While I was a late convert to Pinterest, I’ve started to see the potential the site has as a place for connecting with other professionals especially in the lifestyle industries. I became convinced of Pinterest’s potential when I helped run the TODAY Show’s account last year. It’s a very visual platform and lifestyle content like food, fashion, and technology do very well in that type of environment.

A profile on Pinterest may not get you a job but it will give you a visual way to share your personal brand, show your interests, and connect. Here are three ways Career Girls can get the most out of Pinterest.

1. Create multiple boards

To get started, create a few different types of boards on your profile. Be creative with the types of boards and their names. These boards will be the face of your brand on Pinterest. Use them to feature original content as well as content from others.

Also, don’t be afraid to let your personality shine through your board names and pins. Try sharing pins you think are funny or pin some behind-the-scenes images of your work. If you’re a freelancer who works at home, why not create a board where you pin an item that’s on your desk each day and encourage others to do the same? Then you can re-pin those that do the same and connect with them through this sharing. Letting a little of your personality show will help you connect with others on the site.

Try new things and see how your followers respond. If something isn’t working you can always delete it and move on. Use the fact that you can create as many boards as you want to its potential. The more boards and topics, the more people you can interact with to build your network.

2. Be active

When you join Pinterest start following brands, companies, and people you are interested in potentially connecting with. Once pins start filling up your homepage, repin those pins onto your boards. You can also repin pins of those you don’t follow to spread your name, but be sure it’s definitely something you want associated with your board. When you repin make sure the link goes to a legitimate site so you don’t end up pinning a pin with an unsafe link.

While repinning is an easy way to engage with other users, also utilize your other options such as commenting and liking pins. This will increase your engagement with brands and hopefully drive traffic back to your profile. Commenting is a great way to start a conversation with the brand and their followers, and liking a pin may get you more notice than just reflexively repining.

3. A repin vs. an original pin

A mix of both pinning others content and pinning your own original content is the way to go on Pinterest and it’s important to remember this balance. It can become very easy to just repin others content but by pinning your own original images you can drive content to your portfolio, blog, and other professional websites. Also don’t be afraid to pin an original pin more than once. If you have multiple photos on a blog post you wrote, then pin all those photos to your board and play around with the description so they each say something new. These original pins will hopefully help you connect with your followers outside of Pinterest and show them your brand beyond your profile page, expanding your network. Of course also be sure to repin content, which may make people more likely to repin your own.

Pinterest is still fairly new and growing, but since I recently began using it I’ve noticed it has the potential to be another great addition to your networking toolkit. According to CNet, Pinterest has already added a Web Analytics tool which allows users to see how well their pages are preforming on the site and have promised new business tools in the future. With more opportunities for using Pinterest for business on the horizon, it pays to start making your presence felt now on the website and start connecting with others to expand your network. So, join me in exploring the world of Pinterest as a networking tool!

The post 3 Ways To Use Pinterest For Networking appeared first on Career Girl Network.

After having the same job for 5 years, I realized I wanted out. The direction I thought I was moving in was coming to a grinding halt because of external circumstances and I noticed that I just didn’t like myself all that much anymore. The burden of the overly demanding work schedule with little to no balance in favor of my personal life was beginning to wear on me in such a way that I wasn’t happy anymore…and it was evident. I needed out.

I left to start a career in something completely new. Left that, started something else, got laid off three months later. Last year was a year of interviews, and I was constantly being asked what I wanted to do. The problem was that I didn’t know.

Being unemployed and subsequently desperate taught me something extremely important in the way of learning about yourself: saying no to new opportunities can close yourself off to finding your true and undiscovered passions in life.

I’d always been fascinated with people who decided to say “yes” to every opportunity that came their way. I’d read Maria Dahvana Headley’s book “The Year of Yes” and had fallen in love with the idea but never thought I would have the fortitude to do something similar. It wasn’t until very recently that I realized I’ve been inadvertently doing that very thing pretty consistently since I’d lost my job.

I’ve been saying “yes” to so many things since last year:

Danielle, do you want to come sell for my start-up? Do you want to help me found a start-up? Have you ever thought about trying social media management? What about copywriting? I think you should host trivia nights for my company. I would love it if you could volunteer with our organization. You should start your own business. So, what about starting a networking group? Can I take you on a date?

Each one of these experiences has taught me something I didn’t previously know about myself–all of them have come together in an amalgamation that has shown me what I want to do and who I want to be as I grow up. Patricia Volk has this to say about her own “year of yes”:

“There isn’t one thing I said yes to I’m sorry I said yes to. And look what I would have missed. “No” means safety and the numbing stasis that implies. I’m changed.”

