Creating and Using Business Cards

Business cards are the quintessential way to ensure further contact after an interview. This way each person can be assigned to a “face” that allows the contact to bring up already discussed issues at the next opportunity. The difference between an “offline business card” and an “online business card” is becoming more and more crucial, due to the difference in maintaining contacts.

We show you how to successfully network with both versions and what else you should know. Here are the basics of offline business cards.

  • The shape of business cards can basically be made in portrait or landscape format, but should never exceed the standard dimensions. This is the only way to collect or store cards in special boxes.
  • Information is valuable and your card should be structured accordingly. It should focus on the most important data, i.e. the name and contact details (e-mail, mobile number, and, if necessary, office number). Present yourself up-to-date and be aware of latest trends, e.g. give a hint to your web profile via a QR code or a sub-domain as a creative element.
  • Keep to your company’s corporate design and use the same spacing and pattern. Use a maximum of two fonts and don’t overload the card. This way contacts stay focused on the essential information. Your card also leaves a more serious impression by including a small graphic that is separated from the text by a white space.
  • In sales it is often required to have the details in English, too. Please avoid misleading job titles. Rather describe bulky professions with the corresponding English equivalent.
  • Don’t save expenses on the layout or print quality. False impressions could arise that result into irritating associations.

Continue reading Creating and Using Business Cards

Cyberbullying – Not Just for Children!

According to Wikipedia, Cyberstalkers (cyberbullies/cyberharrasers) “threaten a victim’s earnings, employment, reputation and/or safety using things like Weblogs, industry forums or boards and commercial Web sites.

One of the ways you can protect yourself online is to be active on social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.  If you use these tools to build your reputation, to help those in need and show that you genuinely care about others, people will soon begin to trust and depend on you.  Then, if someone tries to blacken your reputation or write untrue stories about you, your friends and contacts can leap to your defense.

Another way is to add yourself to people search and reputation management tools, such as www.yasni.ca .
This new tool, launched in 2008, states “So many people are unaware of what personal information is actually available on the Internet, and Yasni offers a fun and exciting way of keeping track of your own and others online reputation.”.

By searching for your profile online, you can see what type of content leads directly to you that people might be using in their efforts to harass you.

Find the right language for the Exposé

Yasni keeps growing and is becoming more international. At first, we started our people search in 2007 in the German speaking areas Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Soon, English followed as second language as well as the domains for the USA and UK. In the following years we expanded to France, Italy, Spain, Russia, Canada, the Netherlands, Australia, Brazil, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, and Saudi-Arabia. And the next countries are planned to follow soon.

Basically, the language and the respective domain on Yasni are independent of one another. There are languages, e.g. English and French, that are spoken in several countries. And there are countries, e.g. Switzerland and Canada, where several languages are spoken. Therefore, on Yasni you can principally use every language on every domain. Continue reading Find the right language for the Exposé