Best Practice: Blog … regularly and consistently
With 41% of the online population reading blogs, a business / professional blog is a necessity, not an option. Everywhere else you appear on the web should point back to your home base (blog). And, from a credibility perspective your blog should be ad-free. Don’t blog to be known, blog to be knowable.
Contributed by Cindy Kraft, RCPBS, RCOIS, CCM, CCMC, CPRW, JCTC
Best Practice: Create Your Loyal Following
If you tweet, blog, Facebook, and post Linked In updates and no one reads any of it, does it matter? Building your online identity means creating visibility among an audience who is interested in your area of expertise. A twitter account, for example, without a real name, and no bio, photo, or tweets is equivalent to being invisible. It’s critical to be interesting and visible to create a following.
Contributed by Cindy Kraft, RCPBS, RCOIS, CCM, CCMC, CPRW, JCTC
Best Practice: Stay Cutting Edge
Social media is evolving at warp speed. What’s new today could be outdated tomorrow. It’s a hard sell to convince our clients to use Web 2.0 technology if we, as career practitioners, are not leveraging its power. Twitter is launching a new business feature; Facebook Fan pages are all the rage for businesses, but privacy concerns may cause a mass exodus; who hasn’t heard of Linked In, but do you know how to use it effectively; and Google now reads images and videos, what does that mean for you and your clients. Be social media savvy by staying cutting edge.
Contributed by Cindy Kraft, RCPBS, RCOIS, CCM, CCMC, CPRW, JCTC
Best Practice: Share, Don’t Sell
Social media is about sharing, not selling. The best way to raise your credibility and visibility is by sharing your expertise, asking questions, and engaging others … not selling to them.
Contributed by Cindy Kraft, RCPBS, RCOIS, CCM, CCMC, CPRW, JCTC
Best Practice: Authenticity Rules
The 80/20 rule makes the most sense to me in leveraging the power of social media. Spend 70-80% of your time sharing business / career / professional information and 20% on your other passions and interests. Let people know who you are as a well-rounded person, not just a career practitioner. People do business with people they know and trust, and the likeability factor – for both of you- comes through in the 100%, not the 80%.
Contributed by Cindy Kraft, RCPBS, RCOIS, CCM, CCMC, CPRW, JCTC
Best Practice: Choose Integration not Automation
Social media success is tied to using a combination of tools. Unfortunately, this also means it can quickly and easily become a time drain. However, there are now ways to integrate all the platforms so you can update once and have all your sites populated simultaneously.
Conversely, automated generic invitations on Linked In and Direct Messages on Twitter are rarely appreciated, exhibit poor social media etiquette, and may be sending a mis-message to your target audience.
Contributed by Cindy Kraft, RCPBS, RCOIS, CCM, CCMC, CPRW, JCTC
Best Practice: Google Just Might Be Your Best Friend
In addition to regularly Googling your name, in quotes, to understand and manage your Google ranking, set Google alerts on your name, your business name, the competition, industry keywords, and even clients. Monitoring your name and your business name can help you guard against theft of content and enable you to respond quickly to any mis-information or negative comments.
Contributed by Cindy Kraft, RCPBS, RCOIS, CCM, CCMC, CPRW, JCTC
Best Practice: Proactive or Reactive
Every career practitioner has an online reputation to manage. Best practices would mandate that we do it proactively rather than reactively. Having digital dirt or being digitally mute can both lead to a career / business death sentence.
Contributed by Cindy Kraft, RCPBS, RCOIS, CCM, CCMC, CPRW, JCTC
Best Practice: Give to Get
Foundational to networking is helping others get what they want first, in order to receive or ask for help later. Adopting the mindset of giving to others to win trust is key to building a strong network. Be curious and authentic. The ability to ask great, open-ended questions that get others talking about themselves will earn you a reputation as a great conversationalist. Rolodexes are easy to build; networks require much more effort and consistent nurturing. People love doing business with people they know and trust. When you show up, engage, care, and give … it leads to extra deposits in the trust account.
