The holiday season is upon us, and that means holiday jobs. But, there’s a lot more out there besides the two month holiday gigs. While the national unemployment level is at almost 10%, and we are all struggling to keep food on the table, there are still jobs out there and ways to find them, even in Gilbert, Arizona.

Social media can be a great resource to any job hunter in this rough market. With Facebook and Twitter, you are able to search out who’s hiring, post resumes on your profiles, talk to complete strangers about your work history, and make a wonderful first impression. This article will be especially important for the older generation of job hunters who did not grow up in this digital and internet age. Social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, is not as daunting as it might seem.

Sure, you could post your resume on CareerBuilder and Monster.com and hope that someone just happens to see it, and then just happens to make the first move, but it’s probably not going to happen. You could also spend hours diligently searching these two job giants, send a few resumes out to potential jobs, and hope that they take the time to look at yours as well as the thousands of others they received for the same job.

Gone are the days of simply posting your résumé on CareerBuilder, e-mailing former colleagues and trolling company websites for open slots. These days, if you’re serious about being hired, you really put your computer and PDA to work. That means getting word out on social sites like Facebook and MySpace, sending instant job-search updates via messaging feeds like Twitter, and meeting new people who might be able to lend a hand through Web-networking outfits like LinkedIn. – Time Magazine

Using LinkedIn to Find a New Boss

One of the greatest free tools that you can use as a job hunter is LinkedIn. It’s a social networking platform, much like Facebook, that allows you to update your job history and basically create a resume on a personal profile. LinkedIn will also hook you up with networking groups, people you might know, employees at jobs you’d like to work for, and employees of past jobs you’ve held.

How-To Get Started on LinkedIn

Getting started with LinkedIn requires nothing more than your name, an email address, and your password. It’s that easy. There is no reason to fret about not knowing what to do, because LinkedIn, as every other social site, walks you through set-up step by step. Once you log in, you will be directed to enter your personal and professional information. Have fun with it. Be professional, but also be light and approachable. It’s ok to gloat about your achievements, but it’s also advisable to be humble. If it’s easier, you can even import your resume directly to your profile.

Getting started on LinkedIn will probably take a good 30 minutes, depending on how much work history you want to include, and how personal you want to get. Choose a profile picture that is appropriate, but still fun.

Always allow LinkedIn to pull all of your contacts from you email. This is how your networking will begin.

Join Groups

LinkedIn is all about networking, and in the job search that is the golden ticket. It’s always about who you know, and seldom about what your resume looks like. Groups is what fuels LinkedIn, and it’s how you will connect with the right people to get you your next job.

After you allow LinkedIn to pull your email contacts, go through each one and see if there are any from your past that you’d like to reconnect with. Contact those people and just say hello, letting them know that you’ve just joined LinkedIn and might need a little advice navigating it. Just open the lines of communication.

If you have entered your previous jobs into your profile, LinkedIn will pull up other employees of those companies for you to connect with, which is a great opportunity to see what everyone else is up to and if anyone has a new gig that you might like to speak to them about.

In LinkedIn search, you can look for organizations, companies, or groups that you might want to get involved with. If you’re interested in working for Ford Motor Company, search for it. In the top right is the search box. Enter your search term and select whether you’re looking for a person, company, organization, or group. LinkedIn will pull up all results, and you’ll be able to connect with every employee of that company.

Be Proactive

No matter what social network you are using, you have got to be proactive. This is job hunting, and it’s work. You have to get the connections and meet the people who will get you your next job. Much like searching the newspaper or hitting the streets every day to find a job, social media involves jumping online every day and making it work. It’s no different than  any other job hunting method, it’s just done sitting at your desk.

Using Facebook To Land Your Next Job

Much like LinkedIn, Facebook is all about communication. It’s a networking site that, if you have the right tools, will let you advertise yourself better than any other social platform.

Getting Started with Facebook

To get started with Facebook, all you need is an email address and password. Every social media network is exactly the same in that respect. There’s nothing daunting about that. The great thing is that after you enter your email and password, Facebook, much like LinkedIn and Twitter, will guide you through the set-up process step by step. It’s that easy, and only involves a little typing and direction following.

