The first kids come at 9am from Atlanta. I am just one of several tournament directors. It is off to get coffee, food and into the tournament office to begin ending the work of almost a year.

I didn’t sleep till 2am for worry and was up at 5:30 for the same reason. So follow along on what I am sure will be hillarious Twitters through the day @socialmediawonk. C’mon. It’ll be fun.

With social media, there really is no ‘A’ for effort – you need to do it properly if you hope to build a large, responsive following.

Here are three reasons you may not be getting the desired results out of your efforts.

1. You Aren’t Being Genuine

Many people mistakenly believe that since you are online you can simply pretend to be something you are not. In fact the opposite seems to be true – people seem to be able to tell more quickly online if you are being less than honest.

Don’t get me wrong – many people don’t lie necessarily, they simply don’t tell all of the truth. They hide parts of their real self because they mistakenly believe that the audience will judge them harshly if they new the whole truth.

On the contrary, real people prefer dealing with real people – warts and all!

2. You Aren’t Being Consistent

Here is the way most marketers approach their social media efforts: They do nothing for several weeks and then as though they remembered they had ‘friends’ out there, suddenly they go into a flurry of activity, expecting to pick up where they left off.

You have to remember that you are dealing with real people – real people need to hear from you on a regular, consistent basis. Figure out ahead of time how much time you have to invest and when and then use that time as you had planned.

3. You Put The Cart Before The Horse

Many marketers misunderstand how you use these social sites. They take every opportunity to get their audience in front of a sales page before the audience even gets to know them!

This is kind of like visiting a new friend who is a dentist and having him pitch you on teeth whitening every 5 minutes. Does that make you more or less likely to buy?

Your visitors should really get to know, like and trust you before they ever see a sales page from you. Watch your conversion rates soar!

Conclusion

You have to remember that building an audience with social media is not all about speed and sales. Take the time to build real relationships with real people and the rest will follow.

• You either are on board and trying to build a following or you are sticking your head in the sand, deciding that it is simply a fad which will pass; or
• You likely have seen Twitter in the news more and more as such celebrities as Aston Kutcher and Oprah get involved. Even large companies like CNN are jumping on board. The reason is simple — they realize that the power of Twitter is in it’s ability to not only let you communicate instantly and frequently with your audience but in it’s ability to let them communicate back to you as well.

This kind of instantaneous communication and feedback is something that has never been available before now.  So in thinking about this, I have come up with 3 immutable laws…well tips really, for using Twitter to create relationships

1. Don’t Be That Guy

You know..’that guy’. The guy at the party who is more interested in giving his business card out to whoever will take it than he is in genuinely getting to know you?  Don’t be that guy. Also, don’t be the guy who drinks too much and wears a lampshade on his head to impress his friends!

Here’s the rule – don’t do anything on Twitter that you would not do at a party.

2. Take Time Out – Daily

Building relationships on Twitter is like building a relationship in real life. You need to put time in frequently; preferably daily. These are real relationships with real people and if you want them to grow to know, like and trust you then you have to put some effort in.  It doesn’t mean that you have to speand all day on Twitter – in fact if you take 2 or 3 – 15 minute periods throughout the course of the day, that is enough. And it doesn’t matter if you miss a day or two, life happens. Just get back on the horse the next day.  Like all friendships, you get what you give and “nurture” is not a dirty word.

3. Treat People As You Would Like To Be Treated

Again, you are fostering real relationships with real people. Don’t ignore people or call them out in front of others. Treat people with dignity and respect, just as you wish to be treated.

—

So, the rule is really this – when building relationships with your Twitter followers, remember that they are real people. Treat them that you and you will build a strong, loyal following.

I am a believer in a holistic approach and so since I went with traditional last week, let me get into Twitter this week.  I have been looking high and low for the best folks to follow and that I can network with, but there are a few folks that are amazing for job hunting.  I keep each of these in a special column for job hunting on tweet deck so that I dont miss listings or wisdom.

As I get into these, please note that you have definetly seen some of these before and they are well worth re-mentioning.  They are my selections and as such your mileage can and ought to differ.  If you have someone that you think older, experienced jog hunters like me ought to be following, DM me @socialmediawonk or comment this story.  I will be delighted to add them.