Tina Fey also weighs in:

“There are limits of reason to this idea of saying yes to everything, but when I meet someone whose first instinct is “No, how can we do that? That doesn’t seem possible,” I’m always kind of taken aback. Almost anyone would say, “It’s Friday at two in the morning. We don’t have an opening political sketch. We can’t do it.” Yeah, of course you can. There’s no choice. And even if you abandon one idea for another one, saying yes allows you to move forward.”

As you look back on your own year, what have you said “no” to because you were afraid? Didn’t think you’d like it? Felt it was too far out of your comfort zone? Didn’t seem relevant? Felt like it would take up too much time? As Fey points out, there are definitely times when saying “no” means not stretching yourself too thin…but I personally haven’t yet found my limits seriously challenged. If anything, this concept of saying yes to the things that come my way have given me new limits and new levels of “can.” 

Even if you are scared, do things afraid. I teach acting classes and have been acting for over 20 years and make a point to tell all of my students that I still have the worst stage fright of anyone I know. My body will go into fight-or-flight mode and I will panic and look for a way out so I don’t have to go through with it…but I force myself off the ledge, do battle, and come out a stronger and much more capable woman than I was when I went in.

It’s time to start thinking seriously about a time or period of time where you have been less than receptive to saying “yes,” to yourself, to others, and ask yourself why. Set aside some time–a day, week, month, year maybe?–that you will begin to say yes and let the wave of opportunity rush over you. You may be surprised at what kind of mileage you get out of a simple three letter word.

The post Say “Yes” to Everything…Opportunity Is Waiting! appeared first on Career Girl Network.

It’s one of the biggest problems you face every day at work – your emails aren’t getting returned. You write them, meticulously at times, and people just don’t respond. Could it be that perhaps you’re not putting the action item up front? Are you rambling on and on until you get to the point in the last sentence? Solve this problem immediately and put your action item directly in the subject line.

We’re taking the advice of one of our favorite productivity experts, Jason Womack, and making our email more productive by making our subject lines actionable. Check out Jason’s advice here:

Make your subject line actionable
Have you ever gotten an email from someone with the subject line: “Opportunity”?

Think about what you have to do with this email. If it’s long, you have to read through the whole thing, looking carefully for said opportunity. How to remedy this?

Here’s a trick I’ve been using for a long time. I write the subject lines of my emails last, starting out with a verb that describes what needs to be done and a noun encapsulating what the email message is about directly. Over the past few years, I’ve realized I consistently make requests via email asking recipients to call, schedule, view, print, sign, scan, return or confirm receipt of a document.

It’s only fair to let the recipient know exactly what I need them to do when they see the email show up in their inbox so they can get to it more quickly. At my company, we’ve standardized the verbs used in email subjects so that everyone on our team is on the same page. For example, if I need one of my staff to take an action, I type in the subject line: “Call Susan B. today to confirm start time for Tuesday’s workshop: 415-555-xxxx.’ This makes it very clear what I need done and provides all relevant information as succinctly as possible.

Read the rest of Jason’s email productivity article at Entrepreneur.com by clicking here.

The post Email: Your Subject Line Is An Action Item appeared first on Career Girl Network.

Admit it, we’ve all been there. At some point in your career, you’ve said something like these frustrated statements:

• What do you mean, you don’t understand? I emailed it to you!
• Didn’t you get my email?
• Seriously, we had a whole email exchange about this!
• Let me read this email to you, and you tell me if you understand it.

You could be the world’s most skilled communicator, and still have had hundreds of terrible miscommunications online and via email in your career. It’s just too hard to convey tone, emotion, and to be truly clear in email communication. Keith Ferrazi, literally one of my favorite authors of all time and the incredible Never Eat Alone, recently wrote the article “How to Avoid Virtual Miscommunication” for Harvard Business Review. One of his pieces of common miscommunications stood out to me.

Amplify the signal. We often communicate less information than we think we are, a syndrome psychologists call signal amplification bias. Virtual teams, lacking contextual cues that the other person hasn’t understood what we’re trying to say, often hear only too late that “I thought it was obvious that…” or, “I didn’t think I needed to spell that out.”

How to avoid signal amplification bias? Spell things out! Don’t just say, “Circle back with me.” Do you want final input to a decision or just want to be informed of the decision after it’s been made? For important communications, Yael Zofi advises her executive clients to use more than one medium. So, for example, if you have a phone conversation about possible delays in a project, follow up with an e-mail to minimize misunderstandings.

All too often, we think we’re being clear both in person and via email and, in fact, we’re not. We expect others to pick up on our “signals” without remembering that what we’re giving off are our signals, not theirs. Take Keith’s advice, and instead of saying “Circle back with me,” take it a step further and say, “Please check in with me in an hour to let me know you’re on the right track.” Clarity counts in online and email communications!

