The inspiration for this blog post comes from someone I consider to be a true thought leader in social media, someone who I had a chance to finally meet in person recently: Jeremiah Owyang.  He wrote a blog post back in 2008 entitled “Stop Fondling the Hammer, and Focus on the House,” and I didn’t [...]

I am amazed by how many small businesses do not utilize social media to the maximum.  Think about it: social media, like the internet two decades ago, allows any business to compete with larger, more established entities.  Come on, what are you waiting for?
What further amazes me is how few small businesses maximize their presence [...]

LinkedIn has been around for many years now, and maybe some of you created an account in the early days of 2004 like I did and just forgot about it, including the password.  Then, later on you created a second account.  Or maybe you used your business email as your primary email address and no [...]

Yesterday, I issued a press release talking about how my LinkedIn book, “Windmill Networking: Understanding, Leveraging & Maximizing LinkedIn” won and Honorable Mention for Best Non-Fiction Book of 2009.  To say that I am happy about this is an understatement: as someone who risked all credibility with publishers by going the self-published route, it is [...]

In 2010, the landscape for jobseekers continues to change as the world around us changes.  As social media begins to envelop almost every part of a corporate organization, and as more corporate employees are required to use it as part of their professional jobs, the impact it has on the jobseeker is tremendous.  However, most [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]