Okay, I’ll admit it – I have a (small) stack of business cards on my desk from a networking event I attended a week ago. I still need to go through them and send e-mails to follow up with everyone I met. On the flip side, everyone I met got my card too – and I’ve only heard from two people. I’d say those are very good numbers given my experience in networking. Typically, I don’t get a follow-up from anyone.

Why do you go out to network? I think most people would say it’s to build up a pipeline and create leads. Okay, so if that’s the whole goal, relationship development is at the crux of that effort. To build relationships, you have to initiate a conversation. That conversation ideally should have started at the place where you met, but it needs to continue. Whether you send an e-mail, note card, or call on the phone, some follow-up is required to begin a relationship.

The other thing you can do to continue that conversation is to put those folks’ names in your database and e-mail newsletter, adding them to your drip-marketing campaign. What I do is to send an e-mail with something personal followed by a blurb about me in case they’ve forgotten who I am, followed by a little “disclaimer” saying I’m going to add them to my monthly e-newsletter, and if the content doesn’t resonate, it only takes one click to unsubscribe. Most people never even respond, but many don’t remove themselves from my list either. That means I have plenty of time to connect with them!

So if you’re not following up now, start doing it! It’s why you’re out there anyway, so start leveraging your efforts!

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Taken from a recent e-mail from Mike O’Brien at Climber.com.

Did you know 75% résumés are overlooked? If you are like most people, you have applied to and uploaded résumés for dozens of jobs and heard nothing back. This is generally referred to as the “résumé black hole.”

If you do not know how to beat the résumé black hole, chances are your résumé will be overlooked. The root of the  problem is a piece of technology called an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). The ATS was designed to streamline the flow of applicants for companies. This is accomplished by having a central place where all applications and résumés are warehoused.

To further compound the issue, ATSs are only 65% to 80% accurate in reading the information in your résumé. This means that one-fifth to one-third of the time the ATS is just plain wrong in importing data wholly and properly into the ATS. If your résumé makes this cut, the ATS then screens and ranks your résumé against open positions.

Next, résumés that pass the ATS screen are generally sent to a gatekeeper who spends about 30 seconds reading the résumé before deciding to move it along to the recruiter or hiring manager or pass it along to the trash can. About 1 in 10 résumés are passed along to the decision maker who decides if you will be interviewed.

Combat the résumé black hole by:
Loading up on keywords: ATSs rank on keyword density. Keywords should match closely to the required skills that appear in the job posting. The better you score against a jobs skill requirements the higher your résumé will rank.

Bypassing the ATS: Leverage your connections in person and the social media spectrum. Attend networking events and be sure you have a complete profile on LinkedIn. Also, connect with a recruiter (or two!) who specializes in your industry.

Making sure the job fits. Especially in today’s tough job environment, it is even more important to make sure that you have the skills and background required for the job.

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As a business owner, there’s not an event I attend where there isn’t a SendOutCards (SOC) representative. In fact, some of my friends rep for the brand. I know a lot of people who use the service and absolutely love it. Their feeling is that it keeps them in touch with their clients – easily – and they likely wouldn’t do so without the online process. I completely understand and am not here to trash a reputable company. For my part, though, I prefer to go old school: I write all my cards by hand.

It seems that each birthday and winter holiday season when I was a child I’d receive stationery. I was trained from a young age to send thank-you cards for everything I got, and as I was growing up, the Internet wasn’t even a thought, so letters had to suffice. I have nice penmanship and, well, I’m a writer, so it’s never been an issue. And, like SOC boasts, who doesn’t like to receive a card in the mail? In this age of mouseclicks and Facebook, it’s much more personal.

My background is in college admissions. I worked at a small school and a large university – and I wrote all my cards by hand. Whether it was a thank you for visiting the campus, a follow-up to a recruiting visit I’d made to their high school, or a happy wish for a birthday, I would go through pen after pen inking nice, personalized messages. My forte is marketing communications; I build and implement communications strategies to turn prospects into clients. Part of that strategy involves a number of touches, and handwritten cards have always been one tool in that box. [If you're a job seeker, remember handwritten thank-you notes following interviews. I have won a couple of tight races just because I sent a card.]

In my own business, if I have your address, you can expect a card after we meet in person, you become a client, or you send along a referral. Even in the advent of online automators, I still pull out my (red) pen and scribe the note myself. I’ve had to go through physical therapy and chiropractic for the issues to my right hand, elbow, and shoulder from all my writing – but that won’t deter me. To me, it’s the little things that matter, and I’m far more impressed when I get a card someone took the time to write over one that was typed on the computer and spit out to mail to me with the obvious SOC envelope.

So if you’re using SOC, good for you! At least you’re making the effort. But I’m going to continue writing out my cards by hand as long as it’s an option. Maybe I’m just old school.

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I know that I don’t wield ultimate power in getting clients jobs; I write résumés and help to position them on paper. Even though, I’m surprised when a client comes to my office dressed in cut-offs and a rock band T-shirt and tells me all the horrors of her last boss and how she just phoned it in (okay, this doesn’t happen often, but it’s still shocking). Then, when I refer some of my clients to my executive recruiter partners, I hear back about some of the inappropriate stories they’ve shared.

