LinkedIn Vs. Facebook Battle of the Professional Networks [INFOGRAPHIC]

LinkedIn Vs. Facebook Battle of the Professional Networks [INFOGRAPHIC] Takeaways: When you think of Facebook, its professional benefits probably arent the first thing that pop to mind, but who said it cant be good for your career, as well as for its social aspect? LinkedIn on the other hand was created with the soul purpose of connecting people on a professional level, but  could it be rivalled by other networks such as Facebook? The release of the new Facebook at Work will certainly keep them on their toes, but where do they stand in comparison with Facebooks primary network? Theres no doubt that Facebook is the bigger of the two with 1.35 billion users, in comparison to LinkedIns 332 million, but that doesnt necessarily give an indication of its value  as a professional network. This infographic by the  brightonsbm.com  gives a direct comparison of the two social media platforms and how they can both be used for work. Takeaways: LinkedIn has gained most of its success from its benefits as a recruitment tool and they make additional profit from their upgraded service called LinkedIn Recruiter, which boasts additional tools and increased access to more profiles than the free  version. Facebook has a huge 25 million business pages, which is over 6x  LinkedIns 4 million. It could be argued, however, that LinkedIn have a stricter policy when it comes to false profiles and are therefore better at  managing duplicate pages; something that you find a lot of on Facebook. The overall click through rates of advertising on the social networks is higher on Facebook with 1.5/1,000 users clicking, in comparison to LinkedIns 1/1,000; however pay-per-click advertising tends to be more successful on  LinkedIn with 15/100 users clicking on it, compared to 12/100 on Facebook. In regards to the social networks being used for recruitment, both platforms displayed their benefits. LinkedIn allows users to showcase their CV and knowledge, which can be very handy for job seekers; however Facebook now also offer apps that you can upload your CV to, levelling the field. Other features the networks  possess are LinkedIns searching facility based on keywords and skills and Facebooks recommendations feature. RELATED: How Students and Graduates Should Use Social Media: Professionally

Make time for big ideas Twenty minutes

Make time for big ideas Twenty minutes I interview two or three people a week for the various columns that I write. One thing I have learned from this is that people can tell you the major ideas they have in about twenty minutes. After twenty minutes you end up getting into the details of the ideas probably more than you need to know. So it was not surprising to me that the TED conference limits speakers to about that amount of time. What was surprising to me was how much I enjoyed watching the videos of lectures from the conference. Before I go on, though, let me just say that TED is totally elitist, and the selection of speakers is absurdly imbalanced among men and women. But when it comes to your career, you should take advantage of all opportunities to converse with very smart, interesting people. I have noticed that I learn an incredible amount from interviewing interesting people more than when I just read an article about them. Getting a chance to see the lectures at TED, (for free!) is not a conversation, but its better than reading about it. So, each night or so I am watching one video. I dont have the attention span to just watch, so maybe its good that I didnt go to the conference. I answered email during Tony Robbins, but still, you cant say hes not inspiring. I was riveted during the Majora Carter video. Shes a great speaker (I shed a tear) and she talks about the politics of green space in urban areas. I didnt know anything about this topic and I can honestly say she showed me a different way to look at things. I found out about the TED videos from Guy Kawasakis blog. I check his blog out a lot because he writes about big ideas. There is so much to read online, but its easy to surf and surf and never get to a big idea. Force yourself to find them thats how youll grow.

