Infomaniac: How to Transform Yourself into a Node of Knowledge

Though we love talking about our oh-so-cutting-edge Information Age, sharing info is nothing new. Before the Web - even before your Olivetti started gathering dust - knowledge sharing was integral to getting the job done.

But now more than ever, we're analyzing the play of information: how people swap it, who's milking it best, and which bits we should soak up. And, as always, we're looking at how our bailiwick compares with that of our peers. Certain roles rely heavily on playing catch with ideas, but everyone from a nurse to a pianist is, in a sense, a knowledge worker. And we can all use help refining our expertise.

Whether you're hoping to remain a fixture at your current job or break into a whole new field, here are expert tricks for defining your province and standing out.

The Local Lockbox

You know him: the coworker who can tell you the name of that guy who worked on that project that you think was in 2003 - though you're not sure when...or which project exactly. "Peterson, '05!" he'll declare with the certainty of a Jeopardy champ. You can depend on him to click through his institutional memory or connect you to someone else helpful. But if you're that go-to-person, you might want a break.

"You can be too cooperative for your own good," says Jessica Pryce-Jones, CEO of iOpener and author of Happiness at Work. What's more, a go-to person often isn't valued enough. He's almost never a higher-up, so his intangible leadership, though appreciated by peers, is mostly overlooked by the boss. If you're the generous one, start talking about it: "I helped Maria last week and she ended up connecting with a great new client - I was happy for her that it worked out!" If you've got a little more chutzpah, ask the person you're assisting to let the boss know you pitched in, says Pryce-Jones. Word of your expertise will trickle up.

Sociologists label people as "local" and "cosmopolitan," adds Ezra Zuckerman, an economic sociologist at MIT's Sloan School of Management. The first type is quite knowledgeable about his organization, whereas the latter has established herself across contexts. Cosmopolitans risk appearing fickle, but locals risk depending on one workplace. If your company is indelibly fixed in your memory, ask for projects that keep you marketable.

The Savvy Specialist

Typecasting is known as a career killer. Yet when Zuckerman studied film actors over the course of several years, he found that those who were boxed-in fared better: By fitting into character constraints, they were able to land gigs that generalists couldn't. In many fields, renaissance men and women are idolized, he says. But in reality, "you've got to turn yourself into a very specialized commodity."

Academics, too, need a fresh niche. You might meet a prof who specializes in 10th-century spider metaphors - she's into it because nobody else is.

The catch-22, Zuckerman admits, is that a niche can get you into a field but be harder to climb out of later. Still, specializing is part deep knowledge, part branding magic. Define yourself narrowly to appeal to a prospective employer's needs, but maintain a broader set of skills so you can wow your boss later.

The Ingenious Generalist

"There's a seduction to being an expert, an assumption in society that credibility relies on deep (and narrow) expertise," writes Jess McMullin of the Information Architecture Institute. "However, for people operating at the edges, intersections, and overlaps where innovation thrives, being a generalist is far more powerful."

In the world of business and design, broad skills lead to opportunities. For the last few years executives have buzzed about "T-shaped" people: those who pair a deep, narrow expertise with breadth in other areas. Some folks are even expected to branch out. To become a master chef, says Zuckerman, you must learn how to be a pastry chef, a cold chef, and a host of other specialists. Limit your expertise and you may never run your own kitchen.

Generalists also tend to be good people-people, says Pryce-Jones. One man she knows used to work in advertising and was always strategically introducing colleagues within the agency. Though he helped huge projects blossom, his work was largely intangible. Realizing that his know-how went beyond the confines of the ad world, he left his job and now works connecting people across industries.

The Navigating Newbie

It doesn't matter whether you've been working for a decade or more: You're still uninitiated when you start a new job. Ben Dattner, author of The Blame Game, suggests tuning in to how your colleagues like to share knowledge. If you're in need of a tutorial on, say, the office's wiki page, but your new boss keeps ignoring your query-stuffed emails, consider a new move. Might your boss prefer a face-to-face lesson over typing everything out? It may seem like a minor difference to you, but asking for help the right way means you'll get the info you need. You can also offer insights that you've gained elsewhere to initiate subtle bartering.

