COM0015 – Blog 4 “Out of The Box”

FISHING FOR TALENT

Recruiters and organizations are turning strategically to LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and more unclear niche social networking sites to extend their global reach, speed recruitment sourcing and also to cut costs. There are many channels that are free, but the process is not without its errors and potential dangers.

The community has reached the point now where social recruiting isn’t just a novelty but it is something that you require to have for any successful recruiting strategy.

Researching blogs, niche communities and groups within networks can give the Human Resources Department information to plant content seeds within these sites to attract more-qualified applicants. It is highly recommended for companies to use social media to remain competitive

A Twitter account or Facebook page won’t be if helpful if you don’t have time to update or communicate with people. If you don’t have the manpower to cover all bases at one time, you may instead deter top-notch applicants instead of attract. It’s important you first define your targeted audience and determine the most appropriate avenue for your organization.

Some recruiters make the mistake of sending out generic messages to their entire audience base when in fact this strategy is more likely to frustrate people who otherwise would have been interested in your company. It is better to try to tailor your messages to a group within the same profession and or job so potential employees do not start ignoring your posts or block you. I see this happen quite often and find it very frustrating.

The people who form your company are in the best place to share company culture authentically on social media. To help them get comfortable talking about the brand, create a social media policy. Knowing the boundaries for using social media at your company allows employees to creatively promote your brand because they’re not constantly worried about making mistakes.

One major issue I see is that companies encourage their employees to start talking about their company on social media with branded hashtags. What could possibly go wrong do you ask? The employees need to understand your company policy and best practices for using social media. If you do not have this in place, serious damage to the reputation of the company may be possible.

There are several tools out there that can help you monitor social media presence for opportunities to connect with employees and potential employees, look for relevant content to share, and look out for problems. There are plenty of good things about social recruiting. But there’s room for error as well. Get the facts about social recruitment, and see what happens when the world’s worst boss tries to make use of it.

Do you have any stories you can share about mistakes that companies have fallen into without having a proper strategy in place?

https://www.flexipersonnel.com.au/blog/recruitment/mistakes-to-avoid-when-using-social-media-for-recruitment

Successfully Connecting to the Present & the Future

Networking can help you generate new sales leads, deepen connections with existing contacts and learn useful information about your markets.

I plan to practice networking by attending lots of different networking events. You will meet many interesting people and contacts, some of which will become great clients, colleagues or friends. I will need to get comfortable hearing the word no, maybe on many occasions but will not give up. I believe that hearing the world no, may just build my character and will make me more determined to succeed. When one door closes, another door opens perhaps!

Online networking will also play a big part in my strategy by using a variety of channels to connect and to engage with existing, new as well as internal and external stakeholders. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube will be the channels that I concentrate on to help build relationships and to show my value proposition.

It is important to grow a relationship and to communicate by maintaining regular and consistent contact with the people in my database by using a CRM system. One of my most successful communication tactics is to periodically meet with people in my network face to face. It’s much more personal and much more fun too.

Activities and commitments in the next six to twelve months will include increasing my knowledge about our market, specific industry issues or the factors that influence our customers’ buying decisions. I will focus on finding 60 new contacts that will also benefit from offering referrals or introductions to prospect customers.

Continuous follow up is a missing step we all forget to do. But following up to see how the introduction went, or randomly following up a few months later with no agenda will not only help you maintain your connections, but foster the relationship to a different level.

Before you think about networking, it is recommended that we remove the word working from our system. We hear people talking about putting on their networking game, and I can’t help but wonder how they can free themselves of pretending to be something that they are not. It’s likely that the people you’re trying to reach get approached by hundreds of people just like you; and it’s not difficult for them to weed out the people who are simply putting on a face. Would like to be called a typical salesman or someone interested to connect with?

Here is an interesting read that every salesman should know before jumping into networking. https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2014/04/good-sales-reps-gp.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

COM0015 – Blog #2: Strong & The Weak?

The average attention span of a human had fallen to eight seconds which I have read is down from 12 seconds since year 2000. As technology advances and consumers’ attention spans continue to decline, new companies that are looking to stimulate consumer interest in their brands face a difficult challenge. For a business, this means taking a tactical approach to getting your message to boom fast.

