The Experts Guide to Influence and Persuasion

The Experts Guide to Influence and Persuasion How do you define marketing?  The dictionary says its: the action or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising. A successful marketer goes beyond that; influencing, persuading and gently nudging people  to digest something  in a certain way. Let me introduce you to Dr. Robert Cialdini (if you havent already heard of him). He is the author of  Influence,  which focusses on what to put inside a message to move people in our direction. He also authored a follow-up book called Pre-Suasion, which is about the process of arranging your audience to be sympathetic to your message before they encounter it.  To help me learn the science behind it, I caught up with him to discuss his incredible insights on the power of persuasion and influence. Read on for a summary of our interview and make sure you subscribe to the Employer Branding Podcast. First of all, what are privileged moments? Privileged moments are the moments that we create immediately before we present an idea or proposal or recommendation so that people are attuned to that idea, recommendation, or proposal before they ever encounter it. And we do that by creating a mindset in them that is consistent with the goal of our message. How can marketers take full advantage of these? Here was a study that I like to talk about. It was done by some marketing researchers who walked up to individuals and asked them to participate in a marketing survey for no compensation, only 29% of them agreed to participate under those circumstances. But if the researcher first asked a pre-suasive question, Do you consider yourself a helpful person?, people thought for a moment and almost all of them said yes. Then the research said, Well, could you help us with our marketing survey? And now 77% agreed. So you can go from 29% to 77% assent, right? By changing the state of mind that people were in before you asked the question. Put them in mind of their helpfulness and they want to be helpful as a consequence, they want to be consistent with that view of themselves that youve now raised to consciousness. Should your USP be the first thing to read when people visit  your website? It should be.  Because weve just detailed in that clouds or coins study that that then channels their attention in a way subsequent that allows the rest of the site, right? To present its strongest elements. So you can focus people on a particular idea that may be your strength. Is your strength comfort? Is your strength cost? You can focus people on that material in a way that will make them recognize and process that information more quickly more deeply. Why would  online photographs of fluffy clouds help to sell furniture? This has to do with the way that weve moved recently into digital marketing, e-commerce, and so on. Of course someone who wants to use a pre-suasive moment to move people in a direction of their yet to be delivered message, right? Should recognize that the first thing a visitor sees to a website is the landing page, and probably the background images on that landing page. There was a study done in which an online furniture store sent half of its visitors, just as a test, to a landing page with the background wallpaper depicting fluffy clouds. They sent the other half to a landing page with background wallpaper depicting coins, money.  Those who saw the fluffy clouds in the background then rated comfort as the most important feature in selecting a piece of furniture, a sofa for example, right? They then searched the site for comfort-related features and ultimately preferred to purchase comfortable furniture. Those who were sent to the landing site with coins rated price as the most important feature, searched for cost-related aspects of the furniture, and preferred to purchase inexpensive furniture. So what occurred first before they were ever even introduced to the material and the details of the offerings themselves was that people were put in a mindset either for comfort or for cost that directed them subsequently into the material, caused them to search in a biased way through it, and become more inclined toward that initial concept that was installed in their mind pre-suasively at the very beginning of their contact with the site. Now theres one other thing thats interesting about that. No one recognized that they were influenced by the coins or the clouds. They said, Of course not, I decide based on my own preferences. Why can our perception of whats important be so easily shifted? So let me just say generally what this process is suggesting is if a communicator shifts a persons attention to a particular factor, that person sees that factor as more important than before because they are paying attention to it. Heres the logic. Normally what we do is to direct our attention to the most important factors, the most important features in our environment. Thats what we typically do. So when we see ourselves paying attention to a factor, we assume that it must warrant that attention, it must deserve that attention. Because normally when we attend to something, its to an important feature. We make the mistake of assuming that thats always the case. Because the communicator can send us to a particular factor and focus our attention there for reasons that have nothing to do with the merits of that thing. They can do it by illuminating some aspect of that factor that draws our attention. Distinctive colors, for example, will do that. Placement on a shelf can do that. Theres a study that shows that if you walk into a supermarket and there are three brands arrayed on the shelf, you will pay attention to the one in the center, and as a consequence be more likely to purchase the brand thats in the center. Thats why brands spend so much money to secure particular shelf space in supermarkets. They know that particular placement directs attention, and attention implies importance, and people then buy in a way thats congruent with the perceived importance of that brand. Can job hunters use pre-suasive techniques? Yeah. Well, when we go into a job interview, frequently theres an evaluator sitting across the table. Sometimes its a small team of evaluators, a panel. And we typically are trained to say, Well, thank you for bringing me here today, I want to answer all of your questions. Im going to recommend that before we launch into the interview we say one more thing, But Im curious, why did you invite me here today? What was it about my candidacy that attracted you to my application? And what you will find is they will then put themselves in a mindset of describing your strengths, what were the reasons that you were brought in, that your candidacy was seen to be attractive to this organization. Now when they go through the interview it will be with that mindset. I have an acquaintance who claims hes gotten three straight better jobs using that tactic. This applies to  sales meetings, too, where youre in competition with rivals and theyre coming in making presentations. You should ask ahead of time, Why did you select us to come in today? Follow Robert on Twitter @robertcialdini  make sure you subscribe to the Employer Branding Podcast.

