Companies are joining the Pinterest movement as a way to connect with customers and showcase their company’s brand, personality and passion. Businesses with a visual component are a perfect fit for the creative social media channel. Increases in web traffic, sales and customer engagement are all examples of results companies are seeing from creating Pinterest pages.

Tips for Business Pinterest Pages

• Engage and Educate. According to Jason Falls of Entrepreneur.com, businesses should not be overly promotional with their pinning. While businesses can pin images that link to their company website, they should also pin other things that inspire a particular lifestyle or spirit that their brand exudes. He gives the example of Whole Foods, whose Pinterest site contains both pictures of food and also eco-friendly and recycled product ideas for customers. Aside from pinning, engage with other users through commenting and liking pins.
• Listen to your customers. Pinterest is a fantastic way to connect and become inspired by what your customers are pinning. Gain insight on your target audience and keep tabs on consumer trends.
• Market your page. Include your logo, a link to your company’s social media sites, and write an “about us” paragraph. Share a “follow us on Pinterest” tab on your company website or blog. Here are some other great tactical ideas from Copyblogger to market your company’s Pinterest page.
• Learn from other companies. Companies like West Elm, the Travel Channel and Etsy are doing it right. Check out these articles from Dreamgrow and American Express Open Forum for some great examples of company Pinterest pages.

Our team at Hallmark Business Connections is planning to launch a Pinterest page soon to showcase our team’s creative inspirations and card designs and gain inspiration from what our customers are pinning. Are you or your company on Pinterest? What are your thoughts on the site?

Offering recognition to your employees doesn’t have to be a huge effort – in fact, sometimes the simplest methods are the most meaningful. A quick, handwritten note can be just as memorable as a gift. Whatever your means of acknowledgement, following three simple tips can help you leave a lasting impression with your staff:
• Be specific – State exactly what you’re thanking or recognizing them for
• Be sincere – Don’t try to be who you’re not. Use your voice and style in the writing
• Be relevant – Show how their efforts relate back to the company’s goals and values

Using these guidelines will not only make your team feel valued, it can improve overall morale and company success. And that’s something you can appreciate and recognize every day.

 The most effective employee recognition solutions engage employees with a proactive, rather than reactive, approach. They actively involve the hearts and minds of the employees to think beyond traditional and tactical recognition such as employee morale or service milestone programs and encourage employees to see the direct correlation between their actions and the evolution of the organization and their part in the organization’s success.

In my experience, the best employee recognition solutions start with a specific strategic objective and incorporate four fundamental elements:

1. 1. Specific Purpose Statement: The purpose statement should clearly articulate WHY the program exists. It should be strongly aligned with, and directly support, the company’s overall mission and values while also providing employees with a strong sense of personal ownership. Purpose statements illustrate your cause and connect with employees that believe similarly.
2. 2. Strong Identity: Employee recognition solutions should have a strong sense of what it is, but even more importantly, what it’s NOT. Having a strong identity takes the guesswork out of the equation, making it easier for employees to identify and exemplify the critical behaviors and activities that deserve recognition, praise and appreciation.
3. 3. Vision for Change: Employee recognition solutions exist to positively influence behaviors – the purpose is to create a more desirable future state for the organization. The best solutions paint a vivid picture for employees and continue to promote the company’s progress throughout the campaign. It creates a shared vision that both employer and employee agree on, and it becomes the proof required to engage the hearts and minds of everyone in the organization.
4. 4. Measurable Outcomes: Effective employee recognition solutions identify the core metrics during the initial strategy development phase and capitalize on opportunities to measure progress, identify valuable insights and evaluate the return on performance. Employee recognition programs take you one step closer to creating a culture of recognition, while reinforcing your culture of learning and development.

As the year progresses, I will continue to elaborate on each of these elements and provide specific approaches for incorporating them into your employee recognition solutions.

In your experience, what elements have you found to be critical to the success of your employee recognition program?

Jon has more than 15 years of experience creating comprehensive marketing programs connecting ideas to peoples, and people to performance. He helps businesses develop creative solutions to enrich employees’ lives, strengthen workforce engagement and increase workplace productivity. Jon is a graduate of St. Cloud (MN) State University with a Bachelor of Science in Marketing and General Business. He will be providing articles, posts and insights into the employee recognition segment throughout the year.

