Shama Kabani of The Marketing Zen Group, Rick Burnes of HubSpot, the notorious Couch Surfing Ori, as well as other Social Media pros will be speaking at the Aloft Hotel Thursday, March 4th, to a crowd of entrepreneurs, C-level execs, and marketing and sales professionals on social media topics and techniques that businesses are using to achieve real business results in 2010.

Bring your laptop and join Shama for this intensive information-packed full day of professional speakers and workshops. This hands-on one-day conference will give you the inside scoop on emerging trends and ways savvy marketers and business owners are successfully promoting their businesses, increasing sales, generating qualified leads, and recruiting top personnel through social media. Find out why names like Pepsi decided to opt out of  Superbowl advertising after 23 years and reinvested 20 million in social media instead.

This will be the first opportunity to get your hands on The Zen of Social Media Marketing – An Easier Way to Build Credibility, Generate Buzz, and Increase Revenue.  It won’t be available in stores until April 2010. VIP attendees will get to meet Shama personally at an exclusive lunch as well as receive an autographed copy of the book.

General admission also includes a copy of Inbound Marketing- Getting Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs , an Amazon Top Seller for 22+ weeks, presented by Rick Burnes, Inbound Marketing Director at Hubspot.

Plus there will will be a Social Boot Camp Business Panel, an esteemed panel of Dallas-based business owners, entrepreneurs, trail blazers & Fortune 500 companies teaching how they have successfully leveraged Social Networking to support their business objectives.

Shama has spoken with the organizer of the event and since she is all about giving value, you can save $30 on the boot camp by using this special: link until Valentine’s Day.

Moderator: Ori Bengal, Couch Surfing Ori, Event MC
* Katharyn DeVille, Digital Producer WFAA Ch 8
* Shaun P. Wiliams, Editor of Dallas South News
* Kevin Williams, Director of Marketing National Breast Cancer Foundation
* James Pecht, Comm Specialist/Social Media of Interstate Batteries
* Kat Farmer, SticViews
* Bill Knecht, Partner Bengal Coast

Last but not least, after a hard day of Boot Camp Workshops you can enjoy mingling in the private Aloft Hotel Party Pad with other professionals and attendees.

Sign up using this link this week before this workshop sells out.

If you’re wondering why this post was written in 3rd person, that’s because it was written by Neil.

Since a potential customer’s initial search still starts with keywords on a search engine using a service-oriented keyword followed or preceded by the city in which they’re searching (ex: BMW mechanic Dallas). You should first pay attention to the truly important ones already showing up in Google, Yahoo!, and MSN for your keywords. Below are six of the major review and business listing sites which hold weight and have huge online presence. Learn the six biggies.

1. Google Local Business Listings (The “10 Pack”)

You can get your business listed on Google’s map and show up directly on the search results by registering at the Google Local Business Center www.google.com/local/add Describe your business with location info, services, hours of operation and business website link. After you have a listing, your goal is get reviews. If you let Google find your business first, you’ll be rewarded with better placement on the map. Much like Google would rather find your website on its own through links rather than search engine submission, Google Maps will trust and more than likely post reviews from other review sites before submitting or modifying your listing. Often, the Google Local Listing bot will scour the Internet for other reviews sites already touting your company’s offerings and experiences, so start building profiles on some of the other sites first and you’ll already have a diversity of amazing reviews before you expand. Another backdoor is getting your business listed on the BBB’s website or InfoUSA.com to ensure your Google Local presence. Reviews are by far the #1 one factor in achieving top placement in the alphanumeric listing of the Google Local Business Listings/Map Listings. Make sure the reviews are real though. Having keywords in your business name and a complete profile also helps. Get started at the Google Local Business Center.

2. Yelp!

Almost tripling in traffic from 10 to 25 million unique visitors over the last year, this community has exploded becoming a full-on social community with add friends function, reputations, commenting, and picture profiles. Yelp! has recently opened its doors a little more allowing business owners to talk back. Yelp! shows up well in search and they have the trust factor down due to their proprietary algorithm which has been cutting out fake reviews since 2006. To gain control of your profile you should first see if your business is already listed, then you must “claim” the listing with phone call verification. It’s the same process with most of these sites.
See what others are saying about your business and talk back on Yelp.com

3. Yahoo! Local Listings

Similar to Google Local Listings above, Yahoo! now offers the “10 pack,” only it’s three instead of ten. Complete with a map and full landing page, Yahoo! local shows up above organic search and below the top three pay-per-click listings. It’s wise to promote your Yahoo! Local Listing by treating it like it’s one of the family – get reviews, flesh out the profile, add business information. Although Yahoo! only gets 20% of the search engine share, that’s a pretty big chunk of search engine goodness. Get your Yahoo! Map Listing started.