Writing a Resume For a Second Job

Writing a Resume For a Second JobOne of the most difficult things for people trying to make a living is writing a resume for a second job. This is one of the hardest parts of becoming a professional and one that need to be addressed in advance. At this point, you have to make your resume's professional, easy to read, and to write. While it is not necessary to use a resume writing service to do this, it is helpful if you can use a person or company that will have the expertise to help you with your needs.Of course, when you are taking a second job, there are many reasons for needing to write a resume. These include a change in status from full time to part time, a change in position from underling to a manager, or a change in title from employee to contractor. It is important to make your resume's professional enough so that they will be accepted by the employer, and for them to keep them in line with the standards of the business that you will be working for.A great place to find exp erts who can help you with this type of resume is in a website that specializes in this sort of thing. These websites will have individuals and people who have worked in the industry you are looking for, and who can help you create a professional resume. You will also find these same professionals in several different languages. This makes it easy for you to communicate with one another.The first thing that you will want to do is to take your resume to a professional. You may not want to use the resume that the agency has provided you, but a professional that is going to provide you with a professional resume will be able to work to improve the material you will need to have in order to get your job. This can make a huge difference in getting your career on track.Most of these services will have an online chat option that will help youto talk to a person in any language that you speak. While you will still have to provide the material yourself, your questions will be answered as qui ckly as possible. This is helpful for people who do not have the time to devote to preparing the material themselves.Another way to help you prepare your materials is to use a service that provides templates. These types of sites will help you create the material that you need to. This can make the job easier than you would be if you did it all on your own.In order to write a resume for a second job, you need to be ready to have a lot of material for your files. This is why many people get the services of professionals in order to work on the resume. It is also something that should be considered when searching for a second job.With all of the material you will have to come up with, it can be difficult to write a resume for a second job. However, when you enlist the help of a professional, you will be able to use their experience and expertise to help you with the preparation of your documents. This is something that can save you a lot of time and heartache in the future.

