How To Dress For Your Work Environment

For those of you who are unsure of the typical in-the-office etiquette on corporate to causal swag, this post is for you! What makes an outfit acceptable or not isn’t what is physically being worn, but how people perceive you when wearing a certain item.

Corporate Attire

A 2-piece dark suit in a classic cut with pinstripes or another simple pattern is your safety, go-to outfit. Accompany your suit blazer with a white, crisp dress shirt. Traditional patent leather shoes are a solid wear for men and patent leather pumps for the ladies. You can never go wrong with neutral colored makeup and neatly styled hair.

Business Attire

Similar to corporate attire, a 2-piece blazer and dress pants also works under this dress code category. The exception? Throw some flair out there with colorful prints and patterns! You can use a wide range of styles here so go for it!  Shoes and makeup should remain neutral, unless your outfit is neutral, then spunk it up with some eye-catching shoes and a belt. Jewelry and nail polish is also a nice personality popper, still trustworthy to sport in a conservative work environment.

Business Casual aka Smart Casual Day

Big question when it comes to casual Friday! Let me lay down the law ... jeans are appropriate as long as holes, tears, stains or any other demeaning spot is obviously noticeable, as well as the condition that clients are absent from the office. Cardigans, vests, and flats are also allowed.

Note that women and men have different style guidelines to follow … like how men can wear shorts and women probably should avoid wearing shorts, even if allowed. Under some circumstances, shorts may quite possibly be appropriate if they are on the longer, baggier side, with stockings or leggings underneath to hide all visible flesh.

It is a good idea to see if your company has a strict dress code policy and if you are still unsure, it never hurts to ask! When it comes to your professional image, always be play the safe hand as you only get one shot to ruin your reputation.

Fun fact: If you work at an advertising agency, anything Star Wars related might earn you some brownie points on your higher rank’s personality!

3 Social Media Tactics Everyone Should Know

Not to give away all of our tips and tricks, but there are tactics to gain followers quickly. There is only so much we can do to gain a following online. From timing to quality content, everything you do is judged by your viewers, resulting in opinions about you or the company you represent.

Let’s start with the fact that timing is everything. Why do you think there are certain times that work best for posting? This is because there are people on one network over another at different points during the day. Take for instance, Pinterest is more popular on the weekends because people have the time to sit on a photo site all day; same goes with Tumblr’s popularity increase later in the evenings.

Quality always matters, always! Don’t post a photo of Kim Kardashian in a political section, as your viewers will categorize you into the ever-lurking SPAM folder. If your viewers think you are posting for the sake of posting instead of for the general amusement of sharing, you will be banned and your reputation will flounder.

Be consistent. Post during hot times every day or every other day. People will start to see your profile photo and remember your look and name. Eventually, it will become habitual to look for your posts if he or she deems your posting worthy of a reshare or knowledge intake.

Be relevant, be you, and have a voice. Have fun with social media! Inside tip: when your personality shows through your social outlets, people feel connected. Make your viewers want to follow you! Now get online and post, post, post!

Content Marketing Trends For 2015

The Internet has been an evolutionary tool for user content since the start and especially since the social networking takeover of 2002. Since then, companies have worked hard to create a welcoming online presence for both everyday followers and its clientele.

Follow examples of Fortune 500 companies that make it a point of adding social media and online marketing content into their yearly budget. Why do the big companies care about online marketing? People don’t simply experience a company from an image splashed on the page of a magazine, a billboard, or hear a name or slogan on the radio on the way to work. A company’s reach and exposure frequency is strongly related to its social media and content marketing strategy.

Follow these online strategies to ensure a positive effect for your company’s content marketing and social media strategies:

Content Creation

Storytelling is a tool that has been used to influence and educate for centuries. This is how people pass on information and facts from one to the other overtime. Nothing should change for online content.

There is a need for good journalists, editors, and broadcasters in every business sector since most business graduates today lack grammar rules and writing techniques. This is so important to connect the consumer to a product or service. Consumers want to know what a product or service can do for them. The best way to do this is to create an image or relationship in the consumer’s mind. The artists of gab are best to do this as they sculpt the perfect persona of goodwill for a particular product or service that consumer will appreciate moving him or her along in the buying process.

