Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Baffled by choosing keywords for your LinkedIn Profile HEADLINE

Baffled by choosing keywords for your LinkedIn Profile HEADLINE Many people are flummoxed when it comes to choosing a LinkedIn profile headline.   What keywords should they include?   How do you get that up and down symbol ( or a Tagline / Unique Selling Proposition (USP)? This article will mainly address the last question:   Keywords or USP?   The answer to the question depends on your main goal with your LinkedIn profile. Below you will find several situations you might be in.   Find yourself as closely as possible and handle your headline in the most appropriate way for your situation.   If you don’t find yourself exactly, find the nearest match and adjust from there. 1.   You are a job seeker and you want to be found in searches.* If you are a job seeker, your main goal is probably to be found and contacted by recruiters and hiring managers.   If so, you need to focus on keywords in your headline.   Keywords are the terms a recruiter would be searching for if looking for someone like you. The prevailing wisdom is to choose 4-5 words as keywords and leave it at that.   Adding extra words or extra characters like your email address may serve to dilute the effectiveness of your headline. Examples of good headlines are: Manufacturing Supply Chain Executive | Asia Procurement Contract Specialist | Treasury Manager Account Executive | OEM Sales | Field Sales | Territory Manager Director Communications | Branding | Online Marketing | Social Media Note these headlines zero in on the most essential keywords and do not add any fluff to dilute their impact. Some job seekers write â€Å"Open to New Opportunities† in their headline.   Some recruiters actually search on the term â€Å"opportunities† and might find you that way.   Other recruiters will skip over you if you put that phrase in your headline.   My advice is to try it one way, and if you’re not getting the attention you want, try it another way.   That’s the beauty of social media †¦Ã‚   nothing is ever engraved in stone. 2.   You are a job seeker and your main goal is to look good when people find you. Perhaps you are currently employed and doing a very selective and confidential job search.   Or perhaps you want people to look for you primarily after you have contacted them.   If so, you may not particularly be looking to be found in searches.   In this situation, you have more flexibility when crafting your headline.   I recommend that you write your job title and a catchy phrase, tagline, or Unique Selling Proposition. Examples: High-Powered Financial and Analytical Trainer | Propelling International Business Teams to the Top Program, Process and Project Manager | Creating and Implementing Innovative Technological Solutions Managed Care Professional | Building relationships with attention and integrity For more ideas on catchy headlines, see my article, Your LinkedIn Profile *HEADLINE* What Would Draw You In? 3.   You are a business owner or professional and you want people to find you.* If you are a business owner or professional wanting to attract clients, stack your headline with the keywords your clients would be searching on.   My headline says: Essay Resume Writer | Executive Resumes | Personal Statements | LinkedIn Profiles | Web Copy The result of having these keywords in my headline (and also in my summary, specialties and job titles) is that many people find me when they are seeking the services I provide. During admission season I change my keywords to emphasize college essays and MBA Admissions consulting. Change your keywords as much as you want until you get the number of visitors to your site each day that you’re looking for. 4.   You are a business owner or professional and you just want to build a close network of solid business connections. If you are laying low on LinkedIn and selectively building a network, really all you need is your job title and organization.   LinkedIn will take care of that for you. *NOTE TO THOSE IN CATEGORIES 1 3:   Remember that the number of hits you get on your LinkedIn profile will always increase when you increase your number of connections.   For more on that topic please view my signature webinar, How to Write a Killer LinkedIn Profile. BEWARE of the LinkedIn Default!   If you update your current job position, LinkedIn automatically changes your headline unless you catch the box that lets you opt out.   If this happens, take control and change your headline if you want it to say something different! Like so many things, there is no â€Å"one size fits all† answer to the LinkedIn Headline question.   If you’re not sure what the best way is to approach yours, comment below or contact The Essay Expert for assistance in crafting a KILLER LinkedIn Profile!

