Graduation for the class of 2012 is drawing near. Soon, another huge batch of eager  young whippersnappers will be leaving the comforts of college and attempting to join the rest of us worker bees and make their mark as professionals. Economic uncertainty and fierce competition can make the “real world” seem like a very daunting place these days, but that just means you’ve got to step up your game.

To inspire the grads in our community (and everyone else, too) we asked some awesome, accomplished, individuals in the worlds of publishing, public relations, and recruiting to share their best advice. We guarantee you’ll get to the bottom of this post ready to fire up your engines and pursue your dreams!

Aliza Licht, SVP Global Communications, Donna Karan

“Life is not a dress rehearsal, you have to go for it. But it takes hard work & dedication and you might not always get what you want or what you ‘think’ you deserve. It doesn’t matter. Handle yourself with professionalism and remember in this business, it might be who you know that gets you there, but it’s what you know that keeps you there. Mind your personal brand and the rest will come.”

Alex Zavlaris, Associate Recruiter, LinkedIn

On Interviewing: Preparation is noticeable. You can’t ever be too prepared, make sure that your experiences come off as a story, where you’re the protagonist who has had ups and downs, but came out in the end better for your experiences. Preparation applies physically and mentally, you never want to appear less professional than the person interviewing you. Do your homework, we live in the age of transparent information, know the company’s website/Twitter/LinkedIn pages, know your interviewers LinkedIn page, you can learn a ton about someone judging from where they’ve been.  And keep in mind, while you’re researching them, they are researching you (might be time to change that Facebook profile picture, and make sure your privacy settings are up to snuff).

On Advancement: Be humble, but not shy. Make noise, managers can’t read your mind and won’t ever decide they want to pay you more money, you have to make your intentions known or you will never achieve them. Personality goes a long way. For a lot of places, being a good worker and good at work are different things, make it a priority to be good at both. Don’t Panic. In less than a minute you can probably think of at least five people you are smarter than who go to work everyday, if they can handle it, so can you. Finally, expect to make mistakes, and embrace every one of them. Always remember that you will learn more from your mistakes than from your achievements.

John Jannuzzi, Contributing Digital Editor, Lucky Magazine

“I think the most important thing when entering the ‘real world’ is to remember that you’re still very young. You’ve graduated, which is an accomplishment, but to most people in the world you are still green. Never forget that you have much more to learn and if you remember that, you’ll go far. The smartest people are the ones who don’t stop learning.”

Meghan Donovan, Current Lifestyle Marketing

“Do whatever you can to set yourself apart from the rest. STAND. OUT. Put your education to use and do your homework when it comes to the industry you are interested in building a career with. When I was looking for a job out of college in PR, I wrote my cover letter as a press release. In every interview or even “we’re not hiring at this time” conversation I had, I heard, “Your cover letter? This is genius” because it set me apart from the rest of the job applicants. So, be clever and ruthless and you’ll go far. Want to work in PR? Meet with everyone in the communications field you possibly can to get up to speed on what’s important, what their day to day is like, find out what publications you should be reading, etc. Model yourself into the most ideal employee so that when you sit in interviews you are intelligent, well-informed and eager. I can’t tell you how many new and upcoming grads I just interviewed for our internship program who couldn’t tell me the first thing about PR and furthermore, didn’t even sound excited about the prospect of a career. We ended up hiring the girl who was upbeat and had clearly done her homework about agency life, social media and the likes.”

Connie Wang, Refinery29 Global Editor

“Never be too scared to throw caution to the wind and really go for what you want. Pitch to your dream publications. Ask for interviews with A-list celebrities. Splurge on that one camera that’ll be the game-changer to your blog. Sometimes when you’re starting out, you don’t feel confidant enough to compete with those who have been in the game for longer, but that’s the thing that sets you apart. Trust: Your anti-establishment voice and untrained point of view is an asset, not a hindrance.”

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1. We can’t say enough what an awesome source of traffic Pinterest can be. Check out this post, which reminds us to pin older content too and be sure to add a Pin It button to your posts.

