It travels to important hands

Have you ever wondered when you go for an interview or go to meet your clients or your prospective groom why you dress up so carefully, keeping in mind you wear the best shirt? Because, first impression has huge impact and you want to put your best foot forward. Exactly the same thing is applicable for business card. Business card is like your identity, your face before the world. When you silently give it to someone it speaks a lot about you, sends across reflection of your taste, preference, personality, attitude. And I am sure you don’t want that person to get a wrong message about you or consider you an average daily encounter. To make a mark, you need to be different, appear appealing. Don’t forget it’s not just one person whom you reach. Recipient may give away your business card to someone else as well to contact you. So your identity travels along. If it’s appealing, you get talked about and admired.

Long stay

People generally lose business cards quite often. Have you ever thought why so? It’s because most of them look boring, so people do not show an effort to keep them with much care and simply throw inside drawers, envelopes, wallet etc. But if a business card looks appealing people make an extra effort towards not misplacing it and keep it in card holder with much care, while flashing it often before others. Such business cards are hardly lost and are recalled often, talked about and perceived in a favorable manner. If a business card looks good the person who receives it also checks it with much more appreciations and holds it for long, whereas an average business card is much ignored and people simply put them in pocket soon after getting the card.

So what are waiting for? Get rid of boring business card and find a good designer to flash an appealing business card everywhere you go.

But how to keep the creative juice flowing? Here are tips below regarding where to get creative ideas from.

Choose an area of interest

Choose an area of work, which interests you. Don’t do what everyone is doing and is counted as trendy, or what brings money. Follow your heart and aptitude. You should do things which interest you, what you are passionate about. Then work will never seem like burden, it will be enjoyable. Within your passionate field further choose an area which you are good at. Like some artists are best in oil painting. So they excel if they go to the same field.

Draw inspiration from a source

You should be inspired by someone, to get going. It could be anyone – a mentor whose work inspire you or a famous person, a renowned global personality whose creations and success have always driven you crazy. Don’t imitate them blindly, get inspired by them.

Challenge yourself, do something new

Don’t end up doing what the rests have been doing. Challenge yourself constantly. Even if it seems impossible and full of hurdles in reality, if you think your idea is good and you can do it, go for it. It may take time and patience, but all great things come after long wait. Don’t be nailed down by failures. Failures will take you to success. If breaking rules help in procuring something good, let it happen.

Write down your ideas

Whenever something unique comes to your mind, pen it down and keep safely. It will keep you involved, focused, motivated and will help you to measure your progress.

Consult outer sources

Stay humble and open to new ideas. Don’t think you know it all. Tomorrow while talking to someone you come up with a better idea than before. So keep learning from others, books, films, articles – whatever is relevant for you. Even in an informal chat over coffee, great ideas may spring up.

Stay creative!

I am narrating here my discussion with him because I want to tell the readers that no matter what, feedback given by your client “about your work” matters a lot. His reaction to your personality may not matter, but for the work you have done for him, it does matter.

Having said that, I must say that your client’s feedback is not the final word on the quality you are able to produce. It is just a reflection of the kind of work you have produced for the client. You need to ask yourself where you have erred, and you should try not to repeat the same mistake again with another client. One feedback may not hurt you, but quite a few will blow a serious dent in your reputation.

How to avoid negative feedback?

1. Ask as many questions as you need to ask in order to understand the full details of the project before you start working on it.
2. Ask for the deadline, and verify if it is realistic or not. If you feel the time frame for the completion of the project is not sufficient tell him that. And also tell him what according to you should be the deadline for the work. Stick to whatever deadline is fixed.
3. In case you need extension, tell him days in advance. Calling him on the last day for extension may give you an extension, but will take away your reputation.
4. Do the best for each of your client. No matter how low or high one is paying. Always remember it was you who accepted the low rate, client did not put gun on your face to do so.
5. Ask for feedback.

Always keep your eyes and ears open, and welcome feedbacks with open arm. This is how you will grow.

