Student's Guide to LinkedIn: 4 Things to Know

The following article was recently featured on LinkedIn.

You may have heard about LinkedIn and wondered whether it was for you.  As a student, particularly a high school student or in the early years of your college journey, you might wonder if the time is right to join this network or wait until you have more experience or your diploma and are looking to start a your professional career.  Here are some thoughts to consider.

1. You are starting your career now

The skills you are learning and the relationships you are building now, will be important later as well, so don’t wait.

2. Join LinkedIn

It is the world’s largest professional social media network at 380 million users.  A new member joins every 2 seconds.  Go ahead and list your school, major activities or awards, service organizations for which you volunteer, and list your title as “Student” (unless you want to get creative and you want to be an “Academic Technician” or “An Agent of Change”).  You’re your profile professional and focused on academic or professional work, not your preference in music or your summer vacation plans (there are other networks for that).  List out your skills and experience so others can endorse you.  Don’t forget to list entrepreneurial activities as well.  Your profile is 11x more likely to get viewed with a photo and 13x more likely to be viewed when you list skills.

And remember, it is editable, so things that are important for you to highlight today might not always be, so plan to curate your profile regularly to make sure the most important things are highlighted there.

Like any social network, don’t give out your personal information too broadly.  Things like your personal email address and the like can be hidden.  You can choose to use your first name and last initial until you are more comfortable with the system.  You should include a picture, if you are comfortable, but make sure it is professional (like a school photo or one taken when you were giving a speech or working in a lab, instead of one taking on a jet ski or at the football game).  You must make wise decisions regarding your own privacy, of course, and those are very personal decisions that you should consider with your parents and trusted advisors.

3. Connect

The whole point of a social network is to, well, network.  Start by sending LinkedIn requests to your teacher or professors.  Invite fellow career-minded classmates.  Invite your mentors and adult friends that know you well.

4. Be generous

There are several features on LinkedIn that all you to participate in a generous way, as you learn the ropes.   

First off, you can read the news feed of those you follow and like or comment on their news.  Congratulate someone on a new job or major project completion.  Comment thoughtfully and supportively on a published article.

Second, you can endorse the people you are connected to for their skills.  A few endorsements per person is appropriate. 

Thirdly, you can write recommendation notes.  Read what others have written and you can add your own.  Remember that these will likely live on the site for years to come, so keep them professionally worded and highlight transferable skills.  For instance, when writing a recommendation for a friend who was the yearbook editor, you can mention that project, but then say how you appreciated their attention to details and deadlines and how they modeled teamwork.  Those are things that future employers officers might be interested in, after all.

If you start supporting, endorsing, and recommending others, you will find that they will do the same for you and your profile and network will grow.

This article was posted on the Saturday Academy website. 

Action Creates Opportunity

We often think that opportunity creates action.  We will do something great once some external condition is met.  But the opposite is true.  Action creates opportunity.  Start making movement and see your goals easier to achieve.

"MARKETING MARKETING" ARTICLE FEATURED ON RAVE

“Marketing Marketing” was featured in a recent rAVe newsletter to the ProAV industry.

Digital Display Advertising in the Data Analytics Age

Jennifer joins Glenn Gow, CEO of Crimson Marketing, for an interview entitled "Digital Display Advertising in the Data Analytics Age" on their podcast series "Moneyball for Marketing."  Jennifer talked about the need to build trust with customers, while partnering with sales and measuring results for maximum impact.

Out of the Box Thinking

Trying to think out of the box is like navigating a star field.  It is hard to avoid the next box in the galaxy.

Call Me, Maybe: How come no one talks on the phone any more?

“Mr. Watson – Come here – I want to see you.”  These were the words spoken by Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, when he made his first call on March 10, 1876. 

If Mr. Bell had available to him all the various communications technologies available today, what would he have used?

Perhaps he would have buzzed off a text, Snapchat, or WhatsApp with the phrase “W - come here. I want 2 C U.”  It might have included a pin on a map to his exact location.  He would have thrown in an emoticon or Emoji that expressed his current mood.  

