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paulcopcutt

It’s Not What You Know, its Who You Know on LinkedIn

New Enhancements to the LinkedIn Job Board Experience Despite the increased amount of business development, networking and relationship and the many recommendations now to build a profile that is more than just a cut and paste of your resume, for many users of LinkedIn it is still predominantly used to help them find their next job. Even with lower unemployment numbers having the upper hand with some more insights can… Read More »It’s Not What You Know, its Who You Know on LinkedIn

17 Steps to Ensure You Ace Your Next Video Interview

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This past week I was a guest for an experts interview series called Corporate Rebels. It was a Skype video interview and half way through the connection was lost, my hosts picture was frozen and I was talking away to myself (which can happen at other times occasionally!).

Luckily we were able to reconnect, finish the interview and with the wonders of editing the end result will hardly show a cut.  But it struck me how many steps I had to take to ensure that the 30 live minutes were the best they could be.

I thought this experience would be useful to help you the next time you are getting ready for a video job interview or podcast;

SET-UP

It is important to have everything set up way ahead of time. The last thing you want to be doing, when you are trying to get ready for an interview is stumbling and fiddling and not thinking about the task in hand.

Light Source

Natural light is ideal. If not, then ensure that there are lights casting enough illumination on you from more than one angle. You do not want only one side of your face showing or to find that the sun is shining right behind or across you, and the interviewer cannot see you. Windows or any source of light should be in front of you. If they are behind you, the viewer may only see your silhouette.

Backdrop

You want your interviewer to be focused on you so do not have anything like last weeks laundry hanging up in the background that could distract them. Stark blank walls are too bare. Plan for a pleasing backdrop like, perhaps a plant or tidy book case.

Set Design

You might use this set-up for future interviews or business meetings. Use set up marks for your computer, lighting, and chair or standing position. That way for the next call, you can set up quickly.

Read More »17 Steps to Ensure You Ace Your Next Video Interview

Build A Branded LinkedIn Header Image You Will Be Proud Of

Paul Copcutt

Unless you are one of those fake profiles, you would not want to use a stock photo for your headshot on your profile. So why are you doing it with the most important piece of visual real estate you have?

One area of a LinkedIn in profile that is really under used is the header image. LinkedIn offers you a few stock photo options, but once you have seen a few of the same one on a few profiles that loses its effect quickly.

This probably more than any other area is a perfect place for you to communicate your personal brand.

Some of my clients have uploaded pictures of their personal passions, hobbies or pursuits. Alternatively some have used it as an opportunity to highlight parts of their personal brands from a professional perspective.

Part of the image area is covered up your profile but with some clever editing and a little trial and error you can get a very effective representation of you, your message and your brand, like mine above.

First here is the template to use so you know which areas are visible all the time and which ones may be covered depending on the device.

Read More »Build A Branded LinkedIn Header Image You Will Be Proud Of

10 Personal Brand Tactics to Ensure That Next Promotion

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30 years ago you were told to expect to work for one employer for life,
20 years ago you were told to plan for extra leisure time because of automation, 10 years ago one quarter of the new jobs being created had never existed previously.

Now graduates are told to expect to be back at school every decade to retrain.

NEWSFLASH: The world of work is changing. Forever. Always.

We have been hearing human resource, organizational development and career guru’s telling us that for years. Gone are the days when ‘Personnel’ came and tapped you on the shoulder and told you about your next career move.

“You can no longer rely on anyone for your career, except YOU” 
Paul Copcutt

Once you make it to the next promotion, there are on-boarding programs, online courses and books, like “The First 90 Days” to help.

But what about before all that happens?

Read More »10 Personal Brand Tactics to Ensure That Next Promotion

Do You Connect Like a Real Human Being?

Dave Howlett Book

It was at a senior executives networking event a number of years ago that I first heard Dave Howlett speak.  His subject and approach intrigued me and even now I can clearly remember his power of 3 philosophy.

What was interesting to me, before that day, on three separate occasions from three different people I had been recommended to hear his talk.  This is at the heart of what Dave talks about, the value of someone recommending you, talking highly of you when you are not in the room. As he says “Remember you can’t call yourself a good guy or an amazing woman (only other people can) but you can always act like one.“

Read More »Do You Connect Like a Real Human Being?

After the LinkedIn Password Hacking – 3 Important Steps to Take NOW

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You may have missed the news, after all it was back in 2012 – but LinkedIn was hacked and what initially seemed to be ‘only’ 6.5 million passwords being compromised now appears to have been a breach of over 100 million passwords – that is a around a quarter of the total LinkedIn membership.

This week LinkedIn acknowledged that these passwords and other information such as emails have been offered up for sale on the ‘dark web’ black market.

Regardless of whether you think your account may have been one of these 117 million you should login to your LinkedIn account right now and do these three things;

Read More »After the LinkedIn Password Hacking – 3 Important Steps to Take NOW

7 Steps to Making Your Personal Brand Irresistible

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My Dad had a huge love of genealogy and, tracked down distant family members, wrote letters and, visited local churches for old records of births, baptism’s marriages and deaths. He did it all the old fashioned way without the internet. His legacy is that I have his handwritten, 42 foot long , family tree.

He loved nothing more than to welcome a visitor to his home village and, take them to meet all the relatives – in the local graveyard!  Then he would invite the visitor back for a strong cup of English tea, pulling out the family tree and recall stories of Aunt Edith’s love of a shot of gin or the size of Uncle Bert’s nose, which I swore got bigger every time the story was told!

He was telling their stories, who they were, what they did and what they stood for. If someone were to do the same about you, what would they say?

Your challenge is that you may not be the best person to tell your personal brand story.

If I were to ask you right now to tell me what your personal brand is, how confident would you be of doing yourself justice?

7 Steps to Building Your Personal Brand Story

Read More »7 Steps to Making Your Personal Brand Irresistible

4 Steps to Improve Your LinkedIn Luck

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As it’s Friday 13th I thought you might like to have a black cat ‘walk’ across your screen for good luck.

Success on LinkedIn, however, relies on more than just luck. Getting your profile to ‘All Star’ status is really just the beginning, after all this is not a network like Facebook (although some people seem to think it is) posting a few personal updates and expecting lots of likes and comments is not a strategy. To be successful on LinkedIn you need Read More »4 Steps to Improve Your LinkedIn Luck

How to Hog the LinkedIn Limelight With 3D Activity (Part 2)

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When I was a kid and the local fair rolled into town, the main booth we would go to was called the “Win a Goldfish”. What seemed like hundreds of glass jars were laid out before me and in some of them were goldfish in water. For a few pennies, you got 3 attempts to land a ping-pong ball in one of the jars containing a goldfish and then take it home.

One of us always seemed to proudly be walking home, plastic bag in hand with our goldfish prize. Sadly our triumph was short lived as , a goldfish is not a hardy pet and usually only survived a few days.

Nowadays our connection to ‘goldfish’ has slipped from days to seconds. Read More »How to Hog the LinkedIn Limelight With 3D Activity (Part 2)

Are You Running Up Against the Commercial Use Search Limit on LinkedIn?

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BUT I want to do more searches! With a number of changes over the last several months LinkedIn has also appeared to be playing with how many searches you can conduct. This has always been the case with free accounts but now it seems the same applies to some of the Premium accounts too.

What is more frustrating is that there does not seem to be any definitive number, I have found with my own Premium account that I can run up to this limit just before my renewal date is, but other months it can be in the first few days and I don’t seem to be doing anything different!

Here are some solutions …..Read More »Are You Running Up Against the Commercial Use Search Limit on LinkedIn?