Like with every social network, allow Facebook to make connections to your email contacts. This is crucial for networking and finding your next job on Facebook.

Find Friends and Groups

Facebook is all about sharing ideas, commenting on your friends profiles, and interacting in many different ways. To keep things simple, after you’ve created your profile you’ll want to search for possible connections. Just like LinkedIn, enter your search phrase (name, group, or company) into the search box. Facebook will do the rest.

Unlike LinkedIn, however, Facebook will not give you all employees of a specific company. You can also search for areas of interest, like car mechanics, in order to find people who have joined a group about cars. If you are looking for a specific company that you might like to work for, search for it in the search box and see what comes up. Many companies these days have Facebook Business and Fan pages, but not all members of those pages will be employees.

Posting Your Resume

Posting your resume on Facebook is a little different than any other network, because you have to do it through a third party. On the bottom left of your Facebook screen, you’ll see ‘Applications.’ Click on this, and scroll to ‘browse more applications.’ It’s here that Facebook stores all of it’s applications, which range from games to networking to business.

What you’ll want to look for is Resume applications. Search resume, or job search, and see what comes up. I personally recommend using Professional Profile, which allows you to sync to your LinkedIn profile and automatically uploads your resume from LinkedIn. It’s a great little application because Professional Profile actually posts a link to your resume directly onto the front of your Facebook page. This way, when you’re in conversation with an old colleague or a future employer all they have to do is click on the link and see your entire resume, as well as connect with you on LinkedIn.

Facebook Wall

A lot of Myspace an dTwitter users have trouble understanding Facebook at first because of the Wall. On Myspace or Twitter, everything is right in front of you. Well, Facebook is a little different.

First of all, you have your status updates, which is where most people enter their random thoughts or ideas at various times throughout the day. If you jump to a friend’s profile, you’ll see their Wall, which will include everything they have written, links they have added, and conversations they’ve had with other friends.

When you first log onto your page, you’ll see your home feed which shows either ‘news feeds’ or ‘status feeds’ from your friends. I know, it sounds daunting, but these are simple terms for updates your friends have made to their profiles. Anytime someone you are friends with adds a comment, adds a link, or changes anything to their profile, it will show up on your home feed.

Don’t let the word feed confuse you, it’s just a fancy way of saying updates or new conversations.

Finally, the tabs that you see towards the top of  every Facebook page are the applications that each individual has on their site. Most of them will just be the Wall (which is where all conversations are stored), Photos, Information, and Notes.

Be Proactive

Once again, the key to finding a job on Facebook is to be proactive. You have got to be able to jump online first thing in the morning and make those connections. Drop and old friend a line and just say hello. With Facebook, you are able to add articles from your favorite blog or online newspaper, add videos from YouTube of Vimeo, and play games. Every time you add something new to your page, you are inviting everyone to connect with you to discuss it.

Using Twitter to Stir Up Conversations

My all-time favorite marketing and networking tool is definitely Twitter. Sure, it moves insanely fast, is only capable of 140 character sentences, and is riddled with spam, but it’s the perfect tool for finding new contacts. The key with Twitter is to have the right tools.

Getting Started

At Twitter.com, all you need is your email address and password. I’m sounding like a broken record here, but simply follow the instructions to set-up your account.

TweetDeck

TweetDeck is the only way to use Twitter. Many, many people have never used Twitter and never will. They will never understand the power the Twitter has and the amazing opportunities it presents for job hunters. It’s literally like sitting at a coffee shop where the entire world is sitting at, and you have the ability to drop in on every single conversation that is happening. Want to know who’s hiring in Salem, Mass? Drop in on a conversation about it. Interested in people’s opinions of Dan Brown’s new book? Drop in on a conversation about that as well.

TweetDeck can be downloaded absolutely free from TweetDeck.com. I know, many of you would rather not download something this big when you’re just doing some job hunting, but if you’re struggling to keep food on the table and a roof over your head, there is no excuse why you wouldn’t download this free Twitter tool.

The reason why many people will try Twitter for a few weeks and then drop it is because they don’t have the right tools to use it efficiently. Twitter was never meant to be used on one screen, simply for one purpose. It has multiple purposes, and in order to fully appreciate it’s grasp you have to have tools that allow you to peer into every piece of Twitter.

