9 Places to Share Your Blog Feed to Automatically Update Your Social Media Contacts

Most of us are active at a number of social media sites. And I bet, we all have a blog (or several blogs). You are very likely to be eager to share what you blog about with your social media friends.
This post outlines the ways to automate that sharing. Someone may frown upon the “automation” part here (after all, social media sites are all about live conversation, automation is not what we want from our social media contacts.) But in this case, this is a so-to-say “whitehat” automation: we share news from our own blogs. This news are meant for our friends and we would share it anyway, so why not make the process faster?
You are probably aware of most of these ways, but this post should serve as a checklist: be sure to drop your blog feed URL everywhere.

1. Facebook

1. RSS connect application offers to add a blog or any RSS feed to your wall or boxes tab or create a fully customizable tab dedicated to your feeds.
You will be able to :

1. Add a box to your profile wall;
2. Add a box to your boxes tab;
3. Create a customizable tab for your feed.

Visibility: Visible to your Facebook friends.

More ways to share your content on Facebook can be found here.
2. Facebook Notes:

• Click the Import a blog link;
• Enter the URL of your blog (RSS) into the text box, and check the box underneath that states that you agree to our Terms of Use.
• To complete the process, click on “Save Settings.” Once you do this, your previous posts will appear as notes and any new posts you make will automatically display.

Visibility: Visible to your Facebook friends.
Note: This way will allow your friends to keep track of your blog updates but there won’t be a link back to your actual post on your blog:

2. Facebook Fan Pages

1. Simply RSS allows to automatically update your fan page wall with your blog RSS
Visibility: visible to everyone (links are “nofollow).
2. Fan page notes: Go: “Edit page“, find “Notes” under “Application” and click “Edit“, then “Edit import settings” and at last provide your feed URL.

Visibility: visible to everyone (with no actual link back to your post).
Note: Many people prefer to share links on Facebook manually for many reasons (one mentioned in #2), here’s a well-reason post on the drawbacks of autos-sharing.

3. LinkedIn

1. Blog Link is a LinkedIn Application that imports your recent posts to your full LinkedIn profile.
Visibility: visible to LinkedIn registered users.
2. WordPress is another one for Wordpress-driven blogs.

Visibility: visible to LinkedIn registered users.

4. LinkedIn Groups

LinkedIn allows to submit news feeds to automatically post your blog updates to the group. You can manage your feeds from your group “News” tab:

Visibility: visible to LinkedIn registered users.
See this page for more ways to manage your LinkedIn group.

5. Twitter

There are a few tools that automatically update your Twitter stream with links from the provided RSS feed. I’ve been traditionally using Twitter Feed.
Visibility: visible to everyone (links are “nofollow”).
Note: Make sure to take advantage of Twitterfeed “Advanced settings” (i.e. “Post content” and post prefix):

6. Friendfeed

While being primarily a tool for aggregating your social media life, Friendfeed can be used to share your blog updates as well. Go:
Settings -> Services add/edit -> (Miscellaneous) Custom RSS/Atom.
Visibility: visible to everyone (links are “nofollow”).

7. Any Ning-Powered Community

There are plenty of semi-popular websites powered by Ning (Twitter Moms and Doterati are two widely-known examples). To share your blog updates on your profile page:
When logged in, go to your profile page and in the sidebar look for “Add RSS” link (normally under the list of your friends).
Visibility: visible to everyone (links are “follow” but go to your feed posts). However if you have “Related posts” enabled in your RSS and choose “Details” when setting up your feed at Ning, you’ll end up with “follow” links to the deep pages:

8. Naymz

At your Naymz account page, scroll down and find “Add link”. Click the link and provide your blog RSS:

Your recent posts will appear under “Recent activity” heading:
Visibility: visible to everyone (links are “follow” but go to your feed posts). However if you have “Related posts” enabled in your RSS and choose “Details” when setting up your feed at Ning, you’ll end up with “follow” links to the deep pages:

9. Zimbio

Head straight to “Blogs” tab and add your blog URL. The articles will be automatically imported to Zimbio and linked back to the original.
Visibility: visible to everyone (links are “follow”).

Any other social media sites to promote your blog feed?

Written By:

Ann Smarty | @seosmarty

Ann Smarty is the Director of Media at Search & Social where she serves as the Editor of Search Engine Journal. Ann's expertise in blogging and tools serve as a base for her writing, tutorials and her guest blogging project, MyGuestBlog.