Be sure to check Jon’s article archive if you miss any of his writings.

At Hallmark Business Connections, one of our initiatives is in helping support Feeding America, a leading domestic hunger-relief charity. Partnering with Help-a-Reporter, we asked a simple question to their 80,000 mainstreet and expert sources.

How is Your Organization Paying It Forward This Holiday Season?

We received a tremendous response, particularly from the small business community across the nation. Here are twelve organizations paying it forward this holiday season, and what they are doing specifically to help their communities through employee giving.

Have a response to add? Please feel free to share via comments or get in touch with Hallmark Business Connections on Facebook and Twitter. Happy Holidays to all!

Boloco

Boloco’s 12 Days of Giving has been popular with customers and community organizations alike. During each of the “12 Days” an amount from each sale is given to the local nonprofit organization featured that day. This holiday season the program is set to generate record contributions as Boloco has expanded their philanthropic program to benefit organizations in four communities where the company has restaurants – Burlington, VT, Hanover, NH, Concord, NH and Natick, MA.

e2b teknologies

e2b teknologies is a small company trying to make a big difference. This holiday season, the company adopted a large, local family to send gifts to. The company had a fantastic response from their employees, wrapping presents that would be picked from a representative from their local Adopt A Family Association. The company also hosted a Toys for Tots drive and were able to donate five huge boxes of toys, puzzles, and books.

MassPay Payroll Services

The 15-person team at MassPay is forgoing gifts for their CPA clients and delivering over 30 dinners to families in need in towns surrounding the Beverly, MA-based business. They are working with St. Joseph’s Harvest of Hope food pantry to prepare and hand deliver the meals. “For our MassPay family, we strongly believe in community,” says Founder and President Jason Maxwell. “This is a fantastic way to also further reinforce our employee bond, as everyone really enjoys working together to do something good for the community.”

Gentle Giant Moving Company

Gentle Giant Moving Company is pairing up with the Boston Bruins hockey team to deliver joy and toys to needy kids. Gentle Giant trucks will pull up to a local Target Department Store, and Bruins players will grab a cart and start gathering the items that are on the wishlist’s of these kids. The contents of the carts will then be carefully packed into the Gentle Giant trucks, and delivered a la Santa’s sleigh.

SKLZ

This holiday season, SKLZ was lucky enough to take part in a secret Santa mission. The organization adopted a local San Diego based family who has been having a difficult time making ends meet this holiday season, purchasing gifts, a holiday meal and a Christmas tree for the family. The entire SKLZ team came together for this cause.

Freshpet

In addition to the Freshpet Foundation (where they fund organizations that promote a healthy lifestyle for their pets), the organization is also giving to several charities and organizations this holiday season. In the Manhattan area, Freshpet will be taking their Freshpet truck around New York City, donating pet food products for the dogs in the shelters and in the parks around the city. It’s sort of a traveling soup kitchen for dogs and cats this holiday season.

Chiro One Wellness Centers

Chiro One Wellness Centers is hosting their 6th Annual Giving Tree Gift Drive to collect holiday gifts for homeless and underprivileged kids. Spanning 3 states and held at 67 Chiro One offices, Chiro One’s Giving Tree Gift Drive is a company wide effort to give back to their communities. The company expects to collect over $70,000 worth of new gifts and gift cards to give to kids in need.

U.S. Engineering Company

Employees at U.S. Engineering Company — a 118-year-old family-owned contracting company — have purchased and will deliver Christmas presents to a social service agency for further delivery by Santa Claus to 37 foster children, or nearly half the foster children in a single county served by that agency. The agency provides the Santa lists, and the company employees team up to buy the gifts, or contribute cash to their co-workers who will. This is the 16th year the company has done this, and the employees will have been Santa to 407 kids in that time, counting this year’s delivery.

Tropical Financial Credit Union

The employees at Tropical Financial Credit Union created a campaign to collected “bedding in a bag” for a local nonprofit called The Susan B. Anthony Center. The center keeps mothers and children together while the mother undergoes help for substance abuse. In need of bedding for the kids, TFCU employees put together a drive at their corporate headquarters and branches to collect bedding which will be delivered to the center.