Making it personal is tailoring your message to individual customers is a powerful way to stand out among the noise. Let photos speak for you because an impactful photo can communicate a thousand words. Encouraging participation on social media channels is also advised. Inviting consumers to participate in creative social media campaigns can shape personal ties with your brand and keep you top of mind. Lastly, keeping it simple just simply works. You have a lot to say, and using text to communicate your message is great, especially if you’re trying to optimize your website for SEO purposes. But the reality is that most consumers don’t want to read or hear lengthy, text-heavy ads.

Domino’s is a great example of genius when you think of the brands that like to try to keep up with the new digital technology that others may be afraid to try. Domino’s is certainly way out ahead in the fast food market, constantly updating its mobile experience. The younger generation is certainly up to speed with using their mobile device for everything, certainly not like the older generation that are slowly adapting to this new technology.

The brands updating of social media has included great ideas such as tweet-to-order and the recently introduced ‘DOM The Pizza Bot’, which is an wicked little Messenger bot that lets customers order their usual with a couple of clicks in their favorite chat app which makes the experience more fun and also aiming for that younger generation.

Domino’s social approach is well-integrated and up to date with social media. The brand’s Pizza Legends campaign is another intelligent example that allows people to visit the website, create their own ultimate pizza design, then name it and share it on social media.

Pepsi has also embraced the technology; carving out an ambitious social strategy aimed at building relationships with the millennial generation, soon to be part of the largest consumer group in history.

An article written by David Hatch of US News and World Report (Read Article) does a great job of breaking down Pepsi’s social strategy which is the centerpiece of which is its “Live for Now” marketing campaign. The campaign that targets the market of 18-35 year old’s is a great example of an established brand effectively utilizing five critical aspects of social media marketing which include consumer engagement, user-generated content, data aggregation, geo-local, and inbound marketing.

Pepsi is a great example by monitoring what people say online about its products, Pepsi is able to manage user complaints in real time, before they take on a life of their own. Pepsi is hopping on the newest trend in social: SoLoMo, or Social, Local, Mobile. Thanks to the vast consumer adaptation of smart phones, companies like Pepsi can integrate social media with location-based mobile marketing.

Have you realized that the largest company in the world is also the world’s biggest social media holdout? There is still no official Twitter or Facebook account for Apple at this time. Unfortunately both accounts show no activity at all. If you visit Apple’s official Twitter page, you’ll see that it has never tweeted. Apple’s Facebook page has a bare wall as well. Do you think these accounts are legitimate or has someone else decided to create these accounts?

It appears that Apple uses the accounts to buy advertisements for its latest products, like the iPhone 7, MacBook Pro, and Apple Watch. These posts are known as dark social, which means that Apple is taking advantage of advertising tools to promote posts that don’t show up on the main account’s feed. Some feel that this approach memorably resulted in promoted tweets revealing the iPhone 7 and its key features before Apple did it itself at one of its launch events. It would appear to everyone that they do not have a social media strategy.

Apple has never had the history to communicate to their audience. This of course does not suggest that they are not using tools to monitor and to listen to their customers. What are your thoughts about Apple needing to develop a social media strategy? It certainly appears that they are doing something right, and just may be the exception to the rules we have learned. Do they not feel diving into social media would find them more customers and build more loyalty with existing?

https://www.cio.com/article/2979114/social-networking/inside-apples-odd-yet-effective-social-media-strategy.html

Are you listening with the right tools?

As we have been learning, the important key to making the most of social media is listening to what your audience has to say about you, you’re competitors and the market in general. Once you have the data you can undertake analysis and reach social business intelligence. By using all these insights to know your customers better and improve your overall marketing strategy.

If you are new to social media there are many free tools that will suit your need. When looking for a tool, it’s a good idea to each of them and choose the one that suits your needs best. Before you jump right into social media you should already have identified your goal to using social media and which platforms you will be using. You also need to understand that the free tools are not an alternative to the Enterprise-level tools. Enterprise-level tools have a lot more options to offer which will bring your  social media monitoring to a new level by offering a much higher variety of services, functionality, and in-depth analysis. As a starting and learning point it may be better suited to start with the free versions and to try different tools to see what suits your overall goal.

