Jobhunters: Quick and Easy Social Media Tips!

* Twitter seems silly at first but you get better at it as you use it as a business tool.

* LinkedIn means you have your suit on. Act the part. But smile once in a while too.

* Facebook is a great research source for you, but for your friends and others also. So for biz purposes (like job hunting) create a business page and make sure there's nothing there you wouldn't want your next boss to see. And keep all politics and anything at all controversial out of it.

* MySpace is sorting things out now so there are better places to spend your time. (Time: that thing you used to have more of.)

* When it comes to searching for a job, be open to anything. Even paper classifieds may work for you. As they (Larry and Woody) say, "Whatever Works."

Can You Find Your Next Job on Facebook?

Can Facebook help you land a Job? Can ice cream make you skinny? Could things really work out that way?

Well Ask Annie from Fortune Magazine recently gave some answers to that question. We’re happy she found our book How to Get a Job on LinkedIn and Other Social Networks such a key source of information!

The article also discusses whether Twitter can help you find work. Par for the course, links to the article were all over Twitter. Thanks for all those tweets and re-tweets. It’s an amazing phenomenon.

For more, here’s the link to the Fortune article: Can You Find a Job on Facebook?

Best,

Deb and Brad

Can Top-Rated Seller Program Help eBay?- Auctiva Learning Center

Can Top-Rated Seller Program Help eBay?- Auctiva Learning Center

Quick and Easy Tips for Online Book Promotion

A new author recently asked me for some tips on promoting books online, and since I've coauthored books about YouTube (How to Make Money with YouTube) and LinkedIn (How to Get a Job on LinkedIn and Other Social Networks) I had some ideas to share.

But first...There's no sure-fire way to guarantee sales through online promotion. Internet marketing, however, helps a good book get noticed, reviewed, and bought.

Here are some strategies:

--Write articles for online publications such as American Chronicle. Article marketing works...these articles really get read and each one can include your bio.

--Encourage people who like your book to write reviews on Amazon and B+N.com, but don't "push."

--Create an Author's blog on Amazon.

--Tweet about the subject of your book, but don't be overly promotional and be sure you are giving your followers something of value for their time.

--Create a blog, tweet about new entries. Umm, that's what I'm about to do.

--Use your LinkedIn profile to promote your book and yourself as an author, but again don't let it read like a pure commercial.

Other strategies include creating a YouTube video. See the above referenced book. :)

For more strategies, try following other authors on Twitter who are social marketing gurus. You'll need to use tools that let you search Twitter to find such authors. Try Twellow.

Good luck!

5 Ways to Jump-Start that Job Search!

Need some fresh ideas to re-ignite a stalled job search? Here are a few that will help.

1) Get in touch with coworkers with whom you worked well in the past, and who respect your work. Perhaps they know of an opening at the company they're working at now, or have heard of openings somewhere else. Don’t call and ask outright for work. That can make people uncomfortable. Just reconnect and update them with your status in an upbeat way. It's also better to start with people you know than to cold call or otherwise approach “strangers.”

2) Don't discount any source of jobs. Lots of people focus on the Internet these days and let it go at that. Sure there are many great resources there, such as SimplyHired http://www.simplyhired.com/, one of our favorite site, which lets you search thousands of different job sites all at once. But lots of other people are using those sources too. Also try to pinpoint sites that are geared to your specific profession (for example, Mediabistro (http://www.mediabistro.com/) has lots of jobs for writers and editors that you won't find elsewhere. Surely your profession has its Mediabistro equivalents.

3) By all means get on and use LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/). We can't write an article about job hunting without including perhaps the best tool for job hunters to come along since the computer itself. Register, create a complete and compelling profile, start answering others’ questions, and become a regular presence on the site. It keeps your name in front of the people who can help you. In the case of LinkedIn, that’s 48 million of the most-connected professionals you will find on the Internet.