I have also include a follow list at the end of this article.  I am trying an experiment to see if this format helps you add these folks to your own follow list.  Let me know how it works

KPMG Recruiters

I know this seems silly given that I was riffed from here and returned as a contractor, but Mike Madura and the rest of the KPMG midwest recruiters have been amazing, especially in pushing social media as a method of job hunting.  I like them and since I still in large part consider KPMG as still “my company” here are my guys:

• Mike Madura (@mikemadura) – Manager/Lead Midwest Advisory Recruiting at KPMG, LLP – Closet Theoretical Physicist/Cosmologist and all around nice guy.  Its the worst irony that I met Mike on the way out of KPMG and not on the way in.  He is insightful and forward thinking and to me, represents the best of the Advisory practice at KPMG.
• @KPMGAdvisory – KPMG’s IT Advisory, Business Performance Services, Forensics, Financial Risk Managment, Internal Audit, Transaction Services twitter account.  This is monitored by Mike and others out of Chicago.  But the gang tweets relevant advice and is a great example of how social media and real business can get along very very well.
• Sarah Peacey (@recruitingtruth ) – KPMG Advisory Recruiter
• Rithesh Nair(@rithesh) – KPMG Research Recruiter
• Dave Gombka (@dg)  –  KPMG Advisory Research Recruiter
• Janet Haas (@recruiterchic) –  KPMG Transaction Services Recruiter
• Ryan Anania (@duediligenceTS) – KPMG Transaction Services Recruiter
• KPMG LLP (@KPMG) – pushing out KPMG news and information
• KPMG Careers (@KPMGUSCareers) – US career postings

Other Job Search Twitter Geniuses I follow

Okay, so no particular order on this.  These are guys that I follow that have helped and inspired me.  Many of them have no idea who I am, but am proud to say that I like and admire each of them on this list.  I am certainly open to hearing and visiting your favorites.  Its a tough world out there and we all need the best we can find to get that next great gig that makes us happy to go to work each and every day.

• Patricia “Trish” McFarlane (@Trish_HR) – Beyond being a Mom, funny as hell and a good egg, Trish is the Director of Human Resources at Fleishman-Hillard and knows a thing or two about job hunting and HR in this age of social media.  A very, very worthy follow.
• Dan Schawbel (@danschawbel) – Dan is all about personal branding. He’s the author of Me 2.0 and he was one of my first follows post KPMG.  I credit him with giving me new thoughts and ideas on how to really take job hunting to the max.
• Laurie Ruettimann (@lruettimann) I love this girl  with her irreverant view of HR and social media.  Great follow.
• Charlie O’Donnell (@ceonyc) – Charlie is the CEO of Path101 a career discovery startup based in NYC.
• Alison Doyle (@alisondoyle) – Alison has some great ideas about online job search. And she wrote the book, literally:  Internet Your Way To a New Job.
• Tim Ferriss (@tferriss) – Tim wrote The 4-Hour Workweek.  It sits on my bookshelf write next to a couple books on GTD.  I just hope its possible.
• Ben Yoskovitz (@byosko) – The CEO of Standout Jobs, Ben works to improve the user experience of corporate recruiting sites to make it easier for companies to communicate their recruiting message.
• Ben Casnocha (@bencasnocha) -  He started his own company at age 14 and then wrote My Start-Up Life. Whether you want to be an entrepreneur or not, Ben is a college kid who has learned something in college.  That makes one of us.
• Susan Joyce (@jobhuntorg) – Susan has built one of the most trusted job search resources on the Internet at Job-Hunt.org.
• Jason Buss (@jjbuss) – Jason is the VP, Talent Acquisition & Diversity at Ameriprise Financial.  Want some insight on corporate recruiting?  Follow Jason.
• Joel Cheesman (@cheezhead) – Joel blogs and follows the world of online recruiting.
• Michael Arrington (@techcrunch) – Some people love the idea of working at a startup and I am one.  Easy money on the IPO and all that.  Follow TechCrunch for a much need rationality check.
• Andy Beal (@andybeal) – Andy writes about online reputation management and along with personal branding is absolutely critical in today’s world.
• Jason Alba (@jasonalba) – CEO of JibberJobber, a site that managed your job search.  He also wrote I’m on LinkedIn–Now What??? and I’m on Facebook–Now What???.
• Career Crossroad. @careercrossroad. These guys are the tips and tricks help line with things you can put to use right away.
• Job Angels (@jobangels) These guys are helping one person find one job at a time – You can twitter #jobangels to get them also.  Its kind of a neat concept.

