Facebook Monetization: The What, Why, Where, and How

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Facebook is quite possibly the most enduring social media channel in existence. No other online media giant has caught so much flack for data collection.

As of early 2019, it boasts more than 2.7 billion active monthly users, with 500,000 new users added daily.

Although Facebook has recently become the target of an even more intense media campaign and a hotly debated topic surrounding privacy protections, with these figures, it remains safe to say Facebook will remain a major social media platform for the foreseeable future.

What is Facebook monetization?

As the name implies, Facebook monetization describes the act of making money by leveraging Facebook as a monetization platform.

But that doesn’t mean our definition goes out the window.

Remember?

You’re here to earn money from something of value you provide to your audience.

This will remain true wherever you are, because you’re building a brand that’s made to last.

Among all the social media channels, Facebook also remains arguably the most lucrative platform in 2018.

In fact, because Facebook’s audience is also maturing (with younger audiences not as eager to hop onboard), Facebook and its user base may also be switching over to a more business-oriented mindset and using the platform more and more as a marketing channel.

In this chapter, we’ll discuss how to create an income stream with Facebook. Specifically, I’ll go over a few key considerations on how to earn money from Facebook, including what to do and what not to do on the social platform. We’ll also cover the most important aspects of Facebook monetization, such as

• What you should know about Facebook’s new guidelines
• How to earn money from Facebook pages
• How to build your Facebook group
• How to make money with Facebook ads

Let’s get started.

3.1 How Facebook monetization works

Before we can dive straight into how to earn from Facebook, it’s critical that we go over a few important changes that have affected everyone on the platform, users and brands alike.

Facebook has recently come under intense scrutiny for its multiple privacy violations, all of which have made it the subject of much marketing debate.

So the question on everyone’s mind is, Is Facebook marketing a waste of time and money in 2018?

It’s an interesting question, but for the foreseeable future, it’s merely an alarmist perspective that detracts from actually making you money.

After all, while people are hesitating to invest in Facebook as a marketing channel, others are pushing ahead full force because they’ve got the results they want, and until the very last day of Facebook’s existence, they’ll be pressing on until they can no longer profit.

Why would you do otherwise?

Important GDPR and privacy policy updates

That said, we’ve got a lot to cover here, so let’s get the pesky rules out of the way first.

Complying with GDPR has become a central concern for businesses operating on Facebook. It is in fact the most recent major update to Facebook monetization requirements.

Here’s a quote from Facebook about how seriously you should take this issue:

Creators and publishers with multiple violations could lose access to all monetization features.

What is GDPR? It’s a set of policies that affects you primarily if you’re planning to target users residing in the European Union.

The specific Facebook features that are affected are Facebook Pixel and Custom Audiences.

What is Facebook Pixel?

Think of Facebook Pixel as a tracker.

The Pixel is a line of code you place on your website, so that Facebook can help you keep track of Facebook users coming to your site. This is an extremely powerful feature, which has been somewhat inconvenienced by the GDPR release.

Let’s look at how it’s been affected. 

(You can access Facebook Pixels and other business features through your Business Manager account). 

Facebook provides a few examples of what types of businesses might be affected by these changes:

• Retail websites gathering product information viewed by visitors for ad retargeting based on their site activity
• Blogs that use an analytics tool like Google Analytics to collect demographic data from its readers
• Media and news sites using third-party ad servers that collect data from visitors who have been exposed to their display ads
• Facebook advertisers who install Facebook pixel on their site to measure conversions and retarget visitors on Facebook

If this sounds like you, and you’re wondering whether the GDPR applies to your business idea, you can read the details here.

Having said that, getting GDPR consent from your visitors is a straightforward process:

Use a bar or popup to inform your visitors that you’re collecting data, and specify what type of data you’ll be collecting. Once you get them to agree to it, you’re all set.  

But if you want to upload the data you’ve collected back onto Facebook to create a custom audience, then in the near future, you’ll be forced to provide proof of consent to Facebook.

Facebook monetization standards

Facebook most likely has the most extensive monetization guidelines out of any platform operating online. Here’s a summary list of “rules” you can cross-reference when aiming to monetize:

• Share authentic content.
• Develop an established presence. (This means your account must be at least 90 days old).
• Comply with Facebook’s community standards.
• Comply with Facebook’s payment terms.
• Comply with Facebook’s page terms.
• Adhere to content guidelines (covered in the callout in the next section).

Make sure to dig deeper into each of these areas and familiarize yourself with Facebook’s monetization standards. Although most of these standards should be self-explanatory (as if you need to be told not to post violent content), reviewing them in detail will give you the boost in confidence you might need to invest your hard-earned money into Facebook advertising.

You can read the detailed list of monetization standards here.

Most people forget that Facebook isn’t just a social channel.

It’s a data collector. It aggregates and sells its users’ data, meaning it’s ideally designed as a marketing platform and channel.

This allows Facebook to provide the businesses that operate on its platform a number of extremely powerful tools at their disposal.

Now let’s go over the many ways you can earn from Facebook effectively. We’ll also cover examples where business owners have achieved success by applying the very strategies and principles we’re about to discuss.

3.2 Facebook monetization strategies

It can be easy to make money on Facebook.

In fact, many people only use Facebook to generate an income stream.

We’ve already discussed why this is such a risky idea, but it goes to show that Facebook still reigns supreme as a social media channel that also doubles as a data aggregator + marketing platform helping businesses connect with their target audience.

