When I started doing research on JibberJobber I had a notion that this would become a personal relationship manager.

Most CRM tools, including Salesforce, Goldmine, ACT!, etc. focus on a sales process.  They have sales jargon, sales reports, etc.  I wanted to develop something that did not have that jargon or emphasis, but would help people manage personal relationships.  I wanted something that would become a PERSONAL CRM, not a corporate CRM.

I should say, in the CRM world there has been a lot of talk about the phrase “manage relationships,” which sounds cold, calculated and transactional.  I agree that it might not be a terrific phrase, but I do think that in order to nurture relationships, and to build “intimate relationships,” it’s darn useful to have some tool to help us remember when we last talked, what we have ever talked about, and when I need to followup.  So until I hear something better, I’ll continue to say “manage relationships.”  I hope you get the idea, though, that I’m not talking about the cold, transactional aspect of managing a relationship.

Let me talk about CRM really quick… CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management.  Companies would buy a CRM solution and give it to their sales professionals and business development professionals.  This is one reason why those who have had sales experience see JibberJobber and immediately “get it” … because they used something very similar in a prior job.

CRM tools allow a sales professional, or anyone who deals with external customers and prospects, to know who is in their pipeline, where they are at with each individual (has the sale been made, was there an offer, when does a follow-up need to happen, etc.), including a running log of all of the past communications.  It’s an extremely important part of a professional’s toolset, as it allows you to keep up with your relationships (and, sales).

JibberJobber came out in May of 2006, and was positioned to offer this same level of functionality to the individual, whether they were in sales or not.  Oops, what I meant to say is WE ARE ALL IN SALES, AND WE ARE ALL CEO OF ME INC.!  What do we sell?  Ourselves!  Our brand!  Our value proposition!

Whether we are unemployed or not, we are always in sales, and we should always work on our pipeline!

Here are a few relationship management tasks that JibberJobber helps you with:

• Knowing WHO is in your network. Not just the name of the person, but information like when you met them, who introduced you to them, are they associated with any of your target companies, when you last spoke with them, etc.
• Knowing what your target companies are. Not so much on individual relationships, but you need to know your prospects… JibberJobber helps you keep notes on your target companies, and allows you to keep track of how you “network your way into a company.”  This is critical, whether you are in a job search or not.
• Images and log entries. Putting special extra information on a record can help you remember who the heck they are.  Many times I’ve looked at a business card and thought “I have no idea who this is, and why I have the card.”  Putting a picture on helps a lot, and putting log entries with snippets of an email conversation, or notes from a phone call, really help remind me who each person is.
• Ranks the relationships. It’s not enough to simply have a network, or a big network, or a wide network… I want to know how strong the relationships are with each individual.  Keith Ferrazzi, in Never Eat Alone, talks about ranking the strength of the relationship with each contact - that was one of the first things designed into this personal relationship manager!
• Tags and Categories. This helps you “slice and dice” your data later… if you tag and/or categorize a contact you can later get their info based on the tag/category.  For example, i regularly go in and say “give me all the email addresses of my blogger contacts, or my family.”  This is done by tagging and categorizing.

And, as a bonus,

• JibberJobber is a great tool to manage a job search. While it is a comprehensive job search manager, it is not just about job search…. it is about relationship management - which is a LONG TERM thing that you do throughout your entire career!

You can see we’re merging the concept of customer relationship management and personal relationship management… and we’re doing it for YOU.

Don’t have an account?  Get one here.

Seems like nowadays everyone says they are a LinkedIn expert… there are a bunch of people talking about LinkedIn… how to use LinkedIn in a job search, how to use LinkedIn to make a sale, how to use LinkedIn for  _________.

I realize I’m totally biased about my LinkedIn DVD (I’m quite proud of it :p), perhaps it’s not fair to tell you what I think of it.  Let me share what others are saying about it on Amazon.com:

VerySuperCool Sue writes from Austin:

I was surprised at the amount of information that was on the dvd. I thought I had finished, when I realized I was only beginning! I think everyone who has a Linkedin account could really benefit from watching this.