CELEBRATE BOSS MOMS THIS NATIONAL BOSS DAY

CELEBRATE BOSS MOMS THIS NATIONAL BOSS DAY Did you know that today (October 16) is National Boss’s Day? Here’s my take: The bosses who should be celebrated with the most cupcakes and flowers today are Boss Momsâ€"working moms who do it all and get it done at all hours of the day, and with only a fraction of that time rewarded with an actual paycheck. In fact, according to a recent survey by Total Wireless, 95 percent of moms say that the most stressful part of being a working mom is the pressure to juggle work and family responsibilities to perfection. Do they always get it done without ever losing their cool? Au contraire, ma mere.  In my version of this National Boss Day, being a Boss Mom means you bless the mess, celebrate the journey that got you to where you are today and realize that a satisfied life is rarely a balanced onebut a happy one. LEARN THIS TERM: “MENTAL LOAD.” The mental load is the reason that I know how many eggs are in our fridge right now and how high the temperature has to be in order for my boys to be allowed to wear shorts to school (love that dress code). It is also the reason that I occasionally forget to sign a check that I put in the mail (thank you, payment apps for helping me out here). The mental load is the labor we do in our minds keeping track of 1,273,038 things even when we aren’t technically working or parenting. And that work deserves to be acknowledged. HOLD THE JUDGEMENT, PLEASE. Here’s something wonderful about 2017 (an otherwise complicated year, to say the least): We are officially no longer living in a society where it is socially appropriate for working moms to judge stay-at-home moms, and vice versa. I’ve interviewed hundreds of moms for my book and company, and the general consensus was this: We are all just doing our best to raise the next generation. And yet, so many mothers still admitted to judging themselves. Enough, I say! According to the same survey by Total Wireless, 95 percent of moms know that the journey to success hinges on having the confidence to make the necessary choicesand often those choices include sacrifice. Do not feel guilty. Instead, celebrate your accomplishments. It’s all part of the journey of satisfaction we’re modeling for our kids. SKIP SOMETHING. Want to know the best feeling in the world (better than the candle-lit bubble bath you’ve been meaning to take for three years now)? Open up your calendar and delete one thing from next week. Here, I’ll even give you your excuse: “I’m looking ahead and realizing I’ve overscheduled myself for next week. Let’s please cancel/move our lunch/meeting/obligation/endeavor/commitment.” Another option if it’s something you can’t miss entirely: Downgrade an in-person meet-up to a phone call. Everyone’s more efficient that way, and you can order groceries online at the same time if needed. CALL YOUR OWN BOSS MOM. Better yet, FaceTime her (because you know she won’t mind if you’re not wearing any makeupor if you have to leave her staring at the ceiling while you attend to the 2-year-old’s bloody nose). Whether your mom worked out of the home or not, the list of skills you learned from her is surely long and mighty. (The same survey I reference above found more than half of working women consider their own moms the ultimate “total boss.”) Did she teach you to drive (thus ensuring you can do that last conference call of the day while in the privacy of your own car)? Did she force you and your sister to “work it out between you two” (and give you team-building skills that you use to this day?). It’s vital to acknowledge that stuff, not just because it makes her feel appreciatedbut because it makes you realize how much wisdom you’re imparting to your own kids that they’ll use one day. Oh, tell your mom that part too! This National Boss’s Day, join me   in celebrating working moms for everything they’ve accomplishedâ€"including the choices and sacrifices they’ve made to get where they are today. This guest post was authored by Lauren Smith Brody photo by Nancy-Borowick Lauren Smith Brody is the founder of The Fifth Trimester movement to help businesses and families improve workplace culture together; she is the author of the best-selling book, The Fifth Trimester: The Working Moms Guide to Style, Sanity, and Big Success After Baby. Prior to launching her own business, Lauren had a 16-year career in magazine publishing, most recently as the executive editor of  Glamour  magazine. She’s partnering with Total Wireless to share her Total Boss Mom strategiesâ€"hectic schedule, two little boys, messy home, and all. Check out TotalWireless.com to learn more about the latest phones and the best deal in wireless. Main image via Flickr.  

