Archive for the ‘ Business ’ Category

Does Giving Your Brand’s Social Presence A Face Matter In Your Strategy?

Author: Cedar Brown

Jun 27

Have you ever interacted with a brand on Twitter or Facebook and wondered who you were talking to? Ever thought that if you knew it was a 50-something male or a 20-something female that you’d approach with a different tone? Would it even make a difference?  Many people probably wouldn’t care, but those that do are pretty split on this. I am a big believer in promoting the faces behind the account to help make communicating with the brand a tad more personal. Logos just aren’t enough.

I haven’t done research or found stats that prove why showing off your community manager could be helpful for your company, but I believe it would help give your brand a more human voice when posting and conversing with fans. ‘Humanizing your brand’ is the new thing these days and has been adopted by few companies, but is a growing ideal. Some brands that are promoting their operators include @UPS, @Dominos, @Southwestair, @JetBlue and @Starbucks by putting the names and/or Twitter handles in the company’s profile. @Dell is the only one I’ve found that adds their community managers on the background image of their Twitter page. It’s tough to do the latter because of the lack of real estate available, but is a great way if you can! I suggest keeping the logo in the avatar and adding your operators in the company’s Twitter profile or in the background image, like the brands mentioned earlier.

I always feel comfortable when conversing with a brand that does this because I can see who I’m talking to and I’m willing to bet that others feel the same way. When I’m only talking to a logo it often feels like I’m talking to an old corporate codger who is grumpy all the time or a lawyer who is way too worried about each word posted. Personally, I like to chat with the brand’s community manager on my own Twitter account because I am in the same career field and like to learn from others like myself. By doing this, it also allows me to chat with the company like I am with one of my friends, with a more relaxed feel. This is the type of thing all brands hope for in social media, to interact with fans on a deeper, more personal level. The goal is to build a community with your following, but you need to be transparent and open about your goals and intentions. Letting people see behind the curtain of your brand’s social channels is a must, in my opinion, because it can really help attain that goal, or at least steer it in the right direction.

Just my short, quick opinion on the topic, but I really believe it can be a valuable asset for a brand’s social strategy. What do you think?

0 Comments
Filed under: Business, Social Media | Tagged as: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Most Valuable Resource You Can Have Is A Mentor

Author: Cedar Brown

May 17

Whether you’re in high school, college or an established professional, you are never too old for a mentor. Most young people don’t know what they want to be when they grow up nor do many understand how to get there. Having a mentor is one of the most valuable assets someone can have in their life. A mentor provides advice, guidance, networking, friendship and understand the road you want to travel because they’ve likely been there themselves. I think the majority of people that graduate from college hardly, if ever, go down the career path that they went to school for in the first place. Us Millennials, we really think we know what we’re talking about (but really don’t have a clue). The world is bigger than us and they know that, which is why their guidance is essential. Mentors don’t have to be 40 year professionals, but someone who understands what they’re doing and the world around them. They are not there to hold your hand, but to teach you life lessons and how to react.  

They say it’s best to find someone who has been down the same career path that you’re interested in, but it all depends on what you want to get out of having a mentor. When I was in 8th grade, my mother signed me up for this program and I was provided a mentor, because I was a troubled kid and a bad student. The man was a local entrepreneur who was involved in the new mentor program at the school district, which is how we were paired up. Without him, I wouldn’t be where I am today, but that story is for my next post. Needless to say, having a mentor is invaluable at any age.

For people currently in the career-oriented mindset, typically from late teens through their thirties, finding and retaining a mentor is a must. The key is to find someone in your industry that can help guide you down the right path. Some people have/had really great relationships with professors and chose them as their mentor whereas others believe it best to find someone in the professional world. I understand that it may seem awkward to ask someone to be their mentor, but believe me, that person will feel honored (whether they accept or not) to be asked. It’s a great feeling to have your career validated in such a way. Approach someone who inspires you, who is honest, shares similar goals as you and can be willing to put in the time to grow and nurture the relationship you are hoping to have.

One of the best reasons to have a mentor is the fact that they can help you see your weaknesses and help rid you of them. This is a tough task as many are easily offended or too timid to take such criticism. You want someone who is honest enough to give it to you straight, but that can only happen when you can be honest with yourself. Your friends will see who you are, a product of your past, but your mentor sees a different you, a person that will become a success. In order to be successful, you have to get out of your own way and quit lying to yourself. Take advice when you get it, understand there is more to what you do than you know and always be open to learning more. Mentoring is something I am very passionate about and it can change both your life and theirs. It is very reassuring to know that when you are struggling, either in life or your career, that there is always someone there who will listen and give advice when needed. That relationship is more than just a friendship, it is a bond that cannot be explained.

