Standing out on LinkedIn can be a daunting task, especially when there are so many others trying to grasp the attention of recruiters. As two interns, we understand the struggles of trying to get noticed and securing an interview. Here are our top seven LinkedIn tips that improved our own profiles that got us noticed and hired!
Let's be honest: introducing yourself to a total stranger and having a memorable, fulfilling conversation right away seems far-fetched—but what if it doesn’t have to be? Imagine being able to not only overcome the awkward small talk of a first-time interaction, but also turn it into a moment that is valuable and worthwhile for both parties.
We’ve put together some key tips on how to better prepare yourself for the next time somebody strikes you with the question, “So, what do you do?”
Switch it up: In most settings where you’re meeting new people, it’s common practice to talk about work right away. Knowing this, come prepared with something, anything, better than, “So, what do you do?” Ask them why they do what they do or what their favorite project is currently. Create the opportunity to see a side of somebody that goes beyond a general field of work.
Be human: Maybe you’re at an event and found the perfect person to network with. Do a little background research by quickly checking their LinkedIn profile or listen carefully to them speak. You’re bound to find something you have in common. All of a sudden you’re the closest thing they have to a new friend at this event.
Make big talk, not small talk: Introduce your line of work in a way that leads to a question prompting an even bigger idea. For example, I could say something like, “I connect clients with speaking opportunities to grow their thought leadership. If you had to give a Ted Talk, what would your topic be?” People love to talk about themselves, just give them the chance.
Add more depth to your role: Your title alone is the least interesting thing about your job. Next time you’re prompted to talk about work, mention what you love about your job or a project you’re working on. Energy is contagious. If you’re excited, they’ll get excited not only because what you’re working on is awesome, but because you’re not talking about the weather.
Keep in touch: Did you pay attention to what your new friend said? Great! Now follow up. People love to be remembered. Similar to when you write a thank you note after an interview, leave the conversation remembering something that stood out to you and include it in your follow-up note. People are used to forgetting the details of their interactions the moment they’re over. You’ll stand out by showing you were paying attention.
Events present a great opportunity for people across any industry to practice their social skills—both in real life and online. Whether you have 10 or 10,000 followers on Twitter, sharing your takeaways and experiences at conferences gets you involved in conversations and boosts your social media presence. You don’t have to be an influencer or represent a brand account to be heard on Twitter—but there are a few things that can take your live Tweets to the next level.
Here are some tips for live-Tweeting at your next event.
With more than 500 million users on LinkedIn, it’s no wonder why the professional network platform is a powerful tool for promoting events. LinkedIn’s user base consists of 40 million decision-makers, 61 million senior level influencers, 40 million recent graduates and students, and more. If this sounds like the audience you’d like to attract, here are five ways to promote your event on LinkedIn:
Keep your audience engaged: Posting a status on your page is an easy way to promote your event within your network. Use this as a tool to announce event updates on venue, speakers, sponsors, and more.
Pro-tip: The best time to publish a post is on Tuesdays through Thursdays between 10am and 11am when LinkedIn users are most active. Also, don’t forget to use hashtags! #eventtips
Leverage your company profile: Use your company profile to keep your audience updated on event productions, while simultaneously building up your network of followers. Make posts announcing call for speakers, ticket sales date, topics to be discussed, and such.
Join LinkedIn groups: A great way to reach people outside of your network is to join groups that are relevant to your event’s focus. You’ll be able to post to this new set of audience, but keep in mind that these posts should always be tailored to attract the pool of professionals you’d like to see at your event.
Become a publisher: Go beyond a typical status update and write an article to share on LinkedIn. Keep your article engaging and relevant, and use this opportunity to share the nitty gritty about your event, such as a recap of the previous event.
Pro-tip: Keep in mind that your article can be made public to increase viewership on and off LinkedIn!
Create boosted content: Choose from many of LinkedIn’s offerings, including Sponsored Content, Sponsored InMail, and Ads. Promote your event in people’s newsfeed with Sponsored Content, in people’s inbox with Sponsored InMail, and across the platform with Ads.
Interested in learning about how cred can promote and plan your next event? Connect with us at events@credpr.com.