So, after downloading TweetDeck go ahead and open it up. In the upper left hand corner there are icons. These are what you will use to find your next job. In the upper right hand corner are tools to help you set-up your account and search for help.

Click on the icon that looks like a wrench, select accounts, and it’s here that you will enter your Twitter username and password. It’s that easy! Now you’re ready to get searching.

Click on the blue ‘T’ icon (Twitter Icon) in the upper left hand corner. Select the magnifying glass to search for conversations. This is where the magic happens. Want to know who’s hiring in Gilbert, Arizona. Search for ‘hiring’ and ‘Gilbert, Arizona.’ Search for anything you want, and you will have instant access to conversations happening around the world and in your own backyard!

TrendsMap

TrendsMap is another tool that I highly recommend for job hunting. This tool combines a Google-like map with Twitter conversations. It’s absolutely amazing, simply because you can zoom in on an area (let’s say Gilbert, Arizona) and see exactly what people are talking about.

If you zoom to Phoenix, Arizona, you’ll see the top trending topics of the moment. If you click on one of the grey topic boxes, a conversation will pop up on the right of your screen. To find all the trending topics happening in Phoenix, click ‘Phoenix’ in the conversation box and you will be redirected to a screen that simply shows what people are talking about in this city.

For example, one of the most popular topics this morning in Phoenix, Arizona is #shjobs, which is strictly a hiring service that advertises job opportunities in Phoenix. There is no better way to find out who’s hiring and who to connect with in your local city than with TrendsMap.

Simply Search Twitter

If all of the above seems a little too complicated and time consuming, then you can simply search Twitter. If you log into your Twitter account, you’ll notice that on the right side of the screen is a bunch of topics. These are the most talked about topics for the moment on Twitter. You’ll also notice a search box.

In the search box, enter exactly what you want to find. For example, ‘hiring’ and ‘Gilbert’ and ‘Arizona,’ or something like that. Twitter will pull up every conversation about who’s hiring in Gilbert, Arizona.

Don’t Be Scared

Jumping on board the social media bandwagon during your job search is less daunting than you might think. While this is just an overview of what you can do with the power of LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, it should get you on the right track to making those necessary connections. Remember, it’s not about how hard you work or your experience anymore, it’s about your connections and enthusiasm.

Good luck! And if you ever need any job hunting or social media advice, don’t hesitate to contact me! I’m also on Twitter @LinwrightDesign, and Facebook!

Getting to the top of a Google SERP (search engine rankings page) is easier than many think. The key is really patient, resilience, and complete commitment. It’s one of those things that takes an incredibly degree of work, not hard work, just work. In my case, it takes great content and knowing where and how to disperse that content.

I’ve always said, and I will continue to always say that content is key. However, it always helps to hook up with some other bloggers or industry professionals for links. There are a few quick things that you must check-off your list before you can sit back and take a breather.

1. Keyword research: to get some great rankings on Google, you have got to choose a URL (domain name) that reflects exactly what people are searching for and what you are trying to sell. Whether it’s an idea, a product, or a service, having a domain name with those keywords in it can be a make or break deal. Many, many sites do not have keywords in their URL and still manage to rank exceedingly well. This is done through tireless work, but it definitely can be done. Using a keyword domain name is just a nice added boost to your SEO.
2. Easy to navigate: a website that is built with navigation and customer concerns in mind will always do better on Google. Ever go to a site and think, “how in the world is this site ranked number one?” Well, besides following all of these steps, it’s probably a sites that visitors find easy to maneuver through, and thus they will probably recommend it through social networks, link to it from social bookmarking, or add it to their own websites.
3. Quality content: this is the all time key to ranking well. This will get you back links, it will entice people to bookmark your site or blog, and it will persuade Google to push your site to the top. I’ve learned over the years that most search engines will reward quality content, and a lot of it.
4. Social aspects: quality content and an easy to navigate site will lead your visitors to recommend your website, to bookmark it, and to place it in the social realm. This is money in the bank. It’s less work for you if your visitors do the footwork, and it pays off hugely. However, it can be done manually. Every single time you post a blog, that blog should be bookmarked on many different social networks. If you have more than one account, bookmark it more than once, then bookmark your bookmarking account. The blog should also be posted directly to Tumblr, Posterous, Twitter and Facebook. This can be done with specific Worpress plugins, or by using Ping.fm.
5. Check keywords often: over time, keywords will change. Internet users will change the phrases they are searching for, even though they’ll be searching for the same thing they were looking for a few months ago. Everything changes, and you have to keep up with the game. Just because someone is searching for debt settlement today doesn’t mean in three months they won’t be searching for debt negotiation instead, though they mean the exact same thing. To stay on top of the keywords it’s imperative that you check Google Keyword Tools and Google Insights to see what words are trending. It’s also a good idea to set up Google Insights directly onto your Google homepage to monitor changing keywords every day.

