Archive for category For Job Seekers
Words to Newbies
Posted by Steve in For Job Seekers on April 22, 2010
Today, a friend of mine, Ed Viator, discussed points of advice for newbies (newly hired people) in marketing. Great article on www.evil-marketer.com.
It got me to thinking. What advice would I have to anyone starting in a new job or new business environment. There is always – create something of value that makes them thankful you are there. However, I wanted more, so I came up with a list of 10 things:
1. Your #1 customer is your boss. Remember that.
2. Your colleagues, boss, and underlings are not your buddies. They are your co-workers. Do not get drunk with them, do not confide too much them, and especially do not sleep with them. Being friendly and professional with mutual respect is great. Showing comraderie is excellent. Just do not take it too far. Bottom line is that a person in a corner will sacrifice you in an instance to save their butts. Do not give them any ammo.
3. Think that you have to create value and demonstrate your value to them every day. Just because you are there does not give you justification to stay there. You are only as good as your latest achievement today. If you do not have a latest achievement then you quickly losing value.
4. Start with mutual respect and trust. They can increase it or decrease it, just like you.
5. Do not gossip. If someone says something negative about the boss, or a colleague, do not even agree. They or an onlooker might say you said it. It may or may not be true, so just be quiet about it.? Try to quietly get out of the situation.
6. Do not brag. War stories are okay as long as they are funny or have a point.
7. Cover your ass ? do not be a fall guy.
8. Be careful with company expenses. Understand the guidelines. If there are no guidelines, make some and stick with it. If a customer wants to buy the $500 bottle of wine say it is against company policy for any wine over $100 and then suggest something else.
9. Become an expert in something even if it just that you have all the information on the product line in one directory on your computer. When people start coming to you for more information they will see you as the go-to person. So will management.
10. Offer encouragement and congratulations publically. Give admonition and criticism privately. When criticizing offer first what they are good at, or at least that their intentions are to do a good job (very people want to do a bad job, regardless of how incompetent they may be).
Stay focused on the goals, support your boss, and be the great team member. Remember this is work, you can have fun and enjoy it, but do not forget you have to be professional.
Fitting in at work
Posted by Steve in For Job Seekers, Leadership on February 24, 2010
How important is fitting in with your workplace culture? Its vital. If you do not, then you usually lose your job. And, if someone is not fitting in, should the employer do something? If the odd person is causing problems that prevent the group from working effectively, usually they get rid of that odd person.
An article on CNN, Good job, lousy coworkers, does not address these questions, but rather shows how employees just did not fit one place but fit somewhere else. The incidents were:
1. Colleagues did not want to have lunch with the person or do any outside activities with the person.
2. The employee in question did not participate in extracurricular activities.
3. An employee was older with a family in a company with mostly 20-something singles; and left for the evening to be with his family. The young people centered their life around the company and resentment built up.
4. One employee was very young compared to his coworkers and felt awkward and out of place.
5. A new manager jumped into a situation with everyone creating drama that was counterproductive.
6. The last person could not spout any new ideas as they were all shot down; everyone resisted change.
Given that I do not know the particulars of each situation and in each situation the employee moved on to bigger and better things. However, one thing stuck out. Each one of these situations is common in most companies, and the successful people learn how to leverage the situation, manipulate the people, or move on quickly.
In most of the situations outlined clearly the other parties were being jerks, fearful, resentful or just stupid. In ALL the situations, the employee could have done something about it. Here is my take on each one. You can read about them here: http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2010/news/1002/gallery.workplace_culture/index.html
1. Your colleagues are not your friends and buddies no matter how much they act like that to each other. They do not want to play with you? Invite them to lunch with you and make friends towards them, and do not expect them to initiate. You are probably the outsider. If they still do not want to be friends, then remember, they are colleagues and you are a professional.
2. Participate in extracurricular activities. A big part of getting things done in a company is to have people respect you, not fear you, and be comfortable working with you. This is best done in non-work environments.
3. The young people liked to play video games during their lunches. Join them sometimes. You have a family and they do not; but that does not mean you cannot try to make friends with them in off hours.
4. When you are very young compared to everyone else, keep quiet and listen. Learn. Find a mentor. Figure out how to be helpful. Support and give to others.
5. As a new manager, you are a leader. You do not fraternize yourself with everyones drama. When you realize this is a problem you set the tone right away that people need to get along and focus on the job. If it starts to interfere you need to address it one-on-one. The worst offenders, if it is interfering with work, are fired or transferred if possible.
6. People resist change out of fear for losing their jobs, having to work more for less, or just having to face the possibility of failure. Find out what they want to do to be successful and address that. What are their goals for the year and how can your ideas help them?
