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LinkedIn For Co-eds

By on June 20, 2011 in Business, LinkedIn, social media

Hi there college students. Welcome home for summer break. Hope your semesters/quarters/trimesters were fruitful and that you learned a lot. So what are you doing with yourselves until next fall? Hanging out? Traveling? Looking for work?

Now is the perfect time to create your professional online persona on LinkedIn. More than just an online resume it is the first place recruiters go to search for talent. Human resource departments are using paper resumes less and less every day. You can keep it updated for those that still request a traditional resume but definitely transfer it to this online portal. This is important because there’s always a chance that an employer will find you online first during a time when they’re not visiting your campus for interviews. So who knows? Its possible that you could even bypass your campus’ career development department for an opportunity.

In addition, your LinkedIn profile gives an overall impression of you as a person, which is really what an employer is hiring. It’s not just your unique talents or the newest academic theories that you can contribute to a company but also your extended knowledge of the world. Remember everything you have ever heard about being a “well rounded person”? This is easily reflected in your activities, organizations, personal interests and the books you read. Can’t fit all of that on a resume but LinkedIn is customized to do that and much more. Not to mention the value of the recommendations that employers, professors and others can leave on your profile.

And speaking of your campus career center more of them are recommending, maybe even requiring you to create a LinkedIn profile. They are the people who deal with human resources professionals around the country and around the world so take their advice and begin editing yours. The summer is the perfect time to do so. This way when you return to campus for the fall term you can schedule a traditional resume and LinkedIn profile review with the career specialists.

So take a couple of weeks early on this summer to work on your profile. Here’s an approach I would suggest.

  1. Take a few hours each day the first week to begin piecing the basics together. Keep your traditional resume open on your computer and work back and forth between each of them filling in updated information on both.
  2. Then the second week focus on connecting with as many other LinkedIn profiles as possible. You could grow your connections by the hundreds if you really push it. Connect with me. I’d be happy to share my list with you and give you tips.
  3. Also during the second week join the maximum of fifty (5o) groups related to your future profession and personal interests. This will expose you to thousands more professionals and you can interact with them directly within those groups and make more connections, etc., etc., etc.

Remember to send me an invitation to connect and reference this blog post. I’d be happy to help in any way that I can.

Whether you have a summer gig or not, take advantage of your time by focusing creating and revising your professional online presence. You’ll reap enormous personal and professional benefits for the effort.

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Behind the Scenes of My Interview With Keisha Jordan

By on June 2, 2011 in After Effects, LinkedIn, Premier Pro, social media, YouTube

Our final project assignment for my DC489 “The Big Picture” class was to interview a person in the field of entertainment. I organized my project by prospecting my LinkedIn connections list for potential interview candidates. I specifically researched some of the artists that I have reached out to via social media and found a couple of candidates with interesting profiles whose careers I wanted to know more about. Senior Art director Keisha Jordan of Common Ground Marketing was one of those who responded.

A couple of things stood out about Keisha. First, her artsy profile picture caught my attention. Instead of a head shot she uses a hand sketch of her face as her profile picture on LinkedIn. That instantly made her stand out from pretty much everyone else on my list (See why you should never leave your profile picture space blank?). It was proof enough to me that she was a serious artist so she was an immediate candidate. The other factor was that we could talk shop about the digital tools we use for our different artistic pursuits. Here’s the interview. Take a look and I’ll continue on the other side.

 

 

I mention the effectiveness of a good profile picture for a particular reason. In the case of scheduling Keisha for filming we agreed to meet at the Harold Washington Library. If you’ll take a close look at her sketch, it looks just like the lady in video. I knew exactly who she was as she stepped off the escalator and we headed to our meeting room. If you have any artistic leanings I recommend you use her idea as inspiration if you want to try something a little different for your profile.

As far as project logistics flowed, we rearranged chairs in the meeting room to stage her against one of the walls. I asked more questions than included in the final cut because I had a fifteen minute time limit for the class presentation so you’re hearing about 1/3 to 1/2 of them here. I used my SONY Handycam for filming and had Keisha reposition her chair so I could include a couple of different perspective views of her in the final cut of the film.

For post production I imported three clips of film into Adobe Premier Pro. I typically use After Effects just because I’m used to it but it’s not really a complete film editing program. It’s specifically designed for effects and animation and happens to have some good basic film making features. Premier Pro though is Adobe’s full fledged editing package (all the cutting, audio, color correction and other features of Final Cut Pro for you Mac people) so I made the choice to jump in and use it full tilt for the first time.

