OK, so I’m being more than a little melodramatic to get your attention, but if you are guilty – you’re making a really big mistake. Not only in regard to my health, but your own networking and marketing health are suffering. Mark my words!

Look, I’m all for breaking rules to be avant garde  and stake a claim in cyberspace. But misusing profiles isn’t the way to do that.. it just makes you look like you don’t know what you’re doing. The rules of social engagement call for respect of user agreements.

Some ‘Don’ts’ from the LinkedIn User Agreement (10. LINKEDIN USER “DOS” and “DON’TS.”) 

• Don’t create a user profile for anyone other than a natural person
• Don’t upload a profile image that is not your likeness or a head-shot photo
• Don’t invite people you do not know to join your network (this one is just plain asinine, against the rules of social engagement and doesn’t count – must be a left over April Fool’s Day prank )

What would better suit your needs is a Company Page.

LinkedIn, Google+ and Facebook have specific provisions for company pages. Twitter on the other hand functions quite differently and the best solution is to create separate personal and business accounts to strategically engage the twittersphere.

What’s wrong with networking as a business rather than as a person?

When you ‘hide’ behind a company profile, rather than present yourself as a representative of the company, you’ll find that you have to constantly police your attitude, sense of humor, distribution of content and personal relationships – because you are acting as the company. I can’t say how many times I have seen a ‘company’ post something not in its best interest because the individual behind the posts had a ‘personal’ hat on and missed an opportunity to represent the company in the best possible light.

When you wear the company hat the content character must be purposeful, selective, targeted and engaging to the right audience – often meaning the general public. Think of it as being a billboard with potentially immense global reach (depending on how good you, your strategy and execution are). It should be the company’s character that is promoted not the individual’s. That’s a heavy responsibility.

Managing your personal online presence is also critical matter – if you care, and you should. It’s expected an individual – regardless of how high up the food chain they are, has a unique personal style, character, sense of humor, off the cuff comments, candid moments, personal conversations, photos, etc. You can be the CEO and post about your family, vacation, what you had for lunch, and personal opinion, and it can crystallize the essence of ‘social networking’ and make you human and approachable – something that hiding behind a logo cannot do.

Can you see now why posting personal content directly under the company banner just doesn’t do the company any justice at all and it’s important to have both personal and corporate identities?

P.S. Don’t bother considering that I am being inappropriate with the inhaler here… I’m all too familiar. 

After all, sometimes we all need help getting out of our rut. Know that if the current way you are searching for a job isn’t yielding the results you expect, it’s time to change your strategy. If your job search consists mainly of scouring the big job boards and registering on your state’s one-stop-shop website, know that there is so much more you can do to improve the odds of getting off unemployment or into your first professional gig post graduation.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. - Albert Einstein

Here is the 10 step strategic job search plan I discuss when I go out to talk to college students, job clubs and with individuals I coach on their job search.

