blogging4jobs
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Posted: 09 Sep 2011 04:56 AM PDT
 Your blog no matter the industry (human resources or not) tells a story where you set the rules sharing strictly business quips or industry tips or even more personal stories giving your consumer a behind the scenes point of view what makes your business different and original from the rest. Blog's first made their appearance in the 1990's and were first used as online diaries for engineers and techies. Over the last 20 years the blog has evolved from online diary to essential business tool that gets to the heart of the matter – transparency and the human component in business. The purpose, content, and information shared on your blog will largely depend on the audience you are targeting, your business's intended purpose, and your competition. A blog not only allows you to reach new as well as existing customers in different ways, but also provides your businesses chance of being found when someone is searching on the internet. Called SEO or search engine optimization, web crawlers from search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo comb the internet searching and evaluating content making it easier to provide search suggestions and results based on the keyword combinations that people search. While SEO should be an important part of your blogging strategy, your first priority should be creating great stories and content that relates to your current customer base. These stories are more about your area of expertise and less about the product you sell. Consider your blog to be like a newspaper article where you can share your expertise driving better quality leads to you through thought leadership, word of mouth, and community both offline and online. Blogs are short stories normally between 250-600 words. In the blogging world, you make your own rules opting for video blogging or photo blogs to tell your business or personal story. These subtle sales techniques focused on quality content, unique insights, and thought leadership develop a sense of trust that leads to a long-term relationship that goes beyond the sale. Eighty-eight (yes 88%) percent of blog readers in the US, trust the information they receive from blogs and over 50% of blog readers have made a purchase because of a blog article or recommendation. So instead of making a sale you are creating a community of fanatics who are passionate and connected about your product, services, and the community you have created. Through your digital storytelling, you have created an army of happy customers, readers, and friends who are quick to share your content to their friends and their friend's friends, and their families too. The end result is through the stories you share through your blog, you are able to establish strong relationships not just on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn but you are able to offer your customers and potential customers something your competition can't – transparency, creativity, and an honest point of view. Blogging isn't a science. It's a gut feeling and a point of view that makes your business or organization stand out among the rest. Tell your story with a digital story tale blog and take your business to new places. Consider registering for HR Marketer’s upcoming webinar on September 22nd where I’m a co-presenting along with Kevin Grossman for “Storytelling. What Really Sells Social” at 12 PM CST. It’s free and of course it will be fun. As always, you can visit ToolBox HR, my free resource on social media for the Human Capital Industry including HR, human resources, and recruiting. Photo Credit Disney.            |
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Posted: 09 Sep 2011 04:29 AM PDT
 On Sunday morning, bright and early, I will board a plane with a colleague to attend the 47th Annual ASHHRA Conference in Phoenix, AZ. The ASHHRA Conference is one of the first big human resource conferences that I ever attended. And I have to say, that it was at that particular conference that I came to know and love “conferencing”. I look forward to visiting with members of the Healthcare Human Resource Industry – sharing ideas, struggles, and solutions.Sunday is also 9/11/2011 – ten years to the day. And this marks the first time I have decided to travel on 9/11 since that fateful morning. Ten years ago, my oldest daughter had just started her freshman year of high school. Early on a Tuesday morning, as she prepared to continue her second week of school, that freshman daughter knocked frantically on my bedroom door and compelled us to come to the living room – something had happened in New York, a plane had crashed – and we should know about it. It was just before 6AM PST and during the course of the next hour, as my children sat around me, we watched – live – as the second plane crashed into the South Tower. I sat there numb – for I didn’t know what to say to my children, I didn’t have a clue as to how to tell them what we had just witnessed and how they or anyone should or even could handle it. For days, video streamed in with stories of survival. I will never forget the dust-covered faces of terror. I still struggle with the words, with the reason as to why and how… I was a mother – it is my innate nature to protect my children and as we sat there – together – I had nothing – no solace, no words of wisdom, no guidance, no euphemism, nothing. The terror that rose in my heart and soul that day remains part of who I am, who I will continue to be. For we had faced it together, as a family, as a neighborhood, as a nation. The smallness of who I was and what I could realistically achieve, in the vast configuration of things, was solidified by what I witnessed. I was nothing, I could no more protect my family – my four small children – from unknown terror, than I could colonize the moon. Our feelings of safety and security would be forever compromised, forever unharnessed. I will never again take for granted carefree feelings, like those I had on 9/11/1977 when I was a 14-year old – who like my daughter, was also a freshman in high school though my 9/11 was not a school day, it was a Sunday and we were a nation-at-peace, something of which my son, now 14 and a freshman himself, has never experienced. I miss that freedom, the liberated joy we once held so lightly. Yes, we lost innocence on 9/11/2001 – yes, our lives were changed forever. But what I gained, what was renewed in me and many others like me, will never escape my clutches again. Appreciation. Appreciation for those who secure my freedom daily, who sacrificed their own that day and who surrender all, in the name of liberty. Selflessly – liberty for me & the citizens of the world and Selfishly – liberty for themselves. I extend my arms to you – face up, open palms, in utter supplication. Thank you. Thank you so much. I board a plane on Sunday, September 11, 2011 – ten years to the day later because I do not live in fear. I simply live. “We welcome change and openness – for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace.” – Ronald Reagan  Rayanne Thorn, @ray_anne is the Marketing Director for the online recruiting software company, Broadbean Technology. She is also a proud mother of four residing in Laguna Beach, California, and a contributor for Blogging4Jobs. Connect with her on LinkedIn.      |
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Work gaps continue to be job seekers' biggest worry. It's little wonder; we still carry a certain amount of stigma associated with a work gap – never mind what it might do to the bank account. I am continuously asked, "How do I lay out my resume to minimize the effect of a work gap?" 