4) Get out of the office. There's so much you can do from home these days that some job hunters rarely leave. That's a mistake for your task at hand, but also your mental and physical well being. Push yourself away from your desk and take some "field trips." Check out local book stores, for example, and see what the latest job-hunting books have to offer. Just grab a bunch, pull up a chair and start taking some notes. How to Find a Job on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and Other Social Networks is one book you may find useful.

5) Take some time to review your past accomplishments. It's disheartening to look for work when it sometimes seems that seems everyone else has a job, so you need to keep that self esteem high. Won awards in the past? Have you amassed letters of recommendations? Review these things them for an ego boost.

I know job-hunting is hard, and certainly there will be days when you feel discouraged. But take heart…there’s blue sky ahead. I once read that a job hunt results in a long series of NOs followed by a YES. You need to get those NOs before you can get that one blessed YES. So keep at it in ways that work for you.

About Archie

Archie the little dog was only in my life about 10 days, and we didn't even take a picture of him, so this is just a generic picture from the web. We think he was a West Highland Terrier. He weighed about 20 pounds and stood 10 inches from the floor to his shoulder.

Archie was a "shelter dog," who the Animal Control people found. We adopted him from the Shelter in Waynesboro, PA.

On the way home we almost named Archie U-turn, because we thought we might need to take him right back. He snarled at our son Ethan for no very good reason.

Over the time we had him we found Archie could snap and snarl for all kinds of reasons. But most of the time he was fun and happy and full of personality. So we excused the snarling and stuff until we couldn't any more.

That's the sad news.

The happy thing about Archie is that he taught me many things.

• To be more patient
  
• To better control angry feelings
• To focus more outside of myself
• To see the peace that can come with just taking a walk
• To make a heart-wrenching decision because it's the best thing you could do for your new friend.

You taught me those things Archie, and I hope you enjoyed your life while we lived together.

Preparing for a Pandemic

(Thanks to the volunteer disaster coordinator of Frederick County, Maryland for this information)

You can prepare for an influenza pandemic now. You should know both the magnitude of what can happen during a pandemic outbreak and what actions you can take to help lessen the impact of an influenza pandemic on you and your family. This checklist will help you gather the information and resources you may need in case of a flu pandemic.

1. To plan for a pandemic:

* Store a two week supply of water and food. During a pandemic, if you cannot get to a store, or if stores are out of supplies, it will be important for you to have extra supplies on hand. This can be useful in other types of emergencies, such as power outages and disasters.

* Periodically check your regular prescription drugs to ensure a continuous supply in your home.

* Have any nonprescription drugs and other health supplies on hand, including pain relievers, stomach remedies, cough and cold medicines, fluids with electrolytes, and vitamins.

* Talk with family members and loved ones about how they would be cared for if they got sick, or what will be needed to care for them in your home.

* Volunteer with local groups to prepare and assist with emergency response.

* Get involved in your community as it works to prepare for an influenza pandemic.

2. To limit the spread of germs and prevent infection:

* Teach your children to wash hands frequently with soap and water, and model the correct behavior.

* Teach your children to cover coughs and sneezes with tissues, and be sure to model that behavior.

* Teach your children to stay away from others as much as possible if they are sick. Stay home from work and school if sick.

3. Items to have on hand for an extended stay at home:


* Ready-to-eat canned meats, fish, fruits, vegetables, beans, and soups

* Prescribed medical supplies such as glucose and blood-pressure monitoring equipment
* Protein or fruit bars

* Soap and water, or alcohol-based (60-95%) hand wash
* Dry cereal or granola

* Medicines for fever, such as acetaminophen or ibuprofen
* Peanut butter or nuts

* Thermometer
* Dried fruit

* Anti-diarrheal medication
* Crackers

* Vitamins
* Canned juices

* Fluids with electrolytes
* Bottled water

* Cleansing agent/soap
* Canned or jarred baby food and formula

* Flashlight
* Pet food

* Batteries
* Other non-perishable items

* Portable radio

* Manual can opener

* Garbage bags

* Tissues, toilet paper, disposable diapers