6 Tips to Keep Your Personal Brand Present

6 Tips to Keep Your Personal Brand Present Is your personal brand present? Are people able to find you? When your brand is called are you there? You are being Googled all of the time. Whether it is a potential employer, a new client, or even a random person you met at an event, your personal brand is being researched online. The stronger presence your brand has the faster you will be discovered. Start by clarifying for what you want to be known and create a communication plan to clearly, consistently, and constantly be present. Here are 6 tips you can apply immediately to ensure your personal brand is present. 1. Start your own blog Ideally you should have your own blog as it becomes the ‘hub’ for your brand online. If your blog’s URL is your name, even better as it will be highly optimized on Google and people will find you. Keep in mind that once you have a blog you must maintain it, add regular content, and share it with others. If not it will get lost in the blogosphere and you will run the risk of being absent. Related:  How Blogging Will Boost Your Career [Video]. 2. Share your thought-leadership Without your own blog you can still keep your thought-leadership present by doing the following: Search for blogs on Technorati in your area of expertise, add to your RSS feed, and make it a habit to comment on blog posts. Use Quora  to respond to questions. Join groups on LinkedIn and add ideas to generate discussions. Use Google+ Sparks as a drill-down tool for news and for keeping up on subjects you’re really into. 3. Join or start a ‘Meetup’ Meetup is  online  social networking  portal that facilitates offline group meetings in various localities around the world. Meetup allows members to find and join groups unified by a common interest. Find a gap in thought-leadership in your vicinity and start your own Meetup. It is the perfect way to take your online brand and make it physically present in the real world! 4. Create a video presence Video is an excellent way to ensure your brand is visually present. Ideally you want to create a video series to post on YouTube, Vimeo, Vidcaster and other sites, but a simple and great starting point is videoBIO’s DIY tool. Content is king and the DIY tool from videoBIO provides an easy to use dashboard and branded video page to easily create and post self-produced videos. I am currently hosting a 30-day Vlogathon in September where all contributors are using the videoBIO tool to record quick video posts to share their tips, strategies, and thought-leadership. 5. Communicate in ‘real-time’ Be active in social media. It is not necessary to communicate on every social media channel. In other words, don’t be present everywhere just to be present as in the end you will wind up spreading  yourself too thin.  Determine which ones work best for you. Make your life easier by joining Hootsuite or Hellotxt and use them as a central platform to spread your presence across all the channels with one a couple clicks. 6. Be a resource for others Once you find other blogs to follow and comment on, take it a step further and contact the blog owner to ask about writing a guest post or being a featured expert.  Bloggers are always looking for good content.  Use this as an opportunity to be present across an already well-established blog community. Do you have any other tips to make sure your personal brand is present when it is called upon? Please share below! Image: Shutterstock

