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Does Your Brand Get the Attention It Deserves?

October 7, 2016 by Thomas

What exactly are you doing on a regular basis to give your brand the attention it needs to thrive?

Unfortunately, some business owners are doing next to nothing, leaving their brands dangling in the wind. In doing so, they are missing out on golden opportunities to get their brands noticed, notice that can mean the difference between a good financial month and a mediocre one at best.

That said it is important that you review any and all promotions you are doing, see what is working and what is gaining little or zero traction.

At the end of the day, brand promotion is essential to a healthy business.

Use Myriad of Brand Promotions Regularly

When attempting to promote your brand, you should remember the following tips:

Targeted audience – Where exactly are you looking to have your brand heard? Depending on the size of your business, you may be limited in the scope of how much brand promoting you are able to do. If this describes your business, be sure to maximize your brand promotion efforts and dollars. This means doing the needed research to you see just exactly those making up your audience. Are they young or old? Do they have notable or modest incomes? Will they typically shop in-person or online? These are just some of the questions you should be able to answer (at least to some degree) about your customers. If you can’t, start taking time to delve into their interests, with surveys/online questionnaires etc. a good way to start;
Targeted marketing – Knowing the audience you have makes it easier to market, though you can still market outside your targeted audience, knowing that you may land some new customers along the way. As part of your marketing efforts, make sure you focus on items like your blog, social media, videos and podcasts etc. When using one and all of those items in promoting your brand, make sure you essentially put on a happy face. This means any and all imagery you use is positive, shying away from any negative vibes. Many consumers lead busy lives, some of which can be downright tiring and even negative. As a result, putting a positive spin on your brand gives you a better chance of making a sale when all is said and done;
Targeted social media – If you haven’t been taking advantage of social media up to now, why is that? Social networking can do wonders for your brand, all the while really costing you nothing other than time and effort. With that in mind, make a concentrated effort to use social media on a daily basis. Among the advantages of social media would be promoting your blog articles on a variety of social sites (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter etc.), getting valuable consumer feedback when they turn to social networking to discuss any concerns etc. with products and/or services, and the opportunity to see what the competition is doing among other things;
Targeted growth – Finally, you need to determine how quickly or slowly you want your brand to grow. In some cases, you can indeed grow too quickly, putting you under the gun in terms of resources and finances. On the other hand, not recognizing the opportune time to grow your business can lead to setbacks too. With that being said, it is important that you recognize not only the trends going on in your particular industry, but also look to see what the competition is doing on a regular basis. This will allow you to have a better handle on when growth is necessary and when you need to apply the brakes to such ideas.

For your brand to succeed, you need myriad of things in play, so don’t turn a blind eye to all of them.

In today’s digital age, so much more of what one does to successfully run a business is determined by what they do online.

For better or worse, things are not going to change; in fact, the online demands are only likely to accelerate in the years to come.

That said will your brand get the attention it deserves?

Photo credit: BigStockPhoto.com

About the Author: Dave Thomas covers business topics on the web.

Top 5 Ways to Influence the Modern Social Media User

October 6, 2016 by Guest Author

By Jessica Davis

Influence is a highly valued social currency.

Today, the influence factor is synonymous with television ratings or viewership, perhaps slightly more powerful because of the added specificity or targeting potential. That holds true if you define influence as the ability to drive desirable change in a specific niche.

As a brand on social media, the power to influence an audience is invaluable (to follow, interact and purchase), but dealing with the tech-savvy and instant-gratification-seeking members of today’s market is a challenge. That is why I’ve explored and listed the top five ways to influence the modern social media user.

1. Play to your strengths with social content

According to this Google trend, the interest in thought leadership is growing. Whether you’re blogging to convert readers into buyers, or you’re blogging for brand recognition, it is vital to establish yourself as an expert or a thought leader. The simplest way to do that is begin with areas you’re comfortable with, or have expertise in. As Ronell Smith says, write the post that you’re passionate about. To cover the rest of your niche you could curate content from around the internet. Tools like FlipBoard, DrumUp or Curata help source. Your social page in totality should showcase all of the important information in your niche.

2. Change the focus of your social media conversations

To impact social users, brands must learn to use social media from the perspective of their audience. According to this study, 55% people said they use social to connect with friends and family (the top reason for using social media), while 45% said they use it to keep in touch with news and trends. “To be pitched to” doesn’t show up on the list. Instead of talking about your brand, you could give people news and information to stay up-to-date. That would be a more powerful way of reaching out to them rather than outright selling them something. Trend identification tools like Google trends and BuzzSumo are great sources of the news that you should research and write about.

