In the new virtual or hybrid world of work, it’s harder to remain visible among our stakeholders. This makes your presence in social media even more important than it was in the pre-Covid times. You want to avoid the “out-of-sight, out-of-mind” career trap. Yet many professionals I speak with are just not that interested in spending a lot of time creating and sharing content online every single day. It feels like a distraction from their “real work” and a giant time sink.
If that’s how you feel, here’s some really good news. There’s a way to be visible, available and valuable to the people you seek to influence without having to take on the new job title of Social Media Maven. It’s called content curation, and it should help you breathe a sigh of relief. When you share other people’s content, lots of great things happen. You:
Save time
The first benefit is the most obvious one. You save time. Lots of it. When you curate, instead of spending an hour on creating new content, you just spend a minute making others’ content visible to your audience.
Learn
When you’re curating others’ content on the topic you want to be known for, you’re learning from their experience and perspective. This gives you insights you can use to amp up your performance at work, and it helps you hone your own point of view. And this is critical to defining your thought-leadership and personal brand differentiation. Let’s face it, there are lots of people who do what you do, so it’s valuable to have your own opinions, systems and processes so you can stand out.
Connect authentically
By sharing someone else’s content, you’re helping them increase their visibility. This is a great way to start to build a relationship with an author or thought-leader in your field. We all know the best way to create a solid network is to give to others. One of the greatest gifts you can give people is acknowledgement of their hard work and the opportunity to be visible to a wider, yet targeted community. This is a powerful long-term networking strategy that doesn’t come with the slimy feeling of asking someone for something. Dorie Clark in her bestselling book The Long Game put it this way: “True networking is not about trying to get something as fast as you can. When we set out to make friends and build relationships, rather than to simply get something, it feels entirely different.”
Boost your brand
By connecting yourself with the author’s content and by putting the spotlight on the experts quoted in the article, you start to connect your brand with theirs. It’s called brand association. You link yourself with those who are known or revered or at least visible to a community you seek to impact. That brand association affects what others think about you.
Demonstrate company loyalty
When you share content that comes from your company (through your company’s LinkedIn page, for example), you become a digital brand ambassador, and a few good things happen. First, you get seen internally as someone who’s engaged in what the organization is doing. By actively pursuing content to share, you learn about what’s happening outside your job function or department, and you become visible to others in different parts of the organization. You also make your company’s content much more visible and valuable. We know from the LinkedIn Blog that only 3% of employees post or share company related content to their feed, but these posts make up 30% of social actions (likes, and shares).
So if you’re feeling like you should be more involved in social media, but the thought of the effort has been holding you back, consider consistently curating content. It’s a simple but speedy way to increase your visibility without having to work the night shift on social media.
There’s no doubt that we live in a world where instant gratification is a constant demand. Those of us with something to sell are confronted with the challenge of being the shiniest object in a universe of shiny objects. Brands want to get noticed fast.
In an ever-increasing competition for customers, it may be tempting to just put on a show. However, it takes time and dedication to build your company’s online credibility. You’ll regret taking shortcuts when someone sees what’s really behind the curtain and lets everyone else know.
Instead, create and stick to an honest strategy for building your online credibility. Here are four things you should avoid doing along the way.
1. Varnished Truths
If you exaggerate, mislead or outright lie about your company to make it sound incredible, you have missed the point of credibility. Central to credibility are honest and consistent communication, as well as delivering to your customers what you promise.
Don’t attempt to skirt the truth by using fancy or vague language. If you’d respond to potential objections about your website content by saying that “technically” it’s not dishonest, don’t use that content. Lying by omission does not build credibility.
Irrelevant content is dishonest in its own way, so don’t create it either. Readers despise clicking a link they’re interested in only to find something unrelated and immaterial. In fact, they’re getting wiser about filtering out irrelevant content, and they loathe the brands who put it out there.
You also won’t fool anyone by publishing only positive reviews on your website and social media channels. Someone is going to express issues with your product or customer experience. Publish the poor review along with your response to it, and your brand will be believable.
Consumers are increasingly sceptical and savvy. They have a multitude of brands to choose from when making a purchasing decision, and they do their research to find the best fit. A little polish is fine, but aim to give them the unvarnished truth.
2. Anything Ad Nauseam
Avoid being too promotional in your online marketing efforts. Grandstanding may attract attention, but not the right kind. No one likes a show-off, including consumers, competitors and search engines.
Spammy online marketing practices aren’t just enormously annoying. They can destroy trust in your brand and send leads and customers running for cover. How do you steer clear of these tactics?
Make sure your website design is clean, informative and easy to navigate on a variety of devices. Beware overuse of pop-ups, slide-ins and video clips that launch without the user’s request or, worse, without them even knowing they’re there.
Not that you need to forgo these tactics altogether. One well-placed exit-intent pop-up may be all you need to convert a lead. What you should eschew, however, is one-upmanship. It’s OK to let consumers know what’s great about your product without claiming to be infinitely superior to a crowded field of competitors. Instead, use your competitors’ strengths to lift up the industry, honestly compare your products and demonstrate your industry expertise.
Consumers are generally wary, knowing that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. And nothing will irritate search engines faster than overtly promotional content. There’s an abundance of spammy ways to promote your brand ad nauseam. Resist them or risk losing credibility forever.
3. Poor Context
Your brand will be judged by the company you keep, so be choosy about the connections you make. Of course, you want to see your brand’s name mentioned and your content printed in top-tier publications. You want to find your products ranked highly in best-of listicles on reputable sites. You want respected media outlets to interview you for stories.
Scores of other brands are reaching for these goals, too, so you’ll need to be patient and strategic. Avoid the temptation to link your brand in any way with sketchy publications because you think it’s better than nothing at all.
You may opt to hire an agency to help you develop placement strategies and content. There are nearly as many agencies out there as there are online publications, and not all of them are reputable. Shun the keyword stuffers and spam commenters. The publications and blogs you want to appear in know who those bad actors are.
Vet your agencies by checking references and reviews. It will be worth paying one more than another if the more expensive agency demonstrates a commitment to professional ethics and a record of results.
Bad press, or press in bad publications, really isn’t better than no press at all. So be selective about the context in which you place your brand. Keeping good company may make you the company consumers keep.
4. Trendy Topics
Trends are the shiny objects du jour. Too many brands, hoping to capitalize on them, leave their carefully crafted and executed marketing strategies in the gutter to follow the latest fads.
There’s nothing wrong with using a trend in a clever way so long as it’s relevant to the brand and your audience. But avoid going from one flash in the pan to another as a regular practice. By their very nature, trends are fleeting.
If you want your brand’s credibility to remain for the long term, stick to what’s working in your marketing strategy. For sure, social media makes latching onto fads easy. Content responding to the latest internet meme or celebrity trend can be created and pushed out into the world within minutes, often at the expense of credibility.