Keep It Brief

Don’t be so vague not enough information is given, but don’t run on endlessly your viewers lose interest quickly. Keep in mind that most people are pressed for time. Keep it short and sweet with enough information alleviating further questions. Cut the clutter and leave the knowledge behind.

Bring Your Work(s) To Life

Use infographics, animations, images, and other call-to-action elements to pull the reader in for that “wow” effect. Link your image(s) to a website or blog. Not only will this boost impressions, it will give the viewer more information and let your viewer wander online.

Keywords Count

Basically, SEO focuses on the technical elements you are specifically searching for, whereas content marketing will drive the search rankings. Prior to the social media takeover in 2002, social media and content marketing were one in the same. Presently however, social media is the social interaction online and content marketing is the literal verbal or visible substance used to market the company, like the information you see on a company’s website.

Be consistent in your articles. As you write, use the same words throughout your article to boost the relevancy of that article, in turn boosting your article’s ranking in Google’s search. For example, if your article is covering how to roast the perfect turkey, use the words “roast”, “turkey”, and “Thanksgiving” or “holidays” consistently in your article so when someone searches “how to roast a turkey” in Google, your article will have a better chance of being discovered by the person searching the web for that how-to article.

Keep Your Viewers/Readers In Mind

Remember whom you are writing to. Be mindful of your language and the information you cover in your articles. Some things might be better left unsaid depending who might be offended by what you say. If there is potential for damage, just leave that part out.

This is a new era for marketing and its strategists giving even the smallest players a chance at the big win in the game of business takeover. New ways for businesses to grow are being discovered allowing an equal playing field for all businesses at any profit level. The making for a stable and elongated online presence is at the disposal of the company. Make your marketing content count!

Getting What You Want In Business

Have you ever wondered how people get to those higher-up positions in a company? They seem so confident and sure of themselves but all they did was use a few strategy techniques to get what they want in life. These few simple tricks that go unnoticed can help in life, your relationships, and especially your career. In my experience, attitude and how you handle or approach a situation is everything! There are only a few things to keep in mind.

Be kind. Burning bridges never gets you anywhere. And once it’s burned, good luck putting it back together.

Be different. Don’t be afraid to go about a situation in an unorthodox manner. Why? Without stepping outside appropriate behavior pertaining to language and politeness, find a way to differentiate yourself. There are over seven billion people in the world today. Imagine that you are competing with every single person … why should someone choose you? Figure out why you are special, and don’t think you aren’t! If you lack in one area you excel in another. We can’t be great at everything, but figure out what your highlights are.

Speak your mind but don’t overstep your boundaries. This goes a long way in the business realm. Let’s take a typical marketing scenario for instance. Your boss and you are creating a marketing strategy targeting young architect students right out of school. Your boss thinks you should socially post to LinkedIn as it is a professional network. However, you believe that the best social network for this target market is Facebook and Twitter, as those are the networks your audience spends most of his or her time on. What do you do? Simply voice your opinion, explain why, and if your boss does not see the light after your justification there is nothing you can do but bite your tongue. Who knows, your boss might change his or her mind later on. Either way, your insightful voice won’t go unnoticed.

Ask permission, subtly, if you ask at all. Let your hunger for power guide you and not overrule and destroy you. If you show your boss why something works better than what he or she is suggesting, rather than simply stating what needs to be done, it will illustrate your point more clearly. Better to show the zebra where the watering hole is rather than tell him which way to go.

Show some control. The second you let your emotions run wild you have lost. The less you care the more someone else will. This isn’t to say not to care, but you don’t have to wear your heart on your sleeve for all to see. Play the game. A predator waits for the right time to pounce instead of rushing into a losing battle.

Everything you do in life should be approached from a standoff point. This will allow time to think how to handle a situation before acting out drastically, resulting in detriment. Like everything else, these simply tactics take practice, but anyone can accomplish what they want if handled properly. Make a plan, ponder the execution, and then when ready, go for the gold! We believe in you! 