The post Fix Email Miscommunication: Amplify Your Signal appeared first on Career Girl Network.

Digital communication has become so common with emails, texts, and instant messaging that sometimes the lines can be blurred between them. The problem is when this blurring happens in a professional communication. Sometimes I receive an email where I wonder if the sender bothered to reread it or if they did and just didn’t realize how unprofessional it sounds because of how comfortable they are with digital communication.

Here are a few tips to keep in mind when sending a professional email.

1. Use a Formal Address

If you start your email with an enthusiastic “Hi Lisa!” I’m already forming an impression about you. Do we know each other? I’m not big on formalities but if I don’t know you and you’re reaching out for professional advice, using my first name in such an informal manner isn’t the best way to start our relationship.

Start off your emails with a formal address, such as “Dear Mr./Ms.” This sets the professional tone of your email right away and I know you’re interested in talking business and not about hanging out on the weekend. For many this may be the only time you have to use the formality to start off an email. If you get a response and the person signs the email with their first name then you’re safe to address them with it at the start of your next email. However when first developing your connection it’s best to be formal.

2. Avoid Abbreviations or Slang

Email is not the place to use abbreviations or slang that may be common in text and instant messaging. When someone uses an abbreviation in an email, I start to wonder if they’re serious about discussing their future in the profession. It again crosses the line into friend zone instead of professionalism.

3. Format Properly

I once received an email with no spaces between the opening, paragraphs, or ending. Make sure your email looks as professional as it reads. While your email doesn’t have to be formatted like a cover letter with your address and information up top, the body of a cover letter is a good format to follow when sending a professional email. Imagine you’re writing a letter and format your email in the same way.

4. Proofread More Than Once

It’s easy to get caught rereading an email thousands of times because you’re nervous to hit the send button. While you want to avoid being caught in that loop, it does help to reread your email more than once. After one read through, step away from the email for a little while and do something else. Then go back to it to reread again just in case you missed something the first time. Two or three rereads is probably enough. You just want to make sure you’ve caught any spelling or formatting errors. If I receive an email full of mistakes, I wonder how serious you are about a career in communications since your email won’t communicate very well!

When emailing a professional, for the first or twenty-first time, you want to approach it like you would a letter from start to finish. You want to make the best impression so that the individual will respond to your email knowing you’re serious about discussing business.

The post 4 Tips for Sending a Professional Email appeared first on Career Girl Network.

Everyone is welcome whether you are a member of PWCC member or not.

Join PWCC to celebrate 15 years of helping Chicago women to be their best!

For more information and to register click here.

About the Author:

Professional Women’s Club of Chicago members come from the public and private sector, from multi-billion dollar corporations to small not-for-profit organizations. More than half of our members hold leadership positions in their companies. Almost one-third of our members are self-employed or own their own business. 85% of our members are in accounting, investments, banking, the legal profession, and marketing and management consulting.

 

The post Professional Women’s Club of Chicago (PWCC) Celebrates 15 Years appeared first on Career Girl Network.

Admit it, you’ve tried every social media site out there, even the ones that didn’t last. Did you ever have a profile on MySpace? What about Friendster? Are you asking yourself right now, “Does MySpace even exist anymore?” It does! And chances are, if you just stopped using the site, your profile is still there. Even if a website crumbles and goes away (much like Google Reader is about to), have you asked yourself what information of yours is still floating out there on their site?

I was intrigued when CNN writer Heather Kelly posted an article titled “What to do when your favorite site closes.” I was incredibly annoyed with my precious Google Reader lately when they decided to pull the service from Google all together. Fortunately, I’ve found a new love in Feedly (but that’s another story). Heather’s article, though, forced me to think about any other dead or near-dead sites I might  have used in the past. Are you protecting yourself from them?

Here’s what Heather advises you to do when a site you use shuts down:

Delete your profile

Once you’ve extracted all the content you need from a dying site, consider hitting the self destruct button on your profile. Any information left on the service can linger on the Internet for years, and personal information might even be sold off to other companies.

When people abandoned MySpace for Facebook’s greener pastures, many left behind old profiles adorned with what seemed like hysterical photos at the time. Now those people are older, perhaps trying to get jobs or dates, and old MySpace pages still haunt their search results. Unless you remember your password, getting rid of old profile pages can be difficult.

Read the rest of Heather’s advice on how to move on and find alternatives by clicking here.

The post What To Do When Your Favorite Website Crumbles appeared first on Career Girl Network.

They say “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” With at least 70% of available jobs never listed, using your network is more important than ever. Your professional network can be anyone from your cousin to your former employer, to an acquaintance on Facebook. Nurturing professional relationships is just as important as personal ones; it’s easy to drop off someone’s radar when you’re not in regular contact with them. Make great connections now to help benefit your career in the future.

