5 Ways to Boost Your LinkedIn Ranking

5 Ways to Boost Your LinkedIn Ranking Whether  youre a job seeker, a recruiter, or just looking for new business prospects; you should never underestimate the power of your LinkedIn network. The further you expand your network, the more active you are and the quality of your profile are all factors that contribute to your ranking on the platform. The higher you rank; the  higher you will appear in search results  and in turn the  more exposure you will gain. So if youre seeking new opportunities or to create new professional contacts, then it is essential that you put the time in to building an effective LinkedIn presence. Not only will it improve your chances of finding opportunities through the network, but it also helps you to build credibility and a reputation as an expert in your field. You can see how you rank by  visiting the Who’s Viewed Your Profile’ page and clicking  on the ’How you rank for profile views’ tab at the top of the page.  You can then see how you rank amongst your connections, and also  how your connections rank. If you want to give your ranking a bit of a boost, here  are a few things you should do: 1) Complete your profile A completed profile will rank higher than one with gaps, so make sure you fill out each section properly. You will know that your profile is complete when the  Profile Completeness” bar on the right side of the page is 100 percent blue. Taking the time to put together a well thought out summary and thorough outline of your work history will also improve chances of people contacting you. 2) Build your connections The larger your network, the more profiles you will have access to. This doesnt mean you should connect with anyone and everyone, however, as people working in your industry and other potential business prospects will be a lot more useful to you. You can build a quality network by connecting with old business contacts, colleagues, University alumni, etc. Dont hesitate to add other  industry professionals who can be found in groups and search results, just remember to tailor your invitation to introduce yourself properly and let them know why you would like to connect. 3) Post updates Posting regular updates will ensure that your profile gets seen by other users and users who post status updates rank higher than those who dont. If you dont have time to do this manually you can use tools such as Buffer or Hootsuite to schedule updates to go out at certain times, meaning you can plan ahead. If people like or comment on your update it will then appear in their networks newsfeeds to try to share  interesting content that people will  engage with. 4) Start publishing Publishing on LinkedIn is a great way to build some credibility within your industry as providing your knowledge and insights can help to build a reputation as an expert in the field. Posting blog posts is also a good way to get your profile seen by people who may not have necessarily come across it otherwise, through Pulse or through people sharing your blog post. 5) Join groups By joining groups you or given access to connect with other members, so it make it much easier to build a network of industry professionals. Try to contribute and interact with peoples posts as much as possible, as the more active you are the better your profile will rank. Sharing your thoughts and expertise on relevant topics will also help you to get yourself known as a knowledgeable professional in the sector. [Image Credit: Shutterstock]