Paul Jones from Salt Lake writes:

I loaded Alba’s LinkedIn DVD and immediately started using the spacebar. You know, the spacebar pauses the video. And I needed to pause the video because so much of his advice was immediately actionable.

Kelly Kennedy says:

What I especially liked is that the DVD is a webinar format of Jason using LinkedIn, not just him standing there talking about it. As you view the DVD you see what he is clicking on, what Jason thinks about various features, and what you should do with LinkedIn for job search and career management. It is especially helpful how Jason highlights sections of the program and then discusses each section individually for clarity. Our undergraduate and MBA students have taken full advantage of the program and I admit that it was clearly worth the small investment we made.

Jeffrey Ogden in Bethpage, NY writes:

Jason has created a very useful and informative DVD for anyone who wishes to optimize his or her Linkedin profile. Why is it important? I just met with a Chairman and CEO of a good sized business. He said “I loved your resume.” I responded “What resume? I never gave you one.” He said “Oh, I mean your Linkedin profile.” [I LOVE THIS STORY!!]

Sophie Lagace from Eureka (!) writes:

I have used several other LinkedIn resources, including Jason Alba’s own book and blog, and I’m employed, not looking. Yet I still found value in the tutorials, and I took several new actions to connect with people and improve my profile.

Cultural Tofu writes:

Although it’s geared towards job seekers, I found the information to be relevant for non-job seekers just trying to build their professional brand and grow their professional network. … I highly recommend this DVD to anyone interested in updating their professional brand using LinkedIn.

Thom Allen in West Jordan, UT writes:

Most of the information in the DVD isn’t a secret, but Jason brings new ideas on how to use the features that already exist for LinkedIn users. You will find more opportunities to improve your LinkedIn connection base than ever. You need this DVD.

Julie Walraven in Wausau, WI writes:

… even though I have read his book before and worked with LinkedIn for a couple of years, I found a few more tips and changed my profile once again. … Screen by screen with Jason giving clear advice, jobseekers will learn what to do and what not to do with LinkedIn and why. As a professional resume writer, I am excited to use this new tool with my clients and am recommending it on my website.

Marc W from West Jordan writes:

Jason Alba shows us in his new DVD what works and why and how to implement it. He presents his material in a very easy to follow format with excellent examples.

Thomas Clifford writes:

What I like best is I can review any of the segments quickly and easily and then jump onto LinkedIn and execute the concept. … Books on LinkedIn are fine; this is like having a private one-on-one tutorial in your home. Pretty cool!

Awesome folks, thank you for those testimonials!

If you haven’t gotten a copy of LinkedIn for Job Seekers, the DVD, yet, click here to order.

I’m beyond frustrated with Comcast email issues… I’m writing this post for two reasons:

1. To inform users and people who sign up for JibberJobber that they WILL NOT get email from us anytime soon - so those birthday reminders, action item reminders, signup verification, password reminders… none of that will get to you until we can get this resolved.
2. To tell people, whether you use Comcast as your ISP or email provider, that there is a much, much better way to handle your email.

First, for the issue of the JibberJobber mail server not able to send to Comcast addresses.  I was an email admin a while back and know that we will never win the war on spam.  Never.  It’s a huge issue, of course, as no one likes spam.  But sometimes the rules put into place cause more problems than they fix.

For example, when I was an email admin we set a “threshold” so that certain emails would go through (the good ones) and others would get stuck in a spam bucket (the bad ones).  Guess what? There were a number of “false positives,” that is, emails that were GOOD but got marked as spam.

Executives (who are typically the most whiney in situations like this) at first complained they got too much spam.  So we change the threshold so they get no (or little) spam, and then they whined they weren’t getting the important emails (the false positives, usually from their kids).

