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Use Google Alerts to Receive an International Daily Update of Your Favorite Subject

December 22, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Recently I have started to use Google alerts to track more and more subjects that I have different interest in. From the beginning I mainly used it to track the buzz around the company I have been working for but many more ways to use it. So, in case you only use it for that or any other one reason, I thought I would share how I use it.

The way I use Google Alert makes it become a daily digest with an international summary of my interest, kind of my personal newspaper. Here is a few ways to use it:

Tracking your personal or company brand

Track your name or the name of your company, so that you can read anything that is being said about you. This is good both to see what people are saying, but it also gives you the opportunity to quickly respond to things that are said. As an example this can help your customer service to catch unsatisfied customers and make sure that they will return in the future.

Track the company you want to work for

If you are looking to work at a particular company it can be great to track what is being said about them. That will give you an opportunity to get to know about their staff, customers and client. This knowledge could give you an advantage in an interview and before that it might help you find out if you are what they are looking for, or how your knowledge could help their business.

Research a subject you are interested in

Tracking everything that is being said about the thing you are interested in might be a lot if it is a broad subject. However, you can choice either to specify your interest or to choice to have the alerts “once a day” or even “once a week” so that your inbox doesn’t get flooded with updates. Personally I limited one of my interests by choosing to only follow it in Swedish, as it is a subject is a lot smaller in Swedish, so that is an opportunity to. Either way, by tracking you interest you will be really up-to-date with what is going on, all over the world.

Filed Under: Annelie's Musings, Career development Tagged With: , ,

Is one-way communication enough in the 21th century?

November 19, 2009 By 2 Comments

Once I heard about a man who was considered an excellent communicator. He always returned letters and phone calls, and remembered to get in touch with people he had not talked to in a while. Quite impressive to accomplish that reputation without the techniques we have today. Most people did not know the keys behind his skills; discipline and continuity. Every Tuesday leaving work and spending a few hours with his family, he went to his study and did all his correspondence in one night. Sure, this might seem a bit strict and impersonal, but no one knew, they just admired him for always getting in touch.

How good are we really at communicating today? What do you do and how well do you do it? Could you become better at emailing old associates, contacting them more often? What opportunities did you lose because you did not follow-up?

We have social media, email, cell phones, instant messages, and the more traditional tools as well, but how much to we really use them. When your wall on Facebook is constantly filled with information about what your friends are up to, and will blogs you get the details as well, in other words one-way communication. So, do you really email them and call them to ask them another time what you already know or do you spare your conversations for the people you meet everyday instead? Does this mean that even though technique is making communication easier, we actually drift further away from our associates?

Time is money, but lost opportunity is also an expense. In the end, how many lost contact can you afford, or will people still consider you a contact just because you are connected on facebook?

How many letters have you send this year? I often read in marketing books that sending a letter to a person is a great way to market because it is much unexpected today. I would love to get a letter from a company instead of an advertisement, but I do not have one yet. This goes for personal situations as well, I would love to get a letter once in a while instead of a mail. Because it feels like someone actually took the time to contact me. When I moved to D.C. a few relatives and I started sending letters and pictures to each other by mail instead of the more usual email, and every time I got one it made my day. That little action that show that someone thought a little bit extra on me means so much. So why are we not doing that more often?

Maybe letters are not the way you communicate. But the issue seem to be the same with email and text messages. People do not take the time to communicate as much nowadays, and the new excuses keep coming.

Will people stop caring about nurturing relationships because they will accept that no one has the time? Or can you become a real winner in the situation by actually making an effort to communicate? And is that even possible if the person you are trying to contact with has chosen the first?

Personally, I will continue to make an effort to communicate, and if it comes to it, I will put correspondence on the agenda.

What do you think?

Filed Under: Annelie's Musings, Career development Tagged With: , , ,

What is the art of powering through?

October 28, 2009 By 2 Comments

Everyone is different and thus work in different ways. I guess this is also the case when it comes to getting things done. Now, I have not read the book “Getting things done,” which I have been meaning to, so my opinion might change. But for now, I would say that everyone has different ways to complete their todo-list. That is if you even keep a todo-list.

As you know, from a previous post I have a todo-list actually I have a to-do book. Keeping a list makes me more structured and help me to not forget about those smaller things that could make a difference, but is not really super important. Anyway, I am usually very good at getting things done and thus crossing them of the list. But once in a while I find myself struggling with one or two of the things I need to get done, for various reasons. I am sure you recognize the situation.

