All workshops in the series will take place from 6-8pm in the Conference Room of the Worldwide Amplified Studio located on the Skywalk Level of the Partnership Building at 700 Locust Street in Downtown Des Moines.

*FREE* Social Media for Small Business Workshop Overview,7-Sep

In this FREE workshop, learn why it’s important to engage in social media as a small business owner and how best to engage in which platforms to get the most out of your time.

Create a WordPress Website/Blog Session I, 14-Sep – $25

Bring your laptop and we’ll create a basic website/blog for your business using WordPress. WordPress allows you to develop a website/blog for free. If your business does not currently have a website or blog, this is a great start. We’ll create a few critical pages for your site and focus on the techniques of blogging. Prerequisite: General computer skills.

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Create a WordPress Website/Blog Session II, 21-Sep – $25

This is a continuation of the first session which took place on 14-Sep. Bring your laptop and we’ll continue to create a basic website/blog for your business using WordPress. In addition to the pages we created in Session I, we’ll create a few side-bar widgets. We’ll take a look at the blog posts people wrote for homework and critique. Prerequisite: General computer skills.

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Create a Twitter Account for Your Business, 28-Sep – $25

Bring your laptop and as a group, we’ll go through the steps required to set up a Twitter account and profile for your business. You’ll learn Twitter etiquette and how to engage Followers on the platform. If you attended the fist two sessions in this series and developed a website, I’ll show you how to create a link on your website to your Twitter account. When you leave, you will have a firm grasp on how to find and follow people and how to create relationships that will help you in your business. Prerequisite: General computer skills.

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Create a Facebook FanPage for Your Business, 5-Oct – $25

Bring your laptop and as a group, we’ll go through the steps required to set up a Facebook FanPage for your business. We’ll talk about the tabs and Facebook Ads, edit the Bio section, upload your business’ logo and add some content to the Wall so you can begin inviting your friends to become FANS of your FanPage. If you attended the fist two sessions in this series and developed a website, I’ll show you how to create a link on your website to your Facebook FanPage. Prerequisite: General computer skills and a personal Facebook page.

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Create a LinkedIn Profile and Company Page, 12-Oct – $25

Bring your laptop and as a group, we’ll create personal LinkedIn Profiles and Company Pages for your business. We’ll spend most of our time on the profile, but we will also talk about how to search for people you can build relationships with to help you in your business as either a customer or connector. If you attended the fist two sessions in this series and developed a website, I’ll show you how to create a link on your website to your LinkedIn presence. Prerequisite: General computer skills.

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E-Newsletter Creation using MailChimp, 18-Oct – $25

Having an e-newsletter for your business is a great way to stay in touch with customers – especially when they’re not quite ready to buy. We’ll set up an e-newsletter template using MailChimp (free for up to 500 email addresses) and you’ll leave with a firm grasp on how to draft your first e-newsletter and send it to your email database. If you attended the fist two sessions in this series and developed a website, I’ll show you how to create a newsletter subscription link on your website. Prerequisite: General computer skills.

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Content Creation and Management Tools, 26-Oct – $25

I consistently hear from those not engaged with or new to social media: “I don’t have the time to do this” and “I don’t really have anything to say”. Bring your laptop and we’ll download TweetDeck to make it easier to manage your Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn profiles and we’ll set up your GoogleReader so you can subscribe to blogs and searches relevant to your industry as RSS feeds. Prerequisite: General computer skills.

In your job search, outside of LinkedIn, I believe Google can be your best friend online!

Google has many tools that can make it easy to find and target the jobs and information you need to run ahead of the pack at the companies you want to pursue.

Used wisely, some of these tools can help you find job postings, company news, contact information and many other valuable pieces of information that can help you set yourself above the crowd.

Here are some ideas to consider:

Do an X-Ray! Google allows you to use it’s search engine not only to search the entire internet, but also to do a search on a specific site alone. This is usually referred to as an “X-Ray” search. In your search string in the Google search box, you can simply specify the site you want to search, using a format like:

site:www.linkedin.com

You can then add whatever additional search terms you may want to add. For example, say you don’t have many connections on LinkedIn yourself, so you don’t get many results when you do a search within LinkedIn’s own search tool. Perhaps you are looking for a company contact in your job search… like an Engineering Manager at Seagate Corp. in the Minneapolis area. You could enter:

site:www.linkedin.com “Greater Minneapolis” “Engineering Manager” Seagate

Among many directory pages and others, you will also find the public profiles on LinkedIn of anyone that has “Engineering Manager” and “Seagate” in their profile that’s registered in the “Greater Minneapolis-St Paul” area. With more sophisticated parameters you can eliminate the non-profile results, however, this can get you started.

