If I knew all the words

Seth Godin once posed the question:
“Are you better at what you do than you were a month or two ago?”
I find this an intriguing questions because as I had found over the past year I was not improving my skills, I was simply trying to learn the ropes.
What I’ve found is that you can do both at the same time. You will never advance in your job or even land the job you’re striving for unless you constantly work at improving your skills.

Here are a few thing to help get you started:
1. Make a list of your Skills you want to improve- This is not only a good place to start, but this is also a good thing to know because you will be asked the question “what are your weaknesses?”  in an interview, or you will be asked to improve on your weaknesses for a development goal. But don’t just pick something easy, find weaknesses/skill that you can truly achieve, but will also give you a challenge.

2. Brain storm – Brain storm a list of rescources that will help you turn your weak skills into strengths. Maybe it’s keeping up with your blog to enhance your writing skills, or taking online classes at Linda.com. But find ways to achieve your goals.

3. Schedule time to work on your skills – If you don’t actually take the time to asses your skills  and work on them, you will never move forward. You can increase the time you put out a project, but if your skill that needs improvement is your grammar, then take the time to re-read your project before you turn it in.

4. Take your time- If you’ve already admitted to yourself that your skills need some improvement, then take your time to actually work toward improvement. Take an extra five minutes to asses your work and make sure you’ve completed it to the best of your ability.

5. Save Compliments - If you or your co-works or professors have noticed an improvement in your skills and have commented on it, save the compliment. It helps to look back at encouraging works to keep your momentum going in the future. Also, if it comes down to a promotion, you have proof that you’re moving forward and working hard to improve.

Take some time to improve your skills in the new year.

As the social media landscape expands, more organizations are taking advantage of the online tools available. There are thousands, and they are expanding as we speak.  Anything from fundraiser support sites, to picture and video sharing to niche social networks that can expand your reach as an organization. One tool that I find very helpful is go2web20.net. This site provides an overview and ratings of thousands of Web 2.0 sites.

By taking the time to assess the social landscape in which your organization wishes to immerse in,  you can identify key opinion leaders, the audience, and important topics in the conversation. Through assessing the conversation happening in different forms of social media you have the ability to pick and choose the right forum to your conversation. You must be picky when finding the right forum. There is no use having a conversation with people who don’t want to listen.

There are a few ways to find out what social media tools would be right for your organization to utilize in creating a presence online:

1. Research where your organization stands in all forms of mediums look on Facebook for support groups, on Youtube for videos, on twitter for organizations, competitors and supporters.
2. Listen to the Conversation Now that you’ve found forums with which your organization could fit into the conversation. Listen. See what others are saying about your product or service and assess the tone. If there is a negative tone, begin to strategist on how you can make negatives into a positive.
   
3. Narrow the Field Social media takes time. Don’t be too ambitious because if you begin to have a presence in a specific network and then become lazy and cannot keep up with it, you lose listeners and the point of getting involved in the social media sphere was to gain followers. Take a look at the possible tools you can utilize and assess their relativity to your goal. Then narrow the field.
   
4. Participate the hardest thing organizations will find is keeping up with all the forms of social media that are at its fingertips. Just because you are a part of Facebook or twitter doesn’t mean you’re actively participating in it. Make the effort, comment on blogs and message boards, tweet and reply to tweets participate in the social media and show a new audience that you’re doing everything in your means to make them a believer in your product or service.

Photo credit Brian Solis

Hey all,

Now that Graduation is over, I’m preparing for my graduation trip to Europe. I leave Tuesday June 24th. Unfortunately, I will be unable to continue posting on this blog until i return August 2nd. I will be keeping a Blog for my trip in Europe, If you’re interested in following my adventures my blog address is : http://eurostringer.wordpress.com

If you wish to receive email updates at well email me: stringer(dot)staci(at)gmail(dot)com and I will add you to my email blasts!

Thank you for reading my blog I promise I’ll be back, up and running com August! Have a wonderful summer!

Cheers!

Staci

So I normally don’t do this, but I want to ask my readers for suggestions. For a graduation gift I am traveling through Europe with a college group, EF College Break. I am going to be gone for a month and a half. The last two weeks with my parents, but I would like suggestions on good shopping, great pubs, bars, clubs, parks, etc. Some of these places I’ve traveled to before and would prefer to experience the “local” spots rather than the tourist areas. So let me know of your favorite spots in any of these cities!

London, Paris, Amsterdam, Heidelberg, Rhine Falls/Black Forest, Lucerne, Milan, Venice, Rome, Assisi, Florence, Pisa, Nice, Provence, Carcassonne, Barcelona, Zaragoza and Madrid. With my Parents: Frankfurt, Vienna, Budapest, & Prague.

I’m spending about 2-3 days in each city, a few of the cities we are simply passing through. Doesn’t mean I can’t grab a cold beer and some delicious grub along the way!

Thank you!