Branding with Twitter & Maintaining with Love!

With millions using social media, people are figuring out that branding if used right could really be the next effective marking tool and put advertising/marketing firms out of business.  It’s not personal, it’s smart.  To be effective in branding on Twitter you must first stop thinking like an expert or guru or better yet a SME.

Branding yourself or company on Twitter requires a bit of a shift in mindset. Twitter is about simple conversations. The community that you are entering wants interaction—with you and with each other. Tweeting is 1 to 1, with the benefit of being in a public arena where visitors may read your conversation and interact with you and each other.

Rule of Engagement

Get to know your sandbox and who is playing in it. Remind yourself that Twitter is a real community and that each community has its own set of rules. Before you involve yourself into the conversation, spend some time observing and learning. You’ll find that most people are very friendly and supportive, but it’s best to understand the rules first. The best way to jump in is to ask for help. This may seem weird because brands are used to being on the other end typically telling consumers what to do. When you are asking for advice it may have you feel as if you are making your brand vulnerable, however, we as a community are helping each other out, which makes social media great

Connect PLEASE!

People don’t connect with brands, they connect with people!  It doesn’t matter how large you or your company is. On Twitter, people want to connect to a person. You’ll lose people’s interest when talking about your ‘brand’ all the time. PLEASE I beg you! Make your updates personable and human, not polished like news columns. It’s OK to be human with some rough edges.

Conversation

It’s a two-way street companies look at Twitter as another ‘channel’ to conquer – bummer isn’t it. This kind of thinking is dangerous with interactive branding. Social Media is NOT about building a channel; it’s about creating a conversation. Our goal as Tweeters should be getting people talking by posing questions, asking for input and connecting people as a trusted community in your sandbox.

 This way of communication “back and forth” motion is what makes social media totally awesome and it really helps build an emotional connection between you and community.  The community now has more choices and for this the relationships has become more crucial than ever.

Offerings

Give people a reason to follow you we love to pass on information and if people are following your brand on Twitter, they are already showing your message. So why not offer them something? Like special offers or just one-to-one conversation with who follow you through more Social Media networks.

Once you have been using Twitter for a while, you’ll notice key people that like to talk about your brand (aka “Big Wigs”). These people are worth more than you know!  Invite them to your private product launches, ask them how you can improve. You’ll be blown away!

Blog

Integrate your blog into Twitter it’s the kind of flexible technology you’re looking for which is what makes it so powerful. The fact that Twitter can be set up to automatically update your followers every time you post a blog entry or that any RSS feed can be re-broadcasted through your Twitter. Another great option is adding buttons, badges and widgets to sections of your other sites so that visitors are able to “Tweet” it’s contents.

Posted via email from Kay Kelison's Digital-Log

JobBlog = Getting a Job = Leaving Your Mark!

Employees have been fired when their employer misunderstands their blog posts as sharing confidential information, making inappropriate comments about the company, or both. Posting company news, pictures, and even making positive comments about a company have cost bloggers their jobs.  When considering writing blog and you know you might be writing things about your company, you should ask “what are the rules of engagement” when writing a blog. You may find no rules, but at least you brought it their attention and be sure to ask in writing so you can have it if any concerns come up.

Just think about it when you are creating a blog.

Job Search Blogging

What about job seekers? Can having a blog, a personal web site, or an account on a social networking site impact your job search, for better or for worse? It could. One blogger posted recently that she lies in interviews and that she copies other resumes to match the opportunity. Seriously this kind of behavior wouldn't thrill a prospective employer if they knew about it. Another job seeker's blog mentions that he loves to party all night, drinks ALOT on a regular basis, and steals on occasion again not a profile that would thrill most employers. We all talk about how social networking is subjective and that we as recruiters shouldn’t pass judgment on social sites, but I think it is something that we are doing more since social networking is becoming a hot topic and if I was a candidate looking for my next job, I would think twice on how I behave on my social networks, and still have fun.

Privacy Issues

Should potential employers be reading your personal information? Probably not however, if you put it on the Internet with it readily accessible, well then they can and they might. Some people list their personal web site or blog on their resume and most of us recruiters will look you up on any of the search engines we're interested in knowing more about you as an individual. There's nothing to stop a hiring manager from doing the same, especially tech companies.

If it's on your resume, the employer will look at it guaranteed! Hiring managers are more and more looking closely to what you have out there on the internet. Especially if you have a web site if it's listed, come on now you have to know that? Some managers go as far as to find out as much about a candidate as she could, including looking up the person online before your initial phone call.  Your image speaks in volumes then just your resume these days.

Even if you don’t put your web, blog, and profile on your resume, they will do a quick search via web and most cases they will find something about you. Remember your info which contains information on your real identity, the people you least expect, and those that you certainly don't want reading it, may find it.         Not only your boss and prospective employers, but, also your customers, colleagues and coworkers!