In general, here are the rules:
1. Keep your mouth shut. If you really do not like it there, then quietly look elsewhere.
2. Find something early on that you can do that can contribute to the company.
3. Offer friendship, assistance, and smiles. Do not demand it or require it comes to you first.
4. Figure out the culture and do your best to adapt to it and use it to your advantage.
5. Colleagues are colleagues and remain professional at all times. You can become friends, but remember, they are your colleagues.
6. If you are in a role that people work for you, act like a leader and not a manager. If you do not know the difference then learn.
8 Characteristics of Success
Posted by Steve in For Job Seekers, Leadership on February 16, 2010
This week a lot of news about TED. If you are not aware of it, TED is a series of presentations about cool ideas.
That is it. If you have a cool idea you present at TED.
This one is very appropriate for this blog. What is the SECRET of success. Richard St. John realized that he was at a conference of successful people; so he asked them. He asked 500 people and compiled the data.
His presentation is here: http://www.ted.com/talks/richard_st_john_s_8_secrets_of_success.html..
It is well worth the three minutes.
What leads to success?
Passion
Work (that is fun)
Focus
Persist
Ideas (that are good, which leads to )
Good (be good at something, get to be the best you can be at it)
Push (keep pushing yourself, just like your Mom pushed you)
Serve (remember, you are there to serve others, your customers and your employees)
This combination of eight characteristics leads to success. At least according to Richard St. John.? I agree.
Just makes me wonder what was number nine?
Stay ahead of the curve, Book discussion: “Crush It!” part 11
Posted by eviator in For Job Seekers on January 11, 2010
Nothing stays the same, everything changes. Everything I’ve been talking about, and will talk about in the future can and will change with time. The information in Crush It! is not absolute, it can change tomorrow or even later today. It’s up to you to stay ahead of the curve, and you need to always be willing to adapt, especially when something isn’t working. As a matter of fact, social networking and new media is a fantastic way to find out what people think of your brand.
In the past, it was very difficult for businesses (and individuals for that matter) to address criticism or feedback from the masses. With social media it’s easier than ever, and you need to take advantage of the opportunity. Look at what Dominoes Pizza is doing. It’s very impressive that they are willing to interact with their customers on a one on one basis. The new social media offers this opportunity, but far too few major companies are taking advantage of this. Think about how you can interact with individuals within your community?and you will always be ahead of the curve.
Notable quotes from the final?chapters:
- If you see falsehood, you can correct it. If you see praise, you can show appreciation. If you see confusion, you can inform.
- We’re all in the public eye now.
- Think through the consequences of every business decision you make before you actually make it.
- No matter how big you get, every email, every customer, every friend, every single person with whom you come into contact matters and deserves respect and attention.
This concludes the discussion of Crush It! It’s an excellent book and worth the read so check your local library or purchase using my shameless link.
Putting it all together, Book Outline “Crush It!” part 9
Posted by eviator in For Job Seekers, Miscellaneous on January 5, 2010
- Buy your domain name, preferably firstnamelastname.com When you sign up for Twitter, Facebook, etc, use this domain name (ex: )www.facebook.com/edward.viator
- Start a Wordpress or Tumblr account and host your domain on it.
- Hire a web designer to make sure your user interface is excellent. If you can’t afford one, get started anyway, but know that you should hire a designer in the future (as you can see, I can’t afford one yet).
- If you’re doing video, buy a $150 Flip camera.
- Create a Facebook fan page.
- Open a Twitter account with your domain name.
- If you’re doing video open a Tube Mogul account; if written word, sign up for Ping.fm.
- Create content and lots of it. Use personal anecdotes and let your personality shine.
- Tweet or post your content using Ping or Tube Mogul.
- Go to search.twitter and start searching for subjects relevant to your blog. Start following many of these.
- Go to blogsearch.google.com and search for blogs similar to yours. Comment and leave your name which should be linked to your webpage.
- Search Facebook for pages that relate to your topic. Join the active ones. Do the same for groups.
- Repeat 5, 8-12.
If you want to be successful, you’re going to need to focus on step 13. In other words, constantly create new content and reach out to the community online. If you’re going to need to focus on step 13. In other words, constantly create new content and reach out to the community online. If you’re content is great, you will get results eventually. Just remember, you should try to wait as long as possible to monetize your brand. Once you monetize, Vaynerchuk suggests that it is difficult to focus on content, so early on you should focus on building the community.
Notable quotes from this chapter:
- Don’t forget to include a list of all of your social network links on your e-mail signature, letterhead, and business cards.
- Make sure you have a big fat button on your site that says Want to Do Business with Me? or something along those lines.
