AFMarCom

12 Steps to a Job-Finding LinkedIn Profile

Angelique — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 08:15:08 +0000

A lot of people don’t start to think seriously about LinkedIn until they lose their jobs. Suddenly they need a LinkedIn profile that attracts the attention of headhunters and impresses potential employers. And just as suddenly, they realize that their profiles are practically empty they don’t know how to fill them out.

Are you in that boat? Here’s where to start!

Helping me out with this blog post is Valerie Wunder, whose LinkedIn profile I’m using for show & tell. Valerie recently left her job and is looking for another.

1. Change your basic information to reflect your current professional status. Your “professional headline” and “industry” should clearly reflect your greatest skill and/or the type of job you want. Some headline examples:

Software Developer
Graphic Designer
Marketing Manager
Clinical Laboratory Technician

Here’s how it looks:

2. Your “display name” should be your full name. The “first name, last initial” choice is very bad for people seeking jobs! Here’s the full name:

3. You absolutely need a photograph. Choose something with a big smile and your eyes on the camera, and crop it to focus on your face. Head and very top of the shoulders is fine. Since you’re not showing your outfit or the background, you should have plenty of photos to choose from. If your favorite photo has a problem, e.g., your face is sunburnt, there’s glare on your glasses, or the photo is too bright or dark, have it fixed by a professional. It’s worth it! Here’s Valerie’s photo:

4. The “summary” section is self-explanatory. Don’t be in a hurry to fill this out. You want it, but it’s better to give it some thought. Fill out the rest of your profile and come back to this one.

5. The “experience” section is like a traditional resume. Add all of your major jobs. Don’t forget volunteer positions! Sometimes your volunteer work demonstrates more skills, creativity and reliability than your paid positions. While you’re at it, ask the people for whom you volunteer for a recommendation.

6. In the “skills” section, try to choose the skills they already have listed. (Sometimes you have to invent your own.) It’s very important to list every skill that fits you, because these are keywords picked up by LinkedIn’s search. Here’s what this section looks like:

7. “Education” is also self-explanatory! Be sure to join the LinkedIn alumni group for every school you’ve attended. Also, be sure to list school activities like athletic teams, academic associations and social clubs. Here’s an example from Valerie’s profile:

8. Under “additional information,” don’t add social networks that you don’t use. For example, if you’re not using Twitter regularly, don’t list it. Add any interest you have that you might easily discuss at a corporate event.

9. Under “contact me for,” make sure you accept both introductions and InMail. If there are jobs you especially want or especially don’t want, write that in the special instructions box. Here’s what that section looks like:

10. Don’t add any applications until you’ve been using LinkedIn for a while and have a better idea of what you really want and need.

11. You’ll notice that there’s an “add sections” area. If you’re a member of an honor society or some other organization, you may want to list this. Remember that you can rearrange the sections on your profile, so if your society or organization has to do with school, you can move it near your education section.

12. Be sure that your entire profile is entirely public! You WANT people to see your latest posts and activity, all of your groups, all of your resume, your full name and your photo. You want people to find you via Google and Bing. You want them to easily see what you’re about before contacting you.

And here’s a bonus tip:

DON’T USE THE LINKEDIN RESUME UPLOAD FEATURE! It’s buggy! You’ll just have to edit it all anyway. It’s actually faster to enter everything manually.

In case you were wondering what Valerie’s entire feature box looks like, here it is! Click to get to her LinkedIn profile.

Have questions? Please ask in the comments below!

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This is good stuff, Angelique! I've been trying to ramp up my ... by James Dabbagian

Wacky Webby: Groundhog Day Edition! This Thursday, 2/2/12! Join us!

Angelique — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 20:25:30 +0000

I want to offer webinars this year, and before I ask people to spend their hard-earned money, I want to make sure to shake out all the bugs. Therefore, I’m looking for beta testers! (That’s Web 2.0 for “guinea pigs.”)

So join me for free social media and website advice, the chance to ask me questions, and the opportunity to say, “I was at the very first Wacky Webby!”

Date: Thursday, February 2, 2012
Time: 2:30pmET / 11:30am PT
Duration: 60 minutes
Hashtag: #wackywebby
Cost: FREE!
Register: HERE

Why is it wacky? I’m going to test every possible use of the webinar software, including a few off-label uses, so I won’t exactly be sticking to a program. Also, I can’t guarantee everything will work!