In fact, trends can do irreparable harm if they’re off-target. Do you really comprehend the nuances of today’s trending hashtag? Once you’ve put it out there, it’s too late to pull it back, so beware.
Smart use of a trendy topic here and there is fine and may in fact attract new audience members. But at the end of the day, it’s your brand’s evergreen content that will cultivate trust in your company. Use anything else with extreme caution.
Online credibility is built over time, so avoid seeking quick fixes, no matter how appealing they may be. Instead of grasping at the shiny new tactic, apply some spit and polish to the ones you’re already using. You’ll give readers, customers, search engines and competitors something to believe in.
John Hall is the co-founder and president of Calendar, a scheduling and time management app. He’s also the strategic adviser for Relevance, a company that helps brands differentiate themselves and lead their industry online. You can book him as a keynote speaker here and you can check out his best-selling book “Top of Mind.” Sign up for Calendar here.
People are tired of being pushed into something they don’t want.
According to a study by Stackla, 90% of customers place a premium on authenticity when selecting which companies they like and support. But what exactly is authenticity? How can we show our customers that we’re human and relatable and not just a brand with an agenda?
Here are six practical tips on how to bring authenticity into your start-up’s marketing strategy.
What is authenticity in marketing?
Authenticity is having a genuine connection with your target audience. If you’re not authentic, it’s difficult for customers to connect with what you do. People want brands that they can relate to — companies who are just like them, only better at their job or service because of experience and expertise. Authenticity is also about transparency and showing the world who you are and what you believe in. So, think of authenticity as your company’s personality; it should be unique to every brand out there.
How can start-ups bring authenticity to their marketing
Did you know that nearly 90% of all start-ups fail? Start-up marketing is difficult because you are often underfunded, have a limited customer base or are just getting started. As a co-founder and owner of a business, I understand the challenges that you are facing. I’ve failed many times. That’s why I’d like to share some of the marketing strategies that have worked well for me and have helped people connect with us on an emotional level every day.
1. Know your target audience
You need to know who your target audience is and what their needs and interests are before you can create a message for them or speak about them on social media channels like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The more you know, the better your marketing will be.
It’s your job to create an emotional connection between your brands and customers, and authenticity is key here too. Once you understand your target audience and their needs, you can speak to them more effectively on the proper social media channels.
2. Be genuine in your marketing messages
Knowing your target audience does not mean you should be overly promotional. You can still show people who you are as a brand and what makes your company unique while also being more realistic about your company’s benefits. Establishing authenticity in marketing means not trying to be something you’re not. People will see right through anything that seems fake or disingenuous. If you decide to be honest with people, then put all your cards on the table. Don’t try to market your start-up as something it’s not.
3. Be consistent with messaging across social media channels
It’s no secret that social media has changed the way that brands communicate with customers. Social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok are potent tools that can help you build relationships with people interested in your start-up’s product or services. Your brand messaging must be consistent across all these channels. You need to be consistent with your words, images and tone of voice if you want your target audience to trust what you’re saying. Why should, for example, potential consumers believe you if you send conflicting messages on social media?
Don’t forget to keep in mind that social media is a two-way street. Start-ups need to be engaging and respond quickly when people ask questions or have concerns about their product or service — this also helps build trust. It’s best to create one voice for your brand across all your social media channels. It will help you communicate with people more personally, and this is what authenticity is about: being real.
4. Give people something to talk about
Don’t just sell people your product or service. You need to give them a reason why they should buy from you. If someone isn’t interested in what you have to offer, there’s no point in pursuing the relationship. Give potential customers something that will make them want to work with you instead of against you.
5. Create an authentic voice for your brand
If you’re looking to create a brand that people will love, your voice must be authentic. Without an authentic voice, your customers may not get the experience they expect and could have negative feelings about your company. Don’t expect to win customer loyalty or get people excited about your product if you don’t sound like yourself. It’s not just what you say that matters. It’s also how you say it. Having an authentic voice for your brand means letting go of the idea that marketing is all science and no artistry. You need to put creativity into everything that comes out of your business, from product development to marketing and sales.
6. Use metrics and data analysis to improve your marketing
Just because you’re authentic doesn’t mean that your marketing will be successful every time. Even if you put a lot of effort into it, everything can still fall flat on its face. Remember that marketing is half art and half science. You need to put creativity into everything you do and keep in mind that metrics and data analysis are essential for adding substance to those creative decisions. What works today might not work next month or even tomorrow, so don’t get too attached to a single marketing strategy.
Take advantage of cutting-edge marketing tools such as social media advertising, influencer marketing and even email campaigns to get your startup’s name out into the world. Keep track of everything you do to improve it over time.
Marketing to businesses requires special strategies and tools.
If your business caters to other businesses, the manner in which you promote your products and services will be very different from the way you market to consumers. This is because customers who are purchasing on behalf of a business or a company have different requirements and buying journeys compared to those who are looking to purchase something for personal use.
As such, businesses that are selling to other businesses need to master the art of B2B marketing and understand the best B2B marketing software to use. When done correctly, this will help you reach key decision-makers and turn them into paying customers.
In this article, we’ll cover the ins and outs of B2B marketing, including what it is and how to implement it. You’ll also learn the different types of B2B marketing and see examples of campaigns in the wild.
Let’s get started.
How is B2B marketing defined? B2B Marketing definition
The definition of B2B marketing is exactly what it sounds like: it’s the practice of marketing to businesses. Simply put, it’s about getting your products or services in front of people who work in the business sector.B2B marketing is different from marketing to individuals. When you market your products to businesses, you’re dealing with clients who buy products or services for their companies. B2B buyers are looking for things that can help them meet a business objective. Examples of such objectives include:
① Increasing revenue
② Improving employee efficiency
③ Saving the business money
Generally speaking, B2B buyers are looking for products or services that can provide a good Return on Investment (ROI) for the companies they work for, as opposed to B2C buyers who purchase products for personal consumption.
So, when did B2B marketing start? While trade journals did run ads targeting businesses during the 1800s along with early content marketing-style articles, B2B marketing didn’t really come into its own until the 1930s after the stock market crash of 1929 changed modern buying habits.
As the Great Depression forced consumers and businesses to purchase products based on utility rather than fashion, industrial buyers demanded more data-driven market research. This sparked early “industrial marketing” with marketing materials offering statistics and case studies for industrial buyers.
Over time, new mediums like radio and television provided additional B2B marketing platforms and tools to reach businesses. With the coming of the Internet, marketers gained a way to connect with millions of people on a regular basis. Now, B2B marketers come up with ways to make it easier for businesses to find their companies online.
Today, both small business owners and large companies can access more information on products and services through business and review sites. This requires B2B marketers to provide useful and relevant content that engages prospective clients and helps retain current customers.
Why is B2B marketing important?
(Image credit: Pexels)
B2B marketing is — and will continue to be — important for as long as the business sector exists. Companies, just like consumers, have certain needs; without B2B marketing, businesses that can fulfil other businesses’ needs won’t be able to get their products and services in front of their target audiences and customers.