Hootsuite is highly recommended as one of the best free social media listening tools available and is well known for its social media management functions. Hootsuite covers multiple popular social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, WordPress, and Google+. Although Hootsuite has a free version, as you grow with social media you may find a better platform that has more options to help you grow.

The weekly reports and the excellent team management facility such as delegating tasks, sending private messages can be very useful when there’s more than one person handling the social media accounts. Usually small businesses or new companies starting out will only have one person to handle the accounts.

https://hootsuite.com/plans#

What are your thoughts on using Hootsuite? Do you think the free version is suited for a rookie or would you recommend purchasing a plan?

Social Mention is also quite popular among social media fans.  Social Mention monitors over one hundred social media sites. I have read in many posts that it is probably one of the best free listening tools on the market, as it analyses data in more depth and measures influence with 4 categories such as Strength, Sentiment, Passion, and Reach. It allows you to easily track and measure what people are saying about you, your company, a new product, or any topic across the web’s social media landscape in real-time. I also like that it displays top keywords, hashtags, and sites. Although other tools can handle this, I find Social Mention very easy for a first time user.

http://www.socialmention.com/

What are your thoughts on Social Mention’s home page? It is not as fancy as some of the other tools available and doesn’t seem to have a strong selling desire? My thoughts at first but when you try the tool, it is very easy to use and to figure out. There is a lot of information on the web that speaks highly of this tool and drives traffic to their site but still wonder why they do not make their home page more exciting.

Dare to be You!

Do you remember as kids when your buddies would double dare you to do something and you just had to prove to them that you could?  Now that we have grown older, do you find that you are more laid back and maybe do not have to prove anything?

At some point in life we’re all faced with a decision of whether to take that risk. Whether it’s leaving a miserable job, moving to a different position that stretches you, starting your own business, or even taking on a hard assignment, greatness requires risk!

Whether you succeed or fail, the act of taking a risk will strengthen you and give you faith in yourself as well as the confidence to do even more. I often wonder maybe if we’re meant to do things that scare us so we can build greatness in ourselves.

When you take the path of shyness and fear, your destiny is to wonder, years later, what might have been. I say to go for it! The cost may be great but the reward may be bigger. My mother always told me to get inspired and take the chance you need today.

I see that we do lose confidence as we grow older, maybe because as we grow older we gain more experience. It is natural that we have bad experiences which affect our confidence. I often see that people are not strong enough to take the good out of every bad thing that happens to us and use it to our advantage. By doing this, we grow more cautious about life, we remember discouraging things that happened to us in the past, or things people have said and we let it affect us.

I believe a healthy support network of friends and family who constantly encourage you instead of put you down. Be around people you can rely on, loyal, honest and trustworthy. I find they help you feel safe and less scrutinized by society, and they give you the leg up to start feeling good about yourself.

In a blink of an eye…

Things Happen for a reason…really?

I feel that we take every day for granted…thinking that we are indestructible. It is so hard to try to figure out why things happen.  I always was a big believer that everything happens for a reason.  Maybe this is because nothing really bad has ever happened to me.

Last week I lost my best friend/co-worker who had been a tragic car accident. Sarah was just celebrating 10 years at work and was recently promoted feeling like she was on top of the world.  After working a hard week and celebrating her promotion; she was given the Friday off of work so she could travel to see her family for Thanksgiving.

I hugged her and wished her a wonderful trip and was sorry that I couldn’t join her. Sarah and her dog packed up the car and left early on a foggy morning excited to tell her family about the great news of her promotion.

Sarah only made it out of town 10 minutes and ended up being T-Boned and a 6 car pile-up accident. The fog was so bad that morning but knowing her; she felt indestructible. Sarah unfortunately did not make this crash. Sarah also was not responsible for this accident.

My 22 year old son; being a volunteer fireman, was on site and had to cut her out of her car. Her dog; injured as well, escaped from the car, and could not be found. It took the town all weekend to locate him and he had to be hospitalized.