Since the focus of this book is on creating a brand that’s made to last, we’ll be going over the main features you can use to build your brand and a loyal fan base.

Ways to make money on Facebook

Of the multiple ways to make money on Facebook, we’ll be sticking to the few that help you generate an income stream while still building a solid brand.

Since Facebook is a social channel, we can’t just post things and forget about them.

Instead, we need to engage meaningfully and respond to comments, and like and share things we also find to be of value.

How to earn money from Facebook pages

The monetization of Facebook pages has always been the classic approach to establishing a business presence on the platform.

If you want to earn money from facebook pages (yes, you can have more than one), then ideally you’re going to have a little investment capital.

But if not, here’s a few popular ways you can monetize Facebook pages:

1. Drive traffic to your blog by posting helpful and relevant links from your site, where you have relevant offers in place, like your own courses or Google Adsense banners.
2. Sell your own products. (You can do this easily by setting up a Shopify store directly on your Facebook page).
3. Sell affiliate products.

How to grow your Facebook page

There is no quick and easy way to grow a Facebook page unless you’re ready to pull out your wallet. And unless you’re confident you can make that money back right away, it’s not worth investing in just yet. (Once you have a few sales under your belt, then you can crank up the results with paid advertising).

Growing a Facebook page takes hard work because you want your page to be viewed as a resource.

Here’s the catch:

Because Facebook users know that it’s primarily businesses that are operating Facebook pages out of self-interest, they’ll find it hard-pressed to view your page as a resource. Instead, if they follow your page, they’re more likely to be fans of your brand.

Here’s an example of an awesome Facebook page that successfully frames itself as a resource:

Source

Just look at their number of followers: 41,003.

If you go through their posts, you’ll notice pretty much every post getting over 100 likes, loves, and even shares.

This is what a highly engaged audience looks like.

Once you visit their blog, you’ll notice relevant banner ads, but none of them are so intrusive as to disrupt the reading experience.

And the best part?

Their About section tells us that they’re just a couple figure-skating fans who want to share their passion and knowledge with the world.

Brilliant.

How to use Facebook to drive traffic to your blog

Facebook most likely has the most extensive monetization guidelines out of any platform operating online. Here’s a summary list of “rules” you can cross-reference when aiming to monetize:

1. Create a Facebook page.
   (Pick Business or Brand).
2. Invite friends to like your page. Only invite those you believe will find value in your brand. (Ask them individually through Facebook messenger to increase the chances that they’ll actually like your page).
3. Ask them if they know anyone who might be interested in your page as well.
4. Ask them to share your page. (The worst thing they can say is “no”. Most likely will, but even for one or two shares, this step is worth doing).
5. Start sharing great content from around the Internet related to your niche. 
   Remember: The best content is content your audience will find helpful and interesting.
   
6. Start sharing your blog content once in a while too and go from there. (Facebook likes frequent and consistent posts that get a ton of engagement, so do try to create and follow an editorial calendar).
7. Engage with every user who leaves a comment. (There’s a good chance they could turn into your next fan!)

Engagement: The secret ingredient to boosting your page content

I’m going to risk sounding repetitive here, but we come back to a critical principle:

Not every fan is created equal.

That means not every like is equal as well. If you add random people to your groups and Facebook pages, you’re only going to confuse Facebook’s analytics tools, and it’ll become real difficult for you to earn money from Facebook (page, group, or otherwise).

That means when you try to use tools to analyze your audience, you won’t be able to determine their interests accurately, or their needs, or even who they really are.

And what does that mean when you post your content?

Total engagement from your entire fan base will be low, because people who aren’t interested in your content aren’t going to engage, especially on any meaningful level.

Low engagement will tell Facebook that your content sucks, even when it’s awesome.

On the other hand, if you have a small but engaged fan base, whenever you post content, you’ll be telling Facebook your content is relevant (one of the main metrics Facebook uses to determine the quality of your ads).

So what awesome added benefit can you gain from this slower approach that’s been proven time and again to work?

It keeps ad costs low.

That’s right.

Because Facebook understands that your group or page is highly concentrated with an active and engaged audience, your ads will cost you less money over time. This also means a higher conversion rate, because the offers you promote will be highly relevant to your target audience.

Affiliate marketing: A quick and easy way to monetize Facebook pages

Affiliate marketing is a quick way to monetize Facebook pages.

1. Pick a niche you’re interested in.
2. Become an affiliate by signing up for an Amazon Associates or Clickbank account.
3. Push products in your niche and start collecting commission. (Some products pay up to 70% the retail price).

See this example above? These shoes are basically selling themselves.

How to earn from Facebook groups

Compared to trying to monetize Facebook pages, Facebook group monetization is much easier.

That’s because Facebook provides a lot more flexibility in terms of how you can frame the context of your group.

For example, you can label it a Support Group, thus helping your group members perceive it as a resource.  

This makes it much easier to persuade other Facebook users to join as well. (Think about how much faster you can build your Facebook group, where people come to view you as a resource and a source of support, an authority they can communicate with directly on a social platform).

So how do you start to monetize your Facebook fans and followers?

In a similar way you would with a Facebook page–but remember the context:

This is a Facebook support group. Do not think about just pushing content. Here you’re building your brand and your authority.

You’re creating loyal fans.

Your Facebook page, on the other hand, is a business page. (Your page members will be a little more forgiving when you present your offers here).

