Obesity Mocumentary - Can it Go Viral?

I've been curious about how YouTube videos "go viral." I went to a Webinar about this the other day. First, you have to have good content. Then you have to share with influential people and ask them to forward on.

Well, my talented son-in-law and comedian, Chris Tidd, made this video starring my daughter, Meg, when she was pregnant. It's a spoof documentary on obesity and it's hilarious! Check it out and if you like it, pass the link on to your network or retweet. Let's see if we can go viral!

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.

1. LinkedIn
2. Facebook
3. Twitter
4. YouTube
5. Blogger
6. Google Reader
7. Google Alerts
8. De.licio.us
9. Mashable
10. Meetup

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.

• LinkedIn For Job Seekers
• Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn To Find a Job

Facebook

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.

• The Twenty Best Facebook Apps For Job Search
  

Twitter

You can use tools such as twello or wefollow to follow people that give job tips or are in your industry. It was through Twitter that I found great additional job search sites such as job mob and http://www.e4myjob.com/ There's a wealth of information that's shared on through links to informative websites and blogs.

• HOW TO: Find a Job on Twitter
• Twitter Job Search

YouTube

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.

• Job Resumes 2.0: Creating a Video Resume
  

Blogger

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.

• 100+ Career Blogs ALL Professionals MUST Read

Google Reader

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.

• Find A Job Using RSS Feeds And Google Reader
  

Google Alerts

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.

• Combine Feed-Creating Tools with Email Alerts to Nab That Job

De.licio.us

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.

• Key Social Networking and Bookmarking Sites for Job-Seekers
  

Mashable

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.

• CAREER TOOLBOX: 100+ Places to Find Jobs

Meetup

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

Bouldernet's Got Talent - Liz Ryan

First off, I apologize to both Liz Ryan and the gentleman whose head I caught in this photo. Obviously, I must add “learn how to take a good photo” on my ever-growing list of things I’m going to learn while I’m unemployed. One of my other goals has been to meet cool, influential people and spread the word about them. As mentioned with my blog post about Dave Taylor, I have yet to really do my homework on gaining followers. For now, I’m just trying to get my feet wet learning about social media tools – and believe me, there are a lot to choose from.

So how did I get to see Liz, up close and personal? It started with my friend, Pete, who invited me to Bouldernet, a group of Boulder-area job-seekers that meets weekly on Thursday mornings. I was greeted by a group of about 50 people, all very friendly and welcoming. At the beginning of the meeting, “I have a job” announcements were made, followed by cheers from the group. There were smiles and handshakes and it was kind of heartwarming to be joining this special club of supporters. When we newbies got up to introduce ourselves it did seem a bit like AA. “My name is Yvette. I’ve been unemployed for 1 week.” I almost said I was a recovered workaholic. I let the group know that I’d be interested in giving a session on use of Social Media to find a job, and the leader, Dave Collins, spoke to me after the meeting and gave me the thumbs up to present in August. Several others, including a few other Sun alumni, came up and introduced themselves to me.

But where does Liz fit in? Well, it turns out, she was the speaker at Thursday’s meeting! I’d heard of this dynamic woman before. She’s a popular speaker and writer and her name had come up through The Women’s Vision Foundation – a group I worked with through my role as Women@Sun chair. Liz has an active online community of her own called AskLizRyan. This was the first I’d had a chance to hear her speak and boy, was it a treat! Liz, not only has a lot of great advice about resume writing, she’s hilarious! I’d try to recap some of her best quips, but it’s really her anecdotes and personality that make her funny. She could make it as a stand-up comic in LA! At one point she belted out a few lines from My Fair Lady’s “Show Me,” in an attempt to point out our resumes should not be full of flowery adjectives, but instead tell of our accomplishments with hard facts. All the resume advice was great, but at this point, I was thinking that Liz could not only be stand-up comic, but a musical sensation on Broadway! So we got it all -- resume advice, comedy, and a little bit of music.

What a great group! I was able to meet new people, learn how to improve my resume, and listen to an excellent speaker – all for a $1 donation! Had I known unemployment could be so good, I think I would have gotten laid off long ago!

Of course, when I got home, that My Fair Lady song was still going through my head. I had to check to see if Liz thought to produce her singing talent on YouTube. I found her on YouTube, but she was giving resume advice. After checking out Liz's Bio, I found that, indeed she is mega-talented, has written the book: Happy About Online Networking: The virtual-ly simple way to build professional relationships and is a professional opera singer! I knew it!

All the resume advice Liz gives is great, but I seriously think she needs to capitalize on that singing. I mean if Susan Boyle can make it big that way, certainly Liz Ryan can. Maybe even I could! Here’s a song to help inspire all of us unemployed people to really demonstrate our talents.