The problem here is that Comcast has blacklisted our server, which means NOTHING will go from our server to a Comcast email address.  We have tried to go through their process of getting off the blacklist, but have heard NOTHING back from them.  Very unprofessional.  Maybe @comcastcares on Twitter, but this is living hell for me, as I have a bunch of users saying “I never got _____ email.” And indeed, they are writing from a Comcast email address.

I’ll try again today, based on this blog post about getting off of Comcasts blacklist, but I’m not hopeful.

Enough about me and JibberJobber - now for the regular person.  I strongly encourage you to get a Gmail email account, for a few reasons:

• Gmail has an awesome interface on the internet, and other interfaces (with Outlook, etc.).
• Gmail interfaces with other cool tools, like the Google Calendar.
• Gmail has awesome spam management.  Rarely have I seen problems in their logic, which amazes me.
• Your Gmail address WON’T EVERY CHANGE.  Let me present a scenerio… today you are on Comcast (or Quest or whatever)… and then you move and get a different ISP or phone service.  Guess what - you will likely get a different email address… and have to tell all of your contacts.  Do this a few times and it’s frustrating to YOU and your contacts.  Get one gmail address now and keep it forever… regardless of who your ISP is.
• Gmail makes you look more sophistacated (or up to speed, or whatever) than other providers like AOL (old), Juno (older), Yahoo, etc.

There ya go.  I gotta stop writing and go try and get off of Comcast’s blacklist.  Grrrrrrrrrr…….

Oh yeah, in case you are having blacklist problems with your email server going to Comcast, here are some good reads:

• How to stay off the (Comcast blacklist) list - I’m not hopeful, but maybe it will help.  Could change anytime.
• Up to 8000 Comcast E-mail Accounts Compromised - guess they aren’t perfect either.  This was only a few months ago - March 2009.
• RBL - Blacklisted by Comcast - let’s hope I’m as lucky as this email admin.
• Comcast reports 35 percent decline in spam - ya think?  I wonder what increase they say in false positives.
• Comcast takes hard line against spam - no kidding.  So much for getting legit emails, too.

I retired the Personal Branding Winner of the Month, but will award the You Get Award whenever I find someone who has a freaking awesome site/blog, etc.

Joe Cockrell’s website is one of THE BEST that I’ve seen in a long time.  Joe’s message is clear… how much clearer can it get?  He’s a PR guy.  He’s THE PR guy!

You know what was jump-off-the-screen awesome?  The design… Joe’s picture right there… you get to know the PERSON, not the website.  You start to make a personal connection.

My first impression (you have to see the entire website, not just this small part of it) includes:

I’m nice.

I’m competent.

You need to have me work for you.

I LOVE it.  Why doesn’t every professional have something like this?

Go see what Joe the PR Guy has done.  If I wanted a site like this I’d go get a bid from elance and probably pay less than $200 for it (only because I could tell the designer: “I want this, with these specific changes” (and then list the changes…)).

Today is the last day of the LinkedIn for Job Seekers DVD sale price - I just asked my main web guy to change the price to $59.95 plus shipping and handling tomorrow.  Tomorrow I expect the box of DVDs to arrive at my office, and I’ll ship a bunch in the afternoon.

If you want to save $10 and have me eat the shipping and handling, you need to order today .  Additionally, I’ll throw in some kind of THANK YOU for ordering early thing - not sure if it will be free premium of JibberJobber, or one of my other webinars (Blog Marketing 201 - 501 or Write Your Book), but it will be something cool (any ideas?).