3. Target your readers against targeting your buyers

Most brands target their buyers by focusing on set buyer personas. What they don’t account for is the people who don’t purchase from the brand but read and share their content. Instead of targeting your buyer personas, if you focused on reader personas, you benefit by increasing your reach and earning the opportunity to convert more people into buyers. Create content that attracts an audience wider than your target market. Doing that will help build a better perception of your influence.

For instance, home décor and interior design brand The Chromologist often talks about design in general and shares great photographs of art in nature, in cities and the world. Using that approach, the brand not only attracts people who want to redo their homes, but also people who are interested in design and appreciate beauty in general – an audience much larger than their intended target audience.

4. Acknowledge mentions and responses to drive more interaction

According to a study conducted by Search Engine Watch, 70% people who tweet brands expect a response, and 53% of them want one within the hour. The longer you take to respond, the more likely your audience is to switch to another social page, brand or product even if the tweet is a complaint or a trouble-shoot request. To stay truly real-time, you require notifications to warn you of social mentions. There are a host of listening tools like Mention and Brand24 that offer real-time desktop and mobile notifications for social mentions making them easy for you to track and respond to.

Whether the mention is positive or negative, it is a potential opportunity for PR and brand building.

5. Leverage the influence of your social media network

According to global market research firm Nielsen, 92% today’s social media users trust recommendations made by people like them over ‘brand content’. By connecting with people within your network and in your niche and enabling them to promote your content, you can impact your audience and even drive sales.

Brands as big as BMW have successfully done it, and so have medium sized set-ups like SpinGo. You simply need to find the right influencers to advocate your brand. One of social media’s biggest advantages is the fact that it puts power in the hands of ordinary people. Influencers needn’t be celebrities. They could simply be employees, partners, happy customers or well-wishers – anyone who is in contact with your market. These are sometimes referred to as micro-influencers. Here’s a look at one of SpinGo’s employee advocacy posts.

To organize and manage your advocacy efforts you could use an employee advocacy platform like LinkedIn Elevate, Kredible, Circulate.It or DrumUp Employee Advocacy Platform. Make sure that any employees who Tweet corporate information are clearly identified as employees in their profiles or bios, to be in compliance with FTC rules on influencer marketing.

Influence is simply about increasing your reach and impact on social media. With the right content, targeting and distribution channels you can drive maximum impact and conversions.

Author Bio: Jessica Davis is a Content Writer with Godot Media – a leading Content Management company. She has years of experience in working closely with online businesses, helping them refine their marketing strategy through optimum use of content. Her other interests, besides online content strategy, copywriting and search engine optimization, are technology, sports and even fashion.

Featured image via Flickr cc: Little Calpurnia!

What Types of Resumes Catch Your Eyes?

October 5, 2016 by Thomas

Making sure you get the best talent to work at your business is not as easy as it may sound to some running companies.

For starters, you typically have to wade through a long pile of resumes, some of which should stand out more than others.

Part of the challenge in hiring the best and brightest for your company is that someone can have a stellar resume and yet have a mediocre personality and vice-versa. The key becomes, how do you know which individuals will bring talent and experience to your company, yet still fit in as a team player when all is said and done?

In order for you to land only the top candidates out there, take some time now to review your hiring procedures especially as this year is winding down. With the New Year not too far around the corner, what better time to review your hiring practices?

Know What You’re Looking for

So that you can improve the chances of landing the best employees the first time around, you have to know exactly what you are searching for in a staff member.

First, where do you rank the varying categories (experience, personality, drive etc.) in terms of importance?

Knowing exactly what you are looking for in a new employee is as crucial as anything else involved in the process.

Typically, resumes that get attention are those that:

Offer relevant experience to the job being advertised;
Are nicely organized and free of any grammatical errors;
Come with a cover letter that clearly expresses why the candidate believes they are the best person suited for the opening.

As you look through the winning resumes that come across your desk or that of your person in charge of HR, it is important to remember that the resume is just one (albeit an important one) piece of the puzzle.

Once it is determined that you want to have a candidate in for an interview (or perhaps over the phone), that is when he or she needs to set themselves apart from the competition.

Among the areas to look for:

Someone bringing drive to the interview. Their resumes may be a little short here and there when it comes to relevant experience, but their passion for the job can make up for that shortage;
Someone dressing the part. While a candidate doesn’t necessarily need a three-piece suit or a designer dress, he or she does need to present themselves accordingly. Look for those individuals that seem to put some time and effort into their appearance;
Someone that has a winning personality. This can be the most difficult trait to identify, especially when you only have them in for a short interview or a couple of interviews. Personalities are crucial to having a strong workplace, one where everyone is willing to be a team player and pitch in as needed. Even though it can be difficult to single out these candidates during interviews, you should grade their personalities just as importantly as you would experience and talent.

So, does it sound like hiring the right person for the right job is more difficult than it truly should be?

