A year ago I launched Awaken Your CAREERpreneur, both as a way to give an overview of my book of the same name as well as to shift consciousness about the fundamental way career development, and as a consequence, job hunting has shifted. I’m thrilled by the ongoing conversation that has unfolded around how to leverage one’s understanding of the new job market in one’s career development strategizing.

In his new book, Job Searching with Social Media for Dummies, Joshua Waldman has done a stunning job of showing first-time job seekers through to seasoned executives the new rules for using technology to get yourself in front of your prospective employer. I was pleasantly surprised not only at Joshua’s ability to distill LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter down to the basics for those looking to use these most common social media platforms to connect with recruiters and hiring managers, but also at his comprehensive look at more of the up and coming relevant job hunting and resume sites, e.g., VisualCV, Innovate CV, Simply Hired and job hunting apps for Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter such as BranchOut, Jibe and CareerAmp.

What I like best about the book is Joshua’s entrepreneurial approach to career development and his compilation of strategies that put the reader in the driver’s seat. Joshua spends a lot of time giving tangible tools for authentic personal brand development. He looks at how to use blogging to develop one’s expertise (both through the strategic development of one’s own site as well as the specific ways to get featured on others’ blogs). Joshua explains the significance of managing your online presence–how to boost it and how to keep it clean and employer-centric.  And he really gets inside the mind of hiring managers. Whether you skim the book or read it cover to cover, you walk away understanding exactly what hiring managers are looking for, where they’re looking for you and how to make sure you pop when you get face-time.

Job Searching with Social Media for Dummies is one of those books every person needs in her library whether she is actively looking for a job, wants to position herself for a promotion, runs her own business and simply wants to continue to use social media strategically or dishes job advice to job seekers. I couldn’t believe how many pages I found myself highlighting either because Joshua introduced me to a site I hadn’t heard of or provided a new way of looking at a best practice.

If you’ve spent anytime looking at profiles on LinkedIn, you will notice a trend amongst those who share their value and brand in a clear, concise and impactful way. They’ve spent some time crafting their headline.

This is not just for social media gurus.  This advice applies to anyone who wants to stay relevant in today’s changing economy where recruiters are seeking talent through all sorts of media – including prescreening using social media.  Even if you are not working full time, you can use this advice to ensure future clients or vendors know more about your professional background as LinkedIn is commonly one of the first sites that comes up as someone searches your name.

The headline is the text directly below your name. Far too many people rely on their current job title to showcase their headline. This limits your impact. When someone is reading your profile, they will not be able to distinguish you from others who hold the same job title. Continue Reading »

A friend recently shared details about a new client.  She landed a contract to market the services of an expert in her industry – alongside several trainings that she already promotes within her target market.

I congratulated her on landing the client and asked how she was using social media to market her client.

She openly admitted that she hadn’t used it much within her own business.  However, she was interested in learning.  Her biggest concern was where to start.  The amount of options was overwhelming to her as she manages the day to day logistics and now realized she needed to learn several new marketing platforms.  She asked for advice on where to start.  Continue Reading »

As social media continues to evolve, so do those who participate in it, and how they respond is changing. Responding to social media criticism is difficult at best—creating a short, punchy response can make you look too aggressive, while a reasoned response is often lost on someone out for blood. This process has become a daily challenge for most entrepreneurs who walk the fine line of protecting their reputation and business, since often they are both. The process of analyzing feedback has become more important to major corporations, large organizations, and the government. They have created a process for responding to bloggers, encouraging legal counsel and PR experts–only respond to comments in certain situations.

These three strategies can assist you with a social media criticism problem, particularly one that stands to damage you, your organization’s or business’ reputation. If you’ve spent the last few days losing sleep over a negative comment someone left on your website, staring at a bad review of your product or service, a nasty column, or an insensitive comment, apply these tactics and judge its negative value before you submit a reply. Continue Reading »

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So do you need a strategy for social media? Or can you just wing it? Well it depends. Having a Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook fan page without knowing why is really pointless. I’ve been asked by friends and acquaintances if they need to be on a specific social networking site. And the answer is no. Pick what works for you and forget the rest. There isn’t time in the world to be on every network.

What are your goals and objectives
First understand why social media matters to you; what are your goals and objectives also how they tie into your overall career goals. Use S.M.A.R.T – (Keep it Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic/Relevant, and Timely) goals as a starting point.

The next step for creating an effective social media strategy is research.
Make a note of which social media sites you would like to engage with people. The list will most likely consist of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and some select blogs and forums. Review each of the social media sites on your list and do additional research to determine how relevant looking for your competitors, your target keywords and people/businesses you’d like to work with.

Have conversations
They build relationships. Respond to blog posts. Answer questions on LinkedIn, Twitter or Quora. Start developing relationships by following and friending influencers and those in your industry. Quality not quantity is what matters. Tons of followers without a “real” connection isn’t going to enhance your life. Because ultimately it isn’t only about what you do but who you are.

Strictly Business or Personal?
Personal choice really. I know some people who only connect with friends and family on Facebook and keep networks like LinkedIn and Twitter for all other connections. I connect with 99% of the people who send me invites on LinkedIn. However, I don’t give recommendations to people I’ve never done business with.

Create stronger connections
Take the relationships offline. Have a tweetup – an in-person meeting of Twitter users. HOW TO: Organize a Successful Tweetup has some great tips and ideas on how to setup an event. Can’t meet in-person have an online meeting. Virtual options are only limited by your imagination – dinner, coffee, maybe even a movie night.