Part of the passion I feel for this topic is to “Pay It Forward”. I offer this challenge to you: if you’re at a point in your career where you really don’t think you need a mentor, I suggest you look to mentor someone else whether it be from your workplace, a nearby university or even get involved in a local mentoring program. This type of guidance is essential for many children and adults alike. At some point, you need to realize that the world doesn’t revolve around you anymore, that you should devote your time to helping others. Take the time, make this happen.

0 Comments
Filed under: Business, Personal | Tagged as: , , , , , ,

5 Online Tools Worth Checking Out This Week!

Author: Cedar Brown

May 3

Each week, whether it’s during #toolschat (a fun Twitter chat on Wed. at 10 pm ET) or through my own web surfing, I learn about new tools that are always great to use. Here are a few online tools I think you should certainly look into.

RAPPORTIVE

This is a great social CRM tool to have for your Gmail. When you email someone and are composing your message, you will see this picture (left) on the right side of the email of the person you are emailing. Rapportive provides an image of the person behind the email address, location and what they do. It also shows links to their social networks including Facebook, Twitter, Google + and LinkedIn. If you hover over the icons for the social networks it will show the most recent posts too. What I like best is that it makes the email feel more personal. Seeing the face of the person I am emailing creates a whole different feel to the process. A valuable relationship management tool I believe you will find useful in your career.

 

EMBEDLY

I first learned about Embedly in a blog post from the great Jeff Bullas. It is a great resource and time saver when scrolling through your Twitter stream. It allows you full media previews of tweets with links. Click the tweet and it will open up and show a snippet of an article, video or image. Being able to read the first paragraph or two of an article, without having to click to view the entire page in a new window, is a great option to have available. Note, I believe it only works as a Chrome extension.

 

HUNTSY 

If you’re a job hunter, like myself, then you NEED to be using this bookmarklet! I recently came across this site in an article on Mashable and boy am I glad I did. The main goal for Huntsy is to keep your job hunt organized. I can’t count the number of times I’ve had 20 or more tabs opened on my browser at once because I didn’t want to lose that job listing. First, you have to download the bookmarklet or Chrome extension for your browser. When you begin searching for jobs and come to a position you want to apply for, click the Huntsy tab and a small screen will slide down on your page and fill in the appropriate boxes provided, which include company, title and job description — by extracting it from the position listed. When you are in the dashboard you have options to schedule events like interviews or set reminders as well. For more a more in-depth look at Huntsy, click the link to the article from Mashable (above) or download the extension and toy with the options. This is a highly recommended tool for anyone in the job hunt or professional keeping their options open.

 

POCKET

Pocket is one of my favorite new Chrome extensions. Whether you’re surfing the web or clicking on, and loading up, numerous articles from your Twitter stream, it never fails where I have too many articles to read and not enough time. Formerly “Read It Later”, Pocket is a superb bookmarking tool to help save time and can also be used as an extension for Twitter. Actually, Pocket is integrated in over 300 apps. When you are viewing an article you want to read later, click the Pocket bookmarklet and a screen will pop down to let you know it is saved. It will also give you the option for tags to sort through saved articles. To read articles you’ve saved, go to GetPocket.com and click on “My List”. The image below is an example of what I have in my Pocket at the moment, I can’t wait to finally read them!

 

CROWDBOOSTER

Of the five tools listed, Crowdbooster is by far my favorite. Although this isn’t something new, I just started using it recently. Crowdbooster is a social media analytics dashboard that provides stats and recommendations for Twitter and Facebook accounts. Some of the things measured include followers, tweets, mentions and retweets for Twitter as well as fans, comments, mentions and likes for your Facebook page. There are graphs and tables to provide input during certain dates as well. You will find graphs and tables for follower growth, impressions, top retweeters and engagement for each post. This allows you to tailor your content for your fans to maximize engagement. The free version allows you to manage three accounts at once. I’m new to this platform so I haven’t been able to fully utilize all the features available.

 

If there are things I have missed, other great tools you know about or feel like offering your thoughts on tools reviewed please feel free to comment below. I appreciate all feedback!

 

 

4 Comments
Filed under: Business, Marketing, Social Media, social media tools | Tagged as: , , , , , , , , ,

10 Lessons To Be Learned From The Apprentice

Author: Cedar Brown

Apr 9


Here we go again, another season of B-list celebs on The Apprentice. I love the show, but personally would rather see it switch back once in a while to the old ways with real business folks at the helm. Aside from my feelings of the show, we need to look at it for what it really is. The Celebrity Apprentice is an annual case study of culture, leadership and teamwork in the work place. Although the majority of people who appear on the Apprentice are not business professionals, we can still learn a lot about leadership and teamwork. Here are a few lessons we can learn from The Apprentice:

1. Accountability! Take responsibility for your actions!! If you’ve watched the show you probably have seen people blaming others for their mistakes and even some being fired for the mistakes of others. Here’s the thing, if you make a mistake, be honest and vow to fix the problem. Your boss and co-workers will respect you more for your honesty rather than being a weasel.