Saturday, November 23, 2019

20 Terms Every Content Writer Needs to Know

20 Terms Every Content Writer Needs to Know Crafting content for businesses and their marketing agencies can be a decent earner for aspiring writers. But if you want to be taken seriously, you need to get the lingo right. Dan Brotzel of UK agency Sticky Content walks us through some of the essential terminology So, youve got your first content commission – a series of blog posts perhaps, or some new web copy. What usually comes next is a briefing form. The brief may be a detailed document of several pages, or it may be a couple of pages in an email. It may have been written just for you, or – more likely – for lots of other people working on the project as well, from marketers to web developers. ​​​​​​​ Your first job is to go through the brief, understand whats required, and come back with any questions. Heres a handy guide to some of the phrases you may come across Amends. Content work always goes through several rounds of amends on its way to approval. Your agreement may cite a certain number of rounds of amends that you will carry out; if not, its worth asking about this up front. While you shouldnt worry that there will be things to tweak, you should make sure that the amount of amends isnt getting unreasonable or turning into a rebrief. Brand voice. This is the verbal personality that your copy should convey. Guidance may come in a tone of voice document or in a brief description, e.g. friendly, straightforward, positive. If in doubt, ask for examples of voice they like. Call to action (CTA). All content should lead to a next step you want your reader to take, such as Call us now or Get a quote. Knowing the CTA will help you focus your writing. Compliance. In heavily regulated industries such as finance, a Compliance team will review the copy for potential issues such as making claims (the cheapest cover ever!) that cant be backed up. Its worth asking up front what sorts of things they normally look for. Conversion. The action that you want people reading a piece of content to take, such as downloading a report or making a purchase. Copydeck. Simply the document that contains your copy. This may take the form of a templated doc that you are asked to write content into. Distribution. How your content will reach people, for example via email, social channels or search results. Engagement. A slippery word that really just means people acting on your content in some way, e.g. Evergreen content. Content thats designed to have a very long shelf-life so needs to be written in a way that wont quickly date. Hygiene content. Essential content that keeps a website working, such as FAQs, Help content and About us content. This is distinct from Hub content (regular editorial-style content such as posts and articles) and Hero content (big campaign material). Key phrases. Words you may be asked to work into your copy, to help it appear in relevant search results pages. Landing page. The page that people arrive at after clicking on a search result, especially a paid-for one. There is a whole best practice for writing and designing these to drive conversions. Listicle. An article written in list form, usually beginning with a number. Localization. Translation. Sometimes you will be asked to write copy thats easy to localize, meaning it should steer clear of idioms and very specific cultural references that could get lost in translation. Newsjacking. The practice of creating some content triggered Optimization. Basically, improving things through an ongoing process of testing and learning. A page thats been optimized for search, for example, is one that has been written and designed to have the best chance of driving search traffic. Personas. Many bigger companies will have developed character sketches that stand in for key segments of their target audience. Often theyll have a nickname such as Sally, the savvy shopper or Dave, the silver surfer. These profiles can be very useful to help you pitch your copy correctly. Pay Per Click. The paid-for ads that appear among your search results when you look for something via a search engine. Pay per click is abbreviated PPC. The search engine gets a small fee whenever anyone clicks on an ad. Stakeholders. People with a governance interest in your content, such as Compliance, Product, and Brand. All review the content, and some may have an input into its creation. Stakeholder reviews inevitably lead to amends. Traction. A fancy word for response. As in: We want to see how much traction this first ebook gets, then well decide whether to do another one. Wash-up. A meeting where the work is reviewed after its gone live. You may not be asked to attend this, but you may hear feedback from it thats useful for your next commission. When interrogating a brief (as marketers like to say) you can inspire confidence

Thursday, November 21, 2019

HR Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

HR - Essay Example But, if you try to please everyone by doling out good reports, your seniors might question your judgment and ability to differentiate between good and bad workers. Therefore, most of the initiating officers tend to take the performance appraisal process as a millstone round their necks. 2. Definition Wikipedia (2011) described performance appraisal as a systematic method of evaluating an individual’s on the job performance against pre-determined standards and his/her potential for the future responsibilities usually by his supervisors or managers. 3. Purposes of Performance Appraisal One may count as many as twelve purposes of performance appraisal; however, the most basic is to provide information about job performance. Following are the important purposes of performance appraisal:- 3.1 Basic Purpose. The basic purpose of performance appraisal is to get information about how people are doing their jobs and find the problems affecting the overall performance of individuals (Mu rphy & Margulies 2004). 3.2 Judgmental Purposes In judgmental perspective, performance appraisal may provide a basis for reward allocation, identification of high performance/high potential individuals and low performance/low potential individuals. ... 4. Benefits The process of performance appraisal helps both the managers and the workers by providing employees an opportunity to indicate the direction and level of their ambitions. It induces leaders to take interest in their subordinates’ development which in turn becomes a motivation tool in helping the organization to retain the ambitious and capable personnel instead of losing them to the competitors. It identifies areas where specific training is needed, desired, or available. Performance appraisal can be used as a motivational and encouragement tool for employees who have been trying to perform well (Rao 2004). Performance appraisal is also a means for communicating and documenting dissatisfaction in respect of unacceptable employee performance. It provides a reliable basis for making a myriad of organizational decisions concerning promotions, deputation, rewards, postings at key appointments, etc. 5. Process for Performance Appraisal Since a good report can qualify th e individual for more important responsibilities, more rewarding assignments and promotion to higher ranks, therefore, a development plan should be preferably tailor made for each employee. In general way, a development plan should include the following steps:- 5.1 Analyze Job Duties and Responsibilities Job duties and responsibilities should be clearly spelled out and be available in written form for the benefit of the organization as well as the individual (Elizabeth et al. 2006). 5.2 Establish Standards of Job Performance Standards of performance for each job should be established and known to both initiating officer and the subordinate (Ziagon