I Guess LinkedIn Really Isnt a CRM. Huh.

I Guess LinkedIn Really Isnt a CRM. Huh. Over the years I would get invitations to connect with people on LinkedIn, and they would say I use LinkedIn as my CRM CRM stands for Customer Relationship Manager. Think Salesforce, Highrise, even the oldies ACT! and Goldmine.  There are hundreds of CRMs. JibberJobber was designed with relationship manager in mind because we need a tool to help us manage the relationships we have with people we meet and want to meet. As important, we can use a tool that helps us with our follow-up, etc. So yeah, chuckle and shake my head was my standard response for people saying they used LinkedIn as a CRM.  For a while, it really didnt have any CRM functionality.  Then, they bought a CRM startup, and nothing. Years passed and people still didnt know the features were there.  My message to people was use LinkedIn as it was designed to find people, and be found by others, but get a real and independent CRM for relationship management. There are various reasons to get a different system for CRM, but for me the most important was that LinkedIn had (and has) a history of taking away features that we (the users) tend to find useful, but for some reason they dont want to keep around anymore. Remember Answers? Events (I never cared for it, but of all the features that LinkedIn removed, this was the one that I heard the most complaints over)?  How about the ability to view profiles of third degree contacts? All pretty much gone.  Check out this article at their help center: Relationship Section of Profile No Longer Available What does this mean? It means that you should always separate your CRM needs from your social tools.  Always. I feel bad for the people who used LinkedIn as their CRM because in a few months, all of the rich data theyve entered there will *poof* away, just like the history of Answers.  Bleh. And use JibberJobber for your CRM needs. I Guess LinkedIn Really Isnt a CRM. Huh. Over the years I would get invitations to connect with people on LinkedIn, and they would say I use LinkedIn as my CRM CRM stands for Customer Relationship Manager. Think Salesforce, Highrise, even the oldies ACT! and Goldmine.  There are hundreds of CRMs. JibberJobber was designed with relationship manager in mind because we need a tool to help us manage the relationships we have with people we meet and want to meet. As important, we can use a tool that helps us with our follow-up, etc. So yeah, chuckle and shake my head was my standard response for people saying they used LinkedIn as a CRM.  For a while, it really didnt have any CRM functionality.  Then, they bought a CRM startup, and nothing. Years passed and people still didnt know the features were there.  My message to people was use LinkedIn as it was designed to find people, and be found by others, but get a real and independent CRM for relationship management. There are various reasons to get a different system for CRM, but for me the most important was that LinkedIn had (and has) a history of taking away features that we (the users) tend to find useful, but for some reason they dont want to keep around anymore. Remember Answers? Events (I never cared for it, but of all the features that LinkedIn removed, this was the one that I heard the most complaints over)?  How about the ability to view profiles of third degree contacts? All pretty much gone.  Check out this article at their help center: Relationship Section of Profile No Longer Available What does this mean? It means that you should always separate your CRM needs from your social tools.  Always. I feel bad for the people who used LinkedIn as their CRM because in a few months, all of the rich data theyve entered there will *poof* away, just like the history of Answers.  Bleh. And use JibberJobber for your CRM needs.