2. Twitter – Don’t just tweet your link once and forget about it. Think about time zones, and when different people might be on-line, write a few tweets per post and spread them out over the day.

3. Commenting on Other Blogs – This is a great way to build connections with the blogging community as well as drive traffic. It’s not a guarantee the bloggers you leave comments for will visit your site – but it does up the odds and raise awareness about your blog.

4. Set up a Facebook page for your blog. Fill your profile as robustly as possible, with links to your other social media sites, your Tumblr, Twitter etc. Publish your post links and create galleries of out-take images.

5. Submit your best post of the week to IFB’s Links A La Mode.

6. Use StumbleUpon’s discovery and social sharingtools to share your best posts and figure out what types of content people all over the world are reading, then apply it to your site.

7. Apply to or join a publishing network like Glam Media.

10. Post an Instagram or Twitter image “teaser” of an upcoming post, with a link to the post.

11. Reach out to one or more bloggers to have them contribute a guest post to your site, or pitch yourself as a guest post-er to one of your peers.

12. Make sure your blog is registered with Bloglovin’ so your site can be found and followed in this popular reader.

13. Twitter Part II: When you promote your post, “@” the brands you’re wearing or places you visited – anything that applies!

14. Use tags to organize your content within your site. For example, tag all your outfit posts with the same thing, then create a page at the top of your site that allows quick access to all those posts in one place. You can do the same for any repetitive content such as beauty, music, celebrity looks, etc!

15. Utilize Pinterest and share your blog posts with current and potential followers. Just make sure to use an eye-catching graphic to grab your follower’s attention.

16. Make sure your correct URL is everywhere it needs to be: Your Twitter profile, your Facebook fan page, your Instagram profile, Pinterest, and so on!

17. Promote your blog post on Tumblr with a colorful graphic or image. Just make sure the graphic links back to your original blog post!

19. Network within the IFB community! Reach out to other members and participate in the IFB Project each week.

20. Host a giveaway on your blog. This is a surefire way to attract readers, comments and followers, and increase site traffic. Read our best giveaway tips here.

Did we miss a tactic you use to bring more visitors to your blog? Share your best ideas in the comments!

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I’m sure you’ve all heard the term “RSS Feed” – and you probably use Google Reader, Bloglines or a similar feed reader to follow all the blogs you want to keep up with on a daily basis. Let’s face it, as much as we’d love to visit every blog we love everyday, there are just too many! So we turn to our feed readers… What does this mean to your blog? And to your site traffic?

We have a few quick tips to help you use your RSS feed to it’s full potential, without loosing traffic.

But first let’s start with the basis – what is an RSS feed?

• RSS = Really Simple Syndication. Without getting all technical on you, an RSS feed basically turns your blog posts into a file that can be read by a feed reader, allowing it to be easily distributed outside of your blog.
• Feed Reader (also called an RSS Reader or and aggregator) – This does just what it sounds like, it reads the RSS feeds. A Feed Reader can be on the web or on your desktop or mobile device – it collects updated from all the feeds you subscribe to in one simple place.

And now – IFB’s RSS Feed Tips for the Blogging Community:

• Make it easy to subscribe to your feed. Have an RSS logo near the top of your blog (you’ve seen them – the little orange and white squares? In fact, check out the right side of our navigation bar – it’s right there!)
• Consider using Feed Burner. Feed Burner lets you track how many followers your feed has – it also tracks when your posts get read, and when your readers click through. This is all valuable information you can use to optimize your posts.
• Share your photos. You have the option of leaving your images out of your feed – however, I think this works against you. When I’m browsing my reader I don’t pay attention to the posts without pictures. It might seem like it would encourage people to visit your blog, but I find it upsets the flow of my reading.
• Include extra links. Put your social share links right in the body of your posts – that way they can be easily tweeted from the Feed Reader and your readers followers have the chance to visit your site. Think about adding links to similar posts at the bottom too – giving people incentive you click over to the blog.
• Ask a question. This is a good way to encourage engagement with your readers. It can help get a good comment chain going, and RSS readers will be intrigued to click through to comment.
• Write snappy titles. This is a basic you should be doing anyway – but it holds true to RSS Feeds, the better the headline the more likely it is to get read!

