Step Away from the Megaphone and Listen to Your Customers

One of the greatest questions in the age of the interactive web 2.0 is:

“Given the new technology at my fingertips, how do I use these tools to improve customer experience?”

Certainly, there are enough widgets, applications, social buttons, and the like to allow your customers to interact with your business in many ways. However, some businesses make the mistake of throwing everything and the kitchen sink into a site with the intent of forming one amazing community that no one will ever want to leave.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What could possibly go wrong?

For starters, such an approach is unoriginal and represents a failure to look beneath the surface to determine what a customer actually wants from a site. What you get instead is a Web presence that offers too much while catering to too few.

However, it is easy for me to sit here and say you need to revamp the content on your site to perfectly match what your customers want. Obviously, that’s impossible. Interests and tastes are far too varied to choose the perfect image, text, font or content for everyone.

The truth is that you don’t have to have those things. Businesses are in the habit of overloading their customers (and their sites) with fluff. Fluff can be defined as those things that are important to you, but that your customers care little about.

In addition to being uninteresting, fluff is also static. People are looking for dynamic experiences, and human interactions are about as dynamic as it gets. There is a reason people play on social media all day.

One of the best ways to facilitate interaction is to host a blog to initiate the exchange of ideas and comments. When it comes to blogs, the content is the initial draw, but the conversation is what keeps people coming back. Another woefully underused feature is forums. Sure, many sites have them, but I am amazed at the number of businesses that set them up and then never review them.

Obviously, the integration of these contributes to a strong social presence. If you can listen even better than you can talk, you will have a leg up on 90% of the businesses out there.

That’s the key, really. When everyone has a gigantic megaphone to their mouth, the business with an ear to the ground, paying attention to what their customers have to say, will come out on top.

Adapted from Curt Finch ~ CEO of Journyx

How to Reach Out to Potential Employers on Social Media

It’s no secret that employers are incorporating social media into their recruiting plans to find top talent. For job seekers looking to stay current, you know the opportunities exist. But, knowing how to properly reach out may be the barrier between you and your dream job.

Job candidates commonly struggle when it comes to effectively leveraging social media platforms to connect with employers. Out of fear of being a nuisance and making an awful first impression, many refrain from getting themselves a step ahead in the job search.

Deciding what is appropriate in the eyes of recruiters and hiring managers online can be a daunting process to sort through. Below, we outline two very important elements of reaching out to employers on social media properly.

Find People for Informational Interviews

Informational interviews are your way of gaining a more in-depth look at a potential employer by gathering first-hand knowledge from past or current employees; a casual, coffee-shop conversation can yield a lot of insights. Social media gives you the opportunity to add two-way communication to the research you have already conducted regarding the company. You can network with alumni, new hires and former employees with the following:

• LinkedIn: LinkedIn is the professional online network most used by employers. First, make sure you have at least 150 connections prior to utilizing it as an asset to your job search. When you visit your desired company’s page, review “Your College Alumni.” These individuals are great candidates for informational interviews.
• Twitter: Twitter is a level playing field that enables you to reach out to company employees with a likely chance of getting a response. Since many employees mention their employers in their bios, take advantage of Twitter directories such as Twellow to help you find profiles mentioning your desired company. You can also @reply to the company’s personal Twitter account inquiring about an informational interview source.
• Facebook: There are many Facebook applications, such as BranchOut, intended to ease the process of finding connections to companies within in your own network. These applications will help you effectively incorporate the largest social network in your job search.

How to Ask for Their Time

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The catch with reaching out to employers online is that they are not obligated to respond to your requests. Therefore, it is your responsibility to make their contribution as simple as possible. Here is how:

• Have a plan: Before ever sending your LinkedIn inMail, direct message or Facebook message to their inbox, be sure you have put some thought behind it.
• Get to the point: Don’t throw your resume and your life story on them from the get-go. Be clear of what you want from the start and leave all the fluff for later.
• Express your commonalities: Having something in common with the person sparks their interest. If you have a shared interest, their ears may open.
• Be specific, avoid generalities: There is a difference between wanting just any job and wanting to work for that specific company. Let the employer know why you are pursuing them.

Social media places our future employers within arm’s length. Although it simplifies the process for us, remember to remain professional and polite when reaching out to employers online. Believe me, your online network works. You just have to use it properly.

Have you utilized social media in your job search? Have you found success in reaching out to potential employers via social media? Share with us below!

Social Media Job Listings

Every week we post a list of social media and web job opportunities. While we publish a huge range of job listings, we’ve selected some of the top social media job opportunities from the past two weeks to get you started. Happy hunting!