Here’s what we’ll cover:

Advice for ALL LEVELS about Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and LinkedIn. This is the stuff I think is the most vital – my personal practices and peeves!

My new Tumblr adventure! (Assuming it’s interesting by then!)

You guys get to ask me questions! And it doesn’t have to be about the networks above. It can be about writing, Photoshop, marketing communications plans… even what the heck is going on with Google Plus!

And I’ll evaluate these websites….

and test the….

PUPPYCAM!

So join these brave souls, whom I am immortalizing on my List.ly list of attendees of the first Wacky Webby:

And then:

Have questions? Please ask! Use the comment section below, or one of these fine social networks:

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Pinterest hates .png files with transparent backgrounds! Use .jpgs instead.

Angelique — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 05:31:08 +0000

I just noticed a little Pinterest glitch: it puts weird colors and shapes behind .png files with transparent backgrounds! Here are two examples:

Above is a graphic I made of a Twitter bird holding a sign. (I didn’t make the blue bird, but I added the sign.) On the left is a screenshot of the image as it appears on my Pinterest board in .png form; on the right is the original graphic. I can’t do anything to change this, because the image is actually coming from my blog (the pin is a link to the blog post that features the graphic.)

Above is one of several logos I tried to upload to Pinterest. The results were the same; an odd rectangle behind the icon. I finally turned them into .jpgs, and they were fine.

I don’t know why this is happening. I hope a web developer of some sort will give me an answer in the comments. Until we can get to the bottom of this, remember: Turn your transparent .png files into .jpgs before uploading to Pinterest!

Have a question? Have an reason for the distorted .png files? Please comment below!

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Mad — I just checked, and you're right; Pinterest IS ... by Angelique
Every png I uploaded to pinterest was converted to a jpg ... by Mad

Pinterest advice – Don’t pin stock photos to illustrate concepts

Angelique — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:46:42 +0000

Click the image above to see it larger.

A lot of companies large and small want to “make friends” with their potential customers by “sharing” on Pinterest. Only they’re not “sharing”; they’re just pinning random generic photos about random generic things.

In the illustration above, “Mary Jones,” a travel agent, wants to make sure people know she cares about things other than booking your Caribbean cruise. She loves fitness! And she wants to share her love of fitness by telling you that… running is a way to exercise! No kidding! It really is! She has a whole board entitled “Ways to exercise!” Did you know that swimming is also a way to exercise? So is tennis! So is yoga! So is Zumba! And she has stock photos of strangers doing all these things so that her Pinterest followers know what swimming, tennis, yoga and Zumba look like when performed by strangers!

Despite her investment in stock photos, this tactic will not make “Mary” a valued member of the Pinterest community. It will make her an UNFOLLOWED pinner. Why?

The photos she shares are not of her, her clients, her friends or anyone she knows.

She didn’t take the photos.

The photos are (generally) not noteworthy as art, and don’t credit the photographer.

The photos are not specific illustrations of something she does, has or desires. (They don’t have the same purpose as, for example, a stock photo of sushi pinned by a non-commercial person to “My Favorite Meals” with the caption, “This photo makes me so hungry for sushi! My favorite restaurant is Savannah Super Sushi. I’m going this weekend!”)

The photos don’t link to articles about exercise or her personal fitness blog.

There are no captions linking her, her company, or anyone she knows to the photos.

In summary, “Mary’s” pins are boring and useless, and they interfere with the pins her followers really want to see.

If YOU were Mary the Travel Agent, how would YOU be relevant on Pinterest? Answer in the comments!

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Randy — I don't really see any meaningless images on your ... by Angelique
Angelique, I guess I'm guilty of this! I don't have a lot of ... by Randy Thio

Why SOPA and PIPA are Bad

Angelique — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 06:02:15 +0000

UPDATE! January 20: As of this morning, Representative Lamar Smith, the main sponsor of SOPA (Stop Online Privacy Act,) indefinitely postponed hearings on the act, and Senator Harry Reid, main sponsor of PIPA (Protect IP Act) has postponed Tuesday’s vote on that.

Smith said, “I have heard from the critics and I take seriously their concerns regarding proposed legislation to address the problem of online piracy. It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products.”