 Do you subscribe to our RSS feed? Do you use a Feed Reader? Which one? What gets you to click out of your reader and over to a blog? Tell us in the comments!

[image by damon.garrett]

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This is the first in a 4-part post series brought to you by ASOS Fashion Finder, dedicated to helping you showcase and promote your personal style through photography, social media and smart spending.

Smile. Don’t smile. Pop your knee! Stand up straight! Touch your sunglasses! Look to the left! Cross your legs and admire your shoes!

Photographing your personal style is as much about what happens in front of the camera as what happens behind it. In this post we have tips for both sides of the lens, whether you’re taking the photos, posing for them – or both! Whether you use a point-and-shoot or a DSLR, these tips will help you look your best in every photo.

If you’re on both sides of the lens:

• Use a tripod: Trust us, trying to prop your camera up on all manner of household objects rarely produces the results you want (and you risk damaging your camera). Photojojo has all kinds of tripods (and much more).
• If you have a camera that allows for it, a remote works better than the self timer feature (and makes shooting much easier and faster).
• Set the self timer: If you don’t have a remote, set the timer for the longest setting (usually about 10 seconds)
• Take a few test shots to figure out how long it takes you to get from the camera to where you want to stand, and perhaps even put a marker on the ground.

Photography Hot Tips:

• Natural light is your friend. Try to shoot outdoors as much as you can, and without a flash. Don’t be fooled, shade or cloud cover produces a better photo than too much direct sun (lots of shadows).
• Speaking of shadows, watch out for them! Be sure to position yourself so your face and outfit are well lit and there are no crazy shadows falling on you.
• Pay attention to what’s in the background of your photo. Make sure you don’t have a pole or a tree sticking out of the back of your head. If you can’t adjust the depth of field on your camera, a simple, not-too-busy background works best to showcase your look.
• Depending on the location you’re shooting in, you may want to let your readers see the scenery. Try moving farther away from the camera, but for composition, try to remain close to the center of the frame.
• Think about focus. If you’re using a DSLR switch the settings to manually select a focus point – that way you can be sure that your face (bag/necklace/sunglasses) is in focus and not something behind you. Nothing’s worse than a blurry blogger.
• If you’re not very comfortable with adjusting the settings on your DSLR camera (or using a point-and-shoot), the automatic setting should produce great results.
• For full-body shots, shoot vertically. This allows you to show your entire look without having to be too far away from the camera. Aim for having about the distance of your head above and below your head and feet, and center yourself in the frame. It may take a couple of test shots to figure out where the center is.
• For detail shots (shoes, accessories, etc) shoot horizontally so you can get in close. For inspiration, check out the street style photos of STREETFSN and Jak & Jil.
• Play with angles and perspective. Change your shots around to create more visual interest.
• Take way more photos than you think you need – you’ll want a variety to choose from in case your favorites are out of focus or overexposed. (Take the time to do this yourself or direct your photographer to snap constantly as you pose!)

“Well, besides great lighting, make sure your cameraman can make you laugh (I like when personal style photos aren’t so serious). I also like close up detail shots so I can really see what you’re wearing and what those earrings look like!” – Alicia, Cheetah Is The New Black

Posing 101:

• Move around. Clothes are meant for movement, so show how they look when you’re walking, turning, sitting, standing, holding something, opening a door, etc.
• When in doubt – smile. You can feel a desire to take yourself a little more seriously when shooting outfit photos, but a natural smile or a laugh looks genuine and real.
• Try using props. It can make you feel more relaxed to have something in your hands to play with or hold when you’re in front of the camera. This could be a simple as a cup of coffee or your phone or handbag, but you could also walk your dog, pick some flowers or carry an umbrella – get creative!
• Try a still life. If you’re not feeling particularly photographable, arrange looks on a clean floor-space or hanging in front of a blank wall. You can also arrange accessories and jewelry on a table or dress for cool, up-close shots.