• Community Manager at WeWork in New York
• Product Manager at Yelp in San Francisco
• Senior Director, Finance at NASCAR in Charlotte, NC

Adapted from  Joshua Waldman, author of the Jobjuice Social Media Job Search App, which is now available for download for iPad and iPhone in the App Store. Connect with Joshua and Jobjuice on Twitter and Facebook.  

How to Create a Vision Board for Business Ideas on Pinterest

Many businesses are already using Pinterest–a social media website that lets people save (or “pin”) pictures in titled collections–to raise awareness of their brand and drive traffic to their websites. But it’s also a powerful tool to create a vision board, meaning a collection of photos and short phrases that represent your business goals.

“The purpose of a vision board is really to get you to focus on what it is you’re striving for,” explains Marcia Layton Turner, author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Vision Boards (Alpha, 2009). “In a way, it could be used as a visual business plan.”

Unlike a business plan that gathers dust in a drawer, this collage of photos is meant to be looked at daily. “Through pictures, [a vision board] focuses your mind,” Turner says. It helps you notice opportunities and stay on the path to success.

Though vision boards are nothing new, Pinterest allows you to take them to a whole new level. Not only do you have access to millions of photos, you can engage followers, store useful links, and drum up public support. Follow these four tips to create a Pinterest vision board that will help you reach your goals:

1. Create specific goals. “Vision boards are very literal,” Turner says. “You have to really think through what you’re after.” Ask yourself: Where will my company be in five years? What will it be known for? What will the offices look like? How many employees will I have? How many users? The point is for you to articulate exactly what you want to achieve.

Follow brands you admire for inspiration, or include them on your vision board with a note about what they do well. Focus on the practices you want to emulate so you can work toward a positive goal.

Related: The 10 Commandments of Using Pinterest for Business (Infographic)

2. Express your vision to consumers. Pinterest is a public way to share your vision of the future. “You can really galvanize the public to support you before you open your doors,” Turner says.

Think about how consumers could support your vision and encourage them to do so. For example, if you want your staff to carpool to work, offer incentives for your followers to do the same or ask them to share how they’ve “greened” their commute in the comments.

Related: How to Sell Your Startup’s Long-Term Vision

3. Go beyond images. The biggest benefit of creating your vision board on Pinterest is that each picture links to the original source, allowing you to store articles, infographics, videos, or websites that can help you achieve your goals. If you want to double your reach on social media, you can pin a picture from an article with helpful tips and return to the article as you work toward that benchmark.

But one last word of caution…

4. Be careful what you share. As of right now, Pinterest does not allow private boards (though they are considering it), so make sure that you only include the goals that you’re comfortable sharing.

Adapted from: Nadia Goodman’s “The Daily Dose”.

Management Tip ~ Know What Your Customers (Really) Do Best

Customers are more valuable than the money they spend.  They can help grow your company, whether they buy more or not.  Here are three things your customers can give you:

• Ideas.  It’s a great misconception that customers don’t know what they want. Research and experience has shown the opposite.  Tap your lead customers for innovative ideas.
• Credibility.  Customers are more credible than you are. This means they make better marketers than agencies or internal employees.  Identify your biggest fans and incent them to act as “champions” for your company.
• Getting others to buy.  Customers are often more interested in a fellow consumer’s sales pitch than yours. Find ways to put them in touch with your prospects and let them close the deal for you.

Today’s Management Tip was adapted from “The Things Customers Can Do Better Than You” by Bill Lee.  

Grow Your Company Without Sacrificing Culture

Every company wants to grow.  But growth often brings some hiccups, especially when it comes to organizational culture.  If you’re growing fast, here are two ways to keep your culture intact: 

• Spend a lot of time communicating.  If people are unhappy, don’t try to squelch their anger.  Instead, identify the loudmouths. Spend time listening to them, not interjecting your own thoughts.  That way, you can learn more and solve their gripes.  

Measure culture.  It’s tough, but not impossible.  Use internal surveys or interviews to get a baseline.  Find out why people enjoy working at your company and what they value.  Use this information to monitor what matters most to your employees.   

Today’s Management Tip was adapted from “How Start-Ups Can Maintain Company Culture While Growing” by Karen Rubin.

Find Career Opportunities by Asking Questions

Asking the right questions is the key to finding innovative solutions to any problem, even finding a job.  Instead of asking “What job can I find today?” what if you asked, “What kind of job can I create today?”  The slight twist of one word might hold the key to more helpful answers.  Take a few minutes a day to write down nothing but questions about your job search.  Do this consistently for thirty days and your questions will take you down new paths.  For example, “How can I make a bucket of money?” may change to “What will make me happy for the long term?”  This could then morph to “How do I create something for the long term?”  The result may be seeking out different kinds of job opportunities, ones you may not have considered if you had not changed your line of questioning.  

