The 10 Best Jobs to Get through Social Networking Sites

We think you can get just about any kind of contract work or new job with the help of one or more social networking sites. Now you wouldn’t necessarily turn to MySpace to get your next job as an actuary. Then again, LinkedIn may not be as helpful to you if you were a musician looking for new gigs. But by using a combination of these sites we’re convinced you can land that next job faster. If that job happens to be one of the following, your task is even simpler. We present these in no particular order.

1) Public Relations Manager. Whatever you want to call it: Communications Manager, or PR Director, as a professional communicator you should really be able to make your online profile sing. Just about any company has someone in a PR role and may be looking for someone just like you. Even if a company isn’t currently in the market for someone with your skills, you can keep your name in front of the right people by careful and frequent networking through the sites we discuss in this book.

2) Social Media Strategist. Of course you can demonstrate how well you know this new field by skillfully using the tools that comprise it. Executives are just starting to realize how essential it is they have someone on board who can use sites like Twitter to provide customer service, seed the market with news about their companies, dispel rumors, and much more.

3) Musician. MySpace alone justifies including musicians in this list. Thankfully, for this group MySpace came along when it did. CD sales were steadily dropping, making life as a musician more challenging than ever. Thanks to MySpace, musicians (especially smaller independent artists), can find new work and contacts, and promote themselves in ways they never could have even imagined before.

4) Blogger. Everyone’s attention span is shrinking to that of a fly’s, and sites like Twitter don’t help. But we make time to read the words of someone who can help us do our jobs better, or maybe just better understand the world we inhabit. Whether your goal is to be an independent blogger, or blog for a website or corporation, social networking sites can help you promote your work to millions of people.

5) Copywriter. With so many sites offering you the chance to let everyone know your current status, or to microblog about what’s got your gears going, writers of all types have powerful new showcases for their talents. Copywriters are just one type, but a good example.

6) Consultant/ Freelancer. If you’re in business for yourself you should be spending a good part of each workday marketing yourself and your skills. An excellent way to do this is through LinkedIn’s Answers section, where you can demonstrate your expertise in a worldwide forum, and unobtrusively include your background information just in case you’ve inspired someone to hire you.

7) Information Technology worker. Many programmers, software engineers and their managers use social networking sites; they’ve always been early adopters of new forms of electronic communications. These sites should be one of the first places you turn when you’re looking for that next IT job, as if we had to tell you.

8) Comedian. We’re going to thank MySpace again, this time on behalf of comedians for making it easier for them to promote themselves and get new gigs. And we’re not kidding around, either.


9) Web Designer. Businesses of all sizes need web designers to help them get their sites up and running, and then webmasters to keep them going. You can demonstrate your skills in this area in many ways, using social networking sites. These include the design of your MySpace or Facebook page, the portfolio you include as part of your LinkedIn profile, or the questions you answer on those ubiquitous discussion boards.

10) Marketing manager. Prove that you can sell yourself and you may have an easier time convincing someone you can move products for them as well. Social networking sites make it much easier for you to sell yourself to a worldwide audience through your words and accomplishments, and reach people who would care.

Copyright 2009, McGraw-Hill, from the forthcoming book How to Find a Job with LinkedIn and Other Social Networks

GE's Customer Care Doesn't

I'm about to arrange to take my third Monday afternoon in a row off from work so I can be here for GE’s service technician. He's repairing my microwave, which is less than 6 weeks old.

Here's what happened.

Week 1, I call the service center, describe the problem I'm having (power cuts off after a few seconds) and the rep says "it's probably an inverter board," and schedules a repair call.

Week 2, The technician arrives, diagnoses the problem and says it's an inverter board. He orders the part.

Week 3,.The part has arrived, the repair guy comes to install it, but it's the wrong part. He has to order the right part, I have to take a third day off from work to be available, and we have to go another week without a microwave.

Wouldn't the RIGHT thing for GE to have done is replace the microwave? Just ship us a new one, and have us ship the old one back? Or have the repair guy make the swap?

That would be showing GE cares about their customer's time, they’re concerned if they waste time because of their error, and keeping customers satisfied is its top priority. Instead, GE parrots back the warranty and disregards what this experience has meant to its customer and his perception of their company.

It's Time to Take Another Look at eBay

The Nortica 500 ranks eBay sellers according to feedback, so it's a pretty good measure of which sellers are successful.