1. Identify the position you seek (be realistic or this will just be a futile exercise in fantasy and frustration). You may be open to or skilled in multiple jobs but pick the one you are most qualified for and most would like to be employed in.
2. Pull up your resumé on the screen and tailor it to this position. Mentally assume the position you have selected and review your resume to see that the professional you are in that role is talking. It must look, smell and feel like it’s you, the Forensic Accountant, Account Executive, HR Coordinator etc. in charge and talking. Note that most people simply do not do justice to their own resumé. If you cannot hire a professional resumé writer then at least go to book store to the business books section and find something like Resume Magic: Trade Secrets of a Professional Resume Writer by Susan Whitcomb. And don’t stop there… by all means have a couple of friends who who are managers and hire people (doesn’t have to be in your field) review, proof read and critique it for you. Remember, opinions are like #$$&()^!@ - literally everyone has one – just make an informed decision based on the critiquing and edit accordingly. The last two letters in resumé are ME so don’t be a template be you.
3. Think about 10 companies you would really like to work for – not 10 companies you ‘would’ work for if a carrot were dangled in front of your face. If you don’t know 10 companies that hire people to do what you do then you have a huge area of opportunity for research, and you will have increased your competitive  industry knowledge significantly – only to your benefit. Search on Google, LinkedIn, Hoovers if you have a subscription, etc. Check out this short instructional video for tips on How to Research Companies Online- Power Prospecting with Google Search. Yes, it is geared toward client prospecting for sales… I’m certain you can figure out how to adjust to your needs as a job seeker. You’re prospecting too!
4. Start a shareable spreadsheet (I love Google docs). The first tab is the summary sheet with the 10 companies on it. Then create a tab for each company. On each company sheet plot the following across the header row fields: company, contact 1, contact 2, contact 3, date resume sent, date response received, date of interview, next step, notes. Customize as you see fit but the idea is to chart a process and be deliberate not hari-kari, shot in the dark or random hit and miss.
5. Contact a few people you admire professionally and who are good networkers you think could help you with intelligence on or connections into these companies. Share the spreadsheet with them and give them access to edit it. In the email to send them the link, attach your resumé, let them know how much you admire their careers and value their expertise and assistance and you are asking that they be part of your personal advisory board during your job search. Ask that they help you fill out the contact information in the spreadsheet and make introductions for you via LinkedIn, email, phone, coffee, however they can. Ask them for their ideas on how you can network into these companies. Ask if they know of other companies who could use your talent. Research their suggestions and if you like them, add them to your spreadsheet.
6. Spend 2 hours Monday – Friday (except holidays) researching, networking, connecting, and charting your progress daily on the spreadsheet until you A) Get a job or B) Exhaust all options with your advisory board and the companies. That means until you receive a rejection from each company and rule it out. Don’t delete the row, highlight it in red and sort the row to the bottom of the list. Spend the rest of the day volunteering and taking care of and being good to yourself/family.
7. Keep 10 companies on the list at all times. When one is ruled out research others to replace it. This way, you’ll never run out of options until you get a job but never have more on the list than you can focus on. It’s strategic, it’s a plan. It’s doable.
8. Send a weekly progress summary in an email to your personal advisory board with the link to the spreadsheet and ask them to review your work and make suggestions. Doing this each week without fail (except if you are in a coma) keeps you and your advisory board committed. If your advisory board members all know one another then send a group email and revel in the groupthink that begins to take place. If not, ask for permission to make the introductions to one another. The advisory board members can get a lot out of this too!
9. Be gracious to your advisory board members, thanking them profusely for their time and energy and be patient and kind to yourself as your network grows and you begin to get more interviews and chart progress in your job search. No more blindly surfing job boards, just calculated actionable and measurable steps to success…
10.  Get your job and then spend time teaching this method to others. Forward this post to other job seekers, get your personal advisory board to do a panel presentation with you at a job fair or job club, blog about your own job search and what worked and what didn’t – to help others. Be a personal advisory board member for someone else, the way others did for you.

P.S. I didn’t post about HOW you should network -you have to do what works for you. I suggest a combination of in-person and on-line networking – neither exclusive of the other. That means LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, online communities, professional mixers, job clubs, association meetings, professional community events where you live. You know, stuff like that.

In the upper right hand corner of every page on LinkedIn is a site search with ‘people’ as the default. The common use of the search field is to look for people you know or would like to connect with. Many people don’t realize the box drops down to 7 fabulous search features, each with their unique benefits.

Even the busiest, most time constrained person can upgrade their online networking activity by spending even 15 minutes a week with my drop down technique on LinkedIn.

It’s great for people who need a little guidance and structure to their online networking to optimize their LinkedIn experience. I hope you’ll like it and find yourself with a new coffee ritual in the morning.

1. People – Take the business cards you collected during the week and check your calendar for the upcoming week’s meetings and connect. Personalize the invitations by letting your new contacts know you would like to stay updated on their activity via LinkedIn. Your network and access to the network of your new contacts will grow quickly.
2. Updates – When you search updates you are searching the global LinkedIn network. Use keywords for your industry, professional interests, someone in the news, technology – anything you would like to see the network perspective on. Click on profiles of people you would like to know more about and if you’re interested – connect.
3. Jobs – Search jobs even if you love yours. Stay abreast of positions at the competition, learn who could use your services as a consultant during a gap, see where the turnover is – in short, job posts reveal a lot of information even for non job seekers. If you are looking for a new opportunity you’ll see who you’re connected to that could give you insider info and walk your resume to the hiring manager or HR.
4. Companies – The company profile is the perfect place to find consolidated information on news, recent company and employee activity, demographics, who you are connected to there, job openings and stock info if applicable. It’s a great way to help prepare for an interview or upcoming meeting.
5. Answers – Search keywords to find conversations you can participate in with the global LinkedIn network. Crowdsource information and opinions, help build your reputation as a subject matter expert, find experts and – connect.
6. Inbox – You might notice from the screenshot in this post that I have a lot in my LinkedIn inbox. I don’t delete everything. The inbox is searchable by name and keyword so for example, if I search ‘human resources’ anyone who has that in their profile or a message they sent me will return in the results. Keep your conversations unless they are junk, one day you’ll be glad you did.
7. Groups – LinkedIn allows everyone to belong to 50 groups. This is a huge benefit because when you belong to a group you are indirectly connected to all its members and have access to them without having to connect directly. Groups can be searched by industry, occupation, university, geography, company/organization, natural resource, etc. You can join and leave groups, and not so long ago group owners were given the option of opening to the public. That means the content of groups that are open can be viewed and commented on by non group members. To start a discussion you’ll have to become a member of the group however. Groups also have free job boards and many recruiters post there versus paying for posts on LinkedIn jobs.