“Act natural and don’t try too hard. it comes off less believable. also, remain true to your own style vs. trying every trend you think you should be photographed wearing.” – Meghan, Wit & Whimsy

Editing Your Images:

• On an Apple computer, iPhoto works great for cropping, adjusting the exposure, and many other basic editing needs you may have. It’s easy to play around with (and easy to undo mistakes, too)
• There are also easy-to-use, free in-browser editing programs like Pixlr and PicMonkey that allow you to improve and adjust your photos and store them in the cloud.
• For outfit images taken with your phone, Instagram has great filters that are quirky, flattering and fun! (We also like these photo-editing apps.)
• Photoshop can do just about anything if you know how to use it, but even beginners can use it to lighten and darken, increase contrast, make a collage or add text. (There are also many free open source alternatives to photoshop you can use, found here.)

Sharing & Promoting Your Images:

• Beyond posting your photos on your blog, you can promote your look and your site using social sharing sites online such as ASOS Fashion Finder, and more. This is a great way to build traffic and community.
• Share a teaser image on your social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) to pique your readers’ curiosity. Don’t forget to provide a link to the post.
• When sharing your looks, be sure to “tag” the brands you’re wearing so they can see your style and share it with their community as well.

For more resources, check out these posts:

• Photography for the Amateur, Stagefright-Afflicted Blogger
• Top 5 Photo Gadgets For Bloggers
• How To Take Your Own Outfit Photos
• IFBtv: Turning blog content into vlog content
• 5 Quick and Easy Photo Processing Tips For A More Beautiful You

[Image credits:Luis Hernandez, Atlantic-Pacific, Cheetah Is the New Black, Tuula and Gary Pepper Vintage.]

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By Stephanie Brown of FAIIINT

CSS Beginners

CSS is something a lot of people ask my advice on, assuming it is too technical or complex for them to learn themselves, this is absolutely not true. It’s nowhere near as scary as it seems and everyone is capable of learning the basics and using it to customize their blogs. It’s not something that will take months or years to learn, with all the excellent resources available right at your fingertips you can teach yourself the very basics in a few hours.

Layout and design play such a huge role in how your blog is seen and perceived by others, whether they be other bloggers, potential collaborators or future employers, that you should want it to look the best it possibly can. First impressions count and appearance can often make or break future relationships, especially with clients. Not everyone has spare cash lying around to hire a web designer or to buy custom templates, but everyone can, with a little spare time, learn how to do it themselves. So now there is no excuse for a poor or unoriginal design!

I’ve tried to make this as simple as possible, so that even total beginners can alter their themes with ease. Follow the instructions on how to get to the CSS editor for your blogging platform below, then simply copy and paste my CSS code examples into the box and alter the red text to suit your needs. You can go to the bottom to copy the entire code in full, or pick out only the customizations you need from the sections below.

Where

WORDPRESS [SELF HOSTED]
There will be a separate full tutorial next week, stay tuned!

WORDPRESS
To use custom CSS on a free WordPress blog, you need to have purchased the ‘Custom Design’ feature. You can do this by clicking the ‘Store’ button on your dashboard menu and following the instructions. The last time I checked, this was $30 for an entire year (or $0.08 per day) and would require renewing each year. I personally think it’s a great price and a much cheaper option than self hosting!

Log into dashboard → Appearance → Custom Design → Click ‘Edit’ button in the ‘Custom CSS’ box → Scroll to the bottom and make sure ‘Add my CSS to (Your Theme Name) CSS stylesheet’ is selected under ‘CSS Settings’

Note: The first time you customize your CSS, the area at the top for writing your code should be totally blank, if it’s not, completely delete everything inside so that it is.

BLOGGER
For the purposes of this tutorial, the majority of customizations you will be able to make using the Blogger editor and will not need to add the CSS yourself. Go through the various categories listed and make any alterations using the editor. Do not add CSS for any customizations you have already made using the editor, however, if there is something listed below that the editor cannot do simply click the ‘add CSS’ option and add only that customization/s.

Log in to dashboard → Layout → Click ‘Template Designer’ link → Advanced → Add CSS

Tips

• I suggest that you set up a second ‘tester’ blog for which you can try out your customizations first, this way, once you’re happy with it you can just copy & paste the CSS into your real blog, knowing it’s perfect. This saves your readers seeing the unfinished version, and also it’s reassurance for those that are a little scared to try it out, if you mess up the test blog, no big deal!