What is the difference between B2B and B2C marketing?
(Image credit: Slack)
Although there is some overlap, business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing have different strategies and goals. B2B marketing is focused on educating and communicating ROI to key decision-makers, while B2C marketing communicates how a product fits into the customer’s personal life.
There are also some key distinctions when it comes to the channels leveraged by B2B and B2C marketers. And while there is a bit of overlap — e.g., B2B and B2C buyers both use email marketing — the manner in which campaigns are executed is completely different.
Here is a table outlining the biggest differences between the two:
B2B Marketing
B2C Marketing
Customers
Sells to businesses like retailers, software companies, manufacturers, and suppliers
Sells directly to individual consumers
Buying journey
Can take weeks or months; B2B buyers often take time to research solutions, work with multiple stakeholders, and engage with sales reps to figure out the best vendor
With certain exceptions, the buying journey of consumers is shorter and more direct; often, it simply involves adding an item to a physical or digital shopping cart
Messaging
Usually centered on educating buyers and communicating the solution’s ROI
Usually focused on communicating how a product or service fulfills a personal need (e.g., entertainment, social status, making life easier, etc.)
Sales and marketing channels
Email marketing, TV and radio ads, account-based marketing, SEO, paid search, social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram
Email marketing, SMS, TV and radio ads, retail marketing, SEO, online marketplaces (Amazon, Etsy), social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok
What are the types of B2B marketing?
(Image credit: Future)
Marketers have a wide range of digital B2B marketing strategies to reach prospective clients. Some of the most effective ones include:
Content marketing. Content marketing offers useful information like business guides and industry studies to prospective clients. The information can be shared via blog posts, podcasts, online videos, and email newsletters. As more people view your content as a valuable resource, your B2B company’s brand awareness, leads, website traffic, and sales will grow.
Lead generation. B2B marketing teams need to identify their ideal potential customers, or “leads,” and convince them to buy from their company. Lead generation can be accomplished by capturing prospect information (usually through the use of online forms and landing pages). Lead generation can also be done at live events like trade shows where businesses market to other businesses.
Email marketing. Email campaigns generate a high ROI, with $42 for every $1 spent. This makes email newsletters a powerful way to share facts, statistics, and studies with leads and convert them into customers.
Social media & viral marketing. Social media posts like an Instagram video of valuable tips and tutorials can be deemed useful by potential B2B clients. These posts are shared on the Internet, increasing your brand awareness. With enough shares, your posts can go viral and reach thousands of potential clients, creating an effective form of viral marketing.
Affiliate marketing and native advertising. Affiliate marketing enables you to get existing clients and other content creators to promote your business on their sites via affiliate links that earn them a commission when someone clicks on the link (pay-per-click) or when you make a sale (pay-per-sale).
Native advertising allows these affiliate links to look like part of the site they appear in. For instance, your ad may appear as content recommendations on an affiliate site, making it more likely B2B clients will visit your site.
Search engine marketing (SEM). SEM is all about increasing your brand presence in search results, typically through the use of paid ads. It involves creating search ads and bidding on keywords. The goal is for your ads to show up whenever people enter relevant search queries.
Mobile (MMS & SMS) marketing. Mobile marketing uses devices like tablets and smartphones to market products and services. This can be done through Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) which sends enhanced text messages or Short Message Service (SMS).
B2B marketing teams use various platforms for different advertising campaigns. If you want to promote your company on social media, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook are popular sites frequented by potential clients. Many businesses also use WordPress to build blogs for content marketing.
Ultimately, your choice of B2B marketing tools and platforms depends on your objectives and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for measuring the success of your campaign.
B2B marketing objectives and measurable KPIs
As you build your B2B marketing campaign, clarify your objectives. Are you looking to increase sales, improve your brand awareness, or retain your current clients?
Have the B2B marketing tools for tracking and measuring your Key Performance Indicators. Important KPIs include:
(Image credit: Unsplash)
Example of a successful B2B marketing strategy
Thanks to its strong B2B marketing strategy, Ahrefs, a company that provides SEO software, has managed to become one of the go-to tools in a very crowded market.
Here are some of the components involved in its strategy.
Long-form content. The team at Ahrefs has produced hundreds of detailed tutorials, articles, and opinion pieces on topics that search marketers care about. Because Ahrefs consistently publishes high-quality content, many of its articles rank high on Google, which then helps drive traffic to its website.
(Image credit: Ahrefs)
Ahrefs Academy. The company also set up an educational hub on its website, which is packed with SEO courses and training materials. Ahrefs even offers a certification course designed to teach people how to use its platform more effectively.
(Image credit: Ahrefs)
Data and studies. In addition, Ahrefs publishes its own research reports based on proprietary data gathered from its platform. These reports shed light on trends and insights that Ahrefs’ audience can use in their businesses.
(Image credit: Ahrefs)
All in all, the different components of Ahref’s B2B strategy work together to increase brand awareness as well as position Ahrefs as a leading authority in the space. Because of its efforts, Ahrefs has earned the trust of the SEO community, and this has helped it rapidly grow its userbase.
Example of a successful B2B marketing campaign
CB Insights is a company that provides market intelligence on private companies and investor activities to venture capital firms, investment banks, and other companies with a stake in high-growth private companies. Its business analytics platform and global database help companies respond to potential threats, predict emerging tech trends, and uncover competitor strategies.
(Image credit: CB Insights)
Sounds heavy, but to promote itself, CB Insights offers a fun and informative e-newsletter that examines lucrative trends in the business world — like the profitability of funny GIFS and the popularity of Internet memes.
This strategy gets clients to open their emails and recognize CB Insights as a source of relevant information. Subscribers then have an incentive to go to the company website and become clients, making this the type of effective campaign that wins B2B marketing awards.
Conclusion
By using B2B marketing strategies like content marketing, email campaigns, and social media marketing, you can show how your company helps solve business problems. This lets you connect with lucrative businesses and convert them into regular clients.
Of course, in order to form these connections, you need effective B2B marketing platforms and software.
Learn more about how the right tools can help expand your business by reading additional resources on the best B2B marketing software to help you reach more clients in our guides: the Best CRM software, the Best email marketing software and the Best SEO tools.
Francesca has over 10 years experience as a B2B writer and content marketeer, creating content about retail, ecommerce, technology, and SMB. And has written for websites such as Entrepreneur.com, The Huffington Post, Lifehack, MediaBistro, Independent Retailer, Retail Touchpoints, and many more.
Showcasing the right hard and soft skills on your résumé will make it standout. This is exactly how to do it.
Writing a good résumé is a difficult balancing act. Sometimes it can be a challenge to keep your résumé length short and sweet while also including enough quality information to make a lasting impression.