Follow List

So a new experiment here.  I am providing a list of the folks I talked about in this article to make it easier to follow them.  Let me know if you like the format and what I can do to improve it for future articles.

@mikemadura

@KPMGAdvisory

@recruitingtruth

@rithesh

@dg

@recruiterchic

@duediligenceTS

@KPMG

@KPMGUSCareers

@Trish_HR

@danschawbel

@lruettimann

@ceonyc

@alisondoyle

@tferriss

@byosko

@bencasnocha

@jobhuntorg

@jjbuss

@cheezhead

@techcrunch

@andybeal

@jasonalba

@careercrossroad

@jobangels

So that is how I spend my day, networking and working a temp job that I actually really enjoy. But that is a story for another post. Nope for now, let me got through a bit of what I have learned and what I have actually found myself doing.

Online Presence

For me it all started with a professional online presence that I could be proud of. I like WordPress and have worked with it extensively, so I quickly redid my own domain name, www.drewselman.com, to be social media friendly. This included an about page which include an HTML and downloadable version of my resume, an active blogging area and a professional look and feel to the entire thing. It included links to what I believe is an ongoing virtual interview of me. My potential employers should know what I can deliver and that distinguishes me in the market place. I am currently working on building the Visual CV version of myself and I highly recommend Dan Schawbel’s excellent how to on the subject, here.

Now, I do have a pretty strong web development background and so a lot of what you see on the site is because I somewhat understand the underpinnings of HTML. WordPress is somewhat forgiving, but I highly recommend you keep it simple, collected and well organized. Make sure every article is shareable and that you don’t have any dead links. Professional is the key here.

I also use a plugin called LifeStream that creates an ongoing log of my social media activity. Setting it up is complicated and I will write up what I learned just as soon as I am sure it doesn’t completely stink.

Social Networking

Next for me was the bevy of social networking platforms that had to be adopted for the purpose. Beyond my Twitter account (SocialMediaWonk), was my Delicious, Digg, Facebook, Flickr, Last.fm, LinkedIn and StumbleUpon. It took quite a bit of time to not only locate all of them but to sign up. The bottom line is that all these are fairly easy to use and deploy. For the most part they work straight from a browser and serve to put your name in the world even more.

Also important is to actually write articles. I know that sounds obvious, but original content is your friend. If you are an expert at something, don’t say you are – write authoritatively. Watch the Social Media keyword on Twitter for five minutes and someone will make fun of a so-called “expert.” Don’t be the target. If you write well and you have a following your reputation will grow and you will earn the trust of the people following you.

You should also make your Twitter self job search friendly. There is plenty of space in the profile and you can easily put your elevator pitch in the biography. Its 160 characters so be precise in your language choice. Mine? “Social Media Evangelist, Senior Project Manager & Photographer seeing meaning and a new job in an unstable world.” Make sure your avatar is professional looking. Mine is a photo of me that was done for a recent book I appeared in, so I was lucky. I then tweet about my need for new professional employment on a constant basis. It is usually re-tweeted by friends and I am hopeful.

I also use a more professional looking Twitter background and include www.drewselman.com for easy access to my resume and site.

So that’s the setup. Next time I will go through some of the sites, twitter follows and other things that I have visited and what kind of traction and relevance I have found. As always I look forward to your comments.

Social media for marketing and job hunting are to incredibly similar not to see the obvious connections.  Both are trying to sell a product and both promote a brand (you have started your brand building right?)  They are both designed to make their way through the thunderous noise of the internet.  This landscape has become ever shifting and ever changing.  Everyone has become a content creator where Technorati indexes about 60 million blogs and Google searches for most terms produce millions of results.  The result is too much noise that has seemingly undone the purpose of searching the Internet and has produced a resurgence of human filtered search results that generalize those results and causes a homogenous crowd wisdom.