6 Reasons You Shouldnt Brand Yourself as a Social Media Expert - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

6 Reasons You Shouldnt Brand Yourself as a Social Media Expert - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career If youre currently branding yourself as a social media expert, this post is mandatory reading for you. I, for one, am branded as a social media expert at EMC corporation, but thats not exactly how I want the world to see me.   Whenever someone has a question about social media or requests some strategic guidance, my name comes into their minds first because its my job title, but not my personal brand.   Were living in a world where everyone is starting to learn best practices in social media, whether youre in school or youre in the workforce.   In the US, social networking is up 83% from a year ago. Youre probably one of 230 million people on Facebook, 40 million people on LinkedIn or approximately 17 million people on Twitter.   If you arent, then you will be sometime soon because you wont have a choice. Youre friends, family, and co-workers will be using these tools to communicate and do business, which will force you to create an account to send and receive messages.   Face it, theres no going back. Here are 5 reasons you shouldnt brand yourself as a social media expert: 1.   You cant stand out Five years ago, you could have stood out as a social media expert because the pool was shallow and dipping your toe into it was easy. As long as you had a blog, you were an early adopter and could offer your services to end users or companies.   There certainly werent 300 million plus blogs and no one was talking about social networks, other than MySpace and Facebook. Saying you were an expert on social media was like saying that you were a web developer when websites first came out and an email expert way back in the dark ages.   In each example, there were few competitors back then and now the market is so flooded that you cant stand out. The pioneers of new media are still successful today, but they dont even brand themselves as social media experts.   Think about experts such as David Meerman Scott, Paul Gillan, Chris Brogan, Charlene Li, Steve Rubel, and Robert Scoble.   David is an author who has successfully blended social media with PR and marketing before everyone else.   Chris Brogan focuses more on social medias impact on community building and hes been blogging religiously before the medium became mainstream.   Dont try and brand yourself as one of them because youll fail trying. 2.   What is a social media expert anyways? If youre a social media expert, try and define your own role.   I think most people cant even do that because they got their current positions because of their activity using these tools   to gain attention. Social media expert defined: One who specializes in the use of social media.???? Do you do social media for a company or are you a consultant? Some of you just brand yourself as social media  expert because no one can say you  arent.   This title is very ubiquitous and since social media is a large umbrella that shelters the thousands of social networks out there, blogging, wikis and more, its hard to truly pinpoint where your expertise actually lies.   Are you a LinkedIn expert?   Are you a Twitter expert? What makes you an expert? This question comes up again and again.   An expert is someone who has proven results.   What results have you had with social media?   How did that benefit your client?   These are all questions you have to ask yourself before  you brand yourself as a social media expert. 3.   There are no barriers to entry Think about large companies such as PG, GE and Coca Cola.   They have created massive barriers to entry, which means its harder to join the market because the costs are higher.   For example, Coca Cola has a lot of leverage with their distribution system, which extends to supermarkets, fast food chains and corporate cafeterias.   If you start a beverage company, its going to be hard to build it without relationships with vendors and to get to Coca Colas size is nearly impossible. Now think about yourself as a company in the same fashion. As a social media expert, all someone has to know is how to use one or more tools to help a business, themself or someone else.   Its not very hard to do this because the tools, if used even half-correctly, can benefit anyone.   Thus, there are no barriers to entry and there are no costs associated with someone starting a blog or a Facebook page.   In this way, you become expendable. 4.  You cant command a premium salary Since social media experts are expendable, people wont have to pay you a lot of money to get a blog going or their Facebook page up.   Unless youre famous or have a very lucrative track record of providing enormous value to companies, you wont get paid much to do this type of work.   There are also no advancement opportunities for you, so your career will be in a stranglehold and it will break you down at some point in the future.   Since the dollar is declining due to inflation, you cant afford to stay at the same salary your entire less, so being a social media expert cant be your finish line or long-term aspiration. 5.  Its impossible to measure your role No one has figured out social media ROI yet. A lot of so-called experts say I got 300 retweets, 100 new Twitter followers, 60 fans on Facebook, 36 blog comments, but what does that really mean?   It means nothing actually, unless you can convert that into sales or stockholder value.   If you cant measure, you cant improve and you cant deliver on your promise of value.   How would you ever be able to measure the impact of a tweet from an influencer on your marketing program? 6.  When everyone in the world is a social media expert it loses meaning I really sincerely feel that everyone in the world will be forced to learn about social media and use it every day to help build their platform or help market on their companies behalf.   I dont even understand how some of my friends avoid purchasing their domain name.   Its really at their own peril and I can predict their career will be impacted as a result.   The term social media expert is already losing meaning because everyone is using it on all of their profiles and blogs and we are so used to seeing it, that we dismiss it.