Here at cred, we pride ourselves on securing the best speaking opportunities to meet the goals of our clients. To accomplish this with success, we’ve built an extensive process to make sure these goals are clearly defined, set, and reached.
The Planning
It all begins with the client kickoff. This is where we start our on-boarding process by diving into the company and speaker(s) to understand where speaking fits into their overall communication strategy. We've created our own process that asks the right questions to help us become successful.
Once we have an idea of the speaker’s high-level topics, we develop our speaking platform, which serves as the roadmap for our work.
The Day-to-Day
The bulk of our day-to-day work consists of content curation. We create numerous topics and speaking angles aligning our speaker’s expertise and background with key themes relevant to their industry and target audience.
Additionally, event research and outreach are the bread of butter of our speaker management. We’ve built a database of more than 10,000 events (and counting!) from scratch broken down by industry, deadline, past client feedback, and more, as one of our key research tools. It also helps us stay on top of any key deadlines, which we easily track on a weekly basis. We target high-value events that align with a client’s program goals, from conferences to webinars to meetups. We’ll even do opposition research to track where competitors or key partners are speaking.
Lastly, we’re constantly connecting with organizers early to understand what types of speakers they’re seeking, and fostering those relationships so we ensure we’re adding value to their agenda.
Our work isn’t only limited to engaging with our speakers and event organizers. We understand speaking is just one component of a company’s marketing/PR strategy, and are accustomed to collaborating with PR firms and marketing teams to ensure we maximize the impact of an opportunity. For highly competitive events, such as Cannes Lions and SXSW, we’ll work directly with our clients to develop a more curated session.
The Impact
Communication and planning are key. All event updates are updated in real time in our shared events trackers, so clients can see progress and a full picture of speaking activity.
Once a speaking opportunity is secured, we manage all event logistics—from confirming the session date, time, and topic, to managing prep calls, deadlines, and on-site details. We ensure speakers feel prepared and know what to expect before hitting the stage.
When an event is complete, we take feedback into consideration so we can iterate on future speaking opportunities. This allows us to refine and optimize future activity to build an impactful program. We’ll also gather feedback from the event organizer to help understand the audience’s take on our speaker’s session and how to make the next presentation stronger for future events.
Successful thought leadership comes from not one, but multiple successful speaking arrangements to target audiences, and we are passionate in helping speakers get to them.
Interested in working with us to help expand your speaking program? Connect with us at speak@credpr.com!
(Infographic: Gina King)
We all come from different professional backgrounds. We hold different positions, work in different industries, have different titles and responsibilities, but one thing is the same: we all strive to stay organized.
Staying organized is an art form many of us struggle with. To kickoff the New Year, getting organized is essential. There are hundreds of fantastic tools to help you meet your organizational needs. Not sure where to start? Here is a breakdown of our top five favorites.
1. MixMax: MixMax is here to make your email life easier. If you are like us here at cred, then you live in your inbox. This gmail extension has great features to enhance and customize your inbox, including setting reminders, scheduling emails, and creating templates. It helps us keep our constant client communications in order, so important tasks don’t slip through the cracks.
2. Quip: When your to-do list needs a makeover, try Quip. This list can be used as an app for your phone and/or desktop, and can also be used in your browser. You can collaborate with other colleagues by sharing lists or tagging them in tasks, and you can add trackers, calendars, and spreadsheets to keep you ahead of your long list of to-dos (if that is even possible). We use Quip for some of our personal to do lists and for our team meeting agendas.
3. Zoom: If you haven’t heard yet, we started an office down in Sacramento! A huge part of our everyday schedules is utilizing video-calling tools like Zoom to stay connected to our long-distance friends. We use Zoom during one-on-one, team, and company-wide meetings and even use it for having virtual coffee dates to better get to know each other outside of work.
4. Slack: Slack is a must-have in our office. Collaboration is a huge part of our values, and we are constantly working together and communicating within our office. Slack allows us to chat individually, or in groups. We also have different channels, or group chats, where we post updates depending on the topic of interest for that channel. We utilize this tool for many reasons, especially for asking quick questions to those in and out of the office, and for updating each other on industry or personal news.