The Part-Time Techie

Your position is outside the tech realm, yet everyone calls you when their computer crashes or if that hamster video on YouTube won't load. Psychotherapist Michael Fromica, an informal techie himself, suggests teaching them how to problem-solve on their own - and learning how to say no when you need to.

"If you grab the mouse and do it for them, you're not doing them a favor," he says. Instead, give them new skills - and tell them when you're too busy to help.

Hoping to gain recognition for on-the-side troubleshooting? Do it by being, well, helpful. "From time to time, send out a little missive to everyone saying, 'You know, I've discovered that if you press control-F6 you get such-and-such in your spreadsheet,'" says Pryce-Jones. Small tips every once in a while remind people that you're savvy and help them in tiny but crucial ways.

Just don't broadcast your knowledge too often. You wouldn't want to become known as That Guy Who Has All The Answers But Is Too Annoying To Ask.

Taken from Psychology Today. Written by Michele Lent Hirsch

Federal Resume Tips

Myth or Fact?

Resumes have to be one page. Myth: In the government, resumes are often longer than one page because of the detailed information applicants must provide to be considered.

As a recent graduate, your educational experience can not qualify as specialized experience. Myth: Many of the assignments, committees, or extra-curricular groups students participate in can be used as experience on an application as long as it corresponds with the job duties and KSA's of the position. For example, Katie was the head of the finance club where she worked on sample projects with a consulting firm. She can describe that experience when applying for a Financial Analyst position.

Social security numbers are a common addition on a resume. Fact: Many resumes need SSNs for identification purposes, however, NIH advises applicants not to include their SSN on paper resumes or in the body of an electronic resume.

Using bullets is a great way to describe job duties on a resume. Fact: Although not always common on federal resumes, bullets make it easier to read job duties.

Formatting

There are many different styles of resumes, however, a federal resume should include the most relevant work experience and educational information at the beginning of the resume. This is best displayed in a short summary or a brief autobiography. You should include information such as skills, competencies, major accomplishments, training or any information that is required or related to the job announcement. If there is something specific you want to convey, place that information up front.

Keywords, Keywords, Keywords

Keywords are very powerful words that can enhance a recruiter's understanding of your qualifications and experience. For example, when a recruiter reads the keyword 'analyst', he or she might assume you have experience in collecting data, evaluating effectiveness, and researching and developing new processes.

Keywords are most likely action verbs. When constructing your explanation of previous experience, you should use action verbs to act as descriptions, expressing how you performed that function and with what result.

If the job announcement uses keywords to describe the duties such as "develops" or "implements," these words are representative of independence in work assignments and the range of responsibility for the available position. You should include your experience "developing" or "implementing" to demonstrate your previous independence.

Numbers, Numbers, Numbers 

Enhance your resume by adding numerical results. Numerical results can increase appeal with recruiters because it provides a description of the responsibility level that may relate directly to the duties of the position. For example, an individual who was in the budget field has "worked with disseminating budgets for small projects." But when the applicant describes her experience with numbers, her description is more relevant as "disseminated the budgets for small projects amounting to $450,000." Numbers can be a great way to describe the responsibility pressures, and accomplishments of your previous endeavors as they relate to the position you are applying to.

The Long vs. Short Struggle

Federal resumes are much longer than a resume created for the private industry, but how long is too long?

The Long of It

Federal resumes are usually longer because they should be more descriptive and detailed. When writing your resume, it is very important for you to include all information related to the position so that recruiters are able to determine if you qualify for their position. Leaving this information off in the interest of shortening your resume can exclude you from being considered "best qualified."

The Short of It

Although federal resumes need to be detailed, there should be some discretion when there is too much information. All information that relates directly to the position should be included on the resume but information that is only indirectly related can be excluded if the resume begins to grow. Many applicants are proud of their work experience and want to list it all, however, information such as work experience or education that happened a very long time ago and is not a requirement for the future position can be omitted. Use your best judgment to decide what the recruiter needs to know for this specific position.


Taken from www.jobs.nih.gov/jobsearch/federalresume.htm

The Problem With Perfection

If you're not familiar with the law of diminishing returns, it states that at a certain point adding more effort will not produce significantly more gains. The challenge is knowing when you've reached that point. For many managers this is an important question: "How far do I keep going on a project before I declare that it's good enough" - and that further effort will not significantly change the outcome?