XTrade Europe Gives Tips For Online Currency Traders

XTrade Europe Gives Tips For Online Currency Traders During the last year, almost 200,000 UK traders tried their luck in the world of CFD trading and spread betting. Experts from XTrade Europe say that we can expect an even bigger numbers this year. This is just one of the numerous proofs of growing popularity of this type of trading, which attracts more and more people every single day. However, not all of them will end this year with a positive balance on their trading accounts. We just have to understand that currency trading is an extremely complex job, and we have to put a lot of effort in it if we want to achieve great results. Because of all this, managers at XTrade Europe have decided to share a few tips and explain how we can boost our investing skills. Don’t start with large amounts Most of the time, people think they will learn more if they invest big money right in the beginning. Moreover, there are traders who invest all their capital in one position. Of course, this is not something you should do. When you are in the online trading business, you must be very careful and you must take some time to plan your actions.   There is no need to hurry. People who are not patient and those who think they can make wonders over the night, might be negatively surprised with the results of this strategy. This is why you have to be very careful and try different options. Remember, when you are trading with a margin, you can earn a lot, but you can also lose much more than you have deposited in the beginning. So, the rule number one is to start with small amounts, especially if you are a beginner. Be rational It is not surprising to see people devastated because they have put all their money in a deal they expected to be an ideal opportunity. The result is usually frustrating. Why is this happening? Well, there are many reasons for this, but one of the main ones is that people do not “consult” their rational mind when investing their money. Instead of this, they rather trust their hunch. This is a definitely wrong strategy. Currency trading is not gambling and it has its own rules that must be followed in every situation. If you do not analyze the market, you will have a big problem and you can lose all your money. Risk diversification If you are already using XTrade Europe platform, you probably know that the best way to avoid all potential risks is to implement diversification in your strategy. This means that you must not invest all your money in one type of asset, and then wait to see what will happen. You should try different options instead. As people like to say, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Setting up stop losses Make sure you have used stop losses for every single trade on XTrade Europe trading platform. Of course, this strategy requires some time and experience, but after some practice, you will be able to protect your investment and avoid all potential problems. Image Source; Image Source

6 Tips to Boost Your Productivity

6 Tips to Boost Your Productivity I don’t think I have ever met anyone who does not want to be more productive each and every day. The day just never seems enough to get all you want done! Recognize this? Let’s be honest, it is an issue for all of us and is a constant challenge that comes up in all my coaching work. Books have been written, courses delivered and seminars run on this subject â€" many wonderful (some not so much!) but the volume of advice can be so overwhelming that is actually inhibits your productivity. Not quite what you were looking for! So, to assist in the elimination of the overwhelm I have set out my 6 tips to productivity, which, if undertaken, will vastly improve your productivity and give you that sense of achievement at the end of the day that you are really seeking.  So, here they are: 1)  Be razor sharp about priorities: You can never be effective unless you have clarity about your priorities â€" otherwise you are just engaged in the next activity that lands on your desk or in your head. Busy? Yes. Efficient? No! To get really clear about your priorities you need clarity about your goals so that you can decide if the specific activity you are undertaking is moving you towards the achievement of your goal. Your priorities are those actions that will support the delivery of your goals. So, those things on your to do list today â€" do they progress your goals or not? If they don’t why are you doing them? Get your priorities crystal clear! 2)  Schedule your activities: This is fundamental to any discussion about time management and effectiveness! Schedule your activities as if they are appointments with yourself â€" and make that time as sacred as a meeting with your most valued client. If one of your priorities this week is to prepare a performance review of your staff, or draft a proposal to a prospective client, then do not leave that activity on some to do list to do when you find time. Be disciplined about it and schedule to do it at a specific time and then be resolute about adhering to that. An item on your to do list is an aspiration, a scheduled activity is a commitment! Being productive is all about commitment! 3)  Continuous learner: Never be content about how productive you are â€" we can all get better! So have an attitude of continuous learning about ways to improve productivity. Now, just to be clear, I am not suggesting you spend your life trying out different systems for productivity. What I am saying is that new technology is being developed all the time that can really help your productivity, and don’t just ignore it. Check it out to see if it will improve your productivity â€" if it does, then incorporate it. If it doesn’t just dump it! For example, I have become a recent convert to Evernote â€" a great tool to capture “stuff” on the go that I can refer to later. It really does help me to be more productive â€" I can have folders for various pieces of information I want to keep to look at later, and I know it is all in one place. 4)  Celebrate progress: Every day celebrate your progress! Sound naff? Not at all! There is great value in reviewing your day and celebrating your successes and the progress you made towards your goals. It is the fuel that boosts your energy for the following day. 5)  No multi tasking: I take real exception to those who laud “multi-tasking”! I do not believe it is a male/female thing â€" I believe it is simply a bad habit we can get into and then justify as a virtue! Multi-tasking has to be inefficient because we are not giving full attention to any one thing, and consequently the output will reflect the input ,which is divided and lacking focus! Do one task at a time, and do not move to the next one until you have completed it. If you have scheduled the time for that activity, then give it 100% 6)  Restrict your time on email: Email is one of the great tools we possess but it is also one of the greatest time stealers and inhibitors to productivity. How often do you check your emails every day? Go on, be honest! Checking your emails that frequently is only ensuring that your agenda is being run by everyone else â€" you want to know who has sent you what, and then you find that really interesting link…….. ! 15 minutes later you realize that you are not doing what you should be. I heartily advise that you allocate 3 periods in the day to check your email â€" and that is it!   The world will not stop turning because you have not checked your email for 2 or 3 hours! Be in control of your time, not reacting to other people’s priorities. We all can do something about our own productivity â€" and it is our responsibility to do so. So, now that you have read this â€" what are you going to do? And when are you going to do it?