Read more: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/9-places-to-share-your-blog-feed-to-automatically-update-your-social-media-contacts/21163/#ixzz0poh9oIqg

Top Three Concerns of Recruiters Using Twitter (Resolved)

Posted by Ali Webster in Recruitalicious, tags: #socialrecruiting summit, dummies, recruiters, social recruiting, twitter

A few weeks ago, I held a roundtable discussion with recruiters on their opinions of and experience with social media sites. Mentioning LinkedIn elicited a positive response and Facebook stimulated a robust discussion about balancing their personal and professional lives. When I brought up Twitter, one of the recruiters responded “eh…” and another shrugged her shoulders (sigh).
After the crickets stopped chirping, they only expressed concerns:

• My daily schedule is full. How do I have enough time to be twittering?
• I get how LinkedIn works, I’m getting the hang of Facebook, but Twitter is a mystery.
• Who will follow me on The Twitter? I’m not that interesting.

Recruiters recognized that some companies were successful recruiting candidates on Twitter, but could not picture themselves as active users.

Rewind to January 2010, when I found myself in a situation that has nothing to do with social media…
After doing some research, I found that buying a house provided a substantial return-on-investment, better than purchasing a condo, renting or living in my mother’s basement, especially with the current tax credit. Minor problem: I had no idea how to go about buying a house. So I took a trip to Barnes & Noble and bought the most obvious book possible, “Home Buying for Dummies.”  Bringing the book to closing at the bank elicited some laughter from my loan officer and sitting on the floor in front of the sump pumps at Home Depot with my subsequent purchase of “Home Maintenance for Dummies” provoked stares from more savvy home-owners. However, I overcame my worries about how time consuming this would be and the dread of spending entire weekends trimming trees & gardening after learning about the process. I did the research, absorbed a lot of information and eventually purchased a house.
Leaping into some unfamiliar terrain (i.e. Twitter) is worth the time it takes to learn something new and make some mistakes along the way for that ever-so-satisfying ROI.  With the right tools and resources, recruiters who can alleviate their fears about Twitter, become consistent users and feel a glow of satisfaction when that first candidate rolls right into their applicant tracking system. Don’t believe me? Talk to attendees of ERE’s #SocialRecruiting Summit.
I’m looking for recruiters who don’t have enough time to pick up a copy The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Twitter. What questions do you have? How can I help you understand Twitter enough so that you can improve your sourcing & recruiting efforts?  Tell me (I won’t make you fork over $26.99). Too shy to comment? Fine. Read Geoff Peterson’s post on 3 Ways Recruiter Can Get a Jump Start in Social Media instead.

Read The ERE Article And Comments

Networking: Tips for Job Seekers

By Laurie Berenson, CPRW

I love social media, don’t get me wrong, but the downfall of today’s social media is that it can give people a false sense of security that they are effectively networking. Spending time on LinkedIn or Twitter is a smart component to your job search plan, but in order to reap the full benefits of networking, you need to back away from the computer, pick up the phone, attend a business card exchange or other networking event, or meet up with a former colleague for coffee or drinks. In other words, network the old fashioned way, the way we networked before we became addicted to so many of these networking sites.
Here are some networking tips for job seekers –
General advice –
Talk to anyone and everyone. Don’t judge a book by its cover or prejudge someone’s effectiveness when deciding with whom to network and share job leads. You never know who someone’s uncle is. You never who their next door neighbor is. You never know what their old college roommate does.  Part of networking is a numbers game, so be sure to speak with as many people as possible about your areas of expertise and your job search target.
Specific, actionable advice –
Create a target list of companies for whom you’d like to work. Network and research these companies. When speaking with people, it’s more effective to ask who they may know at one of these companies or who they know that does a certain function rather than asking people if they know of anyone hiring. When you’re introduced to someone connected with one of your target companies, conduct an informational interview with them and ask their advice on how you could get in touch or connect with people in a certain functional area. Identify the decision makers and network your way to them. The goal is to introduce yourself to decision makers and get your background in front of them before a job opportunity arises. Introduce your expertise to the decision maker and show him/her how they could benefit from your skill set.
How to best leverage networking in your job search?
The best way is to never stop doing it! Ideally, networking is not a stop and go activity reserved for when you’re wearing your job searching hat, but that’s unfortunately how many professionals view it.  The key is to always be connecting. If you are consistently nurturing the relationships in your network, then when you do reach out for assistance during a job search phase, it will not be viewed as “give me, give me, give me” but rather as a natural opportunity to reciprocate as you will have recently helped them, provided them with leads, shared resources with them, or introduced them to a valuable contact, and they in turn will want to help you. Stop and go networking ony when you’re job searching can leave people feeling used and overlooked, without a sincere interest in helping you advance.


