Youtube continues to be a great source of traffic for everyday people and marketers alike. Many marketers become disappointed when a video they had high hopes for results in less than stellar sales.

If this has happened to you, you likely wonder what went wrong as well.

1. Ask them to leave a comment or review

You likely already know that YouTube has a comment and review system that comes up below your video on the YouTube site. You may even know the power of this – the more feedback and reviews you get, the more likely your video is to be seen by others.

Chances are, not as many viewers as you like take the time to fill out a comment or a review though. Here is the trick – ask them to do it. In the video you can either say something like ‘if you like this video, be sure to give it 5 stars below) or you can simply put an annotation (cartoon box with a text message in it) at the end of your video that asks the viewers to rate it.

You will be surprised at how your video takes on a life of it’s own once your viewers are commenting, rating and sharing it.

2. Use Proper Keyword Tags

Take the time to do proper keyword research before posting your video. There is a spot when uploading your video to youtube that lets you add whatever tags you like. Many marketers simply type a few keyword terms in without giving it much thought.

Here’s the problem – Google at this point is unable to read video content. The only way it knows what is in your video is by the description and the tags. If you take the time to do proper keyword research, you will simply have more traffic to it.

3. Place Your Link In The Right Spot

Many marketers blast their links in the bottom third portion of the video and have it play throughout the video. The thinking here is that the viewers will remember the link and be compelled to punch it into their browser at the earliest opportunity.

If you think about this though, you realize that the idea is flawed. Your viewers know as soon as they see the link playing in the video that you are trying to sell them something. How likely do you think it is that after being pitched something for the whole length of the video they are going to take the time to type it in to their browser and buy?

The truth is many viewers close the video as soon as they see your ‘advertisement’.

The correct place to put your link is in the description of the video. Place it first in the description and make sure you have the full URL (beginning with http://). This makes the link clickable so your viewers do not have to type it in to their browser.
If your viewers like your content and feel they are not being pitched, they are more likely to click your clickable link in your description.

Conclusion

Creating videos is only half of getting traffic. You need to encourage your viewers to leave positive reviews, use propert tags and place your link in the right spot.
You will be amazed at the difference these 3 simple tips make in your results.

The truth is that these well-meaning marketers for the most part have no idea what they are talking about.

They simply repeat what they have been told by other well-meaning marketers.

I witnessed a marketer test the duplicate content penalty by doing the following:

The marketer copied an article that has been spread around the web and is listed as being in 16,000+ different sites on the web. The marketer placed the article as-is on a new blog that had no page rank or any other benefits.

Then the marketer did what you are supposed to do – he built backlinks and did other SEO techniques to this blog post. Within a couple of weeks, the blog post was rated number one in Google when searching for the article (out of 16,000 competing sites that had the same article) and there it stayed.

So, here is the truth – Google does not ‘penalize’ you for putting duplicate content on your site, it simply ranks the content the way it always does.

The moral of the story is that you should not shy away from PLR or even rewrite it. Instead take the little bit of extra time that it takes to keep your version of the article at the top of Google.

This Marketing  site is not your average membership website instead focused towards providing the very latest teachings, tweaks and changes that can be made to your website today and can increase sales conversions by as much as 20% overnight.  Benson originally released Marketing Quickies several years ago and it was an instant hit. The internet today is a vastly different place and to keep up with the curve Benson has developed Marketing Quickies 3, a repository of over 11 years internet marketing experience.

http://www.unseeninternetmarketing.com

“How much money you make is entirely up to you,” Benson said. “I’ll show you exactly what has worked for me and many other hundreds of businesses the world over.”

In todays marketplace, increasing sales conversions can be the difference between operating a profitable online business or going out of business. Squeezing as much out of a website as possible has become vitally important.

Here’s a glimpse of what’s inside:

• How to increase your sales by up to 20% by copying and pasting a few lines of code
• How to bump conversions up by as much as 25% by placing a certain type of image on your order page
• How to create effective video marketing campaigns including a full step by step walk through
• How to make pop up boxes that visitors actually want to see and catch up to 50% more opt-in emails
• How to pull a stampede of visitors from Youtube and other social networking sites
• How to achieve a number 1 position in Google in 72 hours or less for a fraction of what it would cost to hire a search engine expert
• How to optimize landing pages on your site and double sales in as little as a week

“As a result of years of testing I’ve identified specific triggers that cause more people to engage with your website and react more enthusiastically to your sales message,” Benson said.  Marketing Quickies 3 is an engaging video series teaching fast, simple ways to boost bottom line sales in minutes, stuff that works today and is already making money today.  Learn how to increase hits, sales and conversions by making simple website tweaks.