Several years ago I worked with a project team charged with increasing sales to its large corporate customers. At the first meeting the team brainstormed ways to drive up sales, but before moving ahead decided to collect data about current sales and survey sales managers and customers. Since it wasn't clear which ideas might work, this seemed like a logical next step - until the data analysis work dragged on for months as the team tried to reach the perfect answer.

I've seen this pattern in many organizations where, instead of moving into action, managers insist on doing more analysis. In some cases this is part of a company-wide "paralysis by analysis" culture, while in others it is a personal tendency of the manager or team involved. Either way this oft-repeated pattern results not only in wasted effort, but significant delays in moving forward.

From my experience, there are two often-unconscious reasons for this unproductive quest for perfection. The first is the fear of failing. In many organizations, coming up with a recommendation that doesn't ultimately succeed can be career limiting. So to avoid this fate, managers put in extra effort to get the "right" answer, and back it up with as much data and justification as possible. Then, if it doesn't work, nobody can say that they didn't do their homework.

The second driver of unproductive perfection is the anxiety about taking action. Studying problems and coming up with recommendations is safe territory; while changing processes, procedures, incentives, systems, or anything else is much higher risk. Action forces managers and teams out of their comfort zones, driving them to sell ideas, deal with resistance, orchestrate work plans, and potentially disrupt work processes for colleagues and even customers. So one way to avoid dealing with these messy issues is to keep the study going as long as possible, thus delaying any action.

Because of these psychological dynamics, breaking free of unproductive perfection is not easy. But if you are a project sponsor, leader or team member, and want to move into action more quickly, here's an approach you can try: Instead of viewing "action" as something that follows research, think about how action can occur parallel to research. In other words, rather than coming up with perfect recommendations and then flipping the switch months later, start by testing some of your initial ideas on a small scale immediately - while collecting more data. Then you can feed the lessons from these experiments into the research process, while continuing to implement and scale additional ideas.

For example, in the sales case described above, the team shifted its pattern by selecting three corporate customers where they could quickly test some of their ideas, in a low-risk way, in collaboration with the sales teams. With one customer, the sales leader experimented with selling products and services together, rather than having services as an after-sell. A second sales leader added a paid advisory service to his offering. The third worked on building relationships higher up in the C-suite. The lessons from these experiments were then incorporated into the team's recommendations, which were then tested with several more customers and so on. Within a year, most of the corporate sales teams were working differently and increasing their overall sales.

Clearly the ideas that first emerge through this iterative approach are not going to be perfect, but by sharpening them through field-testing rather than theoretical analysis they will eventually become good enough to deliver results. Working in this way also reduces the risk of recommending the "wrong" ideas and the anxiety about managing change, since small-scale tests provide rapid feedback and engage others in the organization right from the beginning.

Perfection certainly makes sense when designing an airplane or an office building. But if the search for perfection is leading you to diminishing returns and an avoidance of action, it might be worth taking a different path.

Taken from blogs.hbr.org  Written by Ron Ashkenas

How to Use Video to Market Your Business

The average Internet user watches an astounding 186 videos a month, according to comScore Inc., a global digital market measurement service. This includes news and entertainment clips, personal videos, advertising videos gone viral - you name it.

Video engages people in a way that photos and text along can't. For small business owners, using video in your marketing can bring faces, voices, personality and heart to your operation, while also demonstrating your authenticity. To top that, video in email is said to be able to boost conversion rates by as much as 50 percent.