5. Google Calendar: Don’t we all love Google applications? We take advantage of all things Google, but a personal favorite is Google Calendar. Calendars are meant to keep track of important dates, calls, meetings, events, etc., but that’s nothing new. The great thing about Google Calendar is being able to share co-worker’s calendars, so we are always on the same page. We are always moving and shaking, and having a calendar that we can sync with other coworkers is a must.
The best part about organizational tools is there are a bunch to try and see how they work for you. We’ve listed a few of our many favorites, now what are yours?
Whether you are speaking to a small room of five people or an auditorium of 5,000, storytelling will make your presentation memorable. Studies show people are more likely to retain information when it is told through story. Here are some helpful tips to get you started:
1. Keep it simple.
Make sure the details you’re sharing are necessary to the story. Too much information can be overwhelming for the audience and make your story hard to remember. It’s easy to add fluff, but it’s hard to refine your thoughts to align with what matters.
Tip: Edit, edit, edit. Read through your story multiple times and take out unnecessary fluff.
2. Use emotion.
Make people care about what you’re saying. Yes, statistics and data can be helpful, but using a genuine, real world example that utilizes emotion has been proven to be more effective. It makes the information stick with your audience and has a lasting impact.
Tip: Use names! Giving a face to a story makes it more personable and memorable.
3. End strong.
Every good story has clear conflict resolution. This is where your message should be clearly defined without open ends. It should be obvious and leave the audience feeling inspired! Use wording that will resonate with your audience and remember to keep it short and sweet.
Tip: Try limiting your message to one sentence or just a few words. Setting a word limit can help center and focus your thoughts.
The live experience is not dead.
While we can listen to free music on Spotify, we jump at the chance to see our favorite bands in concert. While we can FaceTime family from across the country, we endure the pains of traveling to spend the holidays together. While we can go on YouTube to watch keynotes and presentations, we travel to different cities to hear thought leaders share their ideas live.
Why? Technology allows for valuable connection, but in-person interactions create irreplaceable and authentic experiences outside of the digital world. An Eventbrite study found 78% of millennials are fueling the “experience economy”—spending more money on experiences rather than materials.
Here are four reasons why it’s valuable and important to attend events in today’s digital era.:
1. Learning IRL Instead of URL
Listening to a speaker in person offers a rich opportunity to actively watch, listen, and receive information. According to a recent Forbes article, “like artists, the best speakers are original and relevant in the moment. You can’t get that online. The best reinforce a mission, catalyze an audience, even inspire action.” Face-to-face interactions help motivate and mobilize people, rather than just being another message on the other side of a screen.
2. Networking
Nothing beats gathering people in one place in real life. According to The Muse, “conferences are one of the single best ways to network.” Instead of having to come up with an icebreaker, a conference provides a common topic to chat about: the conference itself!
You may not only make new connections, but also could potentially make new friends. Thirty percent of millennials say they met someone at a live event that became a good friend. Who knows, the conversations you have at an event may be even more valuable than the content.
3. Ask Questions, Get Answers
When a session includes a quick Q&A, make sure to bring your questions! While you may already follow a speaker on Twitter or have their email address, make the effort to introduce yourself personally and ask a question directly. The answer they provide face-to-face may be more extensive than over a tweet or email. Conferences allow for direct access to experts and thought leaders seen on stage.
Events allow you not only to gain insight from speakers, but also from other industry professionals. Gather intel from fellow attendees on topics and ideas that are of interest to you. Translate those insights into actionable takeaways that you can implement at your company.
4. A Change of Scenery
How often do you actually set aside time to learn something new relating to your field or industry? Conferences and events offer the opportunity to embrace a posture of learning. Take advantage of listening, asking questions, and participating in discussions at events. Embrace the change of scenery and extract all that you can from the experience.
People appreciate live experiences, even with an abundance of online content available. Watching videos from behind a screen is not the same as watching a speaker live from the audience. People truly value the event experience: learning from speakers in live settings, networking with other attendees, and implementing relevant takeaways.
Interested in attending more events? See where we’re speaking next and subscribe to our monthly newsletter today!
