Showing posts with label Blogs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blogs. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Free Hugs and Acts of Kindness
I first saw this YouTube video a few years ago. I thought the concept of Free Hugs very unique and touching. Well...for some people, maybe too "touching". Hugging someone you don't know can be uncomfortable. Last year, I had a big debate with my extended family, out visiting from California, about whether "free hugs" were inappropriate. I was part of a Random Acts of Kindness Meetup group and there was a Free Hugs event that I wanted to attend. I eventually talked some of my family into going with me. It was an interesting experience, but I admit, I ended up feeling a little reluctant to hug people I didn't know. My geek side is much more comfortable with "virtual hugs" with strangers in the form of social media greetings or blog comments.
Though I can see how hugging may be a little too touchy-feely for a first encounter, I'm especially moved when a stranger is kind to me. There are a lot of examples, especially via the Web, to "connect". Today I got an email from someone I'd met very briefly at the Renaissance Festival last month, and she sent me digital photos she'd taken. Yesterday I got taken to lunch by someone that had read my "SuperFrug" blog post. Recently, I was congratulated on the birth of my grandson from someone who lived in Spain! These random acts of kindness are happening every day. Social Media and the web have made it easier for us to have conversations with strangers and share of ourselves. And soon we're no longer strangers. That is so cool.
Some people are skeptical when they're approached by a stranger. "What do they want?" is always the question. And it's true...sometimes, especially in the world of social networks, often a comment from a stranger means they want you to connect or to follow them or to read their blog or buy their product. But sometimes, they just are truly kind and not expecting anything in return. Give people the benefit of the doubt. Accept the kindness and don't question it. If you feel like reciprocating, then do. If you don't, then don't. But reaching out or accepting a "virtual hug" is easy and you run little risk of invading anyone's personal space. If people are blogging or on the social networks, they're inviting your comments. So go out and give some virtual hugs in the form of emails or comments to strangers today, with no ulterior motive other than it feels good.
Want to do more? Check out Random Acts of Kindness. Make the world a better place.
Monday, July 20, 2009
The Ultimate Job Search Using 10 Social Media Tools
As a Communications Manager at Sun Microsystems, I was encouraged to learn about New Media and explore possibilities for its use in business. When I was hit with the most recent round of corporate layoffs, I felt prepared because I knew that social media tools could give me a big advantage in my job search. Here are ten tools that I've been using. Each of these is described briefly below with some supplemental links to additional information and resources.
LinkedIn
Of all the social media tools, LinkedIn is the most beneficial to use for a job search. This tool allows you to establish a professional presence and network with others in your field. Advanced search capabilities for companies and people, as well as the use of groups, allow you to intelligently network and find the people that can help you get your next job.
FaceBook allows you to network with your friends, letting them know of your job search. Updating your status allows you to let your friends know that you're job hunting and what you're looking for. There are groups and fan pages for many companies, allowing you to research the culture of any companies you're targeting for your job search. Applications, such as FaceBook Marketplace are popping up that will help with a job search.
Of all the social media tools, LinkedIn is the most beneficial to use for a job search. This tool allows you to establish a professional presence and network with others in your field. Advanced search capabilities for companies and people, as well as the use of groups, allow you to intelligently network and find the people that can help you get your next job.
FaceBook allows you to network with your friends, letting them know of your job search. Updating your status allows you to let your friends know that you're job hunting and what you're looking for. There are groups and fan pages for many companies, allowing you to research the culture of any companies you're targeting for your job search. Applications, such as FaceBook Marketplace are popping up that will help with a job search.
Creating a video resume will help you stand out in this competitive job market. This can be done simply with YouTube. You can imbed your YouTube video resume onto a website or put it on your profile in your other social networking sites such as LinkedIn, FaceBook, and Twitter. Another alternative is to use VisualCV to create an online resume, including video and links highlighting accomplishments and publications.
Blogs are useful in a job search, both from the perspective of learning from others as well as establishing your own online presence. There are many ways to find blogs that are of interest. Once you find them, you'll be able to network with people that have interests similar to yours and learn from one another. By publicly commenting on blogs and blogging yourself, you will help establish your credibility and expertise in a certain area. When you leave comments for others, include your name and your the URL of your blog. This will help your name will come up more often in Google searches, and will help establish your brand.
Now that you have a bunch of blogs your reading, you'll need a reader to keep track of the updates. First thing in the morning you can have the latest updates from your favorite bloggers. You can also subscribe to RSS feeds for any job sites using keywords so that you'll see any new job opportunities in your field as soon as they're posted.
Using Alerts you can set up Google to email you daily updates using keywords of your choice. You may want to get alerts about your niche market or a particular oganization that you are targeting so you will have the most up-to-date information.
Bookmarking sites, such as Del.icio.us, Digg, and StumbleUpon help organize our bookmarks. As we're searching through the plethora of great information that's available, we inevitably want to save articles to go back to. Through use of tagging, we can organize our bookmarks into categories. In addition, we can find articles that others have marked as useful by searching for articles that were tagged with certain keywords. By using a social bookmarking site, we can access our bookmarks we aren't tied to a browser or computer, but can access our bookmarks whenever we have access to the web. Bookmarking your own sites will also help raise visibility to your brand.
Mashable.com is the Bible of all things social media. This is a great reference when learning how to use various social media tools. Mashable often has very helpful articles that relate to the job search.
Meetup.com is a site that is not mentioned much in the social media circles, yet it's a great resource for local networking because it allows for physically meeting face-to-face. There are groups for hobbyists or business professionals. Joining and getting involved in one of these groups will allow you to explore your passions and continue to broaden your network. You can start your own meetup group and gain credibility and contacts at the same time. There are plenty of groups for jobseekers as well. A search for “jobs” in a 25 miles radius of my home came up with 38 groups such as:
- Front Range Career Forum (Job Search Networking & Advice)
- Denver Job Club Meetup (Formerly Unemployed Meetup)
- BoulderNet
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