Social Media and Your Stage Presence

Shakespeare said “all the world’s a stage” and social media has become the newest place to see your name in lights. Whether you’re a professional working for an organization, flying solo as a consultant or currently seeking your next role, its worth considering where exactly you want to make regular appearances. How you perform is up to you.

One Network Serves as a Baseline
Consider a service like LinkedIn to be your baseline for professional networking and communications. With over 40 million members, LinkedIn is the largest and most diverse network in the U.S. While smaller or more specialized networks such as Plaxo.com, Spoke.com or Xing.com may fit your immediate needs, consider joining them in terms of your long term business and career goals as well as the time and effort you’ll need to expend to update multiple profiles. In any case, your profile is your business card – make each word count but include relevant details of your expertise and experience. Also include a photo! It helps people recognize who you are.

Create a Hierarchy of Connections
Facebook can be a valuable channel for building your online brand with professional colleagues who evolve into friends. It’s an opportunity to share more of yourself – your sense of humor, values, lifestyle and friends. For this reason, be conscious of the content you share on your Facebook page. Understand the levels of access you can give connections and as a rule of thumb, don’t share anything you wouldn’t feel comfortable sharing with a recruiter or potential client. They will be looking.

Commit to a Communication Plan
As a marketing professional, I use LinkedIn as a primary channel to focus on those business groups or conversations that matter to me. Good networking isn’t about self-promotion; it’s about building relationships based on shared interests and expertise. Avoid the temptation to send out messages asking for job referrals or blanket connection requests. It won’t help you build relationships.

Ready for a bigger stage? You may want to expand to start your own group within LinkedIn, launch a blog or open a twitter account. Whichever channel you commit to using, consistency and timeliness is important. A brilliant discussion followed by weeks of silence will do little to keep contacts aware and interested in your point of view. If you want to start a blog, there’s a volume of advice available on how to do it right. One resource I find helpful is hubspot.com. In any case, launch your blog with your own domain (blog/yourname.com) rather than a subdomain of a blog service (blog/typepad.com) to ensure you’re optimized for search engines. All of the blog services offer this feature at a small cost.

Social Media Tools to Organize
There are a number of tools to manage your channels of communication and alert you to your colleagues’ activities with new applications appearing daily. I like FriendFeed.com which will establish an easily viewable log of where and when colleagues have posted on a particular network, Ping.fm which will update multiple networks including your blog posts and TweetDeck.com which streamlines your Twitter activities and enhances sharing capabilities. Check out SlideShare.net to see how other individuals and companies are leveraging social media channels.

Social media doesn’t eliminate the need for getting out and networking in person. It can however, help recall a conversation and solidify the first impression your contact carried away from your meeting. It can also help you reach individuals you wouldn’t otherwise have the chance to connect with and build awareness of your expertise within the community. As for learning your lines, that’s something you have to practice on your own. And take heart – improvising is what keeps it fun.

Patricia Smith consults with clients on marketing strategies and communication initiatives in the B2B market space. She has diverse corporate and entrepreneurial experience in U.S. and International markets guiding the development of brand strategies, launching new products and services, building business cases and developing results-driven marketing programs. Ideas and travel are her passions.

You can contact Patricia at psmith@makingwordscount.net , tweet her at @octopus or visit her at http://www.linkedin.com/in/pasmith17.

Senior Vice President of Sales

Whiting Consulting is looking for a senior vice president of sales to join our customer’s organization. In this role the candidate will maintain a sales culture focused on driving revenue, profitability, and recurring clients. The SVP of Sales will also be responsible for aggressively-growing the revenues and profitability through the development and implementation of sales strategies and the management of the current and future sales force. In addition, this individual will work closely with other senior managers to ensure a smooth transition and appropriate sales involvement during the execution of the client deliverables.

Responsibilities:

• Assist the sales team in their ability to accelerate the sales cycle to achieve sales and revenue goals established by management.
• Implement processes and systems to build a dynamic world class sales culture.
• Operate across multiple product platforms.
• Oversee the strategy to penetrate key clients.
• Develop sales strategies and plans that include the functional support of the executive team, as required, and work closely with the management team on the execution of that strategy.
• Develop and manage sales budgets and oversee the development and management of internal operating budgets.
• Plan and conduct sales training programs.
• Negotiate agreements with major clients.
• Conduct business reviews in order to monitor relationship, re-affirm strategies linked to needs and steward the business.
• Work closely with other senior managers to ensure a smooth transition and appropriate sales involvement during the execution of the client deliverables.