Why Life Skills Are Also Needed

Why Life Skills Are Also Needed I have often written about the skills, attributes, and experience that a recruiter should ideally possess to be successful however I wanted to take the opportunity to recommend the other aspects of your life you should also focus on if you want to ensure you achieve all of your potentials. Yes, it is great to get a good degree, to be the top achiever in the business, however, what life skills do you lack or should have been developed in during your formative days? As a parent and business owner, I believe these areas are often overlooked and yet ironically, these personal abilities can often make you stand out amongst other applicants and employees. These tips are not intended to berate the education system in whatever country you are reading this in although I do with that the educators would consider this list as important as English, maths, and science. I can remember at school the brightest girl, all A grades in every subject, best swimmer, tennis player, etc. However, she didn’t know how to use her bank card to withdraw cash, something I have always remembered. Money management: The first one on the list and probably the most important one; how do you manage your money now? Do you budget each month or throw yourself through the month to each payday to find yourself short each month. starting habits early on by saving 10-15% of your salary and if you get bonus/commission in your job, save (up to) 50% of it in a higher interest account. You will thank me one day. It is a habit that will ensure you will have a deposit for a house and ensure when you look back you will have something tangible to show for your efforts and hard work. Driving: I realize that learning to drive is an expensive process and one which may seem a privilege to many: however I can’t emphasize enough how frustrating it is to interview someone and to think of their perfect company only to find they don’t drive so can’t get there (and public transport isn’t viable). Invest in this when you are of the correct age to apply for a provisional license and I promise you will be grateful to opportunities as they present themselves to you. Cooking: Yes, this is a business blog but I think being able to look after yourself by preparing healthy meals is essential for your whole well being. I know that basic food technology is taught at secondary school however with youtube videos and cookery books aplenty, teach yourself a genre of food you enjoy- there is no right or wrong as long as it is fresh, satisfying and healthy. Hobby: Having a hobby is an essential switch off from life and stress; whatever your interests are- reading, running, swimming, fishing, I am a huge believer that you should make time DAILY to be alone and take stock of your day. This allows for reflection, self-learning, a chance to de-stress and hopefully also learn a new skill too. Always helpful for the CV section of ‘hobbies’ too. Technology: Most people reading this will have a fairly good understanding of technology with apps and social media at their fingertips. But keep up-skilling yourself too on the latest apps and software to help you do your job and run your life more efficiently. Communication: The key to any successful relationship, whether that is work, personal or love, is communication. Listening, having empathy, keeping calm and thinking through a response are things you learn as you get older. If I could have read one book as a newbie in work it is CHIMP PARADOX by Dr. Steve Peters and I would recommend you do too so you can be aware of how you control your elementary personality. Above all else, find your own path to contentment and joy EVERY day in the small tasks you do and be true to yourself. Don’t follow someone else’s dreams.

MYTHBUSTING Solopreneurs Dont Need Facebook Business Pages - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

MYTHBUSTING Solopreneurs Dont Need Facebook Business Pages - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career When Facebook started out, it was the premier platform to share photos and personal experiences with friends. It still is with great success, but in line with keeping up with the times, Facebook is more than just a place to meet friends. Where it was uncommon to find businesses using Facebook, it is now more important than ever for a brand to have a business page, especially a small business. The myth for a while was that to effectively brand your business on Facebook, you had to use a personal profile. An official business page provides many more benefits than a profile page, and takes advantage of Facebook’s key benefits: scale, and ease with which members share content with each other. However, before you set up a Facebook business page, you should ask yourself whether having such a page serves your customer’s interests. If such a page helps you serve your target audience better, you have the green light to create one. As one who has seen the need for a Facebook business page, the following are its key benefits over a personal profile page for a small business. 1. Unlimited friends Personal profiles cap friend numbers at 5,000, while business pages allow you to have unlimited friends. If you seriously want to grow your business, you wouldn’t want any cap number set on your success, would you? 2. Great analytics With a business page, you have access to far better analytic services than an average personal profile would. Facebook Insights provides a good look into how your posts are received by friends, how far they reach within a specified time, what customers like and don’t like, where they are located, which times they are most active, and so on. For a smart marketer, this information is very valuable to help them craft their posts, content, and overall marketing strategies. 3. Show up on search engines Business pages are indexed, which means that some of the content contained is available through search engines. Which business wouldn’t want to appear high on a search engine result? While you may want your website to achieve this in the long run, why not take advantage of Facebook’s help in doing so. 4. Keep personal information private By creating an official business page, you are dissociating the personal from the professional. No longer do you have to worry about your personal information being accessible to everyone. Besides, it is annoying when a customer can’t access the business’ contact information because you used a personal profile and set the privacy settings to block this information. 5. People take you seriously Running your business through a personal profile makes you look amateur and unprepared. You don’t have a lot of chances to make a great impression. Make the customer’s first take at your business one they’ll like with a professionally crafted business page. 6. Targeted advertising One very unique benefit of using Facebook is its much targeted advertising strategies. Facebook is very good at keeping traffic within its ranks, so you have the opportunity to create ads that target customers with the same interests as yours. While it will cost you to set up such advertising, it is well worth it in the long run. The benefits of reaching potential customers and selling your products far outweigh the financial investment you’ll make. 7. Avenue for engagement Where you perform your business page fans a favor and like their pages back officially, you have an opportunity to comment on their feeds. By doing so, your brand exposure increases and you also have a chance to engage with customers one-on-one. The conversations allow you to gain valuable insight into ways to improve your brand for the customers’ satisfaction. 8. Facebook Tabs Facebook Tabs is a feature that allows you to use apps to better explain what the company is all about. With tabs, you have more avenues to tell your business story and convince customers to buy your products. However, if you are using a personal profile, you are limited to your posts to sell your brand. More to the point, Facebook Tabs allows you to run contests, something that’s not possible with a personal profile and that goes against Facebook’s terms of use. Should I say more? If you have done your market research and see that Facebook is where you can reach your target audience effectively, then the next step is to create an official business page. Your business is not too small to have a business page.  [tweet this] With such a page, you have the benefits of targeted advertising, Facebook Tabs and its ability to deliver more information, better analytics, an opportunity to get ranked on search engines, better privacy controls, and ultimately, a better chance to impress customers with a professional profile of your business. Northfoto / Shutterstock.com