Marketing yourself, your blog, your site follows roughly the same pattern: Branding -> Positioning -> Integrating -> Claiming -> Syndication.  It is the pattern that I am in right now with my own job search.  Branding in this first week was job one with me.  Revising my own look and feel.  Updating my own credentials and making sure that I understand my own needs and picture of self.  Positioning that brand is also underway along with integrating that brand with my own content and claiming those results.  Syndication will come later as my reputation as a marketer in this space grows.  But lets talk about some ways to make these things happen.

So here are some steps that I have gleaned from around the Internet.  As I develop my own plan for using social networking for job hunting, here are some thing things I will be looking at:

To get started with your own blog and the message of you, it’s worth looking at about 5 steps.  You have seen these before, but lets examine them in terms of job hunting:

1. Increase linkability
2. Make tagging and bookmarking easy
3. Reward inbound links
4. Help content travel
5. Encourage Mashup

Linkability

Focus on the sticky.  Well there is that all too annoying buzz phrase that has been passed around the Internet like a gift to give that no one can find someone to hate enough to give it to them.  What is should say is make it likable.  Make it enjoyable.  Make it useful.  Hrm…sounds just like a job candidate.  If you are the product and the brand, I must like you to hire you.  I must want to come to work and enjoy being with you.  You must not be a pain in the ass and you should probably have some talent.  Please note that unless your talent is what friends might call “uber”  a monkey beating on a keyboard can replace you.   I like you and am attracted to you.

Case in point here.  My friend Andrew at KP has got to be the most genuine guy I know.  He loves, he has passion, he’s easy with a smile.  He is kind and understanding and is loyal to his friends.  I met him at a Cardinals game in the box and instantly liked him.  He just “had it all together.”  But he is some kind accountant and there is no way our paths would cross in work.  That is until the RBI program was announced and was looking for leadership.  As you will see, baseball and I share a long and happy relationship and so I wrote an in depth letter to him applying for the manager spot.  I got the job and according to him mine was the note that stood out heads and tails above the others.  My passion showed through.  He hired me, because of it and I agreed to hit because I like him.  Our yin and yang relationship is easy and will easily transcend KPMG.  But I had no special talent for what he was asking for.  He liked me.  I got the job.

It applies to the job market and to selling anything.  I have to like it first.  How do we do that with the written word in blogs and other social media?  A few things come to mind:

• Updated content often
• Create sticky features like downloads, lists and rules
• Use catchy headlines and branding
• Follow permalink conventions

I think if you look at most of these you have in part described a very complete resume.  However, its all about the people liking you.
Tagging

In the 80′s I was first introduced to writing a resume for keywords.  The colleague advised that I should just have a list of keywords at the top of the resume that descibred what I wanted to and could do.  I did that and had a few control words in there that appeared no where else in the resume.  Wouldn’t you know that recruiters kept calling about the keywords only?  They hadn’t even read the rest of the resume as proven by them constantly asking me about Cobol.  I don’t program in it but Lawson Software is made with it.  They didn’t ask about Lawson just Cobol.  The other oddity is that I still get calls on this.  Some 20 years later.  Keywords just hang around.

The lesson is easy.  Make it easy to tag.  Here are some suggestions:

• Use quick buttons to let people save your blog to any social bookmarking tool they wish
• Add relevant tages to each blog post so these posts can appear in aggregations listed by keywords in sites like technorati
• “Claim” your posts first by bookmarking them in del.icio.us

Reward inbound links

Once a year in my neighborhood they kids, in costume, come to my door and beg for food.  I reward them candy.  It is easily the highlight of my year.  When you go on a job hunt, the ultimate reward is to come back again for a followup and eventually a job.  Reward those coming to see your abilities with a goodies too.  Here are a few things you can do:

• Display trackbacks and comments on the blog automatically
• Add a list of “blogs that link here” or “recent comments” to feature contributors to your blog more highly
• Offer thanks by adding a comment to a linking blog post or directly thanking linkers
• Add links to further thoughts as updates on your original post.