GSN Digital

For the fourth consecutive year, GSN Digital is letting its game lovers join in the fun to help raise donations by playing games on GSN.com. Offering two ways for players to make donations playing video games on the GSN Digital network, the company has raised nearly $60,000 for Marine Toys for Tots Foundation

MyCorporation

Instead of the traditional holiday party, MyCorporation employees will act drive down to LA to sing carols to senior citizen homes. Via Deborah Sweeney, CEO of MyCorporation, “We thought this year a good way to celebrate all the hard work we’ve accomplished would be to bring smiles to the faces of others. What better way to soak up the holiday cheer than to share it?“.

The Zombie Research Society

With dozens of local chapters across the country, The Zombie Research Society is organizing zombie caroling events as a canned food drive for local food banks. Members dress up like zombies and go door-to-door in their communities singing Christmas carols with a zombie twist. Along the way they collect canned food from the homes they visit, if people wish to donate.

With the arrival of December, many of us are getting ready for the spirit of giving and focusing our thoughts and efforts on those around us.  In most organizations, leaders are also getting in on the act as they make their preparations to conduct their annual performance reviews of their team.

Of course, for many employees, the arrival of the annual performance review is not something to look forward to, in large part because most leaders fail to communicate their expectations throughout the year.  As a result, these feedback sessions end up coming off as more of a laundry list of things employees did wrong than an evaluation of how much progress they’ve made in their role.

Another problem which gives rise to this apprehension and indifference to receiving feedback is that leaders approach the conversation from the wrong vantage point.  As is the case with giving recognition, the act of giving feedback should not be about you.  Rather, it’s about helping your employees succeed in their objectives, by providing them with a sense of direction and an understanding of what matters.

So how can we make this shift in how we give feedback—from simply telling employees what they did wrong, to empowering them to take charge of their efforts in a manner that helps the organization achieve its shared goals?  Here are four key steps to help get that process started:

1. Be encouraging and supportive

The most effective form of feedback doesn’t simply inform employees of what to keep building on and what they need to adjust or correct.  Effective feedback also provides a source of encouragement to employees that they have the ability to achieve these goals being mapped out, along with the support they’ll need to be successful in their efforts.

2. Remind employees that they have ‘the right stuff’ for their role

As leaders, it’s important that we remind our employees that they were given that position, assigned to that project or task because they demonstrated an aptitude, skill set and/or drive to successfully reach that goal.

In this light, any criticisms of failing to meet certain objectives are not presented as being gaps in their abilities, but instead will reflect blind spots which are impeding their ability to succeed.  This also allows you to provide them with this input through the lens of trying to help them address the obstacles blocking their way, instead of simply focusing on their failure to overcome them.

3. Clarify roles and purpose within the organization

A few years back, I had a boss who used my annual performance review to criticize the completed efforts of a team project I was assigned to, months after it had wrapped up.  Given how my boss was more interested in complaining about the team’s overall effort – instead of focusing on my role and how I approached the task – I walked out of that meeting without any clear sense of direction about where to focus my efforts to ensure better results over the next year..

Remember that giving your employees feedback is about helping to steer them in the right direction, informing them of what you need them to accomplish in the next couple of months and explaining how those efforts tie into the organization’s vision and purpose.  Doing so will allow your employees to self-direct themselves as they now understand where they’re expected to go and why that matters to the organization.

4. Craft your feedback to meet their needs

What you should be communicating to your employees are your insights into how their efforts are helping or hindering their ability to achieve their goals.  When approached from this vantage point, your employees will be more receptive to hearing what you have to say as they will understand that your focus is on helping them to do what’s necessary to be successful in their efforts, and contribute in a meaningful fashion to the organization’s shared goals.

British sociologist and philosopher Herbert Spencer wrote:

“The great aim of education is not knowledge but action.”

Similarly, when leaders approach the act of giving feedback to their employees, it’s important to recognize that the goal should not be to simply inform them of what failings you see in their performance.  Rather, your goal should be to provide them with the kinds of insights and guidance they need to increase the value of their contributions and the sense of personal meaning they derive from being a member of your organization.  Only then can feedback serve to empower your team to succeed, instead of weighing them down with negativity and disengaging them from your shared purpose.

