O.K., I am going to admit that I first joined StumbleUpon as part of a strategy that the “SEO [Search Engine Optimization] Gurus” recommend to create backlinks to your blog content from social bookmarking sites like StumbleUpon, Digg and Reddit.  The idea being that the more links you have from other sites, the higher your SEO will be.  And, as anyone who has ever used StumbleUpon just for this reason will tell you, you quickly realize that you are just wasting your time because just by thumbing up your own blog posts you are not gaining any significant additional traffic to your website.  From my own analysis, most of these types of people either stop wasting their time with StumbleUpon or hire a Virtual Assistant to do the “Social Bookmarking” for them.

And you know what?  These people are missing out on so much that StumbleUpon offers.

Continue reading StumbleUpon: It’s NOT About the SEO! 4 Compelling Reasons to Become a Heavy StumbleUpon User.

A few days ago I wrote a guest blog post entitled “Social Media Was Not Created for Business…So Stop Selling to Us!”  With all of the talk about how companies need to get more “social,” all I see are a barrage of new “Follow Us on Twitter” or “Join Our Facebook Fan Page” advertisements.  As someone who uses Social Media for 1) keeping in contact with old friends and colleagues, 2) professional networking and meeting new people, and 3) finding valuable information and learning, I really have no reason to be joining Facebook Fan Pages of businesses unless they satisfy one of my requirements.  Remember: social media was created for average people like you and me, not businesses.

Continue reading How Businesses Can “Share” and Become “Social” in Social Media

If it hasn’t happened to you yet, it will soon: the dreaded request for a LinkedIn Recommendation from a former co-worker or employee that you may not want to give one to.  Why?  Well, every time you make a LinkedIn Recommendation, it appears on your LinkedIn Profile and becomes part of your LinkedIn Brand.  Perhaps you don’t want to be associated in any way with this person.  What to do?

Continue reading How Should I Deal with a LinkedIn Recommendation Request I Don’t Want to Give?

It is rumored in Japan that Facebook will be establishing an office in the island nation sometime in 2010.  This comes after Twitter successfully launched their Japanese operations in 2009 and now supposedly have more than 2 million registered Japanese users, more than it is estimated that Facebook has in Japan.  If this is true, Japan is one of the few countries where there are more than Twitter users than Facebook.  So, Facebook in Japan: Will it Blend?

Continue reading Facebook in Japan: Will It Blend?

I will start out this post by letting you know that I am not in any way nor have ever been a recruiter or a headhunter.  While I have been a hiring manager for previous companies, my experience in being able to write this post comes from helping out many recruiters looking for candidates on or off LinkedIn.

Because I am a Windmill Networker, I see great value in establishing relationships with recruiters and helping them out when I can.  In fact, my LinkedIn Profile Contact Settings explicitly state:

I also enjoy speaking with recruiters and providing introductions whenever possible as I have a personal database of skilled contacts in the high tech and IT space, both in the US as well as Asia. Please do not hesitate to invite me to connect with you.

With that in mind, today’s post goes out to the wonderful recruiters that I have been able to create a fruitful relationship with, most importantly the great @Animal, @DavidGraziano, and @CincyRecruiter.

The impetus for me to write this post is two-fold.  I had one recruiter recently review my LinkedIn book hoping that it would have more targeted information for recruiters.  My LinkedIn book is really for professionals of all industries and job titles, so the information is obviously applicable to recruiters as well.  But, it is true that I did not have a special “LinkedIn for Recruiters” chapter.

The other reason I am writing this is, just like I get a lot of people asking me for help in finding them jobs, I get requests from recruiters with a specific opening asking me for help in facilitating introductions.  I am going to assume that if you have been using LinkedIn for recruiting for awhile all of my advice below might all be no-brainers; but, just in case, this is how I would use LinkedIn to find a candidate:

Continue reading 6 Tips on LinkedIn for Recruiting: My Advice for Recruiters & Headhunters

As you probably already know, I am very active on LinkedIn as a LinkedIn Open Networker or LinkedIn LION.  I accept all LinkedIn invitations, and I respond to each invitation with asking my new connections how I might be able to help them.  I often get the following response, which I again received just this week:

Hi Neal,

I do have a question you may be able to help with. I’m attaching my resume so you can get an idea about my skills and experience, but if you were in my shoes, what would you do in finding an opportunity in the XXX metropolitan area? You have any contacts I might get in touch with here in XXX? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks.

I would like to devote this blog post to all of those who are using LinkedIn while in transition and looking for a way to make networking work for you by reaching out to people like myself.  I hope it gives you enough information to allow myself, as part of your extended network, to help you find your next job!  And I hope that this blog post also makes you understand how and why I respond to you when you ask the above question the way I do!