Creating a community, Book Outline “Crush It!” part 7
Posted by eviator in For Job Seekers, Miscellaneous on December 29, 2009
We’ve talked about why you should build your brand, about creating content, and some of the different platforms you can use to promote your brand. However, the majority of your effort online will be about building a community around your brand. Creating content may seem difficult if you’ve?never done it before, but if you’ve picked your topic successfully, it’s the easiest part of the entire venture. The most difficult aspect of building your brand online is creating an active community. In his seventh and eighth chapters, respectively titled Keep it real… Very real and Create community: Digging your internet trench, Vaynerchuk discusses how to go about building your online community.
In my opinion, alot of marketing I see is very phoney. I think that people today are more media savvy than ever before, and they are also aware of how fake marketing efforts by major brands has become. We live in an age where prepared PR statements are a way of life (see my blog for a list of some of my favorites). I’m not fooled by them, and I don’t think anyone else is either. People value authenticity. It’s why?we go online and seek out consumer opinions. By building a community around your brand (personal and as a business), you won’t have to sound your own horn, your community will do that for you.
So how can you build this magical community? Through alot of hard work and time. The basic idea is that you should create your content and distribute it (see previous post for details), then start looking at and commenting on other people’s content. You should make the most of every interaction, stay on topic, and be yourself. Resist the urge to post things for the sake of posting them, and instead only post when you have something of value to share. You should follow people on Twitter, or sign up for some pages on Facebook. Basically, you need to get involved. You can’t just post content and hope that people show up.
When people visit your site, they will be hooked on your outstanding content (you do have outstanding content right?). You also need to make the most out of those call to action buttons (subscribe, follow-me, share, etc).
Next we will discuss the best marketing strategy ever, and you won’t want to miss it.
Notable quotes from these chapters:
- Being authentic and being perceived as such by your audience relies on your ability to ensure that every decision you make when it comes to your business is rooted in being true to yourself.
- Creating community is about starting conversations.
Choosing your platform, Book Outline “Crush It!” part 6
Posted by eviator in For Job Seekers on December 28, 2009
There are basically three different formats that you can choose from to produce content on the web, video, audio, or written word (or a combination of these). In chapter 6, Choose Your Platform, Vaynerchuk discusses some of the more popular online platforms…
Wordpress and Tumblr:
All other platforms you use should lead here to your blog. It should be your headquarters. Wordpress is an excellent service, and incorporates many features. It can be challenging to master, but can pay off in a big way. Tumblr is an alternative to Wordpress that is very easy to use and while lacking some of Wordpress’ bells and whistles, succeeds in getting the job done. Personally I recommend Tumblr (this is what I use), especially for the person with a $0 budget, for one big reason. They will host your domain for free. Awesome I know.
Regardless of which blog platform you choose, you should always take advantage of the call to action buttons (Like that button on the right that says Share). Having this type of button on your page can be an excellent way to build some word of mouth.
Facebook:
I love Facebook. It’s an excellent way to share all types of information, photographs, news articles, videos, etc with your friends and contacts. You can set up a personal profile for yourself, as well as a fan page (like my favorite local comic shop Keith’s Comics… http://www.facebook.com//keithscomics). The advantage of using a fan page is that you can have an infinite number of fans (there’s a 5,000 person limit on your profile). Also, it’s?an excellent non-intrusive way to get your messages out to your customers (as opposed to spaming them with emails).
Twitter:
I’ll admit, I’m a bit puzzled when it comes to Twitter, but after reading Vaynerchuk’s book I’m definitely reconsidering using it. Basically you can use Twitter to put out content, and follow other people’s content. Most importantly, it allows you to start conversations with people. As with other social media platforms, Twitter can be used effectively to lure people to your blog… assuming your blog is relevant and interesting to your followers. Vaynerchuk suggests the following website (www.chrisbrogan.com/50-ideas-on-using-twitter-for-business), and I agree. It is an excellent resource for those interested in using Twitter to effectively market a business (or your personal brand).
Flickr:
Flickr is a picture hosting site that can be used to either post pictures that lead back to your blog, or you can post intriguing comments on other people’s pictures that will lead back to your blog. Just remember, if you are posting comments, you should stay relevant and tasteful; don’t just post something for the sake of posting it.
Youtube and/or Viddler:
Youtube is one of my favorite time-wasting websites. I use it all the time to search for music concerts, classic boxing matches, video game playthroughs, and tons of other fun content. It’s such a huge site that it’s very easy to get lost among all the other people out there doing the same thing that you’re doing. Viddler is a smaller site, and you can even put your logo at the bottom of your videos (instead of having a Youtube logo on it). Viddler also allows you to earmark specific segments of your video which works well for someone posting reviews and such. If video is your thing, there’s no reason to not use both.
Ustream.tv:
Ustream.tv is a live video program that includes chat functions. Vaynerchuk suggests that it is excellent for radio shows or a home shopping network style show. I haven’t tried it myself, but if you’ve had success with it, I’d love to hear your story (email me at EdwardViator [at] evil-marketer [dot] com).