Are you one of the one in six? If not, you have an area of opportunity to work on. Although you’ll find jobs posted on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, job posts are not the power of social networking.  The power is in building relationships enabled by these vehicles. It takes some learning and finesse to understand how to be truly effective – or, you can slog through it by trial and error, key and click and hope you land on your feet at an interview.

Before you can be effective in a web 2.0 social job search it’s crucial to have a working foundational understanding of social media, reputation management, etiquette, and a strategy.

If you live in northeast PA and want to increase your level of digital literacy, build your 2.0 social skills to help with your job search, help market your business, recruit employees, promote jobs opportunities or your nonprofit, meet others with similar interests, manage an online community, or just demystify the web of tools available today to enhance communication and quality of life, I have news to share:

Luzerne County Community College has invited me to conduct a  series of 4 workshops on Tuesday evenings in March, Facebook and Beyond with Karla Porter. It’s a hands on workshop in a computer lab that will be held from 6-9pm at the Corporate Learning Center on Public Square in Wilkes-Barre, PA.

From the course guide:

This hands-on novice series of four workshops is designed to build a foundation for using the social webs most popular applications like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, for the purpose of creating conversations, building relationships and reputation management. The workshops will provide hands on experience with account management, basic and advanced features, third party applications and the creation of a ‘social media strategy’ to help you effectively engage in virtual communities, target interests, promote ideals and events and manage your online personality. You will experience a variety of tools that allow you to participate in the key activities of social media: listening, connecting, contributing, communicating, community, and measuring. The workshops will take place in a computer lab for hands-on exploring the social web, learning and application of the tools. You will leave the workshop with a solid basic understanding of social media / Web 2.0 concepts, key skills for implementing social web initiatives and knowledge of how to build an effective presence and strategy. Target Audience: Students with keyboarding skills that are comfortable using a PC and the Internet that are interested in using social media tools for listening, connecting, contributing, communicating, building community, and measuring.

 This is a hot opportunity to tap 12 hours of my time and expertise for $109.  - a crazy unheard of deal at $9.08 per hour of instruction.

Go ahead, search social media seminars and courses and see if you come up with something comparable. I’m partnering with the college to do it because I’m committed to increasing the use of this type of technology in the region to help bring the community up to par in its use with other metro areas across the country, increase our market competitiveness and suck us into the age of modernity.

If you’re an executive who blocks social media in your company because it’s ‘scary’ I hope to see you there, and bring your marcom peeps too.

P.S. This is a community service not my consulting fee – so catch it while you can!

Connection with force

Although actually a measurement of acceleration, the term g-force is, as its name implies, popularly imagined to refer to the force that an accelerating object “feels”. These so-called “g-forces” are experienced, for example, by fighter jet pilots or riders on a roller coaster, and are caused by changes in speed and direction. The relationship between force and acceleration stems from Newton’s second law, F = ma, where F is force, m is mass and a is acceleration. This equation shows that the larger an object’s mass, the larger the force it experiences under the same acceleration. – Webster’s Online Dictionary

Google+ is the new positive G-force

A few weeks ago on Google+ launch day, the value of the social web accelerated exponentially with positive g-force.

I like portals and command centers (throwback to the military?) and as a compliment to the extensive suite of many other very fine apps the big G provides, Google+ promises to provide the one-stop communications command center I have longed for.

Over the past few weeks I have been informally polling people from various professional backgrounds, “Are you on Google Plus” I ask? The typical response is “Oh that new Google Facebook thing?” So, while there have been several very good tutorials to share written by other bloggers, my thoughts are that there is no need to recreate the wheel …. I have enough work to do. I choose to share the best by far – it comes right from the source. However by all means, add your favorites in comments – please.

Until the launch of Google+ I was a Mozilla Firefox maven. But, the same day David Graziano hooked me up with an invite, I decided to take the final plunge into the Google pool of goodness and go Chrome. What I have found immensely useful are a few of browser extensions to customize the experience. Since I added the extensions I have spent little personal time on other social networks – with the exception of LinkedIn (yes it is). If I didn’t manage so many Twitter and Facebook Fan Page accounts I doubt I would continue to spend time on them at all.