How to Generate Revenue From Your Facebook Fan Page

How to Generate Revenue From Your Facebook Fan Page

Published by James Parsons

Most people these days simply refer to Facebook Fan Pages as simply Pages, and for a good reason; the era of their use primarily as pages for fan worship is long past. Today, Pages are used as marketing hubs and tools to build communities around certain brands, entities, events and media.

It’s entirely possible to make money from Facebook, though there are two different, non-exclusive ways to go about it. Which you choose depends on your goals, your resources and the nature of your business. You can even use them both, if you have several paths to monetization.

Step 1: Create a Page

Both the easiest and the hardest part of the whole process is properly creating your Page. Make sure you choose the proper classification; some types of pages are limited in what they can do and what they can display, while others have additional features specifically for that type of entity. Picking the wrong one will hamper you. Likewise, be careful in selecting the name you use. You can change your name and URL once, but it’s not easy; Facebook doesn’t want you to casually rebrand at the drop of a hat.

Take care when setting up your Page with all of the information you can fit in. This includes, primarily, you About section. The About section requires several sentences as a description of your business, a link to your main business page – essential if you ever hope to be verified, among other things – and your industry.

Your profile picture and cover photo are crucial as well. No one trusts a Page without a cover photo, for example. Your profile picture can be as simple as a recognizable shot of your logo, or you can jazz it up for a special event. It’s a good idea to change up these pictures every few months, as long as they stay recognizably branded.

Step 2: Build an Audience

When you’re first starting out, you can upload a mailing list if you have one, and Facebook will cross-check those emails with valid Facebook accounts. Any user who maintains a Facebook account with that email address will be given the option to like your page. You might want to hold off on doing this until you have some content on your page, though.

For content, you’re going to want to post and schedule several posts for the coming days. Ideally, you’ll post interesting industry content, content from your blog, content from other partner blogs and general interest content your users like. You might not know what works best yet, but time and study will reveal those secrets to you.

Once you have some content, you can upload your mailing list. You can also employ other techniques for growing your page, including running paid ads if you have the budget to do so.

Step 3: Funnel the Audience to a Monetized Page

This is the first of the two options you have to monetize your Facebook Page, and it’s not entirely just monetizing Facebook. See, the primary purpose of this method is to funnel people away from Facebook and on to pages where people can actually earn you money.

See, you can’t just run affiliate ads on Facebook. They don’t even really like affiliate links, though you can get away with those in organic posts. So, instead, you lead people off-site and on to your own website, blog, or storefront.

You can do this through ads and you can do this through posting content on your site and linking to it on Facebook. In fact, you should be doing both. Every person who visits your site from Facebook is a possible conversion.

You can’t really use optimized landing pages in organic posts. Facebook doesn’t like organic posts being dominated by such advertising. They’ll deliver a hit to your organic reach and make it harder for your other messages to make it through. Ads, however, can and should always link to an optimized landing page.

Once the users have left Facebook and landed on your website, you have all the flexibility and power of SEO and conversion rate optimization available to use.

Step 4: Create a Facebook App Store

The second option available is to run a store directly on Facebook. If you do this, you can potentially eliminate off-site marketing entirely. It’s not as effective as having your own store – people prefer to shop off Facebook, and you lose the presence of a good blog – but it’s perfectly acceptable.

There are a number of services you can use to set up a store in a tab app, including Shopify. The idea is that the service will create and host a storefront for you, and Facebook will become the portal to that store.

Note that such a store is in a tab app, which is somewhat limited in use on Facebook. You have one space in the top bar for your store to be labeled, but it’s not a fancy graphical label like tabs used to be. The graphical label is on the left sidebar some ways down the page. It’s not a lot, so you have to put a little extra effort into linking directly to your shop at every opportunity, so people know where to find it.

Step 5: Engage, Maintain, Grow

Once you have the path to monetization set up, everything else is about maintenance and growth. You have to grow your fan base, which you can do by posting compelling content and running advertisements that ask for page likes. You have to engage those users so they keep seeing your posts and thus are continually exposed to the idea of your business, leading them to like you more and potentially convert. And, of course, you have to maintain your store and your sales funnel so that you never miss sales due to a broken line of code or a missing product.

Your bread and butter with this process is going to be Insights. Study your Facebook insights and learn your audience. Cater your messages and your products to their needs and desires. Get them where they want it, and they’ll give you money to do so.

New Methods

As of 2018, there are a few new methods you can use to generate revenue: sponsored posts and shoutouts, selling products, and dropshipping. However, reach is also more delicate these days, so you don’t want to annoy your fanbase. Look into the 80/20 rule, which says 80% of your content should be useful or funny content that isn’t business-related, and 20% should be on any of the above; things that could potentially drive revenue to your page. Users don’t log into Facebook just to be sold things, they want to see what their favorite people and brands are up to. So, don’t sell too hard, and focus on creating great content.

Six ways to ensure your CV beats the ATS robots

Six ways to ensure your CV beats the ATS robots
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The most dispiriting aspect of job-hunting for many people is the stream of standardised rejection emails. These often appear arbitrary, as if no one has actually bothered reading your CV.

That’s probably because they haven’t.

In fact, Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS), or ‘Resume Robots’ as they’re disparagingly called, now reject up to 75% of CVs before they even get to a human.

