Aaron Hoos

The Question:

I was asked this question by a connection on LinkedIn:

What do I have to offer? I am fresh out of Penn State and am fresh into the business world… I need more advice than I can supply!

How do I make myself more interesting and beneficial to others to generate business conversation???

Aaron’s Answer:

What an exciting time for you! And good for you for seeking out the advice of others to further your career. What I’m about to write is a small list of things I wish I’d done back in the day when I graduated from college and started my first business. Call it my “If I knew then what I know now” list.

1. If you want to be beneficial to others, but you don’t have advice to give, learn to connect people to other people. Don’t worry about giving advice based on your own experience. Instead, get to know LOTS of people and connect people together. (LinkedIn can really help you do this). If you’re going to take people out to lunch, take two people out to lunch and introduce them. Don’t bother having advice-oriented discussions just yet. Rather, prepare conversation starters to get things going.

If you need to make sales for your job (and assuming you have some leeway in how you do it), look into putting together seminars or workshops. Again, you don’t have to be the one at the front giving advice. Host them but have someone else (with experience) lead them.

2. Figure out your “angle” in business and focus on it. (For example, are you “THE Marketing Girl” or a social media expert or whatever). Create a position of expertise and target it on and off the web relentlessly. It’s tough to do it that early in your career but it’s well worth the effort if you can do it. If you have a bit of money and time to invest, read about personal branding.

3. Start a blog. Keep it professional but mix in some personal stuff too (but not too personal). You may not use it now for your career but it will slowly build a body of thought-leadership work that you can rely on in the future if you ever move.

4. Lastly, don’t ever apologize for having no experience. Turn it around and make it a benefit in your conversations: A lack of experience means you don’t have to color inside the lines the way experienced people tend to do.

Good luck in your career!

-Aaron Hoos
http://aaronhoos.com

 
[Visit my LinkedIn profile]

The Question:

Samantha Parvin asked: I’m starting a blog – how often should I post? My posts are mostly concept-oriented (versus how-to, reviews, or news), and they’re mostly from 250 to 500 words or so. How often should I post a new article when trying to gain readership?

[Visit Samantha Parvin's LinkedIn profile]

Aaron’s Answer:

I would advise that there are actually 4 things you should consider:

1. Frequency — which you mentioned. I would recommend at least 2-3 times a week. I try to post at least once a day. I know some who try to post 6-10 times a day. For your higher level work, I’d say that 6-10 times a day is excessive, but 3-5 times a week is probably what you want to aim for.

2. Consistency. A huge readership killer is not how many times a week you post but rather whether or not you keep it up. One of the most common phrases that you see in blogs is “I haven’t posted for a while, but…”. I’d advise creating a list of topics that will give you something to write about for the next 1-3 months.

3. Quality. It sounds like you know the quality you want to achieve at this point, and that’s a great start. Maintain that quality and your readers will respect you and look to you for more content. However, if you start your blog with great concept-oriented material but end up blogging about your favorite ice cream in a couple of weeks from now, you’ll erode readership who want to read about your concept-oriented work.

4. Lastly, connection. remember that your blog doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Make sure you’re promoting your blog in other places, tweeting your latest blog post, sharing it on Facebook, etc. As a PR professional, you’re probably already aware of the importance of this effort.

Best of luck!

Aaron Hoos

[Visit my LinkedIn profile]

The Question:

I am a real estate investor and I’m going to a local event shortly where I will be networking with other real estate investors and looking for money to fund my deals. I’ve got an introductory card that I give out but it isn’t pulling in as much response as I’d like. What do you recommend?

[For privacy, card is not included in post]

Aaron’s Answer:

The content on your card is good and just needs to be tightened up a bit. However, I think you should consider something to compel people to talk to you. After all, there are MANY real estate investors all networking hard to get a limited amount of funding dollars. An introduction of yourself is good, but you should consider enticing them to talk to you. I would write up a 2-3 page report about “The State of Real Estate In [your local city]” and indicate on your introductory card that you’ll give them a free copy if they talk to you.