G+me for Google Plus – Enhances the Google+ web app to make it much easier to process a large stream of incoming posts and comments and unlock the potential of its real-time updates.

SGPlus - Complete social network integration: post to Facebook and Twitter, see your feeds inside Google Plus, and much more.

Plus One (+1) Button – With this extension, you can ‘Google +1′ all web pages and websites. Great for sites that do not have a +1 button installed (hellooooo ST).

This week, Google pulled out all the stops with a campaign to convert holdouts of email accounts from other web based email providers over to the dark side. I approve of this type of conversion…

I get a lot of these types of requests and I’m limited on time so I often think that’s nice and move on, as much as I would love to have my hand constantly in the candy jar.. but Pete’s email provoked chemistry.. I had to check it out.

The principle is simple yet genius, the add-on (Firefox only right now) allows you to highlight a name on a page and instantly find the person on multiple popular social media sites recruiters commonly use –>LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and others.

This is what I have been missing…

No more copying and pasting URL’s, searching sites and search engines for profiles. It also allows you to send a message to the person from the application which sneaks into the profile messaging system of the site you are on. In other words, it carries a set of extremely useful sourcing tools to each social media site with you.

Good bye LinkedIn paid InMails – You’re the weakest link!

Yes – you can do these things manually, but now you don’t have to so my recommendation is that you fire up this add-on, watch the video and continue doing what you do best, but now in a much more efficient and dare I say fun way! It took me only a few minutes to install, watch the video and get the hang of it – less than the time it takes to brew a pot of coffee.

I like it so much I stopped what I was doing to write this review. What are you waiting for?

Hey….. come back after you check it out, I want to hear your thoughts. Are you excited about this as I am?

Working on a project to find the preferred web sites/resources that people use to search for jobs. What are your favorites or those that you recommend ??

What I found in the handful of answers was that many of my peers across the country dwell within the federal or state systems (one-stop shops) and don’t often peek their heads out – however, to their credit they are beginning to use LinedIn. Besides one-stop shops, answers ranged from LinkedIn, Jobcentral national labor exchange, following Jim Stroud (rock on buddy-great advice for felons today!) and AARP WorkSearch, to DOL’s Job Search Challenge where one must search through over 16,000 responses listing over 600 resources  (slightly overwhelming?) many of which really could use a good weeding out.

The question was asked in earnest by someone conducting research for a Workforce Investment Board. I cringe at the fact that with the information he was provided, the government is actually going to receive feedback that  the products they designate our dollars to  are  highly effective…. And so the vicious circle continues.

I could not help but to fight the good fight… and so I contributed this:


Whether true or not, the corporate perception is that state one-stop system and its job boards are for labor, blue collar and low paying jobs. Therefore, many employers of white collar and well compensated jobs do not use the system – they do not wish to attract what they would perceive to be unqualified candidates.

Other obstacles for employers are that state systems tend to be cumbersome (it could be compared to filling out a US Census American Community Survey) and not user friendly to post and market jobs, do not tie in with applicant tracking systems (ATS), and are not linked with social media sharing tools. Good recruiters have so many creative and effective free ways to make their job postings viral and wide reaching they prefer to use those tools.

Companies with slashed recruitment budgets are posting less and less on big job boards because of the cost and avalanche of untargeted, unqualified resumes that pour in from all over for any job due to the high amount of unemployed. When a company is not prepared to pay relocation costs it makes little sense and is not cost effective to conduct a national search on a big job board.

Our solution in northeastern PA was to create a free to post regional job board supported by chambers of commerce, business and industry and other economic and workforce development agencies, in 2004. The platform became outdated and it became time for a new look, updated functionality and features.

I took over project management from another organization and relaunched the new WorkNEPA last week. It is well branded in our region and employers and job seekers know to use it. From all indications since the relaunch last week, with the incorporation of web 2.0 and mobile features and functionality (now powered by Job Rooster), it will have more success than ever. Even the smallest employer now has access to free job posts that aggregate to Indeed, pre-qualifying questions, text SMS capability and social media sharing, to ensure jobs are promoted widely. We have a Facebook Fanpage and Twitter account that repost all jobs into the far reaches of cyber job search and also repost on the appropriate targeted LinkedIn local group job boards – all nicely indexed on search engines like Google.

I also recommend to job seekers that they use LinkUp – a job board aggregator that scrapes corporate career pages for jobs that are often unadvertised on external job boards. Additionally, when I speak to job seekers, whether it is at a local job club or networking event, I refer them to my own website for job search tips and techniques (OK so I self promoted a tad LOL).

