Book Promotion, Part 2: 51 Tactics to Promote Your Book

In the previous post, I discussed that how you promote your book depends upon your strategy: is your purpose book sales or positioning yourself as a thoughtleader who wrote a book. One you have determined your strategic direction, you can then begin to employ a number of the pre and post book publication promotion tactics as outlined below:

 Pre-publication:

1. Add to your email signature “author of forthcoming book_____”
2. Set up book webpage on your current website
3. Include description of the book
4. Include picture of the book cover and table of contents
5. Add testimonials (get your manuscript to key thought leaders and clients and ask if they will provide you a brief testimonial. Rarely does anyone refuse).
6. Include method (web shopping cart) to purchase books in advance at discounted rates
7. Get a number of individuals (noted experts, professionals, clients) to write a review/testimonial of the book
8. Add these testimonials to website and book flaps
9. Include these testimonials in your book promotions and market materials
10. When your book is published, have these same individuals write a book review in Amazon (can use same testimonial)
11. Find periodicals that accept book reviews and send in
12. Write articles based on book for industry specific publications (or publications read by clients and/or prospects)
13. Articles should capture the themes of book
14. Includes phrases such as “as outlined in my book ____”
15. In any bio for articles, note that you are the “author of forthcoming book ___”
16. Promote book in social media

Recruitment: The 5 Pillars of a Strong Recruitment Brand

(This article, written by Rick Dacri, was published in the York County Coast Star)

The economy is heating up and businesses are slowly hiring again. Employers are demanding that new hires be skilled, ready and able to immediately contribute. No one can afford to make mistakes in their hires. A steady stream of highly qualified and fully engaged workers who will mesh with their current employees and fit within their culture is a must. To achieve this, businesses must enjoy a strong recruitment brand.

So what is a recruitment brand and how can you develop one? A recruitment brand is a message that communicates what it’s like to work at your company. It tells the world who you are and what you believe in—your mission, culture and values.  It’s your way of telling applicants “this is who we are and individuals who believe and think like us are welcome.” And, it’s a magnet that draws those believers to you.

Your recruitment brand is built upon five pillars. The strength of each pillar, when working and supporting the other, ensures a continuous flow of quality candidates. To build your brand, you simply must do the following:

1. Develop a powerful message
2. Foster a positive company reputation in your community
3. Spotlight your key employees
4. Retain an active online presence
5. Cultivate a relationship with the media

1. Powerful Message: Know who you are. Ask yourself, why would anyone want to work here? Why do you? What makes your organization attractive? Organizations are good at promoting themselves as part of the sales process, and you must do the same with recruitment. In recruitment, you are selling the organization to prospective employees. So take a hard look at the things that distinguish your organization and promote them. Show candidates why they should want to work for you. Getting the answer to these questions will help you define your company’s recruitment brand.

Listen Up! Tips for Giving Great Radio Interviews

(This article was written by Mike Dacri and was published in Consulting Magazine, February 2013 issue)

Radio interviews are a great tool to position yourself as an expert, gain visibility, leverage your services, promote your book, and sell your products. But there are good radio interviews and there are bad interviews—you never want to give one of the bad ones.

Think of a radio interview like a dance: you may have asked her to dance and received a “yes,” but you still have to go out on the floor and impress her. Remember, you are on a mission. You are selling your services as well as yourself.

Here are few tips I have learned over the years as a publicist to help you give great interviews and just maybe earn some business so you can sell your products as well!

1. Don’t Put Everyone to Sleep: The perfect guest has energy and passion, but when you lack energy and speak like you just rolled out of bed, you lose your audience fast! Kick it up a notch without going over the top. Remember, most radio interviews take place during the morning drive!
2. Get to The Point: It’s a radio interview, not a Sunday ride in the country. In your first sentence or two, you must grab your audience and convey your message. Otherwise, everyone will turn their radio dials.

Marissa Mayer Didn’t Break Glass Ceiling

Marissa Mayer was named CEO of Yahoo. That’s exciting news. There are only a handful of female CEOs leading Fortune 500 companies today. The chatter in and outside the business world is not only that a woman was hired, but that they hired a young woman (she’s 37 and curiously, there has been little mention of the age of the “kids” who lead other technology firms—think Facebook) and a pregnant woman to boot. And why wouldn’t they hire Marissa Mayer? She’s bright, highly educated, successful, and was a superstar at Google.

