Facebook has power in numbers – and I’m amazed at the connections I’ve made because of Facebook that I didn’t make in LinkedIn.  I’m also amazed at the conversation that happens in Facebook that isn’t happening elsewhere.

If you want to brush up on your Facebook understanding, or wrap your brain around a Facebook strategy for you, come on over to the webinar.  It isn’t free but it will be worth it.  Here’s the description:

Facebook is the website that has all eyes on it. They recently announced their 300 millionth signup. (for some perspective US Census Bureau reports the United States recently passed the 300MM mark.)

What does this mean to us as executives? How can we use Facebook as part of our career management strategy and how does it fit with LinkedIn and other social networks? Should executives even have a Facebook strategy? Considering the number of signups and visitors (hovering around 120M per month and the companies who are developing online marketing strategies that include Facebook), it is essential that we understand what it is and what we can do in it.

In this 90 minute session you will learn:

• Learn how to navigate through the noise and clutter of Facebook to find information relevant to you.
• Learn to set up your account and network and, once and for all, answer the question of how to separate your personal and professional contacts.
• Learn to use Lists, Groups and Pages as effectively as any marketer uses them in a commercial environment.
• Learn to develop a search strategy to help you network your way into key company or industry contacts.
• Learn to communicate with network contacts and help them get to know you better.
• Learn to keep abreast of current issues and opportunities within your network…to further develop relationships.
• Learn to find relevant audiences where you can find relevant contacts and further develop your professional brand.
• Learn to incorporate Facebook into an overall personal social marketing strategy.

Register here.

See ya there

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)

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 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!

Some of the stuff we talk about (her audience is not job seekers, it’s entrepreneurs):

• thoughts on being an entrepreneur,
• stuff about my book and how I’ve used it as a marketing tool,
• the name of a movie that had a major impact on me as an entrepreneur (I saw it on my way to a speaking gig in Turkey),
• and a number of thoughts on using LinkedIn.

If you have a few minutes and any entrepreneurial inclination, check it out

The discussion that a blog used to be able to create is not dispersed over various networks.

This is different than it was three years ago.  For example, when I now pose a question or discussion on a blog post, I hope to get good, health debate.  However, what happens is I get a few comments here, a few comments on Twitter, a few comments on Facebook, a few comments on LinkedIn (if I post the question on LinkedIn), etc.

This is good for ME, but horrible for YOU.  YOU being anyone who is not following me on Twitter, or my “friend” on Facebook, etc.  YOU is also anyone who comes over from a google search.

Case in point – the post from yesterday addresses two comments I got from Facebook.  My blog posts automatically become “Notes” in Facebook, and some of my Facebook Friends leave a comment there.  The problem?  That comment is seen by a few people, but really it’s lost to the masses.

I contend that the comments from YOU on my blog posts are much better than my own blog posts.  So please, please, please bring the conversation back to the original blog post – if you see my stuff on Facebook please DO NOT hit the “Comment” link… rather, click on View Original Post to leave a comment on the blog.  It’s better for everyone, even you, as your wisdom and input goes to a much bigger audience.

Thank you

When I talk about Relationship Capital I am referring to the “capital” I am building up in that relationship.  It comes from nurturing individual relationships.  People might be referring to the level of TRUST they have with a contact when they talk about relationship capital.

I do not think of relationship capital as something I need to get a return on… in other words, if I have an investment I want to get a return on my money invested.

With relationship capital I develop relationships so that I can add more value to the relationships or, if needed, they can add value to me.  I think a one-to-one comparison with any other investment, especially where you will take you investment off the table if it doesn’t give you the ROI you want, is not fair.  If you think of your relationships that way they will probably seem one-sided or fake.

Building relationship capital is deeper than that.

However, understand that one day I might want to take a draw on that relationship capital, which might mean i ask for a favor, or an introduction, or something like that.

Tomorrow I have a post that I talk about networking and using relationship capital….

Have you heard of, or do you refer to, relationship capital?  Perhaps an almost-good-enough phrase to describe something we all need to be working on.

There are countless approaches you can take to successfully pursue employment opportunities in your MBA job search, many of which entail some use of web tools, job search engines and professional networks.

Despite all of the various options available online, you essentially need three things online to effectively pursue job opportunities: (1) an attractive online resume, (2) a professional network and (3) a way to keep track of all of your professional contacts and search activities.  Based on my research and personal experience from the MBA job search trenches, I recommend VisualCV, LinkedIn and JibberJobber as what I like to call the MBA Job Search Triple Play.

VisualCV offers you a new and free way to display your resume and begin establishing your presence and personal brand online.  I like to consider VisualCV the pioneer of resume 2.0. While your VisualCV looks more like a traditional resume than a typical online profile, it is so much more, allowing you not only to incorporate your professional experience, education, etc., but also a portfolio of your previous work and/or publications, references and recommendations, links to your social networks, professional media sources, such as video clips and images, and other achievements and awards. VisualCV brings you and your resume to life and really enhances your career search efforts. You can even buy your own domain name and forward it to your VisualCV so to quickly refer employers and recruiters to your information.

LinkedIn is the leading professional network on the web, so if you don’t have your free account already, get one today! Complete your profile with all of your information, add your photo and link to your website, blog and your VisualCV.  Build your network by connecting with coworkers, supervisors, professors, classmates, friends, family members and anyone else you know or meet throughout your career and your job search.  Get recommendations from respected contacts to increase your credibility, join and participate in groups to network with others to get more involved and answer questions to help others and gain expertise and insight in your field.  You can also identify target companies and connect with their contacts in your job search, as well as use LinkedIn’s own comprehensive job board to apply for opportunities.

