?? 21 Business Card Mistakes Too Many People Make

?? 21 Business Card Mistakes Too Many People Make 196 Luckily, it's not hard to avoid these blunders. Photo by Ben White This is a guest post by Bill Post. How can you make sure that your business card is the most effective tool that it can be? By avoiding these errors. Do you have your own business cards right now? Yes No View Results Business card blunders you don't want to make 1) Vague personal branding Someone reading your card should immediately be able to tell what kind of work you do. 2) Unsuitable business card style If you are in a conservative industry, such as law or finance, you'll want a simple white business card with black ink, raised lettering, and very little, if any, color. If you are a graphic designer, though, you may want something more creative. 3) Personal logo abuse If you have a personal logo on your resume, it should be on your business cards â€" everything should match. However, don't make the logo over-sized. Keep it understated, so that you have room for your contact information and don't need to print your phone number and address in print so tiny that your contact with need a magnifying glass to read it. 4) Putting a photo of yourself on your business card Unless you are an actor or are trying to get a job as a network news anchor, or are in some other business where your face is part of what you are trying to sell. Otherwise, the photo just makes the card look schmaltzy. 5) Gimmicks Don't add a gimmick to your card without a good reason. These days, everyone wants to stand out by producing a business card that is different and unique (like one that uses augmented reality). But when it comes to business cards, unless you have a special, business-related reason for making your business card different (i.e., you are a professional magician and your business card is embedded with a hologram), a traditional card is best. Why? Ultimately a business card is a tool â€" it's meant to provide information that you hope will end up in someone's rolodex (or the equivalent). Don't let your desire to make your card different pull you away from the purpose of a business card. 6) Non-traditional sizes or formats I've heard of people handing out chocolate business cards. Kudos for creativity, but do you think a chocolate card is going in the rolodex? My guess is that it will become a mid-afternoon snack! Cards in various non-traditional sizes are also unlikely to make it into a rolodex â€" they just don't fit. Do you want to force your new contact to copy your information onto a rolodex card? The one exception to this rule is the folding business card, which is the traditional size when it is folded. 7) Leaving off important contact information I realize that privacy is important, but make sure that your business card contains all the potential ways that a contact might want to try to reach you. Don't limit your contact information to an address and phone number. Include your email address, your IM/Skype handle, your website, and any social media contact information (such as Twitter and Facebook usernames) that a contact might want to use to reach or find out more about you. 8) Making important contact information too hard to read Use a readable font that is printed in as large a size as you can reasonably fit on the card. Don't make your visual elements so large that you don't have room to add legible text. 9) Making important contact information too hard to find Your contact may never look at the back of your card â€" if you must put something there, make it your personal logo, an inspirational quotation, a testimonial or two, or something else appropriate to your profession or industry. For example, if you are a chef, you might be able to put a very simple menu or recipe on the back of a card. 10) Handwriting changes of contact information on old cards Make sure you have new ones with the new information clearly noted. Otherwise, you create the impression that you are someone who tends to procrastinate â€" even about updating your own business cards! 11) Forgetting your business cards at home If you are not used to carrying a business card, this may be the biggest obstacle you have to overcome. Get yourself a nice business card case to hold your cards and put it next to your wallet and keys, or in your briefcase or bag, so that you won't forget to bring your cards along to your next networking event, job fair or professional conference. 12) Keeping business cards in your wallet Cards in a wallet tend to get rumpled and smudged, and there is always the chance that you'll drop the contents of your wallet all over the floor while struggling to extricate a business card that got wedged behind your driver's license. That won't make a smooth impression. 