How to Connect with New People on LinkedIn

How to Connect with New People on LinkedIn Whats the best way to send a LinkedIn invite to somebody you dont know? Whenever I do LinkedIn trainings or talk to people about LinkedIn, I get a few recurring questions. One of these is by business developers who want to connect with new potential customers, partners and investors. Although I believe LinkedIn is a tool for actually connecting with people you know already, it can certainly be very useful for finding new contacts. This is especially true when you are doing business in a new industry or geography. Use common connections My advice is normally to connect via someone you both know, someone you are both connected with on LinkedIn. The quickest way to do this is to pick up the phone and as this common connection to make an introduction in person, on the phone, via email or LinkedIn. When you have no common connections… But what do you do when there is no common connection and you have no idea how to introduce yourself to someone on LinkedIn? You probably have to find some common ground, such as having worked at the same place, gone to the same university or having an interest in collecting stamps from the South Pacific. I decided to ask Aimee Bateman who is a featured writer for Undercover Recruiter what she thinks. In this video we talk about: The best ways of connecting with prospects on LinkedIn Why personalising a message is so important What option to pick (friend, colleague, classmate, done business with etc) What invites Aimee herself would accept/reject Aimees words of wisdom regarding LinkedIn invites RELATED: How NOT to Connect with Recruiters on LinkedIn

America Needs Financial Education

America Needs Financial Education As you know, Im very passionate about helping others become financially savvy. I have a strong belief that having a good relationship with money positively affects every area of a persons life. I was doing some research last night for a financial education program Im working on with FELA and found an article that gave some interesting facts worth sharing. • Fewer than 10 states require a unit of structured personal finance education in public schools. • High school students who arent exposed to financial education by the time they graduate will rarely receive it in college either. • Many colleges are starting voluntary series of weekend and evening seminars, or boot camps but the programs are very rarely required courses. • According to student loan company Nellie Mae, the lack of financial education carries over into adult hood and leaves one in ten students with more than $7,000 in credit card debt before they graduate college. •Many parents choose never to bring up money to their children. Perhaps because they are insecure about it themselves. Therefore many Americans grow up without having established good habits. • Those who need financial education programs the most, are the least likely to seek them out due to intimidation, or a perception that the programs are too expensive/require too much time. In my opinion, our current economic situation begs the question: where were our financial literacy programs when we needed them the most? I feel that America is paying the price for being greedy, which is only enhanced by the large number of people who are not financially literate. I saw the lack of financial education first hand when selling sub-prime mortgages to clients of all socio-economic backgrounds at my first job out of college. It was disturbing to me how little my clients knew about a simple mortgage refinance, or that they were being charged interest upon interest daily on their pile of credit card debt. Oddly enough, my experience would suggest formal education has no relationship to financial literacy, as it was often the clients with several degrees that struggled with their finances the most. The economy is in shambles. People can no longer afford their homes. Americans are drowning in credit card debt. Most twentysomethings are stuck with heaps of student loans and can barely make ends meet. Many baby boomers just realized they havent saved nearly enough for retirement. How could this crisis have been helped by simply integrating financial education into schools, colleges and even businesses from day 1? Perhaps if Americans had been exposed to personal finance early on, they wouldve considered buying more conservative homes and cars, saving a little more for retirement, or not spending their money aimlessly just to promote the image of having achieved The American Dream. As I always say, we had it coming to us. The economic meltdown is no surprise especially considering most Americans entered adulthood with no preparation or tools of how to combat the inevitable challenges that they would face. I hope that financial education becomes a top priority for America from here on out. At least then wed have a chance of making the next generation a bit better than ours

The Art of Connecting Genuinely via Social Media - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