Hiring managers will also hold a particular interest in the skill set you possess. This means it’s very important to know what is relevant to the job when thinking of skills to list on your résumé. And though it goes without saying, we’ll say it just in case: any job skills listed on your resume should be skills you truly possess.
So how do you figure out the best skills to put on your résumé? And what if you’re looking to find a remote job?
Hard Skills vs. Soft Skills in Your Résumé
There are endless skills that you can include on any résumé, and you have to decide which ones will be the most effective. There are hard, industry-specific technical skills, as well as soft skills that every job demands.
Hard skills are technical abilities that are specific to a particular job and are often measurable. For software developers, their set of hard skills would include specific programming languages. Soft skills are personal skills or creative abilities that can come naturally or be strengthened over time. Some examples of soft skills are adaptability, self-motivation, people skills, time management, and the ability to work under pressure.
Let’s take a closer look at the skills section for your résumé.
Top Skills to List in Your Résumé
Top Soft Skills For Your Résumé (Examples)
There are tons of soft skills (personal skills) that you can include in your résumé, but how do you know which ones to include? Here is a quick list of soft skills examples you should list on your résumé. (Be sure to carefully look at the job description and determine which soft skills you possess that are most applicable for the job.)
– Problem Solving Skills
No matter what the job is, eventually something will go wrong and employers want to know that you’re capable of coming up with a quick and effective solution. In fact, there are jobs that are essentially nothing but solving problems for the company, the clients, or both.
– Critical Thinking Skills
Being able to think rationally and thoughtfully is the basis of critical thinking. Employers want workers who can think through a problem or a project and determine the best steps needed. Critical thinkers come up with new and better ways to work, making it an invaluable skill to put on a résumé.
– Flexibility
Many organizations and industries covet employees who are dynamic and adaptable to every situation, or who have a natural ability to use a variety of methods and approaches in different circumstances to get the best end result.
– Communication Skills
Whether it’s written or verbal, being able to communicate with your boss, co-worker’s, and clients/customers in all situations is very valuable. The better you are at it, the better results you will generate.
– Teamwork
Most jobs will sometimes require you to work with other people at some point, and employers want to know that you can succeed in a team environment. Some jobs will prize this skill more than others.
– Organization Skills
This is not just about having a neat desk, but organizing tasks and projects for your co-workers, management, and at the very least, yourself! If you want to show off your organization skills, having a tightly structured résumé certainly helps.
– Creativity
Thinking outside of the box and coming up with creative solutions can be a real asset in any role. Perhaps you’re good at thinking about something in a way that hasn’t been done before. Creativity can be shown on your résumé through a problem you solved or through a creative skill like writing or design.
– Emotional Intelligence
According to Psychology Today, “Emotional intelligence refers to the ability to identify and manage one’s own emotions, as well as the emotions of others.” In the workplace, this means you’re rational and even-keeled, and can handle ups and downs without losing control. While this is important for everybody, it’s a must-have skill to include on a résumé for management.
– Attention to Detail
On the job you need to ensure you follow all instructions in order to complete your work. This can be especially important when you work with others. Paying attention to detail will be needed at any role you have. Consider times when you caught or fixed a potential mistake due to your attention to detail.
– Responsibility
Part of being a good employee is taking responsibility for your duties and even owning up to mistakes. Most managers don’t want to have to check in on their employees to ensure every part of their job is getting done. Responsibility means doing what you need to do to complete your tasks.
Top Hard Skills For Your Résumé (Examples)
Hard skills tend to be more technical, and each industry or type of job will usually have its own required set. Finding out what range of hard skills you’ll be expected to have in your field might require some research. Here are hard skills examples that tend to be in-demand across many industries. (Be sure to carefully look at the job description and determine which hard skills you possess that are most applicable for the job.)
– Computer Software and Application Knowledge
The list of professions that does not require you to use computers and certain types of software is very short. You could very likely break up “computer skills” into two or three specific technical proficiencies for your field.
– Design
Aside from the obvious professions like graphic or web design, there are jobs in marketing, advertising, branding, engineering, and construction that require some type of design skills—even if it’s only for drawing up presentations.
– Data Analysis
Understand data is very much in vogue right now, and there are a lot of jobs out there where you will be called upon to analyze metrics and extrapolate a practical use from it, making analytical skills extremely valuable to put on your résumé.
– Negotiation
There are many jobs that involve selling a product or service, purchasing stock or merchandise, brokering deals for production or transportation, establishing partnerships for advertising or investments, and so on.
– Mathematics
Finance, business, engineering, construction, manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, and operations will require you to be competent with math in some capacity. If you’re in a profession that is more math-heavy, consider splitting it up into a few more specific skills areas.
– Project Management
Many jobs will require project management skills. The ability to manage your task flow and complete assignments on time is part of project management. Perhaps you have used project management software in the past or have completed a project early—these all show good project management.
– Marketing
Marketing involves selling and promoting products and services. Even if you’re not a marketer per se, many companies may desire this hard skill. Knowing the highlights and benefits of your company’s products and services, and being able to speak or write about them, can be valuable to many different jobs. If you have specific marketing or social media experience, even better.
– Administrative
Even if your job is not administrative in nature, it’s likely a part of your role. Administrative skills involve the things you do to manage your role: organizing, planning, scheduling, writing emails, managing files, etc. Employers want to know you’re able to take hold of the details.
– Writing Skills
Many jobs involve writing. Whether it’s to clients or coworkers, having a basic writing ability is necessary and an absolute skill to put on your résumé. Emails filled with typos and grammatical errors will not reflect well on you, and poor tone can send the wrong message. Demonstrate this skill through your cover letter and emails with the recruiter, and list any specific writing-heavy projects you’ve completed.
– Foreign Languages
Being bilingual can be a great hard skill and set you apart from your competition. Even if a role or company doesn’t initially have a need for a bilingual employee, they may look favorably on your ability. It is common to need someone with fluency in another language to help customers or clients, so play up this skill on your résumé.
Look for Target Keywords
If you’re still not sure if any of these skills are right for your situation, one quick way to check which skills the employer is seeking is to check the job description.
Read through it a few times and you’ll likely spot three or four key skills mentioned several times throughout the document. If that’s the case, you should do your best to focus on those skills in your résumé, too.
How to List Skills In Your Résumé
Sort Skills By Relevance
If you are applying for a sales job, your prior experience as a car mechanic is not the most relevant. You will want to emphasize experience that can be applicable to a sales role. However, if you lack the experience, search through your existing positions for relevant skills.
For example, if you were responsible for providing customer service as a mechanic, that is something that can be transferable to a sales role.
Add a Highlights Section
Modern résumés are built to be value-oriented, which requires providing information that is more achievement-based as opposed to task-based. If you’ve had multiple roles with varying achievements, select the top four you are most proud of and incorporate them into a Career Highlights section.
Try to avoid adding more than four as this section is meant to be the highlights of your achievements, and you don’t want to create sections with long lists of bullets, creating a very boring way to read content.