Anyway, in the past I usually dealt with the situation by doing everything else on the list until the only thing I had left was the thing I really dreaded doing. This used to work very well, and I was happy keeping it this way because I spent most of my time doing the things I liked to do. However, this stopped working the day my list grew longer and the things I was postponing became more time consuming. Thus, instead of only postponing them until I had to complete them, I ended up never doing them, because never managed to get everything else done. So to not be known as someone who did not keep her word, and most for my own sake, I needed to find a solution, and I did.

I decided to complete my todos in a hierarchal order no matter how much I was dreading them, the only time I am allowed to bend this rule is for things that come with a time-frame. Said and done, I began following my new rule. Which worked great for a while, and I got a few things I really dreaded to do crossed off.

However, when I again ended up in a situation where there were less things on my list, I realized that I not only neglected the highest priority things, I did nothing else either. I got lazy! So, perhaps I should change back to my previous rule, since that worked better when I had less things going on?

Do you have a todo-list? What are your secrets to getting things done? How do you power through those things that you really do not feel like doing?

Filed Under: Annelie's Musings, Career development

Get better by saying NO and succeed

October 5, 2009 By Leave a Comment

I am one of those people who have a really difficult time saying no. Especially when it comes to things I enjoy, but also when it comes to doing people a favor. My problem is so big that the parents of my friends started telling my mom that I would get burned out when I was only 14. I am still not close to burned out and I will not be as long as I remember how and why to say no.

But I’m not supposed to talk about me; I just want to remind all other people like me why it is sometimes better to say no.

Many students who have shown their capability in the beginning of their study program start getting a few or more offers as they reach graduation day. By this time they also start feeling the pressure of having to find a job and mange to support themselves after school. Thus it is easy to begin accepting every offer, take extra classes etc. To make sure, that you have done your best when it is time to graduate.

Of course this might be the best you can do and it could open a lot of opportunities. But it could also mean that you are taking on too much, and that is the danger of it all. If you start taking on too much you cannot longer perform the best at everything you do, and will have to start compromising to have time to get everything done.

This mean that you can end up on the “okey” pile in a lot of what you do instead of the “excellent” pile in everything you do. And which one of these piles will matter in the end?

Surely this is not only a problem that students face, but that all human who strive to be the best and to succeed. You can be at many stages in your development, sometimes you have to get better at your weaknesses and other times you should focus on what your good at etc. But either or you should never take on too much at the same, time leading to not succeeding in anything.

Because after all people like successful people and head hunters want the best! Show yourself that you can do a few things great and believe in what you do and they will see it as well.

Filed Under: Annelie's Musings, Career development Tagged With: , , ,

Why everyone should try a Business Simulator

August 16, 2009 By 6 Comments

Once again I will talk a little bit about what we got to learn from the Emax event. This time it is more practical, regarding the business simulation competition we had and why I think that every student and business leader should have the opportunity to “play” that game.

For those who does not know about it the Business Simulation I have pulled up the Wikipedia description for you:  Business simulation games, or economic simulation games, are games that focus on the management of economic processes, usually in the form of a business. Basically when we play we take over the position as CEO for a company and therefore also all the responsibilities of decision making etc.

Before I go on I just want to highlight, that I don’t know more about this simulation then what I found out when we played. So I when I talk about a function of the simulation, that is how it worked for us and there is a big possibility that the program is a lot more advanced and can work in different ways depending on who is playing etc.

When we played we got to run a company in the technology sector, we did not know more about the products than what we could assume from our own experience. With the help from tutorials, market reviews and our own strategies we had to make decisions that followed that. The goal was to get the higher stock index after four years. There were many variables and situations to take into account when we made decisions which were very difficult but so useful.

Playing the simulation games taught us stuff that we would never have learned from school.
We had to learn:

  • How to make decisions and stick with them.
  • How to form a strategy and how sticking with that strategy is essential for success.
  • And that a company cannot be good at everything.

This forced us make decisions that will make us unique in some way. We knew this in theory from school, but know we had to do it in practice. Whether is trough cheap prices or the best quality, we had to be best at something otherwise it will be impossible to lead a successful company. And the stock index showed us, when we were not doing it right…

Getting the practical training in this was so much more useful than study all the theories in practice. Sure we have to learn that to, but it is as people say “Everything you learn in school is useless when you start working.”

But I don’t think that these simulations are only good for students, I think that the SAS management for example could learn some from this. Because personally I have no idea what they are trying to be best at. They definitely do not have the best customer service, nor do they have the lowest prices. They don’t fly to any hard to reach destinations or anything like that, and they don’t pay their staff as much as foreign airlines do. Still they manage to keep a steady amount of customers, probably because they have a good reputation. But that probably is from before they had any competition.