Prepare a Vision Statement for Your Nonfiction Book - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Prepare a Vision Statement for Your Nonfiction Book - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career A vision statement is the best way to convert your desire to write a personal brand-building book into a commitment to write a book to build your brand. A vision statement is a short, 1 to 3-page document that describes the book you want to write and use as the foundation for your personal brand. Vision statements versus book proposals Vision statements are not book proposals. Here are some of the ways vision statements differ from book proposals: Distribution. A vision statement is primarily for your own use as you explore alternatives and define your goals. Book proposals, however, are formal documents based on your latest thinking, intended for distribution to literary agents and trade publishers. Sequence. Vision statements precede book proposals; they are often the first step in pulling together your ideas and goals for your book. Vision statements provide an opportunity to test market and refine your ideas before preparing a formal book proposal. Detail. Vision statements provide a high-level overview of topics in just 1 or 2 paragraphs. The same topics addressed in a book proposal can take up 2, 3, or evenmore, pages. Preparation time. If youve been thinking about your book for a long time, you should be able to prepare a vision statement in a couple of hours. Book proposals, however, can take several months of writing and rewriting often with the help of others in order to successfully sell your book idea to an agent or publisher. On the way to preparing your first book proposal, you may prepare several short vision statements as you explore different titles, topics, and approaches for your book. Elements of a successful vision statement Here are some of the visions to include in your vision statement: Your vision of your intended reader. This involves answering 2 questions. First, Who are you writing your book for? Describe your intended readers in terms of characteristics like age, occupation, income, sex, geography, education, marital status, or health. Second, Why should they buy your book? What are their problems or goals? What do they worry about? What are they looking for in your book? Your vision of your books benefits. How is your book going to help your intended readers solve their problems or achieve their goals? What are the specific changes that your readers will take away from your book? What will your readers be able to do that they cant do now? Your vision of your business and life after your book appears. After describing your vision of how readers will benefit from your book, describe how you will benefit from your book. What will you be able to do after your book appears that you cant do now? What kinds of new opportunities will your book create for you? What kinds of connections will your book make possible with other experts in your field? What kinds of back-end products and services can develop and sell based on your book? Your vision of how your book will look and feel. Imagine that youre looking at the front cover of your book as you hold it in your hand. What images come to mind? Is it a light or a heavy book? Is it large or small in terms of physical dimensions or number of pages? What kind of colors do you see on the book cover? What kind of image does your book project? Hint: start by thinking in terms of opposites; informal or serious, friendly or academic, quick read or exhaustively detailed? Your vision of your books contents. What are your thoughts about the way your books contents are organized? Are you thinking in terms of a few long chapters or several shorter chapters? Are you going to divide your book into a few key sections, or parts? When you think of opening your book to a typical 2-page spread, i.e., view of both left-hand and right-hand pages, what do you see? Just paragraphs of text, or text enhanced with questions, exercises, worksheets, tables, charts and graphs? Do you also see short text elements like ideas, tips, and suggested resources? Tips for preparing a vision statement for your book The key to a successful vision statement is exploration rather than finality Here are some tips for creating a vision statement for your personal brand-building book: Start by analyzing already published books in your area of interest. What do you like about them, what dont you like? Do they resemble textbooks rather than conversations with the author? Do they answer your questions? Observations of what you like and dont like can help you identify what you want out of your own book. Look at inexpensive, as well as expensive, books. Expand your analysis to include out of field books. Explore books that have nothing to do with your topic, and sensitize yourself to what you like, and dont like, about them. Dont sweat the details! Dont take too much time preparing a vision statement. Dont concern yourself with words and grammar. Instead, just let the ideas flow. Jot down ideas and impressions in list format, rather than full sentences. Keep it short! A couple of short vision statements is preferable to a single long one. Save them and review them frequently. Consider creating your vision statements on 3-hole punched paper, so you can save them in a 3-ring binder devoted to your writing project. Dont prematurely share your vision statements.   A vision statement is starting point, for your eyes only. Discuss your ideas verbally, and note the reactions you receive from family or friends, but keep your ideas to yourself until youre ready to present them to potential literary agents or publishers. Every project has to begin somewhere! No matter how much youve thought about writing a book to build your personal brand, until you begin to take action, your dream of publishing a book is just that a dream. By taking the time to prepare a brief vision statement describing the benefits your intended readers and you are going to get from your book, youre taking the first step to writing a book that defines and promotes your personal brand. Question: Is this the week you take your first step? Why, or why not? Author: Roger C. Parker shares ideas for planning, writing, promoting, profiting from brand building books in his daily writing tips blog. His latest book, #BOOK TITLE Tweet: 140 Bite-Sized Ideas for Compelling Article, Book, Event Titles, offers step-by-step ideas, tips, and examples for choosing the right title.

Office Manager Cover Letter Sample - Algrim.co

Office Manager Cover Letter Sample - Algrim.co Office Manager Cover Letter Template Download our cover letter template in Word format. Instant download. No email required. Download Template Related Hiring Resources Office Manager Job Description Sample Dental Office Manager Job Description