The Art of Connecting Genuinely via Social Media - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Building a following for your personal brand via social media requires not only expertise and a point of view, but also the ability to be perceived as genuine in your interactions. Many people attempt to build a brand on social media only to spout off statistics or opinions, without taking the time to truly connect with their audience on a personal level. Below are four tips for creating genuine connections via social media. Create posts based on your personal experience that are also the shared experiences of your followers. Last week I created a post on Facebook in celebration of the six year anniversary of the day that I quit my job and started working for my own marketing firm full time. Shortly after being created, the profile post had received over 425 likes and 115 comments from Facebook friends who either had done the same thing, planned to do the same thing, or dreamed of one day having that same opportunity. The post hit a nerve, increasing engagement and allowing friends to share their own stories. Highlight your connections’ accomplishments. Remember when you made honor roll or won an award as a child and your family/friends bragged on you to others? We never outgrow the desire to be acknowledged and oftentimes, as adults, we are not highlighted as much as we should be. Take the time to create posts and/or post hyperlinks about your friends’ accomplishments and be sure to tag them if you’re mentioning them on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Google+. They’ll appreciate you and will likely reciprocate in the future. Create updates based on the needs of your connections. Have you noticed several connections needing help with the same items? Create updates or post links to helpful articles and then tag your friends who needed assistance. Take online relationships offline. There is no substitute for phone conversations and face-to-face meetings. Schedule coffee with a Facebook friend, call your LinkedIn contact, or support your Twitter follower in a charity fundraising event. While most of us ignore them now, take a peek at Facebook events you’ve been invited to and attend one.

Happiness 01 How Fulfilled are You in Your Career and Life - Classy Career Girl

Happiness 01 How Fulfilled are You in Your Career and Life Today, we are digging to happiness and what that really means in relation to all the different areas of your life. If your career and life were a perfect 10, where are you today in every aspect of your life? My courses are not just about your career, but I also focus a lot on life because as women, our careers and lives are just so intertwined, I know mine is. If I am happier at work, I am happier at home. I talk with so many women who are unhappy at work and it is affecting their home life. Today, we will help you assess where you are at right now in each of the area of your life, such as your personal development, fun, relationships, marriage, money, health, spirituality, and career. I think you will find it very eye-opening. Subscribe  on  your favorite platform below: iTunes Google Play Music Stitcher Radio TuneIn iHeartRadio Sound Cloud How Fulfilled Are You in Your Career and Life? Today we are going to talk about the fulfillment circle, which is a little assessment I created so you can see where you need to focus on in your life. I realize that my career, money, my marriage, personal growth, and mom-life are all so intertwined. So, I wanted to help you visualize the big picture. If you are happy at work, you are happier at home. All of these areas impact other areas. Here are a few areas of the fulfillment circle: Family life: How fulfilled are you with your family relationships? Health: How fulfilled are you with how you are treating your body? Fun: Its easy to get caught up in the day to day, are you making time for fun in your life? Learning: How much are you learning and growing in your life? Impact: Are you making a difference? Are you helping other people? It can be small or big! Career: You probably already know you need a career change, that is what you are here for! Money: How are you fulfilled are you with your financial situation? Are you saving, are you paying off debt? Youll find you cant focus on all areas at once. There are times when you will focus on one area. Like this last year, I had my second daughter, so I have been all-in on family life. But these areas are all intertwined. The more you fun you have, that makes your family life better. If you have more money, you might be able to make a bigger impact. Think about where you need to focus right now so you can improve your life overall. Ask Yourself:   What areas have the lowest fulfillment factor? What areas have the highest fulfillment factor? What area will you focus on over the next 90 days? Here is how to know if it is time for a career change: You are not valued, rewarded or appreciated. Are you working your butt off and no one is noticing and saying “Good job!”? You are not challenged, and there is no opportunity for growth in your current job. You are stagnant and you don’t have the motivation to learn more. You are doing the same thing every day. Eventually, you will become an expert and you won’t be challenging yourself to learn more. You don’t trust your company. Your company is doing something sneaky and you don’t like what you see or hear. You have lost your excitement and passion for your job. You should enjoy what you do!   You know in your gut. The fact that you are listening to this podcast is a sign it is time for a career change!   Trust your gut! Ask yourself: Why do you want to make a career change? Go in the Classy Career Girl Facebook group and share why you are ready to make a career change, wed love to hear from you! Consider joining us at Class, our membership site where we dig deeper into the topics we cover here on the podcast. Learn more at about Class here.  