Therefore I think SAS and other companies need to play games like this, to become better at taking bold decision. They also need to practice taking decisions and sticking with them. In the game you can never change the decision you made and you don’t know what will happen, but you still have to make them. That is good practice!

What do you think? Is taking decisions something that you need to precise at?

Also, if I conviced you to try I recommend the BTS Business Simulation, which is the one we played.

Filed Under: Annelie's Musings, Career development Tagged With: , , , , ,

How To: Stay in while your out!

July 11, 2009 By 2 Comments

In May this year I left my job, which I first started as an intern, to go back to school and finish up my degree. During my last few months at my job as a marketing specialist I really put a focus on social media and started this blog, got into the twittering and multiple other social media sites. After I left it feels like the whole social media world has speeded up and I am not following the developments as fast as I used to.

Because of this I know that I need a plan to be able to stay in contact with what I want to do while I’m not doing it. I wanted to share some of the things I do to make sure to stay current.

  1. Make sure to stay update with the developments. I use google reader and follow a few dozen blog writing about marketing, social media and Internet etc. Many of these might publish the same stories, but that hopefully mean that they will cover what I cannot miss.
    Google reader: http://www.google.com/reader/
  2. Set up an activity plan for yourself. It is so easy to postpone things when you are doing it for yourself and not for someone else, which is why it can be good to have a plan to keep track of your progress. Make sure to put a note of what days you might have to skip some activities to make sure it doesn’t become a habit.
    This list from Chris Brogan is a good example: http://www.chrisbrogan.com/19-presence-management-chores-you-could-do-every-day/

  3. Publish your own view on what is going on. Everyone does not need to have a blog but when I will go to my next job interview after I’m finished with school it will be a lot easier to say that I know social media if I can actually prove it. But especially when you are not currently in the field it can be difficult to find things to write about. Therefore try to read what’s going on and give the news your own angle, if you have trouble finding one, talk to your friends about the news and discuss it, I’m sure multiple angles will turn up.

I hope that this give you an idea to what you can do. I see this working in a lot of other fields that what I do, and especially in this economic downturn it is important to not fall behind when you get laid off.

Filed Under: Career development, How To Tagged With:

What about personal branding for actors?

June 2, 2009 By 3 Comments

 Today there are thousands of TV-shows, some run just a few episodes, others play numerous seasons, some last for decades. The actors in these TV-shows usually grow very famous for the role they are playing, and people start knowing them for the character from the show.

Many times in the past I have read stories that the actors want “out” from the series because they are afraid that they will get stuck in a particular genera, and wont be offered other types of roles.

Even though I always missed the characters when they left and the show usually changes when a main character leave, I usually agreed with the actors when they in the articles said it to be a career move. And a while later I also moved on the another show.

However, lately I have been thinking about this phenomenon and the fact that the actors that leave these series rarely become very famous doing something else. Of course there are exceptions, actors who have done very good after leaving a show, but mostly they disappear.

I cannot say for sure what the reason is to why they never return to their fame again. But it is probably good for them like it is for the rest of us, to stick with the things that you are good at. There are so many actors that only do comedies, science fictions movies or action movies. Most of their roles are very similar, just a new plot and new names. But these actors are the big ones, who we love, whom we want to watch in movie after move.

My point here is, that actors should really think about their personal brand and stick to what they are good at. Sure they should practise other stuff as well, but never disappoint a customer, or in this case a fan.

What do you think about this? Do you agree or disagree? Am I missing something? Please share your views.

 

Filed Under: Career development Tagged With: , ,

Where is your blog on your priority list?

May 4, 2009 By 7 Comments

Four days ago, I left Washington D.C. my job and apartment. Before the move, I have been focusing on finishing stuff at work, packing, spending as much time as possible with friends and doing all the other things that needs to be done before you leave a country.

Because of that, my blog and Twitter was neglected, and especially the blog became under prioritised. During all the stress from all the other thing that were going on this felt like a very good decision, after all I would have time maintain my media channels after I left the city. Looking back though I think that people like me often think of these things as taking up time, while they are quick and will in the long turn save you more time than anything does.

Writing a blog post, depending on the amount of words, take about 10 minutes, and after that maybe another 20 minutes to edit. The time consuming part is mostly figuring, out what to write about and do a bit research. But in general, at least the subject comes while you are doing other things. Therefore, you can expect the blog post to be written and edited in 30 minutes.

Taking a shorter shower and spend a little less time on Facebook gives most people 30 minutes or more. So why not use them to publish a blog post? (Btw, we need to invent a new word for blog post, because it is way to long)

My excuse was to spend that time with friends, which I probably most of the time did not because it was during hours when they are working or eating or doing something else that does not include hanging out with people. Therefore, I could have invested 30 minutes in my future.

