Powerful Ways to Network with Other Bloggers

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“Networking” is a word that makes many of us cringe; it calls to mind men in expensive suits shaking hands and wearing fake smiles. When you work in an industry you’re passionate about (such as blogging about a subject you’re an expert on), the last thing you want to do is feel like a sycophantic phony.

But networking doesn’t have to be about sucking up to those in power. It’s about forming connections and making friends with people whose work you genuinely respect. Not only will those relationships help as you develop your blog and cultivate your audience—they’re fulfilling on a personal level, too.

Here are several valuable techniques you can use to help form a network of blogging colleagues. [Read more…]

How to Use Twitter’s Advanced Search Engine for Networking & Marketing

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Twitter cannot be ignored, point blank. If you and your business have written it off as a site simply for teenagers or idle youngsters to rant, make noise and post about every meal they’re having, you’re dead wrong. Any website that has 645 million active users with 58 million public conversations per day is not something you should be ignoring in your marketing strategy; and if you have an account but are not using it, I’m going to convince you to start doing otherwise.

twitter-advanced-1014x487 [Read more…]

It’s No Longer OK to Not Know How the Internet Works

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Networking ImageLast year, as the debates over SOPA and PIPA raged, Joshua Kopstein at Motherboard wrote a post entitled “Dear Congress, It’s No Longer OK to Not KNow How the Internet Works“. In the post, he blasted Congress for joking about how little they understood about the Internet while, at the same time, attempting to legislate it.

A year later, it’s time to revisit that message, but in a different context.

With the recent NSA scandals, the attack on Tor network (widely suspected to be orchestrated by the U.S. government), and deep concerns about how government and private entities are cooperating to share user data, it’s clear isn’t just the government that needs a primer on how the Internet works.

The everyday user that does as well.

For most people, including many who grew up with the Internet, the Web seems almost magical. They click to visit a site or send an email and they get content or data from half a world away, nearly instantly.

But where most people take the time to understand at least the basics of how their car works, far fewer have taken the time to understand how the Internet works, even as they depend upon it more and more as part of their daily lives.

But like not knowing how a car works, ignorance can be dangerous and, also like a car, a little bit of understanding can go a long, long way. [Read more…]

How to Use LinkedIn to Benefit Your Blog

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When LinkedIn was launched in 2003, the average person probably didn’t give it a second thought. Today, the social networking platform in the main venue where professionals want their profile to be found. It has become the de facto tool for professional networking.

LinkedIn

Of course, there are still people who do not use LinkedIn to their advantage and see it as merely another social network. If you are in the market for a job, though, or you simply want to highlight your professional life, LinkedIn is an indispensable tool. But have you ever thought of using the platform to send some love your blog’s way? [Read more…]

Liverpool to host TweetUp North in November

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twitter-logo.jpgAnyone in the north-wast of England wanting to meet with others to network and share best practices for using Twitter could do worse than attend TweetUp North in Liverpool in November.

The event will be held in the BT Convention Centre, whose general manager Jacquie Rogers said that they were “really excited to be hosting the first TweetUp North and see how social media can benefit the events sector.”

“Social networking can be perceived as taking away face to face interaction, but we are beginning to see new communities being created as TweetUps are organised across the country – where people who Tweet meet!” she added.

Exact details of the event will be announced on the BT Convention Centre Twitter page.

Exploring Social Media: LeVar Burton Passionate About Social Media

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I recently joined a social networking site called Twitter. The reason that I joined is simple. However the reason that I have stayed and made a conscious decision to become as Twitterer myself, is what has led me to this BLOG.

…After lurking for a while (not in a creepy context, simply observing) it occurred to me that I had encountered in Twitter a bona fide community of individuals bound together by common interests and occasionally, ideals….

I feel like I have found part of my tribe in my online community, my Tweeple, so to speak. It is my intention, in the days and weeks to come, to lean on my online tribe for the kind of support, advice, and good humor that any man can expect from one’s community…

For those seeking to understand the pull social media sites like has, the first blog post by LeVar Burton on his new blog summed it up. [Read more…]

BlogTalkRadio Gets New Look, Networking Features

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BlogTalkRadio LogoOn Monday, popular online radio network BlogTalkRadio announced a set of several new user interface features that encourage social networking and show participation.

The network has a What’s New page explaining the recent changes in detail.

Mashable says that “the focus is clearly to get visitors listening to more shows.” I agree. Without listeners, BTR dies on the vine.

A secondary pair of focal points to the changes at BlogTalkRadio appears to be to get BTR show hosts to talk to each more and to get more people to discover BTR via social networking websites like Twitter, MySpace and Facebook. [Read more…]

Hey You. Yes You! Let’s Network…

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As many of you know, I own and operate Jobacle, a career blog and podcast that is dedicated to making work better. With all of the media hype – and now evidence – surrounding an economic downfall, it appears we are entering a new job-search chapter: too many workers, not enough jobs.

It’s times like this that a resume becomes even less valuable. After all, a resumes’ primary purpose is to act as an exclusionary tool to ELIMINATE you from the race.

It sounds boring and cliché, but that means networking is more important than ever.

Many bloggers – this one included – simply throw links to social networks on their sites and wait for the people to flock. This is a pretty passive approach.

With so much uncertainty out there, my blogging friends, let this post serve as a reminder – or better yet a catalyst – to reach out and make a new contact or rekindle an old one.

Set a goal and hold yourself accountable. Maybe it’ll be to make five new contacts this week. Perhaps 50. It’s hard work, but perhaps the most important work you can do right now.

There’s a good chance your next job will come through networking, irrespective of what you do for a living. Start now before it’s too late.

One of my favorite things about blogging is meeting new and interesting people across the world. You can find me on LinkedIn and all of the rest, but why not send me an e-mail and make me your contact for the day!

Even if I’m not your guy, go network! You’ll thank me later.

How Two Guys and a Cement Mixer Changed How Bloggers Think

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On , I just published “The Real Benefits of Sponsoring a WordCamp” which highlighted one of the most talked about exhibitors at Blog World Expo in Las Vegas a few weeks ago: Bruce Christensen and Tom Vail of Cart-Away Concrete.

While most of the exhibitors at Blog World Expo were there to promote their products and services to the mass of bloggers in attendance, Tom and Bruce were there for a different reason. They were there to learn.

So many events and conferences bring together a lot of people with a marketing agenda. They want to sell products and services and make money. Tom and Bruce of Cart-Away Concrete showed up at this blogging conference with their portable cement mixer and said, “We don’t have anything for you to buy. We came here to learn.”

That’s right. They just came to learn from everyone who walked through the Las Vegas Convention Center Exhibition Hall over the course of the three day event. They aren’t bloggers, they aren’t web hosts, they aren’t marketers, or guys with cool blog gadgets. They are construction experts in equipment and concrete. How many bloggers have a huge commercial construction project underway and would need them? Hmmm?

No, they were there to learn. They could hire someone to teach them what to do and set up their blogs and social media services to promote their franchise and contractor business, but that’s not what they wanted. They wanted to learn from everyone in this new online social media business.

And they did. [Read more…]