13 Ways to keep debt from holding you back

13 Ways to keep debt from holding you back I have tons of debt after launching four companies. There has never been a launch that didnt mess up my personal finances. Most entrepreneurs have no credit I am like that as well so I have learned to live with debt and without credit. This is what has enabled me to take risks, set lofty goals, and go after dreams that lots of people tell themselves their debt precludes. How do I do it? Its all mental. Here are thirteen ways to think about debt to keep it from ruining your life. 1. Compartmentalize. When youre saving for a house you still buy food.  When you go on vacation you still expect to buy a car in the next ten years. Thats compartmentalization.  We compartmentalize our financial requirements to enable us to have a long-term goal and fulfill short-term needs too.  Get a money-allocation system in place that will keep creditors from calling all the time, and then stop thinking about it. Do that system and any money left over put toward your bigger goals. (For a visual explanation of compartmentalization, see the photo up top. Last year I set aside the fact that our house is missing siding and I used that money to build a new section in my garden so I wouldnt miss spring planting.) 2. Make deals and stick to them. You can negotiate with anyone. Most creditors are used to negotiating payback plans its part of the business of lending money. So propose one you can manage without too much duress. If they say no, then tell them to take you to court. They rarely will. Instead theyll likely just accept what youre offering. Even if its the IRS, if you show that you are offering what you can pay without ruining your life, theyll take the offer. Then stick to the agreement. Consider it a tax for living. And then you can go on with your life. 3. Give up the idea of retirement. Retirement is an idea from the 1950s when people hated their work. Today you can find fulfilling, engaging work with no need ever to stop doing it. Most baby boomers could not retire, but it ends up that not retiring is a better way to live the end of your life you remain engaged and relevant and involved. We do not need to aspire to having a pile of money at the end of life, so then continuing to pay back debt at the end is not that bad a situation. 4. Realize you can take back the debts power. At big milestones like graduation, marriage, kids, we can choose to feel optimistic or we can choose to focus on our fears. When it comes to our outlook, 70% is driven by our genes. But you control the other 30%. Practice being optimistic and happy-go-lucky with your debt. When you practice optimism in one area it ripples into other areas in your life. 5. Dont stop taking risks the price is too high. One of the most common regrets people have at the end of their life is that they didnt take risks. They played it too safe. Most of your life will include some form of debt. If you put off doing what you want because of your debt you are way more likely to have regrets than if you pay your debt off really slowly, or if you never even get it paid off. 6. Talk to your friends. When people started talking about what sex they were having, they understood both sex and themselves better. Lots of people try gay sex who arent gay. Lots of women ejaculate during orgasm. Lots of men cant keep an erection. We didnt know all that until we talked freely about it. Talking about something enables everyone to cope with their problems. Its true with debt, too. Lots of people have personal loans, lots of people owe their friends money. If you find out what other people are doing and how they are feeling you can get better ideas for coping with your debt. 7. Forget about the dream of zero debt if you want kids. I dont know anyone in their 40s who has kids and no debt. Well, I know one person: she hired me to coach her because she is pathological about saving money and she never feels secure. Otherwise, people who have kids have debt because its human nature to want to give your kids what you can give them. And its human nature to be willing to go into debt to do that. Once you know that, you can free yourself from the need of being debt-free before you have kids, (or dont have them). 8.  Achieve financial security as a mental state. Financial security is all mental. Science says it has to do with the people around you: do you have the same amount of money as the people around you? If you do, you feel okay. Which means a lot of financial management in life comes down to doing a good job of deciding where to live. If you live in NYC with college debt, you feel poor since the millionaires around you could pay cash to get rid of that debt. If you live in Appalachia with college debt you feel rich since you could leave and get a job, and your neighbors cannot. Put yourself somewhere so you can get to a good mental state. 9. Dont use debt as an excuse. A risk-taking mentality is not a result of good finances.  Entrepreneurs take financial risks all the time, even after they have ruined their personal finances. Dont tell yourself youll take risks after your debt is paid off. Its simply not true. If you are not taking risks when you have tons of debt you are probably not a risk taker. For better or worse. Debt is not actually bad in itself, but entertaining false beliefs about yourself and debt is. 10. Stop putting so much money toward your debt. Negotiate the minimum amount you can put toward the debt. It might feel like youll never pay it off, but it doesnt matter. Paying it off does not actually change your life, and    financial stability comes from something deeper than paying off debt.  So put the least amount of money possible toward the debt and then use your money to do something that will change the trajectory of your life. Good money research: if you put your money toward experiences, money can make you happy. 11. Just tell people you dont have money. Look, we dont have debtors prison anymore. If you dont make enough to pay your college loans, you can put them in forbearance. Forever. Its not against the law to not have money to pay your taxes. Its against the law to lie about it. You have to tell the government how much you owe, and you have to tell the government why you cant pay. If you do that, the IRS is actually pretty nice about it. I know: Ive done it.  And credit card debt goes away after seven years (three years in Kansas!). So you might be able to wait it out. (Ive done that, too.) 12. Declare bankruptcy. Youd be surprised how many people declare bankruptcy. In fact, a very big group of people declaring bankruptcy are medical students who dont want to be doctors. See? Youd never guess, right? There is a false belief that bankruptcy is somehow dishonest. Its not. Its admitting that you made bad financial decisions. People who gave you money expecting to get it back took a risk. They are professional risk takers. And they took into account everything they knew about you. So, they bet wrong: you couldnt pay back the money. They are gamblers, and its part of their business to get stung by bankruptcy sometimes. 13. Wait out the terrible feelings instead of panicking. Debt is like depression. It feels big or small at different times in your life. And sometimes if you wait, it will go away.  College debt seems insurmountable in your 20s, but the average college debt is $26,000, and the earning power of someone in their 40s makes that debt seem manageable. Paying for two teenage kids to get all the way to college while youre paying a mortgage and buying a car and paying for summer camp sounds impossible. But the kids will grow up and then your cash needs will decrease. There is no point in being the most financially responsible person you know. You will not be rewarded.  Its like being the kid who gets a better score than everyone else on the test. Being that much better than everyone else serves no purpose but to skew the curve.