I changed a routine when I began preparing the move, that only gave me a little more time with my friends but also made it harder to get back on. I used to spend about an hour a twitter every day, and wrote at least one blog post every week. By removing these promises to the people that read what I have to stay, I let them down. In addition to that I also had a lot harder getting back on track when I got settled in Sweden.

Taking a few minutes to share your thoughts and knowledge is never too time consuming. There are daily articles and news about the fact that blog and twitter can help you invest in your career or get you a job, (of course there are the same amount saying the opposite) if you do it right. So by not tweeting and blogging I broke a trust and neglected my future. Luckily, my move did not take that much time, but it is still worth thinking about. How much did I lose during this time? After all in the current information society a lot can change in an hour..

Where is your blog and twitter on your priority list? Why do you do it? What are your goals?

Filed Under: Career development, Social Media Tagged With: , ,

Tips: Social media for career development

April 23, 2009 By 2 Comments

Friends of others and mine who hear about my frequent use of various new media tools ask me why I use them, and why I think they use them. I usually think about what they work with and give them an explanation that makes sense to them. Their answer is something like “I never thought about it that way, I will totally do that”.

When I ask them about it a few weeks later they have joined the networks and sites that I told them about, but did not really begin using them. Sometimes because they did not have time or did not prioritised, but most of the times it is because they did not figure out how to use the sites properly.

Tomorrow I have a presentation in school where I am supposed to teach the class something, I will of course speak about social media for career development, and after then tell them about this blog post:

Here are some of the best articles and videos that I found that explains how to use the social media tools and some of them cover why you should use them, in case you forgot.

Social Media

Twenty something: Gen Y is better than everyone else at marketing themselves
http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2009/04/07/twentysomething-gen-y-is-better-than-everyone-else-at-marketing-themselves/

HOW TO: Leverage Social Media for Career Success
http://mashable.com/2009/04/07/social-media-career-success/

Social Media and SEO: 5 Essential Steps to Success
http://mashable.com/2009/04/15/social-media-seo/

Linked In

Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn
http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2007/01/ten_ways_to_use.html

How to launch and evolve your career using LinkedIn
http://grads.linkedin.com/?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dtest

20 Ways to Use LinkedIn Productively – (Thanks to @elisabeth999)
http://webworkerdaily.com/2007/06/15/20-ways-to-use-linkedin-productively/

Get Ahead on LinkedIn - (Thanks to @elisabeth999)
http://howto.wired.com/wiki/Get_Ahead_on_LinkedIn

Twitter

Using Twitter for Personal and Business Branding
http://personalbrandingblog.com/using-twitter-for-personal-and-business-branding/

30-Minute Brand Building for Twitter
http://personalbrandingblog.com/30-minute-brand-building-for-twitter/

Visual CV

Get Started with VisualCV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2foQsUWPAI&feature=channel_page

Brazen Careerist

Brazen Careerist: Five Ways To Make Yourself A Workplace Superstar
http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=201808003

Facebook

The best Facebook apps for business and career enhancement
http://www.idsnews.com/news/orienter/story.aspx?story_id=12311&section=life

Development Center: Use Facebook with caution
http://www.idsnews.com/news/orienter/story.aspx?story_id=12311&section=life

If you have any articles and video’s and networks that you want to add to the list, comment and I will add them.

Enjoy!

Filed Under: Career development, Social Media Tagged With: , , , ,

Do you solve your problem or wait for someone else?

March 30, 2009 By 1 Comment

I think there are two kinds of people out there:

1. Those who find a problem and wait for someone else to find the solution, and
2. Those who discovers a problem and decide to fix it.

This is not necessarily something that people are born to do or that they choice to do. It might as well be a combination, or other factors that turn people into one of these kinds.

Someone might think that he/she can’t find a solution and therefore choice not to try. Someone else might have an idea but doesn’t know how to execute it?

Or perhaps you never even though about the fact that you could be the one solving the problem?

The reasons to not solve the problem yourself are many. If nothing else, it is usually easier to leave it up to someone else.

The people who do work to solve the problems what I view as entrepreneurs. To me being an entrepreneurs does not mean that you have to have started companies to organization. For me an entrepreneur is a problem solver.

There are different kinds of entrepreneurs, but according to me, all people who take initiative and make sure to find solutions are entrepreneurs. It might be as small as finding a piece of information that was almost impossible to find, and share it with someone else? Or as big as inventing something new?

An entrepreneur can never let a problem stay a problem, at least not without sharing it with someone else.

Who are you?

Filed Under: Career development Tagged With: , ,
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