Common Leadership Mistakes Managers Make With Entry-Level Employees - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Common Leadership Mistakes Managers Make With Entry-Level Employees - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, companies plan to increase their recent graduate hiring by 11% in 2016. To many hiring managers and recruiters, significant benefits come from recruiting fresh blood. Paying lower salaries, off-setting pending retirements, diversifying the age range within the office and the allure of molding new talent into future leadership are just a few motivators for actively recruiting entry-level personnel. However, statistics tell us that entry-level hiring is often plagued with turnovers and frustration, as some hiring statistics tell us that recent graduates carry a turnover rate exceeding 50%. Who is to blame? It doesn’t matter because each circumstance is different. What matters is strategizing how to best lower the new graduate turnover rate. This begins with a fundamental understanding of the common leadership mistakes managers make with entry-level employees. Failure to build self-confidence from the get-go. Self-confidence in many younger individuals is much lower than many employers believe it to be. In order to help recent graduates produce to their fullest capacity, it’s imperative that a manager lead them via convincing the individuals of their potential. Often, a manager will see the potential in a younger employer, however their opinion is meaningless if that person does not make the employee believe in their abilities. When they fail to build confidence, the recent graduate often focuses on why work can’t be done, why a task is impossible, why it’s too difficult to finish. The negative mindset hinders the recent graduates performance and, after a while management finds themselves with an employee who had potential but has now given up. Failure to convey overarching company goals. Every strong leader sets a goal and does whatever it takes to make it happen. They openly inform others as to what those goals are, which allows recent graduates to feel as if their work is meaningful. Expecting younger employees to figure out the overall vision is a common leadership miscalculation that often leads to lackluster performance on the part of recently graduated team members. Belief that their work has impact and meaning is highly important to young professionals today. Without this, their ambition and focus suffers tremendously. Failure to provide formal training and on-going education. According to a report released by Accenture, along with low salaries, recent graduates often complain about a lack of education. Due to ever increasing schedule demand on the part of employers, this aspect of personal growth is often overlooked. Inability to educate is viewed differently by graduates than it has been by past generations. Often, recent graduates view lack of continuing education as a sign that advancement is not possible. At the same time, managers view the need for continual education as a sign of lacking autonomy. It doesn’t matter who is right. What matters is that the disconnect and lack of continued growth results in withdrawn, unproductive and often resentful workers. In the End Recent graduates view the work environment differently than their parents, or even their older cousins. The graduates entering the workforce this summer will look to their managers to instill in them a sense of purpose and forward movement. Rather than brush off that desire as generational or beside the point of a functioning company, hiring managers would do well to look at their own methods and see where they can make adjustments to help their new employees rise to the top.