For some reason, job seekers don’t see recruiters as having power in their job searches. I think that’s funny, not to mention a self-defeating stance to take. One of my recruiter colleagues told me that his candidates will often be completely unprofessional with him, telling him things one would never disclose during an interview. When I was surprised at this, he said most of the folks with whom he interacts don’t understand how influential he is in their search. The power of his recommendation can land someone a job. Just as easily, he can close doors.

When you’re looking for a job, every interaction is an interview. You have no idea who someone knows and how much that knowledge can hurt or help your career search. I have an acquaintance I won’t recommend for a position because I would never want to work with him. I wrote his résumé, and I know enough people to get him in somewhere, but that would reflect poorly back on me – and I’m not willing to take that chance. Selfish? Perhaps, but it’s the way the world works, especially when it comes to business.

Complain to your partner or friends about your boss and the job search, but keep that information out of your conversations with recruiters, career consultants, and others who may be able to help you get a job. Remain professional and you’ll see opportunities start to surface because people will want to help you.

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Okay, I’ll admit it, I’m on the dating scene – online. I’ve never had much luck with the venue, but I figure it’s just one more way to meet people, so no harm, no foul. Yesterday, I received an e-mail from a wannabe suitor who asked if I found him attractive. “You can be honest,” he said.

So I was.

I told him I am looking for someone fit since I’m at the gym pretty regularly and want someone who enjoys similar things (and can keep up). His knee-jerk reaction was to ask why women always judge on looks first. “Whatever happened to starting as friends?” Aha – but that wasn’t his question, was it? He wanted to know if I found him attractive, not if I thought we could be friends.

In your business, are you asking the right questions? Are you ready to accept the answers? Too many business owners are living in a bubble, assuming that the way in which they perceive things to be is the way they are – without asking for feedback.

When I met with a new strategic partner recently, he said he’d heard a lot about me in town. This person owns the #1 executive placement firm according to Ranking Arizona, and he’d heard of me. (Phoenix is a very small big city.) I was, of course, impressed, but the next thing I asked was, “Was it good?” If he’s heard bad things, I need to know because that feedback will help me to improve and take action. Thankfully, he’d heard great things about me (which is why he was sitting in my office), so my reputation is strong – for now.

I encourage you to start asking people in your circle – clients, prospects, and colleagues – what their perception is of your business. You may be surprised at the answers, and they can give you an opportunity to grow.

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Content. Of all the SEO buzz words, few are as important as good content. Obviously, it’s not a one-shot, simple fix to get your site on the first page of Google, and you need links, the right keywords, etc. But content is king in the online world. Google LOVES fresh content. That’s why WordPress is so popular as a Web site content management system (CMS). Within just a few minutes of posting a new blog on my (WordPress) site, Google has picked it up. Every blog on your site acts as another page, and the more pages your site has, the more dynamic Google recognizes it to be.

Aside from just the SEO components – which are all important – fresh and engaging content draws and keeps potential customers on your site. That doesn’t mean you need to drone on and on to get readers; in fact, in our “Twitter” society, most Web surfers are looking to find the information they want FAST. They also want to feel as if they know the person behind the brand and have a commonality. Humor can be a great way to do that.

Combine content and links by guest blogging on someone else’s site or writing articles hosted elsewhere. Then you’ll gain exposure across a wider audience while directing those readers back to your site through links. You can also post your press releases on various Internet sites to drive the same kind of traffic.

Make it a practice to write something at least once a week, whether on your site or elsewhere. You’ll find that not only does it create a better online presence, but it also positions you as an expert in your field, which typically translates to more clients.

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Lately I’ve been attending a bunch of social media training events, and time and again the topic of Google Alerts has surfaced. Of course, I’ve been running alerts on myself for a while now, mostly because I’m a little narcissistic and like to know what people are saying about me. As usual when I go to those kinds of things, I’m amazed at the “Huh?” looks I see around the room. Really? People aren’t running Google Alerts on themselves? If you’re one of those folks, here are just a few reasons you should be doing this.

Whether you’re a business owner, job seeker, or just average Joe Citizen, you want to manage your brand and your reputation. You can run an alert on just about anything: your name, your company name, your competitors’ names, a keyword for your industry; the sky’s the limit. You can have the alerts come “as they happen” or digested, depending on your need to know. Since WordPress and Google have a symbiotic relationship, when I post a blog, I receive a notification within 10 minutes, so it can happen pretty quickly.

If you know what people are saying about you, you can comment back and, if it’s negative, you can do immediate crisis management. I’m always amazed where I come up in searches. Sometimes people quote my blog and never ask, so I didn’t realize. Of course, I’m not the only Amanda Collins in the world, so I see what my namesakes are doing as well.

It’s pretty simple to set up, really. Go to Google Alerts and put in your parameters. Remember that if you want to track an exact phrase, you have to put it in quotation marks (“”). If you want to track a keyword, you can use the results as fodder in your social media communications or cut parts into your blog.