Or if he wanted to replicate the effect of multiple people listening in on the call (see photo above), then he might have posted it on social media.  “Come here, @MyDearMrWatson. Your ninja assistant skillz are needed” he would have tweeted.  Perhaps a selfie and the caption “See what you are missing? #ComeOnOver” would have posted to Instagram or Facebook. 

Or perhaps we would have just said “Siri, find Watson.”

There are five main factors that have impacted my use of the phone the last few years, causing me to use the phone less:

1.       Asynchronous communication:  In our 24x7 bustle of business today, it is impossible to assume that people will be available for a conversation at the same time.  This is further complicated if you want to get more than two parties in conference.  Emails will wait until people are available.  Even the more immediate text messages will hold until people can read and respond.  

2.       Mobility:  The rise of the text is in direct proportion to the rise of mobility.  People aren’t looking at emails on their desktop, they aren’t talking on the phones (which are increasingly awkward for phone conversations without a Bluetooth headset), but rather they are looking at small screens and wanting to respond efficiently, often while doing something else.  These factors combine to make text (or the close equivalent of audio or video text) the best option. 

3.       Record Keeping:  Unless recorded, phone conversations are poor for record keeping.  Emails, and even texts, can provide a “paper trail” as things need to be referenced (i.e., What day did I say I would come back with a proposal?) or researched (i.e., What pricing did Bill commit to?).  And what is better for documentation than a photograph, which have forever changed the kind of communications we are doing.

4.       Beyond Audio: Photos on Instagram or Super, videos on YouTube, Vine, Meerkat, FaceTime, or the use of hashtags in multiple formats to allow for searching and categorization – all of these new technologies go beyond simple audio to give a richer experience.  In our experience, a growing number of Planar desktop monitors come with integrated web cameras for precisely this reason.  If a pictures is worth a 1,000 words, then a picture is work a 7.7 minute voice mail (at a typical reading cadence).

5.       Voice Mails (from Hell):  I am not a fan of the audio message or voice mail.  It is slow and no one is very good at it (leaving messages, listening to messages, the whole process).  We include too many details, rambling on and boring our recipient.  Or we leave our critical information (like a return phone number that can be clearly heard).   As a marketing executive, I am convinced I am on every mailing list in the hemisphere and get dozens of voice mails each day, so perhaps I am particularly jaded, but there is no denying that it is faster to read a text or an email than it is to listen to the same recorded in voice mail.  

All of these speak to an over-arching trend and that is the pace of business life.  Mr. Bell’s message was surprisingly urgent for its day.  In 1876, nearly everything could wait.  It had to.  But today we can’t tolerate a delay and we want instant answers to our questions, so that we can provide instant answers to our customers.

By 1915, Bell had finished the first transcontinental phone line.  He picked up the line in New York and told Watson to come there, repeating his line from 30 years earlier.  Watson, who was sitting in San Francisco, joked that he would come in a week before they’d be face-to-face.  I guess even these pioneers of telephony would have preferred Skype.

Yes, And

Responding to a new idea or engaging in conversation with "Yes, and..." is better than the alternative "No, but..."

The former opens people up to change and possibility.  The second puts them on the defensive and shuts down the conversation and collaboration.

Try not to use the word "but" today and see what subtle changes occur in your relationships.

Ideas vs Opportunities

In her book, You Can Kill an Idea, But You Can't Kill an Opportunity author and consultant, Pam Henderson, contrasts ideas to business opportunities and creates a framework for exploring and developing opportunities.  In her vernacular, ideas are the proverbial shiny objects that are tactical in nature and might distract an organization from the real opportunities before them.

As a bit of an "idea factory" myself I do find it important to keep the business goals ever present.  After all, creativity can be waste, unless the unique and original ideas are valuable to your customers or lead your organization forward.

"5 Things" Article Featured on rAVe

"Five Things Everyone Should Know How to Do" was featured in a recent rAVe newsletter to the ProAV industry.

Human Nature Explained

No one speculates that anything good is going on.  This is namely because we each judge ourselves according to our intentions and we judge others according to their behavior.  And the more authority a person has the more the "magnification effect" is at play, making each simple or harmless behavior take on new (and often sinister) meaning.  It's human nature. 

Be bigger than your human nature.  Choose to be generous with your explanations and clarify or confirm with people directly. It will save you hours of speculation and add years to your life.

