Internet Presence and the People You Don't Know - by Ron Bates

Your positive Internet presence isn't just about being found in search engine results, or the number of contacts you have on various networking platforms. To a large extent it's about your approach, attitude, and philosophy about networking.

One synonym for the word "presence" is charisma. Ultimately, someone's Internet presence is a transformation of a few basic ingredients: one's openness to new contacts (both with respect to approaching others you don't know, as well as others approaching you who don't know you); a willingness to accept some risk when it comes to helping or connecting with someone; combined with how well you project all of this in a visible way.

Unfortunately, many people - start - networking only when they have a need, and then they - stop - networking when their need has been met. This is only exacerbated by how some online networking platforms are actually set up to work. Unfortunately some networking platforms should be renamed "needworking" platforms. Most successful networkers would probably agree that networking is an ongoing process, and not one that is bound in time by an individual need.

I was introduced to a wonderful quote by a fellow networker the other day that caused me dig a little further to find the complete quote. What I found, in many ways, epitomizes the spirit of networking - and in the 21st Century - especially online networking.

From a Blog post by: John McNally Associate Professor of English at Wake Forest University

---

"Model of a Letter of Recommendation of a person you are unacquainted with."

Paris, April 2, 1777

Sir,-- The bearer of this, who is going to America, presses me to give him a letter of recommendation, though I know nothing of him, not even his name. This may seem extraordinary, but I assure you it is not uncommon here. Sometimes, indeed, one unknown person brings another equally unknown, to recommend him; and sometimes they recommend one another! As to this gentleman, I must refer you to himself for his character and merits, with which he is certainly better acquainted than I can possibly be. I recommend him, however, to those civilities which every stranger, of whom one knows no harm, has a right to; and I request you will do him all the favour that, on further acquaintance, you shall find him to deserve. I have the honour to be, etc.

Benjamin Franklin

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Now that guy had presence.

So what is this supposed to imply in the context of your Internet presence and/or networking charisma? Be open to people who risk reaching out to you. Realize that everyone may not have the same experience and/or optimum polished approach that you do. As Benjamin Franklin's quote above implies - be willing to take a chance on a new point of contact and give people the benefit of the doubt. For all you know, the next person that risks reaching out to you could translate into the beginning of the most fruitful relationship you'll ever develop, but if you aren't willing to take a chance on a new point of contact and give the individual the benefit of the doubt - you'll never know let alone benefit.

Happy Networking

Ron Bates
Managing Principal
Executive Advantage Group
rbates@executive-advantage.com

www.cv-advantage.com
www.job-search-campaign.com
www.thenetworkingedge.com

Internet Presence, Job Search Advice, Resume Writing, network, networking, sales, selling, relationships, job, search, career, resume, CV

Internet Presence - How to Slash Google Adword Cost By 80% In 3 Months

Internet Presence - How to Slash Google Adword Cost By 80% In 3 Months

Establishing and/or increasing your visible Internet presence is easier than most SEO experts would want you to believe. Increasing hit traffic to your site and ranking higher in Google also does not have to be a costly endeavor. You also don't need to be a technical wiz-kid to realize the results you're looking to achieve.

I recently read a blog post by Nazir Daud where he discussed how he slashed his Google Adwords cost by 80% in 3 months by taking advantage of some very simply principles.

David implemented the same simply principles that I've discussed in previous Internet presence articles.

He published lots of keyword rich content, containing links back to his homepage, on a highly trafficed professional networking site that has a lot of constantly changing blog content. He also leveraged the ability to post in the site's "marketplace".

As a result, Google indexes all of the content, and links back to his homepage, and drives the ranking of his homepage consistently higher by creating keyword associations with those links.

Note, this is not about simply creating and publishing content anywhere on the Internet.

The key is publishing content on a highly trafficed professional networking site that has a lot of constantly changing blog content. Why? Because Google loves these sites. Content on sites like this consistently rank higher than other content in Google.

More importantly, links to other sites are also indexed by Google, and as a result of being found on a highly trafficed professional networking site that has a lot of constantly changing blog content, the content behind those links are also driven higher in ranking.

