There are lots of books on Twitter right now – I was supposed to write one of the earliest but I was in the middle of rewriting I’m on LinkedIn — Now What??? and I wasn’t sure I wanted to write another technical book that would have to be updated every year!  I opted to not do that but instead create hands-on, visual webinar recording that shows you how to use Twitter.

Twitter for Job Seekers (the video) is specifically designed for professionals in a job search.

It is a 1 hour and 24 minues (and one second) video, walking you through what Twitter is, and how to use it in your job search.

It’s based on the idea that you want to find network contacts who can help you in your job search – find people to add to your own personal/professional network, as well as how to communicate with them after you find them.

There is also training on what to do with your own Twitter account. As a professional, what could or should you be tweeting?  (going into personal branding, and how to use Twitter as a Personal Branding tool)

I show you how to get value out of Twitter EVEN IF YOU DON’T HAVE A TWITTER ACCOUNT.  This is essential for many professionals who aren’t excited to jump on this bandwagon, but still want to tap into the power that Twitter.com has created.  There is significant power there – and you can tap into it without even signing up for an account.

I won’t try to convince anyone to get a Twitter account, but I do want you to learn how to use this tool so you can achieve your career management objectives.

To access the recording (as many times as you like) simply do the following:

1. Login to JibberJobber.com.  This is as security measure so this video isn’t shared out inappropriately.  If you don’t have a JibberJobber account, get one on the front page – it takes about 60 seconds.
2. Mouse over the Tools link (from the main menu) and go all the way down to Videos (click on the Videos link).
3. The last tab on Videos is “Premium Videos.” Twitter for Job Search is the last one there.

This $50 investment into your career management is worth it… once you are done you should have your brain wrapped around Twitter as a tool, and know how you are going to incorporate it into your job search strategy.

(if you are already logged into JibberJobber, simply click here)

Yesterday I blogged about my cousin who was hired in just a few days from when he found a job posting on Craigslist.

I guarantee he was prepared to have the right conversation when the time came.  He was ready.

Last night I dropped in on a network meeting I haven’t been to for over a year.  The hostess recognized me and at one point said “Jason, why don’t you take a few minutes and tell us about JibberJobber?”  What a golden opportunity to sell the concept to people who needed it.  Two years ago I would have messed it up – last night I was surprised, but much better prepared.

Today I flew into Orlando for a surprise meeting. I was just here 2 weeks ago.  Due to a series of events that happened from two weeks ago, I’m back and here to talk about some pretty serious stuff.

I am ready.  I’ve been ready for a while.

You never know when you are going to meet that key contact – whether it’s online or in person.  It might be from a referral, and it might seem meaningless.  But you have to be ready.  here are some of my suggestions:

• Know what you want. If you know what you want, then when an opportunity arrives you’ll be better prepared to react appropriately.
• Know how others can help you. People will say “how can I help you?”  It is better to know what to say rather than “I’m not sure but I’ll let you know later.”
• Know who you are. So many elevator pitches suck – they are misleading and offbrand.  If you know who you are, who you want to be, and how to communicate it, you can take advantage of those 10 or 30 seconds  you might get.  Not prepared?  That’s okay, you can just mess it up like most people do.

How else can you be ready?

I lost my job January 2006.

I lost 100% of my income the day I heard, over the phone, something to the effect of “we’re going to have to let you go.”

I felt equally bad for the other people who were getting let go from my company.  We had all given more than 100% to the company. Our loyalty was with the company, which I thought could be shown by the fact we hadn’t taken a raise or bonus for about three years (even though employees from the parent company, where some of us had come from, enjoyed raises and bonuses regularly), but we kept plugging away trying to make a go of this somewhat start-up.

It was a sickening time.  Alas, not to worry, I was going to land soon, I felt.

After weeks, which turns into months, I realized that “landing soon” was something other people might do – not me.

One group of people had the power to take away 100% of my income.  I was left with 100% of my expenses (mortgage, 2 cars, bills, etc.).

I think one person actually influenced the group to make the decision, and one other person from the group signed off on it, which made it happen.

It really comes down to one person.

In contrast, right now there is not one single person who controls my finances.

I don’t have one single contract or client or user who can do away with 100% of my income.

Even if I weren’t actively involved in my business I would still make money right now.  You can learn how I do it in my Multiple Streams of Income posts (the how is not as important as the idea that it’s actually happening).

How about you?  Have you relinquished 100% of your income to someone (or something (a corporation)) else?

