Tag Archives: Social network

Guest Posting Etiquette & Policy

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Please bear with me for another general announcement. So, I’ve been caught a bit unprepared without establishing a guest posting guideline for myself. I’m rectifying this situation now as well as putting out an FYI on commonly known and accepted guest posting best practices. If anyone is interested in guest posting here (yeah, not everyone at once now!), or even anywhere else, then please refer to the following criteria (see Critical Guest Blogging Do’s and Don’ts for the information in its entirety):

First, the do’s:

  • Read and follow the guidelines of the host blog
  • Write as if you were writing for your own blog
  • After your post is published, return to check for and respond to comments
  • Make sure your post fits well with the audience of the host blog
  • Give every courtesy and consideration to the host blogger / editor

Now the don’ts:

Sometimes it’s impossible to avoid every single faux pas out there, but if you follow the advice of this post you’re already ahead of the game with this list of things to avoid doing as a part of your guest blogging strategy.

  • Plagiarize / duplicate content from other authors
  • Write about a generic or over-used topic
  • Neglect basic formatting, spelling, or grammar
  • Contact any and every blog that might possibly publish your content
  • Add unnecessary links
  • Act unprofessionally if your post is rejected
  • Use low-quality /spun content
  • Submit content that you have already published elsewhere

Again, some fairly common sense advice here, but it is all very important to remember so it bears repeating. Behaving like a professional, courteous person is going to take you a long way in the world of internet marketing. Host blogs don’t have to take your content, and you are not always doing them a favor by giving them your content to publish.

Read more: 
http://www.rankpop.com/critical-guest-blogging-dos-and-donts/#ixzz2Ng6COaIK

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Some other biggies from Etiquette In Guest Blogging – The Most Complete Guide; don’t:

  • Promote yourself or your products inside the article content. This makes you looks like a sales person who is trying to get anything you want without giving first, which is a very bad impression in the blogosphere.
  • Link to affiliate site of yours. How do you feel when someone put an affiliate link in his comment to your blog? If you feel it’s unacceptable, do not put affiliate links into your guest blog content.

Finally, my word of advice is to look around at what has already been posted at the blog that you are considering guest posting on to see if what you plan to contribute is more or less along the lines of what is already there. Upon doing so, you should be able to get an idea of what would remarkably diverge from that and then check with the host blogger/editor to see if the proposed content sounds alright. It’s a lot like being over at someone else’s house. Make yourself at home but don’t make yourself too at home!

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Surveillance at Work: Issues and Recommendations

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The possibility of employers checking potential hires’ social networking sites to attain a more in-depth look at what candidates might really be like is now common knowledge. Likewise, most people also know that employers are increasingly monitoring their computer activities at work and that this can come in the form of programs that track time spent on work related and non-work related software as well as the types of websites you visit. These have become part of a “new normal.” However, surveillance can be more invasive and extend beyond the workplace itself. It can come in the form of tracking, through GPS, where you drive the company vehicle or employers’ hiring private investigators to verify health or injury claims as the following video shows:

Global Interviews: Vancouver Private Investigator on Employee Surveillance

We are still currently working out the conflict between employees’ right to privacy and employers’ rights to verify the truth of the information you submit for employment or other claims, ensure a fair exchange of labor for compensation per the employment contract, and maintain security of sensitive company related information. In the meantime, job applicants and employees who have information on the Internet that casts an unfavorable light on themselves must engage in some impression management. Here are a few recommendations:

  • Google your own name every now and then to see what kind of information is associated with you
  • Look into setting your social networking profile on “private” and think about what you post
  • If you are on the job, you can keep your non-work and work related activities separate by confining non-work related communications to your own device – yes, you can still watch cat videos!

The following video provides more information on employees’ and employers’ rights along with best practice recommendations for employees:

Computer Privacy in the Workplace
Featuring Attorney Wendi Lazar of Outten and Golden, LLP in New York

Many of us know intuitively that electronic surveillance of our computer and Internet activity at work isn’t going to do wonders for employee satisfaction and engagement. People like to maintain some degree of personal space and privacy. If you just take a moment to think about this, chances are you can probably recall some instance when you felt a visceral discomfort in reaction to being closely scrutinized. It hardly matters where the scrutiny is coming from (i.e., an employer, the government, or some stranger), whether or not you were following the rules or not at the time, or whether or not it is “for your own good.” Some of us want more “space” and privacy than others but I have yet to encounter one person who likes to be monitored all the time.

