by Felicien | Jan 15, 2018 | Education
LinkedIn is the most popular business and employment-focused social networking site around. Whether you’re happily employed at a fantastic company or you’re still searching for your dream job, it’s simply a must-join site for your professional future.
LinkedIn users not only have the ability to connect with people in an effort to grow their networks, but users can also connect with companies through the following feature. When you follow companies, you’re able to see:
Status updates and important news
People who work for the company
Available positions waiting to be filled
And much more
As you can imagine, this is handy if you’re looking to fill your sales pipeline or find a new job. Prior to connecting with companies, it’s important to consider that there are more than 300 million people worldwide using the social networking site, which means you need to put your best foot forward! If you’re starting a brand new profile, remember the first few lines are the most important – name, title, and most recent positions.
Those first few lines will show up in any search, so you want them to be accurate and informative while giving you a good first impression. Your photo will also show up in any search, so you want to make sure you’re using an updated, clear shot. Another great tip before you start connecting with companies: customize your URL! How do you do this? That’s simple:
Click the “me” icon at the top of your homepage
Click view profile
Click edit your public profile and URL on the right rail
Under edit, public profile URL in the right rail, click the edit icon
When you first join, you’ll have a very long, impersonal URL. This is the time to change it to something more personal and professional. Aim for http://linkedin.com/in/firstnamelastname. If that’s not available, include something like a middle initial or even something alluding to your industry or expertise. This is great for searchability.
Next, write your summary. LinkedIn’s summary section is fantastic for showing off your personality and skills. You can include high-resolution photos, videos, and infographics as needed. Or you can keep it simple with text only – just be sure to stand out. Think of the summary section as your elevator pitch and keep it interesting.
Once you’ve set up your profile, you’re ready to start connecting with companies! So what’s the best way to get started? If you know the niche you want to work or find leads in, look for companies using the search engine. You can either search for a company name directly or use keywords having to do with your niche. Once you’ve found what you’re looking for, click “follow company” to connect.
You’ve Connected with a Few Companies… What Next?
First and foremost, connect with us! Our team is your trusted source for the latest information when it comes to business technology. We have extensive expertise and knowledge of the small to mid-size market; and we’re always sharing tons of great news, tips, and more. What’s next? Well, after you’ve connected with us and a few companies of your choice, follow these tips:
Start interacting with recent posts: Make sure you’re liking and commenting on posts, especially if you have some good insight to share on the topic. Always ensure you’re using proper spelling and grammar, of course!
Check out the leadership team: You should be able to find those who work for the company, including CEOs and Presidents, on the right side of the company page. Feel free to send invitations to connect.
Keep on the lookout for positions: If you’re looking for a job, make sure you keep an eye out for opportunities. If you’re looking to provide services, positions available can give you an opening to offer your services instead of hiring a full-time person.
LinkedIn groups are also useful for finding companies. Just search for groups relevant to the industry you’re looking for a job or leads in. You’ll easily find members of groups that are working at relevant companies.
What About Connecting with the Competition?
If you’re connecting with companies for the purpose of building your sales pipeline, should you connect with the competition? This can be a great tactic to help you gain a better understanding of your target market. How so? Once you’re connected, you’re able to view who they’re connected with – from prospects to clients.
Aside from being able to keep an eye on their prospects and clients, you’re also able to get a great view of their marketing strategies, including:
The content they’re sharing
The webinars they’re hosting
The events they’re holding
And much more
Keep in mind that you’re giving your competitor’s access to all of the same information. For some, it’s worth the risk, especially if you’re able to form a partnership of sorts – trading leads back and forth when they’re not suited to you.
by Felicien | Jan 15, 2018 | Education
Employees on your LinkedIn Company Page are people who affiliate their work experience with your business. When LinkedIn members add or edit a position on their profile, they specify the company they work for. If they select your company from the LinkedIn list, the employee will automatically show up on your Company Page. The information they include on their page isn’t controlled by you, but by them. It’s meant to reflect their personal work experience at your company.
On occasion, an individual will be incorrectly listed as an employee on your Company Page. This may simply be a mistake–sometimes people don’t check closely and select the wrong company when there are multiple businesses with a similar name. Or, this occurs when an ex-employee forgets to update their LinkedIn profile after leaving your company. A person might also impersonate an employee at your company for malicious reasons. Any of these “rogue employees” must be removed from your LinkedIn Company Page.