Contributed by Cindy Kraft, RCPBS, RCOIS, CCM, CCMC, CPRW, JCTC
Best Practice: Get Online and Be Social
Social networking sites and blogs are now the fourth most popular online activities (Nielsen Online), with 67% of the population engaged. In fact, social networking sites are visited more often than personal email is read. Building a global network has never been easier. Create a professional, branded presence on Linked In, and then, since networking is a verb, engage your contacts and prospects. There is actually no easier place to engage an online network than Twitter. Other great sites for building networks and creating visibility include Facebook, Naymz, and E-cademy.
Contributed by Cindy Kraft, RCPBS, RCOIS, CCM, CCMC, CPRW, JCTC
Best Practice: Show Your Face
Just as you wouldn’t walk into a room with a paper bag over your head, neither should you hide your face online. LinkedIn is a professional networking site, and by definition necessitates a professional photograph. Remember, people network with other people and most people prefer having a face to go with a name.
Contributed by Cindy Kraft, RCPBS, RCOIS, CCM, CCMC, CPRW, JCTC
Best Practice: Go Offline
The global economy combined with social networking might be conspiring to send face-to-face networking into extinction, but the impact of sharing a meal and a handshake cannot be overstated. First impressions are formed within the first few minutes, so your packaging (clothes, shoes, hair, accessories), handshake, and a clear and compelling marketing pitch should all reflect your professional brand. If you are nervous about public speaking, check into joining a Toastmasters Club.
Contributed by Cindy Kraft, RCPBS, RCOIS, CCM, CCMC, CPRW, JCTC
Best Practice: Follow Up
There is no point in spending any time and effort on networking if there is no follow up. Think of the intricacies of a spider’s web. There are no strands hanging loose. Rather, it is a mastery of connection, and connection is the essence of networking. The one-time burn-and-churn interaction can destroy a network faster than you can build it.
Contributed by Cindy Kraft, RCPBS, RCOIS, CCM, CCMC, CPRW, JCTC
Best Practice: Be a Resource
One of the most effective networking strategies is to be a resource. Connecting people in your network who don’t know each other, but should, will establish your reputation within each of their networks as a person of influence. After all, knowing someone who knows someone who can help is just as effective as actually knowing that person yourself.
Contributed by Cindy Kraft, RCPBS, RCOIS, CCM, CCMC, CPRW, JCTC
Best Practice: Go for Quality, Not Just Quantity
Having the most connections is not the same as having people in your network that you know and trust. It’s the difference between building trust relationships and creating a Roledex. While it might sound impressive to say “most connected” if you have thousands of people in your LinkedIn network, having a trusted relationship with a few people who each know a lot of people is much more effective.
Contributed by Cindy Kraft, RCPBS, RCOIS, CCM, CCMC, CPRW, JCTC
Best Practice: Be Strategic
Strategic networking means that you have a goal and a clear target of people that you believe need to know about you and who know other influencers. Rather than bouncing around from one networking event to another hoping you will run into someone who might need your services, focus your networking time among the people who are potential prospects for your services or who know people who would be good prospects.
Contributed by Cindy Kraft, RCPBS, RCOIS, CCM, CCMC, CPRW, JCTC
Best Practice: Niche Yourself
Think about the difference between a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none and a subject matter expert. When you have a narrow but deep target market, all of your networking efforts are strategic because you are working within that niche. You can spend fewer marketing dollars with a much greater return on your investment.
Contributed by Cindy Kraft, RCPBS, RCOIS, CCM, CCMC, CPRW, JCTC
Best Practice: Make a Plan and then Work Your Plan
Whether job seeker or career practitioner, it is essential for each of us to have a networking plan that we continuously execute. Think of networking as a business development activity that keeps the pipeline full while increasing your visibility. Adding networking to your calendar as an appointment or to your daily “to do” list can ensure it is kept as a priority. A mere 10–15 minutes a day can deliver huge rewards.
Contributed by Cindy Kraft, RCPBS, RCOIS, CCM, CCMC, CPRW, JCTC
Best Practice: Build Your Own MasterMind Group
As solopreneurs often with home-based offices, we spend much of our time alone. Our clients, as job seekers, often feel isolated and “out at sea.” Building a Mastermind team of like-minded peers can overcome the isolation factor, strengthen areas of weakness, bring accountability to ensure goals are achieved, and establish referral partners. One of the greatest things about our industry is the collaborative mindset we embrace—both for our clients and for ourselves.
Contributed by Cindy Kraft, RCPBS, RCOIS, CCM, CCMC, CPRW, JCTC
