March 30, 2009 Contents - Free Whitepapers, Updates, Focus on Social
Media (LinkedIn and Twitter)
Contents:
1) Do Not Miss These Free Whitepapers/Ebooks (http://
work911.tradepub.com/)
2) Bacal & Associates Updates (Self-Service Article Reprint System)
3) Social Media
Feature: Twitter
Feature: LinkedIn
4) Our Small Business Resources Site
5) Our Site For Trainers
6) Feature: The Poor Economy
7) Odds and Ends - Perfect Phrases For Managing Your Small Business
Well, it's the end of the month, and we have a lot to share with you,
so let's start off with a bunch of free offers, particularly for
professionals. If any or all sound interesting, please grab them NOW,
since they will be expiring very soon. They require registration, but
it's not too lengthy. If you don't like these, click on http://work911.tradepub.com/
to find tons more. But do it now.
Factoid: Did you know that we started our original print newsletters
in 1992? This electronic version has been going for at least 10 years.
1) Free Trades, Whitepapers, etc.
The Pillars of Employee Performance Management E-book
I notified you of this one in a special bulletin about two weeks ago,
because I think highly of the content. It's rambles a bit but it
contains excellent information about making performance management and
performance appraisal work. It's all in a tight, 19 page downloadable
package. If you don't read any of MY books on the topic, at least read
this, since it is free. Here's the info.
Short Description: eBook & strategy manual for leveraging Employee
Performance Management in your organization.
Long Description: Does your organization consider Employee Performance
Management a laborious, tactical annual practice, or is it a
strategic, business-critical cycle? Maybe it's time to reassess. Now
more than ever, HR professionals like you are tasked with optimizing
Employee Performance Management processes across the board to ensure
the most efficient use of corporate resources. Employee Performance
Management has the power to accelerate time-to-revenue, reduce risks,
and help your organization proactively address threats and
opportunities.
What you will learn:
How to derive real value from Employee Performance Management
How HR can help align an organization's goals &
Best practices for successful competency management &
Five costly succession planning errors to avoid &
How to manage compensation during the economic crunch
http://work911.tradepub.com/c/pubRD.mpl?sr=oc&_t=oc::ezine&pc=w_sumt06
Website Magazine
Has tapped premier talent in the Internet industry for our content and
each and every issue will contain practical advice and insights for
website owners or website developers. You can get a free subscription
either in print or in downloadable format. Highly recommended.
http://work911.tradepub.com/c/pubRD.mpl?sr=oc&_t=oc::ezine&pc=webs
3 Steps to Developing Effective Calls to Action Whitepaper
I don't know about you but I'm not that great at writing sales copy,
whether it's for brochures, websites, ezines, phone, whatever. I'm
just not a "sales guy". If you have the same challenges and need to
create good sales copy get this. It explains how to create calls to
action that will lead to sales engagements.
Long Description: Compelling calls to action are the bridge from your
message to the beginning of the sales engagement. They are the links
that tie your audience to your product offering, and they're not one-
size-fits-all. This white paper describes three steps designed to help
you create compelling BtoB messaging and effective calls to action for
your audience segments.
Identify and prioritize "hot topics"
Map your message to your audience's behavioral cues
Locate and fill content gaps
http://work911.tradepub.com/c/pubRD.mpl?sr=oc&_t=oc::ezine&pc=w_bull03
TEST DRIVE Safari Books Online
Finally, something different, but decidedly useful. I've signed up for
this but haven't had a chance to explore it. Safari Books Online is an
on-demand digital library that provides access to thousands of
technology, creative and business books.
Safari Books Online is an on-demand digital library that provides
access to thousands of technology, creative and business books,
training videos and expert reference and learning materials from
leading publishers like O'Reilly Media, Oracle Press, Addison-Wesley,
Apress, Microsoft Press, Manning, John Wiley and Sons, IBM Press,
InformIT, Cisco Press, lynda.com and many more. When you or your team
have a question or need information, you can have immediate access to
thousands of books with lots of answers – not just one.
http://work911.tradepub.com/c/pubRD.mpl?sr=oc&_t=oc::ezine&pc=w_safa05
2) Bacal & Associate News:
Bacal & Associates Self-Service Article Reprint System
1) If you are an editor, trainer, manager, or anyone who needs and
uses written content (ie. articles), you'll be glad to know that you
can use our Bacal & Associates Self-Service Article Reprint Service to
licence our content for use OFFLINE, electronically or in print.
Please not that licences do NOT allow using our material on websites
available to the general public.. The cost is reasonable, and we've
set this up to allow people who want our material to serve themselves,
and save money. Best of all the process is fast. We aren't completely
finished yet, but here's some links for more information:
Why use this service http://busylearners.com/reprints/why.htm
Terms of Service http://busylearners.com/reprints/terms.htm
Available articles (purchase licences here) http://store.esellerate.net/s.aspx?s=STR722079289
Reminder: Things are not yet finished but you CAN purchase licences
NOW.