Applying for jobs is much easier these days thanks to online applications, jobs boards and the ‘Apply Now’ button on LinkedIn. However, as a result, recruiters now receive a flood of digital CVs for every vacancy. They use ATS, despite its shortfalls, to cut through this clutter and find the right applicant.

An ATS creates shortlists from thousands of candidates on a recruiter’s database. If the ATS doesn’t understand your CV, it won’t select it. Consequently, a human recruiter won’t even set eyes on it.

Whether you are a graduate or C-suite executive, you need to prepare your CV for the ATS challenge or risk missing potentially ideal opportunities.

How to speak robot
It’s not all doom and gloom. There are ways to boost the chances of ATS giving your CV a high ranking.

The better your score, the more likely it is to go to a real human being, who might call you for interview. The main thing to know is that ATS acts like a specialised search engine. That means you have to write in an ATS-friendly way – it’s a bit like Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) for CVs.

Here are six steps to speaking fluent résumé robot and avoiding being lost in digital translation.

Stay glued to the platform.......
1. Keyword research:

Do you remember the last time you looked up something on a search engine? Well the words you used in that search were ‘keywords’.

Recruiters also use keywords to identify candidates with desired skills and qualifications. The ATS tries to find these keywords in candidate CVs. This is why the keywords you use can make or break your job search.

The first step is to get your keywords right but this isn’t straightforward because they’re constantly evolving. That’s one reason why people are increasingly using professional CV writers.

However, you can make a good start by checking job descriptions on employer’s websites and industry related job portals.

Find and note the keywords used in the job overview and candidate specifications. Focus on both the role and industry in which you want to work.

The role of an industrial marketing manager might use different keywords to that of a FMCG marketing manager. If there are different versions of the same keyword, then search for both to see which one returns the most relevant results.

2. Target titles:

Always use standard job titles in your keywords, particularly if your title in your current or former roles was a little offbeat.

‘Brand Warrior’ may sound quite cool but an ATS is unlikely to pick it up and even a human might struggle to translate it as ‘Marketing Manager’. Use this keyword title as the headline on your CV and adapt it to different job applications.

For example, you may need to change ‘Marketing Manager’ to ‘Head of Marketing’, ‘Marketing Communications Manager’, ‘Product Manager’ or ‘Brand Manager’ depending on the job ad to which you’re responding.

This ensures you’re including the most important keywords. It also aligns you in the mind of a human reader with the vacant role they are trying to fill.

3. Skills and experience, but no fluff
Make sure you include all the skills most relevant to the job. For example, did you manage a team? Did you have P&L responsibilities? Have you presented at industry related conferences or launched new products in new markets?

Tangible outcomes make the difference here. In a tough job market, you need a proven, measurable background of success to impress potential employers. When recruiters search for keywords, they are looking for concrete skills. They won’t be typing in ‘out-going’ or ‘team player’.

People have overused phrases such as ‘results-focused’ to the point of irrelevance. It’s the specific, highly relevant achievements, where you’ve used your talent to give an employer a measurable benefit, that will get you noticed.

Work out what those achievements or strengths are; then connect them in words or phrases to a target job description. Those are more of your keywords.

Good CV writing is all about the effective highlighting and presentation of objective achievements, alongside optimising your keywords. You need to customise these achievements for each role.

Be the candidate they want.

If you’re applying for a senior executive role or leadership position, your CV needs to follow the target job specification with precision. It also needs to demonstrate a senior level of management responsibility.

Identify the most important leadership keywords, such as ‘staff training and development’ and make sure they appear throughout your CV.

The principles remain the same for a good graduate CV. But you need to convey a different skill-set, demonstrating potential, motivation and commitment.

4. Qualifications:

Try to make your qualifications relate to the specific job. What software packages and technical skills does this role require? Do you need to have any specialist industry qualifications like the ICAN,NSE,NIS,etc ? Remember to include both the acronym and the keyword or phrase.

5. CV formatting:

It’s always frustrating not to get an interview for the perfect job. Now think how you’d feel knowing it was just because the ATS rejected your CV’s formatting. This is a simple problem to avoid. You just have to remember that most ATS algorithms won’t read your CV if it includes:

Graphics or symbols of any kind, except for simple bullet points (like this one)
Lots of different fonts (styles, sizes or colours). Stick to two or three maximum and save
CAPITALISATION for SECTION HEADERS such as ‘PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE’
Tables (use tabs instead)
These don’t just confuse the ATS. Most companies now delete photos to ensure they can’t discriminate based on age, race, sex, or hair colour – or anything else they might see.

6. Consistency:
It’s important for an overall job strategy that your CV and LinkedIn profile use similar keywords. This will help you maximise the effectiveness of your job search. It also signals consistency and attention to detail for recruiters.

One last (key) word; always be truthful, don’t exaggerate or lie because it’s hard to repair your credibility when a recruiter catches you out. Ultimately, you and your CV need to impress humans, not just robots.

Decoding the job search means not letting technology stand between you and the dream job you are qualified to do. It’s not about trying to trick the algorithms; the robots are too clever for that anyway.

10 things Firms/Coy or Human Resource Managers use in Review CVs submitted by job seekers

10 things Firms/Coy or Human Resource Managers use in Review CVs submitted by job seekers

It can be hard to know where to start, particularly if a firm/coy got lots of CVs to work through and want/need to hire someone sooner rather than later.
The main problem with CVs is that they’re all obviously all different – so it can be really hard to compare them side by side. That said; there are certain things you should be on the lookout for in any CV, regardless of the role or the industry, that can suggest the candidate is on the ball and worth considering.
Just to clarify; some of the points below may sound pretty obvious – but new hiring managers and recruiters who have never reviewed a CV before might not be familiar with some of the points or know why they’re important – so I thought we should include them anyway.