Within two weeks, I was able to successfully rank a corporate website Number 2 on Google using the above techniques. If you can keep the content fresh and constantly flowing, and add some inbound, outbound, and backlinks to your work, you will rank every time.

Search Engine Marketing, also known as SEO, is the process of getting your website to the top of the three major search engines; Google (the juggernaut), MSN (which is now Bing), and Yahoo (which is now with MSN/Bing). There are smaller search engines that try to compete, popping up here and there and fizzling away just as quickly. Google has a complete monopoly of the internet and its searches, while Bing is doing a wonderful job of catching up.

Search Engine Marketing involves an array of hundreds, if not thousands, of small and large techniques designed to gain enough respect from the search engines that they will give you the top spot. There are so many different ways of doing this that it’s extremely hard to fully understand it in one article. So, we’ll fly over the top of it, skimming the surface of what SEO is.

Most SEO experts are self-taught, as there aren’t many universities out there that have caught onto the fact that marketing a website is almost more important than building one. To build an amazing website with quality content is one thing, but if no one knows it exists because it’s nowhere on the search engines, what’s the point?

The first, and most important thing to remember about SEO is that if you are doing this strictly “organically” (nothing is paid for, no advertising and no paid links) than your greatest weapon will be your endurance and your patience. Organically ranking on the search engines takes time. If you are a small business owner, and you can afford to give your online marketing campaign a little extra time, then you will reap the benefits from organic SEO. If you are a small business that needs to make money today, then it will definitely take money to make that money (in the form of advertising and paid links).

Web marketing begins with campaigns in many different areas. There are keyword campaigns, link building campaigns, social marketing campaigns, and adword campaigns, to name the most common. Each of these campaigns involves a massive amount of work and dedication. If the SEO takes a break for a few days, perhaps a week, all of his hard work will be forgotten. To stay on top of the rankings, you have to stay on top of the campaigns at all times.

(While heavily engaged in a link building campaign where I worked on developing relationships with bloggers, I fell under-the-weather and was not working up to par for a few days. It took me two months to get the corporate website ranking well for a highly competitive longtail, and only a few days for it to fall off the grid.)

A keyword campaign, for example, involves a great amount of research. You’ll research your competition’s keywords, the search traffic on keywords, the trending keywords, the longtails, the projected traffic, the geotraffic, and anything else that you can think of. Keyword research is incredibly important before you even begin to think about building your website or start your blog, strictly because if you are trying to sell or promote something you will need to know the words that your consumers are using to find it.

A link building campaign is one of most effective campaigns that you can begin. This involves time and patience, and a little bit of charm. Your SEO will develop relationships with bloggers, website owners, other small or big businesses, non-profits, and other SEO’s. Depending on the product, the content of the site, and your SEO’s ability to charm, you will barter links back and forth. Links are an amazing asset because, much like a book in the library will be considered highly respected if many other books site it as a resource, your website will be greatly respected by the search engines if you have many other websites linking to it.

Social media campaigns are yet another incredibly useful tool that no small business can afford to go without. These days, if you are not on Twitter, Facebook, and a multitude of social bookmarking sites, you are far behind the game. Things are changing fast in the field of marketing, and staying on top of social media could mean the difference between making or breaking the bank.

The list of web marketing campaigns goes on forever, but the most important thing to realize is that millions upon millions of people search the internet every single day. If your website happens to be at the top of the list for lets say “dog clothes”, which gets a daily search volume of 40 million, you could start thinking about retirement.

Coming soon