For Authors, Writers, Content Owners
Once we finish making our articles available for licencing we'll be
opening up our system to include the work of other authors who wish to
monetize their material. Creating alternate revenue streams is
critical to business, particularly small business, in tough economic
times. When we start accepting submissions we will let you know.
However if you believe you may be interested please read our authors
guidelines at http://busylearners.com/reprints/4authors.htm .
To be clear, we want quality articles of sufficient length and breadth
so that readers will be interested in including them in their
publications, and paying for the licence. NO material written in the
first person will be accepted.
Social Media (Twitter and LinkedIn)
We are now available on Twitter and LinkIn if anyone wants to link up
with us. My Twitter profile is available at http://twitter.com/rbacal
. If you don't know what Twitter is, check out the feature section
immediately below.
My linkedin profile is at: http://www.linkedin.com/in/rbacal
3a)Features:
Welcome to Twitter.
I've steadfastly avoided getting into "social networking" or "social
media" because I've had trouble seeing the point, and have had little
desire to increase my time spend on the computer. That said about a
month ago, I signed up for Twitter and began exploring it, trying to
figure out what it's good for. I'm not sure I have figured out what
it's used for, but one thing I can tell you. It's FUN. So here's some
information in case you are interested. Following is some additional
comment.
To Twitter Or Not to Twitter - Is it Sweet to Tweet?
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Clive_Sexton]Clive Sexton
Lastminute.com founder Brent Hoberman described it as "a fascinating
zeitgeist tool. It's an excellent way of understanding trends, seeing
what people are talking about and what's firing their imaginations. It
also feeds into our celebrity culture; the nosiness that makes us
human. There is always someone out there having a better time than you
and you want a bit of it. " Brent is not alone; Barack Obama has been
at it for ages... Right now it is the place to be, it's got the PR and
the momentum but it does not have the revenue model at present and
it's purely venture capital funded.
To the uninitiated, messages are known as tweets and people who read
your messages are called followers. Then there is the particular
Twitter culture and mode of behaviour: sociability is enhanced by
retweeting messages you find illuminating by rebroadcasting them to
your followers. Among hardcore users, gratuitous self-promotion is
frowned upon. Twitter has stumbled upon a formula that a whole
generation of internet start ups has been searching for: a way for
people to connect with friends, express themselves and find
information that stands a chance of one day becoming as popular as
other mass online trends such as blogging and social networking.
Three years old, the Silicon Valley company only has 29 employees
whilst the basic service will remain free, business users as on Linked
In may be charged for extra functions. Meanwhile there is a viral
network effect which is giving it great growth. The Twitter phenomenon
has much to do with the fundamental simplicity of the idea. Operating
at a juncture of blogging, texting and social networking, the service
defies easy categorisation. "Because it is undergoing such rapid
evolution, it's hard to slap a label on it" says Peter Fenton a
partner at Benchmark Capital, who has joined Twitter's board.
Businesses have been keen to tap into a rapidly growing network like
Twitter. The fact that users can choose which messages they want to
receive could open the way to a new "opt-in" marketing says Bob
Pearson of Dell. The computer maker for instance , issues a stream of
tweets about new discounts on its products. In summary Twitter's six
secrets of online success:
* Immediacy: Real-time flow of comments and adaptability to mobile
handsets makes it more immediate than blogging.
* Brevity: Limiting messages to 140 characters makes it easier to
produce and easier to digest.
* 'Pull' not 'push': The ability of users to choose whose tweets they
follow makes it less random than email.
* Searchability: Messages can be searched, making the content more
accessible than the comments on a social network.
* Mixing the public and the personal: A user's personal contacts are
on an equal footing with public figures.
* 'Retweeting': By copying and retransmitting messages, users can turn
the network into a giant echo chamber.
* This past week Twitter has been in the news several times:
* Life or death - A snowboarder was found dead but Twitter had been
used in the search and kept searchers up-to-date.
Twitter has been used very effectively to raise money for Comic
Relief, after the Twestival and the current hitchhike of Twitchhiker,
the TwitterTitters have compiled new book of comedy all this raising
well deserved funds for Comic Relief. On the commercial side-a US
based IT company has developed a network of sensors that measure the
amount of moisture in the soil and compares it to the optimum moisture
level. This data is sent to a local network. The data is then turned
into a text or Twitter message, to tell you when you need to water
your plants. So how cool it is that your plants can now Twitter you to
tell you they are thirsty! Give it a go....