Sign up for a free trial membership and see for yourself:
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But how do you do it? The truth is, most marketers are doing it all wrong.

Below you will find 3 tips to help you grow your Twitter followers list the right way so that you will build a responsive audience for years to come.

1. Follow Only Those You Are Genuinely Interested In

This is simply being genuine. If you are interested in Internet Marketing, do not follow somebody who is into bass fishing (unless you are into bass fishing as well). Many marketers blindly follow anyone but this is a bad strategy. Inevitably you are creating tweets filled with content that many or most of your Followers do not care about.

When you follow people who are interested in similar things, they will be more inclined to follow you back as well.

Stick with building relationships with people that have similar interests to yours.

2. Don’t Spam Your Audience

When you tweet, it should be mainly with the purpose of providing useful content to your audience. Sending out a series of links for your products or services will only turn people off. Remember that people love to buy things but hate to be sold.

Sending out constant sales pitches will only alienate your audience and hurt your sales efforts.

3. Be A Valuable Content Provider

The saying ‘content is king’ is equally true on Twitter. You do not need to have tons of original content however. There are a ton of sources online that you can use to be on the cutting edge of your niche and provide timely, relevant information.

Consider sites like digg.com and technorati.com where they rank hot new content in every niche daily. Simply pointing your audience to these sources is very valuable indeed. It does not have to be more complicated than that.

4. Tweet individuals often but thoughtfully

You can and should send tweets to individuals that you follow to direct a message solely to them. Make sure that you are not breaking the 3 rules above however when you do so.

Personal tweets get the attention of not only the person you send it to, but all of their followers as well. A well placed, valuable tweet to someone with a large audience can result in 10′s or hundreds of new followers for you!

When you begin to treat your Twitter audience properly and be one of the ‘go to guys’ in your niche, people will find and follow you. More importantly, they will come to know, like and trust you.

When they trust you, they will happily buy from you and tell others about you, growing your list even faster.

Its an odd concept for me since I actually like to write things, but many webmaster use PLR articles because Google adores fresh work and rewards new and different content on a blog or website.

To succeed. the pundits note, you have to  have great digital products that convert qualified leads into real, cash-paying customers. For many people, coming up with products will involve them creating them on their own, or it may involve them commissioning other professionals to do the hard work for them.

Chances are though, like most smart internet marketers, you probably want to save a whole lot of time and money. After all, if you were to create your own e-book for instance, expect to spend tens of hours doing the research you need, and then writing the book itself – and that’s if you’re only semi-decent at writing.

If you’re a good writer, it will still take you hours and hours and if you’re terrible, well, forget it, because your e-book won’t sell!

Now, you certainly won’t go wrong by hiring a good writer to create a really good e-book, but think about how much a good writer is going to cost you. Wouldn’t you rather spend that money on getting visitors to your site so you can make more money?

I’m pretty sure, like me, you’re always looking for ways to save time and money on your internet marketing business. I’ll easily spend hours each week just reading up on the latest internet and social marketing happenings and news, in the endless search of improving the way I do business.

In my latest search, I came across a unique website, that’s well worth you checking out if you are serious about time and money saving: http://plrwholesaler.com

The site was created by an internet marketer for internet marketers, and it’s a one-stop shop for PLR material. E-books, reports, training videos, e-courses – you name it! The really nice thing about this site though is that membership is free. You can sign up as a VIP Member, which won’t cost you a cent, and you can download a huge amount of PLR material for free! You can sell that material yourself as part of your own internet marketing business, and of course, you can change any part of the product to suit your target audience. Don’t be put off by the free part either, in terms of the quality of the material that’s on offer, because I’ve downloaded the free PLR stuff myself and it’s of a really high quality.

I’ve worked with plenty of writers over the years to create scripts and other marketing material and I can honestly say that the quality of this material is just as good, if not better – without having to pay the money I would pay a writer. In addition to the free PLR material you can download as VIP Member, you can also access heaps of great information about how to improve your internet marketing business. You also have the option of paying a small one-time fee to become a Full Member of the site, and that will entitle you to additional  PLR products to download and sell, plus you can become an affiliate of the PLR Wholesaler website itself, and receive a great commission whenever somebody you refer signs up as a Full Member.