Help it travel

My dad used to tell me that if I wanted to hold public office or get a job that worked, I had to do the hard work of meeting people.  Your content has to do that for you on the Internet so help it out.  Consider it a personal extention of your expertise and your personality.  Help it along.  Here are a few ideas:

• Syndicate your content in RSS and provide direct links for visitors to subscribe
• Offer email subscriptions to content through services like Feedburner
• Dont be afraid to submit your own posts to sites like Digg or Marktd, assuming relevant content.
• Tell other bloggers about the blog or a recent post – esp. bloggers yo like.
• Sources:
  • RSS
  • Feedburner
  • Technorati
  • Digg
  • Del.ici.ous
  • Makrtd

Mashing

Finally is the idea mashing.  If you have a good idea, let it run free.  It will grow, multiply and come back to you 20 times over.  You then enjoy the benefit of non stop quoting and being perceived as an expert.  And that my friends is what you want if you want a job from all this silliness.  Here is some ideas for letting your ideas run free:

• Choose Creative Commons license for your content
• Find blog networks that can help you distribute content and fit it to the premise of your blog
• Pursue guest author or contributor arrangements with blogs in your industry to spread the word about your blog.
• Sources:
  • Creative Commons
  • Blog Burst
  • 9 Rules

Conclusions

Since I am in need of new employment, my read on these subjects might be influenced by that fact.  However, I think the comparison is valid, whether you sell product or the product of you, the same social media principles apply.  I feel they apply to social media tools and to metrics.  Subjects we’ll cover as we go.

As always, your comments are welcome.

There is really nothing worse than having your boss come into your office, shut the door and sit down with: “It’s not good news.” Its heart rending to be sure but I have been given a gift, time. Time to make arrangements, time to wrap up and time to find another job within the organization. Two leads but like anything time will likely run out before they materialize.

What the time also gives is the ability to reopen the lines of communication that I have been personally neglecting throughout these two years. We are in a world where resume’s are sometimes for other people and a handshake, smile and good conversation are the requirements. You must be liked, you cannot be a bastard and you have to be someone they want to come work with every single day.

For me it’s heartening as person after person (and one just poked in as I am writing) comes by to say how much I will be missed. Gratifying sure, but collect the email list before you go of your colleagues. Don’t walk out the door and lose contact. These are the people you will be talking to a lot over the next month. Who do they know? Will they write a recommendation on LinkedIn for you? Can they make a call or two on your behalf. Do they need a caddy next Saturday?

It also gives you time to develop a plan of your own. For me its 3 pronged:

1. Establish an electronic marketing plan quickly for myself.

This includes:

• Updated Twitter Account;
• Blog updates and musings,
• Google profile,
• Visual Resume,
• Updated Linkedin Profile
• Updated Facebook Profile

2. Review my existing resume, recognize my strengths and do a rewrite to reflect them.

I have talents.  We all do. I do believe the key is to identify those talents and rediscover them.  For me its working with people, social media and photography.  Those talents are reinvigorated, rediscovered and releveraged.  Managing a group here is fine enough.  Control of a large budget, helping to shape positive outcomes for my clients is a worthy cause.  However, my joy here came from working with the RBI kids and developing the programs to make it a great experience for all involved.

Although I have hopes to continue that, I am also aware that the time may have come for me to move on and find a new passion.  I will marvel at the spectacle of the All Star Game from afar, experience a sense of real loss, but will thank the universe for the amazing chance to have had a place in it.

That said, I am now looking at my strengths, look at my own experiences and try to inventory the new me.  The re-invented me.  The new and improved Drew Selman. Brighter and shinier than before.

3. Get excited

Reinvigorate your passion.  Easy to say, hard to do especially if you are mourning your loss.  Look, I am 42 years olf and this will be my 3rd reduction in force.  Amazingly, two have been from big 4 accounting firms.  I wonder when I will learn.  But, redevelop your goals.  Take stock.  Make your to-do list.  Rebuild and reorganize.  Anytime I have been thrown a stopper, I have re-evaluated and found a new way around the problem.   Surprise, surprise, the solution was often much better than the easy way ’round.  What I’m saying?  Don’t fear roadblocks, there is often a much better way to solve the issue.

