I get messages from Jim Stroud regularly. He’s a powerhouse of recruiting and job search information. He does a lot with video.
This has to be one of my top favorite video formats EVER. Check out how freaking clever this is:
Isn’t that awesome?
This morning my wife mentioned to things in our morning prayer that I thought were pretty profound. She was praying for JibberJobber and she prayed that I could follow through with certain things, and that I could follow up on certain things. I thought it was really quite insightful on what makes a company successful.
Follow-through: More than once she has been asked by a spouse of a would-be entrepreneur how she gets me to follow through with things (projects, a book, sales, etc.). I think her reply is that she doesn’t get me to… that I just do it.
If you don’t follow through on your stuff, and the right stuff, you will not have a business.
Follow-up: This is one of the most important parts of your business. I know that not following-up is leaving money on the table. Nurturing relationships, asking for deals, closing loops, and staying in touch more than once every three years is critical. You can continually prospect new people, but the relationships you have right now might simply be waiting for you to follow up with them.
Thank you, Kaisie, for reminding me of two critical follows!
This is a 44 minute video from David Teten with the subtitle “How to Squeeze Maximum Value from College or Graduate School.”
Talking points include:
The questions he asked people with degrees in leading MBA programs include:
Here’s his original post where he shared the webinar… and here is the webinar in full:
Whether it’s a personal or corporate marketing strategy, are you using testimonials well and enough?
Check out Pete Leibman’s post: A Secret Weapon For Marketing Your Career Center
As I read through that I loved his advice and knew that it would apply to YOU, whether you are marketing a book, a career center, a service, or yourself!
What testimonials do you draw on in your marketing?
If your answer is “none” or “what?” then you need to read Pete’s article and apply it to yourself starting right now.
Check out Robert’s post here.
My answer was so long I thought I’d make it the subject of this post:
Robert, thanks for this post and inviting me to comment. This evolution has been frustrating to watch and live over the years.
As you know I’ve blogged for over 6 years, and have maintained multiple blogs. I currently maintain three of my own.
I also wrote a book on LinkedIn (I’m on LinkedIn – Now What???), coauthored a book on Facebook (I’m on Facebook – Now What???) and have done numerous live presentations, videos etc, on things like blogging, Twitter, etc.
Six years ago I wanted comments on my posts. When social became bigger, the comments went away because people would “comment” about my post on Facebook, or Twitter, or elsewhere. It was messing everything up :p
But I continued blogging… through all the social eruption.
Or should I say distraction.
I’ve seen Google not care about social posts (comments, walls, discussions, etc.) like they care about (or track) my posts. If I google certain keywords I find my posts from years ago, but never a tweet or discussion or wall post. The chatter that happened in social is… GONE.
If I were to leave this comment on your FB page only a small handful of people would ever see it. I could not refer back to it, ever (especially years/months later). But on this post it lives forever (as long as your blog doesn’t go down). That’s really powerful. I continue to send people links to my posts that are years-old.
What I’ve seen recently (in the last 18 months) is that people are getting really tired of all the places they “have to” be… LI, FB, Twitter were the Big Three. Oh but get on Google+ or you are a loser who is missing out! And Pinterest is better than them all! And what about ____ and ____ and ____!!!! It is just too much, and people don’t have time for it, nor do they have the energy.
That’s why you see people “going dark,” or “taking a one month social fast.” It’s just too much.
Where should you blog? On your blog. For years I’ve called my blog(s) the “anchor of my comprehensive social marketing strategy.” It continues to be. Even if I hit a grandslam elsewhere (like a LinkedIn Answers question) I’ll link to it from my blog, so it lives forever and can be accessed later.
The next best place, right now (and this could change but I don’t see anything that is near good enough to be a close second) is LinkedIn Group Discussions. They don’t live forever, but you have a built-in audience that might care about what you are talking about (which bloggers don’t necessarily have)…
Anyway, my two cents. Can’t wait to see where we’ll be in another six years 
Okay, I just got a lot more dangerous.
I have been playing with Camtasia to edit my videos… here’s the first edited video I’ve done (I’ll post this on JibberJobber next week):
Is that cool or what?
Well yeah, of course the content is cool… but here’s what I did with the built-in editor Camtasia provides:
I almost cut out some audio but I am not ready for that massive step in editing yet. I’ll get there.