O2 give Debutants a glimpse into The Future of Tech - Debut

O2 give Debutants a glimpse into The Future of Tech - Debut What this is, is the beginning of implant technology, O2s Guru Marketing Manager Matt Henderson told the crowd, gesturing at a pair of Apples new Air Bud wireless earphones. These are gonna be in your ears all the time. Soon, youll be able to control your device without it leaving your pocket. What followed was the sound of 100 jaws hitting the floor. Thats just the kind of insight youd expect at a Debut event, and O2 were more than happy to oblige us. Most of the keen, young crowd at Debut HQ last night came to our Future of Tech event to gain more of an understanding of how to successfuly apply for roles with our co-hosts at O2. When they got here, they got all of that and more. Facts only As usual it was a crowd of Debutants who really knew their stuff in attendance. The lions share were computer whizzes, scientists, developers and designers, all with an interest in tech. Even so, the information Matt shared during his presentation kept everyone riveted. He told us all how new apps and technologies have the power to change lives. This is what the edge of your seat was made for. Before that, we were treated to a presentation from Ellie Kendrick Thomas on opportunities and life at O2. Its as good as it sounds, best described as a mix of parkour at the office, flexible working, and free concert tickets. Went down pretty well, as you can imagine. As far as collaborators go, O2 are perfect for Debut. This is a place with incredible company culture. Theyre all about having room to breathe and develop as a graduate, while reaping the benefits of your hard work. This made the news that multiple people would be fast-tracked over the course of the evening all the more tantalising. The quiz To help shine a light on the best and brightest in attendence, we put on a interactive quiz. Using the Kahoot app, Debutants had to identify pictures of the latest tech. The five fastest fingers would win one-on-one meetings with O2 recruiters. After quickly and correctly picking out smart  mattresses and self -lacing Nikes, we found our five and they went off to have productive conversations with O2s waiting delegates. The rest of the crowd got a chance to ask their burning questions to a panel of enlightened O2 employees in a QA session. I caught up with one of the winners, a chemistry grad named Chris in the networking portion of the evening. Though he was coy about the details of the meeting, he had plenty of nice things to say about the event. Its a great atmosphere and all the information you need is condensed in one place, he tell me. Im definitely glad I came. The edge of reality Afterwards, a networking session with a twist. O2 has brought along some of its famous Gurus with virtual reality headsets ready for anybody to try. Its probably safe to say they were enjoying the experience. I decided to use the chance to mingle to get some hot takes from Debutants on the future of tech. Pranav, an enthusiastic computer science grad from Queen May has tonnes to say: The amount of tech is increasing at an exponential rate. Things that should take 5 or 10 years are being done in a matter of weeks and months, he explained to me. I predict that well be living in a completely technological age in 20 years. Feeling thoroughly schooled, I decided that the evening had been a great success. Everybody left with more than what they came in with. Some with valuable information, some with new contacts and a select few with a place at O2s assessment centre in the near future. Matt had told us all about how apps can make a difference to someones life. If we can keep putting on events like this, the future of tech is bright. And apps like Debut definitely have a place in it. Debuts Future of Tech event with O2 gets sci-fi Connect with Debut on Facebook and Twitter