We have the pleasure of welcoming our newest addition to the Paladin Team and the new voice of Paladin - Cindy-Lee Pijoos. Cindy is taking over my role as Recruitment Coordinator. She will be the point person for our working Associates and initial inquiries from Candidates and Clients.

Cindy’s story about finding Paladin is a classic case study for how social networking can help you find a job. Recruiters, mentors, bloggers, and even Forbes continuously buzz about personal branding and networking through online communities to find a job. After reviewing Paladin’s postings online, she contacted me through a direct message on Twitter. Her social media savvy gained her an interview, and her experience and professionalism won her the role.

Cindy graduated with an integrated marketing communications degree in PR. She comes to us originally from Cape Town, South Africa and has lived in various cities before settling in Chicago. She thoroughly enjoys volunteering, cooking, and networking - so be sure to introduce yourself at the next event.

As we welcome Cindy as the new face and voice of Paladin, I am personally taking the next step in my career. I have recently accepted a position in social media, which will be a new challenge I am very excited to take on. My passion for interactive, online marketing has spooled through my experience at Paladin. I am happy to have had a chance to hone my social media experience in my Paladin role and look forward to staying a part of the extended Paladin family!

The first association I joined was the student chapter of the Public Relations Society of America, the PRSSA, primarily because Al Walker offered extra credit for my journalism class at NIU. While I may not have appreciated it at first, it is here where I built a strong foundation and friendships that I’ve drawn on throughout my career.

There are many reasons to join an association, and there are many for marketing and creative professionals to choose from. The key common thread they offer is a forum to interact with peers facing similar business challenges, and most importantly, an opportunity to further your personal and professional development.

Regardless of the stage you are at – from young professional to mid management, or even if you’ve reached the pinnacle of your profession, there is a wealth of benefits to tap into by not just joining, but actively participating in one or several groups.

Sure there are the tangible benefits of educational programs, access to thought leadership articles, access to member directories, subscriptions to trade publications and the like. But if you talk to long-time members and association leaders, there are far richer rewards and reasons to believe:

• Build a trusted peer-to-peer network to call on to help navigate a particular issue
• Exposure to best practices to benchmark what other companies are doing and spark new ideas for your organization
• Stretch your marketing skills as a speaker or committee volunteer, take on challenges outside your comfort zone or current work responsibilities
• Surround yourself with smart, savvy peers to inspire and encourage your own and your team’s creativity
  
• Be an industry insider and uncover new career opportunities that may be right for you
• Be a mentor – you’ll not only feel good, you’ll likely learn a few things right back!

We are fortunate to be part of a community of communicators, so perhaps one of the best perks I cherish through my involvement is the fun and lasting friendships gained along the way.

Follow Paladin’s association Twitter list for global updates from variety of networks: http://twitter.com/PaladinStaff/associations

Tell us your opinion! How important is it for professionals in marketing or creative positions to participate in associations? Take our Poll

Margaret Essary is Director, Business Development of Paladin and is an active member of several associations, including the Business Marketing Association, the American Marketing Association, and the Chicago Association of Direct Marketing.

How you communicate can say as much about you as what you communicate.

For example, you may have noticed that people often fall into either one of two contact categories – e-mail or voicemail.  You would do well to find out which one that new client or manager prefers as soon as possible.  Your lines of communication will be that much more secure.

Yet when it comes to e-mail, voicemail, Instant Messaging and even Twitter, there are traps waiting for you.  The way you use these vehicles on a day-to-day basis can be particularly revealing.

Here are some best practices – reminders for some, news for other – to keep in mind.  Don’t worry – they’ve all been field tested:

• You say goodbye and I say hello – It’s a typical scenario: Someone sends you an Instant Message at exactly the wrong time.  Sure, it’s nice to get an unexpected missive from a friend once in a while.  But IM’s can arrive just when you don’t have time to engage with them.  And the sender doesn’t know when to get off.  If the IM conversation needs to go on for more than five or ten minutes, call.  And if someone writes that they’re in the middle of something, let them get to it.

• In cyberspace, everyone can hear you scream – Everyone can tell how you really feel when you dash off that e-mail/IM/Tweet response to something (or someone) that really bugs you.  Write the e-mail if you must, but save it as a draft and read it again later.  Better yet, delete it and start anew.  The ancillary to this is the e-mail written so quickly that it becomes the electronic variation of bad handwriting.  No one will know what it means, so it wastes everyone’s time and says “I’m too busy to care.”  Not a good message.  Take your time, use spell check and review before you send.

• It’s all personal – On a subliminal level, hearing your voice say that you can’t come to the phone right now tells me that you will get back to me.  Hearing your assistant or a “standard greeting” tell me you can’t come to the phone says something else entirely.  Seriously, is it that hard to set up a voicemail greeting using your voice?  Set it up once, keep it brief and you’ve demonstrated a personal touch that speaks well of you.

• Can we change the subject, please? – By now we’ve had e-mail long enough to know that in a long e-mail series, the topic will change.  So either stop replying and start anew or change the subject line to reflect your current topic.  Be specific in the subject line (e.g., “Statistics on sales for October”) rather than general (e.g., “Information requested”) to make it easier to scan and identify.  And like the IM conversations mentioned above, if the series threatens to go on for more four rounds, pick up the phone.

• “Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you” – Alexander Graham Bell had just spilled battery acid on himself when he made that first telephone call.  Not all of your voicemails are quite so urgent.  Don’t mark them as such unless it’s truly vital.  When every voicemail is special, then no voicemail is special.

I could go on but now it’s your turn.  What are your best practices?

Contributed by: Frank McGee
Writer, trainer, coach

Last week I was fortunate enough to be asked to speak at the first Chicago Social Media Breakfast. SMB has been in existence in other cities since 2007 but this was the first one in here in the Windy City. The event was separated into different groups with specific topics to discuss. My group was focused on social media and personal branding in regards to the job search and career advancement.

As marketers we are seeing a wholesale change in how companies engage in communication with their clients and consumers. In addition, the ways we as individuals communicate are also changing dramatically. I think for the most part marketers (especially in the last year) are really starting to grasp the enormous changes going on within their space.

What has continued to be a struggle for people is telling the difference between “blowing your horn” in regards to your talents/expertise and “communicating your passion” to a wider audience than your existing personal/professional network. The ability to help people and in turn receive recommendation has never been more important.  It’s a very organic way of self development which also can help you gain recognition and ultimately a new job, a promotion or new business for your organization.

My Top 5 Takeaways from our group discussions were:

1)      “The golden rule” treat others the way you would like to be treated. This will ultimately be something that will come back around to you.

2)      When networking on LinkedIn or other sites don’t “ask for a job” use the tools available to create awareness for your expertise to gain a larger network of targeted individuals for potential career placement and/or advancement.

3)      Use social media to create an integrated marketing campaign around a helpful blog post you have written (become a resource). This is a post I wrote describing an initiative I created here at Paladin: 

       Paladins Marketing Ninja guide: The 30 Minute Challenge

4)      Don’t close yourself off to just blogging, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. One of the attendee’s was discussing his use of Tumblr something I am going to attempt to utilize.

5)      Nothing replaces face to face contact. Definitely get out from behind your computer and regularly get out to coffee meetings, association evening events and luncheons. This is a post I wrote regarding networking events in Chicago: Paladins Galaxy Guide to Networking in Chicago

 We are all hearing the constant chatter (no pun intended) around social media. Some of the discussions are valid and some of are based upon lack of understanding and experience. My recommendation is to continue to share openly with each other and pay it forward. It’s a great community we have here in Chicago and I’m excited to attend future Social Media Breakfast’s!