You can also do an X-Ray search of specific companies you may be interested in pursuing, to find information on their sites that you are seeking… more on that next.

Set up Alerts! Google Alerts are an excellent way to be made aware of new information that gets posted, as it occurs. Perhaps you are a Programmer that specializes in Java development and one of your target companies is United Health Group (UHG) in the Minneapolis area. You can set up Alerts to notify you of any news that gets published about UHG, and Alerts to let you know as soon as a relevant new position is posted on their site.

For news, you can simply set up an Alert searching “United Health”, and anything posted anywhere with that string will trigger a notification to you.

For jobs, you can set up an Alert using an X-Ray search of their site’s career pages. As an example, if you are looking for Java related position that they post on their own site for Minnesota locations you can set up an Alert string like:

site:careers.unitedhealthgroup.com minnesota java

Most companies post positions on their own site before they are posted on any external job boards, and many times they don’t post a position on external job boards at all. The notification you will get of the new posting will make you aware of it before most everyone else!

You can set up as many Alerts as you’d like, for as many companies as you’d like, and with as many variations of search words as you’d like… be creative! You can also choose whether to have them emailed to you (as they happen, or once per day), or have them sent to Google Reader…

Consolidate your information! Google Reader is an excellent way to keep track of all this information, and more. Google Reader allows you to keep track of new postings on sites you’re interested in following… like this blog! (Click on the “Subscribe to…” “Posts” icon in the right column of this page) It’s also a great place to direct all of your Google Alerts so that you can read and follow up on them all from one central place. Google Reader receives and posts information as soon as it’s found by Google and keeps you up to date without filling up your email box.

Efficiently finding information from your target company sites, setting up automatic notifications, and reading all the relevant updates easily in one place makes Google an extremely powerful online resource for your job search that most job seekers don’t use. Be ahead of them all by taking advantage of the power available to you!

Employers and recruiters are using social networks – online and offline – more than ever before, according to the second annual 2009 Jobvite Social Recruitment Survey.

Here is how employers are using social networks to recruit:

• 80% use or are planning to use social networking to source candidates
• 77% use social networks to find passive candidates (not actively seeking employment)
• 76% plan to invest more in employee referrals
• 46% will spend more on social networking
• 36% will spend less on job boards

Why has social networking become a contender in the recruitment process? Two simple reasons: better quality candidates and lower cost to the employer or recruiter. Dan Finnigan, President and Chief Executive Officer of Jobvite, says, “The economy has spurred a fundamental change in how recruiters find candidates and how people find jobs. The good news is that referrals and social networks provide a high quality, low cost way to hire and for that reason social recruitment will continue to grow even as the economy improves.”

Recruitment via professional online networks, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter shows continued growth:

• LinkedIn use for recruitment grew from 80% in 2008 to 95% in 2009
• Facebook recruitment surged from 36% n 2008 to 59% in 2009
• Twitter use for sourcing candidates ranked third at 42%

In addition, to sourcing candidates via social networks, employers use them to research candidates prior to an interview: LinkedIn (76%), search engines (67%), Facebook (44%), and Twitter (21%). Savvy candidates are aware that they will be scrutinized before getting the nod for an interview. The Jobvite survey reports that 24% of candidates make their social online presence known to the employer when applying for a job.

Can you be found online via a Google search or on LinkedIn? Is your online identity clear, clean, and compelling? For tips on how to immediately boost your online presence, check out two of my previous posts:

• Online Identity Management: Get Found!
• Upgrade Your Bare-bones LinkedIn Profile

For a full copy of the 2009 Jobvite Social Recruitment Survey, go to http://web.jobvite.com/2009-social-recruitment-survey.html

One feature you job seekers may not know about or have fully explored is LinkedIn Groups. LinkedIn Groups are free to join, and you can choose to join up to 50 groups from a list of thousands of user-created groups for literally just about anything. Not only do these groups provide you access to connect with and contact fellow group members who could become future partners, employees, investors, customers etc., but the groups’ newly updated discussion board feature can provide more networking opportunities, answers to your questions and insightful advice, tips and support. You can also join the groups’ subgroups and contribute answers, comments and your own expertise to the groups’ discussion boards to establish your own online personal brand on LinkedIn.