Requirements:

• 10 years of executive sales and sales management experience in Media, Marketing and Advertising sales.
• Current experience in a social media culture and superb relationship development and management skills.
• Knowledge of structuring sales quota goals and revenue expectations.
• Professional written and verbal communication and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to roll-up your sleeves and effectively deliver repeatable business results in an entrepreneurial environment.
• Ability to craft value proposition around the business.
• Knowledge of contracting and negotiating.
• Strong team player capable of partnering with other business divisions to deliver on sales commitments.
• Willingness to travel and demonstrate confidence and the ability to work in a fast paced environment.
• International experience dealing with Europe and Asia would be preferable.
• Travel as needed to client and prospective clients located within the USA, and anticipation of clients and prospective clients in international locations

Networking Networking Networking

Take a moment to think about all the business interactions you had last week…..are you thinking? OK, in how many of those interactions were you alone? Were there any?
The truth is so much of business is about relationships: Customer to supplier, manager to employee, co-worker to co-worker, job candidate to hiring manager etc. Really, how many times a day are you alone? Before you answer, keep in mind that your phone relationships count too.
So, we have all these interactions with people but how often are we thinking about our network? Every person we interact with and develop a relationship with, become part of our network. The issue becomes our lack of developing those relationships into a network that we can leverage to drive and ensure our success.
To be successful in today’s economy you have to know how to network effectively. It is not what you know; it’s who you know that will get you in the door. One of the things I love about my job is I have an opportunity to speak with so many people, and the question I seem to encounter the most is “How do I network?”
The first thing to understand is that networking is NOT selling. Many people make that first mistake. People sometimes get confused that when they are in the networking model they are selling a product. The worse thing you could do is go into a sales mode or pitch because it will turn off your audience. You need to understand who your audience is and then plant a seed, peak that person’s interest so they will want to speak with you in the future. When you are networking you are building trust; you are a person they can go to in the future when they have a need.
Secondly, you must have excellent follow through. Once you have an introduction and have made a connection with a person do not let too much time go by without following up. You want that person to remember who you are. Being responsive impresses people, shows that you care about what they told you and makes them feel important. Taking too much time will turn the person off. The goal here is to look responsive, not eager. Just ensure that if you made a commitment on some type of deliverable to another person, meet that commitment. People will remember.
Thirdly, you want to engage your network. Make sure you understand their interests and provide value where you can. Think about the aspects of your life or job where you have experience or expertise to share, and share it. Leveraging social media is a great way to pass along information to your network, through publishing a blog, commenting on a subject of value or engaging in a conversation on twitter.
Don’t forget about your existing network. So many of us are concentrating on growing our network, consumed by how many new friends we have on Facebook or how many followers on Twitter that we forget about maintaining our existing relationships. Make sure you are reaching out to them. I was recently working on a search. The skill set was very specialized; I searched and searched all the tools for “new” people to add to my network. I spent a full week doing this, and then all of a sudden I referenced my database and found 100 people with the required skill set right in my backyard.
Most importantly, you need to invest the time. It is extremely hard today with all the demands we have from work to family life to figure out how to fit networking in. If you really want to improve your networking skills or, if you are just starting out, you need to invest the time. Make a conscious effort to include time to network in your weekly activities. This can happen anywhere: kid’s soccer games with other parents, PTA meetings, softball games, etc. Remember, your relationships are the key. And the good news is that you already have those! You also have a wealth of knowledge and experience that is uniquely yours. Do not underestimate the power of what you know and that it could be valuable to someone else. The bottom line is, if you do not make the conscious effort to do this, you will not see the results you are looking for.
Remember, use whatever tools are available to you to build and enhance those relationships: Phone, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, email, whatever. Just remember to use them! Making the effort and taking that first step will go a long way towards building your Network.

JUNIOR FINANCIAL ANALYST – NYC Area

Whiting Consulting is looking for a Junior Financial Analyst for a client of ours. This is for a growing Internet Marketing organization. The person would be responsible for:

Duties:

• Assist in development and the maintenance of financial models to analyze sales and financial data
• Create and distribute various financial reports on a weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual basis
• Assist with the review of monthly financial statements and analyze variance to budget/forecast
• Prepare financial reports and analyses and recommendations for senior management
• Assist with preparing consolidated budgets and financial forecasts
• Summarize financial data
• Support special and ad hoc projects as needed

Qualifications and skills:

• Bachelor’s degree in finance or accounting
• 1-2 years experience in planning/financial analysis functions
• Strong knowledge of Excel and MS Office suite
• Strong analytical and problem solving skills
• Work under time constraints and meet deadlines

Plus Factors:
• Experience with Quickbooks

SR Product Marketing Manager

Whiting Consulting is looking for a product marketing manager for our client, a leading enterprise software company.