Categorize by Skill
If you are higher up in your career level, you likely have multiple responsibilities that cross several platforms or departments. If you are a manager or director of operations at a company, your responsibilities may include: managing staff, maintaining smooth daily operations, communicating with key stakeholders and/or vendors, developing and managing projects, and hiring and training staff.
With either your task-based information or achievements, you can categorize the content into sections to illustrate the diversity in your responsibilities.
For example:
Process Improvements: information of responsibilities and/or achievements that relate to creating and implementing processes to improve operational efficiencies.
Customer Service Skills: content that illustrates how you maintain or improve the customer experience at your company.
Change Management: information that can relate to restructuring staff, developing training programs for employees, and coaching individuals or groups on company best practices.
Your soft skills and hard skills are the very things that will either qualify you or disqualify you for a job. Be sure to include some of these top skills on your résumé for maximum results.
Feature Image Credit: [Source illustration: Anna Duvanova/Getty Images]
Everything you think you know about making money online is probably wrong.
Most of my students aren’t complete online business newbies. Many of them have tried at least some kind of online business at some point. Some of them are trying to juggle several of them when they come to me, and they are usually very excited to tell me about it.
I admire their enthusiasm, but if they come to me looking to me for validation of what they are already doing, they usually come away disappointed. The idea they breathlessly share with me often times was old news five years ago.
If I try to point that out to them, as gently as possible, they sometimes don’t take it well. They have invested a lot of hope and excitement into their entrepreneurial endeavour. Hearing that they have been spinning their wheels ranges from dispiriting to offensive.
I don’t blame them. There’s a lot of noise out there. Not to contribute to it unnecessarily, but someone needs to cut through the hype and tell some hard truths. The online business environment has changed a lot in the last 10 years. Yes, you can still succeed, but only if you are present and accept the business environment as it is, not what it was.
On that note, here are five dirty secrets about today’s online business environment that must inform every opportunity you consider.
1. Marketing is useless without a great product
The golden age of online marketing is dead. My condolences.
Not to say that digital marketing is useless. Here’s what I mean: It used to be that if you could write good copy, build a funnel, set up an email autoresponder and buy some Facebook ads, you could make money online. Even if the product was garbage.
This was always a bubble. It was never going to last. The market has corrected to the way it used to be, the way it always has been — it’s all about the product.
When I consider clients for my agency, I always vet the product. If the product is terrible, I can’t help them. No amount of traffic I drive to their landing page will result in sales, growth and sustained success.
Many aspiring online entrepreneurs get seduced by the shine of marketing, from veterans of that golden age who still believe that great marketing is all you need. It isn’t, especially in the early going. These entrepreneurs would be better served to forget about fancy sales funnels and focus on making the product the best it can be.
2. Competition is for chumps
Most entrepreneurs think they need to “beat the competition,” “differentiate themselves from the competition” or “spend more to acquire a customer than the competition.” The dirty secret is: If you even havecompetition, you’re fighting a losing battle. Most market battles are zero-sum games. One guy wins 99% of the business, and everyone else fights over the remaining 1%. This is why I advise students to niche down. With a specific-enough niche, you don’t have any competition. You’re out there cleaning up and can name your own price.
For example, there are a million agencies saying, “We help businesses get more leads.” But what about, “We help plumbing and heating companies get more leads?” Better.
“I help plumbing and heating companies in Pennsylvania get more leads.” Even better.
“I help plumbing and heating companies in Pennsylvania get more install jobs.” Now you’re talking.
3. Value trumps fame
Americans live in a fame-saturated culture. No wonder entrepreneurs think they have to be famous to sell anything. If you Google-search how to sell a book, start a blog or launch a YouTube channel, most of the listicles you discover will say something like: Step 1, Get Famous.
So you have entrepreneurs trying to get famous — on YouTube, on Instagram, on TikTok or whatever is the flavour of the month. They figure once they’re famous, the selling will take care of itself.
But the cult of fame is falling apart. The emperor has no clothes and people are starting to see it. Is there a better example than Fyre Fest? The now-incarcerated founder cloaked the event in celebrity but didn’t bother to bring the value.
People get the fame equation backward. Fame is like catching lightning in a bottle; it’s nearly impossible to consciously makeit happen. Most people who domake it happen discover that it’s a double-edged sword. Ask anyone who has ever been mobbed by paparazzi at a grocery store.
But you canfocus on delivering value. That is very much in your control. Maybe you will go viral, maybe you won’t. But by delivering value, you will at least build a cult following — and a cult following can make you very, very prosperous.
4. Focus trumps diversification
I can’t hate on my students who are trying to juggle 10 businesses when they come to me, because I was the same way. I can’t even fault the strategy — I kept throwing things at the wall until something stuck.
But once I found the business with the most potential, I pulled the plug on everything else I was doing and focused like a laser on scaling it. That’swhat made the difference. Finding the idea was maybe 10% of the battle. What really made the difference was quitting everything else I was doing.
“Multiple streams of income” is a cliché that gets misunderstood, and “diversification” is for people who have no idea how to invest their 401k. If you want to create a great product and bring value to the marketplace, you have to pick a thing and focus on it to the exclusion of everything else.
Whatever stage in the journey you are in, that’s the goal — to hone in on the one thing. With focus, the idea is almost an afterthought. With enough focus, you can make almost anythingwork.
5. Most businesses can’t scale
If you want to succeed in online business, don’t start anything you can’t scale. Anything that depends on unique human contributions — including your own — is hard to scale.
I’m guilty of this too. My agency can’t be fully automated or outsourced. I have to have a team, and I can’t just have one person for each job. I try to have twopeople for each job, minimum. That way, if someone quits, I’m not screwed.
Of course, this runs up payroll costs. What saves me is the fact that our invoice volumeis scalable, even if the client volume isn’t. Assuming we do the job well, we can easily scale invoices from $10,000 to $100,000 and beyond. We can afford that payroll.
Whatever you do, begin with the end in mind. Even if you’re doing the work in person now, make a plan to automate, outsource and take unique human input out of the equation when the time is right. That’s the onlyway to go big online.
I want all of my students to prosper in online business — to fire their job, discover financial freedom and build the lifestyle they always envisioned.
But the first step for many of them is to wipe the slate clean of misguided and outdated ideas, leaving them tabula rasa. Then they can accept the online business ecosystem as it is. Spilling the beans on this dirty secret will hopefully help you do the same.
Dylan Ogline is an entrepreneur, investor and author. He is known as a pervader of work and lifestyle optimizations. He is founder of digital marketing agency Ogline Digital. A student of Stoicism, he enjoys playing hockey, reading and traveling the world.
Relevance continues to be a hot topic in search, especially since John Mueller broke the internet last year by saying that the “number of links doesn’t matter at all”, and that relevant content trumps the quantity of content.