Senator Harry Reid (@SenatorReid) tweeted three times. Put together, the messages say, “In light of recent events, I have decided to postpone Tuesday’s vote on the PROTECT IP Act. There’s no reason that legitimate issues raised about PROTECT IP can’t be resolved. Counterfeiting & piracy cost 1000s of jobs yearly. Americans rightfully expect to be fairly compensated for their work. I’m optimistic that we can reach compromise on PROTECT IP in coming weeks.”

UPDATE from January 18:The latest news looks good for the cause of Internet Freedom. It also shows that politicians are finally willing to listen to the opinions of leaders in the fields of technology, science and communications. I have to admit I was worried that the lack of blackouts by some of the big Internet players would render the blackout day ineffective, but it turns out that the outcry has been enough.

According to the New York Times, the blackouts have inspired key Senators to change their minds about PIPA, the Protect Intellectual Property Act that’s before the Senate.

As of this afternoon, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, a PIPA co-sponsor, no longer backs it. Also out are co-sponsor Orrin Hatch, John Cornyn, Roy Blunt, Mark Kirk, Jim DeMint and Scott Brown.

And now, my original post:

There’s no reason to reinvent the wheel; here are some clear and informative articles about the issue, which, as you may have noticed, has caused some very popular websites to go black today, Wednesday, January 18, 2012.

Brian Barrett of Gizmodo wrote What Is SOPA?

In GigaOm, Colleen Taylor interviewed Tim O’Reilly for Tim O’Reilly: Why I’m Fighting SOPA

Here’s an easy-to-understand article by Andy Greenberg of Forbes from a few days ago, which covers Obama’s stand against SOPA and PIPA and the delay of the hearings that were set for today: SOPA On The Ropes: House Delays Vote As Obama Comes Out Against Copyright Bill

Wanna know who’s down today? Steven Vaughn-Nichols of ZDNet — whose photo is too tiny to add! — wrote Who, besides Wikipedia, is going dark and why

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A warning about your Twitter name

Angelique — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:00:09 +0000

Lately I’ve been seeing a lot of Twitter names that appear to be a random combination of letters and numbers. And no, these aren’t the accounts of spammers! They’re the names of real men and women who participate fully on Twitter, posting real thoughts, sharing legitimate links, replying, retweeting and chatting.

I realize that each month, there are fewer and fewer names available for use on Twitter, and if people want to keep their handles reasonably short — which is very important to do — they have to get creative. But here are two important considerations:

How hard is your handle to remember?

How hard is your handle to accurately type?

I’m not a fan of numbers on Twitter handles, because unless that number is also a year, it’s impossible to really identify the number with the person; the number never seems to be part of the name, and you feel like you’re trying to remember someone’s official identification code. However, since a lot of people are using numbers, here are some quick tips:

A string of numbers is hard to remember, but easy to type:

johnsmith2648

A string of numbers that’s a year is easier to remember:

johnsmith1981

Random letters are difficult to remember and type. They may be meaningful to you, but trust me, no one else will “get it.”

jemesmlvscrs

But the worst are seemingly random letters AND numbers:

bliomcyli1435

Considering an underscore? Underscores are hard to type, so only use them if they make your handle easier to remember:

Right: johnsmith_codes

Wrong: sxkyilu_7295

So what should you do if you decide your Twitter name is confusing? Just change it! You can change your Twitter username at any time.

Have questions? Want to run a Twitter name by me? Use the comment section below!

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I did not know that! I've never liked underscores, anyway. by Angelique
Another thing to add about underscores: They don't fare well ... by James Dabbagian

What I can do for you in 2012: Writing, editing, social media, marketing communications

Angelique — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 16:16:57 +0000

Give me your words, and I’ll arrange then in a pleasing manner.

Give me your thoughts, and I’ll show you how to express them on social networks.

If it’s related to words and how they’re arranged,
I handle it.

