If you are familiar with me at all, especially through my LinkedIn profile, you are aware that I try my best to live the Pay-it-Forward life.

Contrary to the attitude of “what’s in it for me,” the Pay-it-Forward philosophy starts with the question: “How can I help you?”

I am blessed with a wife who is the love of my life and a job I can’t wait to get to in the morning. In return, I try to help and give back to others as much as I can on a regular basis.

Here are a few ways you can start living a Pay-it-Forward life…

1. Enter new business relationships without an agenda. How many times have you met someone in a business setting and the first thing that crossed your mind was “how can this person help me?” Turn it around. Look at new business relationships as an opportunity to help others. Develop a network that will be mutually-beneficial not just to you, but to others you know.

2. Remember where other people are coming from first. When you talk with someone, do you ask them their needs, listen to their concerns, or are you wrapped up in you and your agenda? “Pay it Forward” means working with others to help them along, so in turn, they can help someone else.

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Money…they say it’s what makes the world go ’round. I am not sure about that, but it can determine your fate in getting a position you want. Most people do not like dealing with salary requirements and negotiation. It seems to have become a game between job candidates and companies. I have received questions as of late in terms of a salary negotiation strategy and thought I should share my opinions to help you in your negotiation efforts.

Companies typically handle the initial discussion of salary in one of two ways: the company will provide you with the position salary range or the company will ask what you desire in terms of salary. It is always a gamble when pitching a desired salary to a company. Some companies are very in-tune to market salaries and skill-worth while other companies think it perfectly acceptable to pay a very low salary for a very valuable job. A good company should engage in negotiation, but some companies simply remove a candidate from the applicant pool if the salary request is too far out of range.

The key to successful salary negotiations is to first, DO YOUR HOMEWORK. Research salaries for the specific type of position for which you are applying. When matching positions on those sites, try to match the position and your skill set as close as possible. The second key is to KNOW YOUR WORTH. You know your education level, experience, and so forth. Know what your skill set is worth and be prepared to defend that worth in a salary negotiation. The final key to salary negotiation is to KNOW WHAT YOU WANT. If you have your heart set on a specific geographic location with minimal opportunities, the company may be in a position to offer lower wages. If this geographic location is really where you want to be, you might have to accept a salary that is not exactly what you want. If you are focused on a particular career path, it may require you to start low. You need to be educated and realistic in approaching your salary negotiation. Do your homework…know your worth…and know what you really want.

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In 2006 Dell had 78,700 global employees, revenue of close to $56 billion and Fortune magazine ranked it as the 25th largest company on its Fortune 500 list and 8th on the top 20 list of most admired companies in the USA. They’re kind of a big deal. So it is all the more noteable that they are having the culture of their organization changed by embracing social media.

In this interview Paull Young is joined by Laura Thomas, Lionel Menchaca, Caroline Dietz, Arlette Salcedo and Jacqui Zhou from Dell’s social media team as they talk in detail about their approach to social media. They discuss how they have used tools like their Direct2Dell blog, IdeaStorm, Studio Dell web videos and a Second Life presence to start a new relationship with their customers through two way communication. They also talk about what they have learned from the process that has seen a shift internally in their company’s culture which has been matched by a shift in online consumer sentiment from 50% negative to 23% negative in just one year.

The Dell team will be paying attention to this post, so please take some time to check out their work and leave a comment - it’s a case study worth learning from.

In other Forward related news - if you are anywhere near Athens, Georgia this coming weekend (October 19-20) be sure to come along to the CONNECT social media and PR conference at Grady College. Paull will be presenting a case study on Forward and also a couple of breakout sessions on Second Life and podcasting.

Also, if you enjoy the Amish portion of our Forward Podcast rambling you’ll be excited to hear that Luke has started up his own show with his employer BlogTalkRadio. It’s called The Rundown, it airs live every Tuesday at 1:30pm ET and I’m sure it will be an enjoyable and informative listen.

Finally, the weekend after next (October 26-27) Paull will be attend Podcamp Boston where he’ll be presenting on a panel about Reputation Management for Digital Natives. The event looks like it is going to be an amazing learning opportunity and I hope our panel will be particularly useful for Forward Podcast listeners - be sure to say g’day if you’ll be there.

Technorati Tags: dell, social media, direct2dell, Ideastorm, Studio Dell, online engagement, online community, online monitoring, conversational marketing, online relationships, crowdsourcing, blogging, corporate blogs, corporate blogging

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 Forward Podcast 33 :: Social Media in Action at Dell [42:31m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (988)

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Whew! First Forward post from me in a long, long time. Apologies up front. But no excuses. (None are adequate.) Just diving in to the post …

I’ve been working hard the last year or so. Buried myself in getting oriented in my new career. All’s well. Good news is I’m finally surfacing with some thoughts and perspectives worth sharing. (Well, I think they’re worth sharing anyway.) Interestingly, over the past year, I’ve had several lessons from my younger years resurface and be overwhelmingly relevant.

It dates back to when I was in high school, working for my parents at our family business. My mother was my boss. She supervised many a’ high school students over the years and she earned a reputation for being a tough boss. Very high standards for her employees. She expected the best from them, and by golly, she would work with them patiently and firmly until they were polished into first-rate employees with stellar work ethics. Me working for her? Same top-notch standards applied, naturally.

My random lesson from Mom for today: follow directions.

This simple, seemingly insignificant thing is actually enormously important and can set you apart from other young professionals. It’s easy to shrug this off. “Well, of course. Everybody knows you should follow directions.” Yes. You SHOULD. But you’d be surprised how few people actually DO. Even fewer who do this well.

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Bill Sledzik, Associate Professor at Kent State University, joins us for Forward Podcast 32 to give a snapshot of PR academia. Bill is a blogger, PR professor and former PR professional (can you really be a former PR professional?).

In this segment, Bill answers the tough questions that are on students’ minds. What are professionals looking for in a new hire? What questions are you getting from other students? Does blogging matter? How? What about Facebook? Where will I find a job? Is this thing on?

As mentioned in the interview, Bill posted a two-part summary of a study with Kent State and Burrelles Luce. As promised, Bill has threatened to send the full academic tome to anyone who requests it at wsledzik [at] kent.edu

• Study post Part I
• Study post Part II

During the Intro, Paull plugged the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication “Connect” Public Relations & Social Media Conference. Well, look at that, Paull’s speaking at that conference! He’s right there on the Agenda talking about the Forward Blog. The conference has an all-star cast of some of Luke’s favorite PR bloggers. Paull, Kevin Dugan (twice the pr blogger), Constantine, Josh Hallett, and Katie Delahaye Paine just to namedrop a few…and Karen, mustn’t forget Karen. Seriously, if all of those blogs aren’t in your feedreader, get to it.

Paull then bravely mentioned that we’d have links in the show notes, which is easy to say because he’s not doing the show notes this week. So there they are.

Please let Bill, Luke or Paull know what you really think of them. You can email luke [at] forward-moving.com with all your sincerest and most personal thoughts about this or any Forward podcast or leave a comment right here on this blog.

Technorati Tags: pr, public relations, forward podcast, pr students, pr education, career advice

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 Forward Podcast 32 :: A Snapshot of PR Academia: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1337)

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