13) Choosing the wrong situation to give out a card Be sensitive about when you choose to give out your business card. Of course, do give your card to anyone who asks for it, to anyone who requests your contact information, or to anyone who asks for information about your profession or industry. Equally obviously, don't give out your card at funerals or weddings, meetings with your child's teachers (unless you are specifically asked e.g. by a teacher who wants you to be a volunteer speaker for the class), at doctor's appointments, or in any other potentially uncomfortable situation. You must also be sensitive to the kind of interest that is expressed in social situations â€" someone who asks you at a party what you do is better responded to conversationally, not by digging out your business card. In fact, as a general rule, don't give out your business card in personal social situations unless you are asked for it, but do feel free to give out your card at professional conferences and networking events. 14) Choosing the wrong time to give out a card Don't give your card at the beginning of a meeting or event. This is one of those subtle things, but it is important. It gives the impression of arrogance if you toss a card at someone you've just met. If you at least wait to exchange cards until you've spent some time together, it will feel more natural, as if you're giving a new friend a way to reach you rather than trying to make a sales pitch (and while we are on the subject â€" never, ever, make a sales pitch while handing someone your business card). Handing out business cards is a delicate situation â€" one that requires a good grasp of the finer points of business etiquette. If you feel totally at sea, don't hesitate to take a class or read a good book on business etiquette to help you to get a feel for it. It's well worth your time to do so. 15) Being culturally insensitive with your cards In some cultures, it matters what hand you use to give out business cards â€" always use your right hand, if you are using just one hand. However, in Asian cultures, it is polite to use both hands to present your business card. If you are meeting potential employers or contacts in an international context, look up the guidelines for presenting and receiving business cards in the country where you will be. If you will be spending time in a country where the dominant language is not your own, have your business cards printed double-sided, with one language on one side and one on the other. 16) Giving out cards wildly It is important to not paper the community with your business cards. You are better off handing out cards to a few quality contacts who really plan to get in touch with you again, than giving them out willy-nilly to many people you have just met, who may have no real interest in contacting you again in the future. 17) Being stingy with your cards Yet- if you are in a group of people, and are offering your business card to one person, offer it to the entire group. Otherwise, the other people in the group may feel deliberately excluded. 18) Not handing out your cards at all Amazingly enough, many people order business cards, and end up with a professional, beautifully printed card that they keep in their briefcase or on a shelf. What a waste of money â€" and of a potential marketing tool! No business card is going to end up in a contact's rolodex if you don't hand that card out at every opportunity. 19) Forgetting to get the card from the person to whom you just gave yours If you don't ask for a card from someone who has just asked for yours, you give the impression that you are not as interested in this person as he or she is in you. 20) Writing on the business card that was just handed to you It will seem as though you are defacing their card. Treat all business cards, including your own, as though they are pieces of gold. If you face a situation where the only paper on which to write is a contact's card or your own, write on the back of one of your own cards. 21) Giving out business cards with wrong information Nailed it: Bonus tip! Give close friends and colleagues several of your business cards, which they can then use to refer people to you. About the author Bill Post, Small Business Research Analyst, has been providing research on issues of concern to small businesses for 123Print.com Business Card Design for three years. A former business owner prior to his involvement with 123Print Custom Business Cards, Bill spent several years after receiving his degree in the fast-paced corporate world before going out on his own to provide marketing and branding services to other small businesses in the Washington, DC metro area. READ NEXT: 37 Ideas to Grow Your Job Search Network Right Now