Job Requirements
Contribute and develop top-level messaging and positioning for products.
Create content for software industry events, sales collateral, and Web site.
Create and execute product go-to-market plans.
Contribute to marketing requirements documents, strategic product planning, and annual planning process.
Act as a spokesperson and present content at industry conferences.
Create and distribute product collateral and sales tools.
Primary product marketing contact for the direct and channel sales organizations for product, market, and competitive information.
Product evangelist in Webinars, trade shows, and internal briefings.
Participate in sales calls and other customer-facing activities to generate requirements for new products and feature creation.
Work with Product Management to ensure sales and channel readiness for product releases. Qualifications and Skills
5+ years product marketing or solution marketing experience in the enterprise software industry.
Bachelor’s Degree in a technical field.
Proven ability to work independently .
Experience working with inter-departmental stakeholders to create and implement a project.
Direct experience marketing or working with data center management technologies.
Strong technical background.
Exceptional communication and organization skills.
Ability to meet deadlines in fast-paced environment.
Team player.

Interaction Designer…

Whiting Consulting is looking for an interaction designer to join our customer’s organization. Our client is a leading unique word-of-mouth in-home marketing platform that organizes nation-wide events in partnership with Fortune 500 companies around TV shows, products and services.

As an Interaction Designer, you will be responsible for Web site and application designs adhering to a user-centered design approach. Our client’s interaction designers translate business, user requirements, and Web strategies into functional, engaging, and usable online experiences using techniques such as wireframing, prototyping and storyboarding. As part of creating an online experience, interaction designers collaborate with strategists, graphic designers, and copywriters.

Duties and Responsibilities:

Participate in feature ideation and selection. Participate in cross-functional brainstorming sessions to determine Web site features and functionality based on the business needs and objectives and user research findings.

Create compelling user experiences. Translate business requirements into concept scenarios, use cases, functional design concepts, workflows, storyboards, wireframes and prototypes. Understand business needs and weigh various approaches and tradeoffs in search of best-fit solutions.

Effectively communicate ideas. Present, clearly explain and defend interaction design deliverables and concepts to project sponsors and team members.

Document site functionality. Facilitate transfer of information to stakeholders and development team via written design documentation (e.g. functional specification documents).

Innovate. Consistently push the envelope of what’s been done on the Web before.

Obsess about the user. Partner with strategist and information architects to define user research parameters and assist in usability testing.

Facilitate collaboration. Participate in a highly collaborative relationship and help bridge would be gaps between design and development.

Education & Experience Requirements:

BA or BS degree or equivalent combination of relevant education and experience.

1 – 2 years experience working in Web site or software information or interface design (preferrably a social application or community site).

Proven success designing sites and applications using Web 2.0 technologies such as AJAX, Flex and Flash (interaction design, not the actual coding/scripting).

Portfolio demonstrating experience in wireframing/prototyping, storyboarding or workflow design.

Familiarity with user centered design (UCD) methodologies (e.g. user research, usability testing, etc).

Required Skills:

Strong desire to work as a key contributor to a fun, cross-functional and growing team.

Passion for solving client and user problems in new and interesting ways

Eagerness to learn, share and apply new skills and trends.

Insatiable thirst for staying on top of Web trends and emerging technology.

Information design, information architecture and problem solving skills.

Thoroughness and an eye for detail.

Good written and verbal communication skills.

Ability to analyze, define and complete tasks with minimal direction/supervision.

Working knowledge of the following software tools: HTML and CSS for protoypting; Adobe Software (Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks, Dreamweaver) for design and illustration; Visio, OmniGraffle or alternative for interface specifications. (This is not a programming position, so basic HTML/CSS is a plus)

Desired Skills:

Ability to translate words and concepts into compelling graphics or illustrations. Experience working within an agile process.

Zest for social media marketing.

Visual creativity and expertise in Web visual design.

Sense of humor.

Product Manager (New York City)

Whiting Consulting is searching for an experienced, highly-motivated, dedicated individual to join our client as a Product Manager. As a product manager, this individual will build products from existing ideas and help develop new ideas based on industry experience and contact with customers and prospects. You must possess a unique blend of business and technical savvy, a big-picture vision, and the drive to make that vision a reality. You must enjoy spending time in the field to understand customers’ problems and find innovative solutions for broader markets. You must be able to communicate with all areas of the company. You will work with engineering counterparts to define product release requirements. You will work with marketing helping them with product positioning, key benefits, and target customers. You will also serve as the internal and external evangelist for your product offering, occasionally working with sales and key customers.

Responsibilities

Manage core aspects of the product life-cycle from strategic planning to tactical activities.

Specify market requirements for current and future products by conducting market research.