4. Citysearch

This business review site has been around for many years. I can remember at least 10 years ago, when I wanted to be a “City Expert” reviewing restaurants and the like in my area. According to Wikipedia, Citysearch started in 1995 and although much of their content is not user-generated, they do have the notoriety to command attention when they put out a top ten list. Each review, although staff provided, seems thoughtful and specific. The most important aspect of the site — they show up well in search for Google and even better in Yahoo!. Get your business listed, and it may even be worth to have an “enhanced listing” for a monthly fee. Check out CitySearch.com.

5. MerchantCircle

Somewhat new on the scene, this company started in 2005 and has been infiltrating search listings and growing ever since. In June 2008, MerchantCircle announced over 5 million monthly users, 500,000 registered merchant users, and over 5,000 paying clients, with 4.3 million visitors a month according to Quantcast in 2007. Join the circle.

6. Insider Pages

Insider Pages is an online “local search” service operated by IAC/InterActiveCorp. Before its acquisition by IAC the company was based in Redwood Shores, California, and had over 600,000 reviews of local merchants around the country. Insider Pages was founded by Stuart MacFarlane in 2004. On March 27, 2006, the company announced an $8.5 million investment by Sequoia Capital, Softbank Capital, and Idealab. The company addressed a demographic (by its description) of young and middle-aged families who own homes in urban and suburban areas. Add you business. Google Maps definitely picks it up. Be an insider.

Three Important Local Business Review Marketing Tips
1). Never fake reviews or testimonies, it’s not worth the consequences (possible banning).
2). Ask happy customers to review right after he/she has bought, and keep reminding.
3). Don’t freak out if there are some less than 100% positive reviews.
To address the last one, potential customers expect a balance with everything veering on the side of positive and not for your business to be perfect. If there are any negative reviews follow up with that person by contacting him/her and try to make their after experience a good one. Consumer studies and surveys have proven customers are more satisfied with a company in which there was a small issue and the issue was resolved, compared to if there was never one in the first place. The more reviews and complete your business profile the better.

For almost five years, Neil Lemons has worked behind-the-scenes to help create exposure, traffic, leads, and sales through major search engines like Google, Yahoo!, and Bing. Calling upon his diverse background in copywriting, advertising, marketing, and sales, he has been learning traditional SEO and SEM tactics since 2004.  He is the lead SEM Strategist at MarketingZen.com, a Dallas website design company. For more information on Internet Marketing, SEM & SEO contact The Marketing Zen Group for a free site evaluation.

1) Stay Hydrated – Seems simple – but I can’t tell you how easy it is to forget when you are running around. Carry a bottle of water with you at all times. It can be so easy to lose your energy by the end of the day. Stay hydrated, and you will thank yourself when everyone else is falling apart.

2) Hire a Private Driver – If it sounds like an extravagance, it’s not. Private drivers are often more reliable and charge less than taxis. Thanks to my good friend, Sarah Robinson, we found an excellent driver named Alex in Vegas. Not only did he charge less than the taxi drivers, he also knew all the hot spots in the city – and had excellent customer service. It made the conference experience much more pleasant.

3) You Don’t have to Stay Close to your Conference – Contrary to popular opinion, I don’t think you always have to stay close to the conference. Sometimes, at the end of the day – you need some room to breathe and do your own thing. Since, I have to run the business while on the road – I prefer to stay a bit further so I can work without distractions. Also, hotels further from the conference center often cost less. To share another example, during SXSW 09, my friends and I rented a house that was a few minutes away from the conference. It was a great experience – and cheaper for everyone.

4) Get a Rolling Bag for your Laptop – I resisted this idea because I thought it looked geeky. I got over that pretty quickly after I realized how hard it was to tote a few extra pounds around on your shoulder. Make it easy on yourself – get a rolling bag for your laptop. Also, expect free stuff. I find that the more I speak, the more free stuff I get. From t-shirts, to boxes of chocolate almonds – to a director’s chair with Shama.Tv written on it. I kid you not.

5) Take your own Billboard – One way everyone recognizes me at conferences is by looking at my laptop. It has a huge laptop sticker that says Shama.Tv. You can get one for less than 20 bucks at http://www.SticViews.com. It’s a great ice breaker.

6) Plan on Getting Less Done – I always think I am going to get a lot more done at conferences than I do. Always expect the unexpected. Conferences are fun because of the spontaneous things that occur. As a rule, you will always get less done than you think.