Resume Writing Websites Can Help You Land Your Dream Job

Resume Writing Websites Can Help You Land Your Dream JobResume writing websites are gaining popularity. These websites have become a popular site for job seekers to have a job. What they do is help you gather all the data that you need about the job that you are looking for. There are many websites that can help you find the right job that fits your needs.For some people, having a resume is an absolute necessity. Others don't even consider it. Some people just need a basic resume. There are plenty of free resume writing websites that have everything that you need. This allows you to be as creative as you want with your resume.Even if you already have a resume, some of these resume writing websites can help you improve your skills and enhance your resume. A lot of these resume writing websites have the same basic information but in a different format. There are some free resume writing websites that charge you a fee to get access to more features.The free resume writing websites tend to be more limited. The companies that offer these services charge a few dollars to get access to additional features. The additional features may include the ability to add photos and create a custom cover letter. Most of these companies are quite helpful and will help you find the right job for you.If you have a lot of experience in the field that you are looking for a job in, it may be difficult to put together a resume that is very professional. Many resume writing websites are designed so that you can put in any information that you want. Some of these resume writing websites can also help you find the best job for you.A resume writing website can be an amazing tool. They can make or break your chances of getting the job. Some of the resume writing websites offer coaching and sample letters that you can use to begin your search for a job.A resume can be the first step towards landing the job of your dreams. They can even spell the difference between success and failure. The mor e information that you put on your resume, the better. It can help you improve your chances of landing a great job.It is important to find resume writing websites that can help you land the job that you need. Many of these resume writing websites have all the information that you need. There are free resume writing websites that offer you a great opportunity to begin your search for a job. You can begin to do research before making your final decision to hire a particular person.