Opinions expressed in the article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Hallmark Business Connections.

The biggest trend of the season is a greeting card that exudes warmth, bridging the gap between work and home to create a personal connection. Aside from the warmth factor, there are three more “must haves” for 2011 business holiday greetings:

1. Personalize It
   Businesses can stand out from the crowd by customizing their cards with the company name or logo to give its business card a more personal touch.
2. Cards as Decorations
   Options with foldouts, cutouts and 3-dimensional designs serve as decorations on desks or bookshelves once the card is received to showcase the card as a holiday decoration.
3. Follow the Fashions
   Staying in sync with the style trends is important to business holiday card senders looking for chic, elegant designs featuring imprinted foil, bright reds, stylized trees and copper metallic.

What fits your holiday style? Which example of the 2011 trends is your favorite?

Studies have shown that people respond more favorably to intrinsic rewards that come from within than from extrinsic incentives such as money (Self-determination theory, developed by Edward Deci and Richard Ryan). An effective employee rewards program takes into account these factors and makes them an integral part of your incentive plan. The first step in creating an effective employee rewards program is to identify the needs of your staff.

Identifying Employee Needs

Do your staff members work on teams or individually? Do they work mostly in the office or remotely? Identifying the unique needs of your staff is crucial in formulating a plan to reward them for their efforts and motivate them to perform at higher levels. Reward your teams with a congratulatory email circulated company-wide or a special recognition at a staff meeting. Single out an individual each month and treat them to lunch with higher-ups in the company as a thank you for a job well done. There really is no wrong way to thank your employees. The key is to identify their individual needs and thank them openly and often.

Make Employee Rewards Consistent

Rewarding your employees on a consistent basis is the key to keeping their motivation levels high. Knowing that there is an opportunity for recognition will keep their morale high month after month. In addition to thanking them, provide them with token symbols of appreciation such as movie tickets, a freebie day off or a special luncheon. In addition to rewarding individuals, you can institute company-wide rewards for overall performance. These rewards include incentives like a free coffee maker for the break room, company party or new office chairs for the staff. As long as there are consistent rewards for your staff, they will continue to work hard to ensure the success of the company.

Include Everyone

Every team member in your company counts, from the highest executive to the temporary clerical staff. Every person has a role to play, and their work adds to the success of the company. When rewarding your staff, do not forget to include your cleaning crew, temporary office workers, administrative staff and other support staff. Remember that many employees earn small salaries and gain their greatest incentive from encouragement, recognition and other non-monetary forms of compensation.

When planning your company’s recognition programs, take their needs into account, thank them openly and often and don’t forget the little guys. Your happy employees will give you a great return on your investment.

Standout Candidate

Only about 10-20% of any total applicant pool is invited to interview – it may be a Phone Interview or an In-Person Interview. Regardless, this is an interview. This is your shot at this job and with this company. To set yourself up for success you need to prepare for this interview.

Be Prepared. Prepare yourself by looking back at the job posting you applied to and research the company. I am shocked at the number of candidates who don’t know anything about the company they are interviewing with. Candidates need to prepare for interviews because there is a lot of competition out there. “I haven’t had a chance yet,” isn’t a good excuse and if you don’t take initiative to research your next potential employer it makes us wonder if you would be an employee with initiative to get the job done.

Do your Research. There is a lot of information out there. Check out company’s website, check them out on Facebook, LinkedIn and Google. I was once on a job interview and the Hiring Manager asked me where I got all my information. He was shocked and impressed at all the research I did. I was offered the job.

Ask Questions. The interviewer will hopefully leave time for you to ask some questions at the end of the interview. You need to prepare some questions to ask HR or the Hiring Manager. Interviewing is a 2-way street. You need to make sure the job is a fit for you. Get answers to the things that are important to you (that might be compensation, the schedule or future growth opportunities). When you don’t ask questions you look unprepared and desperate for a job.

Be Thankful. When the interview is over get an e-mail address or a business card and send a thank you note. Sending a thank you note WILL make you stand out from the crowd as most people do not send one. Of course, I want you to send me a thank you note on Hallmark stationary but if you can’t manage to do that then at least zip me a thank you e-mail.

Research, ask questions and say thanks – you will stand out in that 10-20% for sure!