If you have, what can you do to change that?

What better way to end the week than to give someone an unsolicited LinkedIn Recommendation.

On my LinkedIn Blog I just posted a critique o.f a LinkedIn Recommendation I got – you can read it at Excellent LinkedIn Recommendations – an example.

I didn’t ask for that Recommendation, and I wasn’t expecting it.  It has made my day….

Imagine if you make someone else’s day – well, you can.  Just go find a first degree connection in LinkedIn and write them a real, glowing, value-add LinkedIn Recommendation.

You can get some tips from my blog post How To Write An Excellent LinkedIn Recommendation.

Want more LinkedIn training?  My video, LinkedIn for Job Seekers (not just for job  seekers) provides over 2 hours of training on LinkedIn.  Or, my best selling LinkedIn book is pretty awesome (so I hear ).

Another new update we did this week is so simple it barely merits a blog post.

Of course, some users will love it, even though it’s not a huge deal.  So I’ll tell you what is was, but I want to wrap it in a concept.

JibberJobber is… well, complex.  It’s not simple.  It’s very powerful, but the complexity kind of scares some people off.

I bet your job search, or career management, or personal branding management, is also complex.  There are tons of books, articles and blog posts about the stuff – it has to be complex.

Sometimes in the complexity we miss opportunities to simplify, while doing something that will have a “significant” impact on what we are doing.

Check out the first time I wrote about this in one of my favorite blog posts titled I Hated My Lawnmower.  One tiny change made a huge (significant) difference in my lawn mowing experience.  And my neighbors couldn’t laugh at me anymore (for that, anyway ).

The second time I referred to this was another favorite post titled Permission to Manage Your Career.  As someone who’s serious about CEO of Me, Inc, this was a significant epiphany for me.

My message to you is this: perhaps there is one simple thing you can change which will produce significantly different results.  Perhaps it’s a job search tactic… or perhaps it’s where you work (messy office vs. clean room or coffee shop)… or perhaps it’s what you wear when you start your day… or perhaps whether you smile when you are on the phone or not.

One simple thing might change a lot.

Find that one simple thing, and then I challenge you to make the change.

Ok, having said that, here’s the simple change we made (thanks to a few users who have suggested this):

On the List Panel one of the columns you can see is the Next Action Item Date.  This is now a hyperlink – you can drill down and go to that log entry/action item.

So simple, but a real enhancement for those who navigate a lot through the List Panel view.

There ya go, another cool enhancement, and an analogy of how you can relate the concept to your career management

I was reading a blog post by Glen Plantz today about becoming uncommon, talking about a book called Quiet Strength. Read that entire (short post) here.

In the post he talks about “God-given” natural abilities, which some are blessed with, and then the rest of us who have to work hard to create our own abilities.

He ties it up with a job search perspective… how can we become “uncommon?”

My thoughts immediately turn to networking and personal branding, and what we can/should do to create that uncommon brand.

What have YOU done to become uncommon in your career management?

JibberJobber is a Career Management Tool.  One feature that really breaks it out of the short-term “job search tool” and makes it more valuable in your long-term career management is the Job Journal.

Don from Pittsburgh suggested that we give free users the ability to add Job Journal entries without upgrading.  After chatting about it with my team we agreed, as this is such a significant part of managing your career.

The Job Journal allows you to record your past accomplishments:

• Were you Employee of the Month?
• Did you save the company $50,000, or earn the company a $3M contract?
• Did you do something that really helps others understand your character, skills, integrity, and what you bring to the table?

Let me suggest that when you most need this information (like when you are creating your resume, or when you are in an interview) is the time you are least likely to recall it.

I wrote Depression Clouds Everything, the most commented post on this blog, with this in mind.

You know you are awesome, and you have a terrific history of bringing value to your employer – but when you start your job search (or as it drags on) it’s easy to forget your accomplishments – and these accomplishments are part of your story.  These accomplishments are what you can use to help an interviewer understand just how valuable you are.

When I was putting together my own interview question responses, and my resume, I easily overlooked more than 50% of my accomplishments – they were long-forgotten.

This is where the Job Journal comes in – login to your JibberJobber account, mouse over Tools (in the main menu) and click on Job Journal.  You can enter 25 accomplishments in the free level… sure it’s not unlimited but it’s a great place to start.  I’d be quite impressed if you could list 25 accomplishments right now

As you put your accomplishments in the Job Journal, flesh out the story – you should be able to state the Problem, your Actions, and the Results (PAR).