I’m interested in knowing your take on government sponsored job boards. Whether you’re a Recruiter of Job Seeker, do you use them, and if so, which ones and are you happy with the results?

There are certain circumstances in which a purposeful trifecta strategy is desirable and appropriate, like job postings, important public announcements (I got a promotion, graduated college, won the lottery and I’m out of here), and information to be shared that you are certain would appeal to those at the water cooler as well as in the boardroom.

Tweets like the ones imported into my LinkedIn home page at this very moment by my contacts add zero value taken out of their Twitter context (actually, some have no value posted anywhere).

yep- my laptop battery is already dead

I got blisters on my fingers and my toes

Good Morning! Good Afternoon! Good Evening! Good Night! Good Day! Wherever you are, you can make it “good.”

Did I just see@temauk on tv at the sugar bowl?

I’m at DStroyerRadio.com (Wilkes-Barre) – foursquare check in

I’ve lost track of #tchat . Waiting for the next question.

And on and on…..

Rather than connecting Twitter to Facebook via the official Twitter app use Selective Twitter. It’s easy to use. When you want a tweet to post to Twitter, simply end it with #fb. This way, your club’s tweet chat convo doesn’t end up in your Facebook timeline to confuse and frustrate your other friends. It works for fan pages you manage too.

If I’m at an event I can post updates and pics with my Blackberry to one of the many fan pages I manage easily to both Twitter and Facebook (I use ÜberTwitter – available for iPhone too). If the content is also appropriate for LinkedIn I can post there too at the same time by adding #in or #li.

When you configure your LinkedIn account settings to connect with Twitter, be sure to select the “share only tweets that contain #in or #li.” LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman and Twitter’s Biz Stone made a video to talk about bringing the peanut butter and the chocolate together for maximum effectiveness. Using the two together can be a smart strategy if done the way they suggest.

Be sure to send a reminder to disconnect as an ecard to those you know – better yet, forward this post to them!

Dust off your LinkedIn profile, ensure it is updated and get familiar with new features that were added over the past year. Read the LinkedIn blog for all the skinny.

Join 50 groups (50 is the limit and they are free and all contain a job board) according to industry, location, Alma mater, etc. and introduce yourself through a post on the discussion board with a mini bio and mention you are a job seeker.

Search the Questions & Answers feature for questions you have expertise in and can answer and ask questions of peers – great way to get your name visible and dialog with people you would likely otherwise not have the opportunity to.

Export your contacts and send an email to them monthly, the first time with a re-introduction and monthly with an update on your job search. Be sure to bcc everyone so you don’t disclose their email addresses.

Learn how doing your job search via LinkedIn jobs shows you who you are connected to at the companies you are interested in that have jobs posted. This allows you to apply through the front door and network through the back door.

Follow companies you are interested in employment with by doing a company search and clicking the follow button. See who works there and get busy making connections.

If you have a professional blog link it to your account to introduce it to visitors.

Don’t link your Twitter account to LinkedIn if you tweet random things – it’s truly annoying to everyone but you. Use select tweets. Actually, please use select tweets with Facebook too.

Do a strategic contact search, pick up the phone and start calling!

Realize that every time you make a profile enhancement or post an interesting status update you show up in the time line of all you connections – stay in their face, in a professional way – of course.

There is a lot I haven’t covered, what’s your hot LinkedIn tip?

OK… I’m back! There were about 40 students in the class. All but three were from out of the area. Most were business students with a sprinkling of nursing majors. I asked them a lot of questions so I knew where I stood.

How Many have a Facebook? 38

Twitter? 3

LinkedIn? 39 – Seriously? The professor chimed in… it was a class project.

How many of you use your LinkedIn profile? 2

Who has a personal website or blog? 1

How do you think social media can advance your career goals? Nada……

It might be shocking to learn that most college students think that companies just use social media to see if you posted “bad” photos of yourself and to read your online resume. That’s why I love to speak to students.. to let them know they can be in the driver’s seat of their careers by following and friending their future colleagues, gleaning expert advice from industry professionals, meeting mentors, questioning companies about career paths.. all while they are viewed as non-threatening knowledge seekers.

When I entered the room I put a stack of business cards on the desk and invited students to network with me. Though they didn’t ask many questions they did ask important ones. On the way out several took me up on my offer to connect. I also suggested that perhaps Career Services might consider creating an online community for each graduating class and recruit mentors to interact with students.

Students who take advantage of online professional networking early in their college career will grow an army of soldiers that will be their best resources when it comes the second half of senior year and the job search begins.

What advice do you have for students?