When all is said and done, keep in mind that having to retrain folks for the right jobs ultimately ends up costing your business time and money.

Although it may seem time-consuming and even a little frustrating at times to hire the right people for the right positions, taking that needed time is worth it.

In the end, you generally will get someone that is going to not only do a good job, but won’t up and move on at the first opportunity presented them.

As you review resume after resume, remember to find those resumes that not only stand out for one good reason or another, but also those individuals you seemingly couldn’t go wrong with.

Hiring the right people is not an exact science for sure, but it is something that demands your time and attention, especially if you are on a tight budget and can’t afford to be wasting money retraining individuals.

So, what types of resumes catch your eyes?

Photo credit: BigStockPhoto.com

About the Author: Dave Thomas covers business topics on the web.

Have You Truly Secured Your Business?

September 30, 2016 by Thomas

Whether you run a business out of an office space that you rent or own or direct your business from home, you know (at least you should) how important security is.

While cyber-attacks have gotten many of the headlines in recent years, physical break-ins are still as prevalent as ever. If this happens to you, it could turn your business upside down, leaving you in quite a precarious position moving forward.

With that being the case, what are you doing to make sure your business is as physically secure as possible?

From having it properly alarmed to making sure employees (and you for that matter) don’t leave an open invitation for criminals to break-in, you do have a lot of the say in whether or not you become a crime victim.

So, when you take time at the end of the day to think about it, have you truly secured your business?

Stay a Step Ahead of Criminals

In order to best protect your business (in an office or from home), remember these pointers:

Security packages – Perhaps your best line of defense is looking into protection security packages. With such packages protecting a home office or a building where you work out of, you have a much lesser chance of being broken into. Before buying such a package, be sure to do some searching online, along with asking others you know as to which company they put their trust in. One of the first things you want to know about a security company is how long they’ve been in business. A company with a track record of securing both home and business sites is one that should certainly get your attention. Also look into their customer service dealings, making sure they have the best interests of their customers in mind at all times. Finally, while nothing is essentially free in this day and age (other than advice), be sure that you understand all the costs, avoiding any hidden fees etc.
Not asking for trouble – Criminals have minds all their own, some better than others that is. In protecting your business, don’t leave the door open (literally) for them to come in and steal from you. For instance, if you have an office place in a building or even at home for that matter, you may have customers come to visit to purchase products or services, meet with you for appointments, pay you money for work you did for them etc. As a result, make sure you (or a secretary or other employee) doesn’t let people in to wander around until you get to them. It just takes a minute’s time for someone to steal property (including money) from you and your business;
Don’t announce you’re out of town – Another gaffe that business owners need to avoid is announcing to the world that they are out of town for a period of time. This is especially a problem in today’s world given the millions and millions of people using social media. For instance, if you are operating a company out of your home, one where you would typically have a fair amount of money sitting around for when clients come-and-go to do business with you, don’t then go on social media and tell the world that you are closed and out of town for a week’s vacation. If you work out of an office building and close down for a week or so, be sure all is secure before the lights are turned off and the doors locked until you return for business. Lastly, since there is the possibility you will have a cleaning person and/or crews coming in on occasion to clean your office, make sure their credentials are thoroughly reviewed before hiring them.

No matter what part of the country you are in, your business can prove quite vulnerable, be it in an office building or running it from your home.

Do your best to truly secure your business, keeping criminals on the outside looking in at all times.

In return, you will feel more secure at the end of each and every work day.

Photo credit: BigStockPhoto.com

About the Author: Dave Thomas covers business topics on the web.

Five Apps That Support Mindfulness

September 29, 2016 by Rosemary

Have you ever caught yourself holding your breath during the day?

Take a moment right now, and notice your breathing, your posture, the tension in your shoulders.
What do you smell?
What is sitting in front of you?
Are there sounds in the room?
How many devices do you have sending notifications while you’re reading this post? (Yes, I saw you just sneak a peek at your phone.)

In this go-go stressed out world, we all need resources that will help us zero back in on this moment. After all, that’s all we have. A series of moments strung together to make a day, month, year, life.

In the immortal words of Ferris Bueller, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

Here are some apps that will support your efforts to stop and look around once in a while.

5 Apps That Support Mindfulness

1. Breathe for Apple Watch

It’s not good to hold your breath, according to experts. It’s a sign of stress, and can lead to problems. If you have an Apple Watch, you now have a breathing buddy. I scoffed at this one when I first saw it, but after using it steadily for a week, I noticed a difference in my general state. Here’s a great article that goes in-depth on how Breathe works. The animated graphic, along with the haptic feedback, give you an oasis of calm whenever they appear. You can set the frequency and length as well. The beautiful simplicity of this one makes it a winner.