Career Management is a long-term thing, for sure.  Please do not lose track of your professional accomplishments – you won’t remember all of them when you really need them – and that’s where JibberJobber and the Job Journal help.

Past posts about the Job Journal are here:

The Job Journal – Sept 2007

Liz Handlin writes Keep a Job Diary – Jan 2007

Not Just A Job Search Tracker – Why Professionals Need JibberJobber – Oct 2008

Nick Corcodilos is the man behind the famous Ask The Headhunter.  Nick’s advice, opinion and wisdom has been read by hundreds of thousands – he has been syndicated for a long time.  Anytime I’ve read Nick’s stuff I found myself agreeing – even if I didn’t want to, his logic and perspective was strong.

Nick recently came out with a new book called How To Work With Headhunters.  I’ll write more about that later.

I sent Nick a LinkedIn for Job Seekers DVD and hoped he would weigh in on it.  I was more than pleasantly surprised by the in-depth and two-thumbs-up report he gave on his blog.  You can read the entire post at LinkedIn for Job Seekers: A personal tutor.  Here are some things from his post that I really liked:

“I don’t write about many products or services because it’s rare that I find one worth writing about. Let’s face it, the Net is rife with hyped-up garbag-io.”

Totally – we’ve been beyond information overload for a long time.

“I expected a slick video of Jason in a suit lecturing me. (I dunno about you, but I can’t stand scripted videos and droning talking heads.) What makes this video so effective is that it focuses entirely on the LinkedIn screen while Jason stands over your shoulder and walks you through every important page, screen, feature and tool LinkedIn has to offer. There’s no droning…”

I hear this a lot – people expect me to be on a stage telling you what to do… in fact, you can see a short preview here, or a long preview here – you don’t see me speaking at all – it’s all my screen as I walk you through Linkedin, with my commentary and advice.

“My plan to skip around and get a feel for the DVD was dashed. I wound up taking my time and taking notes!”

There is a ton of meat in the DVD…

“I’m not job hunting, but I learned much of what I need to know to use LinkedIn for my business.”

Great point – I say it’s “not just for job seekers.”

“I think this product works so well because Jason Alba is immersed in JibberJobber and he spends all day long thinking about what helps job hunters.”

Another great point.  I actually think about social tools from two perspectives: (1) from the professional in career management, whether they are in a job search or not, and (2) from an entrepreneur/marketing perspective, so I can figure out how to grow my own business.

“LinkedIn for Job Seekers costs $49 (if you catch the current promo price). An hour with a tutor will cost you more than that.”

I charge $250/hour for consulting.  My DVD is over 2 hours long. The math is simple on this one

Nick, thanks a ton for this review, it really made my week when I saw it in my Google Alerts

This Wednesday I’m doing a webinar called LinkedIn for Executives.  I spent considerable time developing this webinar and am really jazzed about it, as it has evolved from the two other webinars I’ve done for executives for Expert Connections.

This 90 minute LinkedIn for Executives webinar will go over various scenerios on how EXECUTIVES can get more value out of LinkedIn:

• how an executive finds and communicates with a key contact
• how and what they do with Target Companies
• how they network into a company
• what they could do with the network contacts they grow
• how they can grow their network with relevant CxO and board members,
• etc….

The cost is $50 if you are a Netshare member, $60 if you aren’t.  Register at Experts Connection.

Just who am I to give this webinar?  Jason Alba:

• served as VP, CIO and General Manager at his last employer during the course of three years,
• got laid off and found himself in a job search where flipping burgers wasn’t an option (based on personal expenses),
• wrote the best-selling book I’m on LinkedIn — Now What??? (see Amazon reviews here)
• Created the DVD LinkedIn for Job Seekers (see Amazon reviews here),
• Speaks across the United States on career management, LinkedIn, Social Marketing, etc.

I’m on LinkedIn — Now What??? was the second LinkedIn book in print, and the first to be in a Second Edition.

You can learn more about my LinkedIn thoughts on my LinkedIn blog, but don’t miss the webinar on Wednesday!

My friend Randi Bussin is a Personal Branding Strategist and is putting on some very affordable personal branding webinars this Fall.  Click here to learn more info, or register at her site.

I had NO personal brand when I was looking for a job and quickly realized that if I had been working on it, I would not have been “Jason WHO??,” instead I would have had people who knew me and my strengths before I got to an interview.

If you want a strong, intentional personal brand, I recommend checking out Randi’s webinars!