I've been following top eBay sellers for about 5 years now for the books we've written. So on a lark, I checked the Nortica list from February 2006, which I reprinted in eBay PowerSeller Million Dollar Ideas. The surprising news? All of the top 10 sellers from then remain in the top 20 today. And all but one is ACTIVELY selling on eBay. Some have tens of thousands of listings.

So what happened to all the sellers who jumped ship to Amazon?

Well some did, but as it turns out many of eBay's most successful sellers, who've been on selling there for years, remain on eBay.

This isn't to say there are not a lot of disenchanted sellers out there. What with the changes in feedback rules, fees, searching, etc. But to dismiss eBay has a "has been Web 1.0 company that's irrelevant" would be wrong.

Let's all take another look at eBay!

E-Books: Come on Baby Light my Kindle!

Brad used to work for a Silicon-Valley based Internet startup called MightyWords. MightyWords provided information in the form of everything from white papers to small books, but this information lived online, only. The company didn't digitize existing information, it created (or had created) new information that never saw the light of paper. This was back in the day, of course, when lots of Internet companies were attracting VC money, whether they had a solid business plan or not. No news there.

If you've never heard of MightyWords that's ok. The company vanished after a year or so, as it was burning through many hundreds of thousands of dollars a month, while taking in a fraction of that. But the idea of e-books persists, thanks in part to Amazon's Kindle.

The Kindle does solve a lot of the problems that other e-book readers had. Document delivery is fast and effortless. You can even get updates as they become available. And you're not limited to books either. You can subscribe to blogs, newspapers, and magazines also. The screen is much easier to read from than the screens of other readers. However, at $399 who is going to buy this device? You can still buy a lot of "tree books" for $399, and thanks to Amazon Prime you can have them in a day for a song.

Computer techies that need access to information immediately to troubleshoot, for example, would find the Kindle indispensable. So would others with a need for up-to-the-minute information and the deep pockets to get it (say some of those in the medical profession).

In the meantime, it's still seems it will be a long time before the Kindle really catches fire.

eBay Strike Flames Out

This was supposed to be the week that eBay sellers showed just how upset they were with the company by going out on strike. That is, by not posting any listings. Guess what? It looks like it didn’t happen folks. Not in the numbers many anticipated, anyway. Our own survey of top sellers, including members of the all-powerful Professional eBay Sellers Alliance, found that very few PowerSellers, at least, are participating in the strike.

This is not to say the strike sizzled out completely. The media has been all over the story (what story there really is, anyway). There were definitely people who chose not to list this week. But the vast majority of successful PowerSellers walked right through the strike the way a tough boxer walks through a jab.

Here are some reasons why:

*Sorry, but these guys are too busy selling. They don’t have time to plan for a strike, and frankly they don’t want to give up the income. Some of the PowerSellers we spoke with were not even certain of the details of the strike, like when it was!

*Many top sellers think the strike really won’t accomplish anything anyway. eBay is going to do what it’s going to do, regardless of what a tiny percentage of its sellers do. Haven’t any of these folks ever worked for a corporation? It’s all about the stock price guys. That’s what management is ultimately paying attention to.

*A few sellers actually think the changes eBay recently announced are GOOD for their businesses, and are not about to strike. One seller we spoke with noted that this will force some sellers to raise their Customer Service standards, to ensure their overall ratings are high. That’s a bad thing? Certainly not if you’re a buyer.

*Some sellers have left, or are leaving eBay’s site anyway, and are busy moving their wares through other pipelines, such as Amazon’s.

So despite the media circus, the strike has struck out folks. Let’s move on.

Successful Amazon Selling: An eBay PowerSeller’s Tips

Gary Richardson is a true e-commerce pioneer. A long-time eBay PowerSeller, he was one of the first PowerSellers to also become a top 5 category seller on Amazon. Here Gary shares some of his impressions of selling on Amazon versus selling on eBay.

Gary, you've sold on eBay for 3 years under the ID Harleyglasses, building a thriving business selling sunglasses, goggles, and reading glasses. But now, from what we've seen you're having a lot of success on Amazon with your store GogglesandGlasses.

What are Amazon customers like compared to eBay customers?