The problem with this is that you don’t have control over what these individuals or your ex-employee(s) include on their profiles, and anything they post about your company will show up on your LinkedIn Company Page. If they leave your employment and don’t update their profile, it will appear that they still work for you. This, in turn, can affect the posted number of individuals you employ. Only current employees should appear on your Company Page.
What can you do?
The first thing you should do is contact the ex-employee and ask them to remove your company and any postings about it from their LinkedIn profile. Try contacting her through LinkedIn and ask for your company to be removed from her profile. If the ex-employee is out of your network, you’ll need an upgraded LinkedIn account to contact her.
If you reach her, and she agrees, she’ll need to update her profile in the “Experience” section to reflect the end date of employment at your business. While in the “edit” mode of her profile, she should uncheck the box next to “I currently work here,” add the month and year and click “Save.”
If this doesn’t work, try removing the employee from your Company Page by submitting a request to LinkedIn Customer Service. They can perform this action for you.
1. Log into your LinkedIn Company Page.
2. Click the link to the incorrectly listed employee’s profile.
3. Note the person’s full name and the web address for her profile page to ensure this is the person you want to delete.
4. Go to the “Contact Us” Web page.
5. Type “Remove Member from Company Page” in the subject field.
6. Select “Company Pages” for the “Issue Type” field.
7. List the person’s full name, the Web address for her profile page, and an explanation for why she should be removed from your Company Page in the “Your Question” field.
8. Click “Continue” to submit your request.
At this point, you should receive a confirmation email from LinkedIn, and a ticket reference number to access the Support History Web Page. Customer Service will contact you when the person is removed, or if they require additional information.
Note: Only those with a confirmed company email address can edit information on your Company Profile. Newer company pages contain a triangular icon with a “!” character next to your company’s name on each employee’s profile page. Clicking the icon begins the “Report profile position” process that lets you report the incorrectly listed employee.
Submit a Formal Complaint.
You can also submit a formal complaint using this form on LinkedIn to report an inaccurate employment listing. This tells LinkedIn that a profile is erroneous. LinkedIn Customer Service will investigate and take action on your complaint. It may take a while for this to process, but it’s a good way to handle the situation.
How to Remove Fake LinkedIn Profiles
If you ever need to complain about a fake or inappropriate LinkedIn profile go to this page and follow the steps listed.
Lessons Learned
If you want to avoid this from happening in the future, make an addendum to the terms and conditions in your employee policy and state that each must amend all online and offline profiles to reflect that they have left your employment.
You should have some form of social media policy in place that you can provide your staff so there are no misunderstandings about what can or cannot be published online. During employees’ exit interviews, remind them to update their profiles, including LinkedIn, to reflect their last day of employment.
by Felicien | Jan 13, 2018 | Education
If you employ a person who is blind or visually impaired, you know that you must make accommodations to minimize or eliminate workplace barriers. By doing this, you not only ensure their safety but their productivity. In some instances, making these accommodations can be costly, so you must take into account the value of making them.
However, installing a digital assistant in the office won’t require a huge investment–And the return on this investment for both your blind employee and your business can be game-changing. Your best option today is the Amazon Echo.
What Is Echo?
Amazon’s Echo is a popular hands-free smart speaker that you control with your voice. When Echo is connected to the Internet, it can assist with a variety of tasks. Your visually impaired employee can use it to make calls, send and receive messages, get information from the web, make a task list, turn on and off lights, and so much more.
You can purchase Amazon’s Echo for as little as $179. The kinds of features Amazon keeps adding to Echo is mind-boggling. This is very promising for employees with disabilities.
What sets Echo apart from voice assistants like Apple’s Siri, is its responsiveness. It’s completely hands-free. There are no activation buttons to press. Your employee simply speaks a triggering word like “Alexa, “Echo,” “computer,” etc., followed by what they need to happen, and the task will complete.
Echo, it instantly provides him with the results and information he’s looking for. He won’t have to flip through pages of a book in Braille, operate an e-reader to read, or navigate a website on an electronic device. Echo will provide him the information he needs by simply asking for it.