The Joy Is In The Journey

The Joy Is In The Journey Are you enjoying your life’s journey, or falling into the trap of focusing just on the destination? I recently came across the challenge of destination-based thinking when I was working with a young athlete, let’s call her Vicky. She wanted more than anything to play basketball in the pros. She finally got a chance to work out with a pro team, but there weren’t any spots available. Hoping for a lucky break, Vicky was going all out at practice. She made the team better by bringing positive energy. While her teammates loped down the court, Vicky sprinted, and gradually everyone else followed her example. Even though it was disheartening to see less able players on the team ahead of her, she kept pushing and being a positive force that lifted others up. Then, she got her big break. Someone left the team and Vicky was offered a contract. At first, she was thrilled. She had a brilliant first game as a professional player. She was living her dream, and it was joyful to watch. But it quickly stopped being joyful for Vicky. She’s no longer going all out, she isn’t “talking it up” on the court, she’s playing it safe. All the things that made her an asset to the team when she wasn’t even formally on the team had evaporated. Instead, she started feeling the pressure to perform whereas before, she had only upside. The anxiety of keeping her place in the line-up replaced the joy and “go all out” attitude that had got her that pro contract in the first place. This happens in other careers too. That promotion you’ve been pushing for finally happens, and then you’ve got even bigger worries and pressures at the next level up. It’s like the video games where each world you get to is harder than the one before. Congratulations and welcome to the lowest rung on the next ladder! So, are you feeling joyful on your journey? Or are you bogged down along the way? Does work feel like a grind, even though you know you’re good at what you do? And maybe it’s even what you sought out and signed up for, just like Vicky, so it feels wrong to complain. Well, it can happen to anyone. In fact, it’s happening to me. Right now. But I’m doing all the things I want to do! So why haven’t I felt as much joy as I want to lately? I told myself that it’s the stress of deadlines and too many new things: launching my first book, hosting a live webinar with two special guests, creating and delivering 5 big client events over the next two months (one of them in Mandarin Chinese, which is my second language), living by my motto of operating outside my comfort zone, and saying “yes” to too many cool new things. Surely, once I get past this “bad patch”, things will become joyful again. It wasn’t until I talked to my coach (I belong to a group that coaches entrepreneurs called “Strategic Coach”, and yes, just like any self-respecting doctors have doctors, coaches have coaches!) that I realized that I needed a gut check on “why am I not joyful and what would it take to recapture that joyful feeling?”. Stephanie told me that I needed to figure out what to drop or delegate. Fair enough, I could do a better job of delegating, but what if there wasn’t anything significant to drop? Then the really helpful concept came. If these are all things I want to do, then my problem was that I have set unrealistic deadlines. I want to do everything now, but that’s impossible. I was setting myself up for disappointment. So, this morning, I sat down and thought about what made me feel less joyful. And what things was I doing that should bring me joy â€" ones that used to do so â€" and no longer do. That’s when I realized my 6 biggest mistakes. Made a humanly impossible list of things to accomplish, and when I accomplished 3-4 of them, the other 15-20 were still staring back at me. Discounted my successes â€" I still haven’t learned to celebrate success and congratulate my team, much less myself, and that was bringing me down. Note to self: remember to celebrate. If not for myself, then certainly for the benefit of my team. Not taking any breaks. This was true not only during the day, but also over the course of the week and the month. As Stephanie reminds me, taking those breaks, which she calls “Free Days”, is crucial to setting yourself up for super productive work days. Saying “yes” to too many things, and not all of them in direct alignment with my bigger goals. While some opportunities are ones you must grab with both hands now, others are ones to leave for later. Clawed back things I had delegated â€" being too eager to jump in and too stubborn to break the old habit of doing things myself. Worried about things I had already decided â€" instead, I would be better off making a decision, sticking with it, seeing what the results were, and learning from it for next time. Some opportunities are ones you must grab with both hands now. Others are ones to leave for later. Then it all made sense. These were all things within my control. And it was up to me to choose to be joyful â€" to say yes to the things that would help me feel that way (like being outside), to say no to the things that wouldn’t, and to build in some down time so I didn’t feel quite so pressured. It’s hard to feel joyful when you’re under the gun. I have to focus on doing just a few crucial things each day and let the rest be. Trying to get the impossible list ticked and tied every day is not an achievement, even if I were to accomplish it. And the effort was making me miserable all while doing the very things I said I wanted to do! So now I’m focused on realistic deadlines for just 3 things max. each day, and taking breaks outside where I can breathe some fresh air. How about you? How many of these mistakes do you make and what will your focus points be? As they say, we learn the most from mistakes, and I hope you will be able to learn from mine. I’d love to help you avoid the unnecessary stress and get to joyfulness as soon as you can. And if you’re interested in learning from the mistakes that others have made, make sure to join me and my special guests, Leonard Kim and Vinay Jayaram, for an inside look at their career journeys, the mistakes you must avoid, and how they handled the challenges along the way. As they say, life’s a journey and you have to enjoy all the steps along the way. Achieving your goals feels great, but the achievement can feel fleeting. In some sense, there is no “there” when you get there. The joy is in the journey. There is no “there” when you get there. The joy is in the journey. Leave a comment below and let me know what you think.