7) Don’t do Things for the sake of Networking - You don’t have to go to parties if you don’t like to party. This was an important lesson for me. I am not a party person – by a long shot. And, for the longest time I thought I was missing out on a chance to network because I didn’t attend conference parties. Not so. I realized there are lots of other people who prefer a quiet dinner or fun lunch with a small group rather than drink and dance with a crowd. I am not saying either way is the way to go. I am saying do what works for you, and not what is considered “smart networking.”

If you are Speaking, bring Food - I took cupcakes to my last session at the Blog World Expo, and they were such a hit. It made things lively. I gave them away to folks who asked questions, and it added flavor (no pun intended) to the whole session. People like food!

9) Share the Spotlight – Whenever I speak, I try to share my stage with someone else for a bit. It adds variety to the session and gives the other person a chance to provide a different perspective. At Blog World, my good friend Rich Brooks shared his tips for Facebook marketing. If you aren’t speaking, make it a point to connect folks to each other. It allows for win-wins across the board.

10) Encourage Tweeting/Facebooking/Sharing – At Blog World, this goes without saying. But, at other conferences, the rules aren’t so clear. I love encouraging folks to share when I speak, because 1) it allows others to learn and 2) the attendees remember more when they write it down.

11) Bring a Wing-man or Wing-woman – I am pretty lucky that I have Stephanie Cross, our Accounts Supervisor, in tow when I am at a conference or speaking. It makes everything so much easier. Stephanie backs me up for everything. No clicker for the powerpoint? Stephanie will gladly click through the slides for me. Want to attend two different sessions? We each attend one and compare notes. If you have a team member, bring them. If not, buddy up with someone else also attending to support each other.

What are some of your favorite conference tips?

This “Like” feature is quite similar to the “Like” feature enabled for other components in Facebook. To make ad-browsing more efficient and user-friendly, Facebook will be adding an “X” on every ad. One tap on the “X” closes the current advertisement and initiates the emergence of the next ad in the chain.

Either you “Like” it, or you don’t

The “Like” system is actually a boon for individuals who are growing weary of giving thumbs-up and thumbs-down ratings for materials they encounter on the Net. If you click “Like”, the system recognizes the rating and records it. If you don’t like an ad and you decide to just close the ad, you will be led to an area where you can give Facebook your feedback.

How the “Like” feature can affect businesses through Facebook

The keyword here is “quality connections”. People who rate particular ads have a whole network of friends. When a person endorses an ad, there is an instant connection. Let’s say John likes your ad. Now Mary, John’s friend, sees that John liked your ad. Mary is more likely to also like your ad.

Capitalizing on Facebook’s new feature

There are simple ways to capitalize on this new feature. This is a challenge for all advertisers- adapt or lose the game. First, make sure that you hyper-target your ads . Additionally, the graphics you use should also be visually engaging. Make everything as fresh as possible- even the text on the ads. Well done humor will also take you far!

If you are a US company with a valid federal ID and less than 500 employees, you can enter. If you are an authorized employee, you can also enter. Can you imagine how happy your boss would be? : )

100 Companies will Win:

* British Airways airfare for 10 round-trip Club World business class flights.
* 5 free British Airways World Cargo freight shipments of up to 500 kilos to worldwide destinations
* $1000 toward accommodation at Courtyard by Marriott
* 5 Regus Businessworld Gold Cards providing access to business lounges worldwide
* Canon PIXMA MX860 Wireless Office All-In-One Printer

Go here to enter. Entries close Sept 30th, so you have 14 more days.

In this economy, there is no reason not to make the most of opportunities like this!

Streamline it

The most important component of your offer should be clearly visible. Use simple, bright colors and clean text links. If you want your visitors to view two or three more pages, make sure that they can navigate the deeper pages with little effort. If they don’t want to navigate other pages anymore, the registration form should easily be seen on the landing page they are on.

There is not fixed formula for the placement of your main call to action. It all depends on your website’s over-all design, the length of your copy, the number of illustrations and graphics, etc. You don’t have to guess. What you can do is create different versions of your landing pages with the call to action box in different places. Ask people to take a look, and see which placements convert well. Testing is key.

Additionally, you can also experiment with your font styles and font sizes.

Straightforward registration forms

What do you need their home addresses and phone numbers for? People are no longer comfortable with sharing this information with total strangers, much less to someone who is amassing hundreds or thousands of people’s names and email addresses. If you do not have a direct use for such information, then don’t ask the information from people trying to opt-in. If you need a person’s physical address, you can ask them confidentially in specialized (customized emails) and you have to reassure them that all the data would be held in strict confidence. Ask for a name and their email address- that’s all you need for an opt-in. You can get to the nitty-gritty of their private lives after you get their email (and trust).