Your Career Site Pretty or Sh!tty

Your Career Site Pretty or Sh!tty According to the global employer branding research firm Potentialpark, your career site needs to score high across the following 6 areas to score high amongst your candidates: Usability Employer Branding Talent Relationship Building Application Management Recruitment Process Assessment Individual Feedback Are you getting it right? We’re going to breakdown these 6 steps and make sure your career site is doing it’s job properly. Usability: It’s essential that your career site is easy to spot and use. First off it shouldn’t take more than a couple of clicks from your homepage for potential candidates to find and access your latest vacancies i.e. don’t hide your careers section in the footnotes! From hereon ensure a straightforward route to your latest vacancies. Have your most recent roles clearly visible, provide a user friendly search tool, organise vacancies into categories for an easier search, provide an interactive job map etcetera. In a world where online attention span wanes by the second, you want to make sure that there are no obstacles between candidates and your jobs. Lay it out in black and white, and make it easy to apply in under 20 minutes. On that note, if you’re using an ATS make sure it’s user friendly i.e. No lengthy registration forms. Offer candidates the option of applying with a full or partial upload of professional profile such as LinkedIn, it helps if your career site is mobile-friendly too. Employer branding: Your career site is the prime opportunity to sing your own praises, after all people are visiting it because they want to know more about joining you. Give them what they want! Apart from a professionally branded career site you want to advertise your personality, what sets you apart from the rest. Make sure you feature at least one if not all of the following: An employer video Staff testimonials Office photographs Company benefits Social media links Direct contact information Remember your employer brand is the dangling carrot for most candidates, make sure it’s a nice big fat juicy one and organic to boot. Talent relationship building: If your company has the capacity for internships or summer placements consider advertising this on your career site. Ideally you want to drive traffic via social media, seminars, university open days and the like. It’s an great opportunity to begin cultivating ties with future talent, in this case university students or graduates seeking experience. Alternatively use your career site as a base to invite candidates to your talent community with links to your social channels, online forums and the like. For those who have a keen interest in joining the company it’ll be an ideal opportunity to jump straight into your online network. Application management: Whether you’re using an ATS or not the procedure should be the same: When you advertise a job any subsequent applications must be dealt with as quickly and effectively as possible. This process starts on the career site, where the application itself shouldn’t take more than about 10-20 minutes. It needs to be a straightforward journey from A to B to avoid dropouts, plus it’s advisable to set up an automatic reply. Studies show that 90% of candidates prefer an automatic response over nothing. The simplest way to do this without an ATS is to set up a standalone email account for job applications with an auto reply. If you know it’ll take a while for you to process applications be sure to mention it in order to save any disgruntled applicants. On a side note, if you don’t have any open vacancies offer your candidates the option to send in unsolicited applications on your career site. It’ll boost your employer brand and ultimately contribute to a growing talent pool. The recruitment process, assessment and individual feedback: Stemming from the career site is of course, the hiring process itself. As with application management the companies who generally score highly with candidates are those who deal with applications with speed, efficiency and last but not least, communication. Statistically candidates are happy to wait 1-2 weeks for a definitive reply or further instructions such as assessments. Similar to the application itself, it pays to whittle down the assessment process to the bare essentials to save any subsequent drop out. Ideally you also want to communicate any rejections asap, so whether this is following application or assessment make sure it’s not left to the back burner. Last but not least, consider adding feedback for those who don’t make it through. Your career site are you getting it right? Remember your career site isnt just somewhere to post job ads. Maximise its full potential with great employer branding and a flawless candidate experience. Are you ticking all the boxes, or do you think theres more to add? Let us know your thoughts below.

Good Skils When Writing a Resume

Good Skils When Writing a ResumeIn order to effectively showcase your talents, you need to know what the best skils are to use when writing a resume. A resume is a way for you to express yourself to a potential employer, and it should be a concise, easy-to-read document that allow the hiring manager to quickly see your skills and abilities. If you use the wrong skils, you could end up with a boring document that makes no sense.One of the first skils to consider when writing a resume is your typeface. Your typeface is one of the most important things that you will do in your resume, so make sure that you use the typeface that is suitable for your personality. If you prefer a heavier, bolder typeface, your resume may not read well. If you're shy, for example, a more subtle font could be a good idea.Another good resume tip is to make sure that the number of words in your resume matches the number of words in your job description. Too many words in a resume can make it difficult to read, and it can also make it seem like you are not interested in the position. You also don't want to cram too much information into one page, either, so choose a format that is appropriate to the type of job you are applying for.One other good resume tip is to make sure that the font size is appropriate for the type of work you will be doing once you begin the job. As an example, if you are applying for a clerical position, you might want to use a font that is more formal, while if you are applying for a technical position, you might want to use a lighter, easier-to-read font. Make sure to choose the size of the font that you will need for your resume as you fill out the form. Doing this ensures that you will be able to display your skills and abilities, and it allows the hiring manager to have enough room to read what you have to say.The next thing to consider when writing a resume is to make sure that the formatting is clean and organized. If you are writing a resume based on a data entry position, make sure that the font is large and readable. If you are writing a resume for a management position, make sure that the font is large, clear, and has a professional look to it.In today's job market, it is very common for applicants to write resumes with little or no organization. Make sure that your resume includes a format that is easy to read, but doesn't make it appear that you didn't organize yourself. Make sure that the headings are clear and relevant to the content of the resume. Remember, the purpose of a resume is to make it easy for an employer to see how the applicant can add value to the company, so make sure that you include clear organization.Another thing to consider when using a resume format is the font. Make sure that the font and size of the lettering, headers, and margins are appropriate for the format of the resume. Using an inappropriate font could make the resume look unprofessional, and it can also make it difficult to decipher what is include d in the resume, making it less attractive to the hiring manager.In today's job market, writing a resume is not just a matter of putting a list of skills and accomplishments on a page. It is a matter of presenting yourself in a manner that makes it easy for an employer to read. It is essential that you take the time to make your resume look professional, and it is equally important that you take the time to make it look informative and unique.