Writing Assignments With Dyslexia - Studying With Dyslexia

Writing Assignments With Dyslexia - Studying With Dyslexia If you’re studying at school or university and have dyslexia, you might find it difficult. So, we’ve created a step-by-step plan for students writing assignments with dyslexia.Step 1 â€" Write Down Ideas â€" Writing Assignments With DyslexiaBefore collecting your research or making notes, it’s time to get your initial thoughts about the question out in the open.The first thing you should do is start writing down whatever comes to your mind in no particular order â€" things related to the question, of course! There will be time to organise these thoughts later, so don’t worry about making them too coherent or tidy. Just get your thoughts on paper or typed up.Step 2 â€" Write a Rough Plan â€" Writing Assignments With DyslexiaNow’s the time to organise the thoughts you’ve made into a rough plan. This won’t be the final plan that you follow for the entire project â€" just a loose one to help you gather your thoughts for the research stage.If you’re writing an essay, try t o construct a paragraph-by-paragraph plan in this stage. At the very least, you should have a good idea of what the sections of the essay or project are, and how they link together.Step 3 â€" Gather and Conduct Research â€" Writing Assignments With DyslexiaIn this stage, you’ll spend most of your time reading, working with others, or doing practical work so that you have something to support your assignment with. The exact nature of the research will depend on the subject and module that your assignment is in.Step 4 â€" Create a Fleshed-out Plan Based on Research â€" Writing Assignments With DyslexiaOnce you’ve got all of your research together, you now need to apply it to your plan. If you’re writing an essay, you want to look for anywhere in your plan where you’ve made some kind of claim. Add relevant evidence from your sources here, so that everything you’re going to write in your essay is supported.If you’re doing some other kind of assignment, such as a write-up bas ed on lab work, your entire piece will centre around your research. Again, include evidence from your own research to your plan where relevant, so your argument is well-supported.To make things easier, try to make a note of all the page numbers and locations of everything you’re citing in your work. This will save you from having to trawl through all your sources looking for the exact line and page where you got your evidence from.Step 5 â€" Write the Assignment â€" Writing Assignments With DyslexiaNow that you’ve got a full and fleshed-out plan, it’s time to write the first draft. If you’ve taken your planning seriously, you shouldn’t need to refer to any of your sources here â€" just follow each point of your plan, turning the bullet points and other short notes into full sentences.If you’ve already made a full plan, this stage shouldn’t take long at all. The key is to follow your plan as much as possible, and turn a series of notes into a coherent, eloquent piece of writing.Conclusion â€" Writing Assignments With DyslexiaYou now have an idea of how to plan the first half of your assignment. However, there’s still a lot more to do, such as proofreading and referencing. Check back here later this week for the next 5 steps for writing assignments with dyslexia. For more information on how to study with dyslexia, check out our guide: How to Study with Dyslexia.Maybe you’d prefer to listen to the book rather than read it. If so, check out the How to Study With Dyslexia Audiobook. This entry was posted in Education, 'How To' Help. Bookmark the permalink. Jacob Senior Studying With Dyslexia â€" Tips for Reading With DyslexiaRoustabout Jobs: How To Read Offshore Job Descriptions