After filming, Keisha provide me a few PDF’s of some of her digital ad work and some personal paintings which I faded into the film at different points to demonstrate her skills. The white walls of the meeting room made for a lot of glare in the film so I was able to use color correction to ramp it down. In my first rough cut of the film I created a QuickTime and imported it into After Effects to create opening and closing credits on either end of it (again, because I was used to doing that in After Effects). Fortunately I got bumped to another class day on the presentation rotation and my copy of Adobe Premier Pro CS4, Classroom In a Book arrived in the mail so I learned how to use the title feature within the package to create the credits. So this is my first fully contained Premier Pro production.

I enjoyed this project because I was able to expand my technical skill which as always the objective but also I had the opportunity to network with another professional in the field which was our professor Dan Pal‘s objective. So what do you think of one of Chicago’s art directors on the rise?

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Insights from My LinkedIn Event at the Wright Institute

By on May 9, 2011 in Blogging, Business, Entrepreneurs and Work From Home, facebook, General Interest, LinkedIn, social media

If you ever get the opportunity to attend anything sponsored by the Wright Leadership Institute  don’t ask questions just go and take plenty of cards with you. I went to the Connect to Success with LinkedIn Networks and Training Event at their headquarters in downtown Chicago on Thursday May 5th and received a wealth of information.
 
The evening began with about a half hour of networking before the presentations. Mine actually started in the elevator bay on the way up to the event. I met a good handful of interesting people in that time and in fact that was one of the questions we were asked when the formal meeting began. How many of you met a few new people in the back of the room before the presentations started? That was the key to building our network “hubness”.
 
Dean DeLisle is well known in the social media realm especially on LinkedIn and he gave the first presentation. He is also the social media coach for the Wright Institute. Dean gave great pointers on how to maximize our LinkedIn profiles. His keys points for me were:
 

  • When prioritizing which social media platforms to use LinkedIn should be your first focus. Here’s why. It’s the one that most fully rounded profile of you as a person and professional. From there you can cut and paste details to Facebook, Twitter and any others you belong to. That makes your social media presence consistent throughout.
  • Also search your name online to verify the thoroughness of your profiles. Your social media profiles are always the first to appear on search lists.
  • Use LinkedIn for the 2nd and 3rd degrees of separation. It’s not just 6 degrees of separation as in the popular literature but only 3 the LinkedIn way. Any updates to your profile (information edits, blog post feeds, updates you type in under your profile picture, connections) go to the feeds of your 1st, 2nd and 3rd level connections

On average 4% of your network (Those 1st, 2nd and 3rds mentioned above) sees what you post so the more connections you make the more people will see and will potentially want to connect with you.
 
Here’s an example of LinkedIn hubness showing the primary connections and 2nd and 3rd degree connections that extend from them. Still don’t think it’s important to have a LinkedIn profile? Fill in the gaps in yours and grow your indirect connections (4% of 13 million is 1,690,000) by millions.

Dr. Bob Wright , cofounder of the Wright Leadership Institute gave the second half of the presentation. Cranes Chicago calls him a top executive coach so these tips come from a guy who knows what he’s doing.
Some of Bob’s major pointers for me were:
 

  • One of the New Laws of Networks is that You Must Give to Get. In other words you must be a net giver. Give more than you want. It’s known as the “host strategy”.
  • One of the keys to ultimate success is knowing Network Science. You want to go from being a Node (individual) to a Hub (a major connection source). LinkedIn can help improve your “hubness”.
  • Here’s a question to ask your clients. “What are your five major challenges?” If you want to know how to help them just ask.

There were lots of other good pointers but you’re going to have to check out their upcoming free events and determine what value you can apply from the experience.

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More Effective LinkedIn Connection Building

By on May 7, 2011 in LinkedIn, social media

If you’re new to LinkedIn and you’re wondering how to make connections after you’ve filled out your profile, let me suggest an easy approach.

The first thing you should do is join groups (the Groups link) of interest to you, be they professional, hobby or otherwise. Just make them fit your purpose. LinkedIn allows you to join 50 groups so take the time to max them out.

As you begin to add groups take some time to look through the membership listing of each for interesting profiles of people you might want to network with. When you find an interesting potential contact send them a connection request. You can use the common group you’re in as the basis for reaching out.

Be sure to indicate the particular reason you want to touch base. If they are diligent in checking their account inbox they will respond rather quickly. If they don’t you haven’t lost anything for your effort.

As your list of connections grows you’ll also see your network (Contacts > Network Statistics) expand in number. For whatever reason you are extending your sphere of influence in the world via social media, LinkedIn is the place to start and this is how you do it.

Join those 50 groups today and build those relationships for the greatest effect.

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Tweets and Greets on Hootsuite

By on March 6, 2010 in Blogging, facebook, General Interest, LinkedIn, twitter

Thanks to Terry Crosby I figured out how to engage particular groups that I want to follow in list fashion on HootSuite. I can create a list – or a column as it is known on HoostSuite – using keyword phrases under the Keyword Tracking option. Then I can pick a person within the column to both follow and tweet a message to on the Hootsuite interface. It gives the option to make my choice of the Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn platforms to send the tweet simultaneously. Take a look at Terry’s tutorial for a quick lesson.