Thanks to affordable video cameras and easy-to-use software, video has become a tool that nearly any small business can use to enhance their marketing efforts on any channel. Your videos don't have to be big Hollywood productions to be engaging and effective. You can even use your smartphone camera to create them. Here's a quick example:

Types of Videos You Can Create
Not sure what you'd produce a video about? Here are six tips for video production that can help you create informative clips that also reveal your business's "human" side:

• Demonstrate your product or service. Don't just tell, show your customers how your business works. In other words, bring your how-to guides to life. In my experience, informed prospects are more likely to make purchases.
• Use customer testimonials. Your best fans can explain on video how using your products or services solved a problem or improved their lives. Help prospects see themselves in the stories of real people.
• Put donor dollars to work. Videos of how your charitable donations benefit a cause tell a compelling story, which makes a problem - and how donations help remedy it - more real.
• Introduce your staff. This simple method can help show your dedication, passion and commitment to customer satisfaction. It can also create a greater connection with customers by showing them the faces and personalities of your employees.
• Offer a video tour of your office or business location. Another option is to add some spice to your website's "About Us" page by providing an insider's look at your operation.
• Request to take a poll or survey. Add a personal touch to your "Tell us what you think" feedback requests by creating a video. In it, assure customers that their opinions matter.

Tips for First-Time Video Producers

Are you camera shy? Producing marketing videos for your business doesn't have to be a daunting process. Here are a few things to keep in mind that should help make your video shoots simple, smooth and effective.

• Don't make it too complicated. Pick a simple topic for your first video.
• Relax. Work with a colleague you're comfortable with and speak to him or her as the video records.
• Prepare notes but don't read them on camera. Video should be casual and conversational whether it's you, an employee or a customer talking.
• Keep it brief. Determine which two or three bullet points you want to convey in a two-minute video. If you're interviewing a customer for a testimonial, it's usually a good idea to limit it to two or three questions.
• Don't worry too much about "ums" and "ers." You're human. That's what video is about. But take the time to do a few takes and then edit together the best segments.
• Enable and encourage comments. Videos, email marketing and social media marketing go hand-in-hand-in-hand. Get your viewers talking and sharing. Good videos go viral and are great for building brand awareness.
• Incorporate a call to action. This can add interactivity at the end of your video (i.e., For more information..., To take out survey..., To share your story with us...).

Video is a fun and effective marketing tool that's accessible to entrepreneurs - even those who are on a budget. Think about which of your marketing messages could benefit most by the color that video brings to the mix. If a picture says a thousand words, a video can say it bigger, brighter and better.

Taken from entrepreneur.com  Written by Gail Goodman

Market Your Business with Online Video

One of the most popular activities on the web is watching video. People of all ages and backgrounds love watching videos, and the genre has grown well beyond funny clips, sports highlights, and music videos. In fact, online video isn't just for entertainment purposes now, and you can use that to your advantage to help promote your business.

First, let's talk about just how popular and powerful online video is. Here are some stats about online video consumption.

1. Nielsen reports there were over 141 million unique viewers of online video in 2010
2. That figure represents a year over year increase of 10.5%
3. The average time spent per viewer watching online videos was 181.9 minutes
4. YouTube alone pulled in 108,776,000 million unique viewers monthly

Are those numbers large enough to get your attention? Within such huge audiences, there are bound to be people out there looking for the products and services you provide. And what's more, these consumers exhibit high engagement levels. Not only in the amount of time they spend watching videos online as referenced above, but also in the fact that in order for them to see a video, typically they have sought it out or had it sent from a credible source like a friend or family member. So someone watching your online video is doing so of their own free will (as opposed to someone subjected to a commercial during a TV show) so they stand a much better chance of converting to becoming a customer.

Of course, it is easy to say there's a great opportunity out there on the web. It can be more difficult to figure out exactly where your specific opportunity is. There are lots of potential starting points. For instance, how-to videos have a huge audience on the web. These could be anything from how to repair something to how to apply makeup and put together the perfect outfit to how to increase your fuel efficiency. You need to think about what you can offer the public that adds value to their lives and will help position you in their minds as a positive, helpful force. To do this, you could ask yourself, "What questions do my customers most frequently ask?" or "What parts of my web site draw the most visitors?" Knowing what people are interested in will help you determine what kind of content to produce for them.

A second way to go is to produce an interactive Q and A type video. You could invite your customers to send in questions about your products and services, and then you could respond to them via online video. You could make this a weekly or monthly occurrence, and then customers would know to visit your web site, YouTube, or wherever you decide to post the video on a regular basis to see if their question was answered.