• All code highlighted in red can be altered to your own preferences. The descriptions also contain red words, these are your options when altering the code.

• Spellings are always North American – so ‘color’ not ‘colour’ – being British this tripped me up no end of times when I was starting out! If something’s not working, check the spelling!

Background

BACKGROUND COLOR
One of the simplest and most requested things I get asked is how to change background colour. It’s a very simple alteration that can make a big impact on your layout and design, however be wise with it – pale colours tend to work best and are the most user friendly. Also note, depending on your theme this may or may not change the colour of the background on your posts and sidebars.

The highlighted hex number can be altered to any colour you wish. See the resources section at the end of the post for a colour picker that will give you the corresponding code for any colour you select. The colour picker tool in Photoshop (or similar) will also give you the relevant code, look for the ‘#’ box.

BACKGROUND IMAGE
To add a background image, first you need to upload an image to your usual image folder and then copy the URL down. Replace my URL with the correct one for your image.

I personally suggest an image which is small and can be tiled to repeat across the entire background.

I’ve also included a background colour here, if your background image takes a while to load, or is broken, the colour will be displayed until the image loads over the top, so make this a similar colour to your image.

The repeat right top command tells the image to tile from the top right corner. This can be altered, but I would suggest leaving it as it is. Possibilities are repeat right top and no-repeat.

Font

Font customization is another simple, but very effective way to add personality and style to your blog. Again, keep in mind your background colour, dark fonts work best on light backgrounds and vice versa, users need to be able to read your blog easily, don’t make it hard for them!

FONT-FAMILY
This is the font itself, such as Arial, Times New Roman, or Verdana. Unfortunately, you cannot just use any font you like. The font must be one that all computers have installed as standard, otherwise it will not be displayed and a standard font will be used instead. This can really affect your overall design, so it is always best to use one of the fonts which are considered ‘web safe’. Click here  for a list and examples of web safe fonts and their families.

FONT-SIZE
This can be any number you want, the smaller the number the smaller the text and vice versa. 12px is the most common size, as it’s easily readable, but clearly smaller than headings and titles. If you do decide to change this, I strongly suggest choosing either 10px, 12px, or 14px.

COLOR
The same as for background, this can be changed to any hex colour code you like. Always make sure to have included the # at the beginning.

TEXT-ALIGN
This tells the text which side to align against, left is the default, but it can also be changed to right, center or justify.

Links

When styling links, a:link, a:visted and a:active should all be styled exactly the same for a clean, uniform look. I suggest customizing a:link and then copy and pasting the styling between the curly brackets into the other ones to be sure. Those 3 are all how the link appears on the page (when it’s unvisited, when it’s visited & when it’s selected), a:hover is how the link looks when the user hovers their mouse over it. It’s common to style this differently to the others, whether you want it to change colour, underline, become bold or it can be styled exactly the same as the others for no change.

COLOR
Again, choose any hex code you like to alter the colour. I think it’s nice to have the a:active colour different to the rest.

TEXT-DECORATION
This is used to add or remove decoration, most commonly to remove the underline from links. The default is underline, but setting it to none will remove the underline from your links. If doing this, I suggest making the link a different colour to the text, or making it bold, so that it stands out as a link and doesn’t just appear as ordinary text, which is confusing for visitors.

You can also use underline just on a:hover, with the rest set to none, this will make the line appear only when the users mouse hovers over it. Slightly more interesting is overline, this is the same as underline, but the line goes over the text instead of under it, line-through puts a line through the middle of text.

FONT-WEIGHT
This can work nicely if you don’t want your links to be underlined, making them bold works equally well for showing the user that it’s a clickable link. The default is normal, change it to bold for bold text , bolder for extra bold or lighter for skinnier text.

All Together Now

All together, this would look like:

References

http://www.w3schools.com/css/default.asp – for CSS help and tutorials

http://www.colorpicker.com/ – Hex colour picker

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