The Guide to Twitter Advertising for Recruiters

The Guide to Twitter Advertising for Recruiters Twitter is a useful channel for recruiters, employers and talent to interact on an informal and real-time basis. Plenty of large  companies tweet job openings, but how can you make sure you reach the right  people? One way is of course advertising. How do you advertise on Twitter with the best results? I recently had a chat with Linda Bolg,  Head of Marketing at Audiense, an end-to-end marketing campaign management solution for Twitter. Have a listen to the audio podcast on  Soundcloud  and be sure to subscribe to the Employer Branding Podcast.  Questions by me, answers by Linda. Why should we advertise on Twitter? There are really three very clear reasons why Twitter is a good place to reach a target audience. The first one is definitely the data available or the insights. So its basically the sheer richness of the data thats available to brands. So in contrast to Facebook, for example, which is a closed social network, Twitter is open. And most Twitter users have a public profile. So what they say is publicly available. If you combine Twitter with a Twitter marketing platform, which offers really deep segmentation and targeting, you can find out things such as obviously target audience  demographics, location and language, but also more importantly you can look at what they are talking about. And this makes Twitter very, very powerful because you can do segmentation based on the discussion people are having about your brand, about your competitor, about a particular topic, if you are doing real-time. So that makes it exciting and very different from Facebook or other platforms. The other thing I would say is the real-time capabilities. Twitter is, without a doubt, one of the best real-time marketing platforms. So whether thats through organic tweets or Twitter ads, it is also the best platform for aggregated real-time content. So if youre doing Twitter ads and you choose to have your Twitter-promoted tweets to show up in your timeline and people are coming to Twitter to look for real-time events, that is incredibly powerful, too. How do you optimise a campaign? The best advice I can give is to use the tailored audience campaign option. The tailored audience campaign setting within the Twitter advertising platform allows you to build your own bespoke lists that you want to create your campaign for. And if you are using a Twitter marketing platform where you can do the deep segmentation, you can create super tailored lists and then you can have really creative ads that fit really, really well with your niche lists. And that is how you get great ROI, really targeted campaigns. The other thing I would say is to make sure that youre using your objective-based campaigns right within the Twitter ads platform. There are a few different options, so really think about what it is that youre trying to achieve. Is it driving leads? Is it driving website traffic? Is it downloads of something? Make sure you picked the right objective-based campaign within the platform. Something which is fairly new to the platform is the user transaction values data. If youre an e-commerce business and youre selling products online, its similar to Google Analytics. So think about the goals in Google Analytics. It works the same way, but you can add the actual value to each goal so you can see the ROI within the platform for each campaign, which is really good. Another thing Id say is experiment with your bid price particularly if you are targeting Twitter users in different regions and in different countries. The Twitter advertising platform isnt available in all countries yet, but you can still target users within all countries if you are account managed by Twitter. So test, experiment with your bid pricing. If its not a real-time campaign and your content for your tweet is more evergreen, you could, for example, lower your price, leave it running for a little bit longer and just see how that works out for your ROI. Id definitely also recommend that you think about what kind of users that you could be targeting and what devices. If youre an app developer, for example, for Android, Id say target Android users, but dont target the other ones. If you, for example, havent got a mobile-ready website, which you should have these days, but if you havent, dont go after the users that are using Twitter on mobile. You have those options, so make sure you select what will work for your campaign. And I think absolutely the most important thing is that you keep on testing. Test, have at least three tweets with different creatives, with different copy in each campaign. Make sure that youre testing different lists, test different messaging, and just keep on testing, and you will find what works for you. RELATED: Twitter Keyword Targeting: How Will It Help Recruiters? Connect with Linda on Twitter @LindaBolg  and  and be sure to subscribe to the Employer Branding Podcast.

How Content Marketing Can Help Your Brand Visibility - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

How Content Marketing Can Help Your Brand Visibility - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career When building a personal brand it can be a challenge in gaining greater visibility online. One way to overcome this is through fresh and remarkable content. This not only opens the door to new subscribers, but it also builds credibility online. Blogging is still important to your marketing strategy, and the power of creating content your audience and search engines will love has not changed. Your brands articles should begin with a targeted message that reflects the needs and desires of your audience. How you respond to these is important for building relationships. Professional content depends on offering something that is helpful and original, including great images and videos in the mix. In what ways can your brand attract new readers with content? Ideas can include helpful tips, tools, how-to information, ect. Blogging for your personal brand is a process cultivated over time, and consists of a combination of quality articles that you can offer to people as a trusted source. Cross promotion on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, Pinterest, and LinkedIn will also help draw more attention. Build an attractive content marketing strategy There are several steps you can take when publishing ‘sticky’ content for your personal brand. Stay focused on your mission statement Write according to your particular niche and brand values. Anything outside of this could cause your message to fall flat, and not be taken seriously. There are those special times when an important event or holiday is taking place, but overall your content needs to relate directly to the audience you serve. Generate topic ideas Discover whats already been written about in your market, and then create your brand’s own original spin. This could even include a product or service that is unique to your brand that the competition doesnt offer. This can also help you generate new ideas for more content later on. Create a mix of content Go beyond just text, and add interactive images and videos. Readers are especially drawn to infographics, which can easily be curated from previously content on your blog. Work with guest bloggers Your brand does not have to come up with all of your winning ideas alone. Consider working with another blogger or hire a freelance to help you create targeted articles related to your industry. Taking the time to build your personal brand’s content marketing strategy will not only create a more trusted, and reputable persona, but also open the door for new opportunities, with greater visibility that eventually will lead your company to better conversions.

