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IABC/Washington

Why LinkedIn Is No Longer Optional

by Daria Steigman on January 24, 2013

LinkedIn logo on blue surfaceThe other day I was looking for insights into a few people I was scheduled to meet. Do you know where I turned first? Not a company Web site. Not Facebook. Not Google Search.

I started with LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is no longer optional. It’s a must for any business professional.

Here are three reasons to make sure your profile is up to date and ready for prime time:

1. A glimpse of the real you (more or less). While a corporate bio is likely to have been written and rewritten by sales or marketing folks, most LinkedIn profiles have been developed by the individual. I get to see what you think is important to know about your background and expertise. I get to figure out if you are business smart or just good at resume cut and paste.

2. A search for connections. LinkedIn’s core function is to draw lines between and among people, but the real connections are shared skills, shared interests, and shared opportunities. One reason I look first at LinkedIn is to understand not just who we might know in common but also whether there are tangential linkages I can tap (e.g., universities, past jobs or job responsibilities, places we’ve lived).

3. Opportunities abound. Executive recruiters who spoke at a recent IABC/Washington meeting said that LinkedIn is the first place they look for prospects. The first place. While you might not be job-hunting, chances are you are looking for customers, clients, colleagues, partners, or vendors.

Recruiters are searching for you. Prospects are scrutinizing you.

If you’re in certain professions and you’re not on LinkedIn, then I wonder why. If you’re using it but you don’t have a photo, or your information is old or incomplete, then my advice would be to fix that right now.

What’s your experience? How do you use LinkedIn?

Photo by Coletivo Mambembe (Flickr).

Have you grabbed a free copy of Your Social Media Checklist? Download it today to get 9 tips for being findable and attracting the right customers for your business.

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Diversity Isn’t a Box You Check Off

by Daria Steigman on September 24, 2012

Kaleidoscope of ColorsSports reporter Stephen A. Smith once commented that Golf Week’s ill-conceived cover about Tiger Woods would never have happened had there been any diversity in the newsroom. (Of course, that still doesn’t answer  the “what were they thinking?” question.)

I’ve always thought Smith was dead-on, and I was reminded of his comments when I read Anil Dash’s thought-provoking post, Racist Culture is a Factory Defect. In it he writes:

“Too often, we fall back on the simple, lazy statement of accusing a company or institution of being racist, instead of assuming the best of the individuals within it and assuming that the inefficiencies and injustices within that organization resulted in its worst traits being demonstrated.”

I bring this up today because almost no one attended “Communicating Across Differences: Leveraging Diversity,” a program  organized recently by IABC/Washington. One colleague said later that he wasn’t surprised because it’s not a terribly exciting topic.

You ignore diversity at your peril.

During the IABC panel discussion, the speakers talked about three things I think are really important:

  • The “average U.S. consumer” no longer exists. (It never really did, but advertisers used to typically market to a generic Jack and Jill Consumer.)
  • You are not your audience.
  • You have to recognize your own filters and biases–and when to trust them (and when to challenge them).

Businesses (and people) are rarely racist. Yet the lens by which we filter the world often leads to ill-conceived messaging and unintended consequences.

Workplace diversity isn’t a box to check off on your corporate scorecard. It’s about who you hire, and who you listen to and engage with, and your values, and how what you’re doing can either derail your best intentions or help you achieve your business goals.

Photo by Sanjay Kumar (Flickr).

Have you grabbed a free copy of Your Social Media Checklist? Download it today to get 9 tips for being findable and attracting the right customers for your business.

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3 Rules for Great Presentations

by Daria Steigman on May 14, 2012

All the World's a StageAnyone who has sat through a bad presentation knows what can go wrong. Maybe the speaker rambled on, or he spoke in a monotone. Maybe he read slide after slide. Or he punctuated every third word with an “er” an “um” or a “like.”

When your presentation sucks, it is about you. Make it about your story instead.

At an IABC/Washington meeting last week, John Gundlach said that most presentations fall flat because people spend all their time preparing and almost no time practicing. His rule of thumb: 60 percent preparation, 40 percent practice. In other words, if you are giving a speech (or drafting a presentation for your boss, a colleague, or someone else to give), you need to schedule in plenty of time for rehearsals.

Gundlach discussed the three principles of great presentations:

1. Preparation–Good presentations are about both the content and how you tell the story (which is also where “practice, practice, practice” comes in).

2. Performance–The most important element of any presentation is the presenter, so it’s important that you “engage the audience, be real, act confidently, and be in the moment.” Gundlach cited statistics to back up his point: the audience pays only minor attention to your words (7 percent); the bulk of the focus is on tone (38 percent) and your visual look (55 percent).

