Recently, for a major organization, I conducted a workshop about personal branding. What was most interesting, is that this organization wanted its employees to have personal websites, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook accounts. What its leadership realizes is that competition for excellent people is everywhere, even within its own walls. So, how do you stand out among your peers at your work place?

It’s not much different before social media came on the scene, except your information is online and readily available. When someone asked to see a resume, we would place it in the mail or send it electronically. Now, we give them our LinkedIn profile.

Employees looking to expand their network within their organization now have easy access to profiles. If they are looking for a mentor, they can easily place their hands on education and work history. Managers and leadership teams also have easy access to employee information.

Here are 5 easy tips to make sure you are mobile within your organization.

1. Keep your LinkedIn profile up-to-date. This includes projects on which you’ve worked and recommendations.

2. In your recommendations, also include those from professional organizations where you have volunteered, especially if you’ve held a leadership position.

3. Make sure photos and comments are not offensive or politically incorrect.

4. Let others in your organization know your interest in moving around or up.

5. Lastly, tell the truth. Do not put false information in your profiles.

As the workplace catches up with the social media crowd, we will see more employees becoming more comfortable sharing their information. It’s the only way they will be able to stay current and relevant in this social media savvy climate.

Let me know what you think.

One can read almost any survey among executives across industry sectors, and they all cite talent attraction and retention and a lack of innovation as their biggest challenges. Revenue remains flat, and there have no fresh ideas for quite a while. One can easily picture a cartoon of boardroom full of white male baby boomers scratching their heads with a thought bubble containing a bold question mark. Therein lies the irony – the absence of diversity and inclusion is the reason that the answers elude them.

An April, 2014 article highlighted the inclusive efforts of Kimberly-Clark corporation. Kimberly-Clark, the maker of Huggies diapers and Kotex feminine products has a customer base that is 83 percent female. In 2009, leadership at Kimberly-Clark decided to increase the number of women within senior management as well as on the board of directors in 2009. Newly-implemented work-life balance initiatives allowed for top-performing working mothers to serve in more decision-making roles. Top performing women no longer feared making a decision between work and family. By 2013, the stock price increased from $63.71 to $104.46. Changing an organizational culture empowering diverse employees is Smart Inclusion™.

Kimberly-Clark proved that Smart Inclusion™ is ultimately about key performance indicators. These performance indicators can be economic, social, and environmental. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 37 percent of Americans are either African-American, Native-American, Asian-American or Latino. Furthermore, women comprise 50 percent of the American population. Smart Inclusion™ is not merely some feel good social imperative, it is a sustainable business practice. Sectors most needing to integrate Smart Inclusion™ for stakeholder engagement include:

• Government: The 21^st century digital age and transformational demographic shifts in cities have changed the civic engagement paradigm forever. Transparency and cross-cultural collaboration are now fundamental to the new urban landscape.
• Public Utilities: Smart meters and other online water and energy management tools have empowered the customer with more knowledge. Customer engagement within a service territory made up of customers with diverse cultures and values has become an evolving science.
• Colleges and Universities: The international student population has increased dramatically at most institutions of higher learning. Increased competition to attract and retain such students require culturally-competent outreach strategies for each diverse student population.

Multiculturalism is the new normal. The infinite combinations of age, race, gender, class, and culture require nuanced value propositions. A recent Pew Research Center study also found that black women and Latinas use Instagram and Twitter more than any other social media platform. The convergence of changing demographics, globalization, and our everyday access to advanced technology has driven the need for Smart Inclusion™. Smart Inclusion™ for stakeholder engagement is fundamental to organizational sustainability.

Engaged couples are in a relationship. You want your engaged visitors to be in a relationship with you. Which networks are the most engaged?

According to a report from Shareaholic, YouTube, LinkedIn and Google+ drive the most engaged social referrals to websites. The analysis examined visit duration, pages per visit and bounce rate for visitors to its network of over 200,000 websites from eight social media platforms: Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, Reddit, Twitter, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn and YouTube.

YouTube was the top performer across all three metrics. Its referrals to websites have the lowest average bounce rate (43.19%), the longest visitor duration (227.82 seconds) and the highest pages per visit (2.99).

Although LinkedIn and Google+ drive the fewest referrals to Shareaholic’s network, they bring in some of the most engaged visitors. Google+ users spend on average more than three minutes driving content on websites shared by connections in their circles and visit 2.45 pages at each visit and bounce only 50.63% of the time.

LinkedIn users spend 2:23 minutes on average of each link they click, viewing 2.23 pages at each visit and the bounce rate is 51.28%.

Visitors referred from Twitter and Facebook to websites are about equally engaged. Bounce rates are both at 56.35%, though Twitter users visit more pages on average (2.15 vs. 2.03). Facebook users spend more time on a site post-click (127.44 seconds vs. 123.10 seconds).

Pinterest users view fewer pages per visit than Facebook and Twitter visitors (1.71) and spend considerably less time on site (64.67 seconds) than visitors from all other networks expect for StumbleUpon.

So what does this mean for you? When you want to drive visitors to the information on your website, you must think about where the visitors are and where they want to be.

You want to engage your visitors, and when they are, they are most likely to go where you ask them to go…your website.

The Internet has changed everything. Not only do we have information at our (literal) fingertips, but now, we’re all writers.

From Facebook, to Twitter to blogs, people who have never considered themselves writers, are writers. If you are starting (or have) a blog, how can you write to make sure it gets read?

Write Relevant Content


It may be tempting to write about your brother’s dog, but if it doesn’t relate to your site or page topic, leave it out. Web readers want information, and unless the page is information about said dog, they really won’t care, even if it is a good metaphor for what you’re trying to say.

Put Conclusions at the Beginning

Think of an inverted pyramid when you write. Get to the point in the first paragraph, then expand upon it.  People don’t want to have to read page after page to get to the meat.

Write Only One Idea per Paragraph


Web pages need to be concise and to-the-point. People don’t read Web pages, they scan them, so having short, concise paragraphs is better than long rambling ones.

Use Action Verbs

Tell your readers what to do. Avoid the passive voice. Keep the flow of your pages moving. I was always taught to limit or eliminate “to be” verbs and replace with “is,” “am.”

FORMATTING

Use Lists Instead of Paragraphs


Lists are easier to scan than paragraphs, especially if you keep them short.

Limit List Items to Seven Words


Studies have shown that people can only reliably remember seven to ten things at a time. By keeping your list items short, it helps your readers remember them.

Write Short Sentences


Sentences should be as concise as you can make them. Use only the words you need to get the essential information across.

Include Internal Subheadings


Sub-headings make the text more scannable. Your readers will move to the section of the document that is most useful for them. Internal cues make it easier for them to do this.

Make Your Links Part of the Copy


Links are another way Web readers scan pages. They stand out from normal text, and provide more cues as to what the page is about.

Proofread Your Work


Typos and spelling errors will send people away from your pages. Make sure you proofread everything you post to the Web. If you can have someone else proofread before sending. If you can’t do that, wait a few hours. Your eyes will be fresh and may pick up mistakes otherwise missed.

If we’re all writers, it’s best to write right. Take care to provide the best content and format which will increase your chances of repeat readers.