WordCamp Orlando is rolling up in less than a month. For just $15 you get a master's course in furthering your business, blog, or CMS website using the wordpress software.
My personal blogs are evenly split between Blogger and Wordpress (self-hosted). I'll be using what I learn at WordCamp Orlando to move this blog over to Wordpress and to set up a few websites using Wordpress as a CMS.
If anyone wants to ask about my experiences moving The Disney Blog from Typepad to Wordpress or my experience with BBpress for The Disney Blog's Townsquare forums, I'm happy to chat.
See you on the 15th, meanwhile be sure to follow WordCamp Orlando on twitter.
There has been a lot of angst in the Twitter community about the new retweet feature ever since Twitter rolled out the specs to its developer community. Many people didn't even see the need for a feature that can be so easily subverted. But Twitter obviously saw a demand for verifiable retweets.
This brings us to today when Twitter in their fallible wisdom decided to make me (specifically the @TheDisneyBlog account) an early adopter. I wonder if I got this honor because I previously spoke out against the idea.
In any event, here are a few screen shots of how it all works.
When you rest your cursor over the Retweet link or icon this bubble now pops up.
The other thing that has been added is a new 'Retweet' option in the right column
Clicking it takes you to a new page with three tabs. Retweets by others appears to be popular retweets from other users that you may or may not be following. Retweets by you is self-explanatory. As is, I assume, Your tweets, retweeted.
I did notice that one of the retweets I tried appeared in my tweetstream, while the other one didn't. Not sure if that is a feature or a bug.
Now that I've tried the feature, I want to take back my earlier comments. I like it. You can take it or leave it as a user; but if you do use it, I think it will become immensely powerful for finding new people to follow as well as knowing what you're reading is an authentic retweet. If you have to comment on a person's tweet, you can still retweet the old fashioned way, excerpt it, shorten it, whatever.
One shortcoming I see is that like lists this takes the user off the main page of twitter into a new page. So they're missing out on the primary stream while these secondary streams run past them. It would be nice if there was some way it could all track on one page. But I suspect some developer will figure that out shortly.
I suspect this is going to kick up the volume of retweets as authenticity will add to their currency. Someone who is retweeted a lot will gain more followers even faster. And your original content, if worthy, can travel a lot farther via the Retweets by others tab.
If there is one thing that's true about the modern day workforce, its that technology is changing so fast that you have to be continually learning to keep up with it. This is not so much a strategy for what to do while one is between jobs, although it definitely applies, as it is a life strategy. The traditional strategy for this has been to enroll in classes and attend conferences where new products and visions are discussed. But what do you do if you can't afford to enroll in those expensive seminars (which are probably teaching last year's skills anyway) or travel to that hot conference? Welcome to the world of GoogleU.
These days, I meet more young people, those who are high school or college age, who tell me for some subjects they never even crack open their text books. Instead they do most of their learning online. If they can do it so can you.
For instance, I'm working on my PHP skills in order to be a better Wordpress blogger. A quick search on Google almost always finds me the answer I need. If not, there is likely a forum with a helpful soul, or even better, someone who has already asked the same question. This is how I learned CSS as well. Call it situational learning.
The other big segment in online learning is video/presentation recordings. If you're taking art history at Podunk University, shouldn't you also be watching the Harvard Art History Professor's lectures on the same thing online? You can, and they're free. Checkout Education Portal as a great starting point to find more lectures.
Can't make it to that important industry conference? There's a good chance that someone either live blogged the session you're interested, a video of it was posted on YouTube or Vimeo, the slides are on slideshare, the author posted their notes on their blog, or even all over the above. I've been taking a crash course on Affiliate Marketing and found some great lectures from a conference I didn't even know existed two weeks ago. Now, I'm much more likely to attend in person in the future if I find work as an affiliate manager.
So what are the take aways here? If you're not yet in the workforce, the most important thing you can learn is how to learn. This will set you up for a lifetime of continued learning as the world changes around you. If you are in the work force, maybe you can talk your boss into devoting a few hours a week to this sort of virtual learning. If not, it's quite simple to do at home. If you're between jobs, devote some time each week to keeping up with the skills you use in your career, and learn as much about that job you are interviewing for, sometimes based on lectures from the very company you're hiring into.
Chris Brogan has put together a 19 page pamphlet, to borrow a revolutionary era term, on using Social Media to find a job. Which is a lot of what I've been discussing around here recently. I respect Chris and he's definitely someone who walks the talk. So I thought I'd take a look.
The first portion of the booklet focuses on LinkedIn, a tool I discussed previously. Chris is concerned more with the strategy of using LinkedIn for networking. That is definitely one of LinkedIn's many strengths. He also makes the very interesting point that the work experience section of your LinkedIn profile does not necessarily have to match that of your resume. Instead, you could craft it to focus on the skills, achievements, and experiences that will take you to that position you're searching for.
The second section goes into even more strategy on how to form a modern social network that you can then apply to your job search. He suggests building a small, but powerful, network focused on helping you achieve your goals, while you help others achieve theirs. To me this is the essence of social media, removing mediation between goals and just helping each other achieve them. Whether your goal is pushing for adoption of solar panels or finding a new position, the networking skills are the same.
There's plenty more to chew on and great actions you can take immediately to help in your job search in the rest of the ebook. I hope you'll go check it out.
If your job involves connecting with other professionals or businesses, then you're probably already using LinkedIn to help manage your professional network. If not, there's no time like the present. LinkedIn is the ultimate social networking tool for professionals.
Since networking is one of the most important elements of any job search, it therefore follows that LinkedIn is a tremendous job searching tool as well. It allows you to see profiles of anyone else on LinkedIn, and gives you ways to connect with them. If you'd like to join my network, you can view my profile here.
Set up your profile then reach out via all channels (twitter, your blog, import email contacts, etc). Once you're connected to the people you know, you can then ask them to introduce you to others in their network. That's a powerful tool if that job opening is at a company in your network.
Other ways to use LinkedIn in your job search:
Job Postings - The most obvious way to use LinkedIn is to search their job openings. LinkedIn has its own postings, most of which are usually high quality, professional jobs. Then it also allows you to expand your search into SimplyHired's aggregated search results. Tip: use LinkedIn's advanced search function to do a zip code radius search.
Company Search - You can use LinkedIn to do research on a company you are interested in. Search for the company, and find people you know who are connected to other who work at the company. Then ask your personal contact to connect you.
Email - Use LinkedIn's email system to keep your network informed of your job search status. Send an email with links to your profile, personal website, portfolio, etc to your network when you're first laid off. Ask them for help or people they could put you in touch with. This has resulted in good leads for me.
Applications - A relatively new feature in LinkedIn is the ability to add 'widgets' or applications to your profile. Have a presentation on Google Documents or Slideshare? Add that. Use the Box.net application to post example documents or white-papers that would aid in showing your expertise.
Blog Link - One of the more powerful aplications on LinkedIn provies the ability to link your blog posts to your profile. Every time you post a new blog post, it will update on your profile. This is a great way to showcase your expertise.
Answers - If you have experience in an area, there are likely others on LinkedIn who can benefit from it. Answers let's you ask and answer questions to help others. Another great way to showcase your expertise.
Groups - Last but not least, is Groups. Join some active groups that relate to your career and industry. Even better, join inactive groups and make them active again with your contribution. There are also regional groups that will allow you to keep an eye on events and networking opportunities in your area.
Tags: linkedin, social+media, socialmedia, job, career, resume, online+cv, job+search, social+networking
