How To: Get More Out of LinkedIn

I think constantly improving your LinkedIn profile is key.

And people often ask me "how to" and "when to" improve, so here is my response with massive plug for the company I co-founded.

First, there is a lot of good advice on improving your profile, so check it out:
Savvy Sugar.  GLO. RealMenRealStyle. Blogging4Jobs.

Even LinkedIn has made smart efforts with the Improve Your Profile feature.

But once your picture is perfect and keywords are optimized - how do you give hiring managers more?  How do you increase your chances of good connections?

One way is to add meaningful and new information previously not available via TruYuu.

Join TruYuu and add your TruMee (loud and terrible voice provided by me):




Simple, free way to help you deepen the information on your LinkedIn profile to better reflect all that you bring to the table.

Yes, LinkedIn is only one professional network but they are huge, helpful and growing.  LinkedIn's fairly new apply button shows their role will only increase in the job search game.  Cheering or Fearing?

But no matter how you apply or where you promote yourself, you should give people more - more than keywords, pretty pictures, skills.  Let people see you in all your awesomeness -your values, talents and more in a simple snapshot like your TruMee.

Do you agree that adding deeper insight into LinkedIn profile improves the process for all?


Note: As stated earlier, I am a co-founder of TruYuu.  Please know that I believe adding your TruMee or other validated data on your talents to your profile is the way to go.  It's the future.  So if not TruYuu, consider adding more depth to help you find or stay in a satisfying and productive career.

How To: Ultimate Holiday Gift at Work

Ideas & Kissing: How to Ensure Success

I think I have the key to delivering a successful first kiss.

Not an expert here, and note, my first kiss took place in the living room curtains - romantic?

And one kiss behind Spring Creek Elementary with a bunch of people circled up to watch - was, eh, yeah.

So I have botched a ton of kisses and I have botched a lot of firsts at work.

And when I reflect upon the botching versus the well executed there is a clear theme.

Keep It Simple Stupid - K.I.S.S. 

We fail when we do too much.  We put too much into "it".  Too many services, widgets...just too much complexity.  Stay away from going early to neck, ears, tongue or grabbing.  You get it.

Just don't over due it.

Stay simple and you can add more / do more next time.

You try to get too complex out of the gate and you might not get a next time.

If you didn't like my first acronym, let's try a super popular one - Minimal Viable Product (M.V.P.).

QStart Labs, Poke NY and Startup Giraffe all get putting out a M.V.P. and each in their own style and with their own models to help you do it.

Check out this video by Amit Klien at NYU where M.V.P. gets coverage starting at the 4:40ish mark.

My advice is whether you have an idea as an entrepreneur, our launching a new product for a huge firm or other - you will be better served with an M.V.P.

Make your first a simple tender kiss and then the real opportunity begins.

But some like Seth Godin are raising warning signals about the M.V.P. craze.

What do you think?

Birthday Marketing: 2 Examples, 1 Winner.

I think birthday wishes are awesome and birthday marketing is underused.

Birthday wishes...we all appreciate them - come on?  It feels good.

My FB wall today made me feel incredibly positive and lucky.

But the opportunity to market is just that an opportunity.

Others agree.

Email or social actions saying HBD - make us smile.  Points on the board for recognition.  Use the data people give you to make their life better.  Nice.

But opportunities are can be seized or missed.

Here are two examples - one missed and one seized - from my day today.

ESPN - brand I admire a ton - missed.  The positive was some fun content.  Bill Walton and Mark Sanchez both have birthdays in November.  Kind of fun.  The negative was the offer.  Look I am not stingy or looking for handouts.  So an offer to have an ESPN ring tone?  I LOVE ESPN.  I enjoy ESPN every day across every device.  Every day.

But "Duh-nuh-NUH...duh-nuh-NUH!" on my phone.    And there was a link to see more but led to the dreaded "404" - bummer.  This was the wan-wan-WAN moment for ESPN.  Kind of the $100 play and the 2 cent throw...happy birthday, be our advertising.  No thanks but appreciate you acknowledging my day of birth.

NFL - see a trend? - seized. So same shtick as above - happy birthday Andy - yay, cred for you NFL. But the offer...was legit.  15% off a purchase with a picture of a customized Dallas Cowboys jersey.  BOOM goes the dynamite.  I love me some Cowboys and the line - "Now, go pick up that personalized jersey you wished for!"  - just smart.  I don't have one but even if I did.  Big time personalization.  Love it.

What?  NFL has my purchase data and ESPN doesn't?  Should be a tie?

Not really - I maintain an ESPN account and live on the ESPN Dallas site raved about it back in 2009.

Moral here - keep it personal when you use personal data.

Have you ever received birthday marketing that missed or seized the opportunity?

Where do you fit in an ad agency?

I think this image tells many truths about agency life.

Found the post on AgencySpy - funny and very true infographic of the MadMan world.

And for people considering the ad world, let me provide a quick joke/case for some context to answering the question of what is my agency DNA?  Where will I fit?

Five agency friends were standing outside of a PACKED bar with a line out the door.  They were dying for some tequila to down the weeks sorrows.  Problem was how would they get their Tequila?!

So the Creative, Project Manger, Finance Director, Planner and Account Exec were forced to jump into the action agreeing to regroup in 7 minutes.