The question I ask is “why bad things happen to wonderful people?” Sarah was probably one of the most wonderful people you would ever meet. I was raised to be very religious; I go to church every Sunday, but not this Sunday.

You need to appreciate everyone around you, every minute you breathe and to not complain about the little things. There are a lot of articles on line to help with the grievance process. I will probably go back to church eventually; but I am just not ready to yet.

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=youtube+dealing+with+grief&view=detail&mid=A6B859EDD4C9AA2721C3A6B859EDD4C9AA2721C3&FORM=VIRE

Sawing Logs….

Ever fallen asleep at your desk or felt yourself nodding off on the highway? Is hitting the snooze button five times and drinking your weight in coffee still not enough to prop you up through your day? There are many reasons why we are not getting enough sleep, but one good reason could be lying in bed right next to you: a snoring spouse.

What do you do if you find yourself sharing a bed or a room with someone who snores? A study showed that partners of millions of snorers are kept awake for two hours each night, which equates to two years’ lost sleep over the course of an average marriage!

• White noise is a type of neutral sound which covers all wavelengths. This can dim our perception of sounds like snoring, making it easier to sleep with the noise
• A fan can work as well if you put it next to the bed and turn it on. Many people find that the noise made by a fan is effective in drowning out snoring
• Earplugs are a classic but some say it’s not an effective option. Custom shaped earplugs can be more comfortable than store bought and many audiologists provide this service
• There are many over-the-counter medications that you can take to knock you out when the time comes to battle your companion’s snoring. Do this only as a last resort, as your body quickly develops a tolerance.
• Any partner who is disrupting the sleep of another should consider seeking some type of sleep therapy solution.
• Maybe sleeping in another position may be the answer
• Many partners of snorers find they sleep much better in a separate room. While some worry about a loss of intimacy from sleeping separately, many people find that they are able to be more intimate because they are less tired, and less grumpy from being kept up all night.

I have read up on this issue for the reason my husband actually is told he is the worse snorer around! We continue to struggle with a way to help him sleep better but only to find now that he does not sleep well because he is worried about me. Do you have any suggestions or experience that could help?

http://www.wikihow.com/Sleep-when-Someone-Is-Snoring

Helicopter Parent…no not me!

Helicopter parents attempt to “ensure their children are on a path to success by paving it for them”. My children were only 12 and 13 years old when I was rudely accused of being a Helicopter Mom.  I did not take this as an insult until later years when I became to understand the title a little bit better. I had assumed my children just thought I was too caring and was afraid to let them fail.  I certainly do not remember hearing this term or using this term when I was a child.

Reading articles on line I quickly became quite knowledgeable about this term and continued to discuss this with other parents and children.  “Helicopter Parents” is often used to define a group of parents who engage in the practice of over-parenting. These parents are accused of being obsessed with their children’s education, safety, extracurricular activities, and other aspects of their children’s lives.

Critics have scrutinized helicopter parents for overprotecting their children and for failing to instill them with a sense of independence and a can-do attitude. Helicopter parents are also accused of over-programming their children and not allowing them free time to play and explore on their own. Helicopter parents defend their parenting practices, stating that they are only looking out for their children’s best interests. These parents also feel they are proud to be so involved in their children’s life.

Upon reading many articles I decided to take a quiz to see if I was classified as one of these parents. http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Family/2012/0419/Are-you-a-Helicopter-Parent-Take-our-quiz/When-your-baby-drops-a-cookie-on-the-floor-you  To my surprise, I was indeed a helicopter parent and truly believed it was in the best interest for my children.

My children are now 20 and 21 years old and I feel I have completed a wonderful job raising them as a single parent. I was very overprotective and did not want my children to fail or to make the same mistakes that I had in the past. I do believe that being overprotective may have let my children grow to be adults without making many mistakes, or failing or experiencing different things on their own.  Now that they are adults and do not live with me, they depend on my discussions, advise and well as continue to do things as I taught them, not venturing out to experience something new.