LinkedIn for Job Seekers has the following chapters/session:

1. Profile Review Part I - Above the Fold - I critique the top part of five LinkedIn Profiles, and make suggestions on how they can make them stronger, and increase the chances of being found in search results.
2. Profile Review Part II - Below the Fold - I critique the rest of the five LinkedIn Profiles, specifically the stuff that you see when you scroll down (education, work history, etc.)
3. Applications - To wrap up the “LinkedIn Profile” stuff, I had to talk about the new “LinkedIn Applications,” and what I suggest you do as a professional.
4. Account and Settings - It’s a big menu page, but what do you need to worry about? We’ll go over some of the things I recommend you pay attention to.
5. Getting and Giving Recommendations - How to get and give LinkedIn Recommendations.
6. Answers - Asking Questions - Ask questions in LinkedIn as a part of your networking and personal branding strategy.  Here’s how.
7. Answers - Answering Questions - Not ready to commit to asking questions regularly?  Answering questions is also very powerful, and doesn’t come with any regular commitment.
8. Searching - If you aren’t using advanced search, you are missing a big part of LinkedIn.  There are a few simple tricks that can take you a long ways in LinkedIn.
9. Browsing Connections - Your first degree connections might have some golden contacts for you - here’s one way of finding people you need to network your way into.
10. Exporting Connections - Exporting your contacts is one of the four things I talk about in my seminar.  Here’s why and how.
11. Growing Your Network - I had 5 first degree contacts when I first got started, and that was a huge mistake.  Instead of saying “get thousands,” we say “get the right connections, and here’s what that means!”
12. Groups - Groups for the job search?  Absolutely, and strategically!  We talk about how to find Groups and what to do once you are a member.
13. Staying Current - I’m on LinkedIn — Now What Blog - Some info on how to keep up with current LinkedIn information, as well as communicate with others regarding issues we blog about.
14. Company Pages - The Company feature in LinkedIn is amazing… AMAZING.  I think it’s the second best thing they’ve done, next to Answers, for a user like me.  Eventually it could eclipse the value of Answers… !
15. Jobs - Looking for a job in LinkedIn’s job search area?  Here are some things to know.
16. Introductions and Communication - how to, when to, why to communicate with people in LinkedIn’s communication tools.
17. Conclusion - Some final thoughts on LinkedIn, LinkedIn in your job search, etc.

Instead of a “here is every link in LinkedIn, and if you click on it here’s what happens” training, this focuses on what I think you should focus on with LinkedIn.  So there you go - if you want it you can get it whenever, but if you want to save some money and get some other goodies then order it TODAY.

I’ll decide on what bonuses to give with these preorders before I ship - you can leave suggestions in the comments (or by email).

I came across a listing of the “20 best job search websites,” according to PCMag.com (see Cheezhead’s comments here).  I think this list of sites is… well, junk.

Seriously, I would not recommend many of these sites to anyone who is starting a job search.  If you find them on your own, and find value in them, great.  But none of them are on my top list of anything.  Here’s what they are:

1) Beyond.com Beyond claims to be the “largest network of niche career communities” on the Net. It essentially hooks together different organizations like PRJobForce.com and PhillyJobs.com all in one place, which makes it easy to find leads in your community.

2) CareerBuilder.com As the Web’s biggest job site, CareerBuilder gets more than 23 million visitors a month. The company has been around since 1995, and has developed an incredible network of listing sources and job search centers since that time.

3) Craigslist.org The granddaddy of online classifieds gives those who are focused on searching for jobs within their communities an easy way to look. It might be one of the least-polished entities listed here, but the sheer number of local job listings makes up for it.

4) Execu|Search This site looks to be a selective, higher-tier job search property. Execu|Search screens and reviews every resume that is submitted, and helps employers find the best possible candidates for their open positions.

5) Hound Hound’s search engine shows jobs from employer Web sites only. In theory, this cuts out duplicate listings and shows opportunities that are not posted on other job boards.

6) Indeed Indeed works as an aggregator for listings from major job Web sites, company Web sites, associations, and other online sources. Its simplicity and ease of use are its best features.

7) JobCentral JobCentral is a service formed by a nonprofit consortium of U.S. corporations like IBM and Dell, which makes it ideal if you’re looking for corporate job listings.

JobServe JobServe claims it was “the world’s first Internet recruitment service.” In 2008, JobServe advertised more than 2.5 million jobs across 15 industry sectors.