I write and edit personal and business materials, including

Website content

User guides

Consumer-oriented legal and medical guides

Technical manuals

Autobiographies

Historical accounts

I’m a marketing communications consultant. I’ll show you

Where you should publish your message

How to express your message clearly and effectively

How to encourage others to share your message

I speak to business and networking groups. Subjects include:

Effective written communication

Effective websites and blogs

Writing for social media

Best practices for social media

Integrating online and offline marketing communications

Face-to-face networking

I offer workshops and and one-on-one tutoring in the use of social media. Here’s why you should take social media classes with me:

Marketing communications is my entire business

Social media is not my sideline, but a main focus of A.F.MarCom

It’s my job to know how social media is best used for a wide variety of industries

My classes are packed with info and free of pitches. If I say I’m going to give you instruction, you’ll get actual instruction!

And don’t forget that you can get marketing communications advice and ask questions in the following places:

Right here on the this website! Subscribe to my blog posts!

In my weekly email newsletter! Subscribe here!

On the A.F.MarCom Facebook page.

Give me a call at 602.735.3107 or write to me at info@afmarcom.com to discuss what I can do for YOU in 2012!

Have questions? Please ask!

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Pinterest hates .png files with transparent backgrounds! Use .jpgs instead.
A warning about your Twitter name
The Christmas Vacation Facebook Challenge 2011

The Christmas Vacation Facebook Challenge 2011

Angelique — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 05:28:08 +0000

I created the Christmas Vacation Facebook Challenge in 2010. It’s back again, and this time I’ve added activities for business pages. Taking the challenge? Post your results on the A.F.MarCom Facebook Page!

Whatever you call it — Christmas vacation, winter break, holiday leave, plant shutdown, my-company-is-saving-costs-by-giving-us-unpaid-vacation — a lot of you have time on your hands between December 25 and January 2. So do your friends and relatives, some of whom are trying out new computers and joining Facebook for the first time to see photos of alumni reunions, new babies or grandchildren, age depending.

Christmas vacation is the perfect time to really get to know your way around Facebook. You can establish good social networking habits, experience the successful and unsuccessful posting techniques of your friends, get a feel for what works and what doesn’t on business and fan pages, and most of all, you can reestablish and reinforce personal relationships with friends and family who live far away or have busy lives.

Even if you’re primarily on Facebook to manage a business page, if your enterprise is business-to-consumer, it’s important to understand how Facebook is used personally. If your enterprise is business-to-business, I have information for you below.

Here are the elements of the challenge:

1. DIVIDE YOUR FRIENDS INTO EASY-TO-FOLLOW LISTS.

Did you know that you can put your Facebook friends into lists, and then see a newsfeed containing just those friends? This is a very helpful feature, especially if you have a large number of friends that you know from different activities or times of your life.

On Facebook, as in life, the boring people drown out the interesting people because the boring people talk way too much. On Facebook, this usually manifests itself in a crush of notices about games and “likes” associated with the boring people. Assuming that you truly want to stay connected with these affiliates of boredom, one way to divide your friends is between “people whose stuff you don’t want to miss” and “people who’s stuff you don’t mind missing.”

Another way to divide your Facebook friends is by their interests. This is helpful if you want to quickly see what your musician friends are up to this weekend, or if your marathon-running friends are still training in the face of cookies and egg nog.

Other possible lists are local friends, out-of-town friends, high school friends, friends with political interests, friends of your gender and friends who are parents. Not only do lists like these make it easier to follow groups of friends, but you can write updates that are visible only to the members of a specific list.

Facebook has made many changes in 2011, so here are some screenshots to help you find your friends list. Click on them to see a larger version.

2. RESPOND TO YOUR FRIENDS’ POSTS

Do you scan your newsfeed for updates but never interact with the people who are posting? It’s time to join the fun! Participation can be as simple as giving “thumbs up” to a photo via the “like” button, or as complex having a conversation with several people who have all replied to a friend’s status update. Make it a point to respond in some way to at least one status update, photo or link each day during this challenge.

3. SHARE YOUR NEWS, THOUGHTS, PHOTOS, FAVORITE SONGS, FAVORITE VIDEOS AND THINGS YOU THINK YOUR FRIENDS MIGHT ENJOY.

I feel confident that all of you reading this post have, at least once, shared something with a group of people via email. I’m also sure that most of you do this regularly.

Communicating with your friends via Facebook is no different, except that you’re not cluttering up their mailboxes. To get into the habit of connecting with your friends via Facebook, for the duration of this challenge, pick a time each day during which you will always update your status. You might start in the morning with your plans for the day, post in the evening with a recap of the day, or choose the afternoon so that you have a little of both. Or maybe you won’t talk about what you’re doing, but rather how you feel about something — so excited that your kid is coming home from college, or so bummed that you have to shovel two feet of snow.