I also need to figure out why this is not BIGGER… I know where the setting is to save it as a big video, but I must have clicked the wrong button…
Anyway, cool stuff, huh?
Check out this really interesting (long) article titled: Failure is a feature: how Google stays sharp gobbling up startups
Lots of meat there. Especially the map that shows you the startups acquired.
This morning I have written four blog posts, on four different blogs. Well, with this one, make that FIVE.
Why do I do it?
Because blogging continues to be an incredibly effective tool for outreach, community development, sharing my thoughts, personal therapy, and even SEO. It helps me stay connected, and it makes me think critically about my ideas.
Here’s what I’ve written just this morning:
Another Way to See Full Names on LinkedIn: Recommendations. On my LinkedIn blog. Had to schedule this for tomorrow since a prescheduled post went up this morning.
Finding Dignity, Finding Hope. Identifying Your Identity. On my JibberJobber blog. Perhaps the most important post I’ve written this month, maybe this year, about how job seekers tend to lose their identity, and how that is not good (and what to do/think about it).
What is the scariest thing about starting (or thinking about starting) a business? On my 51 Alternatives blog (this is for my newest book). This was a soft-pitch post, easy to write. Basically I let those blog readers know about my LinkedIn question, which is totally relevant for this audience.
How has social marketing evolved? Please share your thoughts… On the Recruiting Blogs community. I posted this on a Group Discussion on LinkedIn, but thought that community would be a great place to have a conversation about it.
And now this post, which is a good teaching post about blogging (how, when, how often, why, what to write, etc.).
Are YOU blogging effectively? Do you know WHY you are blogging?
I’m reading some stuff in preparation for a course my wife and I are taking, and a section in this particular article reached out to me:
A knowledge of human nature is the key to leadership. There are four basic instincts which all humans have:
- Survival, security and a sense of personal control. A sense of self.
- A desire for relationships, connectedness, social mobility. A sense of being connected.
- Adventure, excitement. A sense of challenge.
- To gain meaning, to know self, truth and God. A sense of belonging to something bigger
When I read that I immediately thought: How does JibberJobber address any of these?
More important, to influence human nature, does my product (specifically, JibberJobber) touch on any of these? Would addressing any of these instincts impact the success of my product? Could I use any language (or concepts) from these instincts in my marketing material?
All valid questions for a business owner, entrepreneur or marketing manager. And perhaps even for a job seeker.
Here are some immediate thoughts on each of the four, and my product:
1. … a sense of personal control. Job seekers LOSE this sense of personal control when they lose their job, which causes a loss in income, stability, self-worth, identity, and more.
JibberJobber SHOULD help them regain some sense of personal control. They might not be able to control how a hiring manager, company or recruiter acts, but they can log it and feel they are “on top of” their search.
2. … a sense of being connected. Right now JibberJobber isn’t very social, but things might change in that area… 🙂 Would the changes help job seekers (and non-job seeker users) NEED JibberJobber more?
3. … excitement. A sense of challenge. Like job seekers or entrepreneurs need more challenge… right! How can JibberJobber give them a sense of challenge? Maybe by offering challenging daily tasks to the users? Like “Call three people today,” and of course log it in the system, so it is measurable. Perhaps this can be summed up weekly, monthly, etc. to show the accomplishments.
4. ….A sense of belonging to something bigger. If JibberJobber’s mission and vision is to change the world by empowering people in their careers, and helping people through inevitable transitions, and change how people think about these transitions… can my users participate in this movement? If so, they can have ownership in this bigger picture. It’s not just about their current transition, it’s about helping people suffer less because of the way “jobs” and “careers” have changed.
Fun to think about… now time to get to work on communicating this in the right places (which is much more than on flyers, business cards, email signatures, etc.). This has to become a part of the product.
I LOVE Shark Tank. There is something to learn from every episode, every pitch, every question the Sharks ask, and even the reactions of the contestants.
I’m a fan of Mark Cuban, even though I don’t know much about him. Here was my first indepth exposure to his history, in his own words: Shark Tank & Success & Motivation.
After reading Paul Allen’s memoir this last week, this was like icing on the cake. What an amazing time in history!
Mark, thank you… for staying up late and reading those manuals. Pure awesome.