9) Jobster Jobster uses an active approach to help employers and recruiting teams of all sizes find their candidates. The company calls its method “social recruiting,” and it services 24 different job categories.

10) LinkedIn Best known for being a social network for professionals, LinkedIn also has thorough job listings, some of which are exclusive to LinkedIn.

11) Monster In addition to being arguably the best-known global job-listings site, Monster also offers advice on resumes, interviewing, and salary information.

12) Oodle Oodle, which specializes in online classifieds, includes a job classifieds section that finely cuts job opportunities down to job title, category, industry, and company. Did you know, for example, that Best Buy has nearly 10,000 openings?

13) onTargetJobs onTargetjobs owns a lot of smaller niche sites like BioSpace.com and MedHunters.com. Its expansive niche database allows users to find compatible job listings more easily than with general sites.

14) Simply Hired SimplyHired is similar to Indeed, as it also aggregates listings from major job Web sites, newspapers, company Web sites, and associations. However, the site goes a little deeper and allows users to send their resumes out for posting on five other sites for free.

15) SnagAJob SnagAJob is basically the antithesis of sites like TheLadders and Execu|Search, as its focus is on hourly employment only. The site has partnered with companies like 7 Eleven, Red Lobster, and AMF, to bring the most up-to-date hourly job openings.

16) TheLadders This job site has branded itself as the place to look for $100,000+ jobs only. Job seekers have to pay $30 per month to fully take advantage of the site’s services.

17) Trovix Trovix’s free search engine makes the job-search process more personalized. Users input their work experience and qualifications and the site matches results to what info they have given. Trovix also has an innovative feature called Job Map, which allows you to type in your location and see on Google Maps how many jobs are available in your area.

18) TweetMyJobs One of the newest sites to take advantage of social media, TweetMyJobs supplies Twitter users with instantaneous job listings that are derived from TweetMyJobs’ Job Channels.

19) USAJobs.com USAJobs is the official job site for the U.S. government. With the government looking to significantly increase spending during the next few years, looking at federal jobs might not be a bad move if you’re in a tough place.

20) Yahoo! HotJobs As one of the biggest job sites on the Web, HotJobs distinguishes itself by focusing on features such as status (which shows how many times one’s resume has been viewed) and the ability to block companies from seeing your resume.

Out of this list, here’s what I’d recommend:

Indeed (#6) or SimplyHired (#14): using one job board aggregator instead of poking around dozens of job boards makes a lot of sense. For some reason I’ve migrated to Indeed, but I last I’ve seen, SimplyHired is just as good.

LinkedIn (#10): of course. No explanation needed. If you don’t get it then buy my LinkedIn book or get the new LinkedIn for Job Seekers DVD.

The Ladders (#16): I think their resume reviews are shady (more on that later), and not everyone is getting value out of them, but many are. Not free, but could be valuable if you are a six-figures person.

That’s it… from my last 3 years in this space I can’t say that hear any career experts evangelize any of the rest (and some are harsh on The Ladders)… I’m kind of surprised at the suggestions in their article but this seems on par for articles like this.

What sites would YOU suggest?

One of my favorite premium features in JibberJobber is the Get Contacts List page, which allows you to export your contacts from JibberJobber into various formats, including a .csv file (which opens in Excel).  This is what I use when I send my newsletter to bloggers, or to family/friends, etc.

This allows you to slice and dice your data.  You can see a two minute video here.

I asked my Twitter network how to merge a csv file and a Word document and my California buddy Walt Feigenson was kind enough to create a whole blog post out of it.  You can read his post, How to use Microsoft Excel and Word to send multiple emails, at the link.

Why is this important?  Because it helps you send newsletter-like emails to your contacts.  This is HUGE and something I think every job seeker should do.  How? Read this post on newsletters for job seekers.