1. Consistent Formatting:

The format of a CV is really important because it speaks volumes about the candidate. From different styles and sizes of font to random bold, italic and underlined sections, dodgy formatting is not a good look – and it suggests the candidate doesn’t care too much about details and looking professional – two traits that aren’t attractive to any employer. Look out for CVs which have consistent formatting (style, font size and typography), are structured into concise, digestible paragraphs – and which look pleasant to the eye.

2. Logical Order:

In addition to the format of the CV, you also need to look closely at the way in which the CV has been ordered. When looking at the order of a CV, consider what has been placed at the beginning and what has been placed at the end. In an ideal world, the most relevant information should be placed at the beginning of the CV.
The contact details should be easy to find (normally at the start of the CV) and the most recent jobs should be placed at the beginning, followed by skills and experience. This is a logical, sensible order for a CV – so if the candidate has used a different order – it might suggest they take alternative approaches when completing key tasks. While this isn’t necessarily always a bad thing, it could be an issue if the candidate is applying for a job which has lots of procedures and protocol to follow.

3. No Typos (Attention To Detail):

Just like the formatting issue, spellings and typos are also a big issue and should be carefully considered. Thanks to spell check and Google, there’s really no excuse for typos and poor spellings – and the existence of these in a CV could suggest the candidate has poor attention to detail and rushes their work so they don’t always spot obvious mistakes.

4. Skills & Experience That Match Your Vacancy:

OK, so this is one of the most obvious ones – on a candidate’s CV, you need to look out for any skills and experience that match the particular vacancy you have on offer. It should be easy to spot relevant skills on a good CV – and the best candidates should have highlighted them to make it even easier for you. If the CV you’re reviewing doesn’t have any of the skills and experience you’re looking for, it doesn’t necessarily mean the candidate doesn’t have them – but in that situation, you have to ask why they didn’t include them on that CV when they knew that’s what you were looking for! Which leads me nicely onto my next point…

5. Tailoring To Your Vacancy:

The best candidates will have tailored their CV to your particular vacancy – so this is something you need to be on the lookout for. Keep an eye out for candidates who have tried to relate their skills and experience to the role you’re recruiting for as this is a sign they’re really keen on the role and have spent time trying to make their CV as relevant as possible.

6. Employment Gaps:

Another thing to look for on a CV is employment gaps. In this economy, sometimes gaps in employment can’t be avoided – but if that is the case, the candidate should always try and explain why there was this gap and what they did during this period. This might just consist of a brief sentence on the CV – or a more detailed explanation in their cover letter. The most important thing is the candidate has been honest and hasn’t tried to hide the fact they’ve had gaps in their employment history.

7. Clear Progression:

Next up, when looking at CVs you should be on the lookout for signs that the candidate has made clear progression within their chosen career path. This might be illustrated by the fact that they’ve progressed from an executive level through to a managerial level – or the fact they’ve sidestepped into different areas. Either way, clear signs of progression suggest the candidate is ambitious and isn’t willing to rest on their laurels.

8. Rounded Skillset:

In addition to relevant skills, you should also be on the lookout for signs of a rounded skillset when reviewing CVs. By this I mean that on a CV you need to look out for a mix of technical and more personal, ‘softer’ skills. This mix shows the candidate is well rounded and will be able to cope with all elements of your role.

9. Concise:

If the CV you’re reviewing is five pages long, you might want to reconsider. Why? Because it suggests the candidate isn’t able to keep things concise and to the point and they like to ramble – all elements which probably aren’t attractive to any employer. Look out for paragraphs on CVs which are tight, consise, to the point and – most importantly – relevant!

10. No Cliches:

Last but not least, you need to be on the lookout for cliches when reviewing CVs. Some of the most common CV cliches include phrases like “can work independently or as part of team”, “self-starter” and “results-driven”. The problem? They’re cliches and make the CV morph into the next. While CVs which include lots of cliches aren’t necessarily bad, they can suggest the candidate lacks originality and perhaps isn’t the unique employee you’re looking for.

So there we go; 10 things a firm or coy should be looking out for when reviewing CVs for your vacancy. Don’t agree with any of my points or think I’ve missed something out?

Considerations for Small Survey Business

the technical and mathematical ones that can be systematically solved. Many of the demands placed upon us, however, do not have a formula for the answer, as it is often based on experience. Time management, asset allocation, client and employee relationship, effective communication, interpersonal skills, etc. all have empirical elements that can only be gauged by trial-and-error. In this manner, there may be as many answers as there are surveyors. 

The following list of considerations is a conglomeration of proposals over the past decade that has helped improve the operation of small- to medium-sized survey divisions. I do not propose that these are immediately applicable to your situation because each situation is different, much like the people involved in the situation; however, I do hope this provides a reservoir of thought that can help spark debate or perhaps reconsiderations, which is a key part in improving survey operations and business as a whole. 

Allocate Resources 1:1

Consideration: designate one vehicle, one total station, and one set of GNSS tools to one field member—indefinitely

• Assign one field surveyor the responsibility of care for a specific vehicle.
• Assign a field surveyor one total station, collector, set of GNSS units, and level.
• Note that assignment does not mean “to have on-hand” but means that if needed, the crew member uses the one assigned to them. 