Today’s Management Tip was adapted from “Find a Job Using Disruptive Innovation” by Jeff Dyer and Hal Gregersen.

8 Job Hunting Myths That Are Hurting Your Search

With companies being much more careful about hiring the right talent at the right price in this sluggish economy, are you sure your moves are keeping you in the game?  Some common job hunting myths might be sabotaging your big play. 

 

Before you send out another resume or fill out another application, take a breather and look at the biggest misconceptions in the hiring world: 

 

1. There are no jobs out there. 

“The truth is that there are plenty of available jobs, but there are simply more people vying for them than in the past,” said author, speaker and recruiter Abby Kohut.  ”To stand out, use your network to help you and also try some old-fashioned techniques.  Faxing or mailing your resume will absolutely get you noticed because all the other job seekers are applying online.” 

2. All the good jobs are online.

Matt Youngquist, president of Career Horizons, recently told NPR that 70 to 80 percent of available jobs are not published.  That means that the vast majority of available positions will be found through networking, not online applications. 

3. Temporary jobs aren’t worth it. 

Savvy employers will look at their temporary positions as a proving ground, and often hire full-time from the temporary staff pool.  At the very least, a temporary job gives you the chance to build relevant skills and knowledge while searching for something permanent, and it prevents a big hole of unemployment in your resume. 

4. Being unemployed for several months hurts job prospects. 

That depends entirely on what you do with your time away from the office.  ”Whether you’re a twenty-something graduating from college or a homemaker returning to the professional market, make sure your resume stresses all your leadership responsibilities and achievements,” said Alex Sukhoy, a career coach and adjunct professor at Monte Ahuja College of Business at Cleveland State University.  ”Were you president of a fraternity that raised money for an important cause?  Did you spearhead a local initiative that resulted in the improvement of the local kids’ school experience?  How did you make a difference? Show this on your resume.” 

5. Employers want to see a standard resume. 

“Resumes are the same, but what is different is how recruiters find candidates,” Kohut said.  “In order to be found, you need to have the exact keywords on your resume that are in the recruiter’s brain at the time that they are searching for you. So, nowadays, the content of the resume is far more important than what the resume looks like. ” How you introduce your resume matters, too.  ”The cover letter continues to be as important as the method you use to differentiate yourself from all the other candidates who have similar work experience,” Kohut said. 

6. Social media isn’t taken seriously by employers. 

On the contrary, social media is a vehicle for hiring that can make a big difference if you know how to use it.  ”Job seekers at all levels should be using LinkedIn to connect to people that they currently know,” Kohut advised.  “Rather than simply applying for positions in the traditional way, they should use LinkedIn to figure out who the hiring manager might be, and then should send a resume directly to them in addition to applying the normal route.”  Another point to ponder is how social media could hurt you.  ”As for Facebook, since most job seekers are already on there, they should be careful to avoid cursing, negativity, and opinions about controversial topics such as sports, politics and religion,” Kohut said. 

7. Take what you can get. 

In a really tough economy, it can be tempting to jump on that first offer.  However, keep in mind that taking a job you hate means you will be hunting for another job in just a few years.  It is often better to go with freelancing, consulting or temporary jobs until you find the right fit. 

8. Follow up with a phone call. 

Following up is a good idea, but how you do it can make or break your chances of landing the job.  Rather than sending an email or calling to remind them of your continued interest, send a handwritten thank you card to every person you met during the interview process.  ”Most importantly, be positive and be passionate, ” Sukhoy said. “Companies can train skills. They won’t train attitudes.” 

Adapted from Shannon Dauphin 

 

Increase Profits by Streamlining Your Company

As a business becomes more complex, it gets difficult to trace costs. If you aren’t sure where your company is making money — or losing it — follow these two steps to simplify:

• Analyze profitability by offering or market.  There are often large profit disparities among lines of business, brands, products, and customers. Knowing exactly where you’re making money and how is the first step to making more of it.
• Make sure each brand and SKU is pulling its weight.  Most complex companies have many brands or SKUs that contribute little to the bottom line. By targeting profitable ones and cutting the rest loose, you can free up significant capacity with negligible loss in revenue and volume.

Adapted from Guide to Finance Basics for Managers.  