What’s more, every PROFESSIONAL should do this, imho.  In The Google Story it talks about how the Google founders sent their friends and family newsletters announcing what they were doing, their projects, etc.  This was a personal newsletter.

Whether you have “the next google” or not, you should reach out to your contacts with a newsletter.

(thanks Walt, for the awesome post)

Here’s a list of 10 free job search resources that I frequently recommend:

1. JibberJobber (free version): hey, it’s my list, I get to be on top, right?  We designed the free version of JibberJobber to be more powerful than an excel spreadsheet (with regard to features), and offer OPTIONAL upgrades (one for $5/month, and one for $9.95/month).  Whether you are in a job search now or not, you should be using something like JibberJobber to manage your professional relationships.
2. Emurse.com: This is my favorite place to put a resume online, nothing more, nothing less.  Get your paper resume out and simply fill in the blanks.  Your online resume will be accessible from a URL like jasonalba.emurse.com (not a hyperlink - I don’t have my resume up there, since I’m not looking right now… but I should do this!).
3. LinkedIn.com: I usually only recommend upgrading for people who will be searching a lot and need to reach out to the people they find.  This might describe you, but if not, just get the free version.  YOU HAVE TO BE ON LINKEDIN.  PERIOD. Oh yeah, and subscribe to my LinkedIn blog.
4. Job-hunt.org: this site has a tone of stuff, and can be overwhelming to navigate, but let me share two gems that I frequently refer back to.  First, Deb Dib’s article on LinkedIn for the executive job seeker.  Great article, but I refer back to it a lot because there are 8 LinkedIn Profiles that she points to that are pristine… excellent examples to help you craft your LinkedIn Profile.  Second, when someone tells me they can’t find a local face-to-face network meeting, I go to Job-hunt.org and look to see what they have listed there (top left drop-down on main page).  I could go to Google but this already has what I’m looking for (I don’t always find the right answer, but it’s where I start).
5. Twellow.com: I’m not going to try and convince you to get on Twitter, but do this: go to Twellow.com (which is like the “yellow pages of Twitter”) and search for people in your city, state, profession or industry.  You’ll find influencers who are probably well-networked - these are people who you want to develop relationships with.  No kidding - give it a shot and start networking with people who can help you get closer to your target companies.
6. Indeed.com: Yup, a job board, but not for job board’s sake.  Use Indeed to do COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE RESEARCH.  Find out what companies are hiring, what your target companies competition is doing, what job titles look like (I had to get familiar with industry buzz words and titles I wasn’t familiar with during my job search, which led me down other paths), etc.  Ignore the idea of applying for jobs using job boards and think about this as a rich database research tool!
7. The Career Hub Blog: You can read me babble on and on and on at this blog, but realize that (a) my job search was an utter failure, and (b) while I offer freaking awesome website to job seekers, I am not in the trenches with job seekers like professional job search coaches.  Want to hear from them?  The Career Hub Blog is THE PLACE to go!  Also, on the right of that blog you’ll see a download button for free job search ebooks - totally worth the time to download and read (they are short, packed with great stuff).
8. Groups.Yahoo.com: Two big part of a professional’s job search are personal branding and networking (nurturing relationships).  There are not many places better to do this at a very focuses level than the right Yahoo Group.  The right one will depend on your profession, industry, etc.  I’ll give you ONE example… if you are in PR you MUST MUST MUST be on Young PR Pros.  I’m there because I want to learn how to do PR for my own company, and learn from these experts, but I see job leads, contracting leads, and other types of referrals continually passed along, and I know there is a lot more going on offlist - find the right Yahoo Group and actively participate!
9. blogsearch.google.com: It would be too easy to just say “google.com,” which I could, but I want to narrow that down a bit - use Blog Search . Google to search for players in your space, just the same way you would use Twellow.  Same concept, although you’ll have to play around with the search terms more to really find the results you want to find.  But once you find a blogger in your space (industry, profession, etc.) you might hit a gold vein, … check out the blogroll, who comments etc. and you might just have a ton of awesome contacts to start developing relationships with!
10. Google Alerts:  You should have target companies… why not keep up on them?  Go to Google Alerts and put in the company names, officer names, products, etc. to see what buzz they are getting online? You should also have your own name and perhaps professional friends as well as past companies in Alerts.  I have about 12 alerts set up including my name, names of my books, JibberJobber, and my competition… I want to know what’s being said, and when I can comment on blogs - Google Alerts is an excellent way to keep your ear to the ground on things you want to pay attention to.

