Women entrepreneurs, market yourself with the Profit W100

OK smart women entrepreneur followers, it's time to yell from the hilltops about how successful you are! Yes, I said yell!! Shameless self promotion and a W100 application is what it takes to get that much deserved attention for all of your hard work. In fact, why not add a http://www.videobio.com/ to your application?

The 11th annual ranking of the PROFIT W100: Canada’s Top Women Entrepreneurs is now open for applicatins and nominations.

This year, changes to the ranking criteria this year open up the program to smaller firms and companies across a wider range of industries.

And, they're launching a new ranking of up-and-coming women entrepreneurs who deserve recognition for their early successes.

What won’t change are the benefits of ranking, including coverage in the November issue of PROFIT, which can attract new staff, customers, business partners and the interest of other local and national media. You can also count on business-building marketing and PR support from PROFIT. Perhaps best of all, you’ll be invited to the PROFIT W100 Idea Exchange, an exclusive conference geared to helping you strengthen your company and management skills in collaboration with other female entrepreneurs.

You can request a nomination package by calling 1-800-713-GROW or completing the online ballot at www.PROFITguide.com/w100ballot

Application deadline is July 17, 2009.

Industry specific career matchmaking

Industry specific career matchmaking just got better for employees in Canada who post their resume at Workopolis. Here is an excerpt from their recent release:

Workopolis releases stats from study that uncovers challenges with industry specific. New Workopolis functionality helps employers connect with hard-to-reach specialized candidates.

June 4, 2009, Toronto – In this ever-changing labour market, employers are looking for more efficient ways of connecting with hard-to-fill specialized workers. And according to new poll results from Workopolis, nearly six-in-ten (57 per cent) working Canadians fit the bill with self-described sector-specific skills and experiences.

To serve this need, employers posting a job on Workopolis.com can now access specialized workers through the Workopolis NicheNetwork, Canada’s largest specialized association and publication job board network. Starting today, a new Cross-Post feature will enable employers to quickly and easily access candidates from industries ranging from accounting to telecom.

“What employers need to help them navigate this downturn is great employees, and being able to quickly connect with hard-to-fill candidates is mission critical,” said Gabriel Bouchard, President of Workopolis. “Employers can forget the wild goose chase for specialized workers because the Cross-Post feature makes it all possible to target industry professionals in just one simple click.”

http://niche.workopolis.com

Do employers and employees see this as a value add among online job search engines?

Marketing yourself on the web. Women's Post Event. Courage to Lead

Where are you in your own marketing campaign? I spoke at the Women's Post, Courage to Lead event on Tuesday night hosted at the Sony Style store and shared some of my thoughts on the personal marketing campaign. I enjoyed sharing the stage with Brent Wilson, Dragons Den and Tsufit, Author, Step Into the Spotlight! A great event.

Standing out... where Personal Branding meets Marketing

For those starting to become more familiar with the whole idea of taking charge of your reputation and managing your profile online, you will undoubtedly have heard the terms 'personal branding' and 'market yourself'. Both key ingredients to career success. But, personal branding and marketing yourself are two very distinct concepts-- both equally important in the overall career strategy.

First, personal branding is about understanding who you are and what your strengths and weaknesses are, what you stand for and what you wish to be. Take William Arruda, CEO of Reach and a partner of Market Yourself Smarter/videoBIO in helping individuals to know themselves before sitting down in front of a camera for a videoBIO or thinking about a more concerted effort in building profile and marketing yourself. Reach has been in the personal branding business for years and is arguably the leader in the field for all things personal branding.

Next, there is the marketing step. This is the part where all of the groundwork comes together and is put to the acid test as you navigate through your career and create connections, make impressions and build success. Take videoBIO as a career marketing tool, for example. In order to get the best out of the videoBIO opportunity you need to know what you are putting into it. What are your key messages? What is your raison d'etre? What makes you unique and how do you convey this with energy and conviction?

So be sure to remember the one, two' step process when you are ready to launch your personal brand out into the market. Take care with your brand.

Career search 2.0

Robert Lesser, President, Direct Impact Marketing and blogger for MarketingProfs posted a great how-to on how Career Search 2.0 meets Demand Generation-- includes some great, practical tips for optimizing your job search online.

Social currency. How full is your bank?

The art of conversation. High value networking. Quality interactions. Meaningful relationships. Great buzz words but really not well executed in day to day business relations. We need to take care in managing each and every impression and connection that we make with colleagues. Great impressions + authentic interactions = social currency. At the end of the day our reputation and our network and human relationships is what will make you or break us in business. Take a moment to think about whether you are building or losing currency. How full is your bank?

Check out www.knowyourcharacter.com to learn more about your professional style and character.