How to Use Social Media to Find Your Perfect Job

How to Use Social Media to Find Your Perfect Job Remember the days when trying to get an opportunity meant hours of knocking on doors, endless phone calls and rejection by the bucket load? Don’t be fooled, those days haven’t gone entirely. To get the job you want still involves plenty of hard work and many hours of perseverance, but thanks to the way people interact these days, it’s possible to target that hard work and endeavour in a way that was never possible before, while neatly avoiding the rejection that might be headed your way. Social media has changed the way people live their lives in many ways, mostly in terms of their social activities. More-and-more however, people are using internet sites to present a profile of themselves, which they can then pitch to potential employers. As in every walk of life, social media sites can be lots of fun and a great tool and the world of recruitment is no exception. Here are some handy hints and tips on how using technology could just help you land that job of your dreams: How to optimise social media: So how do you go about optimising social media sites in order to further your career and find the job you’ve been searching for? Forget cocktail parties, management seminars, barbecues and games of paintball. Social media sites provide the biggest social circle you could wish for and that’s perfect if you’re looking to move on in your career.  Don’t be shy when it comes to asking contacts you know to introduce you to others that you are keen to connect with. In the meantime, search the companies that you have targeted and associate yourself with their profile page. This will give you a little more of a feel for the way they work, the people that are employed there and the way they go about their business. You might also find further contacts that are linked with the company. Send out the invites. The worst that will happen is that people don’t accept. It’s not what you know, it’s who you know: Years ago there was such a thing as a little black book. Here you’d store names and addresses of contacts and people who you had met and got to know. The little black book was a sign of someone’s ability to network and make contacts. The more used and tatty the book, the more you got out and mingled with folk, the more full the pages were, the more popular you were. These days, for most people, the little black book has been replaced by the contacts page of your various social network sites. The number of Twitter followers you have speaks volumes about you and can portray an image of confidence and credibility that might just suggest to a future employer that you are more than capable of bringing a large number of clients and customers to the business. Your profile is like an online portfolio: Whereas once you’d have to create an impression with an eye-catching outfit or an impressive portfolio of work when you went to visit a company, an original display of what you can do by using a social media page can now mean that your talents can be seen in a matter of seconds. Your very own blog can be put together in no time and is a great way to show your abilities. Simple software such as WordPress is easy to use and can look good with a bit of creative thinking. Once you have your blog up and running, this is a great place to demonstrate your passion and enthusiasm. Create some thoughtful commentary on the issues that you feel strongly about or are interested in and then share the content with as many as possible. Not only will you gain a name for yourself as a social commentator, you will almost certainly impress any future employer with your initiative. A number of well thought out tweets and intelligent posts, relevant to the area you are looking to work in, will always look impressive and depending on your ability with software, you could even film your upload your own video clips using a video sharing facility another great way of demonstrating your abilities and getting your message across. Remember to keep it clean: Remember though. Your Facebook and Twitter page can work against you as much as for you. If you intend on using these page as a vehicle to find employment, you’ll have to treat it professionally. So sacrifice the regular banter and holiday snaps that social network sites are best known for. Make sure there is nothing on display that could do more harm than good â€" incriminating holiday snaps and questionable comments could mean that your potential application is stopped in its tracks. And remember; make sure you set your security settings so that people are unable to upload “incriminating” pictures of you without your knowledge. Get out there! You’ve created a professional looking profile, now time to get yourself out there!  If you have checked and checked again that your profiles are looking clean, respectable and professional, it’s time to start using them productively.  If you have set up a blog, make sure you link to it on your CV. Also include Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts to all of your correspondence. Will this mean that you will get the job that you’ve been after? Not necessarily. But using social media websites constructively can certainly open doors and create the breaks that you need in order to get where you want to be. Author: This article was written by experienced content and copywriter Matthew Crist on behalf of www.oxford-management.com who provides management seminars.