3. Persuasion–A presentation is a transfer of emotion, so it’s important that you bring your passion in order to engage your audience. Gundlach suggested that it’s useful to network beforehand so that you’re formed  personal bonds before you take the stage. (It also makes you human and approachable, which is certainly something I appreciate in a speaker.)

What have you learned from sitting through good (and bad) presentations?

Photo by Jon-Eric Melsaeter (Flickr).

Have you grabbed a free copy of Your Social Media Checklist? Download it today to get 9 tips for being findable and attracting the right customers for your business.

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7 Digital Trends to Watch in 2012

by Daria Steigman on January 17, 2012

Daria Steigman & Dan Horowitz on IABC/Washington's Digital Trends 2012 Panel

From l-r: Steve Radick, Dan Horowitz, Daria Steigman, and Rick Dunham

Integration, mobile, and consolidation were all topics under discussion at the January 12 IABC/Washington panel on trends in digital communications.

Here are my top seven takeaways:

1. Silos will start to fall. According to Steve Radick of Booz Allen Hamilton’s Digital Strategy and Social Media Practice, government agencies will better integrate their social media initiatives. He noted, in particular, that people are starting to understand the disconnects that happen when customer service is not integrated.

2. Government social media will be in “wait and see” mode. Radick said not to expect a lot of big Government 2.0 initiatives. He suggested that most agencies will be in waiting mode during this election year.

3. Companies will start to clean up their act. Dan Horowitz of Fleishman-Hillard’s Digital Group and Social Media Practice pointed to a new Altimeter report that found that large companies have an average of 178 corporate-owned social media accounts. In 2012, he said, they will consolidate and coordinate better–which involves, of course, aggregating efforts via smart tools (e.g., Buddy Press).

4. Social media reaches maturation. Horowitz pointed to Forrester’s just-released research on social media adoption that found that 86 percent of adults who use the Internet use social media.

5. The press release is dead. Okay, Rick Dunham, Washington Bureau Chief of the Houston Chronicle and chief author of the Texas on the Potomac blog, didn’t really say this. But he did say that he’s relying more and more on Twitter search and other social media to discover trending stories and breaking news–and to get ideas for news stories–and not so much on press releases.

Plus two trends from my remarks:

6. Mobile has arrived. eMarketer estimates that there will be 113.9 million mobile Internet users in 2012–an increase of 17.1 percent from 2011. This includes 72.8 million mobile shoppers and 37.5 million mobile buyers. This means that every business–large and small–needs to have a mobile strategy.

7. “Find-ability” will be more important than ever. With Google rolling out “Search Plus Your World,” having a solid content marketing strategy (and quality content) will be more important than ever. Businesses that are still relying on static, corporate-brochure-type Web sites will be left in the dust.

Bonus Trend: Platforms. I just read Phil Simon’s The Age of the Platform (review coming soon), and I haven’t really had a chance to sit down and think through how small businesses will be able to take advantage of what he calls “extremely valuable and powerful ecosystems” (think Amazon or Apple) that allow you to scale, morph, and bring in partners, users, vendors, and so forth. While the business concept may not be new, technology has made doing this very different. I think Simon’s on to something. This is one emerging trend to watch.

Agree with these trends? Disagree? Think something’s being over-hyped? Please weigh in below.

Photo courtesy of Capitol Communicator.

Have you grabbed a free copy of Your Social Media Checklist? Download it today to get 9 tips for being findable and attracting the right customers for your business.

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What’s Trending in the Digital Space?

by Daria Steigman on January 9, 2012

ditigal, 2012 trends, communications, IABCWeb 2.0 was so last year. Or last decade.

Either way, we’re moving on.

So what’s going to be trending in the digital space moving forward?

If you’re in the D.C. region, join me and my fellow panelists for an IABC/Washington breakfast meeting on January 12 as we discuss trends in digital communications.

I’ll be joined on the panel by Dan Horowitz of Fleishman-Hillard’s Digital Group; Steve Radick of Booz Allen Hamilton’s Digital Strategy and Social Media Practice; and Rick Dunham, Washington Bureau Chief of the Houston Chronicle and chief author of the Texas on the Potomac blog.

This should be  fun. If you’re in the Washington area, please do join us.

Photo by Rosaura Ochoa (Flickr).

Have you grabbed a free copy of Your Social Media Checklist? Download it today to get 9 tips for being findable and attracting the right customers for your business.

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