Ah… man worlds apart. I really don’t know much about my Amazon customers. I hardly ever hear from them, they don’t ask questions, they seem to be very confident and trusting in their purchases. On eBay we frequently get questions like “Are the new sunglasses really new” and “did this really ship”? Our Amazon, customers seem to be willing to pay for service and product, while our eBay shoppers are looking for the lowest price only. Shoppers definitely trust Amazon.com

I have noticed in the returns department that Amazon customers seem to return items in better condition than eBay customers, that’s just my micro observation. But we do have more returns from Amazon customers.

Does Amazon’s famous A-Z protection policy make your life better or worse?

I think it makes it better. I have had two claims as a seller, one won and one lost. I tend to enjoy the trust that buyers so confidently give to Amazon 3^rd party sellers in their purchases--they buy freely because of that A-Z safety net. I can tell you it’s real, it works, and customers keep coming back and recommending Amazon to their circle because of it.

We’ve been poking around and it seems you’ve become the go-to guy for insider info on Amazon selling. What do you see as the keys to successful Amazon selling as a third-party merchant?

• A toll free phone number and email for customers to contact you at any point in the sale. While they usually don’t use it, it’s good to have it available should any problems arise, it will save your feedback.

• An easy returns process. If customers find it difficult to return items they may skip the process and go directly to leaving you negative feedback. Endicia has a great return label feature. We can email, fax, or snail mail a return label to a customer passing our great postage rates on to them.

• Excellent feedback. Your feedback on Amazon is a one-way process and buyers don’t hold back when things go wrong. Amazon can remove sellers from the platform for excessive negative and neutral feedback. My advice is to do whatever you can to maintain perfect feedback, attempt to truly resolve every problem, and if the buyer is agreeable, try to remove the bad feedback. Buyers don’t look at how many feedbacks you have, they look at how good it is by the percentage.

• Positive Reviews on your products. Reviews are everything. A good review can shoot your product to the top, a bad review can send it flaming to the bottom of the basement. A good place to garner reviews is your own good feedback. You might tactfully ask your buyer who left positive feedback if they would be willing to write a review of your product. Some of Amazon’s top reviewers will review media or products if you send them a sample.

What do you think the future holds for eBay and Amazon?

Ooh…. Tough one! I see a big future in new fixed-price commerce. I feel most barn and attic finds have been found and I actually think there is a limit to auction fever. I think the Amazon Pay-Per-Sale (PPS) model will become more prevalent in the future and I’m not sure if eBay can make the leap to PPS without destroying auctions. I see increased competition for eBay in the fixed-price market with players like Neweggmall jumping into the action soon. eBay may become smaller as fixed-price commodity sellers flee to platforms with better pricing structures and fewer hoops to jump through to continue selling.

I don’t see a revival of Amazon auctions. Amazon needs better tools for sellers and better communication from the alliance department (Trust and Safety). I think Jeff Bezos has a long-term vision for Amazon, and it looks like it’s about to pay off. You can see it all coming together at once.

Amazon is forcing eBay to rethink its marketplace fees. This is good for sellers and also buyers--lower seller fees mean lower prices!

Use Blogs to Find eBay Products to Sell

You're reading one so you know that Blogs, or web logs, are informal Internet newsletters, sort of dispatches from the front. Blogs have taken the world of publishing out of the hands of the big guys and put it directly within the reach of all of us. Anyone can have a blog, and for that reason, blogs vary greatly in quality and content. But, one thing is for certain, reading blogs can help you discover what other people are thinking about, hoping for, and dreaming of. They can be a great way to spot emerging trends, and therefore product ideas that others aren’t tapping into yet.

You can search for blogs through Google just by clicking on the “more” button from the main Google page. Select the “blog” search option. Now, your search results will only include blogs. You can also use a blog directory to find relevant blogs. A good example of this type of directory is blogcatalog at http://www.blogcatalog.com/. Finally, you can go to http://www.weblogawards.org to view a list of award winning blogs. Each December a vote is held to determine the best blogs in more than 45 categories. In December 2006, more than 525,000 votes were cast!

Starting with these blogs makes it a little easier to get your feet wet in the world of blogs, which is so broad, that getting lost and losing hours of valuable time are both easy and likely. Still, if you want to get a glimpse of up-to-the-minute insight into what concerns people who are your potential customers, blogs are a fascinating place to start.

From the book eBay PowerSeller Secrets , 2nd edition, to be published November 2007. Another book you may be interested in is eBay PowerSeller Million Dollar Ideas.