I head up the team at JBH the Digital PR Agency, and whilst growing the team and working with a huge range of brands over the last four years, I’ve realized that we wear many, many different hats.
For some of our clients, we are their link building agency. We achieve specific links that adhere to specific criteria to support SEO objectives. For other clients, we’re there to help build their brand, create thought leaders, and develop beautiful, shareable content. For those clients, SEO is secondary.
And for other brands, we’re somewhere in the middle.
What has become overwhelmingly clear is that the relevance of the links we build sits under each of these hats, and it’s something that I’ve spent a lot of time working on at JBH, in order to improve our delivery all around.
Who cares about relevance anyway?
If you’ve ever had your content outranked by a tiny, hyper-niche site, then you’ll definitely care about relevance. Even Google prioritizes relevance when deciding where to rank pages.
The good news is that we can learn from this, and apply certain processes to our own activity. In this post, you’ll see how the team here at JBH bakes the principles of topical relevance into our content, outreach, and link building strategies.
I ran a (very scientific) poll on Twitter earlier in the year — presenting my network with four different options, and asking them to select which one they cared most about when it comes to linked coverage. And the results were super interesting
Turns out we ALL care about relevance — more than the topic being newsworthy, and interestingly, more than keywords!
It was a trick question, really, as these are the four factors that we benchmark our content and ideas against. Nonetheless, it was quite telling that keywords were (ironically) bottom of the rankings.
What does relevance really mean in the context of digital PR?
Relevance means different things to different people. So, I decided to create a framework through which to run every single idea — with the aim of ensuring said idea sits somewhere on the spectrum of relevance for our clients.
Above, you’ll see the graphic we created to check our ideas against what we believe to be the four key pillars of relevance. As long as our ideas fit into one of the quarters, and as close to the middle as possible, we know we’re on the right track.
The key pillars of the JBH Relevance Spectrum
1. Audience — would my client or brand’s audience be interested in this content?
2. Authority — is my client or brand an authority on the subject? Could they be interviewed about it?
3. Keywords — does it contain keywords that we want to rank for, and do we have a page on the site that makes sense to link to?
4. Newsworthiness — will journalists care about what we are saying? What are we adding to the conversation?
Relevant content drives links to key commercial pages
When done right, digital PR work that focuses on relevance can deliver so much more than just links — and brands are catching on to its commercial impact.
In the last 12 months, I’ve been inundated with requests from brands looking for links to their commercial pages, compared to links from larger creative content campaigns. The digital PR industry has come full circle, and we’re going back to the basics of content marketing.
But don’t get me wrong, building links to commercial content is really hard. Now, we dig deep into the business, the sector, and the website itself to understand how to develop our link acquisition strategy to get the best results for the brand. Instead of having a link-first mindset, we challenged ourselves to have a research-first mindset.
Relevance sits at the heart of this effort, and the impact of this work drives true commercial value — but how do we make this work for brands in different industries and sectors?
Step 1: We ask the right questions
From the second we sign a contract with a new brand, we’re on a journey of discovery. We need to know about the business, their goals, and what success looks like for them through the medium of digital PR. We stop being link builders and become intrinsically involved with the business we’re representing.
Step 2: We give ourselves clear boundaries before tackling ideation
Ideation can sometimes be a free-for-all, but setting boundaries around what topics and themes we can ideate around can be so helpful in guiding the way to a truly relevant idea that can be angled towards a prioritized landing page.
Step 3: We forget formats and let the idea guide us to a creative solution
Our creative solutions are always backed by data, but we let the idea guide us as to how the data will be presented. We never have a “type” of campaign in mind when we approach ideation.
Step 4: We use the relevance spectrum to stress test our ideas
Before sharing ideas with the client or brand, we’ll stress-test our ideas against the relevance spectrum to ensure we’re content that our ideas truly match the client and how they want to be presented.
Case study: How this process drove traffic and increased visibility for a private medical centre in the UK
By following the framework outlined above, we were able to increase visibility for a healthcare brand in a very competitive market by over 300%. Here’s how we hit all of the key elements of the relevance spectrum, plus the impact and outcomes of following this approach:
Authority — is my client or brand an authority on the subject? Could they be interviewed about it?
We met with the founders of the facility to discuss their key campaign objectives. Much like our Twitter poll, relevance was top priority — along with showcasing the expertise of the team and their innovative approach to recovery.
We left the meeting understanding what they were willing to talk about, in addition to the topics they were not so comfortable with — helping us to keep our ideas within their boundaries.
Audience — would my client or brand’s audience be interested in this content?
We also spoke with their admissions team, who were able to tell us more about the most common or frequent questions they are asked by service users. We then used this insight to help us develop campaigns or pitch ideas that answered said queries.
In addition to this, we looked more broadly at the publications the service users and their families were likely to read, and analysed topics that might fit those outlets.
Keywords — does it contain keywords that we want to rank for, and do we have a page on the site that makes sense to link to?
We then met with their SEO team, who were able to give us an onsite content roadmap, target keywords, and a prioritized list of landing pages mapped to those keywords, as well as a timeline for those pages to be published, so we could plan our digital PR stories in advance.
They also gave us information on the competition, including how aggressive they were being with link acquisition across the board. This helped us with benchmarking, providing us with a really solid base for our activity.
Newsworthiness — will journalists care about what we are saying? What are we adding to the conversation?
With all of this information at our disposal, we were in a great place to start thinking about campaign ideas, but we needed to absorb plenty of information about the sector first so we understood what we were dealing with.
We set up media alerts for key phrases, and brand alerts for the competition, so we could see exactly what was being published. Looking closely at the competition, we learned what was working well for them — and crucially, what wasn’t working quite so well.
We set up RSS feeds to deliver news relating to the priority keywords and read it each day, helping us become attuned to the newsworthy topics relating to addiction recovery.
From this, we watched out for which journalists were covering topically relevant stories, and added them to our prospecting list. We then set to work coming up with ideas that aligned with all of the above information.
The impact — high authority links to commercial pages
By following this approach, we found that we were able to secure highly relevant links and coverage — all while remaining in sync with the SEO team working on the site.
As the content we produced was so relevant to the brand, it made sense for the journalists to link to key service pages. This is how we achieved the following commercial gains as a result of pitching topically relevant content for the brand:
Traffic was up more than 200% year-on-year
Over half (56%) of the links built pointed to a key service page
Organic traffic to their commercial pages increased by 500%
167% more keywords were on the first page of Google
This five-step checklist ensures relevance is prioritized in every digital PR campaign
In order to make this work cross-industry, we’ve developed a five-point checklist to ensure that relevance is prioritized at every stage. Depending on the brand and the sector, we’ll follow some or all of the points below to ensure that we’re considering the relevance of our digital PR campaign ideas above all else.
1. Research the industry in which your brand operates
How well-established is the industry?
Who are the key players you’ll be competing against?
How competitive are the keywords that you need to rank for the brand?