Drive a solution set across development teams (primarily Engineering, Marketing and Sales) through market requirements.

Review engineering deliverables; represent PM in product design reviews.

Plan the product’s roadmap, execute product launch activities, and follow up on existing product releases with the field.

Experience and Educational Requirements

Minimum of 7 plus years experience as a Product Manager.

Demonstrated success defining and launching excellent products.

3+ years of enterprise software marketing/product management experience is required.

Knowledgeable in technology. Domain expertise should include enterprise architecture, application servers, Web servers, message buses and databases.

Bachelors degree in Computer Science / Engineering or equivalent work experience. MBA – a plus.

This position requires travel to locations in North America, Europe, and Israel.

Do you know the Future?

One Saturday a couple of weeks ago, my kids and I were driving to an event where community members were being honored for years of volunteering in the community where I grew up, which is located next to the college town where I now live. My parents were some of the people honored, so it was a special time for my family.
While we were driving, out of the blue my son asked, “Mom, let’s talk about the future.” I said sure and asked him what he wanted to know. He asked me if I knew what the future will bring. It was ironic because on the day he asked me these questions, it was graduation day for my town’s college. All of the college students were walking around in their caps and gowns. They all looked so happy, and family pictures were being taken with proud parents grinning from ear to ear.
It made me think about my college graduation day and how little we do know about our future and where our careers and lives will take us.
In my opinion, most of today’s college graduates are unsure about what they really want to do next; they are nervous about the job market and economy, and how they will find a job.
My career in recruiting fell into my lap so to speak; I saw a posting at our school’s career center and applied. I really didn’t know much about recruiting and really wanted to get into sales at the time. This was a co-operative position, which ended up turning into full-time position with the college after I graduated. With that said, I knew, though, that this was not going to be a long-term career for me, and I was really unsure what I truly wanted to do. Then, one of my friends helped me gain a different point of view about recruiting… it is sales. That opened my eyes to a career that I love and a rewarding position where I get to help companies and candidates make the right connections.
What college graduates need to know is that it is okay to not know what the future will hold because no one really does. You mold your future by different choices you make, but you need to be able to handle the ride.
While attending the event honoring people within the area that I live, I listened to stories about all their amazing accomplishments. One person had been a foster parent to over 150 children in over 10 years; another person had driven over 5000 people to area doctor appointments; the true stories went on and on. I don’t think any of these people had any idea that they would do all these great things in their lives; it just happens that these were all unplanned, very wonderful things.
Embrace your future, even if it is unknown. It is yours to create.

Sales Account Executive (NYC Area)

Whiting Consulting is looking for a sales account executive responsible for selling into the Financial Services. This individual will be responsible for learning the Company’s comprehensive product line in a brief period of time. This is an excellent opportunity for a sales professional with a great background in selling enterprise software.

 Required Experience:

• Solid, 10+ year track record in enterprise software sales and related services in both venture-backed, start-ups, and established companies.
• State of the art infrastructure and / or application software; relevant background includes TIBCO, Oracle, BEA, etc.
• Proven campaign execution process in complex selling environments that can include multiple partners (i.e., e.g. ISV’s, SI’s).
• Financial services vertical and broad commercial sales acumen.
• Solid understanding of relevant applications / platforms that drive infrastructure solutions.
• Self-starter with strong business acumen personal brand with target clients.
• A demonstrable track record of opening new accounts and driving long-term, multi-million dollar customer relationships through account planning and strategy.

 Preferred Experience:

• Experience in software sales for infrastructure / grid computing / distributed computing.

 Education Requirements:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Sales, Marketing, or Business Administration.

Accountant (NYC Area)

Whiting Consulting is looking for an Account for our client, a growing International Software Company in downtown Manhattan. They are seeking a talented Accountant with 1-2 years of experience to join their professional team. The ideal candidate will have a degree in Accounting, strong computer skills and communications skills. This is a ground floor opportunity that affords you the skills needed to build your foundation in accounting and assist you in the development of your career. In this progressive organization you can contribute to the company’s vision and goals and be appreciated and rewarded for your hard work and ability to drive results.

  Responsibilities:

• Manage and maintain Accounts Receivables including reporting
• Accounts Payable and Expense Reports
• General Ledger
• Reconciliation of monthly accounts, balance sheet, monthly journal entries and accrual entries
• Payroll and Payroll reporting using a third party vendor
• Assist in intercompany accounting
• Special projects as directed

 Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting
• Willingness to learn and grow with technology
• Strong computer skills
• General Ledger experience
• Self motivated, strong communicator and works well with both clients and peers
• Detail oriented and the ability to work within deadlines
• Knowledge of IFRS is helpful but not required