6 Degrees of Separation

If you have a specific goal in mind, determine which people are in a position to help you reach that goal. Even if none of your immediate friends or coworkers has that awesome contact, try social media site LinkedIn. Often you can find hiring managers and other people who can help you through your connections on websites like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Ask your contact to do a brief introduction, or make the connection yourself. Dropping an email saying you went to college with so-and-so is sometimes enough to warrant a response.

Maintain the Relationship

Once you’ve established a professional relationship with someone, foster it with attention and care. Don’t overwhelm their inbox, but reach out occasionally after reaching personal milestones (just scored a great new gig)! Often times in business relationships we think to take, take, take. Try giving; offer to help them in a way that’s unique and mutually beneficial. Favors are much easier to come by when you’ve given out some yourself. Be sure to complement and explain to them why you think they’re such a fabulous connection.

Take Action

Remember: its quality over quantity when it comes to professional relationships, and once you’ve developed one you need to tell them what you want. Be specific; successful individuals are busy and don’t have time for guesswork. Whatever you can do to make the request easier for them to fulfill, do it. Want them to forward your Resume to a hot-shot exec? Include it in the email so they don’t have to ask. Trying to get some top-notch work advice over coffee? Give them a few dates and times and let them pick.

A good professional relationship is like a personal relationship, they both involve give and take. Sometimes, professional relationships can develop into a mentor-peer relationship, and that’s great too. Don’t be afraid to be assertive, but always maintain a professional attitude.

Source: NPR

The post Networking: Building Professional Relationships appeared first on Career Girl Network.

Check it out:

The post LinkedIn and Your Brand: What the Experts Are Saying appeared first on Career Girl Network.

These are questions I’ve heard many people ask when trying to figure out their online networking strategy. Ultimately it depends on your comfort level with social networking and the platform you want to use to connect.

When to add a professional connection on LinkedIn is very different from when to friend a person on Facebook. Here are a few tips to keep in mind when considering adding a connection on social media.

LinkedIn: Possibly the best website for online professional networking, LinkedIn is a great place to connect with someone before or after you meet them. Numerous professionals use LinkedIn to form connections in their industry so it’s a pretty safe place to try and connect with someone at any point in your networking relationship. If you want to connect with someone before you’ve met, check on the right-hand side bar to see if you have any mutual connections. If you do, you can use the “Get Introduced” feature and have that mutual connection put you in touch.

After you meet with someone I’d recommend connecting with the individual the same week as your meeting if you got along well. This will not only get your name in front of the person again, it will also remind them of your experience as they look at your profile. Personally I believe it’s never too early to start connecting with people and forming your network on LinkedIn.

Facebook: I’d advise more caution when connecting with your professional network on Facebook. If you “friend” a professional before meeting them, it may put off your connection. Facebook is still used by many for personal contacts, so if your connection does not have a public page for you to follow you’ll want to get to know them before sending them a friend request.

If you’ve met the person and they are open to connecting via Facebook then do so, but keep in mind that they will then see what you post on your profile page unless you restrict what they view. If you are just starting to connect with professionals on Facebook, look through your post history and photos. It’s important to make sure that you don’t mind your coworkers and other professionals seeing everything on your profile. If your profile has been mostly friends and you’ve been pretty open with what you post, it might be worth keeping it that way and not connecting professionally unless you are willing to change your settings to make sure only certain people can see certain things. It’s up to you to make sure to keep your personal and professional lives from clashing.

Twitter: Twitter is certainly a more casual network than LinkedIn but I’d say it has similar rules for connecting before or after meeting a professional. If your connection has a public profile, then they probably use Twitter professionally or at least are open to new followers and forming connections on the social media site. It’s perfectly ok to follow a person on Twitter and start a conversation with them there before meeting. I’d say it’s perfectly fine to follow them right after you meet as well. You can thank them for meeting with you and keep the conversation going by commenting on links they share and sharing links with them as well.

If someone has their profile protected then they may use it for mostly personal tweeting and you might want to hold off asking to follow them until you get to know them better. I’d suggest waiting until you’ve met with them a few times or at least exchanged a few emails and discussions online elsewhere before asking them to let you see their protected tweets. On the other hand if they ask to follow you or follow you publicly then it might be safe doing the same in return. Feel out your connection and use your judgment.

In the end only you can decide when you’re comfortable connecting with a fellow professional online. Over time and with increased use of these websites you’ll get a feel for when it’s best to connect. Hopefully these tips will help you navigate the waters when it comes to these three websites.

The post When to Connect With Professionals on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook appeared first on Career Girl Network.