn is a significant tool in the world of networking and today I would like to share with you a number of tips for using LinkedIn as a powerful networking tool. So over the next week or so I will be posting a series on
Make it easy for people to connect with you.
LinkedIn uses your e-mail address as the key to making connections with people. Why not make it very easy for people to make contact with you by placing your e-mail address at the end of your professional headline, AKA your title. Yes, you may have your e-mail in the e-mail field of your profile, but this is at the bottom of your profile.
An alternate to the Professional Headline would be to put it at the beginning of your summary.
Next time we will be talking about ways to avoid making it obvious how old you are.
NosalCentral is your keyword when it comes to SEO and SEM for your business.
LinkedIn is a significant tool in the world of networking and today I would like to share with you a number of tips for using LinkedIn as a powerful networking tool. So over the next week or so I will be posting a series on
Make it easy for people to connect with you.
LinkedIn uses your e-mail address as the key to making connections with people. Why not make it very easy for people to make contact with you by placing your e-mail address at the end of your professional headline, AKA your title. Yes, you may have your e-mail in the e-mail field of your profile, but this is at the bottom of your profile.
An alternate to the Professional Headline would be to put it at the beginning of your summary.
Next time we will be talking about ways to avoid making it obvious how old you are.
NosalCentral is your keyword when it comes to SEO and SEM for your business.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
LinkedIn did it again...
If you have not been to the LinkedIn web site in the last few days you have not had the surprise of finding that they have changed the look and feel of the interface. So in this blog, I am going to give a bit of an overview of the changes that I see. And hopefully make the transition a bit easier for my readers. I am also doing this in preparation for next week when I will be giving several presentations on LinkedIn at various locations around the Dallas Ft. Worth Metroplex (check out my LinkedIn Profile for details about my upcoming events).
One of the first things I noticed with the new interface is the lack of navigation on the left side of your screen. Previously this was where you selected your Home page, Groups, Profile, Inbox and various other options. This has moved to the top of the window in the form of an horizontal menu bar. This is good from the perspective that you are now able to have a larger area for content. Moving the navigation to the top also brings all option to the top of the screen and now you don't have as great of an area to scan for your choices.
Another aspect of the menu that I like is the "More" menu. This allows a quick access to your various applications like Box, Events and the Reading List by Amazon. No more scrolling down on your profile to make a change in this area.
Another change to the navigation is the addition of a Jobs menu. This looks like it is a great addition for those that are posting jobs, but does have the one option for Find Jobs. While looking at the other options it was interesting to see that they listed the price for posting a job at $195 for a 30 day posting.
"Account & Settings" link has been renamed to "Settings". While we are looking in that area at the top you will also see a new link for Add Connections now sporting a new bold green color.
There is now an Advanced People Search under the Search drop down Menu. I think this was previously a beta feature that was being tested by all once you did your initial people search you had the option to go into an advance search.
I have also noticed that moving the navigation up to the top has now increased the width of the profile viewing area causing my e-mail address to now be on the same line as my title in the Professional Headline area. So if you are doing this as a way for people to more easily contact you, you will need to add some additional characters to separate the two items. I personally have chosen to use two hyphens.
When looking at someones profile I also noticed a feature that I had not seen before. It is a link on the right for "Search for references" looks like this brings up a summary of your common links. Will need to work with this a bit more but might be a cool option for establishing a list of informational interviews to network into talking with a hiring manager. Time will tell on this.
Overall, I really like the way LinkedIn has updated the interface. It is a much cleaner and organized experience and I believe that it will be a decreased for new users.
If you want to learn more about LinkedIn and up to use it as a tool for professional networking check out one of my upcoming presentations found on my LinkedIn Profile. www.linkedin.com/in/jnosal
Also keep in mind that NosalCentral is your central source for web solutions in SEO, SEM, Social Media Marketing and Web Design.
jnosal
One of the first things I noticed with the new interface is the lack of navigation on the left side of your screen. Previously this was where you selected your Home page, Groups, Profile, Inbox and various other options. This has moved to the top of the window in the form of an horizontal menu bar. This is good from the perspective that you are now able to have a larger area for content. Moving the navigation to the top also brings all option to the top of the screen and now you don't have as great of an area to scan for your choices.
Another aspect of the menu that I like is the "More" menu. This allows a quick access to your various applications like Box, Events and the Reading List by Amazon. No more scrolling down on your profile to make a change in this area.
Another change to the navigation is the addition of a Jobs menu. This looks like it is a great addition for those that are posting jobs, but does have the one option for Find Jobs. While looking at the other options it was interesting to see that they listed the price for posting a job at $195 for a 30 day posting.
"Account & Settings" link has been renamed to "Settings". While we are looking in that area at the top you will also see a new link for Add Connections now sporting a new bold green color.
There is now an Advanced People Search under the Search drop down Menu. I think this was previously a beta feature that was being tested by all once you did your initial people search you had the option to go into an advance search.
I have also noticed that moving the navigation up to the top has now increased the width of the profile viewing area causing my e-mail address to now be on the same line as my title in the Professional Headline area. So if you are doing this as a way for people to more easily contact you, you will need to add some additional characters to separate the two items. I personally have chosen to use two hyphens.
When looking at someones profile I also noticed a feature that I had not seen before. It is a link on the right for "Search for references" looks like this brings up a summary of your common links. Will need to work with this a bit more but might be a cool option for establishing a list of informational interviews to network into talking with a hiring manager. Time will tell on this.
Overall, I really like the way LinkedIn has updated the interface. It is a much cleaner and organized experience and I believe that it will be a decreased for new users.
If you want to learn more about LinkedIn and up to use it as a tool for professional networking check out one of my upcoming presentations found on my LinkedIn Profile. www.linkedin.com/in/jnosal
Also keep in mind that NosalCentral is your central source for web solutions in SEO, SEM, Social Media Marketing and Web Design.
jnosal
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Introduction
Greetings from NosalCentral - Your Central Source For Web Solutions. My name is John J Nosal and I am the President of NosalCentral, LLC. a company that I started in July of 2009.
NosalCentral offers web consulting to small and medium sized business that are needing to increase the effectiveness of their web presence through Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM), and Social Media Marketing. In addition we can help you learn to use analytic tools to monitor your traffic and to react accordingly.
My goal with this BLOG is to share information about my areas of expertise like social media, SEO and other things that I run across from time to time. This will include tips and tricks on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and hints and tricks that will help in Networking with others.
A lot of the tips that I share will be from the perspective of the job hunt since I am active with a career networking organization called CareerConnection (www.careerconnection.org) where I am a regular presenter on the topics of LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook and there use in the job hunt.
If you have questions or suggested topics please let me know, I would be happy to write about the things you would like to know more about.
Happy Networking,
John
NosalCentral offers web consulting to small and medium sized business that are needing to increase the effectiveness of their web presence through Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM), and Social Media Marketing. In addition we can help you learn to use analytic tools to monitor your traffic and to react accordingly.
My goal with this BLOG is to share information about my areas of expertise like social media, SEO and other things that I run across from time to time. This will include tips and tricks on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and hints and tricks that will help in Networking with others.
A lot of the tips that I share will be from the perspective of the job hunt since I am active with a career networking organization called CareerConnection (www.careerconnection.org) where I am a regular presenter on the topics of LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook and there use in the job hunt.
If you have questions or suggested topics please let me know, I would be happy to write about the things you would like to know more about.
Happy Networking,
John
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