If you produce commercials for your business, you can upload those to video sites as well. People search for your brand online on lots of different sites, including sites you may not initially think of like YouTube. By uploading your commercials, you will be able to have more control over what people see when they search for your brand name. Wouldn't you rather have them exposed to your professionally-shot commercial than someone on a webcam reviewing your product?

Video promotions are always a big hit as well. One popular way to execute online video promotions is to have customers submit videos of themselves doing some specified action, and the person who does it the best or correctly wins a prize. This is an especially powerful form of online video marketing because in this scenario, your customers begin creating your marketing messages for you. Even if the videos they make do not mention your brand, the fact that people are making videos at your request lends credibility and respect to your brand.

Getting these videos online is quite simple and costs nothing. The best course of action is to begin by uploading your video to YouTube. Why is this the ideal starting point? 

1. YouTube is owned by Google, and Google constantly crawls YouTube for its search engine results. So by posting a video to YouTube, you are increasing your odds of it also showing up in the Google search results.
2. Whenever you post a video to YouTube, you will be given a code snippet that you can copy and paste on pretty much any site. So you can then add the video to your site, your blog, your social media pages, and anywhere else you want to promote your web site.

Online video offers more opportunity to your business than you may realize. It gives you access to an audience that is quite large in size and extremely engaged with the content they are consuming. There are many different ways to successfully execute an online video marketing campaign, and the barriers to getting videos online are quite low.

Taken from blogspot.com  Written by Stanley Quinn

How to Write a Press Release to Promote Your Business

Press releases are on of the easiest and most inexpensive forms of advertising for any business. Yet most business owners don't know how to write a proper press release for publication in a newspaper or magazine. Here are some simple tips to write a press release to promote your business.

Things you'll need

• A business
• Typing paper
• Story ideas
• List of magazines and newspapers in your niche market
• Editor's names and addresses

1. Make it newsworthy. A press release is often published in a newspaper or magazine as an article, so you want to present a story about your business to the editor. One of the best ways to make your business appealing is to show what is exciting and new for that community. What makes your business unique from other businesses similar to your in town?
2. Find your niche market. You may have a great story ready for publication, but you won't receive much business if the readers don't need your product or service. Research the newspaper or magazine before submitting your press release. If you offer child care services, submit your press release to magazines geared to mothers. If your company provides secretarial assistance to companies, you'll probably want to submit your press release to the business editor of a newspaper.
3. Keep it simple. Remember that you're not the only business out there! Editors receive hundreds, even thousands, of press releases on their desks every day. They probably scan only a few, looking for key words that are specific for their publication. Keep your press release to about one page, focusing on the highlights of your business.
4. Write new press releases as your business changes. It's a good idea to submit a press release any time you add new services or products, change your location, add new staff members, or expand. Keep your community aware of your company so that they will be more likely to do business with you.
5. Continue to submit! Even if your press release is rejected from one newspaper or magazine, keep submitting. Not every publication is right for your business. But someone is in need of your press release right now, and you will be published before you know it.

Tips and Warnings

• Submit, submit, submit!
• Keep your press releases to one page
• Know your niche market
• Don't be discouraged by editor's rejection; someone needs your press release
• Don't allow yourself to become overwhelmed; anyone can write about what they know

Taken from ehow.com 

10 Low-Cost Ways to Market Your Business

Too many small business owners think marketing is like a trip to the dentist - something you gotta do every six months or so. But when marketing is continuous and targeted rather than occasional and shotgun, business gets easier. If prospects have a positive view of your wares and reputation before you call or before they start shopping, you're that much closer to nailing a sale. The next news flash is that ongoing marketing isn't tied to a price tag. It's defined only by putting the right message in front of the right person at the right time. Here are 10 ideas for doing that - on the cheap.

