5 Simple Steps for Improving Your LinkedIn Visibility

by Stephanie Sammons published by www.socialmediaexaminer.com

Are you wondering how to get the most from LinkedIn? Over the last few months, the LinkedIn network has made upgrades and undergone changes.

If you already have a profile created on LinkedIn, it’s a great time to revisit and refresh your presence!

Or if you’re just wondering how to get started, these 5 simple steps will help you make the most of your time and effort!

Why LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is the largest professional social network online today, with over 100 million professional users. The average household income of LinkedIn users is over $88,000 per year, which outpaces the average income for the readership of the Wall Street Journal, Forbes and Business Week!

If you are a professional or a business owner, you can’t afford to miss out on the opportunity to build relationships with potential customers, clients, partners and peers on LinkedIn. It’s a powerful audience that you can engage, interact with and influence.

#1: Complete your LinkedIn “profile box.”

When visitors first land on your LinkedIn profile, a box displaying your profile highlights fills the screen. Given the importance of first impressions, the information in your “profile box” should be complete, current and optimized.

This is your best chance to make a good impression. In many cases, someone may read through your entire profile, but most people are going to get the information they need from your profile box.

Upload a professional image. This is your very best opportunity to make a great first impression and is essential to attracting connections. No professional photo? No credibility

Create a compelling headline. You only have 120 characters at the top of your profile to describe who you are, whom you serve and how you help. Use brief, descriptive, compelling keywords so the right professionals on LinkedIn can discover you. Focus on terms that your target markets are more likely to search for. What language do they use? Make your headline text compelling, but use words that resonate with your market. 

List your current position and at least two past positions. If you don’t list at least two past positions, your profile won’t be considered “complete,” which can mean missed opportunities to be discovered by prospective clients and customers. Make sure to describe each of your roles in depth, and again use those keywords that will resonate with your target markets! It is also okay to list two or three positions that describe your current role, as I have done in my own profile. 

Add your education information. List colleges and the high school you attended in this area. Why? One of the primary search tools within LinkedIn is the ability to locate people with whom you attended school. This is a potential connection point that can open doors for you. 

Customize your “website” listings. Under the Websites section of your LinkedIn profile, you can have up to three listed. Choose the “Other” option when setting up each of these links and describe the links to your brand with relevant terms. For example, rather than using the phrase “my website,” I use “Smart Social Pro Blog.” Not only is this more descriptive, it also gives me a better opportunity to rank for those keywords in search. 

Include a link to your Twitter profile. Add your Twitter handle to your LinkedIn profile. Visitors to your profile can now follow you on Twitter directly from within your profile box! LinkedIn and Twitter are tightly integrated. You can share your tweets as LinkedIn status updates (best practice: add #in to the end of specific tweets rather than choosing to send all tweets to LinkedIn), and you can share LinkedIn status updates as tweets! 

Edit your “vanity” LinkedIn URL. An example ishttp://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniesammons. This will enable your LinkedIn profile link to show up in search results under your name on all the major search engines! It is important to claim those results for your name as they provide a gateway into your personal brand.

Following these seven tips will ensure that you put your best foot forward with a comprehensive snapshot of who you are, what you do and where people can learn more about you. Your LinkedIn profile should serve as one of your most valuable professional digital assets. 

*Check out tips 2-5 here!

The Right Way to Come Back From Vacation

by Peter Bregman

What's the right way to come back from vacation?

Here's what I've done in the past: Stay up late the night I return, trying to go through everything, answer all my emails, and create a long to-do list of everything that accumulated while I was away. Then, the next day — my first full day of work — do my best to go through that list as I maintain a normal schedule of work, meetings, and phone calls.

But that's a mistake. A surefire recipe for wiping out the benefits of vacation within a few hours, letting the island disappear underwater forever.

There's a better way.

First, let your last night before work still be vacation, or at least your personal time. Don't open your email or check your voicemail. Unpack, do laundry, make your kids' lunches if you have kids and they need lunches — but don't get back to work until you're back at work.

Then, on your first day back from vacation, try this three-step plan for not only getting back into the swing of things but taking some of the island with you:

1. Ready: Who are you at your best? Before you listen to that first voicemail, sit quietly for a minute, and think about what you most liked about yourself on vacation. Was it the relaxed way you listened to the people you were with? Maybe it was the time you allowed your mind to wander? Perhaps it was the way you immersed yourself in each moment because you weren't distracted by constantly checking email on your phone? Maybe it was your patience, your generosity, or the ease with which you slipped into laughter?

Write down a few of your observations and keep the list close. The busier we get, the less we cultivate the aspects of ourselves we value so deeply because they aren't necessarilyefficient.

But they are us — possibly some of the most important parts — and leaving them back on the sandbar diminishes who we are. Which weakens us, reducing our energy, creativity, and effectiveness. Not to mention our pleasure.

The solution? Become less efficient. Which means you will get less done. Which, ironically, will make you more productive, as long as you choose the right things to get done.

2. Set: What Is your focus for the year? 
In order to get the right things done, we need a filter to help us decide what not to get done. Identify the most important things you want to focus on for the year. Every year I choose five major things on which I want to spend 95% of my time.

