Posts Tagged: opinion leader
12 Hiring Tips For Your Early Stage Startup
Startups live or die based on their ability to attract talent. All other factors that can affect startup success are secondary. This is even more pronounced when you are an early stage startup (read ‘resource constrained to the extreme’) as you have little or no room for bad hiring decisions. Having said that, everyone makes hiring mistakes and it is a process that you hope to get better at with experience. If you are like me and most other entrepreneurs, you would dump conventional wisdom and techniques, and build your own set of hiring rules that are driven by your unique style and situation. Over the years, I have been involved in several startups and here are some of the things I have learned in hiring during early days of the startup (i.e., first 2-5 employees).
LinkedIn Groups for Sales Success: Your Secret Weapon – Comment on SmallBizTrends
Hi Margie,
Thanks for providing the tips. Totally agree with the value of LinkedIn groups. They help with leads, but also help users build credible connections and thought leadership. But, I think the LinkedIn group experience requires improvement. I would love to know how you tackle some of the issues I face:
1 – If you are a member of multiple groups, email digests feel like a spam and most people I talk to have turned them off because they simply cannot keep up with them
2 – There is a lot of promotional/spam discussions that puts people off
3 – It is extremely difficult to reach discussions that are relevant to a user – total lack of filters (part of the problem is people who just post random stuff)
4 – There is a bias towards discussions that are active even if they are old (even though there are few active discussions – they get most of the comments) – most other ‘relevant’ discussions go unnoticed
Can you please share your thoughts on how you are solving these problems today? Also, what other improvements would you like to see in LinkedIn Groups? Please share..Thanks!
- JASMEET SAWHNEY
Did you know that people who participate or engage in LinkedIn Group discussions get an average of four times as many profile views?
LinkedIn Groups allow you to connect with thousands, even hundreds of thousands of people. Many more than you could connect with via your first-level connections.
Using LinkedIn Groups for Sales Success
There are over two million groups on LinkedIn, with a focus on a variety of topics. These include:
- Corporate
- College alumni
- Nonprofit
- Trade organizations
- Conferences
- Industry-specific
- Interests – such as skiing or animals
The Light Within — A Professional Context — Published On Medium
It is the light within, hiding deep beneath our skin
It holds our destiny, shapes our lives
It strikes more often than we realize
It brings us to extremes more often than we like
It makes us low and high, losers and winners, it is the light within.
————————————————————————————-
It takes us far and beyond, below and under
It turns impossible into possible, possible into impossible
It drives us to excellence, leaves us doomed, it is the light within.
It propels us to achieve the unachievable, drowns us in mere existence
It transports us to heights of happiness, and wells of sorrow
It cultivates completeness, and shoves us to hollowness, it is the light within.
via The Light Within — A Professional Context — This Happened to Me — Medium.
3 Deadly LinkedIn Profile Mistakes To Avoid – Disqus Comment on Jeffbullas Blog
So, it seems everyone loves this article – but, I am still trying to make sense of it?!?! Are you suggesting that every single professional should turn their LinkedIn profile into sales BS?? Quite frankly, if I see this kind of a profile, I’ll think twice before connecting. It’s the same reason why you don’t pick up a sales call when you know a telemarketer is calling. And, the same reason people don’t like Car Salesman – this article seems to be suggesting that our LinkedIn profiles should sound like one as well. This is a big problem with some sales people, they think everyone else sees the world like they do. Such a profile would almost seem like a scam to normal professionals. There might be some professions where this might work – where there is quick sales/hiring without much deliberation. But, I am not going to give business to anyone who tries to shove sales pitches down my throat via their LinkedIn profile. For most practical scenarios, a LinkedIn profile is not at the bottom of the sales funnel – it is at the top. And, if you annoy anyone at the top, there aren’t going to be any leads. There is a big shift happening from this traditional sales ‘cold call’ paradigm to the new Inbound approach. But, it seems I am the only one who feels this way (at least here). Or, maybe I just didn’t get the essence of the article – my apologies if that is the case. – JASMEET SAWHNEY
The sad truth is you are probably committing 3 deadly mistakes that turn you into a leper on LinkedIn.
If it makes you feel any better, you aren’t alone—thousands of people are making these 3 LinkedIn profile mistakes, turning their social media efforts into a giant waste of time.
Now I won’t bother tell you that you need a professional profile picture or recommendations on your LinkedIn profile. Those are a given. This article will explore the science of personal branding—why most people blend into the background and are instantly forgotten on LinkedIn.
Fix these 3 mistakes and you will immediately elbow your way past the hoards of competition and make a much better first impression on LinkedIn.
via 3 Deadly LinkedIn Profile Mistakes to Avoid – Jeffbullas’s Blog.
What Type Of Information Should You Share On Social Media? – Worklife Blog
We all have social media accounts and share content on one or more social networks. In fact, social sharing has become one of the most common activities on the web. There are some who get a kick out of sharing everything in their life (“I just took shower and water was really cold!”); some feel connected when they share; some want to stay relevant within their circles; some want to build their credibility; and there are others who do it for various vague and valid reasons. But, very few understand how effective their sharing is, and how can they improve?
No matter what you do, I can bet you have limited time. When you spend time on social networks, it can take away good chunk of your time depending on how addicted (or dedicated) you are to building your presence. But, it is not hard to see that everyone’s social content does not get equal engagement. And, this is fine, if all you want is to share your personal pictures with friends and family. But, for most part, all of this sharing comes with an expectation – that your connections and followers will react. If there are no reactions, incentives of sharing are diminished, which leads to decreased sharing.
via What type of information should you share on Social Media? | Worklife.
Founder Brand Void Is Killing More Startups Than You Think – MassChallenge Blog
The following is a guest post from Jasmeet Sawhney of MassChallenge Finalist, Worklife.io.
I was recently browsing our own people directory at MassChallenge. My goal was to see how many people have good web presence, so I picked some random names and did searches on Google and other social sites.
As I went from 1st name to the 30th, a pattern had emerged – one of the 3 things was happening for every person I searched (in decreasing order of frequency):
- One or more social accounts of the person showed-up without any consistent presence in search results
- It was difficult to locate the person on search and social sites
- Only 2 people had 5 or more (out of 10) results on the first page of Google results
via MassChallenge.
9 Ways to Design Brand You – LinkedIn Group Discussion
You are the CEO of your own company – YOU Incorporated. In today’s fast-paced, competitive and interconnected world it is vital to have a unique powerful and personal brand in order to stand out and be memorable in the eyes of others. Think of some…
via 9 Ways to Design Brand You | LinkedIn.