5 Ways to Ace an Interview with a Bare-Bones Resume

5 Ways to Ace an Interview with a Bare-Bones Resume Sponsored article by  Criteria Corp.    JobFlare. Not everyone has the luxury of a long resume to power them through the interview process. New college graduates or people switching fields may find themselves at a loss when they think about just how they’ll compete against industry veterans. The good news is that many industries, particularly the fast-moving tech sector, are no longer just looking at length or depth of resumes to select people. HR managers have discovered that various sets of soft skills are key indicators of a person’s potential, and when you’re looking at hiring for long-term growth, potential can mean much more than bullet points on a resume. Thus, the big question remains: how do you demonstrate your potential in an interview? Experience is easy to convey; you simply list items and cite examples. But potential is much less tangible, and many people might feel lost trying to quantify such a thing. Fortunately, research in cognitive abilities have identified key traits and qualities that many HR staffers have been trained to spot. These include: 1. Active listening Regardless of technical skill or industry, effective communication is a major part of getting the job done, and active listening is the foundation of strong communication. Active listening is, by definition, simple: the clear demonstration that the listener is paying attention and picking up all significant details in a conversation. For new hires, this is particularly important, as they will be taking direction and learning lessons from many different sources. As a person moves up a career path, this becomes vital in a different way: as someone assumes a leadership role, they will need to be able to take input from people above and below to make educated, informed decisions. Gathering all of these viewpoints is only possible with active listening. Interview Tip: Face the speaker, use body language to show understanding, ask appropriate questions, and never interrupt with unsolicited opinions. 2. Learning ability In your first year on the job, you’ll be learning a lot of things, from day-to-day processes to project schedules to people’s personalities and quirks. The ability to absorb that information quickly and accurately is critical in any position. Outside of the first year on the job, it also lends itself to an upwardly mobile career path, as those who learn quickly are more versatile and can apply themselves to a larger variety of situations. Chances are, if you’ve made it to the interview stage despite a thin resume, that means that the hiring managers believe in your learning ability. Thus, your goal should be to reinforce this belief as much as possible during the interview. Interview Tip: Weave in anecdotes of when you had to pick up new skills or abilities quickly, both professionally and personally. 3. Problem solving Problem solving is one of the cornerstones of strong cognitive ability due to its combination of other traits: it requires logical thinking, active listening, teamwork, and strong situational awareness. On the job, an employee with sharp problem-solving abilities is able to work independently and can handle challenging situations. Strong problem solvers are gold for hiring managers because they allow for flexibility across departments while bringing senior-level potential. Interview Tip: Prepare stories of severe challenges you’ve faced professionally and personally, along with clear paths to resolution and results. 4. Creativity Most people associate the arts with the word “creativity,” but being creative is an asset in any field. Creativity simply means thinking outside of the box and innovating in new and different ways. That type of mental flexibility is highly prized among hiring managers because it means that youre adaptable in extreme or unfamiliar circumstances. Not only does this generate previously unheard-of solutions, it allows companies to think of the bigger picture. By tapping into creativity on both process and product, companies can become industry leaders that push new ideas forward and in many cases, hiring managers specifically seek to recruit creative people  by bringing in “new blood” who can provide a different perspective. Interview Tip: Research the companys past and future projects and generate unique solutions to processes and known criticisms. 5. What not  to do The above four tips are excellent ways to demonstrate your value even when your overall experience is light. However, one overarching tip applies to all of those: use common sense. Dont try too hard to force a narrative into the discussion, dont use subversively insulting comments when talking about the company or product even when youre showing a potentially creative solution to an issue and absolutely always be polite. Whether you come in with a long resume or a strong set of soft skills or both, these assets can quickly be subverted by coming off as arrogant or unlikable and that is a trap you can fall into if you try too hard to demonstrate your cognitive abilities or best traits. Instead, practice with friends and colleagues ahead of time and work on being natural in a high-stress environment. Not only will this help you feel more comfortable in the interview, it will also translate into how hiring managers perceive your personality. In short, its a win-win that cant be quantified on paper. Josh Millet  is the CEO Founder of  Criteria Corp., a pre-employment testing company founded in 2006 that creates software for employers to gather objective data on job candidates with aptitude, personality, and skills tests. He is also the Founder of  JobFlare, a mobile app that helps job seekers get discovered based on their abilities rather than their resume.

