CEO: The 5 Things I Look for In a Great Job Interview In my career I have reviewed thousands of resumes and conducted hundreds of employment interviews for both The Trademark Company and other businesses for which I have worked. In doing so, I got to see the good, the bad, and the downright ugly in terms of resumes, interviewing skills, and the like. For other CEOs looking to hire, here's what I think makes a great candidate stand out from the good ones. 1. How many times have you heard this one, right? There’s a great story at the end of the movie Coming to America with Eddie Murphy. A man goes into a restaurant. At this point you may be asking yourself, “So what does this have to do with identifying a great candidate?” Not less than two months ago I received a wonderful e-mail from an applicant seeking to work for The Trademark Company. The applicant had failed to attach a resume. Some CEOs may have overlooked this and just asked for the resume. 2. My contracts professor in law school told this one to the class one day. 3. 4. 5.
Study Says Pinterest More Trusted By Women Than Facebook, Twitter Earlier this week I moderated a panel at the SXSW conference entitled: “Social Commerce: Not Yet Taking Off Like Farmville.” The session explored the nature of “social commerce” and why companies were having trouble selling on Facebook, among other things. One of the basic ideas expressed was that people aren’t looking to “shop” on Facebook; they’re sharing with friends, having fun and so on. Those sentiments appear to be widespread and confirmed by a new survey from BlogHer, the women-centric blog network. The survey findings must be viewed with some caution because, in part, they’re being used as an argument to advertisers for why blogs are a more effective way to reach consumers than social destinations. Social media upstart Pinterest is more “trusted” as an information source than Facebook and Twitter by general internet users. One question asks, “Have you ever made a purchase based on a recommendation from . . .”
What's Your Influencing Style? - Chris Musselwhite and Tammie Plouffe by Chris Musselwhite and Tammie Plouffe | 2:45 PM January 13, 2012 Effective leadership today relies more than ever on influencing others — impacting their ideas, opinions, and actions. While influence has always been a valuable managerial skill, today’s highly collaborative organizations make it essential. Consider how often you have to influence people who don’t even report to you in order to accomplish your objectives. Success depends on your ability to effectively influence both your direct reports and the people over whom you have no direct authority. Have you ever thought about how you influence others? It is these preferred tactics that define our influencing style. You may have an idea what your style is just from hearing these labels, but the most accurate way to identify your style is with an influence style indicator — a self-scoring assessment that classifies your style based on answers to questions about preferred influencing tactics. What’s your influencing style?
10 Mechanics of Personal Branding Hello, my name is .... and I .... When you introduce yourself to a new contact or colleague - do you stand out? Is what you're sharing about you memorable? Have you personal brand? Of course you do! Personal branding is what makes you uniquely you. Personal branding has long been a habit of politicians and celebrities for years - there's no reason why you cannot develop your own personal branding. How does one define a personal brand? Define how you stand out from the crowd.Understand what your core competencies and abilities are.Map out the value proposition that you offer.Figure out what makes you compelling.Don't borrow someone else's brand - the best person to be, is you. When you feel you've sufficiently mapped out this process - consider building a personal mission state and begin implementing the process with action. Clearly and consistently communicate those points across all platforms.Execute your consistent message via online and offline means.
Google Guide Quick Reference: Google Advanced Operators (Cheat Sheet) The following table lists the search operators that work with each Google search service. Click on an operator to jump to its description — or, to read about all of the operators, simply scroll down and read all of this page. The following is an alphabetical list of the search operators. This list includes operators that are not officially supported by Google and not listed in Google’s online help. Each entry typically includes the syntax, the capabilities, and an example. allinanchor: If you start your query with allinanchor:, Google restricts results to pages containing all query terms you specify in the anchor text on links to the page. Anchor text is the text on a page that is linked to another web page or a different place on the current page. allintext: If you start your query with allintext:, Google restricts results to those containing all the query terms you specify in the text of the page. allintitle: allinurl: In URLs, words are often run together. author: cache: define: ext: group:
Privacy Am I the only one who doesn’t want to sign up for Facebook in order to use Spotify, Vevo and god knows what’s next? I’m not on Facebook. Oh, I’ve got a fake account so I can be up to speed, but I’ve got no desire to hook up with every girl I ever dated and be back in contact with every person I went to high school with, that’s why I moved to California! Is it just me? Have I just reached my limit? I don’t want to people to know what I’m listening to. And I don’t want digital recommendations. That’s why I hate Pandora… Seemingly every suggestion is a tune-out. Then again, I seem to be the only person who gives a thumbs-down to the site. But algorithms never work, not consistently enough to invest your listening time.
How to Work with Someone You Hate - Amy Gallo - Best Practices Working with someone you hate can be distracting and draining. Pompous jerk, annoying nudge, or incessant complainer, an insufferable colleague can negatively affect your attitude and performance. Instead of focusing on the work you have to do together, you may end up wasting time and energy trying to keep your emotions in check and attempting to manage the person’s behavior. Fortunately, with the right tactics, you can still have a productive working relationship with someone you can’t stand. What the Experts Say If you work with someone you don’t like, you’re not alone. Manage your reaction Your response to your dreaded co-worker may range from slight discomfort to outright hostility. Keep your distaste to yourself While working through your displeasure, avoid the temptation to gripe with other coworkers. Consider whether it’s you, not them Once you have your reactions in check, think about what it is you don’t like about the person. But proceed cautiously. Principles to Remember Do:
Pavyment study shows sellers use Facebook ads to drive f-commerce Three steps to keeping email marketing simple but effective The online space has opened up creative avenues marketers could only have dreamt about. While you’re thinking up the latest bells and whistles to make your emails stand out, consider a few simple steps that should form the building blocks of any successful campaign. Quick wins can be gained from analysing the time you send your communications; finessing the sender address and subject line; and, most importantly, testing your messages. 1. Ensuring you hit your audience with relevant, personalised and timely messaging is crucial. The only way to pass that test is to practice. In order to hone the effectiveness of email, delve into all the precious data you collect on the people you’re trying to reach, to provoke them into action. Take insights from people’s preferences and purchase history (if available), and experiment with length and tone of subject lines, and different types of content. Consider HTML, the length of copy, size and colour of images, embedded links and video. 2. 3.
Upcoming Webinar Spotlights Social Commerce Best Practices Many retailers are struggling to crack the code on developing optimal customer engagement strategies via social networking sites — and to turn social interaction into dollars efficiently. An upcoming webinar from Retail TouchPoints will bring these industry pain points to the forefront, and provide best practices for retailers hoping to boost social buzz and transactions. The presentation, titled “Drive Commerce Growth Through Social Media,” taking place on March 23, 2012, will feature insight from Ray Wang, Principal Analyst and CEO of Constellation Research, and Melissa Schaefer, Global Retail Leader, Institute of Business Value for IBM. “It’s an exciting time as we look at what’s happening in terms of commerce and its growth through the use of social media,” Wang said. In the second part of the presentation, Schaefer will discuss how tapping into Smarter Commerce can help retailers transform the four phases of the commerce cycle: buy, market, sell and service.