How school affects future earnings

How school affects future earnings The best way to understand earning powerno matter what your ageis to understand the factors that go into it. For example, most people who have careers that are plateauing usually have a learning problem that manifests itself as an earning problem. And for parents, schooling discussions are really earning discussions. Because you can say that kids with a love of learning are lifelong learners (essential for workplace success today), but truly, who wants an unemployed Ph.D candidate? You dont want a lawyer who cant get a job because of poor social skills, you dont want a kid with perfect SAT scores who marries for money because supporting oneself seems too hard. Every parent wants to raise a kid who is capable of supporting himself and capable of finding engaging work for a stable life. Heres how schooling affects earning power. 1. Focus on pre-K through third grade. Why focus on pre-K? There is very solid data that the earning power of kids who attend a pre-K program is so much higher than kids who dont that Head Start is one of the most sacred of all publicly funded programs in the US. So the school impact on ones earning potential starts in pre-K. Why third grade? Research from Project STAR shows that after third grade, the quality of ones classroom has little impact on ones future earning potential. There is clear data (spanning 25 years and researchers at six universities) that shows that test scores after third grade are not indicators of future earning potential. 2. Ignore standardized test results, obsess over self-confidence levels. This means, of course, that it doesnt matter how one performs on national standardized tests since those test scores do not have impact on the sixty years one spends in the workforce. And this conclusion is consistent with one of my favorite studies in the whole world: It is from Alan Kreuger, professor at Princeton, that shows that while it is true that kids who go to Harvard and Princeton have advantages over others when it comes to future earning, you can get those same advantages just by applying to those schools. Its having ambition and believing in yourself that are the real harbingers of success. The fancy diploma is a red herring. 3. Teach kids to find mentors. Faye Crosby, professor at the University of Santa Cruz says that the two most important factors in a persons earning potential are quality of schooling and quality of mentoring. Now we know that the schooling part of this equation is up to third grade. So maybe, starting in fourth grade, we should be teaching our kids how to get the best mentors. Lets consider what life would look like if you took all fourth graders out of school and started teaching them how to get mentors. First of all, the act of finding a mentor is very consistent with what current research on education reform says that kids should be doing: Following the paths that interest them and finding someone to guide them. 4. The best schooling after third grade is unschooling. Here is a fascinating article from Psychology Today about why school reform will not work because schools are so incredibly ill-suited for teaching kids. In fact, the formula for schooltelling kids what they should learn and how they should learnis a method only for killing their creativity. Lisa Neilsen, who manages teacher training for New York City public schools, also comes down hard on the classroom structure. She tells parents that kids should learn in a project-based program where the lesson plans are dictated by a childs current interests. Neilsen says that if the school wont do that for your kid, take your kid out of school. 5. Aim for out of the box. Way out of the box. Thats when things will look right. So lets say you take the advice of people whose job is to study what is the best way to teach your kid. Lets say you take the advice of the reams of research about what factors influence a childs future earning potential. What you are left with is waking up every day, asking your child what he or she wants to do, and then finding someone to help them, if you are are not the right person. Some days you will offer up some ideas, some days your kid will say no to everything and decide to play video games. Heres what Im doing to increase my fourth-graders earning potential: Pottery. He told me he wanted to do clay. He said hes upset that each year of school he got to do a clay project, and this year, since were homeschooling, hes going to miss it. So I did a little Googling, and I found a pottery studio: Bethel Horizons. (It is Christian, of course. Everything in rural America that has funding is either government or Christian.) The minute I walked into the studio, I knew we were so lucky. Krista is the pottery teacher, and she took incredible care to make sure each step was a way to focus mentally and connect with the clay. She showed him how to use machines and tools and she showed him that part of the process is keeping the workspace neat and clean so the brain and the hands can work in peace. Then Krista told my son hed make a pot each time he sits at the wheel. I thought about the study about pottery in Malcolm Gladwells book Outliers. Students who were asked to make one, great pot, learned much slower than kids who made a terrible pot each time at the wheel. Greatness comes from lots of terribleness, so I liked that we were on that path. I coach so many people who want advice about their career, but so often, these people really just need to learn how to figure out what they want: experiment, find what might be fun. Try it for a bit. People need coaching on how to take risks and not worry if they fail. People need coaching on how to find a mentor who is invested in their particular path. I see that all these things are related to earning power, and all these things are what kids learn when they direct their own curriculum. So, my son probably will not grow up to make expensive pots to sell. But I know that while hes skipping school and managing his pottery-learning himself, his earning power is going up, and its a joy to watch.