Regardless of whether you’re a paying member or not, you will have access to a regular e-newsletter that gets sent out, and if the testimonials are anything to go by, it’s definitely one e-newsletter that’s worth your while.

Final comment on using PLR here.  Google is fairly aggressive on dinging sites that use content that is duplicative of what is found elsewhere.  As a writer I really encourage you to use these articles as ideas, starters, seeds to get your own creative juices flowing and growing.  I will never give you my readers anything other than my best ideas and thoughts on using Social Media as a method for marketing yourself or your products.  I just encourage you to be true to your self and your own site.   The outcome in the log run is much better.

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

Now, I say this even though Mike M from KPMG assures me that 85% of all manager and higher jobs come from social networking, I have to think that its worth spending the time with traditional resources. A couple of notes here. I refuse to list on Monster.com for the very reason that recruiters hardly ever read my resume when they come from there and just because I once was part of an ERP team 10 years ago, it doesn’t mean that that skill is still active. This my friends is the problem with papering resumes everywhere.

Social media allows us to tailor the experience for what we seek very decidedly and narrowly. This is what I have done with @socialmediawonk and at www.drewselman.com. With the list of sites below, the same thing should occur: create the resume that tells the story of what you want, make sure its not a laundry list and make sure both your online version and your linkedin profile are firmly rooted at the top. Old school meets new school.

So here is a list of sites that I have found to be bit more than just the usual shlock. Next time we’ll take a look at how and who to follow on Twitter for a more expansive search.

Oh the places I have been

I have been to all of these websites.  You don’t need to go to all, but I am a scorched earth kind of guy.   Some I have profiles at, many I don’t.  Remember, get rid of the crap on your resume that is irrelevant to your current search.  All resumes are scanned and searched and your time stripping in Vegas isn’t going to be relevant to anyone.

• AuthenticJobs.com – Listings of companies looking for full-time and freelance web designers.
• Bixee.com – Search by keywords, location, or browse by industry.
• Careerbuilder.com – General job search site.
• Coroflot.com – Allows for creatives to publish an online portfolio and search for jobs.
• Fedjobs.gov – The home of USAJOBS, where all Federal jobs go to get posted.
• FreshWebJobs – Full-time and freelance web developer jobs.
• GoFreelance.com – Assortment of freelance jobs that allow you to work from home.
• Indeed.com – A job aggregator that scrapes jobs from around the web.  (recommended by KPMG)
• Isabont.com – Helps you manage your job search by letting you organize yourself.
• Job-a-matic.com - Post job listings, and even add a job board to your existing site
• Jobburner.com – Focusing on technical jobs, post your resume and search for jobs.
• JobBoardReviews.com – Reviews job boards and helps you pick the right one for you.
• JobDig.com – Dedicated to the Midwest, focuses on employment, training and opportunities.
• Jobfox.com – Fill out your profile, view your job matches, and let people hunt for you.
• Jobpile – Aggregates from numerous jobs boards to let you search them all at once.
• Jobsandgigs.com – Design and development jobs boards, features customized RSS feeds.
• Jobsearcheasy.com – Browse and search for jobs and earn prizes while you do it.
• Jobster.com – Post your resume, get advice, join networks.
• Krop.com – Creative and technology job listings.
• Layoffspace.com – A site for the unemployed to gather, network and help each other find work.
• LinkedIn.com – Jobs and social networking all rolled into one.
• LinkUp.com – Job aggregator that monitors thousands of employers websites.
• Mapdango.com – View classified job listing on a Google map, seeing what is in your area.
• Odinjobs.com – Intelligent job matching for the technology field.
• PageBites.com – Works for both employers and job seekers, searchable by jobs and regions.
• Peekface.com – Read reviews of employers written by people with experience in the same company.
• Recruit.net – Millions of jobs from all around the world. Search by keywords and location.
• SalaryScout.com – Ever wondered if you were getting a fair salary offer? Use this site to compare it to what others report.
• SimplyHired.com – Millions of jobs harvested from numerous sources (also well liked by KPMG guys)
• WebProJobs.com – Designed with web professionals in mind, features full-time and freelance jobs.
• Whototalkto.com – Give people leads in to your former job, while getting tips on the one you want to get.
• WorkTree.com – Job search engine with browsable categories including government jobs and Fortune 1000 companies.
• Yahoo HotJobs – Jobs board owned by one of the largest web companies.
• YorZ.com – Search for jobs or network with people inside your industry.

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.