Executive Branding Online Write Book Reviews on Amazon - Executive Career Brandâ„¢

Executive Branding Online Write Book Reviews on Amazon Volume and diversity of search results  are two of the keys to building a strong online presence to attract your target employers, if youre job hunting, or your target audience, when youre doing business. The probability that these people assessing you will connect with you greatly improves if, when they Google your name, the search results include more than one or two entries â€" like just your profile and perhaps another online profile. When they find plenty of diverse information, in different kinds of locations, that are relevant to your brand, theyre more likely to contact you over your competitors who have little or no online presence. Writing book reviews on Amazon or Barnes and Noble (or other sites with very strong link weight, which translates to higher-landing search results) packs many benefits: The branded personal profile you created on the booksellers sites represents one valuable search result. Any book review you write becomes another powerful search result. If you carefully craft your reviews, your subject matter expertise and thought leadership will be abundantly evident. Reading the right books can only improve your breadth of knowledge, and possibly strengthen your skill set. ?Best tips to write book reviews: Choose books relevant to your areas of expertise, so your reviews will demonstrate your subject matter expertise. Choose books your target employers decision makers are probably reading. Look for books written by people whose radar you want to get on. Theyll probably notice you, if you post a review. Make sure your reviews include the relevant keyword phrases that your   target employers decision makers search to find candidates like you. Be sure to get your relevant keyword phrases in your profile, too, especially towards the top, which search engines pay more attention to. Link to your reviews in updates, tweets,

Job Seeker Pet Peeves

Job Seeker Pet Peeves Jason Buss  of  Talent Buzz  recently spoke with some job seekers to get their perspective on what it is like to be looking for a job today. Some of their major pet peeves included:  On-line applications on company sites and  job boards  that are cumbersome, time consuming, and seem to end up in the black hole.Vague and poorly written  job descriptions.Poorly constructed employer  sites that fail to engage the job seeker  or create a meaningful experience.  Unfortunately these are not new issues and companies still seem to have a long way to go towards building more efficient systems for connecting employers with job seekers. Employers want to capture not only active job seekers, but passive onesthose who are currently employed and happy, but may be window shopping on company sites or on the boards just to see what is out there. But no passive candidate is going to invest the time to jump through the hoops many employers place in front of them to apply and they certainly arent going to spend an hour or more completing an online application.  Many  savvy job seekers  are turning towards social and business networking tools to build relationships and source job leads and spending less time on the job boards. The premise of these sites is to build community, not collect resumes. Companies hire people, not resumesdoesnt it make sense to invest more of your time in building relationships and less time toiling away at a 10+ page application?

Legal Resume Template - Do You Need One?

Legal Resume Template - Do You Need One?A legal resume template is a document that acts as a pre-screening guide to make sure that all of the relevant information is contained within the professional resume. This is usually put together by a lawyer or a paralegal and then presented to a client for them to decide whether or not to hire the person for a certain position. The reason that they want to use one of these templates is because they feel that the original applicant has a good chance of success in their field.If you are looking to put together a legal resume template, you need to understand what they do and how they work. Basically, there are three different types of templates: the chronological, functional, and analytic. There are plenty of different elements which make up a legal resume, but the most common is the chronological resume. It gives you a sense of what kind of candidate you are looking for, and how they would fit into your office or legal department.The next type of template is the functional resume. This type of template focuses on the skills, work experience, and educational background of the applicant. It makes sure that you do not get too attached to the resume as it will only provide a very general image of the candidate.The last type of template is the analytical resume. This kind of template focuses on the education, experience, skills, and other information that may be pertinent to a particular position. These types of templates are also used by lawyers and paralegals to help them narrow down their search. They want to make sure that they do not get it all mixed up and end up hiring the wrong person.When it comes to creating a legal resume template, there are a few things that you need to keep in mind. First, you need to understand the purpose of a template. The purpose of a template is to help make the whole process of a resume easier.You want to make sure that you make your resume as straightforward as possible. Do not put too much detail into the document, and make sure that you cover all of the necessary details that the employer is looking for. This will ensure that you come out with a more professional looking document and will also give the employer an idea about the type of worker that they are getting.However, a legal resume template is not going to get you a job immediately. You still need to have a solid work history and be completely dedicated to your job. If you do this, then you should have no trouble finding employment.As you can see, there are plenty of differences between a legal resume template and a resume, but most importantly it is a great way to start building up your resume. It makes it easy to get a professional sounding document that will allow you to stand out from the crowd of others in your field.