But before you start thinking that the glass ceiling is finally broken, we also now learn that woman are lagging far behind men in getting new jobs in this so called post recession period. Since June 2009, men have landed 80% of the 2.6 million net jobs created in the U.S., including 61% this last year. The juxtaposition of these two headlines, Mayer’s hiring while women in general fall behind, gives us pause.

Marissa Mayer’s hiring is reason to celebrate. It is a significant personal and professional accomplishment for her and a major step for professional women. But the unevenness of our economic recovery points to the fact that a lot more work needs to be done before we can actually reach economic parity.

Recruitment: Eleven Strategies to New Employment

(This article was written by Rick Dacri and was originally published in York County Coast Star, May 17, 2012 edition)

Finding a job in this economy is tough, but not impossible. While the media reports about high unemployment and the chronically unemployed and underemployed, companies are still hiring and individuals are getting jobs. There is no magic in the job search process, nor is there an easy route. It requires lots of work, a full time effort, and a bit of luck. By employing these eleven strategies, your job search should be shorter, more productive, and rewarding.

1. Develop a compelling resume: Resumes must highlight your accomplishments. Having a chronology of jobs and tasks doesn’t make it. Employers hire based on what you can do for them and what you can get done. Employers are always thinking, “What can you do for me?” So everything you do in the search process, including writing a resume, must focus on answering that one simple question.
2. Develop an online presence: Simply having a Facebook page will not get you the job.  In fact, it could destroy the chances of landing the job if you have photos of “getting wasted” and shocking posts on your wall. So clean it up fast. Most recruiters are turning to LinkedIn to find candidates, so make it easy for them to find you. Develop a powerful profile; join LinkedIn groups and participate in the discussions; link to companies that interest you and connect with their employees and executives. The best jobs are often obtained when recruiters find you rather than the other way around.
3. Network smartly: Before you get frightened by the image of standing alone in the back of a business after hours networking event and thinking this is how to find a job, forget it. Networking often means talking to people you already know. Ask family members, friends, college professors, and people in the community for job leads. This is an excellent way to land a job. And if they don’t have a job lead, ask them to refer you to someone who might.
4. Identify organizations that interest you: If, for example, you want to find a job in marketing, identify marketing companies or companies that hire marketing professionals. You can easily do this through an Internet search. Once you’ve identified them, learn everything you can about these organizations. Use your LinkedIn connections to try to find the decision maker to contact—and don’t worry about whether they have open positions or not. Talk with them, show them your resume, and ask if they hire people who do what you do. Targeted job search is a very effective way to land a job.
5. Join professional associations: Target industry specific groups, i.e. marketing associations. Talk to the leadership. Volunteer to help. Be active. Let people know you’re looking.
6. Practice interviewing: Interviewing does not come naturally. You must be prepared. Develop likely questions and practice responding with a coach or friend. Practice speaking out loud. Videotape it to see what you look and sound like. Remember, everything you do in the job search is practice for the interview. Great interviewers get jobs.
7. Do your homework: Before you interview, thoroughly research the company and the people who will be interviewing you. Never walk in the door unprepared. Weave into the interview information you have obtained. Show how you can help. Be a solution to their problems.
8. Take control: The hardest part of the job search is having no control. Employers dictate what happens and when. There are, however, things you can do to reverse this. For instance, never leave an interview without knowing what happens next. Don’t accept “we’ll get back to you.” Ask when, and if “it is OK to call next Wednesday at 10AM” as an example. Interviewers rarely say no.
9. Do the extras: Follow up each interview with a thank you note. Rarely do candidates ever do this. During the interview, ask for a tour of the facility. It shows interest and it will provide you valuable insights about the operation and culture. It will also get you the opportunity to talk informally with the decision maker—always a good thing. Offer to demonstrate what you can do, whether it’s analyzing a report, troubleshooting a machine or writing a press release.

10. Show passion: Getting a job is all about attitude. Demonstrate enthusiasm, an excitement about the job and company, and a strong desire and willingness to do whatever it takes to land the job. Believe in your self. A positive approach trumps all the experience in the world.

11. Take care of yourself: Job search is grueling. It is a series of rejections followed by a single “yes.” Focus on your physical and mental health. Eat right, exercise, and get out of the house. Surround yourself with positive people. No “woe is me” allowed.

A reality of the modern economy is that you will be looking for a job several times during your career, so you might as well get good at it. Unfortunately, it is rarely fun. However, employing these strategies should make it easier. Put together your plan, work it smartly and tirelessly, and you’ll land your next job sooner.