How to Blog Smart

BusinessWeek has information on how to blog safely and how to blog without getting fired. I will be writing about it as blog next week as well. The suggestions include blogging anonymously, making your blog not searchable, limiting who can read your blog, and, when employed, focusing your blog on protected topics or what you can share to educate people of who you are which can't get you fired for writing about that. However, if you aren’t happy in your job, maybe its best that you don’t blog! With the social media is everywhere and these are hot topics, you can pretty much guaranteed that someone is reading your blog from your workplace.

Read Job Search Blogs

There are many blogs dedicated to job searching and career building. Jobprofiles has the 100 best job search blogs for your job search. Read these on a regular basis, review the advice that is offered, and pick up tips that will aid your job search.  Blogging can become a statement of who you are, but, don't let that statement change your employment possibilities. Keep on blogging, but, blog smart, securely and respectful, so your current or future career opportunities aren't jeopardized but MAXIMIZED of your true self!

Posted via email from Kay Kelison's Digital-Log

The Simplicity Is Beautiful

 

Gone are the funky pixel fonts, over the top headers and forever loading times. They’ve been replaced by simple, easy on the eyes, and easy to use web interfaces. The new ‘effective” is definitely simplicity with focus on good content, and ”TWEETAJOB” is that and a bag of chips!.

TWEETAJOB  has a simple and effective web design which gives the accomplishment of a few important things:

You want to stay longer and play! On average, visitors stay on the same page for about 90 seconds (maybe shorter).  So, within the first 90 seconds, it’s important to capture the visitor’s attention. TWEETAJOB does that! Their content captures not only the reader’s attention, but it engages the reader as well.  Sure they could use pretty flash intro, but why?  Sorry my friends, but nifty flash headers are unnecessary distractions (especially the ones that could induce a seizure, but let’s not talk about those)

 

Much Easier Code and Clean Design as most designers and coders of sites, you’d rather create a simple and effective website for a client instead of a complex one; TWEETAJOB is providing this! The time invested in creating their slick, clean, color pleasing intro is just phenomenal.

TWEETAJOB  allows the user to focus on their content and the ease of using it, please appreciate the simplicity!  Let’s reference back to those near seizure-inducing animations. Have you ever tried to read something on a site, only to find that you can’t concentrate on the content because of its surroundings, and that you had to copy and paste the content into Notepad just to read it? You hear what I am saying?

Loads faster there’s no doubting that less images, less flash and more reusable graphics help in optimizing load times, TWEETAJOB has done this!  You don’t want thirty seconds for a page to load… well do you?

As a huge fan of TWEETAJOB and a recruiter who is always looking for ways to connect to top talent that on the cutting edge of technology, this is one resource worth is giving two thumbs up   

Posted via email from Kay Kelison's Digital-Log

The Gatekeeper & 3 other Roles that Recruiters Play

Some job seekers don't fully understand a recruiter's role. They view recruiters as getting in the middle of their job search, preventing direct contact with the hiring manage(s) for available positions. Well this is actually true and these job seekers are going to have a long and frustrating search for their next job, because the vast majority of companies now use recruiters almost exclusively to facilitate the hiring process. These are 4 roles that recruiters play:

·         Corporate Representative

·         Gatekeeper

·         Educator

·         Negotiator

Corporate Representative

Whether you like it or not, the recruiter is the company's representative to the talents available. We are the "faces" of the company at events, job fairs, social networking, etc. The title “Recruiter” has changed and been given multi-layers in order to promote the benefits and advantages of working for company they represent. This evolution of change is an effort to attract the best and brightest job candidates. Recruiters' responsibilities have grown tremendously role as the job market has become more and more competitive. Some industries, where diverse talented candidates are difficult to find, the recruiter's job has taken on many characteristics of a marketing professional, trying to "sell" the talent on the company and get them excited about working there, regardless the reputation of the company.

Gatekeeper - Recruiter

The Gatekeeper source screens and submits you—the talent. This is particularly important to remember when you receive a phone call as the recruiter usually has the opportunity to speak with talent and learn a bit more about you and your interest. One of the biggest mistakes the talent can make is to be dismissive or impatient when speaking with recruiters. This is a very poor choice, as the recruiter will consider personal interactions with candidates as one factor in whether or not to grant an interview.

Educator - Recruiter

The Educator holds important information and knowledge of job opportunities. They can provide important details and insights about specific jobs and responsibilities, as well as provide a good overview of the company culture and what to expect when employed. The recruiter is also a source of information about salary, benefits and other aspects of overall compensation, which can be very important indeed when considering more than one job offer.

Negotiator - Recruiter

The Negotiator often is in the position to negotiate the specifics of job offers. They partner with hiring managers to ensure salary ranges are appropriate based on internal and external facts, and may also act as the primary negotiating contact for salary issues. Many companies, the hiring manager has to gain the approval of the recruiter in order to extend an offer or alter the terms of the offer extended. Bet you didn’t know that one!