Last year, I published a list of the top 20 LinkedIn groups for job seekers which became a very popular resource on Career Rocketeer. It’s been over a year since the list originally went out and some of the groups have changed and new groups have emerged. Therefore, I have updated the list and am pleased to present the Top 25 LinkedIn Groups ALL Job Seekers MUST Join to help you build your brands and launch your careers:

1. JobAngels – Non-profit job search network of professionals helping other professionals find job advice and opportunities.
2. Executive Suite – Community of over 100,000 US-based executive-level and recruiter members.
3. Star:Jobs Professional Career Center – Group working in tandem with Linked:HR, the largest Recruiters’ Group on LinkedIn, to help top candidates find jobs quickly and efficiently.
4. Career Rocketeer – Career Launch Network – Fastest-growing professional network for personal branding, career search and career management, bringing job seekers and employers, recruiters and career experts together for mutual success.
5. The Talent Buzz – Group for job seekers, recruiters and HR professionals interested in expanding their professional networks.
6. Helping Friends Career Network (LI2HF) – Business and career network where entrepreneurs, hiring managers, recruiters, and talented professionals worldwide can make meaningful win-win connections.
7. JobsDirectUSA – Official job search group on LinkedIn for JobsDirectUSA.com.
8. Career Change Central – Group linking job changers and professionals in career transition with recruiters, hiring managers and career coaches.
9. CareerLink Network – Community providing job seekers spiritual, physical, social, mental, economic and personal growth to meet their ever-evolving needs
10. Jobs Alert – Job search group for middle and senior-level managers worldwide.
11. A Job Needed – A Job Posted – Group is for all LinkedIn members searching for employment, posting employment or recruiters helping members find employment.
12. Looking for a Job? – Group designed to allow job seekers to share ideas, network, post jobs, advise on job market trends and ultimately help them find work.
13. MyCredentials – Career Presentation – Group helping members to network, expand their resumes and enhance their interview skills.
14. JibberJobber – Career Management – Network for executives, professionals, students and all those involved in the career services industry, including counselors, coaches and resume writers.
15. ResumeMaker Career Network – Forum connecting qualified job seekers with hiring managers and corporate recruiters as well as allowing candidates to discuss and share career opportunities.
16. Personal Branding Network – Consortium for all professionals looking to build powerful personal brands.
17. Indeed.com – Official job search group on LinkedIn for Indeed.com.
18. Project: Get Hired! – Motivational support group exclusively for job hunters to share creative strategies and stay motivated.
19. Job-Hunt Help – Discussion group for job seekers sharing advice and leads and networking to help one another.
20. IMPACT Hiring Solutions Job Search Network – Discussion and networking forum for executives seeking job opportunities.
21. Global Jobs Network – Network for all professionals who would like to be aware of requirements in their respective fields and for organizations & recruiters who are hiring.
22. Job Openings, Job Leads and Job Connections! – One of the largest groups for job seekers on LinkedIn.
23. JOBS 2.0 – Group helping job seekers find a job online using the latest in social and professional networks.
24. The Job Board – Networking group for professionals seeking jobs and recruiters seeking candidates.
25. Self-Recruiter® – Job Search & Career Management – Discussion and networking forum helping job seekers become their own specialist, their own career counselor, and their own recruiter.

Twitter can be a tremendous, fast moving tool in your Job Search Toolbox. Here are 5 ways to get the most out of it.

1. Follow and read job search experts. The amount of excellent ideas, tips, leads, news, informative articles, and best practices going by all day long is amazing. Use Twellow’s directory for Employment > Career > Job Search to find excellent people to follow. You’ll find outstanding advice that applies to your situation… guaranteed.

2. Search for posted positions. Use Twitter’s search function to look for #jobs, or TwitterJobSearch to find a wealth of open positions that aren’t necessarily posted on job boards or company sites. Also search #splits for positions that recruiters use to split open searches with other recruiters. New positions are posted with excellent companies, large and small, every minute of every day. Get them in real time, early, and often.

3. Follow and read people in your field or industry. Industry chatter is incredible. News items, rumors, and trends get discussed daily. You can become much better versed in your field by ‘listening’. It can provide you with new and valuable information that can make you a better candidate in the interview process. Use Twellow to find appropriate people to follow.

4. Engage! Get in conversations with people. Ask questions, offer help, ReTweet (re-post) good information you see. Make sure to proofread everything you Tweet, and keep everything professional. Offering opinions about politics (unless you’re looking for a job in politics), or talking about your weekend at the bar will alienate half the people you want to connect to. Don’t sound discouraged or be a spreader of bad news. Keep your conversations focused on your area of expertise, or job search topics, and keep them positive.

5. Connect with people at your target companies. Many companies have an official presence on Twitter and post positions. There are also obviously many people on Twitter on their own that work at companies you many have an interest in. Professionally, ask questions, ask for referrals, offer information, and seek advice.