The Top 3 Mistakes Job Seekers Make On LinkedIn - CareerEnlightenment.com

Mistake 2: You are NOT Your J-o-b“Systems Engineer”“Marketing Executive”“Fundraiser”These appear under people’s names in their LinkedIn profiles. And they tell us nothing about who this person really is.They are a commodity.Quick story. I had a client, a network engineer, who wanted to work for a very large shoe company. No, not Nike, but good guess.He knew they had two problems. First, they had no internal network. Second, their external network was so broken that it was affecting supply chain.So in order to really appeal to this company, we needed to directly address their biggest challenges challenges that he had the capacity to solve.So his headline went like this, “Powerful Intranet builder | Supply Chain thought leader | Project management guru”You have 120 characters to tell the world who you are and what value you bring.And every communication you generate on LinkedIn will have this professional headline attached to it.So choose wisely.Hint: don’t use you r job title as your headlineMistake 3: Don’t Look Like an Axe MurdererEvery single time I speak about social media in the job search, someone always comes up to me afterward to ask me this question, “But I’m just not that comfortable putting my picture up.” They are either too young or too old or too something.Yes, ageism, racism and sexism are very real. It’s sad and terrible that they still happen in our society. But using a black and white photo, or zooming way out to try and hide something about ourselves is not going to solve the problem.The only thing we can do is put some time and effort into our photos, to reflect who we are honestly. And to make a nice looking photo.All too often, people will put up a mug shot, and wonder why they aren’t getting call backs.This happened to a friend’s client. And the day he changed his photo, he got a job offer. No exaggeration. (I can hear the HR people cringing from this story, but it’s true).So the lesson from this is that it is worth getting a professional headshot taken if you are serious about getting a job.

Stop Fear from Encompassing Your Career

Stop Fear from Encompassing Your Career I recently bought some “Zenguin” coffee mugs. Each mug has one of four meditative penguins drawn on it. The penguins are trying to find their own sense of calm. Each mug has a Zen proverb written on the inside of the cup so you read it while taking a drink. The one that resonated the most with me said: Do Not Fear The Shark If Your Feathers Are Dry. Oftentimes we are drawn to worry about what might be. For example: What if they don’t call me back for the job? What if I take the new position and I don’t like it? What if I am passed over for that promotion? What if they don’t like my resume? It is absolutely true that we cannot control many aspects of our career progression or job search. However, worrying about them before they take shape does nothing to aid us in the process. Instead take the energy spent on the ‘what if shark’ and plan how you can positively impact the areas over which you have control. Prepare for how you can negate or lessen the impact of the shark. This is a great use of your energy. Remember, there are many aspects of our career that are in our control, even though some are not. Spend your energy and time on preparing for those aspects of your job search in your control. While you may try to follow that advice, it is difficult to change patterns and behaviors quickly. Inevitably many of us will find ourselves worrying about what might be. When that happens to me, I can look out at my mug that is sitting on my desk to remind me. When those thoughts arise in you, I encourage you to remember the Zen proverb and remember you are still on dry land.