Why is this topic much more popular today compared to when I was growing up? At a young age my brother and I would be across town on our bikes, at the park, playing in the forest, and our parents did not keep track or worry that we were gone all day and without cell phone communication. In school if I was not getting good marks, my parents did not blame the teachers, or if I didn’t make the sports team, they didn’t hold them responsible.

From my readings I have found that it is likely that helicopter parents have been around since the beginning of parenting, but the practice of over-parenting came into its own sometime during the 1990’s. It was around that time that parents were bombarded with news stories about child abductions, academic competition, and competition in a global economy. Naturally, these stories would scare parents and certainly want to protect their children from all of the dangers in the world. But these following video’s certainly make you wonder what you are doing to your children’s future!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HhN6IlYD2M  Dec 30, 2014 – Uploaded by kha mohd A funny video about Helicopter Parents by one of our talented students … Helicopter Parents

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crfYRhHehEM Helicopter Parenting Dr Justin Coulson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq94ga_110s  Omg this is so funny an interview that makes fun of Helicopter a Mom Helicopter Mom Interview – Joe Turner

 

 

SOCIAL MEDIA…IS IT SOME KIND OF ADDICTION?

Social Media allows us to keep in touch with old friends, post favorite photos or jokes, interact or collaborate with many people and possible build your self-esteem?  Do you count how many friends you have on Facebook or get excited when someone likes your photo you posted or status you shared? Texting and status updates allow us to be more involved in the lives of others than before. Social Media also opens the door to many potential problems such as inappropriate posts, wasting time, cyber bullying and even the equivalent to opening up your home to strangers.

There are so many articles about the risk to children using social media, but every day I view adults that are falling into the same risk category. How many of you take your smart phones to bed, or sneak on during work time or even obsess with other people’s post? I often get upset when I am trying to reach my children and they are not answering me back. Never, have I seen my children put their phone away or too busy not to notice they have a new message.  I must admit that I am definitely addicted to my smart phone.  I use my phone for every part of my personal and business life and I would be lost without it.  Not only children but many adults also post they have bought a new toy or vehicle, or they are away on vacation, or even posting inappropriate photos of your friends on Facebook, inviting disaster.

I think not only children but adults need to be reminded about the serious threats that social media can cause personally and to their professional future. I enjoyed reading this article and shared it with my children on future risks to their professional future.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kim-garst/social-media_b_3431394.html  We often criticize our children but do not realize we may be falling into the same category?  Marketers are certainly benefiting from our use with Social Media. I have read a good article on being addictive to social media, please read when you have time. http://www.cmswire.com/cms/customer-experience/why-social-media-is-so-addictive-and-why-marketers-should-care-022276.php

I feel that our emotional attraction appears to be tied to having an audience more than connecting socially. Have you analyzed if you are addicted to Social Media?

Adopt or Rescue?

Adopt or Rescue? By Kelly Rintoul

Are you thinking of welcoming a new dog as a family member? If so, one of the first decisions to make is whether you’d like to adopt a puppy or rescue an older dog.

There really is nothing quite as adorable and exciting as welcoming a puppy. Cute, cuddly and full of affection, many people fall in love at first site. If you adopt a puppy, expect to spend a lot of time with them during their first year of life. You’ll need to care for their every need, teach them how to behave and show them where to spend their time. It is sad to hear of people not wanting to keep the dog after it is no longer a puppy and in that cuddly stage.

Have you thought of rescuing an adult dog? This can also be a delight, too. If you adopt an adult dog, you’ll skip the awkward and destructive puppy developmental stages, like teething and potty training. Depending on their history and whether they’ve been trained, you may not need to send them to basic obedience class or housetrain them. Sometimes it may be hard to retrain an adult dog, as well as have to deal with history of a possible abuse or miss treated dog. Having young children, I would not want to take any chances. I would have to choose a dog that had no past abuse or issues unfortunately.

Both decisions are a major commitment and you really need to give it 100% of your time and attention. I have heard many people have pro’s and con’s of both discussions. Myself, I would certainly fall in love with an adult dog if it was well trained but having a puppy and teaching and training it would be my first discussion. I understand there are a lot of dogs out there that need homes. I do believe people should be more responsible by getting their dogs fixed to avoid unexpected pregnancies.