About Laurie Berenson, CPRW
As a career strategist and Certified Professional Resume Writer, Laurie successfully works with clients on projects related to resume development, career change and transition, job search strategy, interview coaching, and salary negotiation.  She is passionate about helping clients in career transition or career re-entry, including career changers, stay at home parents, and entrepreneurs returning to corporate America.
Before establishing her own firm, Sterling Career Concepts, Laurie began her career in investment banking and equity research and then transitioned to the recruiting industry with a national executive search firm. Her experience combines with strong academic credentials, including a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with Honors from Georgetown University.

How To Easily Keyword Optimize Your Linkedin Profile

Here’s a great way to maximize your Linkedin profile by replacing the default labels in the “Websites” area of your profile to display the keywords you use to promote your site:



Step #1: Sign in to your LinkedIn profile.

Step #2: Click over to Edit My Profile.



Step #3: In the Websites area either select [Edit] if you have already entered your site URLs or select “Add Websites” to enter your information in for the first time.



Step #4: Select the down arrow under the label pull down field (the default label is Choose).



Step #5: Select “Other.” This brings up an additional field “Website Title” where you can place your keyword phrase. The field allows for 30-characters so keep your title short. For my blog I entered the keyword phrase “Social Media Tips & Blogging.” For my portfolio site, I entered “Wordpress Customization.”



Step #6: Select “Save Changes”

Step #7: The next step is to confirm that this information is displayed in the public view of your profile. Select “Edit Public Profile Settings.”



Step #8: Make sure you’ve selected to show “Websites” in your public profile. You can view what your profile will look like to others (and the search engines) by selecting “View My Public Profile as others see it” which is located at the bottom of the blue box.



Now your website information will be keyword optimized and ready for the search engines to see.



Check out my public profile on LinkedIn and feel free to send me an invitation to connect!

This post is written by Annette

Annette Matzen is a social media specialist, budding blogger, and a freelancer who enjoys customizing Wordpress themes to fit the needs of small businesses. Check out Annette's freelance portfolio at TwoZen Productions or connect on LinkedIn or Twitter.
Annette has written 26 posts on SocialBigTop.com

Using Your Resume As A Marketing Tool

When you are job searching, think of your resume as a marketing tool. Use it to promote your talents and capture the attention of hiring managers.

By Kevin Donlin, Star Tribune Sales and Marketing

Your job search is actually a marketing and sales campaign. Your goal? Identify and contact prospective customers (employers) who will buy (give you a paycheck).

Everything you do up to the job interview is marketing. Everything during and after the interview is sales.

Let's examine the first half of that sequence, specifically, how to use your résumé as a marketing tool designed to land an interview.

Here are three ways to use your résumé effectively.

1) As the basis for your LinkedIn profile.

Employers and potential networking contacts will research you on LinkedIn before ever talking to you. What will they find?

Never be bashful about including the best parts of your résumé on your LinkedIn profile. That means plenty of specific achievements, and a clear focus on one job or a narrow set of skills.

2) As a follow-up device.

Let's say you just made a new networking contact, in person or online. If the conversation went well and that person agreed to take a look at it, you can e-mail your résumé - it's a fast way to follow up and get your name in circulation.

Want to be more memorable? Print and mail your résumé, along with a nice letter to thank him or her for the time. Because a postal letter shows you took the time to send a thoughtful communication - and it can't get caught in a spam filter.

3) As a script for your sales presentation.

Remember, in a job interview, your aim is to convince hiring managers to "buy" your services in the form of a paycheck. Why leave anything to chance?

Refer to your résumé as you interview and put a check mark next to each key bullet point after discussing it. Having a script like this to follow can be a great stress reliever and it ensures you'll deliver a complete "sales" presentation to employers.

Your résumé is a marketing tool, plain and simple.

Used correctly, it should compel harried employers to read it, pick up the phone and call you to learn more.