What Reddit Life Is All About

Founded in June of 2005 by Alexis Ohanian and Steve Huffman, Reddit has become one of the top entertainment social networking websites in the world. Reddit’s global presence contains content of text, photo, video, and direct link posts.

The name Reddit (sort of) sounds like, “I ‘read it’ on Reddit.” Reddit has users in  over 190 countries with over 5 billion total page views and over 114 million visitors per month.

At first, I was a bit perturbed by how validated the content is and who was posting, thinking to myself that anyone and everyone is on the web, so how do you know what is being shared is legit?

I went to post in the Ask Me Anything (AMA) subreddit and I had to provide a link providing confirmation that I was actually who I said I was. That made me feel better, especially when I was inspired to write my first AMA post after reading a post from USA Today reporter and American astronomer Seth Shostak, known for his extensive research for search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

Tips from seasoned Reddit users:

·      User temporary17: “If you criticize someone's post, do so constructively. Never attack the person behind the post, even if they deserve it.”

·      User greyclocks: “Don't just stay subscribed to the default subs. Find subreddits that you like or interest you. There's a subreddit for everything.”

·      User Mexican_mudkipz: “Reposting is not bad! If gives you free karma!”

·      User sheymyster: “You can pick up a lot of software super cheap. I recently built my first gaming computer and I picked up a Windows 7 ultimate key for $19, I think it's usually like $200 retail. I believe the subreddit is/r/softwareswap.”

Great tips, but what is all the talk about a “subreddit”? A subreddit is a forum dedicated to a specific topic. You can even create your own subreddit, but let’s not get too ridiculous that nobody would think to search for a keyword linking to your subreddit. These titles are not hashtags. Some of the popular subreddits are: Funny, Pics, Gaming, AskReddit, WorldNews, Politics, and Random. There are also unique subreddits like: TodayILearned, ShowerThoughts, AdviceAnimals and NotTheOnion.

If you really get into Reddit, you can work on your karma. Fellow Redditors can upvote or downvote a post, link, photo, or anything else you might share. Reddit states, “If you think something contributes to conversation, upvote it. If you think it does not contribute to the subreddit it is posted in or is off-topic in a particular community, downvote it.”

Reddit’s community has grown far and popular, offering something for everyone to read or laugh about. Reddit is an interactive community that can help get things accomplished!

Link Building For Small Business

Building quality links takes time, patience, and relationship building skills. You need to be able to develop content that will be interesting to those you pitch, and pitch it in an engaging way. It’s also a time saver to be able to identify which sites will be the most relevant and willing to engage you. When considering a possible site, you will want to consider the following criteria:

• Relevancy
• Your Resources
• Feasibility

Is Their Site Relevant To Your Site?

You will want to look for non-competitive domains that link to content and resources similar to yours. Not only will this allow you access to your target audience, but Google looks for relevancy as one of the prime ways to differentiate between spammy and legitimate links. Furthermore, a quality site won’t have much of an incentive to link to or publish content from your site if it won’t be interesting to their readers.

Start by sharing the content of your target site, and working to build a relationship via social media or their blog. Once a relationship has been established, offer to write a relevant piece of content for them or help develop a resource guide. Ensuring that the link will be mutually beneficial is the best way to go.

Do You Have The Resources and Prominence to Attract Quality Sites?

If you are a brand new site with just a couple of pages and only a few social media followers, you may not have the clout to attract a site like, say, CNN. As previously mentioned, quality links are built when said link is beneficial to both parties. They will need to know that you are interesting and engaging to your own audience before they will want to introduce you to theirs.

Work hard on building you own site, adding quality content, and building your social media following and engagement. When you have a lot to offer, it will be hard to turn you down.

Is This A Site That Will Feasibly Show Interest?

If you have found a site that is relevant and you have built up your own website to be interesting and engaging, you should still ask if this site is worth spending time on? Is this a site that is frequently pitched? Do you have what it takes to stand out from the crowd? Do they have already established rules about links? Are they known for being open or closed?

Your time is best spent on building relationships with sites that you have a strong chance of connecting with. Instead of shooting out a pre-packaged pitch to anyone with an inbox, be strategic and make a plan. Save time, and increase your success!

photo credit: bloeise via photopin cc