4. Don’t Despair

Finally, don’t despair.  Cry.  Sure.  Be upset.  But try not to despair.  Make your lists, take on this new job.  Network your brains out.  Write.  Run.  Eat well.  Find the sleep you have been missing.  Call the EAP if your company gave you one.  Don’t be afraid to talk to your friends.  Hug.  Laugh.   Be angry, be sad.  But never despair.  Despair will rob you of your ability to do anything at all.  Will you suffer?  Sure and that is only natural.  Cry over missed opportunity?  Yes, of course.  Worry about insurance?  Sure, but know that COBRA is there and that the stimulus bill should dramatically lower your rates.  You can also do something as simple as call BC/BS and find a fairly good, decently costed insurance plan for your and your family.  Hey!  You did check to see if your spouse had access didn’t you?  This is a change of condition and so opt-ins for most plans apply.  You will worry about money too.  Use your severance wisely.  Make sure you are paid off for your vacation. Role your 401K into an individual retirement account.   But don’t despair.

This is your life.  Your career.  Down but not out.  Down but not defeated and since I cannot help myself: “Never give up.  Never surrender.”

Hang in their guys.  “Something always comes from nothing.  Know what I mean.”  Comment or Twitter me if you want to talk.  More details on my actions as we go.  I will also through some useful links into the stream as I go.  Be sure to follow me on Twitter by hitting the button at the top of this article.

There are going to be personal losses for me, most particularly the ability to lead the RBI team through to the All Star Game that is here in St. Louis this summer.  I have been developing the plan and building the tools to manage about 450 shifts over a five day period.  I have managers in place and was really beginning to understand how this was going to work.  Negotiations for housing, food and transportation are underway and the volunteer collection was about to begin.  After 2 Encore Awards (one is the highest the firm can give) and a nomination for the Chairman’s Award for Excellence in Volunteerism for RBI, I see that all of it means nothing.  No doubt like most of corporate America, the proof is in the bottom line and those who managed to stay deployed as our client base vaporized will be the ones left to run my program.

I assure you that almost no one will give it the kind of love or ownership that I have given it – and that hurts.  Not for the hubris that comment intones, but for the 15 team of 8 to 13 year olds that are coming here from around the Nation to experience a once in a lifetime experience.  Baseball has always been more to me that just another sport, it has been a lifeline for me.  I was one of these kids.  I can still recall the smell of the fields after an afternoon rain.  The smell and feel of the scratch uniform.  My heart beating uncontrollably as I step in and it slowed as the first pitch was wound…and delivered.  That is what hurts.  I wanted to be the giver of that experience, the deliverer of that dream.

So, a new blog for me.  I publish several others on photography, but this change is intensely personal and it warrants a new start.  Your invited to come with me for my journey through this hard time.  I will discuss everything from resumes to finances to keeping myself sane.  We will also discuss this strange world of social networking that has become so much a part of my life.  Pretty much no holds barred.  Hopefully you will find it useful and there  will be some good things to see.  Think of it as an extended interview with people I have never met.  Because it is.

To my fellow travellers, hang in there.  Don’t be afraid to cry.  Don’t make any snap decisions.  Call or IM me if you want to talk.  I am on Twitter and all manner of things.  You are loved and you are valued.  Its just a turn in the road and we can make it together.

A man falls down a hole on a street and he can’t get back out.  A doctor walks by and the guy yells, “Hey Doc, can you help me out?”  The doctor writes a prescription, tosses it down the hole and moves on.  A priest walks by and our guy yells, “Hey Father, I’m down in this hole. Can you help me out?”  The priest scratches out a prayer, tosses it down the hole and moves on.   Finally he sees a friend and he shouts up, “Hey Joe, I’m down in this hole. Can you help me out?”  Joe jumps into the hole with him.  Our guys says, “What are you nuts?  Now we’re both stuck.”  Joe says, “Yea.  But I’ve been down here before and I know the way out.”

One of us knows the way.  Hang in there and lets find the way out.