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How LinkedIn will fire up your career – Fortune Magazine

April 1, 2010 By Leave a Comment
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(Fortune) –”If you need a job, or just want a better one, here’s a number that will give you hope: 50,000. That’s how many people the giant consulting firm Accenture plans to hire this year. Yes, actual jobs, with pay. It’s looking for telecom consultants, finance experts, software specialists, and many more. You could be one of them — but will Accenture find you? To pick these hires the old-fashioned way, the firm would rely on headhunters, employee referrals, and job boards. But the game has changed. To get the attention of John Campagnino, Accenture’s head of global recruiting, you’d better be on the web. To put a sharper point on it: If you don’t have a profile on LinkedIn, you’re nowhere.”

via How LinkedIn will fire up your career – Mar. 25, 2010.

Wendy’s Note:

I am a little biased to the writer’s point of view in this article as a trainer for Integrated Alliances on LinkedIn and other social media tools.  LinkedIn as a business networking site has really gained momentum in the past 6 months. I would guess that it aligns with the increase in unemployed professionals across the country.

I run a couple of groups on LinkedIn, one for Alumni of the University of Rhode Island (my alma mater).  In the past 3-4 months I have an average of 20 – 80 people joining my group each week.  So while it is true that for your online reputation management and job search you should be on LinkedIn, I would recommend that you be on this — or any other business networking site– with a complete profile that is written with keywords in mind.

First impressions demand a complete social media profile

First impressions are created when anyone looks at your profile.  If you are trying to build a solid network, how would it look with no picture, a generic, blase headline, and a one sentence past job and role descriptions?  Here’s a few tips for you to get started on cleaning up your LinkedIn profile

Picture – Use a basic headshot picture from any digital camera, no professional help needed.

  • A clean, white background is best.
  • Do not use group photos or logo’s. No one will know which one your are.
  • Upload up to a 4Mb file and the system has a cropping tool. The final picture is quite small – 80 x 80 pixels.

If you would like more advice on how to take a good profile photo consider this post on tips for headshots and photos

Headline – This is the most important section on your profile.  On LinkedIn this field defaults to current job title at current employer.  When you add or change the headline, it does not change the current job however.  Use interesting, compelling, targeted keywords to attract interest. This is critical in attracting people to click through from search listings.

  • Limited to 140 characters – use wisely.
  • Search LinkedIn for the job title you are interested and consider who shows in the result page.
  • Use the Google keyword tool if you don’t know what terms to use that fit your job interests.

Summary – Think of it as a brochure and a business Bio. Begin with how helpful you are to others, make people want to help you in return.

  • Only include current and relevant information as this is a high-level overview.
  • This is not an historical area unless the history remains part of the current and future.
  • Formatting is limited to ALL CAPS, some special keyboard characters (~ > | #) and symbols that can be pulled in from Word (see above).
  • You get 2,000 characters (about 2/3 of a printed page) to work with.

Specialties – While the Summary section is like a brochure, with complete sentences and fancy formatting, the Specialties section is a place that resembles a list – a list of keywords like in a Search Engine sense.

  • Create a list of keywords, then look at the variations of these words and then look at synonyms and variants of the synonyms (see below).
  • You have 500 characters to work with (about 2 paragraphs).

Experience (Work History) – What to include? How far to go back? What to say? The Best Practice is to include every employer since college. This creates more opportunities for you to create relationships with others.

  • If you had multiple positions at a company, use the highest position held.
  • Do NOT simply copy/paste in data from a resume.
  • Use years only, no months needed.
  • You get lot’s of space, 2,000 characters, so make use of it!

What to say? For each position, state the following:

  1. What does the company do?
  2. Who do they do it for?
  3. Where do they operate?
  4. What was your role?
  5. What made you special there?

You are competing with over 60,000 profiles on LinkedIn so do your utmost to make your profile get found in the crowd by recruiters, customers and vendors.

Do you have questions on how to improve your profile on LinkedIn?  Please ask in the comments section, or connect with me on LinkedIn and reference this post.  I will provide a free review and recommendation.

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Social Media Breakfast Madison | Do It Yourself Video | February 2010

March 16, 2010 By 1 Comment

SMB Madison February Meeting Covers Video

In February and March 2010 Social Media Breakfast Madison is covering Do It Yourself and Professional Video topics.  Brandyn Olson of Requisite Video provided the presentation for February and Sandy Kallio provided reporting duties.