Employers: what advice do you have?

Job Seekers: What’s working for you?

Provide your comments below.

 

Rick Dacri

Dacri & Associates, LLC

Recruiting With LinkedIn

Social media makes recruiting a whole lot easier and better. Using LinkedIn to review an individual’s profiles provide you an easy to find, fast, low cost alternative to wading through resumes. In fact, LinkedIn is often the first place I look when recruiting executives, managers and engineers for my clients.

Here are two simple ways to identify quality candidates:

1. LinkedIn has a search tool that allows you to view individual profiles. You can search by name or company. In a recent search for a public power executive, I identified companies that were likely to have the type of candidate ideal for this position. When I entered the company name in the search box, it provided me a list of individuals and their profiles. I was able to scroll through them, identifying potential candidates by title. I was able to contact them directly to determine their interest in the job. Interested individuals sent me their resumes and those not interested often made referrals of others to me.
2. You can also join LinkedIn Groups. Groups are made up of individuals from certain industries, schools, geography, etc. I belong to several industry groups and contribute frequently to their online discussions. Through this process, I get to network with their members. While doing this search, I both posted the open position (there’s a job board) and networked with individuals who were able to make good quality referrals.

While LinkedIn is a valuable tool to source candidates, it is also a great mechanism to help you assess candidates.  Profiles provide information about an individual not normally found in a resume. A well developed profile will often include recommendations, membership in groups (I like to see if and what they contribute), number of connections, books they’ve read, and more.

 

LinkedIn is a powerful tool. While it should never be used as your sole source for candidates, it must be included inyour recruitment arsenal.

Let me know if you’re using LinkedIn and what your experience has been.

And if you need help getting started, give me a call.

Recruit Better Candidates With Social Media

In recruiting, finding your ideal candidate is never easy and it gets a lot harder when the candidates you need are gainfully employed and not looking for a job. They will never see your ad no matter where you place it. So how do you find them?

 In a recent national search that I conducted for a key executive, my ideal candidate was likely employed and therefore not actively in the job market. He or she also needed some industry specific skills and experiences. Ads, even placed in specific trade journals, would likely not generate the right candidates.

 Two recruitment tools I used produced a number of qualified candidates. One was networking. This tried and true method of identifying individuals within the industry, contacting them directly and “networking” amongst them and their contacts, produced several solid leads. The second and newest tool used was social media. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter were both effective and inexpensive in generating several candidates with specific skills and experience.

 LinkedIn has become a powerful recruitment tool that provides you quick and easy access to thousands of potential candidates. It allows you to review individual profiles, network amongst industry group members, and communicate directly with potential candidates and referrers–individuals you may have not known before you began your search.

 In my executive search, I generated many solid candidates through LinkedIn–none of them was aware of my search prior to my contacting them because none of them was actively looking for a new job.

 Add social media to your recruitment toolbox. Combining it with networking and the other traditional recruitment methods, will allow you to conduct a more focused job search.

Employee Referral Programs Generate Best Candidates

Step back from your recruitment role and ask why are you doing this? Consider this: when it comes to finding technicians, who knows more about where technicians “hang out” than other technicians?  Same for engineers, customer service reps and yes, even company presidents.  Take engineers.  They belong to the same associations, go to the same meetings, read the same professional journals, and probably frequent the same taverns.  So why aren’t you asking your engineer to help recruit engineers for you—engineers that he already knows.

 Your existing people can be your best recruiters.  In fact, studies show that employee referrals generate the best candidates at a fraction of the cost of traditional recruitment methods.  Your employees will do much of the screening, providing the candidate with the scoop on your organization—both the good and the bad.  Either way, when the candidate becomes an employee, he’ll come in with his eyes wide open, already knowing your people, history and culture, without any surprises.  So, it only makes sense to start an Employee Referral Program today. In a Society For Human Resource Management national study, employee referrals were cited as generating the highest quality candidates with the best return on investment for the organization.

 But many of you may be thinking “we can’t do this.  Our organization has never done this and this will never be allowed.”  Wrong.  More and more recognize that there is a need to do things differently.  They understand that referral programs are an important and effective recruitment tool.  They save money; payouts are only made with a guaranteed hire; and they promote good will among your employees and foster employee retention.  You may have to “sell” the concept but when they see the benefits, they are quick to approve.