As for today’s activity in particular, I’m looking up other bloggers and social media experts who are attending Blogging While Brown in the Nation’s Capital this summer. My objective of course is to take the initiative in my real world networking by connecting virtually and touching base with potential new friends and business associates a few months ahead of time.

Also discovered today that the regular Twitter account allows you to create lists as well. The Blogging While Brown site has a list of attendees so I just followed the entire list (By the way why aren’t you on there already?) and now I’m following up with particular greetings to each of them.

So I encourage you to create a HoostSuite account today and spend some time learning the fundamentals. Create a few columns using keywords relevant to your blogging and social networking. Then work your columns in tandem with your favorite Twitter fan page lists and watch your contacts blossom.

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Kill the App, Keep A Friend

By on August 18, 2009 in facebook, LinkedIn, Meetup

One of the really cool things about Facebook is that although designed as a general social site with fun applications you can share with friends for laughs, it is also a very customizable platform. To be specific you can establish a more professional presence on Facebook if you like. It depends on the precedent you’ve set for your “friending”.

Many of us use it in conjunction with LinkedIn, Meetup and other sites for professional networking purposes. One way you can do that if you’ve been using it generically to this point is to limit what your friends can show on your wall paper.

It you see that astrological quiz or Mafia Wars request but don’t want corporate recruiters to see it populating your Facebook profile at the wrong time, that is a problem easily solved. Mouse over to the right side of the entry and you’ll see a “Hide” drop down box. The arrow gives you the option to hide the person or hide the particular game/quiz. Assuming you still like your FB friend pick the second option and it should never appear again.

You will have to congnizant to check your account each day to wipe out the not so serious content but if you’re a crackbook junkie like most of us you probably already do this. So kill the app and keep a friend while you look for that next opportunity.

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Easy LinkedIn Group Creation Tutorial

By on June 13, 2009 in facebook, LinkedIn

Here’s a link to the LinkedIn blog with group creation instructions. Just as with facebook or any other social networking platform, deciding upon or designing a logo is what you’ll spend more time on than anything else.

Have fun with it and if you think it’s relevant to what I’m doing send me an invite.

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He’s Hired! Billboard Man Lands Job

By on June 12, 2009 in LinkedIn, Society

Good morning actionists. Want some inspiration on doing what it takes to get the next big opportunity? Read this story about how the billboard man found his.

It’s not hopeless for the over 40, out of work crowd. Mark Heuer, the 46-year-old Kewaskum, WI, marketing and operations executive relates how his out of the box thinking landed his current position. Meg Ciccantelli of the Chicago Finding Work Examiner posted an interview with mark on their blog.

What creative methods have you done that have been effective?

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More About Those Online and Offline Laid Off Camps

By on May 30, 2009 in Blogging, Business, facebook, Faith, LinkedIn, NING, Society, twitter, XING

Have you been following the news about various groups around the country hosting laid off or out of work camps? These are get togethers for people who have lost their jobs and are trying to get back into the job market. One of my LinkedIn groups, Out of Work Chicago, is mentioned in this Wall Street Journal post. I’ll be connecting with them when I get settled in our new digs.

This is the social networking version of a “meetup” which is common amongst us bloggers who want to meet the faces behind the posts. The economic situation has created a similar physical networking trend branched off of the virtual social networks for the jobless.

If the current crisis resembles you check out the nearest church or civic club hosting an event close to you. And of course, if you’re in a city large enough, there’s probably at least one social networking group of this type so search your LinkedIn, facebook, XING, NING and twitter groups for details relevant to your situation.

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MartyBLOGs Site Updates

By on May 19, 2009 in Amazon.com, Blogging, facebook, LinkedIn, PayPal

Good morning actionists. It’s been a moment since I wrote but you can see that I’ve been actively tweaking the site with some features and mixing and matching widgets. Seems to make sense that all the social networking icons should be grouped together so people can contact me on facebook and connect to me on LinkedIn. Both of these are now in the right side column.

That leaves the income producers on the left. I added a PayPal donate button as well. If a music download or Amazon purchase doesn’t happen to tickle your fancy on a given day feel free to throw a few dollars at a poor college student and insure the continuance and improvement of quality blogging here at MartyBLOGs. As I’ve said many times on behalf of my previous employers, “We accept all forms of payment” – LOL. I’ll post on some of the cool features of PayPal soon. If you thought Amazon.com was impressive, PayPal will make you go humm as well.

We’ll see if this realignment helps increase the flow of revenues and social virtual contacts.

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