Keep in mind that the name of the game is communications and relationships, so while you’re definitely out there managing your brand, share some of the information you find with your network and you’ll win in two ways.

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It seems a common theme in my résumé practice that my clients have been laid off and are looking for their next opportunities. Often, these folks have so intermingled their identities with what they’ve done that they don’t know who they are without their jobs. They come to my office and have little self-worth, feeling as if they have nothing to offer another employer.

Much like a codependent relationship, when the relationship (with a person or firm) ends, there is a serious sense of loss. Of course, that is to be expected. You feel surprised, sad, angry, depressed – pretty much all of the feelings described so vividly in Kübler-Ross’ grief cycle, which Kerry Scott sums up as it relates to the topic at hand in “Five Stages of Grieving over a Job Loss.” This is all very normal and to be expected. However, just because you’ve lost your job doesn’t mean you’ve lost YOU. That talented, knowledgeable professional is still there under everything – and you need to muster up the confidence to present that person to your future employers.

Tap into what makes you able to do the job you’re seeking. How are you unique? What value can you provide? Present yourself not as “I’m unemployed,” but as “I’m your next [insert your targeted job title here].” At a networking event I attended regularly, a woman would say week after week, “I’m unemployable.” I’m not quite sure if she didn’t realize she’d chosen the wrong word or really felt that way, but no matter what she meant, I sure didn’t want to talk to her about a job potential. Imagine the difference if she had said, “I’m ready to become your next Sales Associate, bringing with me a depth of experience securing and managing million-dollar accounts and increasing revenue 25% year to year.” I want to talk to that person!

Give yourself time to grieve; you definitely deserve it. But remember that you continue to be you – valuable, employable, worthy – regardless of economic conditions. Surround yourself with positive people and keep plugging away. You’ll turn it around!

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Whether you call it a commercial, elevator speech, or presentation, if you’re a business owner, you know how important this little nugget of information is in creating excitement about your company, product, or service. Many folks stumble over what to say and how best to gain listeners’ rapt attention.

Here, a few simple pointers:

Remember the WIIFM Factor. What’s in it for me? is what listeners want to know. If you can’t catch their attention in a hurry, they’ll tune out. How many of us have heard someone say, “Hi, I’m Todd and I am a plumber. I fix stopped drains. I can help anyone with indoor plumbing. Call me if you have questions.” ZZZZZ! There are plenty of plumbers (bankers, Realtors, etc.); why should I give you a second glance?

You only have 30 seconds (or 60, 15, or whatever). Practice a few speeches to be sure you can include your key selling points – quickly. Sometimes you’re told to only say your name, company name, and tagline. If you don’t have a captivating tagline, you’ve just sold yourself short.

Remember your audience. I have two distinct business channels: entrepreneurs and job seekers. If I go to a networking event with fellow business owners, it would be foolhardy to just talk about résumés. Sure, people in the room may know someone who’s looking for a job, but my better approach is to lead with strategic communications and then drop the résumé thing at the end. Be sure that your presentation is targeted to the people who are listening.

Stay focused. Too many people hear that they’re given two minutes and start telling stories and things that are completely irrelevant. If you have something of value to contribute, go for it! However, in my experience, most people “um” and “ah” their way through 30 seconds talking about nothing, so hone that first before moving on to a bigger sharing time.

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This morning, on a 45-mile-per-hour stretch of road, a group of about 10 cars was joined by a police officer. As you might expect, everyone was hovering around the 40- to 45-MPH mark, hesitant to go too much faster for fear of the wrath of the law. I, however, continued along at my 48 MPH pace, unencumbered by Mr. Police Officer’s presence. A short while later, when the cop turned off the road, a couple of people’s speedometers crept up and they whizzed right by me, while some of us continued at our reasonable clip.

“Okay,” you’re probably thinking. “That’s human nature. Why is that the subject of a blog post?”

Well, it got me thinking about rules and how people try to get away with things. There are many drivers who will go as fast as they can – until they see a cop car (or, in Arizona, traffic cameras), at which point, they will slow down to below the posted speed limit. What does this say about how these people live their lives? Are they constantly thumbing their noses at authority and trying to get away with whatever they can when no one is looking? Shouldn’t they be self-policing and following good guidelines all the time – whether or not they’re being monitored?

I wonder, if this kind of behavior does follow in to other aspects of their lives, are these the people with whom I want to do business, date, or have around my son? No, not really. I want to be around people who follow rules of order because they make sense. What would the world be like if murder wasn’t illegal, then? Would these sometimes-rule-followers pull out guns and shoot people dead for no reason? Laws, rules, commandments … all were created with the greater good of humanity in mind, and we should be conducting our lives in a way that makes sense for all, not just for ourselves.

I’m thinking I might need to go for a drive with any potential business or life partners down the camera-riddled stretch of State Route 51 before signing any contracts. It might just offer a glimpse into how they conduct other aspects of their lives.

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