How to Run a More Effective Meeting

Work, at least in a lot of business, happens in meetings.  Because of the time spent, opportunity cost of those hours, and the types of decisions made in those meeting, making them more effective can have a huge impact on the overall success of the company.

In his book Traction, Gino Wickman outlines the basic of a Level 10 meeting.  See video to learn more about how it works and how to apply it to your next meeting.

AMA PDX Guest Blog Post: Y is for You: What Google's Alphabet and Personal Branding

The Portland chapter of the American Marketing Association is featuring Jennifer Davis' guest blog entitled "Y is for You: What Google's Alphabet Teaches Us About Personal Branding."

Morning Mantra

Guest Editorial on rAVe HomeAV Edition

Jennifer's article on the "Five Things Everyone Should Know How to Do" was featured as a guest editorial on rAVe's HomeAV Edition on August 13th.  This email is distributed twice a month to professionals in consumer electronics, audio-visual equipment, and technology spaces.  Find the article here.

Y is for You: Google's Alphabet and Personal Branding

I read with interest the restructuring announcements from Google this week, as they rebrand the parent company into Alphabet, building out the letters with innovative products and business models - starting with “G” for Google, which remains a wholly-owned subsidiary.  It’s a bold move for a company that doesn’t want to be conventional.

This got me thinking about our own personal branding efforts and how we can apply Google's bold lessons to our own career paths.  

1. Your past is only part of your story

Google is known for search and related properties, but the management team saw that strong association as a strength of Google (the products) and a limitation to Google (the company).  Making that same distinction between what you do and who you are and want to be, is extremely useful.   Early in your career were you known as the person who organized events, the person who could calm agitated customers, or the person who could help someone with their Excel questions?  Although those things are useful and might still be part of your portfolio, they are not all that you are, nor do they limit you in the future.  You can delegate (as Sergey and Larry did with Sundar taking over Google or Susan running YouTube), train and coach others, and step away from what you were great at in the past, to develop new capabilities.  Reinvention isn’t just possible, it’s required, to move forward.

2. Leave room for more

Google is still a huge part of their portfolio, naturally, but with the rebranding effort, they made room for other companies, sub-brands, and initiatives to build out the portfolio.  If G is for Google, they literally have left room for 25 other multi-billion dollar ideas.  If you thought about what you do as just one letter in your alphabet, how could that shift your thinking?  How could you play bigger thinking that your career to date has just been one chapter (or the prologue) of a larger story? No one else knows what you are capable of, maybe not even yourself, unless you apply yourself to this line of thinking.

3. Good times are a great time for change

You have heard the adage, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”  I don’t think anyone would say Google’s business model was broken.  Yet, they felt urgency and took action to change when things are going well.  Some analysts have commented that most companies don’t announce a “restructuring” when things are going well, their stock is flying and their market cap is pointing heaven-wards.  Usually, those words are reserved for companies that are struggling and require massive surgery and intervention to stay viable.  It is difficult to contemplate a change, especially a big one, when things are going well, but that might be exactly when you need to make a change. Perhaps it is time to retire the “don’t fix what isn’t broken” advice, and rather strive to be a person who is willing to give up good ideas in favor of great ones!

First Step to Problem Solving

I personally find it very helpful to frame a problem in the form of a question (namely a "how" question), especially if you are seeking input from others.  The more specifically you can articulate the problem, the better you will be at identifying solutions.

The First Half

I suspect this applies to more than just monster roller coasters.

Do Well by Doing Good

Commercial Integrator Covers Board Appt

The July issue of Commercial Integrator magazine featured the announcement of Jennifer Davis to the board of Marathon Scholars.

A different way to think

A lot has been written about the different style of learning and how people approach thinking in different ways.  Sir Eric Robinson touched on this in his popular TED talk about how schools are killing creativity.  In the talk, he refers to a famous dancer and choreographer who finally find other people who thought like her (through movement) when she joined a dance class in elementary school. 

Others of us think by creating.  Some of us build physical models or like to get hands-on.  Others of us think by drawing.  Or by writing. 

This week, think about how you think and experiment with some different approaches to see what new ideas emerge.