Continue reading 5 Ways How I Can Help You Find a Job on LinkedIn

I have given many presentations on social media and your job search.  Everybody is finally “getting” LinkedIn, but few are looking at Twitter or even Facebook as platforms which could aid those in transition in their job search.  Today I want to talk about one strategy that I discuss on Twitter and your job search, and a story of how one Windmill Networker found success through thinking outside of the box and integrating the people he meets on Twitter with LinkedIn with real-life!

Personal branding is important in your job search to help differentiate yourself from all the other job seekers. But in social media, personal branding is more than just a differentiator: it can help you be perceived as a thought leader and get found by more relevant people sooner.  And Twitter is the perfect platform for this: just by tweeting about interesting reads from your industry that you’re already perusing anyway, you start building up your personal brand and people start to follow you.  Opportunities appear.

Rather than my speaking more about this, I am going to hand the pen over to today’s guest, Ken Nicholas. Ken Nicholas is a dynamic Sales leader and powerful Sales talent, with acclaimed successes in Social Media, Digital & Print. He has been the driving sales force behind leading ad programs that have resulted in winning Print Media Plan of the Year from AdWeek as well as creating a core part of the social media ad program that recently won the “Best in Social Media” Catalyst Award from JD Power & Associates. He writes an Industry blog, MindOnMedia[Sales] that has been linked on the AOL Autos blog family to date. He has also recently consulted with a Top-15 Ad Network and a WebTV/Video trade site, as he continues his look at new opportunities in 2010. Please feel free to reach out to Ken by connecting with him on LinkedIn.

Ken Nicholas

[This Post is dedicated to Neal Schaffer, visionary leader of SoCal Sushi Lunch events & social media expert/author of Windmill Networking.]

Almost by accident recently, I came across [yet] another way to utilize Twitter, one that I personally had not seen or heard of anywhere else until I inadvertently, well, used it. The technique is actually quite simple, can create new Interview/Job Lead oppty’s for each of us, AND demonstrate your expertise in the Career area you are pursuing…all at the same time. Really.

Continue reading HOW TO: Tweet Your Way to Finding a Job on Twitter

I am writing this post today because I wish that someone had written this for me when I was looking for a solution.  You see, I made a big mistake when I chose my original YouTube username, so today I write this to make sure that you don’t make the same mistake.

I recently wrote on why you should have your own YouTube channel even if you are a professional and not a company.   Today I want to help you create your YouTube presence by helping you choose one of the most important aspects of your YouTube Channel: Your YouTube Username.

I found out the hard way, but here are the facts to consider on the whys and how of selecting your YouTube username:

Continue reading YouTube Advice for Beginners: The Importance of Your Username

Today’s guest blog post is from someone I met Windmill Networking on LinkedIn: my new friend from Holland Rudolf Kriens (it is coincidental yet fitting that Rudolf comes from the land of the windmill!).  Rudolf Kriens is an engineering management advisor, educator & keynote speaker. His specialty is streamlining of clients’ product development processes. Rudolf’s career spans both industry and academia, and combines deep industry knowledge with expertise in a wide range of technology domains. He has over 25 years experience in managing applied research, innovation, and new product development. Rudolf’s professional interest in networked collaboration dates back to the mid 1990’s when he pioneered collaborative engineering and virtual teams. His current interests in social networking lie in social media marketing of professional services and in enterprise social networking systems.  Feel free to connect with Rudolf on LinkedIn.

Network of Dutch windmills from the 1740s in Kinderdijk

You can’t have missed all the recent stories on how social networking usage is exploding [1]. Did you know …

Linkedin (50 million members) welcomes a new member every second of the day?

Facebook (300+ million users) ranks as top social networking site in the majority of European countries?

During peak times on Twitter (as after Michael Jackson’s death) tweets exceeded 5000 per second?

Fact is that two-thirds of the global internet population now visit social networks. An estimated 800 million users will start using their mobile devices for social network access. The question is: will this massive scale of worldwide connectedness create a Web 2.0 version of Marshall McLuhan’s [2] “Global Village?”

If this was only a matter of technology the answer would be a definite “yes.” Enter the world of cross-cultural communication! Continue reading Meteoric Growth in Social Networking – “It’s a Small World after All,” or Is It?

It’s no surprise that jobseekers flocked to LinkedIn with this past recession after realizing that most recruiters were already heavy LinkedIn users and were using the social networking platform to find new talent.  So many jobseekers are utilizing LinkedIn that some are calling it less of a professional networking site and more of a jobseeker’s networking site.  It is unfortunate that some professionals are turned away from LinkedIn because of this as they miss out on a lot of professional networking opportunities.

Windmill Networking on LinkedIn as part of your job search strategy is obviously important.  But many jobseekers are still spending time on other Internet job boards such as Monster, Career Builder, and HotJobs.  In 2010 you may not need to anymore; just as social media is shaking up many industries, LinkedIn is well-positioned to become the new website for job listing aggregation.  Here’s why: (and the claims below come straight from an email I received from LinkedIn)

Continue reading Jobseeker in 2010? Why LinkedIn for Your Job Search will Become the New Monster.