Blogging4Jobs

More often than not when meeting with a new client I am asked questions surrounding Social Media ROI or Return on Investment. Potential clients who are unfamiliar with social media as a form of lead generation, brand awareness, networking, research, or customer service platform are extremely skeptical and quick to ask the ROI question. While I understand that numbers are used to determine business success, social media is extremely hard to measure mainly because social media is in its infancy and has recently became a recognized form of business marketing within the last year. Much like in business, there are qualitative or soft benefits to social media like loyalty, trust, passion, interaction, and brand awareness among the clients, colleagues, and customers you interact and engage. Business owners understand that you can’t put a price on things like the smile on a customer’s face and social media is no different. These qualitative factors in addition to the fact that social media is extremely fragmented makes it difficult in providing tangible and measurable results.
Measuring quantitative success starts with business leaders having a clear and specific strategy with measurables in mind and that starts with business leaders having an understanding of social media. When determining these measurables, I recommend that business professionals consider the following:
• Define your metrics and what success looks like with many stair-stepped goals along the way.
• Ignore metrics like number of followers.
• Focus on relationship building with influencers and buzz marketing.
• Keep detailed records of touches and brand mentions.
• Record web traffic, retweets, and number of mentions or links.
Keep in mind that driving web traffic on social media is only half the challenge in selling a product or service. How you determine your social media success largely depends on your organization’s culture, industry, and ultimate goal within the space. Creating value and differentiating your product or service using online marketing and social media can help.

Photo Credit Fancy Jewels.

The job search isn’t just about resumes, responding to newspaper job ads, and interviewing anymore. It’s all about selling yourself. Here are some important points to consider as you begin your job search.

1. Follow the Girl Scout motto: Be Prepared. Do your research prior to meeting or contacting the company you are interested in working for. This means a variety of things inlcuding visiting the company website, researching their stock performance, and knowing that position qualifications and speaking to them. Have marketing tools ready to go including your sales pitch, resume, coverletter, business cards, and portfolio.

2. It’s a numbers game. Sales is a numbers game. I often use a deck of cards as an example. Consider the face cards as sales or interviews. The remaining cards are all no’s. As you flip through the deck of cards you may come across 12 consecutive no’s before coming upon a yes.

3. Be confident. Part of being a successful sales person is being confident, and it all starts with you. Dressing the part, a firm handshake, and good eye contact are a good start.

4. Keep it professional. Unless you are indepently wealthy or just lucky, having a job means being able to pay your bills. It’s very easy to cross the line from professional to personal. Always try to keep an open mind, an even keel, and keep your focus.

5. Opportunity knocks. Your sales opportunity can happen anytime and anywhere. Greet everyone you meet. Be ready with marketing materials and be prepared to sell. Networking opportunities happen at the most unusual places including Starbucks, the grocery store, movie theatre, and a Halloween party.

Finding the right job that meets your personal, professional, and finaicial goals is a full time job. However, with proper preparation, research, and a little bit of luck you’ll be off to a great start.

Next time. . . More Job Hunting on the Edge. Crazy, creative networking and job search ideas to get you noticed.