Coworkers.com Facebook App available

The Coworkers.com Facebook app enables you to easily display a badge with your Coworkers.com rating information. Choose from different styles, some more detailed than others. If you are a Facebook user, add it to your profile!

Network Your Way to Job Security

getrichslowly.org guest author Brandt Smith shares his perspective on the importance of cultivating your work connections so that you can respond to unexpected changes in your career. His "Seven keys to a strong network" include:

1. Build it before you need it
2. You must make a deposit before you have the right to withdraw
3. Give more than you receive
4. Be open and genuine
5. Follow up and stay in touch
6. The devil is in the details
7. Your network doesn't end with your contact

Read the full article...

(thanks to The Consumerist for this link)

Ten Tactics That Could Save Your Online Reputation

via mashable.com: "Andy Beal, co-author of Radically Transparent: Monitoring and Managing Reputations Online and CEO of online reputation monitoring tool Trackur...outlines ten tactics that could prevent your company suffering its own online reputation meltdown..."

Summary:

1. Know your achilles heel
2. Assume everything will make it’s way to the web
3. Create a great online impression; dress to impress!
4. Choose your blog voice carefully
5. Hangout at the right social network
6. Send blogger’s love letters, not PR pitches
7. Build your Google reputation now, not later
8. Monitor your online reputation as often as your email
9. Ostriches are not great role-models
10. Three words to remember

While definitely a promo for his book, this is an insightful article nonetheless.

Why Your Google Reputation Can Hurt Your Career

"More and more recruiters are turning to Google as part of their due diligence efforts for hiring decisions. The article quotes a couple of incidents where potential employers backed away from offering a job, once they Googled the candidate.

Fortunately, it’s not all bad news. Hiring managers might find something positive about you..."

Read the rest at marketingpilgrim.com

Inc.com: "Are You a Bad Boss?"

From inc.com: "Seven signs that your employees detest you. (By you, of course, we mean some other boss.)"



"There's a reason Dilbert, The Office, and their ilk are so popular. Satire gets old fast, but the appeal of realism endures. And the real world, sadly, is full of lousy bosses. Someone ought to do a study on where these louts come from. Were they abused by their own bosses? Did they toss overboard the ballast of human kindness to hasten the ascent of their career balloons? Or is this an example of absolute power corrupting absolutely? Such research might also demonstrate how ubiquitous miserable managers are. The proliferation of boss-bashing screeds with titles like When You Work for a Bully, Nasty Bosses, and How To Work for an Idiot suggests a plague..."

The article outlines "seven signs that you are a bad boss". Here's our favorite excerpt:

"Sign # 4: Your 360-degree evaluations come back short and full of generically positive comments, with one very mild criticism ("Sometimes she works too damn hard for her own good") thrown in for credibility's sake..."

This is exactly why Coworkers.com Reviews are a more effective solution to providing and receiving unbiased feedback!

Building Credibility: 11 Ways to Show You’re a Professional

Here's an interesting article from freelanceswitch.com:

"When it comes down to the wire, your potential clients are trying to figure out which category you fall into: the good or the bad.

So how can you show that you’re an honest and hard-working freelancer? A lot of the time it’s the little things that count the most..."

Here's a summary of their key points:

1. Have an established pricing structure
2. Create a clean and professional brand
3. Pay for a professional telephone service
4. Show Professional Endorsements
5. Proudly display your previous work
6. Proudly display client testimonials and comments
   
7. Dress appropriately for client meetings
8. Always be well-groomed
9. Have lots of detailed information on your website
10. Maintain a confident voice in your industry
11. Always be willing to say no

Of course, you can address points 4 and 6 by Requesting Reviews via Coworkers.com...

TechCrunch France highlights Coworkers.com

TechCrunch France recently published an article about Online Reputation services. Coworkers.com is highlighted in the section covering rating tools.

• Read the original article (in French)
• English translation via Google Translate

Seth Godin: "The honor system"

Notable Marketing Guru Seth Godin has a hand in the online publishing and community website Squidoo.com. Recently squidoo suffered from a large-scale spamming 'attack' that violated the rules of the site, but nevertheless was able to be carried out before being dealt with. Squidoo has responded well and kept people up to date. What may be even more interesting is Seth's personal perspective on the situation:

Excerpt: "...So, online, you're between a rock and a hard place. The first opportunity is to treat your friends better than ever, because word of mouth online is incredibly powerful. The Net brings significant leverage--you can spread ideas farther and faster.

The temptation is to embrace only the advantages of the web and insist on eternal vigilance against the possiblity of getting ripped off. To act as if everyone online is a criminal. To assume that the moment you are generous or trusting, squadrons of bad actors will exploit your generosity. I don't think that's the answer. If you treat people like criminals, the good ones will leave, because people have a choice.

There's a different path. Awareness of the potential problem helps you keep your eyes open. You can watch the trends, be aware, but still embrace the honor system. Realize that the vast majority of your customers will always want to do the right thing. Look both ways before crossing the street... but still cross..."
Read the full article.

48% Stretch the Truth, 10% Outright Lie on Their Resumes

The Monster Blog: "Here are the results...

• 10% chose “Yes, I told a whopper.”
• 48% chose “Not really, though I may have prettied-up the details a bit.”
• 42% chose “No, my resume is the stone-cold truth.”

Now let’s look for a moment at the purpose of your resume. Your resume’s job is to get you an interview... But remember, there are ethics in marketing, and you need to have ethics in your job search, too.

Do you know how annoying it is to see former coworkers’ resumes that set their work and experience in a completely different light than the truth?... It’s always disconcerting to see someone taking credit for another’s work or inflating a title to encompass responsibilities well out of the person’s domain..."

Building a Brand Through Social Networks

Just as there are many facets to an individual, there are many sites that fall into the social networking category. Rather than putting all of their eggs in one basket, many savvy folks are creating profiles on multiple sites, taking advantage of the unique strengths of each. We believe this is a sound approach.

"With all that’s going on with social networking these days, we’re seeing a lot of figures leverage the popularity of social networks to gain visibility for themselves... One key takeaway from these guidelines is to remember that smaller, even niche social networks can be used to build up your presence in larger communities. A lot of smaller sites offer tools that will let you incorporate additional content that’s important for branding purposes, as well as ways to manage your overall web presence, offering compatible tie-ins with larger networks."

Of course, we feel Coworkers.com makes a great addition to your social networking strategy.

Playing e-Detective

"Checking out applicants online can save you trouble - and get you into it."

This is an older article, but still pertinent.