What PR and SEO activity are the key players doing? And how much?
2. Understand the business you’ve been tasked to build links to
How well-established is the brand in relation to the competition?
What products or services do they want to push?
What is working well, and what isn’t working quite so well?
Where are their overall marketing efforts being concentrated?
What markets and/or territories are important to them?
3. Understand the website you’ve been tasked to build links to
How well-established is the website?
How many links or referring domains do your commercial pages have right now?
How does that compare to the key players outlined above?
Are there any content gaps that need to be filled?
4. Analyse the competition
Identify competing pages and analyse how they are working well
What links do the competition have that you don’t?
How aggressive is their link acquisition?
What content topics are your competitors covering?
5. Keywords and landing pages
What are they? Do they have a corresponding landing page?
Does your client agree with your priorities?
What is the intent of the keywords?
How competitive are those keywords?
This framework can be followed to achieve results for brands in most sectors — but the setup is key
It is so easy to get relevance wrong in the context of digital PR. Branded campaigns aren’t needed in order to be relevant. We now need to look more closely at target audiences and produce content that appeals both to them AND the publications that they read.
By stepping away from the link-first mindset and applying some research-led common sense we can produce more relevant campaigns that achieve measurable results against SEO metrics.
I head up the Digital PR team at JBH the Digital PR Agency, delivering creative campaigns for household brands such as Uswitch, tails.com and Gousto. Rebecca has worked in SEO for more than 10 years, specializing in content marketing and link building.
Starting a website is a positive endeavour, but most marketers forget to keep the blog section running. A blog section is imperative for your SEO. Having an updated blog means you are taking efforts to regularly update the content, which would further increase the credibility and draw more traffic towards your website.
The catch here is – your content is as important as any other element of your digital marketing strategy. This brings us all to one real question – Can we maintain consistency in the website blog? The answer is a simple yes. Consistency in posting informative content is the key to success.
Regular blogging improves Google ranking. As per the Google algorithm rule, consistency in posting regular content will get you a push on the chain in the SEO world. SEO requirements keep changing and today, the content should be not only new and fresh but also has to be informative and appealing for the users. However, there is no hard and fast rule such as you must only post your content according to your offerings.
For instance, if you are a brand dealing with kitchen appliances, your blog posts can have ‘how-to’ articles or new recipes to keep your audience glued to your website.
Not only should you keep your blog updated, but you must also update the links. The more updated the content is, the more response it will get. Let us sum up the importance of blogging in the following points.
A blog makes it easy to get internal linking and backlinks
With your blog, you can easily create internal links and backlinks.
Check the content posted in your industry, write on the topics that others have written, and create a link to the topic to reach out to your audience. Plenty of authentic backlink tools are available for SEO experts to ease the creation of internal linking. The entire process helps the website to go higher in ranks and improve its search hierarchy.
Creating brand awareness How does an individual know your brand? It is only through the content you post on the website. With more and more products, you need to post more information. It is this updated information, which will help you glue your audience to your products.
We know blogging daily is difficult, but you can keep a schedule of posting at least 2 blogs a week. Be sure to fill in your blog with information like product guides, new launches, the latest industry information, and so on. You can write about several things to keep your audience informed. It just needs a few minutes of brainstorming in the right direction.
Start blogging for better SEO in Kelowna with us.
Developing rapport and relationships with readers Fostering a relationship with readers is vital not only for your SEO success but also for the success of your digital marketing efforts. You never know when a good reader will turn into a valuable customer.
When you retain consistency in your style of writing and the way you add information to the blog, it creates a feeling of familiarity; bringing more readers to your website. There is another prominent reason to blogpost regularly. It helps to gain REO (Referral Engine Optimization), which means gaining word-of-mouth referrals through regularly updating the posts. The more you write, the more opportunities will be opened to you.
Keep you at par in competition
One of the inevitable reasons to post regular content is to stay at the edge of the competition. Generating regular content will keep a sweet spot for you among the competition. Your competitors are investing in blog and SEO services in Kelowna, you cannot take a back seat here.
Studies have suggested that around 80% of the marketers around the world are leveraging powerful content to improve their SEO efforts.
Besides, 96% of the marketers depend upon customized content to strike a conversation with their customers; blogging being the best medium.
Not to mention that more and more customers are taking out time to read about the products or services they are going to spend online. So, keep updating your blog and achieve success.
Generate Leads When your blog is being updated with fresh content regularly, the clients will be allured by new product and service offerings from your brand. With these blogs, you are building relationships. Strategically placed call-to-action words will bring leads to your marketing team. A well-linked blog encourages the users to click on the link and complete the purchase.
Final Word An ample amount of data suggests the importance of regular blog posts and their positive impact on SEO efforts. With each piece of content created, you interact with your brand to boost brand awareness and improve leads.
A professional agency offering SEO services in Kelowna is your go-to place to schedule your blog content and boost your overall online marketing efforts. If you are looking for a reliable partner for SEO in Kelowna, we are here to help.
Jamie Barton is the author of this article. To Know more information about SEO Kelowna please visit the website.
George is a technology content writer with years of experience. Specialized in mobile devices, personal computers and consumer technology, as well as software and applications. He explains all technological concepts so that users with less knowledge can understand them. If not writing, you may find him engrossed playing action games on his smartphone. Just so you know, he loves Xiaomi products a lot. You may contact him via his email – [email protected]
When it comes to your email, you may not realize there’s an easy way advertisers, marketers, companies, and even scammers track you – with just one tiny pixel.
What is pixel tracking?
You can’t see them, but pixel trackers are hidden in many of the emails you receive. Technically, this microscopic pixel is computer code embedded within the body of an email, generally hidden within an image.
Typically, pixel-tracking allows marketers, advertisers, and companies to collect data about you, such as:
• The number of times you open an email
• The operating system you use
• The time you opened the email
• Your IP address can give an idea of your location
• What type of device you use to open the email
Detailed data is sent back to the sender automatically, without you having to click on any links or even respond. That may feel like an invasion of privacy, but it is legal and different from when hackers and scammers employ this tactic.
In that case, it becomes all about monitoring your activity.
Pesky marketing emails are one thing, and we will get into how to stop that. But first, let’s review the red flags you should send an email straight to the trash:
• There’s a request for personal information.
• The “From” address and the display name don’t match.
• The “From” address is very similar to a known business or contact, with one or two characters changed.
• It requires immediate attention.
• It is full of poor spelling or grammar. (Often, this feels like something is “off.”)
• There’s a request to click on a link or download a document or file you did not request.
Most of these clues are easy to spot, but you won’t see a microscopic pixel hidden in an email.
Apple automatically stops senders from retrieving your IP address starting with iOS 15, macOS Monterey and iPadOS 15.
Additionally, email content is downloaded privately when you receive the email, not when you view it. That means only generic data is sent back to marketers, companies, and anyone else tracking you via email.