The Basic Design of the Echo
The Amazon Echo is essentially a talking cylindrical speaker that connects to the Internet. It’s a deceptively simple looking device. It’s a black cylinder approximately 10 inches tall, 3 inches wide, with an AC power cord that you plug into a wall outlet. There are two buttons on the top of the Echo: one for power and one to turn the microphones on or off. The top of the Echo rotates either right or left to adjust the volume. The speaker inside the Echo projects throughout a medium-sized room and has several microphones to hear a voice from any direction. You can purchase a remote control separately if needed.
Echo and Alexa
Alexa is the brain behind Echo. It’s a virtual assistant that’s built in the cloud. With time, Alexa will get smarter and understand your needs. The developers keep adding “Alexa Skills” that bring new capabilities. Of course, you need to set up everything properly beforehand and get used to the system just as you would with any digital assistant, but once you do, it’s easy.
Set Up
You must have a Wi-Fi Internet connection to use the Echo, along with access to a computer, smartphone or tablet. Setup requires connecting to the Amazon website to synchronize the Wi-Fi settings in the Echo to enable the various settings, profiles, and “Skills.”
The setup can be completed by following the voice prompts from the Echo after plugging it in and downloading the Alexa app from Amazon.com. Although the initial setup requires using a computer or mobile device, once the setup is complete, the Echo can then be controlled only by voice commands. (You will need to use a computer if you want to add a new feature to your Echo.)
After setup, simply say the wake-up word, “Alexa.” Responses from Alexa are very fast. Her voice is pleasant, and one of the most human-sounding of all the digital assistants available.
Your visually impaired employee can use the Echo to:
Look up events and appointments on his calendar and find out what his schedule looks like. (“Alexa, what appointments are scheduled today?”)
Find addresses and phone numbers of clients, vendors, and coworkers. (“Alexa, what’s the address for IBM Research in Austin, Texas?”)
Set an alert. (Alexa, set an alarm in one hour to remind me about my conference call with ABC Contracting and Mary White in Accounting.”)
Make a conference call. (“Alexa, set up a conference call between ABC Contracting and Mary White in Accounting.”)
Listen to a webinar. (“Alexa, turn on the webinar I signed up for today.”)
Listen to a podcast. (“Alexa, open Cool Blind Tech from Tunein.”)
Pair a Bluetooth device. (“Alexa, pair my Bluetooth.”)
The options are endless!
Audible and Kindle
By using the Alexa app, the Echo can be synchronized to your employee’s Audible.com audiobook library, or his Kindle. For example, when the employee says, “Alexa, play “Negotiate to Win, by Jim Thomas,” the Echo will begin playing the content of the audiobook. To increase the volume, the employee can say, “Alexa, turn up the volume.”
Alexa Works with Google and Microsoft Office 365 Calendars.
One of the recent features is the integration of the “Quick Events Skill” with the Google Calendar. This lets your employee add a calendar event completely by voice. Quick Events is enabled in the Alexa App, and a Google Calendar that’s set up on his profile calendar. This only needs to be performed once from the Alexa app to get the feature started.
Once enabled, Alexa will record a calendar event by voice, using the command, “Alexa, open Quick Events.” Then, your employee simply listens and responds to Alexa’s prompts to add the calendar event. Once complete, the employee can review events in the calendar by asking, “Alexa, what’s on my calendar tomorrow?”
Amazon recently announced that its connected speakers and other Alexa-powered devices will work with Office 365 calendars. Through this integration, your blind or visually impaired employees can use voice commands to control their O365 work calendars, adding meetings and seeking information about upcoming appointments.
Echo and Alexa Can Control Appliance Switches.
The Echo can be configured to work with some appliance switches, such as the Belkin WeMo smart switches or the Phillips Hue smart luminaries. Once configured, your visually impaired employee can turn on and off certain appliances in the office using a voice command, “Alexa, turn off the fan,” or “Alexa, turn on the office light.” This feature would require the additional purchase of appliance switches to work with the Echo.