Find out which UK and US politicians use Twitter the most: [http://
www.ft.com/twitteringclasses]http://www.ft.com/twitteringclasses.
and some well known Twitterers....
Will Carling, Russell Brand, Demi Moore, Chris Moyles, Britney Spears,
Lance Armstrong, John Cleese, Snoop Dogg, Noel Edmonds, Bill Gates,
Richard Branson, Jamie Oliver, Toby Young, Boris Johnson.
Over to you, can interim management professionals afford not to join
the Twittering classes? Inspiration for this blog from the FT, The
Observer, Computing and Metro, thank you.
Author: Clive Sexton
To read the original post, go to [http://www.impactexecutives.com/
journal/clivesexton/2009/03/to-twitter-or-not-to-twitter-i.html]
Clive's blog.
--
Additional Comments: At present Twitter is equivalent to the wild
west, in that it's fairly uncontrolled, so you'll find a fair amount
of spam, a huge amount of marketing, and even some bogus celebrities.
To my mind the business value of Twitter has been greatly over-rated,
but the FUN value remains. How Twitter will evolve will determine just
how valuable it is as a productivity or business tool.
You should also know that the volume of Tweets (that's the name for
short messages) can be very high, so it's recommended that you use one
of a variety of free tools to manage the flow. I use tweetdeck
available at tweetdeck.com. You should also know that building up a
following, at least legitimately, takes time and effort, so if you
want to use this for business purposes, you really need to enjoy it.
See you there. Remember you can "follow" me by going to my profile
http://twitter.com/rbacal and clicking the follow button.
--
3b) Social Networking
If you are like me, you're probably tired of all the hype about social
networking, and you may have avoided learning something about it.
Here's an article that offers an overview of social media to help you
understand it better and which can help you decide if you want to get
involved. Currently, due to the tough economic times, many people are
using places like LinkedIn to help in finding a job. Note that the
article below is from 2005 but it seems applicable still.
Why Bother With Social Networking Sites Like LinkedIn?
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Dave_Taylor]Dave Taylor
Q: I think I understand the value of networking as well as the next
businessman, but
for the life of me, I don't really see what sites like LinkedIn, Ryze
and Ecademy can
do for me. What's the point of these sites other than just as some
sort of digital
popularity contest?
A: My good friend and colleague Liz Ryan, head of the women's power
networking
group WorldWIT, Women in Technology, has a great answer to this sort
of question,
an answer that I'm quoting here with permission:
I ask people to join LinkedIn, and often they say "I don't want the
spam." So I say
"You won't get any spam." And they say "But I'm not job-hunting." And
I say "You
don't have to be job-hunting." Then we go back and forth for awhile.
It's a bit of a
challenge to get my own friends to see the forest for the trees,
sometimes.
When Monster.com was new, the big idea was to post jobs online. As an
HR person,
I can tell you, Monster is a pretty awful place to post jobs. You get
KILLED with
unwanted resumes from job seekers all over the world. I truly believe
that
Monster.com is the reason that HR people no longer respond to online
job seekers -
and sometimes offline job seekers - with any kind of response.
Anyway, over time HR people and recruiters figured out that the real
value to
Monster is the ability to search the candidate database (for a fee).
Maybe some of
the same thing is happening with LinkedIn. What seems like the obvious
benefit to
membership may not be the key feature for a lot of users. See what you
think about
this LinkedIn primer that I share with my friends. If I'm doing
something I shouldn't
be doing on LinkedIn, I'd love to know that too!
1) Your profile itself is a great value to joining LinkedIn. I get
great, useful contacts
from my profile appearing on LI, and of course it's free.
2) Even if you're not job-hunting or doing business developing or
searching for
contacts yourself, it's a great thing to be able to be a conduit for
your friends. They
really appreciate that service that you can provide for them. Just the
reconnect-
with-an-old colleague bit is a godsend: where else can you do that
online?
3) LinkedIn is the google for individuals who aren't high on Google
rankings. That
means anyone who's in a corporation but not senior enough to appear on
the About
Us/Management Bios page (although of course, those execs are often on
LinkedIn
too); anyone who is a partner in a consulting firm but perhaps not
often in the news
or otherwise mentioned online; and zillions of other people whom you'd
have
trouble finding if it weren't for LinkedIn.
4) Let's say you have a business meeting with the VP of Marketing at a
major
corporation next week. If it weren't for his profile on LinkedIn (say,
if you were
having this meeting three years ago), how would you learn where he
went to school,
where he worked before his current job, and other details about him?
With the help
of his LinkedIn profile, you're a zillion times better prepared for
the meeting.
5) Now let's say that VP of Marketing is behind the curve and doesn't
have a
LinkedIn profile. No big; you find another connection of yours who
works at the VP's
current company, and ping her for some background. See? LinkedIn to
the rescue
again.