First steps

  • Set goals for your video.
  • What are you trying to do?
  • What results do you desire?
  • Have a call to action.

Other points to consider

  • Research your audience and have a strategy.
  • Where is your target audience active online?
  • What are the problems and issues they are talking about

Choose your tool (s) carefully with resources in mind.

  • What tools will you use?
  • Where will the video be hosted or embedded?
  • How will you get people to view it?
  • Where is your target market active online and can you reach them through the tools and resources you have?

Test & measure.

  • How will you know it’s working?
  • Views can be misleading.

His example:  Client’s goal was 10 new members in three months. Video by Requisite Video had 100 views, obviously focused on the right audience because 13 converted memberships to the customer in the first month.

FaceBook page considerations

If  you’re on FaceBook have you built an audience so they’re ready and willing to receive your video message?

What do they need to see, hear, feel? Consider your Web page a 24-hour channel. If there’s no video, nothing’s on.

Brandyn Olson talked about Requisite Video’s  FaceBook fan page being more active than his Web site.  He also shared his strategy to spread content over FaceBook and YouTube vs. pages hidden behind pages on the company Web site.

Making the best of what you have.

At the meeting we had a High Definition and regular Flip video, a camera and tripod on display as examples.  In most cases, HD is not crucial. For clients who shoot their own video but want a more professional look, Requisite video will re-edit and post it for them.

Other products to consider are the Kodak Xi8 which has an external mic, or the Sony Bloggie which is HD and allows you to take 5MP stills.  The external mic picup is an important feature for interviews.

Viewers expect quality.

If it’s a great story, they’re willing to sit, listen, watch longer. Tips to improve quality:

  • Stabilize with a tripod, your body, bean bag. Brandyn demonstrated walking, crossing leg over leg facing subject and using both arms for slow panning. Emphasized slow movement to avoid stutter problem.
  • Follow the rule of thirds and focus on the intersections of those spaces for subject placement. Avoid distractions in the background (such as a plant growing out of your subject’s head).
  • Frame so just the top of the head shows.Typically, there’s too much room above the subject. Better to get more floor in the image than than ceiling.
  • Lighting it up. LCD/laptops can make the image darker, so this is essential.
  • Audio quality – or lack of – is the biggest problem with flip cameras. If you need an option for an external mike, consider the Sony camera.
  • Avoid noisy coffee shops, find a quieter place such as a conference room, get close to the subject – especially if a soft speaker, and be aware that as the interviewer your voice will be heard well.  A small tabletop tripod is important and warned about pointing it up and filming your subject’s nostrils.
  • Once you take your video, don’t forget to think about how else you could use the content.  Make it into a podcast, video-cast, and transcribe for a text-based post.

Video content is not search-able… yet.

Until the technology is greatly improved tagging, meta descriptions and file titles on video are the only way anyone can find your information. Don’t forget this step.

The search engines can see that its a video, but unless you tag and describe the contents, its an unknown.  Pay attention to how you tag, and where you post. All of the social sites allow you to tag and add a description which is critical. this is also a good reason to transcribe your video for text-based post. Phonetic searching is coming, but Brandyn sounds less hopeful  since he tried “Sauk Prairie Bald Eagles” and got “George Washington Cape.”

Distribution channels: YouTube, Website, blog, FaceBook, paid placement.

Brandyn talked about YouTube as the hosting platform and that he used to be concerned about traffic loss from his site when the video would end and other video options would pop up for viewers.

He created his own YouTube channel and has two categories for his videos posted there: testimonial videos and promotional videos.

It is suggested that paying attention to how you title the videos, using a video  interview of Midwest Airlines staff as an example of how one could capitalize on that name.

Brandyn talked about the benefits of posting on YouTube: free to start, optimized – the most active place for video.

Brandyn and others talked about archiving video and labeling drives so can find what he needs later. He keeps a list via Google docs but it’s not searchable by key word. Al Falaschi of Widen ( a Madison-based company specializing in digital asset management) said he uses Final Cut Server asset management as a software tool.