Conference Calling
Your employee can use Alexa to connect to meetings by controlling existing video conferencing equipment or by using the Echo device as a speakerphone. If there’s no scheduled meeting, Alexa prompts your employee for the meeting ID and optionally the PIN to join the meeting, and makes a PSTN call to your conferencing provider.
Amazon is Working to Make Echo a Key Component in The Workplace.
The company is hoping to make Alexa a virtual office assistant. They’re testing ways where Alexa can be used to automate daily work tasks into a few voice commands. For instance, to collaborate with Salesforce and FinancialForce, which would make it easy for a visually impaired user to interact with complex business software using voice commands. A great deal of content from the Internet is available by enabling the various Alexa Skills Amazon’s developers are quickly churning out.
As we said, the opportunities are endless for both the visually impaired and your sighted employees!
by Felicien | Jan 12, 2018 | Education
Even leaders in tech-adjacent fields — like the toy industry — know the importance of investing in technology expertise and a more robust IT infrastructure.
As much as we try to predict the future, it’s never been easy. The catch has always been that as soon as you’re sure of what’s coming next, it’s probably too late to take advantage of it.
What’s worse is that we’re often too short-sighted to make the next leap – as Henry Ford himself put it, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”
This quote, attributed to one of the world’s greatest innovators, illustrates both why it’s so important to think ahead of what consumers want, and why it’s so troubling when you fall behind. When customers ask for the wrong thing (faster horses), it’s up to innovators to match that request with the perfect solution (automobiles). Another great example is the iPhone – nobody was asking for a smartphone, but Apple knew it was what was next.
However, while you may not know for sure who’s going to win the Super Bowl, or what tomorrow’s lotto numbers are, more and more experts and leaders have begun to bet on one thing for sure: technology.
“How do we embed, in all our toys, the 21st-century skills that children need to succeed?”
That’s the question that Mattel CEO Margot Georgiadis asked herself and her company, shared in a Fortune interview with Suzie Gharib. What Georgiadis and many other business leaders are coming to realize is that the future belongs to those who embrace it – not those that fight against it.
“This company started in a garage, just like Google, by passionate entrepreneurs, and so much of what I’m trying to do is the anchor the company back in that entrepreneurial, creative space that made us so successful,” said Georgiadis.
“One of the areas that I really think a partnership is important in is technology – there are so many capabilities that are being developed that we can actually leverage if we create the right ecosystem that’s simple and easy to use.”
She’s not alone. More and more, business leaders are finding that investing in technology by building a strong IT infrastructure soon leads to growth, expansion, and innovation.
Consider the cloud-first movement, which prioritizes investment in cloud technologies over any other type of technology. Spearheaded by the US government back in 2010, more and more members of the tech industry today are finding that by focusing on providing the best possible cloud solutions (and using them themselves), they can grow more rapidly and command a larger market share.
However, as Georgiadis notes, it’s not just the cloud that’s important.
“We can leverage new developments in robotics and artificial intelligence, in general, to plug into our toys in a more platform-centric way, the way you would in a tech company,” said Georgiadis. “You take ideas from inside and outside, and when you put those together, change happens a lot faster.”
This is all in an effort to help shepherd the next generation into greater tech-literacy. By investing in how children think about and use technology, Georgdalis believes we can build a better future.
“One of the things that have been amazing in getting tech companies to want to partner and help us is this whole need for STEM education to be advanced,” said Georgiadis. “To ensure that boys, girls, and minorities are falling in love with this technology from as young an age as possible and really see that as a potential career. We do not want to leave anyone behind, and we all have a role to play in shaping a world where everyone is included in this incredible set of changes that are going on in our world – to me, that’s a huge area of passion, it’s one of the most important reasons why I took this job.”
How is Georgiadis shaping the future of Mattel?
Georgiadis is focusing on technology simply by investing in the company’s technology, primarily by hiring Mattel’s first-ever Chief Technology Officer, Sven Gerjets. The first step is for them to develop a more robust infrastructure and ensure that Mattel can survive in a tech-centric business world.
“What he’s really doing is not just upgrading and ensuring that we have the infrastructure to be a faster, leaner, more data-driven company, but he’s also ensuring that all the technology products are moved from an item approach to a platform approach,” said Georgiadis. “It’s much more efficient, and allows us to embed our capabilities in far more products more cost-effectively.”