6) Want to know who's working in a particular industry space in a
given city?
LinkedIn search. Intelligence gathering, even if you never contact any
of the people
you find.
My point is that there's lots more to LinkedIn than just reaching out
to people for
job leads and for business development leads - not that either of
those are bad
things. And I agree with other posters that you have to use the tool,
rather than just
join up and sit there like a lump. But I'd love to hear stories of
some more creative
uses for LinkedIn, from other users...
Thanks for sharing your compelling story with everyone, Liz. When I
think about
your point with Monster.com causing recruiters to never list jobs
online anymore, I
not only know that it's true from personal experience, but also find
it to be an
interesting example of the law of unintended consequences, in the same
way that a
site like LinkedIn helps with market research or background checks.
At the end of the day, in business you're ultimately constrained only
by the skills
you can bring to the table and the network of friends and
acquaintances you can call
on for help, advice and assistance. And if you don't help them when
you can, of
course, it doesn't take long to be ostracized from a group, however
informal or far-
flung. But if you are part of a circle of professionals, you will
always grow your
career faster, smarter, and more profitably.
Dave Taylor is an internationally recognized expert on business and
technical topics
and is the author of 18 different books and thousands of magazine
articles. His Q&A
Web site is http://www.askdavetaylor.com/
--
Comment: I don't quite "get" linkedin or other similar sites. I mean,
I get them in terms of what they are but I don't get them in terms of
their use. That may be because I have a network of websites that get
me "out there". And I've yet to find it fun to frequent sites like
linkedin. No doubt I will get the point as I experiment further so
don't let my temporary opinion sway you.
4) A Feature Site: Our Small Business Resources Site
The site that time forgot. So busy completing Perfect Phrases For
Managing Your Small Business that we forgot about the Small Business
Site. We've revamped the Blog part, and started posting there, and
we'll be working on the rest of the site too. If you have or want to
run a small business, check it out at: http://smallbusiness411.org .
Feel free to comment on the blog. We love to hear from people.
5) Another Feature Site: Training and Development World
I'm really proud of this site because of it's look and content. It's
one of our new generation sites so it has a nice easy to use feel to
it and contains articles, Q&A, a Blog and just great information about
training, development, facilitation, learning and group stuff in
general. http://thetrainingworld.com
6) Feature: The Poor Economy:
Preparing For Layoffs While You Still Have A Job Helpcard
Just a quick note. In today's climate you should be anticipating the
possibility of job loss, even if you feel secure. The time to prepare
for a layoff is when you still have a job. Our helpcard can assist you
in being prepared. We know that the degree a person is financially and
mentally prepared for layoffs, the higher the chance they will
actually end up ahead of the game if and when there is job loss.
If you've already lost your job, you might still want to take a look.
The same principles apply with respect to what you might be doing
during the periods of job loss.
Here's the link: http://busylearners.com/products/i-clayoff.htm . And
yes, there's a free preview you can download.
We also have two other helpcards that might be of interest, both with
free previews.
Crafting Your Resume Helpcard http://busylearners.com/products/i-cresume.htm
Preparing For The Interview Helpcard http://busylearners.com/products/i-cinterview1.htm
--
Odds and Ends:
Our book, Perfect Phrases for Managing Your Small Business, published
by McGraw-Hill, is now in stores, and available at amazon. If you want
to buy from amazon (and we hope you support us, since we get a small
referral fee from amazon), you can go to:
http://smallbusiness411.org/cgi-bin/library/jump.cgi?ID=12890
It's about 10 dollars, and it's full of hints, ideas, and cautions
about small business. Ideal for even experienced business owners, but
also great for those who might be interested in starting up a small
business. Given the current economic instability, a good investment.
Our Sites:
Just a quick summary of our sites that have information on the
following topics:
Leadership Resource Center: http://work911.com/leadership-development/index.html
Communication Resource Center: http://www.work911.com/communication/index.htm
Conflict (both workplace and family) http://conflict911.com
Business, Strategic and Personal Planning: http://www.work911.com/planningmaster/index.html
Performance Management & Appraisal: http://performance-appraisals.org
Customer Service: http://customerservicezone.com
Our Main Site: http://www.work911.com
Multi-Purpose Articles Database: http://www.articles911.com
To new subscribers: The work911 newsletter is published no more than
once a week and contains articles on all things work related, and
contains other work related resources, and updates about our sites,
and their contents. Past history indicates we publish about every ten
days. Subscribe at http://work911.com/newsletter.htm
Don't forget that you can access free, useable previews of over twenty
of our books and helpcards at:
http://busylearners.com
and that we continue to offer special freebie offers and discounts to
our newsletter subscribers! (and our toolbar owners!)
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