The benefits:

• Provides the greatest opportunity to become the most familiar with the given vehicle and equipment among everybody in the business.
• Allows the intimacy necessary to use the equipment to its fullest capabilities and efficiencies.
• Allows the field surveyor to properly prepare for and successfully accomplish each task in an efficient manner. 
• Allows the field surveyor to quickly identify any equipment or vehicle malfunction.
• Minimized differences in systematic errors found between different sets of equipment. 
• Heightened sense of personal responsibility (not to be underestimated).

By assigning a specific vehicle and set of equipment to one field member, it allows them to become the most familiar with that particular equipment. This is what allows the equipment to be used to its fullest capabilities and efficiencies and is what will allow the field member to accomplish his task correctly and in the shortest amount of time possible. It is this field surveyor who can best detect when the equipment needs calibrated or doesn’t function properly. 

Assigning a vehicle and set of equipment to a specific field member will also offer the opportunity necessary to develop a sense of personal responsibility short of actual ownership. As they spend time relying on, caring for, and accomplishing tasks with the same vehicle and equipment, they will develop a sense of responsibility that goes deeper than that of “just doing the job.” This is most evident in cases where the surveyors reference equipment in the possessive case and become more protective of their inventory.

Unassigned, constantly rotated sets of equipment cannot be accounted for as well as individually assigned equipment, which hardly provides the right environment that calls for an increased sense of responsibility. Like all other people, field surveyors are apt and ever eager to create consistency and form a reliable routine because more often than not, it’s the only thing that’ll be in order on a chaotic job site.

Equip Vehicles Individually

Consideration: each vehicle should have its own set of field equipment

Develop an inventory list of necessary surveying equipment and ensure that each vehicle is equipped with said list. 

This does not include high value assets i.e. total stations, scanners, GNSS units, etc. as discussed in the previous section.

The benefits:

• Mitigates, and can virtually eliminate, the need for coordinating equipment during the work day.
• Offers the highest amount of capability and interchangeability among crews. 
• Affords crews the time necessary to manage and organize the equipment, resulting in better care. 
• Allows the crew to develop a routine for inventory assessment.

This will virtually eliminate the need for communication dealing with coordinating equipment, allowing for smoother daily operations and less time and money spent on drive-time to exchange, drop-off, or pick-up the equipment. This can also allow for a near-perfect interchangeability among crews because all crews will have the necessary equipment already in their vehicles. Their response time to on-call demands will be much quicker because they will already have the necessary equipment.

Notes on Personal Equipment

Businesses should not rely on personal survey equipment (bring your own device, as it is becoming known), but allow it to be an option at the discretion of members within the business, such as the field coordinator or licensed surveyor. If the business wishes to perform its contractual duties in a correct and efficient manner, then it is in its best interest to burden the responsibilities inherent within the correct procedures to complete each task. This includes the business providing all equipment necessary to complete this duty. 

Personal equipment may be of great benefit by heightening the performance of the site surveyor; however, it may be just as detrimental and provide greater liability to the business, hence also the site surveyor, should the surveyor be in a position where they are forced to use personal equipment; or, should personal equipment be used that has not been approved by the designated member(s).

Standardize Terms

Consideration: develop a code list

Develop an official business code list. It should be formatted into pocket size pages. Print, laminate, and bind with spiraling as needed, then distribute.

Advantages:

• A uniform language that is understood by all members of the business, minimizing discrepancies in data throughout the company. This allows any member to work on the same project and collect, interpret, process, and report data in a format understood by all of the members.
• A pocket sized, laminated code list allows members, field crews in particular, to carry it on them at all times for reference. A properly sized code list should also find room inside the cases protecting survey equipment i.e. total stations, levels, GNSS units.
• Allows new employees to adjust much more rapidly and commit fewer mistakes.
• Less company time and money spent training and communicating with employees.

Note that even a “code-less” code, or one without structure, will always need to be addressed and conveyed, especially to less experienced surveyors who may not know basic construction terminology to identify what they’re looking at. A code list will help to clarify this, avoiding descriptions that may be called into question in the future. However, some codes are mandatory, such as those used for gas line as-builts which require attribute data to be entered and stored. In this case, the coding must be very specific and properly documented, all of which can be addressed and described in the code list pamphlet.

Storm as-builts are another example where attribute data needs to be entered. Since not all codes on a collector prompt the user for attributes, the surveyor can reference the code list to see what attributes are needed.

Simply allowing all the field surveyors to write their own code will yield as many different codes as there are surveyors, not including the differences found across time from the same surveyor. 

Single Point of Contact

Consideration: establish a field coordinating position

A field coordinator is the face of the field members within the company’s walls, and is the voice of the company to the field members and client.