 Here are four tips to make your referral program a hit:

1. Promote the program big time: educate your workforce about what you’re looking for.  Build a campaign around your needs.  Make your referral program highly visible and fun.  Use posters, payroll stuffers, fliers, t-shirts, etc. 
2. Pay out the big bucks: A referral bonus of a couple hundred dollars is not going to turn heads.  When it comes to referrals, money talks.  Consider this: a 2-inch display ad in a major metropolitan newspaper will cost $2,000, and there is no guarantee anyone will see it, never mind send a resume to you. So why not give the same money to your employee when his referral is hired? Remember, you only pay with a guaranteed hire.
3. Pay all at once: Avoid payouts that are staggered over time. You’ll get more referrals when you pay out all at once—on the day the new referrals comes to work. 
4. Make it a big deal: never include the payout as part of a regular pay. Cut a separate check and then personally deliver the check to the employee when other people are around to see the payout. You get to be the “good guy” who delivers the big bucks; the employee is recognized and rewarded, while your other employees view this and wonder how they can reap similar rewards. Talk about a win-win-win. And watch the increase in referrals after your first payout. I had a client who got four solid referrals after paying out her first referral check. Everyone wanted a piece of the action.

 Make all your employees recruiters with an Employee Referral Program.  You will get better candidates and more candidates.  Your employees know you best and as such they should be your best ambassadors and therefore your best recruiters. They should be scouring the community for the best people and bringing these candidates to your attention.  The program will also save you money.  And you can finally focus on running your business.  It doesn’t get any better than that.

This blog was excerpted from my book Uncomplicating Management: Focus On Your Stars & Your Company Will Soar

FREE COPY of UNCOMPLICATING MANAGEMENT

 Beginning today and through the end of the year, you can download Uncomplicating Management (185 pages) at no cost. This is my way of saying “thanks” for a great 2010.

 To begin reading, simply send an email to rick@dacri.com and put “Free Book” in the subject box. I’ll immediately send your copy to you. It’s that simple.

 Begin making managing easy. This book uncomplicates the art of managing people and provides you with a blueprint for your success.  You will get practical, easy to understand ideas, real life examples, and ready to use tools to make your job easier.

 So get Uncomplicating Management free-and share it with your staff.

 Send an email today to rick@dacri.com and remember this offer will only be good through December 31.

 Thank you again for a great year.  And enjoy the book.

Distracted Driving Poses Large Risk to Employers

Research proves that texting or talking on a cell phone while driving substantially increases the likelihood of an accident.  Courts and legislators are recognizing this. Many states, including Massachusetts and New Hampshire, have banned texting while driving. Even where states do not ban cell phone use while driving, state and federal courts are now holding employers liable for the distracted driving of their employees. For example:

• In 1999, a Smith Barney investment broker was using his cell phone to make cold calls while driving.  He drove through a red light, striking and killing a man on a motorcycle.  Smith Barney settled the lawsuit for $500,000.
• In 2004, a Virginia attorney struck and killed a teenage girl at 10:30 p.m. while on her cell phone conducting work-related business. The law firm settled with the victim’s family. The attorney was held liable by a jury in a wrongful death action and disbarred.
• In 2007, International Paper Co. settled a personal injury lawsuit for $5.2 million with an Atlanta woman who lost her arm after she was rear-ended by one of International Paper’s employees while that employee was using a company-issued cell phone.

 Employees not only talk on the phone while driving, but they now email, text and “facebook” from personal handheld devices. In a law suit, your employment practices and policies could be deemed to have encouraged this behavior and open you to massive liability should an accident occur. 

 “It is imperative that employers eliminate financial and other incentives that encourage workers to text while driving,” said U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis in a statement issued just one week ago.  Recently, U.S. DOT Secretary Ray LaHood launched the “Distracted Driving Summit” by announcing new anti-distracted driving regulations applicable to those transporting hazardous materials, commercial bus and truck drivers, and rail operators. The U.S. DOT and the Network of Employers for Traffic Safety now work together to encourage strict employment policies prohibiting distracted driving in connection with work.

 What should you do?   

1. Examine current practices and determine who is using electronic devices while driving for work—whether personal devices or company-issued—and what the current practices and culture are surrounding the use of those devices
2. Implement an anti-distracted driving policy specific to your work culture and applicable to all employees that bans the use of personal electronic devices while driving on company business
3. Enforce these policies by disciplining employees who violate them and eliminating incentives that might lead employees to violate them
4. Remind employees regularly of the anti-distracted driving policy

 

This post was written by Lori Dwyer, Esq. of the firm Bernstein Shur