With technology firmly positioned as the foundation of today’s business operations, the need to make the most of an available technology budget is more critical than ever. Whether it’s for a massive enterprise like Mattel, or a small business, getting the absolute most out of your technology investment can be a key part of your business’ success.
Choosing something like an Infrastructure as a Service solution has great advantages to offer businesses in both the short-term and long-term. In the short-term, employees are given the tools they need to work efficiently and offer better service to their customers. As the business becomes more comfortable with the accessibility and flexibility the cloud provides, there will soon be a growing number of options available to streamline business processes and eliminate repetitive and time-consuming tasks.
Furthermore, as the business continues to grow, the cloud will easily grow with it. Scalability is one of the biggest selling points for Infrastructure as a Service, as its potential to adapt and expand as needed is a fantastic asset for any business. It would be difficult to find any other technology that’s as universally well-suited as Infrastructure as a Service, making it not just a smart technology investment, but a smart investment in the future success of a given business, such as Mattel.
“[Gerjets has] been bringing together all the people working on those products, he’s been streamlining what we’re focused on, and he’s been deciding the four or five key technologies that we’re going to bet on across the company, and ensure we have a scalable approach,” said Georgiadis.
If there’s one thing you can bet on, it’s technology. The question is: are you going to wait until your competitors have eaten up the market share of consumers looking for businesses with a technology focus? Or will you start investing in IT infrastructure today?
by Felicien | Jan 12, 2018 | Education
The recent announcement of the vulnerabilities found in the Intel, ARM, and AMD processors has sparked a new phishing campaign and not the good kind of fishing with bait and largemouth bass. Although, these hackers are using a particular kind of bait.
While Meltdown and Spectre require access to your system, hackers have various ways to gain access. Already hackers are using phishing emails to trick users into giving them access. They send out an email claiming to contain a patch for Meltdown or Spectre. Instead, the email installs malware on your system. This malware gives the hacker access to your system, allowing them to exploit the bugs and take the unprotected data.
Be wary of social engineering scams like phishing emails. Hackers are all too eager to take advantage of problems like this, and unfortunately, some people are so eager to fix the problem that they might not realize that the “patch” they just clicked on is now allowing a hacker to steal all their data.
WHAT IS PHISHING?
Phishing is a hacking technique that “fishes” for victims by sending them deceptive emails. The “ph” replaces the “f” in homage to the first hackers, the “phone phreaks” from the 1960’s and 1970’s. Virtually anyone on the internet has seen a phishing attack. Phishing attacks are mass emails that request confidential information or credentials under pretenses, link to malicious websites or include malware as an attachment.
Many phishing sites look just like the sites that they are impersonating. Often, the only difference in many spoofed sites is slight, and easily missed the difference in the URLs. Visitors can easily be manipulated into disclosing confidential information or credentials to the hacker if they can be induced to click the link. Even blacklisted phishing sites can often get by standard filters through the technique of time-bombing the URLs. Then the URL will lead to an innocent URL initially to get past the filters but then redirect to a malicious site.
Although malware is harder to get past filters, recently discovered and zero-day malware stands an excellent chance of getting through standard filters and being clicked on, especially if malware hides in a non-executable file such as a PDF or Office document. This is how many of the recent ransomware attacks were pulled off.
Now with Meltdown and Spectre looming over us, the average person is more susceptible to “quick fixes” and solutions to this issue.
Despite the lack of personalization, an astonishing 20% of recipients will click on basically anything that makes it to their inbox.
SPEAR PHISHING
Spear phishing is an enhanced version of phishing that aims at specific employees of the targeted organization. The goal is usually to gain unauthorized access to networks, data, and applications. In contrast to the mass emailing of a phishing attack, which might see hundreds of attack messages sent out to random recipients within the space of a couple of hours, spear phishing is methodical and focused on a single recipient. Often the initial email will contain no URL or attachment. Instead, it will simply try to invoke the recipient into thinking that the sender is who they say they are. Only later on will the hacker request confidential credentials or information, or send a booby-trapped URL or attachment.
The additional customization and targeting of a spear phishing email, along with the lack of easily recognized blacklisted URLs or malware customization results in click-rates more than 50%!
