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Showing posts from January, 2015

Wasn't that Super Bowl Amazing?! or Proactive Social Media

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New England. Seattle. What a game that was! Yes I said was . No, this article wasn't posted a week early. It's in fact timed perfectly because it's not about the big game, it's about the social media game around scheduled events. Good luck getting your post noticed nonetheless your message received next Monday morning. The Web will be overflowing with Facebook posts, Tweets, Instagrams, blogs, and commentary on the successes, failures, bad calls, and great plays of Super Bowl 49 ( Sorry. English Major here. I don't do Roman Numerals ). But today, rather than my words getting lost in a sea of Monday morning social media mayhem, you're reading this Super Bowl themed article. I've got your attention and you'll listen to what I've got to offer. Touchdown, and the extra point is good. First rule in social media event strategy is say it first . You can run the risk of saying the wrong thing, but that can be avoided if you've got t

Is that Job Posting...Really a Job Posting?

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Many people devoted some of this weekend to updating their resume and look for a new job. Back in prehistoric times, when resumés were printed on paper ( Admit it my fellow dinosaurs.You remember ), applying for jobs was a very different process. You'd check the local paper on Sunday, write targeted cover letters and address envelopes ( maybe on that typewriter thingy? ) carefully fold a copy of your resume, mail it out and hope for the best. And somehow it worked, and you got a call by Friday. But sometimes you didn't, despite the fact that you were perfect for the job. In pre-Internet days, I remember seeing two piles of resumés on my boss's desk. In the first pile were resumés of people who were referred word of mouth by coworkers, friends, and/or other departments. In the second pile were resumés collected from newspaper job postings all still in their unopened envelopes. Those resumés would be "kept on file" until the next ad was posted six months la

Office Romances and the 3 Mistakes You'll Make

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Yes, I know she's "not like the others." Yes I know he's cute, kind, smart, and smiles like he can read your mind. But... There's often no better way to find a compatible match than at the office as a recent study has shown . You get to see how they work, deal with stress, and interact with others. You've chosen the same career path so you have built-in commonalities. And they're sitting right across the cubicle from you so how's that for a short commute? It's how Barrack met Michelle. How Ashton met Mila. How I met the mother of my daughter. So I can't knock it. But... You need to think about this one. Really think. Because an office romance is a risk to your career. (Notice I said it is and not can be ?) But like any great risk, in can bring great rewards so you just need to be smart about how you go about it. Mistake 1: Working together and not "working together" One of my first corporate jobs was for a l

LinkedIn or LinkedOut: Can a Split Profile Work Against You?

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If your career path has taken extreme detours, will an accurate and honest LinkedIn profile actually hurt your career instead of help it? As much as people like those "3 Reasons Why.." and "The Top 10 Ways..." articles, this is not one of them. This is about only one topic. One message in fact that I received from an old friend the other day regarding LinkedIn. He reads my articles and posed what I thought was a rather interesting challenge: "You seem to have this whole LinkedIn thing figured out," he said. "But I don't. In fact, I think being on LinkedIn is actually hurting my career -- not helping it. I'm actually planning on deleting my account. I'm going to call you tomorrow and want to see if you can convince me otherwise." Challenge accepted. I see articles every week on LinkedIn about improving or enhancing your profile, to generate leads, to increase your network, to get hired, to avoid getting fired, but t