Career Success Advice for Creating Positive Personal Impact Part 3

As I mentioned in my Monday August 1 post, I have a new career advice book being released this month.  It’s called Success Tweets for Creating Positive Personal Impact.  Lydia Ramsey of Manners that Sell is my coauthor.

I’ve decided to give readers of this career success blog a sneak peek at the common sense tweets in Success Tweets for Creating Positive Personal Impact this week.  Here are some of the common sense tweets you’ll find inside the book.

Networking Etiquette

• Make the most of networking events by arriving five minutes early.  That gives you the opportunity to speak to people as they enter.
• Make it a point to work the room and speak to as many people as possible.  Set a goal of how many people you want to connect with.
• When you meet someone at a networking function, make sure you remember and use his or her name.  People love the sound of their name.
• Be warm, pleasant, gracious and sensitive to the interpersonal needs and anxieties of others at networking events.
• Speak from your heart.  Show that you care about yourself and the person with whom you are in conversation.
• Demonstrate your understanding of others’ points of view.  Listen well; ask questions if you don’t understand.
• Use the 2/3 – 1/3 rule in networking conversations.  Listen two-thirds of the time; speak one-third of the time.
• Focus your complete attention on the person with whom you are speaking.  Don’t look for others with whom you want to connect.
• Look for common ground with people you meet at networking functions.  Find out about them, their life, their passions.
• Never approach two people in conversation.  You may be interrupting a private discussion.  Find groups of three or more or someone alone.
• Go prepared with conversation starters.  Have at least three topics you can discuss if the conversation lags.  Stick with safe subjects.
• Make sure you have an exit line in case you get stuck with one person.  Offer your exit line after you have finished speaking.
• Follow up after the event.  If you promised to call, pick up the phone the next day to arrange that meeting or lunch you suggested.

Business Cards

• Never leave your office without plenty of your business cards.  There is nothing more unprofessional than not having them with you.
• Keep your cards in a business card case that protects them from wear and tear.  A crumpled business card makes a poor impression.
• Know where your business cards are at all times.  The person who has to go through a self body search to find them loses credibility.
• Hand them out with discretion.  Doling them out in multiples of 12 says your cards are of little value.
• Give and receive cards with your right hand—the hand of discretion.  This makes a big difference when doing business internationally.
• Give the card so the person who is receiving it can read it without having to turn it around.
• Always comment on a card you receive.  Note the logo, the business name or other piece of information to place value on the card.
• Keep your business cards up-to-date.  When any information changes, run, don’t walk, to your nearest printer for new cards.
• Don’t write notes to yourself on someone else’s business card during the exchange.  Do that later out of sight.
• Don’t be aggressive when handing out your business cards.  Wait to be asked or request the other person’s card first.

Email Etiquette

• Email is now the dominant form of business communication.  Uniform policies regarding its use and format should be in place.
• Keep it brief.  Email is intended to be fast and efficient.  If your message is lengthy, it will not be read.
• To be appealing, your email message should be made up of short sentences, short paragraphs and lots of white space.
• Make sure that your subject line is a summary of your message; that it aligns with the content and what the reader is expecting to see.
• Limit your email to one topic.  You’ll find your results go up when you keep to a single subject.  Create another email for another topic.
• Email has no tone of voice or body language.  Choose your words carefully so that your message will not be misunderstood.
• Email is not for disagreements.  Never argue in email.  Walk down the hall or pick up the phone for sensitive discussions.
• Use spell check, but remember to go beyond spell check.  It only knows if the word is spelled correctly, not whether it is used correctly.
• Email is not private, so write nothing in your message that you couldn’t bear to see on a billboard on your way into work.
• Watch those email threads that grow like tumbleweeds.  Before you hit “reply,” review the chain of messages and consider “delete.”

Telephone Courtesy

• Whether you are placing or answering a call, identify yourself immediately.  The person on the other end should not have to ask your name.
• Ask permission before placing callers on hold and wait until you hear their answer before doing so.
• Before you transfer a call, make sure the person to whom you are sending your caller is available and has the correct information.
• Eating, drinking or chewing while talking on the phone is rude.  The other person may not be able to see you, but will surely hear you.
• Give callers your full attention.  It is obvious when people are multi-tasking while on the phone and it devalues the other person.
• Live people take precedence over phone calls.  Continue in-person conversations rather than answering your cell phone.
• Cell phones should be kept off and out of sight when you are meeting with others.  Just having yours on vibrate sends the wrong message.

Successful Social Media

• The common sense rules of courtesy and civility that apply to in-person relationships are more important online.
• Social networks allow you to get known and help others.  Give value and you will build a strong reputation online.
• Social networking is reciprocal.  When you help people, they’ll be more likely to remember you and return the favor.
• Avoid being overly aggressive in social networking.  If you are too persistent in pushing your agenda, you can damage your reputation.
• LinkedIn is the best social network for business professionals.  Get active on it.
• For online profiles, use your real information and pictures.  Your cat may be adorable, but that isn’t the face you want to present to the world.
• Post nothing you wouldn’t want a would-be boss to see.  Potential employers will Google you and make judgments based on what they find.
• Preserve your online reputation.  Keep your promises when offering to facilitate a personal introduction or find a phone number.
• Use a different account or profile for your personal connections or websites.  Remember, it is best not to mix business and pleasure.
• Offer real value, ideas and links to ideas that people can use to help their career or their business.
• Create screen names that reflect how you want to present yourself.  Clever is good; cute is inappropriate.  Your name is often the best choice.
• Twitter is a great site to share information, meet new people and build your brand.  Tweet items that have benefit for others.
• Retweet items that you think will be beneficial to others.  You will gain more Twitter followers this way.
• Check out the people that befriend you or follow you.  Others will judge you by the company you keep.  Unwanted “friends” can cause harm.
• Compose your posts, updates or tweets in a word processing document before you post them, so you can check spelling and grammar.
• Remember there are no guarantees of privacy in social networks (even with settings).  Anything can be cut, pasted, and sent.
• Never put anything on the Internet that you wouldn’t want your boss, your coworkers or clients to see.  It is not a secure place.
• Check your Klout score frequently.  Others do.

I hope you found these tweets to be helpful in your journey to the life and career success you want and deserve.  Come back tomorrow for more common sense tweets from Lydia Ramsey and my forthcoming book Success Tweets for Creating Positive Personal Impact.  As always, thanks for reading my daily thoughts on life and career success.  I value you and I appreciate you.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, you can download a free copy of my latest career success book Success Tweets Explained.  It’s a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.  You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.