The reputation you build on Twitter, just like the image you create on any other site will either help or hurt your chances of finding the right position. Be positive, be professional, be helpful, be inquisitive, be engaging, be honest, and have fun!

Consistency is important. If you only Tweet once or twice per day, it won’t be enough for anyone to get to know you. Manage your time carefully, but do spend some time to build credibility and relationships. There are few places online where you can find so much information and develop so many contacts 24/7!

This is an adapted excerpt from Brand-Yourself.com’s new eBook, From Tweet to Hired: How to Leverage Twitter to Advance Your Career, by Pete Kistler and Patrick Ambron and including contributions from Chris Perry, Dan Schawbel and several other well-known career and social media experts.

How do you become someone worth following on Twitter?

Creating your profile is the easy part. The next step is to regularly push out tweets people will care about. This is where most people fail! Most tweeters join and don’t know what to do next. They end up following celebrities, tweeting about their day and the only people that follow them back are college buddies and spammers. Don’t worry: if you fall into this category, you are not alone. Only 5% of tweeters have more than 100 followers and only 8% of tweets are considered credible enough to be re-tweeted. Within this small percentage is where your opportunity lies.

The most important thing you can remember to be someone worth following is that Twitter is not about you – it’s about everyone. You can’t simply jump on Twitter and start shouting, “Look at me!” Twitter is a completely open, ongoing conversation, and unless you give people a reason to listen, no one will hear you. Adding value to someone’s day is not only the key to attracting followers, but also the foundation for building meaningful relationships. Here are some key techniques that can help you tweet the right stuff and earn relevant followers:
1. Tweet Helpful Links. People are not, and never will be, interested in what you ate for lunch. They are interested in tweets that yield a positive impact on their day. Take three minutes a day to post a relevant daily quote, tip or article. For example, at our @brandyourself account, we post daily job search tips that attract job seekers who have a use for our tools.To make daily tweets easier, use a tweet scheduler to build some of these up. This allows you to enter dozens of tweets at once and schedule them to post periodically at later dates. People in your field will begin to look for these valuable daily nuggets. If you’re in graphic design, tweet daily Photoshop tips. Your followers will remember you and be more willing to help you down the road because you helped them. To analyze the strength of your Twitter profile and get suggestions about who to connect to on Twitter, sign up for Brand-Yourself and visit the Twitter section of your dashboard.

2. Link to Interesting, Relevant Information. The best way to establish yourself as a valuable member of your community is to share new information on a regular basis. If you are consistently pushing out fresh, targeted content, people will begin to look to you as a source for industry trends. Since the information is valuable, you will earn a ton of re-tweets, and in turn, valuable followers. You will also gain the attention of those you promote. When an employer searches your profile, the hiring manager will see you are heavily involved in industry conversations. See the side bar (right) for a simple way to find, read and share interesting articles with your network.

3. Answer Relevant Questions. Another effective way to prove your worth is by providing help to people who need it. Take a little time each day to search for questions pertaining to your area of expertise using Twitter search tools (see eBook Appendix). Type in a specific keyword followed by a question mark to filter results, such as “graphic design?” or “civil engineer?” Make things easier by using monitoring tools that track these searches and people who need your help. For example, at Brand-Yourself we search for “resume tips?” to find people looking for help with their resume. We then answer their questions or point them to a helpful article we’ve written. This is an excellent way to attract more followers, and establish yourself as an authority in your line of work.

People remember when you go out of your way to help them, and will be happy to return the favor when called upon. If you are looking for freelance work, this is a great way to generate leads. There are hundreds of people looking for guidance, and Twitter allows you to build up credibility one answer at a time.

4. Engage Your Community. Make sure you are personable. Don’t hesitate to ask questions, reply to others using @replies, and ask for feedback. Offer your help for free, recommend products you love and contribute to topics. Use hashtag (#) trackers to find relevant topics and participate in related conversations.

To read more about using Twitter in your job search and personal branding efforts, download your free copy of From Tweet to Hired: How to Leverage Twitter to Advance Your Career today!

Linkedin just released a suite of premium tools targeted to help job seekers. Good news – they have some truly helpful features … Bad news – They aren’t free. For serious job seekers, I think it’s worth the small monthly cost, giving candidates better viability and increased job search efficiency.

Linkedin helps job seekers accomplish two basic tasks – Finding target company contacts, and social branding. Job Seeker Premium makes both of these tasks easier and more effective.