It is in the company’s best interest to have a positive interaction with its clients and field members outside its walls. To do so, it must be able to understand the needs of the client and field members, and clearly communicate these needs to the appropriate person, and ensure the field members and client can perform their job properly. This line of communication requires certain responsibilities. Assuming there is one point of contact for all field members, one field coordinator in other words, he would:

• Address issues and concerns among the field members, including their equipment, transportation, organization, and overall well-being and relay that to the appropriate person. 
• Address issues and concerns of the client and relay that to the appropriate person.
• Coordinate, schedule, and assign field members to the client’s tasks/project.
• Organize each day’s export files to be up-to-date for import the following day. Project data should be up-to-date to ensure all crews have access to all available data for a project. Up-to-date job files allow interchangeability of the crews for different jobs, such as filling in for an absent crew member. It also prevents future redundancy and confusion of stored point numbers and descriptions. 
• Create field packages. Field packages include the up-to-date files ready for import/upload, description of the daily tasks, a control sheet and other print-outs that shows only that which is necessary for accomplishing the daily task. If a proper folder is kept for a project, it can be handed to any crew, showing every task that has been done on that project. 
• When not in communication with the field crews or client, the field coordinator processes field data, assists in bidding of future projects, and assists in cut-sheets, deliverables, and any other task available.
• Make sure field supplies such as nails, flagging, and stakes are readily available for the field crews.
• If a field member should have direct contact with the client, then it is the field coordinator who gives the field member that responsibility.

Billing for Time

Consideration: clarify the use of drive-time and equipment care

The question of whether or not field surveyors should bill for drive-time and equipment care still persists throughout parts of the private industry.

It should be in the company’s best interest that drive-time and equipment are billed. The reason is that responsibility of the survey equipment and vehicle is still fully burdened during transport, until the time the equipment is properly stored.

Land surveying equipment is the center of business for modern land surveying. To accomplish a job successfully, the equipment must be handled in a manner that ensures it arrives and functions properly. This is why its treatment, maintenance, mode of transport, and manner of storage is of utmost importance. All of these are each field member’s responsibility only because it is a necessity for the job to be performed, both under the ethical duty of a professional and legally under contract. If this is true, then drive-time and equipment care cannot be considered separate from the “work,” for they are all one in the same. That is, the job does not end once the survey task itself is complete. It can only end for the day when the equipment is transported and stored properly. Again, if this is to be true, then it should be accounted for in bids and billed to the client, otherwise it is an exchange where the surveying party does not fully accept this responsibility and offers the service short of its best potential and accepts the increased liability.

Is Land Surveying Art or Craft?

Lately this question of “art or craft” has come to mind. One of my best friends has vast knowledge of the Italian sculptors and painters. His life-long profession has been the restoration and preservation of art objects, and I would think if there were guild craftsmen, he would be one.

In training of my survey apprentices, I encourage them to locate details at sites such as possible works of art, gravestones for pets, bird houses (if there are not too many) to name a few. In the course of surveying the properties of wealthy land owners, I will often find what I think the owners might believe is a piece of art. There will be topo shots labeled “ART” and the office staff know I want it shown some way on our plan. Using my cell phone, I snap pictures of these and sometimes will ask my friend “Is this art, or craft?” Then I wait for his reply. 

Today, I ran out to find more monuments to resolve a survey boundary. The accompanying photo is a limestone monument that was on the plan of survey.

This stone is a beauty and sticks up out of the ground about 6 inches. Notice the hole in the stone and the lines radiating off the center of that hole. In my opinion, the drill hole was made using a star drill. How many apprentices today have ever held a star drill? It was once a standard item in most survey trucks. This hole was deep and must have taken time. While my wife thinks of this as craftsmanship, I find this to be “art.” The surveyor who set this was practicing the art of land surveying. The surveyor who made this drill hole and set this monument was the real deal. 

With the current run to technology, much of the “Art of Land Surveying” is disappearing. Fifteen years back, there were people still hand-drafting plans. I always enjoyed seeing a beautiful plan and took a few minutes to appreciate the care and precision that went into the drafting. 

I recall being at a surveyor’s office with my boss. He looked at a mylar sheet and softly said, “I wonder who drafted this plan, it’s really well done.” Then he asked around their office and found out it was one of the owners, a man who knew how to keep a pencil sharp. He was using those old ‘lead holders’ and the sharpener you stick the pencil into and rotate it to get that needle point for fine lines. 

The lead holders were replaced by Pentel pencils which could hold 0.03, 0.05, 0.07, etc. lead and colored lead and keep a uniform line weight (width). The 0.03 lead was incredibly thin and broke often. 

Back then, there were draftsmen who were artists on survey drawings … and then there were craftsmen. You could see the difference. 

While in the office of the general manager of the company, I had the pleasure of a hands-on lesson in the art of drafting. He was picking out the fonts and Leroy guides for me to lay out the title sheet for a set of perhaps a twenty-sheet plan set. He explained that it was the most important sheet of the set because it is what the client and municipality would see first. If it looked impressive then it would follow the rest of the work was impressive. I felt the truth in what he expressed.

This approach to plans has been continued into my computer drawings. If mine is a detailed plan of survey, then it inspires confidence in the viewer. When I go the extra tenth of a mile, it might seem like twenty. 

We all want to create nice plans, but every beginner needs the help of an experienced person to teach them the art and the craft of their profession. When older professionals can instill this in trainees, it continues the excellence. 

Driving Quality

When the vice president of one of the very large Philadelphia engineering firms worked as a young engineer in Virginia, the office staff complained about the picky and demanding drafting manager. In one instance, the hand scribbling to indicate concrete did not have enough scribbles and dots. They were ordered back to the drawing board to fix that plan. Angry young engineers drew in very tiny curse words among the dots and squiggles and laughed to themselves. The next day they all received a lecture about quality drafting. This engineer, 20 years after that event, smiled broadly as he told me the story. Those various types of hand shadings were soon to be replaced by “craft” with sheets of ‘sticky paper’ with preprinted hatching. The fine Leroy lettering was replaced by Kroy lettering machines, and silt fence lines by thin rolls of preprinted “line types.” Any competent computer draftsperson knows about line types and a computer and plotter make them all exactly the same. This also applies to the hatching and shading. 