What other resources do you recommend?  Free or not free… share it here!

I’m in Conway, Arkansas today… I wrote a cool blog post while on the plane but it sounds too braggy, so I’m trying to figure out how to tone it down.

I also have a scathing blog post to write to college and university people (excluding career center professionals).  It is a result of a discussion at dinner last night that reminded me about one of my biggest pet peeves with the educational system.  I need to noodle on that one a bit more, too.

For now, check out this very quick read on using Twitter in your job search - great stuff from an industry expert: Using Twitter for Job Search

I got on Twitter a while back and chose to go for it and see what it was all about.

Since then, I’ve been super-impressed.

Not with the technology.  For crying out loud, it only really does one thing, and for so long it couldn’t even do that (google “fail whale” and you’ll wonder how a company can survive that).

In my social media/marketing/job-search presentations I talk about social tools, and “why” I participate in them.  Specifically, I share three reasons:

1. To grow your network. Not because you are out to be the biggest networker in the world, or because you want to brag about the thousands of (meaningless) connections you have, but for other reasons.  In LinkedIn, the bigger your network is the richer your search results could be.  In Facebook, the more Friends you have the more chances of benefiting from the viral goodness of using Facebook.
2. To nurture relationships. I want to learn about people, and figure out how I can help them, and I want the same from them.  We need to go beyond 30 second pitches and tag lines and get to know people at a more intimate level (”intimate relationships” comes from Never Eat Alone - required reading).  I don’t build intimate relationships by viewing LinkedIn profiles… I need more social interaction or functionality.
3. To ________ my (personal) brand. I still don’t know what word best fills in the blank… share, enhance, grow, etc.  But the more you can learn about me, assuming my message is on-brand, the more you understand my brand.  This applies to my personal brand AND my corporate brand.

I participate in various online environments, although not as much as you might think.  And I have to say, Twitter hits each of these three purposes spot-on.

The benefits I’ve seen from Twitter are huge, and my involvement has been so rewarding.  I’ll post more about that later, but for now, here are two things you can do:

1. Read Guy Kawasaki’s post on Twitter, written from a business/entrepreneur perspective. This post is the best post I’ve read on Twitter, and why it can help you.  I agree with most everything that Guy says in this post.
2. Follow me on Twitter. Ugh, I feel a little dirty even saying that, and have never wanted to even solicit connections on LinkedIn, or Friends on Facebook, etc.  But here’s why I finally am inviting you to follow me on Twitter.  First, if you aren’t using Twitter, you can simply go to my page without logging in or doing anything and get a feel for WHAT I tweet… just to see how it works.  Second, I tweet about 5ish times a day… news about my new baby and personal stuff like that, industry news, interesting finds online that I think are worth sharing, JibberJobber news, etc.  Stuff that helps you get to know me better, peak inside my head, and begin to understand me enough to help you develop an “intimate relationship.”

Okay, that did feel a little dirty… if you don’t follow me, there are others to follow, and learn from.  Go find someone interesting and see how they are using Twitter.

If you want to follow me, login to your account, then go to this page: http://twitter.com/jasonalba, then click the “follow” button right under my picture.

Oh yeah, one quick warning… if you get on Twitter today, you’ll probably think it’s the lamest thing in the world and leave it after a few days… I’ve seen this time after time.  And then, 4 - 6 months later, the person comes back.  It’s weird, and I can’t explain it… but Twitter is powerful!