Common Thread

The recruiter who plays each of these roles will vary from company to company. They may divide some of these responsibilities with fellow colleagues or HR partners. Either way, no candidate can afford to dismiss or ignore the role of the Gatekeeper. So if you hope to have a successful job search you may want to think twice about how you interact with a corporate recruiter.

Posted via email from Kay Kelison's Digital-Log

Why Do We Blog?

Are you curious about blogging? Have a concept or idea? Do you have an opinion and you want to express or share knowledge that can be helpful? Here are a few things to know about blogging.

How many bloggers are there?

The thing to remember is that a blog is just a tool or to some a portal. There's really nothing special about it, no requirements for any particular capabilities for one to start a blog. Common usage is feel of a diary-like and allow comments from readers to be included, but its not required. Unlike social networks there are no groups or fan pages that need to be see how many members/followers. So, this means in reality it's basically impossible to estimate how many blogs or bloggers are out there and maybe that is a good thing since to some it might be to scary to jump in and create a blog of their own.

"However, if we hold ourselves to sites that have comments section and do allow user to add their feedback, we're still in the millions of blogs, people ranging from pre-teens to senior citizens, with the bulk of bloggers in their late teens to 50 or thereabouts."

Why do people blog?

"Why people blog, well, in my opinion is to have a voice, however small. Think about just like those who write fancy opinion columns for newspapers or journals, you too can share your knowledge, vent, etc. to the public. Still, there are many really smart bloggers who have interesting perspectives on the news, politics, sports, business, etc., people who wouldn't otherwise be heard in the typical media. "That's why I read blogs daily, in hopes that I can share my perspective on things.

How about you? dear blog reader (and, probably, blogger in your own right). How would you answer these three key questions?

How many bloggers are there?

Why do people blog?

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from Kay Kelison's Digital-Log

Animoto.com

"UnFriend" - Makes You Think....

The word of the 2009 was announced as “unfriend” in the Oxford American Dictionary http://tinyurl.com/yzy6dw5

I start to think about how many of us like to think that we’re highly organized and efficient when it comes to our social network, there is in fact a lot we can do to make our lives easier and faster.

I’ve adopted some radical measures to streamline and improve my use of Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and even my several Blogs.

1 – Cut the Number of People You Follow/Friend

The temptation when you first start using social networking’s its to embark on a ‘following rampage’. You add the sites you read, the bloggers you respect, friends, family, business colleagues and in return many of the people that follow wants you to follow them. This of course seems like a great idea at first, but you’ll find a tipping point – in my own case, by following close to 2000 people in Twitter alone, Social Networking has become nothing more than a never-ending deluge of noise, with useful and informative updates getting lost amongst the funny stuff. Even by setting up a aggregator on my desktop I am finding it ever harder to keep up and yet… addicting too.

I made the decision to cut back on who I accept, follow, friend. And It was time to ‘purge’.

Before hitting the unfollow or unfriend option in earnest, I realized it would be a wise idea to set myself some criteria for who I should keep in my network:

- Is this person I’m following/friending  bringing any real value to me?

- Is this person I’m following/friending  tweeting unique information and links?

- Does this person I’m following/friending me and if they do, do they ever communicate with me or re-tweet what I put out there? (GREAT DECISION MAKER FOR ME)

There is plenty of reasons of your own that you could add, but this is what suited me at the moment.

Next, I realized it takes me many hours to go through everyone using Twitter on its own. Thankfully there’s some great tools available to help you. I used Digsby (www.digsby.com)  this is what you get using this tool specifically.

When you log in to Digsby you automatically get logged into your numerous social networks (twitter, facebook, linkedin, etc) including your IM’s and emails. At this point… the plurge, start unfollowing or unfriending those in these locations.

2 – Effectively Manage the Remaining People You Follow/Friended

Once I’d got over what I’d done, it was time to effectively manage who I was left with.

This next step is very easy to undertake. Each application allows you to set up groups, whereby you can classify the people you follow/friended into distinct groups, such as ‘friends’, ‘colleagues’, ‘business’,  etc. In future when you get a new tweet/status update for someone you have allocated to a group it will appear in the appropriate group column. This way you can find and read it with less difficulty.

****Twitter now also allows you to set up lists as well, so you can group together people in a similar way.

3 – Be Prepared to Fall in Love with Social Media All over Again (don’t tell your significant other)

What I’ve described sound quite drastic, but trust me, if your social networks has become an out of control stream of status with mafia war that you can’t keep up with, it really is your only option… UNFRIEND/UNFOLLOW.

Since I made this choice to cut the number of people I follow/friended down to my comfort level of engagement, I’ve rediscovered my love for social medial.

Posted via email from Kay Kelison's Digital-Log