The Mail Privacy Protection features are not enabled by default. Here’s how to turn them on:
• On an iPhone or iPad: Go to Settings > Mail > Privacy Protection. Turn on Protect Mail Activity.
• On a Mac: In the Mail app, choose Mail > Preferences, then click Privacy. Select Protect Mail Activity.
The simplest way to prevent pixel-tracking is to block images from displaying in your emails. If the pixel isn’t displayed, the code probably won’t work.
• In Gmail on a computer: Click on the gear icon and select See All Settings. Under General, scroll down and click on Ask before displaying external images under the Images option. Click Save Changes at the bottom of the page.
• In the Gmail app: Tap the three-line menu in the upper corner > Settings > Choose your account. Scroll down to Images under Data usage. Click it, then choose Ask before displaying external images.
• In Yahoo Mail: Click Settings > More Settings > Viewing Email. Scroll to the bottom. Under Show images in messages, choose Ask before showing external images. The page will refresh and automatically save.
• In Outlook, click on File > Options > Trusted Center. Choose Trust Center Settings > Automatic Download from the left-hand pane. Select Don’t download pictures automatically in HTML e-mail messages or RSS items. Click OK to save.
Want smart tech tips like this straight to your inbox? Try my free Tech Tips and How-tos newsletter. I’ll help you get the most out of all your gadgets, save money and protect your privacy.
The IRS has new changes, including the $600 rule, working from home deductions, child tax credits and more. In this episode, tax accountant Rachel Cheek and I dive into the many ways deductions, forms, social media, and rules will impact your 2021 tax return.
Check out my podcast “Kim Komando Explains” on Apple, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast player.
Learn about all the latest technology on the Kim Komando Show, the nation’s largest weekend radio talk show. Kim takes calls and dispenses advice on today’s digital lifestyle, from smartphones and tablets to online privacy and data hacks. For her daily tips, free newsletters and more, visit her website at Komando.com
Want to write a professional bio for your LinkedIn profile? Here’s how Jasper can help you with this.
Whether you’re looking for a job, hoping to attract head-hunters, or want to network professionally, then LinkedIn is the go-to social media platform of choice for your career.
Some of your profile bio fields are simple to fill in—you already know the date you graduated from college or started at your new job. But creating a compelling and persuasive bio that makes other professionals want to connect with you is more challenging.
If you’re stumped, Jasper is an AI copywriting tool that could help you craft a winning personal statement.
What Should Be Included in Your LinkedIn Personal Bio?
Need some motivation to get started on LinkedIn? Well, if you’re looking for a job, know that 87% of recruiters regularly check out LinkedIn during the hiring process. But even better, how about the fact that 44% of LinkedIn users take home more than $75,000 per year. This is above the US national median.
If you’re ready to jump in, it might be tempting to publish some basic details about yourself quickly. But your LinkedIn personal summary shouldn’t be copied and pasted from your résumé—it needs to be unique and have plenty of personality.
This is your chance to break free from job titles or industry qualifications and write from the heart. Why do you love your career? Why are you the best at what you do? What project did you get great results with?
With a generous 2,000-character limit, your LinkedIn profile should give someone a great idea of your experience and what it would be like to work or collaborate with you. Don’t be afraid to incorporate a few non-work-related details, too, so recruiters know you’re human!
If building a LinkedIn profile sounds challenging, then it is! There’s plenty of pressure in knowing when someone googles your name, and your personal bio will usually show up within the first three search results.
But that’s precisely why you should put some effort into crafting these words and keeping your bio updated regularly.
What Is Jasper AI?
Jasper, (formerly known as Jarvis) is a GPT-3 copywriting tool built using artificial intelligence and machine learning. It writes high-converting copy for websites, blog posts, email funnels, ads, and social media posts.
Essentially, you give the software a description of what you want to create, a title idea, and any keywords you want to include. The software will quickly create text for you to use or edit as you wish. Using one of the inbuilt templates, Jasper can help you craft an eye-catching LinkedIn bio to win new clients and attract those recruiters who might be browsing your profile.
Jasper costs $29 per month for their starter package, which gives you access to 20,000 words per month and the use of 50 free templates. This increases to 50,000 words if you subscribe to their Boss mode plan for $59 per month.
To try Jasper out before investing in their software, there’s also a 10,000-word free trial available.
How to Use Jasper to Create Your Personal Bio on LinkedIn
To get started using Jasper to revamp your LinkedIn bio, head over to your profile and click to edit your About section. This is where you’ll place your finished bio.
Next, you’ll go to Jasper, open the dashboard and choose Templates > Personal Bio.
Note, there’s also an option to choose Company Bio if you want to try both.
There are three main sections within the Personal Bio template, to fill in.
Personal Information
400 characters are available here to provide basic details about yourself and your professional background. You might choose to add your current job detail, how you got into the industry, and what you love most about your profession.
Are you proud to have won an industry award or been promoted to CFO by the age of 25? Note down as much as you can in this box to give Jasper plenty to work with. Don’t forget to add those human details too.
Tone of Voice
The Jasper software completed base training at the end of 2019 and read 10% of the Internet. This means that Jasper doesn’t know about important events like Covid-19, but the software does have an excellent grasp of natural language.
Using the tone of voice feature, you can prompt Jasper on what to say and how to say it. Try experimenting with some of the following adjectives to get the tone you’re looking for:
Professional
Bold
Humble
Friendly
Casual
You can even go one step further by asking Jasper to imitate a specific person or character to write your LinkedIn bio. How about sounding like Oprah or Tony Robbins?
Point of View
The final information you need to feed Jasper is whether to create your LinkedIn bio in the third person or the first person.
Third-person example: “Michael Smith is a marketing executive from New York, with twenty years experience in the industry.”
First-person example: “Hi, I’m Michael Smith, a marketing executive from New York, with twenty years of experience in the industry.”
As this is a LinkedIn profile and recruiters will know you’ve created your own bio, it’s usually best to choose the first person point of view to be more personable.
Generating Your LinkedIn Bio
Once you’ve entered your details, head to the bottom of the screen and choose the number of outputs you want to generate. The default is set to 3. You’ll then hit Generate and watch Jasper get to work creating your bio.
On the right-hand side of your screen, you’ll read and choose the output you like best and select Copy to Clipboard. From here, you can paste the copy straight into your LinkedIn profile as the base of your bio. Alternatively, you might wish to open the Jasper editor to continue working on the text.
Making the Most of Jasper
The best way to use Jasper to create your LinkedIn personal bio is to think of the software as a creative tool. You’ll find that Jasper isn’t flawless and may even make up random details about you. But if you’re suffering from writer’s block, it’s a useful way to develop new ideas on how to present yourself to hiring managers.
Rebecca has 7 years of experience as a freelance writer covering topics related to work, careers, HR, and productivity. She specializes in creating long form blog content with a human touch. You’ll also find her offering tips and support to new freelance writers who are just starting out.
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