Electronic surveillance isn’t a foolproof solution when it comes to keeping employees on task either. Mixing of work and non-work related activities occurs anyway with the introduction of today’s sophisticated, portable devices (complete with fun features and games). My own 5-year old iPhone, for instance, gives me access to all the old Nintendo games I had known and loved so many years ago, but I digress. I believe that implementing a results-only-work-environment (ROWE) would be a better way to motivate and keep employees on task. From a behavioral psychology standpoint, what can be better than building a positive association with task completion? Implementing ROWE is easier for some jobs than others of course, however I’m considering knowledge work that is compatible with a ROWE system. A lot of headway can be made in this direction and it can all begin with a small pilot test within the organization.

Finally, here are a couple of articles for those who are interested in understanding what employers may be looking for when they come across your social networking profile:

When Email is Better than Skype and Face-to-Face Communication

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As mentioned in a previous post, I’m going to share my own personal experience with a cross-cultural communication problem that only reared its ugly head when visual cues were available. Thus, this post may substantially depart from my usual writing style.

I hired a career coach and began working with him in September 2012.  Note that this fellow has close to 20 years of experience as a career coach and has been a longtime resident of California’s Bay Area, an area renown for its racial and cultural diversity. Also note that he’s a Caucasian-American dealing with me, an Asian-American (though something like this can happen even when there is a shared cultural or racial heritage given enough difference in personality). In my situation, this meant that there are body language dynamics that are vastly different in meaning (e.g., maintaining eye contact with your conversation partner). By the way, I live in California also, but we agreed to handle my case using technology to save me from having to make long drives.

He and I seemed to be communicating well and getting along swimmingly as we emailed back and forth. Trouble began when we started conversing on Skype. I began discussing my interest in workplace boredom and employee engagement consulting, and I tried to share some information with him. He did not believe that a workplace boredom phenomenon exists. He could see people being stressed, but not bored. This phenomenon is really quite easy to understand however. Here you go:

Satisfaction From Work

He also kept reiterating that consulting businesses that serve employers needs do not exist. He also believed that telework is a theoretical concept as no one in his social network was working this way. Words began to fail me as I saw that he was just hellbent on keeping information to the contrary away.

Noticing that I could barely form words at this point, he leaned a little forward into the webcam as he inspected my body language and said, “You’re nervous!” and then continued, “You’re intimidated by me!” Actually, I was exasperated and now so stunned at his  confidence in his body language reading skills that I didn’t know what to say. He continued making other body language reading mistakes. This was going off about as well as a dog trying to read a cat’s behavior. I corrected him on his westernized assumptions about how friendships are formed when we discussed why I neither love nor engage in social chatter about various topics that tend to happen in the office scene. To that, he replied, “So you think you’re more Thai then?” “Well, geez,” I should’ve replied, “Do I look white to you???” I wish I was able to correct him at every instance in which he made mistakes but there were just too many. Also, as introverted as I am, my mind tends to be processing things so deeply that I remain a step behind during fast-paced conversations. Don’t you hate it when the clever retorts come to you after the situation has passed? I could have played this little game right along with him, leaned into my webcam and said, “You’re presumptuous!” “You jump to conclusions!” “You’re an obnoxious fool!”

The moral of the story: Ask, don’t assume. If you want to know how I feel then ask, don’t assume. If you want to know what my state of mind is then ask, don’t assume.

Had this guy been dealing with people overseas, he would have lost so many clients and offended so many people. I’m bringing this subject to attention because I’ve come across so many of these instances where someone assumed more similarity than there really is. This doesn’t just happen with people who have been “living under a rock” but with people who really should know better as well. People can still make assumptions about others based on the way they write. Also note that I am NOT discounting the conditions under which being able to read body language is beneficial. However, I have to laud communication methods without visuals for this one reason: It inhibits deeply ingrained assumptions that people often make because of the way someone looks or behaves.

He and I never interacted face-to-face but, somehow, I don’t think doing so would have prevented him from depending so much on his body language reading skills and cultural knowledge that only pertains to people similar to himself. Even worse, I would have had to resist recurring thoughts telling me to reach over and strangle him.