After only 3 months of effort in a highly competitive space, Nazir goes on to explain that 80% of his traffic is free and his home page has a Google ranking of 4.

You can read in detail about how to implement these simple principles in my Internet Presence: Case Study - Recipe for Success. This case study discusses how I drove the home page of Search Advantage to the first page of Google in 30 days against the keyword phrase: Internet Presence

The great thing about all of this is you don't have to be a technologist or an SEO expert to implement any of it. Anyone can build a visible Internet presence. These principles are extremely powerful way to drive any content higher in search engine ranking against associated keyword phrases. This applies not only to keyword phrases associated with your business offerings, but it also applies to the very special keyword phrase that is your name.

What's even better is that the cost associated with this is simply the price of membership on a highly trafficed professional networking site that has a lot of constantly changing blog content. Compared to the costs associated with Google Adwords, this is about as close to free as you can get.

Whether you are simply trying to create more visible to for your business, or you are trying to create more visibility for yourself as a business professional, there isn't a business or business professional on the planet that wouldn't benefit from a more visible Internet presence.

Happy Networking

Ron Bates
Managing Principal
Executive Advantage Group
rbates@executive-advantage.com

www.cv-advantage.com
www.job-search-campaign.com
www.thenetworkingedge.com

Internet Presence, Job Search Advice, Resume Writing, network, networking, sales, selling, relationships, job, search, career, resume, CV

An Internet presence can help you land a job.

An Internet presence can help you land a job. By having visible content in your control ranking on the first page of Google when someone does a search on your name, you can absolutely put yourself ahead of anyone else you might be competing with for a job opportunity.

A June 12, 2006 ExecuNet Press Release (Growing Number Of Job Searches Disrupted By Digital Dirt) stated:

"According to a recent survey of 100 executive recruiters conducted by ExecuNet, the leading executive job search and recruiting network, 77% use search engines to learn more about candidates. Of those who use sites such as Google (GOOG) and Yahoo! (YHOO) to check the background of job seekers, 35% have eliminated a candidate from consideration based on the information uncovered online - up significantly from 26% just one year ago."

And that's just recruiters. Do you think an executive hiring authority does this during a recruiting process with respect to the candidates they are looking at investing time into interviewing?

The problem that many executives have with their Internet presence is all that surfaces are press release quotes (if they have anything surfacing at all). Press release quotes really don't do anything to showcase your unique executive value proposition or subject matter expertise.

This is easy to fix if you have access to the right tools and are willing to spend a little time writing.

By publishing blogs and articles on high traffic frequently indexed sites like Ecademy, EzineArticles, et al. you can create and drive content in your control showcasing your unique executive value proposition and subject matter expertise. This content will often rise above the press release quotes in Google ranking when someone searches on your name. You can also drive and associate the same content with relevant keyword phrases pertaining to the industry and/or market niches you live in.

To learn more how to take advantage of this powerful capability, dive into "Internet Presence - Case Study: Recipe for Success" and for even more, simply do a Google search on:

Personal Internet Presence Articles

Happy Networking

Ron Bates
Managing Principal
Executive Advantage Group
rbates@executive-advantage.com

www.cv-advantage.com
www.job-search-campaign.com
www.thenetworkingedge.com

Internet Presence, Job Search Advice, Resume Writing, network, networking, sales, selling, relationships, job, search, career, resume, CV

Internet Presence - First Page of Google in Under 30 Days

Internet Presence - Case Study: Recipe for Success - First Page of Google in Under 30 Days

Learn how - anyone - can leverage Ecademy and this Case Study to build a visible Internet presence.

I'm publishing this post because I'm constantly amazed at the number of Ecademy members that are unaware of this capability. I recognize there may be members who also don't care about this aspect of Ecademy membership. That's fine. This post is for Ecademy members who care about how they can leverage their membership in an incremental attempt to impact either themselves or their businesses professionally.

In July, I spoke at the San Francisco Chapter meeting of the Marketing Executives Networking Group about leveraging Ecademy to build a visible Internet presence.