Don’t get hung up worrying that your posts won’t be interesting to every single one of your friends. You are not a professional entertainer. You’re a person whose friends have a variety of interests. If you have friends who love shoes, then you’ll want them to know about Your Next Shoes. If some of your friends love Star Trek, you’ll want them to see this.

4. “LIKE” YOUR FRIENDS’ PAGES

Hey, it’s always good to help out your friends, plus it’s another way to get to know them. If they’re bad at running their business pages and flood your newsfeed with useless chatter, you can always hide their pages, plus you’ll have learned a valuable lesson you can apply to your own page. And if they run their pages well, you can imitate them!

5. REPEAT STEPS 2 – 4 FOR YOUR BUSINESS PAGE. Respond to at least one other business every single day of this challenge. Share their information, advice and good news whenever it’s appropriate. Share your news, thoughts and business-related favorites with this important warning in mind:

You are not a newspaper!

Post only what is both truly interesting to you AND gives your readers more information about you, your business, your industry or your local area. No one needs you to fill their newsfeeds with current events.

6. PLEASE LET ME KNOW HOW THE CHALLENGE IS GOING FOR YOU! I encourage everyone to “like” the A.F.MarCom Facebook Page and post updates and questions there. I’m also thrilled to get comments here on the blog!

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The Saturday Entrepreneur: More advice for artists! How to make it easy for people to find you online

Angelique — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 11:00:40 +0000

This week’s Saturday Entrepreneur continues the series about marketing advice for artists. Last week we discussed the reasons you should always have business cards on display at your art fair booths. This week our topic is how to make it easy for people to find you online, even if you don’t have your own website.

(To read last week’s article about displaying business cards, click here. To read the first article in this series, discussing the relative merits of business cards, postcards and brochures, click here.

Many artists don’t have websites of their own, but their work is featured on gallery websites. If this is your situation, you’ll want to direct your potential customers to those websites.

However, many gallery websites are not professionally programmed, and consequently your work may have a web address (URL) like this:

http://gallery.com/?page_id=8/Gx+:PjzorkxUrG&x$baaarf

That’s hard enough to share in an email message; it’s impossible to to expect someone to recopy it accurately. Here’s an easy way to solve this problem. Click on the images to see them larger.

1. Go to http://bit.ly. Bit.ly is a URL (web address) shortener.

2. Sign up! It’s free!

3. Paste the long URL (web address) into the big blue box, like so:

4. Watch the link get shortened:

5. Customize your link!

A shortlink to a page on someone else’s website isn’t nearly as good as having a website of your own, but it’s better than no web presence at all!

Next week: “Away” messages for email and voicemail.

Have questions? Please ask in the comments section below, or on one of these fine social networks:

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How you can tell I’m not Chris Brogan

Angelique — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 05:05:01 +0000

At some point in time, you’ll be at a social media conference, and you’ll want to say hi to me, and you’ll want to say hi to Chris Brogan, and you’ll wonder: How will I be able to tell them apart?

Well, there are some differences, as you can see in the graphic above.

First of all, Chris usually has facial hair, and I never have facial hair. Not since lasers were invented, anyway.

Second, Chris has sorta light-ish hair, and the only way you’ll see my hair light-ish is if you take your time machine back to 2001, like so:

But there’s a better way to tell the difference between me and Chris Brogan.

Last September, I was inspired by two of Chris’ blog posts, The Great Twitter Unfollow Experiment of 2011 and Update to the Unfollow Experiment. He unfollowed everyone all at once, and then slowly added just a few people back to his follow list.

I thought this was a great cure for my unmanageable main Twitter stream, so I did something similar. Over the course of several days, I unfollowed almost a thousand people, and I vowed further unfollowing and to refrain from adding more than a few new connections.

Three months later, Chris is following 386 people. And this is a view of my account:

Yes, the difference lies in our relative amounts of Twitter following willpower. He has it; I don’t.

So if you’re ever in doubt, put our Twitter handles (@afmarcom and @chrisbrogan) into TwitterCounter, check the number of people we follow, and match the avatar with the amount of facial hair.