2. Calm

I’ll admit to being a meditation newbie, and the Calm app was a good entry point for me. It comes with some free mediation sessions, and then offers additional paid sessions. They have a beautiful desktop app in addition to the mobile and watch apps, so you can get centered no matter where you are. If you’re using an iPhone with the Apple Health app, your Calm meditation sessions will integrate and count toward your “mindful minutes” each day.

3. Mindful Mynah

It doesn’t get much simpler than the Mindful Mynah app, which plays a brief sound on a schedule you set. The idea is that hearing the sound (which you choose) will remind you to refocus on the task at hand, or get aware of your present moment. You can use it for any purpose, including remembering to take a brief break and stretch! It’s only 99 cents in the app store; there’s a desktop and a mobile app available.

4. Headspace

The Headspace app is more like a personal trainer for meditation. The application will take you through meditation sessions you choose based on your mood or lifestyle. They have a user community on the website, so you can connect with other Headspace fans and get support. There is a free 10 day trial, with paid plans thereafter, starting at $6.40 per month.

5. Buddhify

If playfulness is your thing, Buddhify will appeal to you. Its colorful wheel-style selector will help you choose the appropriate guided meditation for where you are and what you’re doing. Can’t sleep? In pain? There’s a session for you in the Buddhify app. The app provides stats and charts to track your progress, and has both guided and solo timed options, in case you want to just go it alone. It’s $4.99 in the app store (not free, but won’t break the bank either).

BONUS: I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention a member of our GeniusShared family, Bija Bennett, who has amazing wellness resources on her website, including this great video on breathing awareness.

Have you tried any of these apps yet? Did I miss any good ones you’d like to share?

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for Social Strata — makers of the Hoop.la community platform. Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Do You Have the Executive Knowledge for a New Employer?

September 28, 2016 by Thomas

In a world where jobs can be hard to find at times (especially on the executive level), it is important for candidates to put their best foot forward when going on interviews.

That said getting to those interviews in the first place can oftentimes prove to be the biggest challenge of them all.

If you are not feeling 100 percent confident in penning your own resume, turning to an executive resume writing service can make all the difference in the world.

For starters, such a service is geared towards helping those executives who are considering a new job (be they presently employed or out of work), though may be struggling somewhat to write a winning resume, one which will get them in the door for an interview.

In the event you feel it is time for such a writing service to come to your rescue, do you know where to begin your search?

Use the Internet to Get Started

While word-of-mouth is still a good way to go about finding the products and services you need in today’s digital age, the Internet itself proves a fantastic resource.

By doing a Google search of executive resume writing services, you will have a number of them with which to choose from, setting you off in the direction of what you need.

Once you have that service selected, it then comes down to connecting one-on-one with a professional resume writer.

So that you are able to put your best foot forward when it comes to being considered a strong candidate for an executive position, remember these tips as you and your writer put your career highlights in writing:

Resume – First and foremost, what will your resume say about you? It is important that you have a resume that catches eyes, not electronic trash cans. To do the former, work with an executive resume writing service, knowing that these professionals can make your resume stand out for all the right reasons. As an example, your experience as an executive is your best attribute, but you don’t want to go on and on about that experience. A professional resume writer can help you get to the meat of the matter, all the while avoiding a lot of leftovers. Also make sure your resume is directed towards your target audience. Once again, an executive resume writer will want to sit down with you and discuss the type or types of jobs you are going after. Always make sure you provide as much direct information as possible, making it easier for a professional writer to come up with a winning resume, not one that will get tossed in a heap with many other unattractive ones;
Attitude – Nothing screams more that you are not the right person for the job than going into an interview with a negative attitude. Do your best to come across as a go-getter, not someone just looking to collect a paycheck. As an executive, you would be expected to be one of the leaders of a company, so leadership means going out there and accomplishing things. If you have led on a number of pertinent projects over the years, discuss them with the writer preparing your resume. He or she can highlight one (perhaps a couple) that will jump out when an employer or HR recruiter goes over your resume;
Drive – Finally, your executive resume writer can do a fantastic job on your resume, but it is up to you to then sell it, along with selling yourself when an interview or interviews present themselves. Be sure to show that you have the drive necessary to not only handle the prospective position, but exceed at it. While experience and education are certainly key ingredients to getting a new job, your drive can never be taken for granted. For many employers, they want to see someone walk through their door that is passionate about the job they are interviewing for, not someone who just appears lukewarm to it.

Finding the best executive resume writing service for your needs does take some time and effort, so give it your best shot.

Once you find that service, it is up to you and your professional writer to combine on the resume that will turn heads for all the right reasons.

Photo credit: BigStockPhoto.com

About the Author: Dave Thomas covers business topics on the web.