At the regroup:

The Creative shared some emotional high level sketches of the fun to be had with the tequila including celebrities in remote locations.  But he really needed more time to flush this out.

The Project Manger had created a solid project plan including gantt chart showing the tequila could be had but would require 45 more minutes and another 25% of a creative give or take 10% on both time and resources.

The Finance Director provided a new job code and made sure the team understood the previous 7 minutes WERE billable.

The Planner was able to tell us the absolute BEST tequila for us to drink including multiple attributes from after taste to brand equity by doing some down and dirty research / anthro-work / man-on-the-street interviews with the people waiting to get into the bar.

The Account Exec walked over, lifted up the side of her skirt and pulled out a bottle of tequila explaining quickly how she made out with the door man, shoved three people, danced with an overweight has-been and tipped the bar keep to get the bottle.  And then hid it under her skirt as she crawled over the fence on the back patio of the bar.

All are valuable.

All are different.

Which sounds more like you?

Want Home Runs? Don't Focus on Home Runs.

I think the key maybe in not working towards a goal.

Nelson Cruz, Texas Rangers
(www.baseballguys.com)

Huh?

For real, have goals. Revisit them. Hold yourself accountable.

Just don't focus solely on the ultimate goal.

WTH? You say.

You want to hit a home run - do NOT focus on hitting home runs.

You focus on the necessary behaviors for smart pitch selection, front side locked in, quick hands, shoulder to shoulder...lots to focus on - nothing about the home run.  But all these can lead you to home runs.

Similarly, you want to hit your numbers at work - do NOT focus on hitting your numbers.

You don't drive revenue by focusing on revenue.

You drive revenue by focusing on behaviors that lead to, or create revenue.

Focus on what you can impact, the details that sum to success.

And by all means, go for big success - like Ted Williams:

"A man has to have goals - for a day, for a lifetime - and that was mine, to have people say, 'There goes Ted Williams, the greatest hitter who ever lived."



Do you agree?  How do you achieve your larger goals?

HR Tech Conference 2011: A Virgin's Perspective

I think my first HR conference was a home run.

After attending the HRTech Conference 2011 in Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay I can say for certain, I learned a lot.

I had a wonderful time, met smart people, got educated on multiple topics and hopefully opened some new professional doors.

So before I get judgmental – thank you to all participants and remember these are the sole opinions of one vertically challenged HRTech first-timer.

Scanning. I allowed anyone to scan me in who wanted to. But this was sometimes so unwanted, forced and almost dirty. Would mom approve?

iPad2 drawings. Every other booth seemed to offer you an iPad2 drawing. Delayed gratification, failed strategy or good bait? Either way, variety is an opportunity?

Tweetmyjobs was pleasant surprise. The team was intelligent, engaging and brought more to the table than job promotion via Twitter. Cool.

Talent. Just the OVER use of the word – over and over. Just take ‘talent’ + [insert business word in front or back]. Sigh. Am I wrong here?

Dice won the best booth experience. These guys had more “crap because that is what people want” (as Dice management put it). I am flying home with a couple large squishy dice, a dog chewy and coozie. Not to mention the “pimp your pic” station allowing you to customize your photo (like mine?). Dice’s booth was professional and smoothly branded. Indeed also had a nicely branded small booth – professional, demo friendly (Kerri didn’t seem to mind me giving a demo to 7 people, very nice of her) and AWESOME mints, gift that keeps on giving.

Charging stations - missed opportunity? Didn’t see one booth offering power. Power for super phones, computers. Could be a winner. Did anyone do this?

Snagajob was my favorite find. Converted to a fan via positive brand experience: visible central location, interactive, individual demo, group/big screen demo, seating, positive energy and helpful staff – key. Snagajob gave great booth. Period.

Starr Conspiracy was an awesome physical manifestation of their digital presence. Nice bar but smartly dressed staff appeared not as interested/helpful – great peeps but I was assumedly not their ‘mark.’

Broadlook had, at least for this rookie, interesting content for lead generation. Just a straight time saver – maybe dangerous in the wrong hands but used correctly and you could win.

Missed connecting with some of my friends in person: Blogging4Jobs, TalentCulture, TheOneCrystal and more. Everyone else, great to see you live.

Wanted Analytics was a sneak attack surprise. Analytics in the name – not my cup-o-tea. But combined humble smarts with a smooth sounding portfolio of options to bring value. Hmm.

Little mechanical and possibly overly outsourced. Monster seemed the biggest offender. Probably a victim of their own success and many years of attending conferences. The over-planned, over-staffed, over-processed leaves the attendees feeling a litte…empty? But big props to the massage stations! ;-)

Rypple – denied me a photo with their team!?! Offered to do their “rock on” hand symbol for HRTech FB page. Looked at me like I had four heads? Sup with no pic?

And the last but not least was the great openness of all participants to ask you “hey what do you do?” The collaborative vibe was consistent and impressive. The desire for collective intelligence was impressive and leaves me encouraged that the space will move forward.

If you attended HRTech – what did you think?

Am I dead wrong, accurate as hell or whatever.

Love your thoughts and fill in gaps as I surely did NOT do it right.

Virgins never do.