This week on the job4U2 blog, I interviewed Sarah Santacroce, owner and managing director of Simplicity: Simplicity helps small business owners to increase their visibility and brand awareness through Internet & social Media Marketing.
Sarah, originally from Bern, came back in 2010 form California where she, as the accompanying spouse, stayed 4 years, and settled her family and her company in Lausanne.
Sandrine: “Sarah, You are an Expert
in social media, helping small business owner to promote their brand through
social marketing. I do see some similarity between building a brand and looking
for a job. Would you agree on that point?”
Sarah: “Yes, I do see some similarities to some
degree. If you run a business, you want to market that business, if you are
looking for a job, you want to market yourself. And nowadays Social Media is also
an important part of the job search. More and more employers will research an
applicant’s social media profiles before even considering an interview.”
Sandrine: “The brand, that job
seeker aim to promote, being their expertise, which social media would you
recommend to use for their personal marketing? “
Sarah: “Of course LinkedIn is the first one that comes to mind, or Xing for the Swiss German market. It’s important to have an optimized LinkedIn profile, in order to be found and because your profile is like a resume, business card & elevator speech all in one place. “
Sandrine : “May ask you to share 3
exclusive tips for the job4u2 blog readers about what jobseeker could do with
LinkedIn to boost their online visibility? “
Sarah:
- “Make sure their profile is public: Often I work with clients and the first thing we realize is that their profile wasn’t even public. What’s the point of having a profile if you’re hiding it, right? So please double check that yours is public under the‘Edit profile’ view, click on ‘edit’ next to the public profile link, make sure ‘Make my public profile visible to everyone’ is clicked
- Add link love: LinkedIn gives you the opportunity to add up to 3 website links. What job seekers can do is create an online CV or profile on either about.me or a visualcv.com and then link to those pages in the website section. This way the employer can find out some additional information about the applicant. If the job seeker has anything visual to present, it’s also a good idea to create a small website with a portfolio and link to that.
- Join groups and network: Groups are a very powerful networking tool. I recommend the job seekers join groups that are relevant to their industry, comment on discussions, start discussions, demonstrate their expertise. This will increase the visibility of their profile and get them in front of the eyes of potential employers”
Sandrine: “I know you have
recently experienced relocation as a accompanying partner, Could you tell us
something about this experience, and especially, now that you are back to
Switzerland, what are the main take-aways? “
Sarah: “It was a great experience, even though moving a whole
family overseas is not easy, as most of your readers might well know. I think
the 4 years in California define our family, the experience brought us closer.
Main take away: every culture is different, and it’s important to have an open
mind. I love my job because I get to work with people from all over the world,
which makes for a very rich experience. “
Sandrine: “Have you started you
own business while being in California? “
Sarah: “Yes, I have started working on my business plan and
website while living in California. “
Sandrine: “What do you think
are the main difference in between being an entrepreneur in Switzerland and an
entrepreneur in the USA? “
Sarah: “The US is much more entrepreneur-friendly. People are more
willing to take risks, and if they fail, they’ll just try again. In my opinion
it’s not that easy being an entrepreneur in Switzerland, there’s not so much a
community feeling among fellow entrepreneurs, which is a pity. But maybe it’s
just a question of time… The economy being what it is now, I think more and
more people will start their own business. You and I are just ahead of the
game, Sandrine J”
Sandrine: “I know that you have
just recently launched a new service with regards to LinkedIn. Could you give
us some more info about that? “
Sarah: “Yes, thanks for asking. I’ve noticed that many people
struggle with LinkedIn and don’t really know what kind of information should be
on their profile & how they can optimize it in order to give the best
impression. That’s why I’ve added a “LinkedIn Profile Video Review” to my
service offering. It’s a 10-min video review of the client’s profile,
containing tips on how to improve it, which applications to use, how to
increase visibility and just make it stand out from the crowd. The customer
gets access to the video and then updates his/her profile according to the
step-by-step instructions. Once they’ve updated the profile, we schedule a
20-min follow-up call via Skype to answer any remaining questions. The review
costs USD 49.00 (introductory offer) and people can find out more at this link:
http://www.simplicityadmins.ch/linkedinreview”
Sandrine: “Many thanks Sarah!"
If you are interested to read all Sarah tips and resources, I warmly recommend to visit her blog: http://www.simplicityadmins.ch/blog/
If you are interested to read all Sarah tips and resources, I warmly recommend to visit her blog: http://www.simplicityadmins.ch/blog/
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Sandrine van den Oudenhoven
job4U2, "relocation is a project for both"
Sandrine van den Oudenhoven
job4U2, "relocation is a project for both"