Getting in the Zone at work CareerMetis.com

Getting in the Zone at work â€" CareerMetis.com Has this every happened to you? You need to complete that project and there is a tight deadline ; you sit down to work but can’t get started.Or has this happened to you? â€" You want to go to the gym but just can’t get yourself to start. Or Even when you step onto that treadmill, you just can’t get yourself to get moving.Isn’t that frustrating?evalIf you are reading this article, then this has bothered you in the past It’s simple.. You just need DISCIPLINE.The discipline to just sit down and force yourself to just start writing, no matter how hard it is in the beginning. Just sit tight and start typing. And you will notice that in a matter of few minutes you will get into this amazing state of not wanting to stop I am sure you have experienced this whenever you exercised. It is after the 20 minute mark the dopamine But I know that after the first 5 awkward calls â€" it becomes easier, it becomes natural and I get in the zone. All I need to do each day is to pick and dial th ose first 5 numbers, and after that I am on auto-pilot. I get to a point where I am not afraid to reach out to strangers.I am sure you have similar examples regarding your work.CALL TO ACTIONDo you make excuses for not getting your work done? Not in the mood or not feeling it today? I agree with you and empathize with you â€" we have all been there.But that should not stop you. Be disciplined, and just push yourself A simple call to action here .Don’t let resistance stop you . Be Disciplined!! Get to work (suck it up) , and you will get there.Additional ReadingThe War of Art by Steven PressfieldFlow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly CsikszentmihalyiThe Art of Manliness Podcast Interview with Steven Kotler, The Rise of Superman

The End of the Recession Means...

The End of the Recession Means... If you are the kind of person who believes in studies and data from studies, then you have to read Robert Halfs most recent study completed in conjunction with Career Builder EDGE 2009 Study: The key findings include: In the next 12 months, more than half of employers polled plan to hire full-time employees, four in 10 will hire contract, temporary or project workers, and four in 10 will hire part-time employees. Technology, customer service and sales are the top three areas in which employers expect to add jobs first once the economy rebounds. The average time to fill open positions, depending on the job level, is 4.5 to 14.4 weeks, the same time range as last year. Despite an abundant labor pool, six in 10 employers are willing to negotiate with qualified candidates for higher compensation. Four in 10 employers expect the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to create jobs in their organizations over the next two years. More than half of employees polled plan to make a career change or go back to school when the economy recovers. Forty percent of hiring managers said that when the economy improves, giving pay raiseswill be their primary method for retaining top performers. Theres some good news in here. 6 in 10 employers are willing to negotiate for higher compensation and 40% of hiring managers will consider giving pay raises to retain top performers. These factors could increase the decreasing salary ranges weve been hearing and seeing. On a more realistic note, it takes employers 4.5 to 14.4 weeks to fill a position. What this means is that it is going to take you longer than you expected or wanted to land that job. Be frugal. Employers are alsopredicting that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will create jobs. This is foggy. The act doesnt specifically create jobs it is supporting initiatives. Well wait and see on this one. Weve heard and seen that were coming out of this recession. The hope I have is that we never forgetand become complacent with our jobs and our lifestyles again. This was a wake up call, one long overdue.

Resume Writing Services in Eastern CT

Resume Writing Services in Eastern CTIf you are looking for resume writing services in Eastern CT, you may want to do a little research. You may want to look for those companies that will have a history of satisfied clients. This may be the company that your resume is sent through or it may be someone that you may know personally. This could even be the person that will be in charge of getting your resume in front of an employer in CT.There are many reasons why you might choose to get resume writing services in Eastern CT. One of them being that these types of professionals can work with your resume and work out what you need in order to get the results that you want. With resumes, there are so many different things that you can change or add and this can really make a big difference in your ability to land a job or even keep one once you have.Another reason that you may want to consider hiring a resume writing service in Eastern CT is because of all the great, affordable options tha t are available. This can be very helpful because you will not be stuck with an expensive service that you are not able to afford. Some of the top and most respected services will also offer you all the help that you need with it in order to ensure that you do not have any problems with it.Of course, if you just have one type of service that you would like to use, that is perfectly fine too. All you have to do is to find the company that is able to do the most for you and then stick with that. You may have to ask the questions and the more time that you spend with it, the better it will turn out.When you do choose to go with resume writing services in Eastern CT, make sure that you are in touch with the company. You will want to discuss what is on your mind and what can you do in order to make things better. Do this before you even start so that you can be sure that you are dealing with the right people.Once you find the company that you are interested in, make sure that you follow up as well. You can only expect so much from resume writing services in Eastern CT and they will tell you exactly what they can do for you. Make sure that you set up a schedule where you can speak with them every so often and get things done.Remember that the resume writing services in Eastern CT will all offer their own style. This will vary from person to person and that is why you need to have a list of the services that you would like to be used on a daily basis. You can ask for samples of some of the work that they have done in the past and this can help you see what your potential will be.Remember that some of the best things about resumes are the personal touches that they offer. So it is important that you take the time to choose the best person for the job and allow them to get started right away. This can make a huge difference in your job search and ultimately land you the job that you have been waiting for.