As part of this review, I interviewed Parker Barrile, Director of Product Management for Linkedin’s Jobs Business to get Linkedin’s views about how their new tools are intended to help candidates. Parker mentioned that Linkedin has 3 major goals in for its premium job search products:

1) Allow candidates to manage job search more efficiently
2) Give job seekers more ways to efficiently contact hiring managers and recruiters
3) Help job seekers stand out, making it easier to be noticed
Parker stated that Linkedin “wants to be the place that people go to find their next job. We’ll continue to provide free services, but Linkedin will also offer premium services for those who want greater connectivity and visibility in their search.”

From my review of the features and discussion with Parker, I was impressed that Linkedin has made a good start in providing value adds that will help candidates in three areas they pointed out above. Parker also gave hints that this is just a start, and that Linkedin plans to release future user capabilities in its job seekers premium tools (Sadly, he wouldn’t spill the beans to tell me what they would be).

Will Linkedin’s new tools find you a job? No. Will Linkedin’s new tools give you more ways to help yourself find a job? Definitely.

Linkedin offers 7-8 features fine tuned to the needs of job seekers, depending on the package offered. The three that can make the biggest difference are what make the service worthwhile. Other features may be helpful to job seekers as well, but these three are money.

Top of the list - This is the #1 reason for Job Seeker Premium, in my opinion. Businesses have been able to buy their way to the top of Google for years. Linkedin Job Seeker Premium allows candidates a way to get to the top of the list. When recruiters or hiring managers search for specific criteria they may get hundreds of results – Premium user results are listed at the top. Since recruiters and HR reps might only call the top 10-20 matches, being at the top of the list helps a job seeker stand out. If you’re a Java developer, trying to stand out from the thousands of other Java developers looking for a new position – Top of the list is a huge advantage.

InMail - Currently, Linkedin basic users can contact their first level connections. InMail is Linkedin’s version of special delivery, allowing candidates to contact any of Linkedin’s 60M users – even if they are not a connection. Linkedin’s website claims “You’re 30x more likely to get a response to an InMail than to a cold call. Why? Your profile is attached to your message; plus, it never ends up in a spam filter.” In addition, it may be challenging to find emails of people you want to reach – InMails make it quick and easy, saving you time. Depending on the premium package you choose you can get zero, five, or ten InMails with guaranteed response – or choose InMails a la carte at an additional $10 each. If you use them, InMails by themselves make the premium service worth while as packages are 1/2 the cost of individually purchased InMails. Use these for people you’ve just got to reach, or for those who keep their email private.

Gold Badge - Linkedin’s premium service allows anyone to view your full profile and message you, even if not connected to you without either one burning through expensive InMails or Introductions, allowing unlimited free inbound email. As many new candidates haven’t been as active in networking until their job search, having a small network means that few people can see your full profile or contact you freely. While this won’t replace building your network, the gold badge gives job seekers with a small network a quick jump start.

While these are the most valuable services in the package, additional features can help job seekers as well:

Introductions - As a free user, you have a limited number of free introductions that pass your info along through three degrees of separation. Job Seeker Premium gives you between 10 -25 introductions per month depending on the package you choose. Using introductions wisely can help you gain inside information to your target companies, reach hiring managers, informational interview sources, or hubs to help in your networking efforts.

Expanded Search - the two top Premium service levels allow you to expand your search results beyond the 100 results you currently get as a free user – expanded up to 5x as many results. This can be valuable when searching within large centralized departments at single locations within enterprise companies. For instance, if you search for project manager at Allstate Insurance, there are thousands of results – free users only see 100.

Who searched me? Premium users can see the titles and companies of everyone who initiated a search that your name turned up in. If you’ve turned up in a recruiter’s or company’s search, these may be companies you want to put on your target list, or recruiters you might want to work with.

Folders - Linkedin premium services allow folders that job seekers can use to save and organize profiles, and store notes. It’s not a contact management system, but it gives some capability to add some organization to your contacts.

These features have been needed for a while, and Linkedin has been offering premium services to businesses for over a year. When I first saw notices that Linkedin was offering premium services for job seekers I wondered … What took them so long? This makes so much sense.

Linkedin premium has 3 packages priced at $19.95, $29.95, and $49.95. If you want the convenience and direct contacts of InMail I’d recommend the more expensive packages (it’s an inexpensive way to use InMails). I don’t know of any job seekers who couldn’t benefit from being at the top of the list, included in even the least expensive package. That alone makes Linkedin Job Seeker Premium worth the price.

Please note: This is not a paid review, and Linkedin did not give me any free services (not even a lousy t-shirt). I wrote it because I think it’s a true advance for candidates.

Source: http://recareered.blogspot.com/