Many of the Silicon Valley Marketing Executives in attendance were amazed to learn how powerful Ecademy is to not only build a visible - personal - Internet presence, but they were also amazed to learn how you can leverage the exact same principles to drive a visible - corporate - Internet presence.

I used Ecademy member Fraser Hay as an example of how he's driven his website for his Pocket Mentor program to the first page of Google against the keyword phrase: Personal Success Program.

I decided I needed to build my own Case Study after this presentation. In short, here is what I did:

I drove a website against a keyword phrase to the 1st page of Google in less than 30 days leveraging the power of Ecademy.

And if I can do this (i.e., someone who doesn't know anything about Search Engine Optimization), anyone can do this.

What's the recipe?

Let me first start with the chronology.

I built the website: www.search-advantage.com

I launched www.search-advantage.com July 31, 2006, and leverage Ecademy to promote www.search-advantage.com against the keyword phrase: Internet Presence (approximately 170 million hits)

My Ecademy content started to index quickly (Aug. 4, 2006 screenshot)

www.search-advantage.com started to index quickly hitting the 2nd page of Google (Aug. 8, 2006 screenshot)

www.search-advantage.com makes 1st page of Google 10th hit (Aug. 16, 2006 screenshot)

www.search-advantage.com 1st page of Google 5th hit (Sep. 20, 2006 screenshot)

Less than 60 days after putting effort into raising the ranking of www.search-advantage.com (against the keyword phrase: Internet Presence) Search Advantage consistently ranks in the middle of the first page of hits in Google out of approximately 170 million hits.

You can find the details of how I leveraged Ecademy to drive www.search-advantage.com to the first page of Google here: Case Study: Recipe for Success.

You can apply these - exact - same principles, substituting your name for the keyword phrase, to drive - any content associated with your name - higher in Google as well (Example).

This capability is priceless, and given the cost of a PowerNetworker membership on Ecademy is only about $180 bucks, that's about as close to "free" as you can get.

My hope is that more Ecademy members will be able to take advantage of and benefit from this capability through this example.

Happy Networking,

Ron Bates
Managing Principal
Executive Advantage Group
rbates@executive-advantage.com

www.cv-advantage.com
www.job-search-campaign.com
https://www.thenetworkingedge.com

Internet Presence, Job Search Advice, Resume Writing, network, networking, sales, selling, relationships, job, search, career, resume, CV

Internet Presence - When And How To Start Building Yours - by Ron Bates.

"Internet Presence - When And How To Start Building Yours" - by Ron Bates.

I just put up an article as a result of a number of questions I get from young professionals wondering when and how they should start investing time in building a visible Internet presence in support of their career objectives.

My advice: Start Now!

Today's job environment is far different from when I was starting my career as an engineer +20 years ago. When I was about 3 years into my career, an IBM PC had a whopping 10 MB hard drive, and you could even create a resume on one and print it out. Today, well, let's just say you can do a lot more on a PC.

As an executive recruiter, I'd also say today's job market is even more challenging for a young professional than when I got my start some +20 years ago. Technology is dramatically contributing to this rate of change across all professions.

The Internet is impacting all facets of information research for those who are looking for answers to questions that start with: who, what, when, where, why, and how.

Most business professionals get paid to answer questions and solve problems, and the Internet is a likely place people go for answers, or at least to get a running start.

That pretty much translates into being associated with the answers/solutions to the questions/problems as being a good thing from a career visibility/opportunity perspective.

Business professionals who are not leveraging the Internet to create this kind of association/visibility for themselves are doing themselves no favors from a career/opportunity perspective.

Even if it's a late start compared to where you are in your career, now is the time to start.

There's good news: no matter where you are in your career - it's pretty straightforward to do this leveraging Ecademy.

Happy Networking,

Ron Bates
Managing Principal
Executive Advantage Group
rbates@executive-advantage.com

www.cv-advantage.com
www.job-search-campaign.com
www.thenetworkingedge.com

Internet Presence, Job Search Advice, Resume Writing, network, networking, sales, selling, relationships, job, search, career, resume, CV

Should you hide your age in a resume?