JibberJobber is the ultimate career management system.  VisualCV offers you the resume and LinkedIn provides you the network, but it’s JibberJobber that helps you keep your head above water in your job search and manage all of your search efforts and activities for free.  Based on CRM software, the system allows you to add and categorize your contacts, track who referred them to you, keep contact-specific notes, rate the evolving strength of your professional relationship with them and create reminders for future networking.  With JibberJobber, you can also keep track of your target companies, your contacts within these companies, each individual job for which you apply and its status throughout the application process.  However, its features and offerings don’t stop there!  There are multiple career search resources and tools available to help career seekers with interview preparation, job search expenses, salaries and more.

These three tools are godsends for anyone seeking employment opportunities, but especially for full-time MBA students, collectively saving them time, energy and sanity in their pursuit.  So, don’t let the opportunity to leverage them in your job search pass you by!

Chris Perry is a Gen Y Brand and Marketing Generator, a Career Search and Personal Branding Expert and the Founder of Career Rocketeer, the Career Search and Personal Branding Blog.

If you have any LinkedIn questions, consider getting my LinkedIn for Job Seekers DVD.  This is not just for job seekers… it’s a great tutorial to get up to speed on getting value out of LinkedIn (I spend the first 3 sections on Profiles).

Clint Goudie-Nice is the lucky one today… let’s start:

• THANK YOU for not putting anything in the name field except your name.  Drives me nuts to see email addresses, LION, etc. (which are all against the terms of service).
• Great picture – I love it.  One thing I like about this picture is how close your head is… I’ve seen a few recently where the person is like 10 or 20 feet away from the camera and I can’t make out enough details.
• The LinkedIn professional headline is … okay. You are missing an opportunity, however, to put a marketing pitch there (think 30 second commercial condensed down to a 5 second commercial).  The professional headline is a great place to communicate your value-add, and will be seen in various places in the LinkedIn experience.

• You need more LinkedIn Recommendations. I know Clint personally (he bought me a burrito yesterday!), and know that Clint is an awesome systems architect… why doesn’t he have more LinkedIn Recommendations?  I’d expect him to have at least 10 really awesome Recommendations.  Get to work on that!
• You should have more connections.  I know Clint networks a lot, and is a nice, likable (sp?) person.  I talk about how to grow a relevant network in my LinkedIn DVD.

• Do you sell candles… is that your “Company?”  Or is this a link to your current employer?  Is your “Website” your family blog?  Don’t make me guess – instead of choosing the default labels for this, choose “Other” and then type something descriptive in.

• I highlighted the things that stuck out to me as errors in grammar or spelling or formatting… I could be wrong on some, but they just looked wrong.  Clint should have cleaned this up by now (I haven’t looked), but you don’t want your Summary to detract from your message and capabilities.  Some people won’t care and won’t catch them … others will let errors like this become an issue.  Proof your Summary, and then have about 10 others proof it and provide feedback.
• I like how Clint has a lot more than two paragraphs here… I think he’s still shy of the limit (2,000 characters), which I’d recommend he works towards.
• I like the voice, and the message, in general.  Would like to see some “for example” stories.
• I think the ending could be stronger… it’s okay as-is, but I wonder how it could make more of an impression.

• I’ve never seen this before but I really like it – it solves the issue of “how do I talk about different jobs I had at the same company?” … he has done this a number of times in his profile.

• My question to Clint was, which of these add value to your branding and overall message, and which of these do not?  Those that do not are distractions, or noise, and you should not show them on your Profile.

This is kind of a quick-and-dirty LinkedIn Profile review… check out the LinkedIn DVD, were I go over five other professionals’ Profiles… and much more!

How is YOUR Profile?

I’m an Independent Programme Manager based in Central Europe with a good network across Europe & the Middle East where I do all my work. I’ve been lucky enough to rely on less than 5% of that network for all my work (6-12 month contracts) in recent years. I have a niche LinkedIn network of around 766 but it gets messy trying to work it AND stay organised AND do the contract search work AND remember in 6 months time what I last spoke to Fred Blogs about. Sure I remember the high profile conversations but not the lower priority ones.

The market is lean now and advertised work (that is, posted jobs) is massively over-applied to. So I need to WORK 100% of my network as opposed to 5% of it. I’ve always focused on building a network, but it suddenly dawned on me that I don’t take advantage of what I’ve built over many years. I was searching Google “how to approach your network for work” and I stumbled across JibberJobber (JJ) again and I’ve taken the trial.

On day one I imported my 766 contacts from LinkedIn, updated old email addresses of people who don’t keep their LinkedIn profile up to date, organised some of the major companies in my network and started filling out other fields in each record.

On day two I exported most of the contacts to a CSV file and imported them to my mailing program “GroupMail”. Then I mailed out to my network, personalising each email with the <insert field> option in GroupMail.

On day three I was overwhelmed with the response from my network and have spent the day writing personally to each person who wrote to me and subsequently increasing the ranking of our relationship, in some cases helping some of those people in their circumstances. That done, I can now update JJ and keep on top of my networking far better, especially as my network is quite large.

I didn’t write to my network blatantly asking for an assignment. I had something useful to tell my contacts (it was about my blog www.consult-llewellyn.com) and I could also refer to the fact that as of next month I’ll be available for a new assignment.

Being an independent, I never cease looking for new opportunities. JJ is a tool that I can use to help me manage my ongoing personal marketing efforts in the months and years ahead.

I’m still only on day three of my trial and the tool has helped me considerably. The excellent video tutorials helped me get to grips with the tool in no time and I shall be upgrading before the trial is up.

Rob Llewellyn

Rob, thanks for the really good feedback – my ego is stroked and the idea that JibberJobber is much more than a job search tool has been justified!