1. Take steps to make customers feel special. Customers respond to being recognized, especially in these rush-rush, get-the-lowest-price times. "Even with a Web-based business, good customer service is possible," says Denise McMillan, co-owner of Plush Creations, an online retailer of handcrafted travel bags. McMillan encloses a small, rose-scented sachet in every jewelry and lingerie bag she sells and also sends a handwritten thank-you note. "The sachet and not cost pennies but add something special to the purchase," she says.
2. Create business cards that prospects keep. Most business cards are tossed within hours of a meeting. Instead of having your card tossed, create one that recipients actually will use - say, a good-looking notepad with your contact info and tagline on every page. "The business card notepad is referred to almost daily, kept for 30 days or so and carries a high remembrance factor," says Elliott Black, a Northbrook, IL, marketing consultant who specializes in small businesses.
3. Stop servicing break-even customers. If this idea makes you gasp, think harder. You're failing for the fallacy of increasing sales instead of boosting profits. If you stop marketing to unprofitable customers, you have more time and resources for customers who actually grow your business. "More than likely, 20% of your customer base is contributing 150 to 200% of total annualized profit; 70% is breaking even; and 10% is costing you 50 to 100%," says Atlanta marketing consultant Michael King. Take a detailed look at your customer profitability data and then direct premium services and marketing to customers who count.
4. Develop an electronic mailing list and send old-fashioned letters. Most businesses have harnessed the power of e-newsletters - and you definitely should be sending out one, too. It's very cost-effective. But exactly because email marketing is now nearly ubiquitous, you can quickly stand out by occasionally sending personal, surface mail letters to customers and prospects. Just make sure the letter delivers something customers want to read, whether an analysis of recent events in your field, premium offers or a sweetener personalized for the recipient (a discount on this next purchase of whatever he last purchased, for instance). "This mailing has to have value to those that read it, so it reflects the value of what you offer," says Leslie Ungar, an executive coach in Akron, OH. "Remember, the best way to sell is to tell."
5. Boost your profile at trade shows and conferences. You can quickly create signage, glossy postcards with your contact information, product news inserts or an event mini Web site in a publishing program.
6. Combine business with pleasure - and charity. Spearhead an event, party or conference for a cause you care about. That puts you in a position of getting to know lots of people, and shows off your small business leadership skills. "I host an annual baseball game where I take hundreds of clients to a Cubs game at Wrigley Field," says Kate Koziel, who owns a public relations agency in Chicago. "Last year, I took 300 people and we raised $10,000 for a local children's hospital. Few people turn down a game and it's a great networking opportunity for guests. It lets me reconnect with current clients and impress potential clients."
7. Create a destination. Bookstore chain Barnes and Noble has its coffee bars. Furnishings giant Ikea offers child-care centers and cafeterias. Why? So customers gravitate to the stores and enjoy an experience, to hang out for a while. Sunday morning at Barnes and Noble becomes a pleasant weekend routine, rather than a shopping errand. Steal this idea. This tip isn't limited to offline destinations, either. Using pay-per-click advertising, you can cheaply drive traffic to a one-time news event or specialty offerings, points out Jay Lipe, a small business marketing consultant based in Minneapolis, MN. Lipe set up a web site for Games by James, a retailer of board games, and quickly attracted customers via pay-per-click ads. "The effect was overnight," says Lipe. "Traditionally in the marketing world, it takes weeks or even months to generate acceptable awareness and traffic. Here we saw traffic spike overnight."
8. Become an online expert. This is the "free sample" approach to bringing in business. Research active email discussion lists and online bulletin boards that are relevant to your business and audience. Join several and start posting expert advice to solve problems or answer questions. You may need to keep this up for a bit. But the rewards come back in paying clients and referrals. "Email discussion lists have been my single largest source of clients over the last eight years," says Shel Horowitz, a small business marketing consultant based in Northampton, MA.
9. Court local media. Editorial features convey more credibility with prospective clients than paid advertising does. To get coverage from the local media, whether from the town newspaper, from TV or radio stations, or from trade journals, you need a fresh, timely story. It's usually worthwhile to hire an experienced publicist to position the stories, target appropriate media representatives and write and send press releases. Usually, you can work on a short-term or contingency basis.
10. Finally, don't let the customers simply slip away. Make an effort to reel them back in. It costs a lot less to retain a disgruntled or inactive customer than to acquire a new one. If you haven't heard from a customer in a while, send a personalized email, inquiring whether all is well. For a customer who suffered a bad experience, pick up the phone, ackknowledging the unpleasantness and ask if there's anything you can do. A discount can't hurt either. Being kind to customers is the smartest low-cost marketing you can do.

Taken from microsoft.com/business  Written by Joanna Krotz