Everyone is starting to use these sites, but don’t let that discourage you. As long as you do things your way in your style, you will be able to differentiate yourself with no problem.
In addition to these sites, you should look into using www.ping.fm which allows you to post small updates on a bunch of sites (like facebook and twitter) all at once, and www.tubemogul.com?which essentially does the same thing, but for video content. Tube Mogul is also excellent for analytics (as is google analytics). Vaynerchuk recommends www.somewhatfrank.com/2008/12/social-media-my.html for a full list of social media tools.
Notable quotes from this chapter:
- The difference between promoting your brand via traditional marketing and advertising mediums and doing it via social networking platforms is like the difference between sending a message by pony express and chatting on instant messenger.
- Twitter is perhaps the most powerful brand-building tool in your tool box.
- The best business tweet of all time… What can I do for you?
- It’s not about?how many viewers you have, it’s about how passionate they are.
Book Outline “Crush It!” part 5, creating content
Posted by eviator in For Job Seekers on December 16, 2009
We’ve already discussed why you should be building your personal brand (online and off), but how do you go about doing it? How do you create excellent and compelling content? Here’s a hint, it really helps if you are passionate about what you’re talking about. I enjoy many different things, film, comics, video games, music, etc, but I love marketing. It’s what I’m passionate about. Sometimes I find myself discussing marketing topics with friends and family that couldn’t care less, which is why I’m posting here. If you know what you are passionate about, then you should have no problem finding hundreds of topics to discuss.
According to Vaynerchuk, to win at this game, you need to honestly be able to answer yes to these questions:
- Is ____ my ultimate passion?
- Am I good enough to be the best blogger about ____ in the world?
He’s right. If you can’t answer yes to these questions, then go find something else to discuss. You can do amazing work marketing your blog or website, but it doesn’t matter if your content is bland. Vaynerchuk offers a formula to help you create excellent content…. Passion + expertise = good content. This means that you need to research your passion and learn everything about it. If you think about it, this should be the fun and exciting part of the whole venture. If you are truly passionate about your subject, then you’re probably researching anyway. You can even turn this learning process into something you wright about (like what I’m doing right now).
If you want a boring blog, post the facts. If you want an interesting blog that attracts the type of people you want to talk to, then you should infuse your posts with your own personality. Tell some stories (remember storytelling is by far the most underrated skill in business), and have fun. The next step is finding out which medium you should use to get your point across, print, online radio, or video, which we will discuss next.
Notable quotes from this chapter:
- To monetize your personal brand into a business using social marketing networks, two pillars need to be in place: product and content.
- Know yourself. Choose the right medium, chose the right topic, create awesome content, and you can make a lot of money being happy.
Are you creating excellent content? Tell me about it at edwardviator [at] evil-marketer [dot] com
Quit your job does not mean quit working for someone else
Posted by Steve in For Job Seekers on December 15, 2009
Be your own boss.
Stop working for the man.
Enticing ideas, but unfortunately they are rarely true. Bosses work for other people: stockholders, owners, board of directors, and customers. They are always answerable to someone else.
On Friday, Dec 9, 2009, Ed Viator wrote about quitting your job. The idea is not necessarily go out there and start your own company, but to find a job doing what you love. If it is not working for your current boss, then it may be working for someone else. That someone else could also be in the very same company you are now.
Before you quit your job assess your situation. Figure out what is wrong, and what options there are to fix it. Those options are fix your current job, find a new role in your company, find a role somewhere else, or start your own business. You will always be working for someone else so its best to pick not only the job you love, but the boss you can stand.
Book Outline “Crush It!” part 4, when should you quit your job
Posted by eviator in For Job Seekers on December 9, 2009
According to Gary Vaynerchuk, you should quit if you can’t answer yes to the following questions:
- Are you happy with your present job?
- Do you work for a company that allows you to have a public persona?
- If you’re not allowed to develop a personal persona at work, are you allowed to do so in your personal time?
In today’s tough economy, it is probably unwise to quit your job outright. However, Vaynerchuk makes a good argument. If you are not able to build your own personal brand, you will be left in the dust, and should at least start preparing your resume. Chances are, there’s a better job out there for you, one that will enable you to prepare for your own future success as well as the company’s.
What do you think? When is it appropriate to quit your job? Let me know at edwardviator [at] evil-marketer [dot] com
Notable quotes from this chapter:
?
- Crying about how things should be instead of embracing how things are doesn’t do anyone any good.
- The middleman has not yet been eliminated but we’re getting there.
- The changes that will be wrought by the internet are as fundamentally transformative to content and commerce as the printing press. It’s a whole new world; build your personal brand and get ready for it.