I don’t think that current plans are nearly as attractive as the older plats. The newer plans seem to look more like craft. Craft does not mean they are full of errors or mistakes, but they rarely look to me like art.

Back to the Drawing Board

Do I want to go back to the drawing board? Heck no! But, there are ways we can distinguish our work and show the art of land surveying by the information shown on our drawings. For example, the plan I had which showed the stone in the photo never told us where on the line the stone existed. Graphically, it was not the right-of-way line. I explained to my draftsperson who was trying to make use of the stone, concrete monument, and pipes she found, that it was poor work to show the stone but no tie distance and that perhaps the surveyor wanted to keep that information secret. I want other surveyors to know and understand how I came to boundary conclusions. In teaching the apprentice, I explained how and why I always hope to show the relationship of stones found to the right-of-way line and then end of the line when the stone is on the sideline. 

Another way I have seen this is when there is an old plan and it shows “PIN SET ON LINE” with no distance to the ends of the line. Perhaps they thought it would bring in more work since pins get covered up and must be found and thus there is a charge for surveying services. A work-around I teach people is to scale the distance to the pin and stake out to it in hopes it was drafted correctly. I want surveyors who follow my work to find my pins, which will point to the monuments I used to make my decisions, in hopes that arguments rarely happen about who is right and who is wrong. To do that, I have to leave trail markers using sub-distances on my plans. 

We have all come across surveyors who produce comics rather than art, and the nature of bad work is it’s neither art nor craft. I’ve known party chiefs who would sit in their truck and sketch the topo from the driver’s seat. They had a good eye for perspective and making the picture look good and understanding of the shape of contour lines, but this was false work and though it saved money, it was wrong. 

There are still people who use fences with road centerlines to set up the boundary of a topographic survey plan and just don’t care about doing things right. In this area of the country, our building setback lines are often based on the street right of way and the property lines. Architects need to know precisely the relationship of the features to the setback lines and that cannot be assured by fences, rock rows, telephone poles, or simply splitting the road width. 

There are times when a client thinks they know better and want to tell me to not tie the topo into the boundary, they don’t care about it. One way or another, I will try to use the same care when surveying even if the client won’t let me charge enough. It’s my pride in my work that drives me to prepare a good product as I suppose it’s the same with other surveyors. We each must decide if we want to compete with low bidders who create a poor product or keep our own personal standards of what should be on a survey plan. Our employees will be watching us and follow our lead. 

When an apprentice and I go over the plans found in the process of researching jobs, I like to make mention of the surveyor or engineer whose name is on the plat and remind them first to go to the title block and see who is responsible for the survey. From there you know the quality of the work. When I see nice work on the plans of others, I like to let my people know so they understand why I think it’s art. 

I know people who invest in art because of its value, and because, well, its art and they love to look at it. My personal investment in the art of land surveying has been paying off for some time now. I see it in the apprentices I teach and their work. I find it on my old plans and the records I’ve kept. It has also saved me money by avoiding possible mistakes while making neighboring surveys easier. 

The experience and wisdom licensed land surveyors possess, along with engineers and skilled party chiefs cannot be taught in school. There would be too much territory to cover. For that reason, even the brightest student in a four-year surveying degree program cannot take the test in Pennsylvania until they have five years of practical experience. If young apprentices are in surveying for the long haul, the things we teach them today and the art and craft we pass along will pay dividends for generations to come.

The history of ArcGIS

The history of ArcGIS

Esri, Environmental Systems Research Institute, knew there was a starving market for location-based systems also known geographic information systems (GIS). In 1990s, Esri started working on a product that later became one of the best enterprise solutions for GIS implementations on Windows systems. In 1999, ArcGIS was released. Since then, ArcGIS hasbecome the most used commercial GIS solution. ArcGIS was then renamed ArcGIS for Desktop, and the ArcGIS name was used as a product line instead to carry lots of products under it.

When the Web started to become ubiquitous in early 2000s, Esri adopted the Web by rolling in ArcGIS for Server and gradually ArcGIS functionalities as web services so that it could be supported on multiple platforms including mobile phones.

A decade later when the cloud solutions began to surface, Esri released its Software as a Service (SaaS) solution ArcGIS Online. Designed to simplify the user experience, ArcGIS Online hides all the ArcGIS "contraptions" and technologies to relieve the user from maintaining the hardware and software, leaving the user to do what they do best, mapping. Having everything in the cloud allows users to focus on their work instead of worrying about configurations, spinning up servers and databases, and running optimization checks.

Note

SaaS, a cloud-based software distribution model where all infrastructure, hardware, management software, and applications are hosted in the cloud. Users consume the applications as services without the need to have high-end terminal machines.

Today, Esri is pushing to enhance and enrich the user experience and support multiple platforms by using the ArcGIS Online technology.

In this book, we target one of the core products of the ArcGIS family—ArcGIS for Desktop. By using real-life examples, we will demonstrate the power and flexibility of this 16+ year-old product ArcGIS for Desktop. We are going to use the various tools at our disposable to show how we can extend the functionality of ArcGIS for Desktop.

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