A Guide to Creating an Example Objective For Resume

A Guide to Creating an Example Objective For ResumeAspiring professionals can quickly and easily create an example objective for resume. A resume example objective is the lead paragraph that initiates a particular type of call to action. A resume example objective is either in the 'Business Summary'Purpose' section.A common problem with a resume is that it tends to contain a lot of standard information. When this happens, it can be hard to relate a particular position to a specific job. However, it is critical to remember that a great resume only needs to make one objective call to action for someone to be convinced of the candidate's qualifications.For example, the 'Purpose' section of a good resume is critical for creating a job-hunting strategy. Although some people may view this section as just a diversion from the real purpose of the resume, many potential employers are searching for information about a particular job. The purpose of the 'Purpose' section is to lead potential jo b seekers in the direction of information that can help them develop a detailed profile of their professional and career history.In the 'Purpose' section, a clear call to action is provided. Some people choose to use this section as a portion of their resume. If you want to use it, simply follow the example of each employment to write 'Worked with...' followed by a brief description of the employer, for example. Employers will become more likely to hire someone who has worked under them rather than someone who merely worked at a specific employer.Another common mistake is to have a paragraph of text with no call to action. For example, a paragraph with 'Opportunities for Growth' is not a good resume objective. This particular paragraph should, however, include a clear call to action to allow a potential employer to know why they should hire the person. After all, a well-written resume example will increase the chances of a job seeker being contacted.The objective section is also a g ood place to provide information about the duties of the prospective employer. Many people think that having this information in the 'Purpose' section is enough. However, if the employer was a difficult person to work with, chances are that the candidate was not too impressed with the opportunities presented. It is better to write down the responsibilities that should be required of the prospective employee for more favorable results.A last common mistake is to be so detailed that it leaves the reader unsure of exactly what the job is. This is especially true when writing about a position that is filled by a temporary employee. Some people also choose to write about the 'How to Apply' for some positions instead of addressing the employer directly.Many people also fear that their resume example objective will be inappropriately written. This is simply not the case, however. With a little practice, writing a resume objective that is exactly like the job description will not be an issu e.

Computer Programs For Resume Writing

Computer Programs For Resume WritingComputer programs for resume writing are a great tool for organizing and filing away your resume. A resume is just like any other document you might have to write in the corporate world. It has to be formatted and worded correctly.Resume writing is very time consuming. Not only do you have to type out a lot of information but you also have to check it over, edit it and send it in. In most cases, you may need the help of a freelance writer.Computer programs for resume writing can make this job easier than ever. These programs are designed to take all the tedious work out of your resume. They make reviewing and editing your resume easy and streamlined. You no longer have to spend hours trying to get it right.You can submit your resume and hire a resume writer without having to hire the person to write it for you. These programs also save you money. Your hourly rate will come down significantly because of the hiring fees associated with your freelance writer.There are plenty of resumes out there to go through. These programs allow you to search and filter by keywords. When you fill out a job description of your job skills, you can have the program automatically review and sort through your resume.All you have to do is type in the basic resume format. These programs have all the correct keywords that you need to see right away when your resume is done. The software will also filter out any things that may take too long to read such as abbreviations and special characters.The software will then review and categorize your resume. This will help it to filter out the resumes that may not be very good fit for the company you are applying for. If you want to make sure that your resume gets to the person you want to go to interview you should review your resume right away using these programs.Another benefit of these programs is that they can reduce the number of resumes you have to go through each day. With these programs, you don't ha ve to worry about taking the time to check each resume out. Instead, you can use these programs to make sure your resume gets to the right people.

Friday Woohoo Who is the worlds happiest bus driver - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Friday Woohoo Who is the worlds happiest bus driver - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog Is this the happiest bus driver in the world? Or is it maybe this guy from Copenhagen: A great big thank you to Mary Jane Roy for telling me about Tommy Transit. Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related

Learn to Balance Work and a Full Schedule - Hallie Crawford

Learn to Balance Work and a Full Schedule In this recent article wrote for US News, she discusses the 3 Ways Staying Physically Fit Can Help Your Work Performance. We all know we should be getting some kind of exercise throughout the week. But even with new technology like Fitbit and apps like Strava, how often do you meet your exercise goals? We all know the benefits of regular exercise: you sleep better, you have more energy, you burn more fat, etc. And it still can feel like a challenge to fit it in with our busy work schedules. Its too easy to push aside exercise saying that we dont have time. But truly, exercise and work should go hand in hand, even if its a quick workout at lunch a few days a week. Exercise gives you energy and increased mental capacity to achieve your career goals. Its critical to your success at work because it enables you to function at your maximum capacity. Still uncertain that its crucial to your success? Here are three ways exercise can boost your work performance. Read more