2. Check your personal problems and attitude at the door. Everyone has problems, but that is no reason to let it affect you at work with how you treat other employees or how you complete your work. There were a few moments where this occurred on the show, but this does happen in real life quite often though. People don’t want to deal with your issues while doing important work nor do they want to work on a team with someone who is overly emotional about their personal problems. More importantly, if you have a problem with a co-worker outside of work, this rule seriously comes into play. You need to put aside issues in order for things to get done. Be professional.

3. As a leader, be open to your co-workers ideas. Sometimes your ideas are not always be the best ones and sometimes you may not have any at all. Watching The Apprentice, I’ve noticed that most ideas are created by the project manager. There are few things that feel as awesome as when your idea is used at work. Get your team involved and ask for everyone’s opinion. People are often too shy to bring up ideas because of the fear of being shut down in front of everyone. The more upfront everyone is, the less stress people will feel about offering ideas and opinions. Make people feel comfortable and you will often get their best efforts.

4. Don’t take criticism personal. I’ve noticed that many people have a hard time dealing with this. I am very comfortable giving criticism as well as receiving it because I know it will help me in the long run. The objective is not to take shots at people and be constructive when giving criticism. As seen on The Apprentice, every piece of criticism is taken personally, and rightfully so because they are low blow shots. Hopefully, when co-workers and management are giving you constructive criticism, it’s for your own good. Know that they are only trying to help. If you don’t, work will be very uncomfortable for you.

5. Loyalty is important both to your company and your co-workers. In the most recent episode of The Apprentice, we saw that Lou Ferrigno bailed on his team and chose the other team’s product as the superior product. This will do nothing but alienate the people around you. Talking negative about your company and its employees will do nothing good for you either. Another problem with loyalty people have is throwing others under the bus. This is similar to the first lesson, where accountability comes into play or sometimes you need to jump on the grenade, for whatever reason.

6. Petty problems need to be left out of the boardroom. There’s a time and place to deal with problems you have with people, but not in front of management or in meetings. When the contestants get to the boardroom in every episode of The Apprentice, we see that the real problems people are dealing with are finally brought to attention. They seem to look for sympathy from Trump, but get none, rightfully so. Like always, if there is a problem you need to solve it in a civil manner. This is similar to the second one above, but overall you just need to be professional.

7. Leadership! Very few people have been good leaders while on The Apprentice. Every week all we see is people complaining about leadership and how crappy other people are at their job. Both on the show and in real life, management needs to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of their employees. They need to utilize the strengths of each person so the team is working strong on all cylinders towards the same goal. Sometimes, people are not the best self-starters and they need a helping hand. Just like on the show, you need to create responsibilities for people to accomplish along with deadlines to make sure the work is moving along smoothly. Taking accountability for your role as manager is important as well and sometimes you’ll need to dive on the grenade for your team.

8. If you don’t like the idea being used, speak up! Talking behind the back of management or another employee isn’t good and creates a divide. If there is an issue, grow a pair and bring it up so it can be solved. The best ideas are often never heard because people are too shy and timid to bring them up or plead their case. This is similar to lesson 3. This is very evident on The Apprentice where ideas are created by the project manager and team members mumble about how much they dislike the idea, but everyone fails to speak up. It’s hard to give 100% effort in your work if you don’t believe the what you are working on is a good idea. Even if your idea isn’t good enough every time you bring it up, at least you’re trying and management will certainly take notice.

9. Teamwork. Sometimes people try to do all the work or feel others can’t do their job well, in their own opinion, and try to do their work as well. You’re a team, you work together. Often times you’re given a specific job, but it’s not a bad thing to offer a certain expertise or help others, but don’t try to do people’s jobs for them. Aubrey O’Day is a classic example. She seems to enjoy being the center of attention and also tries to take the lead, even when she isn’t the project manager. This alienates others and makes you look like a bad team player. Do your job, work together, offer help and live in harmony.

10. Don’t step on the toes of management, especially in front of their boss or your co-workers. I accidentally learned this the hard way and was certainly yelled at for it. We see this on The Apprentice every week. Once in the board room, some players undermine the project manager by calling them out to Donald Trump. Like always, if there is a problem, take care of it in private with the person involved. Again, Aubrey O’Day is guilty of this, not just in the boardroom, but working with the team as well. She tries to do things her way as well as trying to takeover as leader. Offer ideas, more efficient methods and understand there is a manager in place, which is not always you.

There are plenty of things to take away from The Apprentice, but these are a few I thought were important to learn from. Whether you agree or disagree, tell me what you think!

 

0 Comments
Filed under: Business | Tagged as: , , , , , , ,