And when you use your résumé as a foundation for your LinkedIn profile, as a follow-up device and as a job-interview script, you'll enjoy three more advantages in your search for work.

Original Star Tribune Article

What I Did Right: How I Averaged 80 Comments and 135 Tweets in My First Week of Blogging

by Lisa Petrilli

My first week of blogging was like a dream. I went through it in a hazy fog of anxiety, excitement, happiness, and disbelief that I never could have anticipated.

As I write this, on Friday, May 21, my first-ever two posts have received 159 comments and have been tweeted 272 times. I'm simply stunned. It would be nice if I could say that I'm glowing, but the reality is that this week has kicked my butt.

My first foray into blogging has shown me that it can be a Herculean task to keep up with responding to comments and tweets while balancing clients and life.

But it's all been worth it. When I look at the amazing comments from my readers in regard to how my blog posts have resonated with them, and in some cases helped them tremendously by giving them a bit of direction or perhaps an ounce of inspiration, then it makes the lack of sleep and sense of discombobulation all worthwhile.

I have to be honest, though, I almost didn't go through with it. The night before my planned launch I DM'd (direct-messaged) my friend Mack Collier on Twitter and told him I wanted to "chicken out and crawl in a hole." He proceeded to send me such an inspired litany of DMs that after reading them I pretty much had no choice but to launch my blog!

So, I did.

I've learned a lot in this first week, and I know there is no magic blog launch formula, but I do have some theories as to what went into the success of the week as I begin to reflect...

I spent a lot of time learning about blogging before I ever considered starting a blog

I attended the MarketingProfs Digital Mixer last October in Chicago, where one of the best seminars I attended was Mack's session on blogging. It was a "hot seat" session where three different types of blogs were chosen as examples for us to learn from. Mack did a masterful job of showing how even small tweaks to a blog or to a blogging strategy can have significant impact on your success. I took a lot of notes!

Up until last October I had been sporadically attending (mostly observing as a "lurker") #blogchat, which takes place on Sunday nights at 9:00 pm Eastern Time on Twitter. After the MarketingProfs conference, I decided to make a much more concerted effort to attend regularly and to try to jump in and participate where I could. The #blogchat community is, quite simply, inspiring! The spirit on Sunday nights during the chat is genuinely one of helping each other to succeed, and I've learned a tremendous amount from the participants over these past many months.

I did a lot of hard work to understand what resonates between bloggers and their readers

I started reading a lot of blogs. I tried to get up a little earlier each day to browse my Google Reader and find blogs of interest to me that day. It gave me a feel for what readers respond to when it comes to some of the top bloggers in the field.

I began making a concerted effort to comment on blogs. I commented on Mack's first because I felt pretty safe with him as a new friend, and then slowly I began to comment on others—Brains on Fire's, Shannon Paul's, Amber Naslund's, Joe Pulizzi's, Beth Harte's, Valeria Maltoni's—and I even realized I had commented on Chris Brogan's about a year ago. By doing so, and by being attuned to their responses back to me, I felt more confident that I had opinions that others would be interested in hearing.

I allowed myself to be inspired

I went to SOBCon 2010. Ever have the feeling that you are meant to be somewhere? That's exactly what SOBCon felt like for me. The fascinating thing is that when I had asked Liz Strauss (SOBCon co-founder) on the phone prior to the event who, exactly, attends SOBCon, her response to me was, "the people who are meant to be in the room always find their way there."

It was a weekend full of blissful inspiration about growing businesses, and mutual encouragement from the 150 attendees who were in the room.

My network wanted me to succeed and helped me do so

I absolutely could not have been so successful in my first week of blogging without the encouragement and support of my personal network.

Since I decided, just last Friday night, to launch the blog, I did not have any lead time to let people know about my plans. So, the morning of my launch, I DM'd about 15 of my friends and colleagues from SOBCon, and from my clients, and let them know I had launched a blog and would be honored if they would stop by. I emailed a few as well. All of them sent out tweets on my behalf and many of them left comments on my post, too.

Having a group of supporters cheer me on and encourage me throughout that first day felt amazing and made the entire launch experience fun and memorable.

I wrote in my own voice, from a unique perspective

Writing in my own voice—that was the scariest part of all. It is the ingredient without which you cannot set yourself apart, yet it makes you incredibly vulnerable.