My five things form a lens through which I focus on the world. Without them, everything would be a blur. With them, I can distinguish what's important — and worth my time and attention — from what's not.

Before touching a post-vacation email, look at your list of five and connect with the priorities that will make this year productive, meaningful, and fulfilling for you. Remind yourself what's important.

3. Go: What are you going to do? It's a good idea to block out your first morning back from vacation — or the first day if you can — to go through what's waiting for you. Don't rush this — it's the most strategic thing you can do.

It will be hard to resist the temptation to try to get it all done. But if something doesn't fit into one of your five areas of focus, defer it to someone more appropriate, politely decline it, or, if you can, simply ignore it. This goes for items of personal interest as well as business. (I know Banana Republic is having a 40% off sale, but still, do you really need to browse their site?)

Your first day back will set the tone for the new post-vacation you, so build yourself into your schedule. Look at your "Who are you at your best?" list and bring that person back to work with you. Block an hour for lunch with colleagues. Take a ten-minute walk in the morning and one in the afternoon to allow your mind to wander. Listen to someone else's story with attentiveness. You'll have the time to do those things if you haven't over-scheduled that first day.

This doesn't just have to be your first day back from vacation plan; it can be your everyday plan. Each morning, look at your "Who are you at your best?" list and recommit to bringing that person from the sandbar to the office. Then look at your "What is your Focus for the Year?" list and process your work through that filter, making strategic choices about what to do, and what not to, scheduling your day so you have time to be yourself at your best.

"Look!" Isabelle screamed just as Eleanor and I approached. She was pointing to several Hermet crabs she had collected and placed on the island they had created with piled up sand. The five of us stayed there for a few minutes, quietly watching the water rush through their paths and tunnels as the crabs crawled away.

Which reminds me, there is one more thing you can do to soften your landing from your last vacation: pick a date for your next one.

source: http://blogs.hbr.org/bregman/2011/09/the-right-way-to-come-back-fro.html

Wildcard: 60 Behavioral Interview Questions

1. Tell me about a time when you were a member of a great team. What role did you play in making the team great?
2. Tell me about a time when you were given a task to accomplish without any direction.
3. Tell me about a time when you had to work with someone you did not get along with.
4. Tell me about a time when you felt that a decision was unfair. How did you handle it?
5. Tell me about a time when someone asked you for assistance outside the parameters of your job. What did you do?
6. Tell me about a time you had to multitask.
7. Tell me about a time when you were creative in solving a problem.
8. Tell me about a time when you were the leader of a team and the team disagreed with your decision. How did you handle it?
9. Tell me about a time when you were a team leader and had to mediate with members who disagreed with each other.
10. Tell me about a project that did not go well.
11. Tell me about a time that you worked hard to accomplish something but didn’t.
12. Tell me about a time when you suggested a better way to do something.
13. Tell me about a time when you had to handle conflict within your group.
14. You are a team member and you disagree with an important decision that you believe will have a negative impact on the project. How will you proceed?
15. Tell me about a time when someone told you that you had made an error. Describe how you would react and what you would say in your defense.
16. You are a new employee at our firm and I have asked you to speak to a group of 10 employees. What would you talk about and what would you say?
17. You are part of a team working on a project with a one-week deadline. The team leader does not seem to be on top of things and you are worried about reaching the deadline. What do you do?
18. How do you handle a crisis? Describe one that you handled well.
19. Describe one that you didn’t handle well and what you would have done differently.
20. It’s five o’clock on Friday and your supervisor gives you an assignment that needs to be finished by 8:00 am Monday morning. You have plans to be away for the weekend. What do you do?
21. Describe a situation that was a great learning experience.
22. Describe a challenge you faced in school and how you handled it.
23. Describe an experience that you felt was rewarding.
24. Describe a situation where you were mentored.
25. Describe a situation where you were given feedback on your performance that wasn’t what you had hoped for.
26. Describe a situation where you resolved a problem.
27. What would your last boss/manager say about you?
28. How would your co-workers describe you?
29. What do you think is the best part of working in teams?
30. What do you think is the worst part of working in a team?
31. How do you define “work ethic”? How would you describe yours?
32. How do you make decisions?
33. What type of people do you like to work with?
34. What motivates you?
35. Give me 10 adjectives to describe yourself.
36. How do you like to be managed?
37. Tell me about your best manager. Why do you consider them the “best”?
38. Tell me about your worst manager. Why do you consider them the “worst”?
39. What book are you reading now?
40. What books have you read about leadership?
41. Describe your ideal job.
42. What was the most creative thing you have ever done?
43. What are you most proud of?
44. How do you handle stress at work?
45. What would you liked to have done more of in your last internship?
46. What would you like to have done less of in your last internship?
47. Why did you choose your last job/internship?
48. Why did you choose your school?
49. If you could have done anything different during your college career, what would it have been?
50. What are your short- and long-term career goals?
51. In what areas would you like to develop further?
52. What skills did it take to succeed in your internships?
53. What do you know about our company?
54. What makes you the best candidate?
55. Why should we hire you?
56. What made you apply for this job?
57. Where else are you interviewing?
58. How would you describe client satisfaction?
59. What do you think is most important in great customer service?
60. What will you do if you don’t get this job?