The Benefits of Workplace Flexibility

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LinkedIn Summary Domination - CareerEnlightenment.com

The Jim Nudelman methodSome of the best advice anywhere is that provided by Jim Nudelman. He’s a professional speaker and sales trainer based in Portland, Oregon, and Jim knows how to capitalize on the window of opportunity to create a good impression. Here is his four-step process for putting your “value statement” in your LinkedIn summary.Start with an action-plan statement, and don’t just list your job title. Instead, describe what it is that you do.Follow that with one sentence about what you do.Describe specifically the effect or impact of your service.Wrap it up with a call-to-action note.You can see more details and examples of Nudelman’s method in THIS VIDEO on the topic. Work over your summary and follow Nudelman’s advice for a truly effective summary that will work in under ten seconds.If you have only a few seconds, make them count!

How to Write a Profile Summary For Resume

How to Write a Profile Summary For ResumeWriting a profile summary for resume is not something that should be left for someone else to complete. This can be the most time consuming part of applying for jobs. Unless you have a few hundred dollars to spare, most applicants only have the assistance of their family and friends to help them with this part of the application process. If you are a new graduate, chances are, you do not have a friend who has been employed in the same field for many years.Writing a profile summary for resume can be more daunting than it seems. This is because there are lots of details of a person involved. People can make it look more difficult when in reality, it is fairly easy once you get started.The first and most important factor is the information you give on your resume. You will need to write about how long you have been employed, what your job title is, and so on. After doing this, you will want to have an outline of all the positions you have held. Y ou can start off by listing the job title that you have held and followed by listing all the positions.In addition to this, you will also need to include your work history, such as your dates of employment, names of supervisors, dates of hire, and other personal information. These will serve as examples to the employer when it comes to hiring you. It is important to include as much information as possible because if you do not include enough information, then the employer will have no idea of your abilities.One major problem you will have when it comes to writing a profile summary for resume is keeping it within the constraints of the limited time allotted. The best way to deal with this is to focus on one section at a time. For example, if you are writing about positions held before the current job, you may want to begin with a summary about that position. After this, you will want to have a look at the list of positions for which you are applying.After this, you will want to list all the positions you have held within the past. Following this, you will need to put your education and your professional activities. By doing this, you will be able to write a profile for resume that contains all the information that the employer is looking for.Last but not least, make sure that your resume is structured correctly. It is important to create a resume in a format that will be easy to read. The format of your resume should be logical and based on the job that you are applying for. Most employers these days take into account the content of the resume when deciding whether to interview you or not.With these tips, you will be able to understand how to write a resume that will help you get your application noticed. So when you are done, you will know how to prepare for your next big move.