As a woman who has spent much time working with CEOs and other high-level executives, the majority of whom have been men, I wanted my readers to hear a truly unique perspective on important issues such as vision and vulnerability in leadership.

I felt compelled to put the word "goddess" in my tagline, though I knew it was a risk. I also knew that I am at a point in my career where I am ready for the risks—and the sheer thrill of the journey. And so, with a little nudge from Mack, I jumped off the cliff—with a smile.

It will get harder from here, with the excitement of the first week behind me, but I know that I have a strong foundation on which to build!

Lisa Petrilli is a senior-level marketing executive who works daily on strategies and initiatives with CEOs and CMOs as a consultant to both the CEO Connection and the Marketing Executives Networking Group. Reach her via Twitter (@LisaPetrilli), her blog (www.LisaPetrilli.com), or LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/in/lisapetrilli).

5 Things That Ruin Your Reputation on LinkedIn!

As social media continues to strengthen its hold on the internet landscape, businesses are increasingly adopting social media platforms as key revenue channels. And LinkedIn by far, is the most professional platform when it comes to online networking. Unlike, social platforms like Twitter, Facebook and MySpace that is fair amalgam of personal plus business motives, LinkedIn focuses on letting users create a professional online resume for themselves and network out with professionals of the industry.

This gives businesses and entrepreneurs tremendous opportunities to market their businesses. You can form a staunch relationship with millions of prospective clients and customers and solidify your brand without spending a dime. However, as with everything else… There has to be a strategic marketing plan here as well. Without this, you can just end up embarrass yourself or worse, cause damage to your company’s reputation.

So, here are 5 things that you SHOULDN’t be doing on LinkedIn:

1. Treating your Profile as a Marketing Newsletter

LinkedIn is all about subtle marketing! And any attempts of blatant self-promotion will do more harm than good! So, if you promote your products and services on your profile page, you will definitely turn off people. Remember, your profile is not where you brag about your business. A better approach would be to ask your network i.e. your past clients and customers to write positive reviews about your business. This will go a long way to increase your credibility and reputation in the eyes of prospects.

2. Promoting your Business on Groups & Forums

LinkedIn has an exception Question-Answers forums and groups that gives you incredible scope to address particular concerns and display your expertise. But one thing that you should absolutely refrain from it making sales pitches in the middle of a perfect conversation. People can see right through it and it will only serve to degrade your reputation. So, contribute only relevant information and establish your expertise.

3. Not Highlighting your Problem Solving Skills

One of the most common mistakes business owners make is they describe their products and services in great detail without illustrating their benefits for prospective clients. And herein they miss a great chance of being unique! Instead of writing at length about your offerings, focus on the challenges and issues that your business addresses. Talk about how your products and services can benefit your customers. This is the sole way of hitting it off with prospects.

4. Joining Too Many Groups

Its the typical case of ‘Too many cooks spoil the broth!’ Though you can attracts a lot of positive attention by taking part in groups discussions, if you join too many groups you’ll spread yourself too thin. You might not even have the time to monitor the conversation of all these groups and land up being no where. Instead, consider joining two or three of highly relevant group that are most likely to provide access to potential customers or partners.

5. Inviting Too Many Strangers

This is like spamming! If you invite too many people you don’t know, you might violate the policies of LinkedIn and pay for it. So, just don’t do it! Only invite people whom you know and if at all you want to add someone you don’t know, consider getting introduced to them through your network connections.

Original Article

How to Find a Job on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Other Social Networks

Saturday, July 10 9:00a to 5:30p
at UC Berkeley Extension Downtown Center, San Francisco, CA

The old job search strategies just don't work in today's economic environment. Learn new job search strategies to stand out among hundreds of applicants. You study social networking tools—such as LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook—to help you develop your online persona and brand, to quickly absorb and synthesize large amounts of data to create a knowledge base that gives you authority, and to establish connections with others to help in your job search.
Price: $295
Phone: (510) 642-4111
Age Suitability: 18 and up
Tags: online job search, career search course, using online media to find a job

The old job search strategies just don't work in today's economic environment. Learn new job search strategies to stand out among hundreds of applicants. You study social networking tools—such as LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook—to help you develop your online persona and brand, to quickly absorb and synthesize large amounts of data to create a knowledge base that gives you authority, and to establish connections with others to help in your job search.
website Event Website
Category: Workshops & Classes

Original Article

Social Media In Job Search

Social Media In Job Search

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