Keep in mind that content is key.  Converting a free blog into a money making blog is a long difficult process, but one that you complete by putting the work in.  Make sure that your blog has an attractive and visually appealing template.  Something that makes a user feel comfortable, and that allows your blog to be easily read.  A safe bet is to use cooler colors, as they are more calming, instead of anything too vibrant.

Your writing will also need a little bit of an upgrade as well.  You’re not just writing for yourself anymore, you’re writing to get people to find your blog and remain interested.  That means you have to write concise, not overly long, and entertaining entries.  Let your unique voice and personality shine, and make sure not to write entries that are too long.  Readers want to be entertained, but long articles can leave most doubting whether or not they want to read what’s written.

From there you should be able to steadily build an audience.  You want to pay attention to traffic and the amount of time the average user is on your site.  You can find resources for this through services like Google’s Analytics.  See what content inspires interest, and try and build on your good stats by writing to those strengths.

Now you should be ready to make a little money.  Use programs like Google’s Adsense, and look to websites like Amazon.com which offer payment for affiliate links.  Through these you can start earning money off the traffic from your blog.  Just remember, the longer you keep someone on the page, the more impressions and likelihood of clicks you’re going to get.  You want as much as possible of both.  With grabbing headlines and engaging content, you should be well on your way.

Make sure your resume is properly up to date.  The last thing anybody wants to see is an old resume that you’ve been using for a few years.  That shows no initiative, a lack of effort, and will reflect poorly on your work ethic.  You definitely don’t want a potential boss counting strikes against you before you even have a chance to interview.

Keep your resume professional.  While I always stress making your resume unique and tailored to each job that you apply for, don’t step out of the professional mold.  Keep your font generic and readable, and stick to the standard resume format.  Just tailor the information to each job that you apply for.  That’s the best way to make a great impression.

Don’t send your resume without a cover letter.  The cover letter is the standard starting point of any application, and a resume sent without one is incomplete.  The resume only serves as a list of professional accomplishments and goals, the cover letter is where you put these into perspective with your personality.  The cover letter sells you, and shows that you are the best employee for the job.  Take advantage of the opportunity.

Finally, make your objective statement absolutely clear.  You have to have a clear cut idea of what you intend to give, and get from the job you are applying to get.  This is extremely important to a potential employer, so you want the statement to be as clear and understandable as possible.  You wouldn’t want someone tripping over the first, and most vital part of your resume.

Every application needs a cover letter, and a cover letter is your chance to shine.  So take advantage of that opportunity and be original.  The last thing you want in a cover letter is to sound mundane, or like the cover letter is the same form that you’ve sent to every other company you’ve applied.  Personalize and let your personality show.  That’s what a cover letter is for.  Sell yourself, and let your originality shine, and that will make your cover letter stand out from the rest.  Just remember to remain professional and courteous.

Being persistent means letting the company know who you are.  After you’ve turned in an application make sure to follow up.  That means waiting a few days, and then visiting the company again to check on the status of your application.  This shows initiative and a genuine desire to work.  That gives you an edge as most people think the process is done after submitting an application.

Finally, remember once you have that interview, the job is far from done.  Be confident, and do your research.  You need to know what you’re talking about here, because a bad interview will always lose you the job opportunity.  Stay positive, and confident, and know your facts concerning the company.  Use those facts to work for you, and to outline your desire to work there.  Performing that to great effect will make you a top candidate for the job, and will best increase your chances for landing the position as quickly as possible.

Well!

PR stands for public relation, and press release is a very important tool to accomplish the public relation goal. We will not go deep into describing public relation in this blog post, suffice it to say that unlike advertisement, which is a direct communication from the company, public relation is the third party endorsement of a brand or company.

The essence of successful PR campaign lies in the anonymity of the company who created or ran the campaign. Most of the news that you read in the newspaper is actually a direct outcome of PR.

Why should I write a press release

Well, press releases are written to communicate to the general public the recent developments in the company in question. And by development I mean meaningful development, and not developments like these: your boss moved up to another position, or your CEO just sneezed. Developments that make news should be newsworthy. Some eminent personality of BBC (perhaps, I cannot be sure of who he was) once said,

“If a dog bites a man, it is not a story, but if a man bites a dog it is news.”