Should you hide your age in a resume?

In a Netshare "Ask the Coach" webinar this week, I was asked if you should show your entire career in a resume. I get variations of this question all the time from candidates self-conscious/concerned about exposing they are later in their career than other peer level candidates they might be competing with for a job opportunity.

Regardless of age discrimination being against the law in the US, it is human nature some people are concerned about being labeled with euphemisms such as "Over Qualified" or hearing "We want to hire someone - uh - that can grow into the role."

My advice to candidates with more overall career experience than other peer level candidates they might be competing with that are earlier in their careers is - do not - truncate your career experience in your resume in an attempt to disguise your age. It will become obvious you did when you interview.

The most common way I see candidates truncating their career experience in their resumes is to begin their work chronology with their first position where they held an executive title (e.g., Vice President). Obviously, most people don't step into the professional workforce as an Executive.

Other candidates throw out the objection: "Nobody is going to hire me because of what I did in my early career."

That is flat out - not - true.

I coached one individual who received a CEO job offer after I suggested he'd be better off including his early career in his resume given it all was additive to his current executive value proposition. That was true in his situation:

During college and a year after graduating, this candidate manage an evening shift responsible for taking client calls for crashed mainframe computers, and dispatching the appropriate parts from warehouses and labor located around the world to get their client's mainframe up and running ASAP. The board and founders of the company he received his CEO job offer from were extremely interested in this specific experience. Why? Because the company developed software to equipment vendors for supporting service calls and warehouse part and labor dispatch. The candidate's early career work experience was absolutely additive to the candidate's value proposition.

It's simply human nature a hiring authority or recruiter would ask themselves:

"Why isn't the rest of this person's career on their resume?"
"Is it not relevant, how much of their career is not relevant?"
"Why do they think it isn't relevant?"
"I wonder how long ago they stepped into a professional role?"

Or worse: "What is this candidate trying to hide?"

It is much better to be upfront with your career. Anyone that is going to have a problem with "how much experience you have" is going to nuke you in the interview process, and you will have only wasted your time and theirs.

Be proud of the career you've put together, your value career value proposition is typically much greater than a peer level candidate that is "earlier in their career."

Happy Networking,

Ron Bates
Managing Principal
Executive Advantage Group
rbates@executive-advantage.com

www.cv-advantage.com
www.job-search-campaign.com
www.thenetworkingedge.com

Internet Presence, Job Search Advice, Resume Writing, network, networking, sales, selling, relationships, job, search, career, resume, CV

How to Interview Sales Executives - by Ron Bates

How to Interview Sales Executives - by Ron Bates

My retained executive search practice revolves 80% around recruiting what I call "Revenue Executives" (i.e., Executives responsible for leading the Sales, Marketing, or Business Development function within their company). My search practice also mirrors my career in that 80% of my career has been in Sales and Sales Executive Management roles at companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Mentor Graphics, Computer Vision and Spherion.

All said, not all executive hiring authorities have a high degree of comfort and/or knowledge about strategic sales process and strategy, and associated sales acumen. As a result, they are less comfortable in their knowledge of how to evaluate candidates for revenue production oriented roles.

I've been asked to provide a number of client executive hiring authorities over the years with examples of the kinds of questions/areas they should focus on in an interview when attempting to evaluate a candidate's revenue production "battlefield acumen."

In an attempt to help executive hiring authorities blow away some of the "smoke and mirrors" sales candidates can throw at them, I recently published an article called:

"How To Interview Sales Candidates - Executive Leaders, Managers, and Individual Contribributors"

On the flip side, candidates that can actually provide substantive direct answers to the interview questions/areas of focus suggested in the above article will leave a much stronger impression with - any - executive hiring authority as a result.

Happy Networking

Ron Bates
Managing Principal
Executive Advantage Group
rbates@executive-advantage.com

www.cv-advantage.com
www.job-search-campaign.com
https://www.thenetworkingedge.com

Internet Presence, Job Search Advice, Resume Writing, network, networking, sales, selling, relationships, job, search, career, resume, CV