Brandyn showed how his company created four videos for a martial arts business, with the first piece short and very upbeat – and with an embedded play list with the other three. Viewers could watch all four or pick what they wanted to see without scrolling down a page.

When NOT to do it yourself.

  • When you’re not sure what results you want
  • When you’re not sure what your message is
  • When your goals are not achievable with the tools and resources you have
  • When you’re branding yourself or your company. Consider professional help for this opportunity to make a great first impression.
  • When your time is worth more than the cost to hire a professional.

Our March Social Media Breakfast Madison on Tuesday, March 30th at Talula Restaurant (802 Atlas Avenue Madison WI), will cover video from the point of view of having others do it for you. Final speakers to be determined.

Please share your video experience and stories in the comments.

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Filed Under: Linkedin, Social Media Breakfast Madison, Social Media Tools, Video Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Art of Filming an Interview | Top One Report | In My Opinion

March 11, 2010 By 3 Comments
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“First and foremost, interviews are connected to credibility. We have been trained to think that if a person is interviewed about something, then they must have a special insight into the topic about which they’re being asked. In other words, if you’re worthy of an interview, you must know what you’re talking about. And do you realize that you can interview yourself? It’s quite common to see an interview on the nightly news that only shows the interviewee, and never the person asking the questions. Sometimes you don’t even hear the questions being asked. So instead of looking right at the camera, look off to the side and pretend to be answering someone’s questions. See how that could be good for selling something?”

via The Art of Filming an Interview | Top One Report.

In my opinion

If you are thinking about doing video interviews of yourself or your clients, this is a must read article.  I myself have been doing interviews of Wisconsin businesses who are using social media using my Flip Video camera.  My intent was to find more examples of business using social media and try to document the answers to the very questions being asked of me.

Breakfast and Video

The Social Media Breakfast Madison just had a great presentation by Requisite Video on video guidelines.  We talked about how to make choices when it comes to video.   Sandy Kallio one of the attendees was nice enough to provide a good recap of the event and I have added embellishments so please check out that post here: Do It Yourself Video | Requisite Video Speaks at SMB Madison

FaceBook Fan Page Ideas

Brandyn Olson , Requisite Video talked about Requisite Video’s  Facebook fan page being more active than his Website during the recent Social Media Breakfast Madison.  He also shared his strategy to spread content over Facebook and YouTube vs. pages hidden behind pages on the company Web site.

There is a strategy of posting video to different social sites.  There is a different appreciation of the narrative that should be placed in the specific social site context.  That strategy for posting to Twitter vs. LinkedIn vs. FaceBook vs. YouTube can really help the link follow and interest by your followers.

Wendy Soucie Consulting Facebook Fan Page - Youtube tab

Wendy Soucie Consulting Facebook Fan Page - Youtube tab

Some people don’t believe that FaceBook is the best place to upload your video. The more common approach is to upload to YouTube and link to FaceBook.  It means that you friends and Fans cannot easily find those videos again from the video page.  If you are posting your videos solely to FaceBook page, you should watch your Insights and track the activity.

In testing out this premise,  I found out that you can create a tabbed page with a third party YouTube plug-in.  It seems to be working OK so far on the Wendy Soucie Consulting FaceBook page.

How to measure the impact of video

The way to get new business is through networking and social media interaction. It’s up to you to decide what success looks like and begin to track the key factors that might drive new leads and revenue. Make sure that each video has a call to action at the beginning, middle and end.

  • Track total ecosystem numbers in all social spaces
  • Ask fans questions about video
  • Track comments
  • Track links and embeds
  • Track favorites
  • Track subscriptions
  • Track views
  • Track action by using landing pages for each social site on your “home”
  • Track marketing actions with track able phone numbers.

Through YouTube, you can see how long people are watching before they leave – meaning they might miss the call to action at the end.  This might clue you in to shorten up your videos and insert a call to action in the middle of the clip.

Consider having a script for the interview, to stay on message which can really help you be more organized.

When NOT to do it yourself.

  • When you’re not sure what results you want
  • When you’re not sure what your message is,
  • When your goals are not achievable with the tools and resources you have
  • When you’re branding yourself or your company.
  • When your time is worth more than the cost to hire a professional

Consider professional help for these opportunities to make a great first impression.

Please share your video experience and stories in the comments.



 


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