Following the lead many companies create the artificial “a man biting a dog” stories to get press coverage, and it get covered.

Why?

Journalists get either paid to do that or they are stupid enough to not separate wheat from chaff.

For whom should I write a press release?

As with any form of corporate communication that goes outside the corporate boundary, the ultimate target audience of a press release is the general public, but this is not what we should be primarily concerned with while writing the press release.

If we do so, our press releases will not be taken. The direct target audience of a press release is the journalist who is going to do his story based on the press release that we will send him about us. If the journalist is not impressed, our press release will hit the trash bin sooner than it should.

The general public is the indirect target audience of a press release. Their interest should also be at back of your mind while writing a press release, or else, why would you write one?

A parting thought

When I started writing this post, I thought this will be a single stand-alone post on press releases, but after reaching to this point I felt, I will not be doing justice to the topic, if I do not cover every aspect of press releases, and this gave me an opportunity to write at least three more posts on the topic. So, be on the look, and meanwhile send in your suggestions either here through the comment box or mail me on bikram [at] biksy [dot] com.

By making ourselves so incredibly easily available on the internet, you may not even realize how these things can come back to haunt you in unexpected ways.  Which is exactly why everyone should realize that with every resume, you almost need to prepare a web 2.0 resume alongside.  Of course I’m not referring to an actual document you should write, but instead make sure that the internet smiles kindly upon you to anyone doing a search.

Google yourself and see what comes up, make sure you like what you see, or else strive to change the negative points.  Nothing shows a good reference like going to a completely unbiased source, such as Google, and only seeing positive information.  Plus simple search engine exploration like this is faster and easier than a company trying to track down your references on the phone to get a feel for your personality.

So here are a few tips for shaping up your Web 2.0 resume:

1. Make yourself available online.  If you have a job, such as being a freelance writer, where internet recognition is very important, make sure that you’re easy enough to find.  A company looking to hire a talented blogger isn’t going to turn to you if they can’t find your alias on Google within the first few pages of results.

2. Make sure that information is positive.  You don’t want a new potential company Googling your  name and then finding a post where all you do is bash your former employer.  Nothing would turn off a new company more.

3. Create your own strictly professional web page, to act as an easy to read career resume.  Make sure you’ve got an accurate career portfolio up, and go the extra distance by having a custom email address URL related to your website where they can contact you.  Both factors will make you look informed, and prepared for what’s expected in the web 2.0 environment.

4. Social networking professionally.  Make sure that you have professional alternatives to your social networking, and that you maintain relationships through them effectively.  Keep things strictly business, to show that you are a hardworking potential employee that knows the difference between what is and isn’t appropriate.

Being unafraid to get your name out there as much as possible is usually a very good factor to have in your camp when applying to a job.  Work on increasing your online presence as much as possible, even Google your own name to see what pops up, in terms of your past accomplishments.  If you like what you see, why not throw an invitation for your prospective employer to do a Google search on you, to look up past accomplishments.  Nothing tells the truth like sources beyond yourself with nothing but good things to say.

Don’t waste your time writing about responsibilities you had beyond just previous job titles.  Usually any interviewer can discern the information that applies to them from that alone, and your time is better sent describing the difference you made at the company, and what you accomplished.  That’s what your next employer cares about, what you did at your previous job, not just what you were expected to accomplish.

Let your personality shine, so many people just send in form resumes, and that get’s extremely tired for the interviewer, and makes you appear unwilling to devote time and effort to a project.  Write everything as you would speak given the opportunity to have an interview.  This way you come across as a real person, and who you are is reflected as much as the abilities you can offer.

Finally, never underestimate the value of a few good references.  Well earned and picked references can be the difference between getting a losing a job opportunity.  Just like you would read a few film reviews when trying to find which movie you want to see, your interviewer needs sources about you, so that they can decipher what to expect and if you are the right addition to the team for them to choose.  Good references are key, so always do what you can to ensure you don’t burn any bridges on your journeys through the corporate system.