Three Ways to Win in the Global Talent Market

Smart companies win the right global talent by developing inclusion programs that make them attractive to the broad and diverse market.  Here are three approaches that can help you tap into global talent pool and win the right people:

• Focus on women.  To leverage the full global talent pool, you need to attract and retain women. Develop programs that help women clearly see their career paths and better identify, request, and secure fulfilling work assignments.
• Nurture global networks.  In global enterprises it can be difficult to make meaningful connections.  Pair employees across geographies and functions so they can gain exposure to other diverse talent.
• Offer flex.  More and more people are choosing employers based on their flex offerings.  Offer flexible work arrangements to all employees as a core benefit.

Adapted from “Three Ways to Fish in the Global Talent Pool” by Sylvia Ann Hewlett.

When Choosing a Job, Culture Matters

Some organizations will excite you.  They’ll stimulate your success and growth.  Others will be stressful. They may lead you to quit before you’ve accomplished much or learned what you hoped to.  With the pressure (or excitement) of finding a new job, it’s all too easy to pursue a job opportunity or to accept an offer with only a hazy view of how the institution really operates.  The path to an institution you’ll like is to investigate the culture you’re thinking of joining before you accept the position. 

Sean (name has been changed) is a master at this.  He pursued a job offer at a Fortune 500 company to be the first Chief Administrative Officer (CAO).  He was well-qualified, presented himself well, and got the offer.  He’d been competing with capable people. He was proud he’d “won the contest.” 

The next step was a return visit, after which he’d decide to accept the offer.  Sean had already learned a lot about the company’s businesses and some things about the organization.  His priority now was culture and how the new position might fit: “I asked people, ‘What are you excited about? What are you proud of?  Who are your close friends in the company?  How does the group function together?’” Sean learned things like who the heroes were, what made them successful, and what his biggest challenges and opportunities would be in the job.  The different people he met with were learning from his questions.  It was almost like he already worked there, and they were jointly determining how to make the new role successful. 

Surprisingly, Sean turned down the offer. The new role was a misfit in the company’s culture. 

As he learned more about the company, Sean questioned how he’d be viewed as the first CAO in a company where everyone else focused on bottom-line results.  It was a highly performance-driven environment with lots of business units. Corporate staffs were secondary. 

“I asked how they’d keep score on me, how they’d really know I was making a difference,” he said.  “We never got to satisfactory answers to that question.  They weren’t hiding anything. This CAO position was a new one, and they didn’t really know.” 

Sean was concerned that this new position wouldn’t fit in the company’s culture, that he wouldn’t really be accepted, and that it wouldn’t be a springboard to the line job that he really wanted after two or three years as CAO.  He might have made it work, but why take the risk? 

It’s not uncommon for job seekers to enter organizations without understanding the culture and come away disappointed.  When considering a new job, be sure to investigate the institution’s culture. Consider these questions to guide you: 

1. What should I learn?  Understand the organization’s purpose — not just what they say they’re doing, but also how their purpose leads to decisions and what makes them proud.  Learn how the organization operates.  For example, consider the importance of performance, how the organization gets things done, the level of teamwork, the quality of the people, how people communicate, and any ethical issues. 

Except for ethical issues, there’s no absolute standard of what’s best in organizational culture.  Different purposes and different organizational features can be more or less appealing to different people.  When you understand how the potential employer operates, you’ll need to consider how well that matches your goals.  Your target organizational culture is an important part of your aspirations. 

2. How should I learn?  Read everything you can find about the institution, but read with a critical eye. Institutions have formal vision statements, and they often mention cultural topics in other public reports, but these documents are written with a purpose in mind.  Independent writers take an independent perspective. They can be more critical, but they can miss details and get things wrong. 

Discuss culture with people in the organization.  You’ll talk to people in the interviewing process, of course.  But you may learn different things if you meet others there who aren’t involved in your recruiting process.  Also talk to people outside the organization who know it — customers, suppliers, partners, and ex-employees.  Their different experiences with the institution will affect their views, so ask about situations where they’ve seen the culture in action.  

3. When should I learn?  It’s hard to learn about culture at an early stage in your search.  But your impressions can guide you to target some institutions and avoid others.  

Culture may come up in job interviews, although it may be complicated to do much investigation when you’re trying to sell yourself.  People sometimes worry that discussing culture might make people uncomfortable and put a job offer at risk.  The culture topic is certainly not off-base, and it is necessary to know for future growth in the company.  Hiring managers should expect it.  Whether it’s in interviews or after you have an offer, you’ll do best if your questions show you’re learning rapidly about the organization, taking the employer’s perspective, and beginning to figure out how to succeed there.  Culture questions can cast you in a positive light. Sean’s line of questioning confirmed the CEO’s judgment to hire him, even if Sean didn’t like the answers. 

What’s your view of how culture affects the job search? Has culture played a part in how you choose your future employer?   

Adapted from Bill Barnett who led the Strategy Practice at McKinsey & Company