Measuring your success
Well increased site traffic, more true partners are all indications of success. More referrals from your network. Positive feedback from others.

Don’t be afraid to experiment and try new things. Failure to adapt kills many an idea.

If you want to know what others are doing in social media then take a look at the Social Media Marketing Report from 2010.

It’s all about connection so reach out and touch someone in a way that works with your personality not against it.

Like most things, anything done alone won’t make as much of an impact as collaborating or diversifying your efforts. Successful nonprofit development professionals must be open-minded, out of the box creative thinkers who embrace both traditional and new digital marketing strategies.

While many nonprofits have started to rely more heavily on digital marketing, traditional marketing such as direct mail is still an important part of a successful marketing strategy, but is no longer the only way to raise awareness or recruit donors. A combination of both the old and new techniques creates an effective campaign that grabs attention and allows you to contact your target audience more than once through various platforms to promote an event or campaign. Continue Reading »

There are now nearly 200 million blogs on the Internet, however, most nonprofits do not enter the blogosphere because they either do not have the human resources to dedicate to a blog and/or are not convinced at all that anyone will even read or care if they have a blog. Similarly, most nonprofits also don’t consider blogging because they think they need to blog everyday and it is too time consuming, or they have no idea what to blog about. Well… you only really need to blog about once a week, minimum—you can ALWAYS blog more often, but remember to be consistent because people will expect it; so start off slowly.  

Within a few months many nonprofits see the benefits of blogging and realize that it can be a vital part of their online communications, recruitment and fundraising strategies. The positive results from blogging can be HUGE due to an increase of webinar registrations, new donors, new members, purchasing of event tickets and/or donations that result from their E-blast Announcements, E-Newsletters, and blogging have increased the number of daily hits and subscribers (which usually take years to build) to hundreds or thousands per month depending on the size of the nonprofit organization!!! It is GREAT to create and increase your E-Newsletter following, but then you MUST be able to have additional content and activities for them to get more involved with your organization. Continue Reading »

I recently had the most intriguing conversation with a client of mine who referred to his freelance job as a graphic designer as a “Side Hustle.” When I asked him what made it a hustle, or rather, what makes him a hustler, he replied: “In this economy, as a small business owner, I have to be very aggressive. I often spend hours on social media websites such as Twitter and Facebook, marketing and advertising my products and services.” I thought about my client’s response for a minute, and then asked: “If you are spending hours on Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites, then how much time do you spend working?” He replied: “Very little actually, and I need help managing my time.”

I’m pretty sure many of us already know just how powerful and vital social media is to a small business. Social media is great in the sense that it allows for one person/business to have the ability to connect you with millions of potential customers from all over the world. This positive aspect of social media can also have a negative side if not used properly. I would like to discuss the term “Hustling Backwards,” and what you can do as small business owner to work more productively and efficiently.

Fabiola Joseph’s definition: “Hustling Backwards” is a term used to describe when a person is losing sight of what is important in a particular area, by allowing other irrelevant tasks to overshadow the goal at hand.

In this case, my client was spending more time on Twitter and Facebook than working on enriching his mind and actually building up his small business. I’m sure at some point in time, we have all found ourselves tweeting or updating our status on FB saying that we need to get off and get back to work. The most important lesson, and obviously the hardest for some, is to learn the two sure signs of when we have become distracted habitually.

Sign #1 – If you spend more than 5hrs a week (1hr a day) on social media sites.

Sign#2 – If you find yourself on social media sites for personal, non-business related reasons the majority of the time.

I personally use social media as a marketing tool to promote and advertise my small business. However, I do try to minimize the time spent online, and the content information posted. Again, I absolutely encourage the use of these sites. They are a great deal of help in today’s economy. I simply advise my clients to use them responsibly.

It’s normal to become distracted by the many things that can blur our vision, and let ourselves lose focus. However, the key is to quickly get back on track. My final advice to my client, and to every small business owner out there, is to continue learning and researching your target market…. in an intentional and periodic way. For just when you think you know everything there is to know about your business, something comes along that can change the entire game all over again. Just make sure that you are working smart, and not simply hard, by still giving yourself enough time to work in your business rather than just on your business. Remember, the goal is to keep delivering your product or service.

Social media is one of the most talked about topics in the personal and professional lives of most Americans, if not the world. It’s the new normal for communication and brand engagement. While it may seem like everyone and every company is doing it, nonprofits are still lagging in social media movement, partly because, they do not know how and why it is important to their overall brand.

In a previous blog, I shared tips for using social media in the nonprofit sector, however, there are some things that work and some that don’t in regards to using social media to engage your target audience. Below are some dos and don’ts when utilizing social media in the nonprofit sector. Continue Reading »

Gone are the days of typewriters, snail mail, landlines and fax machines. Those days have been replaced with iPads, PDAs, text messaging in the workplace and especially relevant to nonprofits today—social media.

Social media allows users to share information instantly with practically anyone in an online platform. While most websites and media outlets provide a one-way communication, social media provides an interactive experience for users. It allows for users to create informational content, provide motivational postings, comment on others’ thoughts and photos, and even communicate and pry into the private lives of strangers. The forms of social media are vast, ranging from blogging, posting videos, networking and providing information for various search engine sites. Continue Reading »