Archive for February, 2009
6 New LinkedIn Job Search Tips
At least 2 of the 4 jobs I have gotten since college can be directly attributed to LinkedIn. This by no means makes me an expert, but I have been on the site for a while and I pay attention to what works for people and what doesn’t. If you are looking for a job, good economy or bad, LinkedIn should be a big part of your strategy. Lots of people have written good posts on how to position yourself on LinkedIn, including one of the earliest from Guy Kawasaki and another more recent Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn to Find a Job, also from Guy. All of these tips (and others) are quality and should help guide your search. This list is intended to go a step above what everyone else is already doing and help you set yourself apart from a community that is getting more competitive every day.
Kill for Recommendations
Recommendations are a great way to add quality, less biased content to your profile. The more recommendations the better. Headhunters look at this number, the quality of the recommendations, and of course who is giving them. They also have an impact on where you show up in search results. Give recommendations to all those you think worthy. Ask everyone for the same. But do not rely on the LinkedIn request tool. Use email, phone calls, etc. Personal requests will work better with some.
Create a Personal Slideshow
LinkedIn applications rock, especially the Slideshare.com app. If you are a speaker, put your best presentation on your profile. If you are in resume mode, create a visual resume. Be creative. Show your personality, show your creativity and be memorable. These slide shows can go a lot farther than a text description and a nice avatar to help you stand out from the crowd.
Social Media is Creating a Better World
Living within Social Media as a whole teaches me a lot. It is a student of life’s greatest gift. The more time I spend with Social Media the more I realize how much of a paradigm shift we are really dealing with. Journalism, Marketing, Advertising, Politics, Business, are all changing in significant ways by the social web. And the more examples I see of these changes, the more I view them, as a whole, as better for the world. Social Media is in fact making the world better.
Transparency
Online consumers are hungry for information about their brands. Social Media gives them new levels of access and speed that are increasingly forcing companies to be more transparent. No more quietly sweeping problems under the rug or hoping no one notices your shortcomings. Product reviews/ratings, constant consumer discussions, and conversations by competitors are all fighting for the same space. Consumers would rather talk to each other about your brand than take your word for it. Word of mouth marketing is becoming less of an option and more of a reckoning.
Who wins?
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Green Business Card Options
Portions of this blog post were contributed by Steve Feuss of PrintingResponsibly.com – especially the details about the printing process and green printing options. Thanks Steve.
As a follow up to my Green Hosting Options post, I wanted to use a print example of how designers and others can contribute to sustainability. Because the business card is small, it is a less obvious opportunity to improve the environment. However, recent printing and technology solutions provide a wealth of options for increasing the efficiency of business cards as a communication tool.
If a large number of designers adopted any of these methods, the reduction of the environmental impact that billions of business cards create every year would be substantial. To run a company, no matter how hard you may try, you will probably still need to print business cards, stationary and promotional materials. The key is to reduce the impact of your print materials as much as possible while maintaining their effectiveness as business tools. This is becoming less of a trade off in many ways, and the solution will be different for everyone. With a little research you can make a large impact.
Pick the Right Printer
Traditional offset printing uses harmful chemicals and contaminates water during the process of creating negatives (film) and/or burn plates (usually some type of polyester material). Another set of chemicals is then used to make the plate ready for the press. In some shops, like ours, a process called DTP (Direct-To-Plate) is used which removes the negative (film) process entirely, and files are sent from the computer directly to our metal plate system. These are also recyclable. And they often produce a better end product. Also some newer offset printing technologies use absolutely no chemicals throughout the entire process, are smaller, and use less electricity. Ask your print about the details of their printing process, you will quickly find which ones are paying attention to these details and which ones are not.
Also, look local. The closer the printer is to you, the less impact your product being shipped will have. Consider a local printer that you can build a close relationship with. I have worked with many local printers that will personally drop off a project when completed.
Are you a green printer that cares about sustainability? Leave your company name and website in the comments and I will add your company to this blog post.
Smaller Cards
People often say that you can only go green by not printing. This isn’t the case… and is not how the subject should be approached. While technology solutions should be considered, the overarching goal should be to reduce your paper, material waste, and harmful byproducts. One of the easiest way to reduce paper is to simply use a smaller card.
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Twestivus for the Rest of Us
Twestival (Twitter Festival) is a global charity event happening in some 200 cities across the world. It is being organized by volunteers only and all money goes directly to Charity : Water.
The Charlotte Twestival is at Cans Bar in 4 days and promises to be a rockin’ time. 50 tickets sold already. Why should you come out?
- Provide clean water to people in the world in need
- Ticket prizes for all, from $5 (limited time only) to $100, whatever you can afford
- Wii competitions
- $500 cruise raffle prize
- 106.5 the End, End Sessions ticket prizes
- Scuba certification raffle prize
- Chair Massages
- VIP section
- Local celebs Terri Bennett, Jack Daniels, and an anonymous Mermaid
- Charlotte’s largest Tweetup yet
If you are unable to attend, but would like to contribute to the cause, feel free to visit the site a buy a ticket as your donation.