What’s in it for them?

Really, with the amount of junk on the Internet today you have to be really convincing with your offer. And you have to be reassuring as well. You can go the extra mile for more opt-ins by providing sample screen shots of what they will be receiving in the mail. Live samples such as online PDF copies of a few newsletters can also be helpful (make sure that your ‘snippets’ are good quality).

More options means more opt-ins

Letting people ‘shop’ for the stuff that they would receive in their personal mail boxes is one of the most efficient ways of multiplying the number of your opt-ins. For example, you can offer them a newsletter, but directly beneath the check box for the newsletter is another check box for a good primer or a cool free eBook. You see the difference already? They’re not stuck with something that looks machine-wrought. They see a list of free goodies that they would get immediately by just giving away their email address. Additionally, you can also offer your new opt-ins technical options. For example, they can choose between plain text emails and vanilla-flavored HTML emails. They can also opt for monthly newsletters, daily alerts, bi-daily alerts, weekly primers, and more. Expanding to the social networks such as Facebook can also help increase the exposure of your current deals. It’s fast, and it works.

2. More value for their opting-in

There’s a difference between adding one-time bonuses for opt-ins and genuine quality content delivered over time. In the age of Web 2.0, the agile email marketer gets the most number of conversions. Don’t rely on ‘carrots’ too much because they won’t get people talking about your website much. ‘Carrots’, as we’ve mentioned earlier, are one-time bonus you offer people to just sign up (but it is by no means an effective method of convincing people to buy anything from you). If you can produce engaging case studies with real statistics and usable data for your mailing lists, then you have something.

3. Invite people to opt-in whenever you are communicating directly

Your website can be considered direct communication; the same applies to Twitter and Facebook. So what’s stopping you from offering your email course or newsletter when you’re actively communicating with your clients?

Here are just a few of the places where you can include an efficient “call to action”.

Your website

Of course. It should be at the center of all your activities.

Social networking

I will say this again and again: use social networking to your advantage.

Call centers rock!

Inbound call center communications are actually a vibrant source of conversions, if you know how to format the script right. With B2C communications, it’s always wise to include an invitation to sign up or opt-in for something when the customer is about to close the chat window. If your customer service representative provided good service, then there’s no reason why a cheerful and polite request to sign up would be denied. Think about it; what do you have to lose if you ask your agents to include an extra link at the end of each B2C conversation?

Conferences and other engagements

Nothing like good old offline marketing to get your website started. While you will get only a fraction of the total number of people attending a trade show or conference, you’re still getting more people to sign up. Remember, business cards are not a sign of agreeing to anything. Ask for permission first and tell your potential consumers what you have to offer when they agree to register.

Make your content shareable

Social networking works best if people can share what they saw on your email or website to other people. Actually, this is already the beginning stage of viral marketing. By encouraging involvement, you’re making people feel that they are part of something dynamic. However, don’t expect thousands of new subscriptions with mere Tweets and Diggs. The main impetus for creating content that is shareable is exposure. More exposure means better business, remember that.

What makes an offer, an email course or a ‘hard-sell’ email spam? First, if the sender of these materials does not provide a basic ‘unsubscribe’ or ‘opt-out’ option in the email, which can immediately qualify the email as spam. Why would you send someone unsolicited mail if they can’t unsubscribe? That’s already forcing someone something they won’t even read. The content of newsletters also matter. If a newsletter looks like it’s been written by a troubled fifth grader, then would people want to read it? No, people would rather have something else on their personal mailboxes, like emails from friends and their bosses. Certainly not a newsletter with grammatical errors and senseless content.

It’s quite easy to follow the basic rules of CAN-SPAM. First, identify yourself adequately in the Sender box. Next, include the physical address of your company or organization. Third, make sure people can stop your emails from coming. Write the unsubscribing information on the bottom of the email, but make sure you include it. If you don’t, you might be fined $11,000. And that’s for every time you commit such a mistake!

Opting-in matters, too (a lot)

Well you know, you can just send your emails to tens of thousands of people right? Some companies are still doing this up to now. Well you can do that too, if you want to fill up the Spam folders of Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo Mail. Fact is, these three are wising up with better spam filtering. Now, what would make your email, well, recipient friendly? The answer is “opt-ins”. We know you probably are laughing right now, because opt-ins is part of the ABCs of email marketing. But hey, we give everyone the benefit of the doubt. If you want to annoy people, send unsolicited email. If you want to make fat profits from selling something online, then make them opt-in for something.

Offering something to potential clients must be done with all honesty. If you want to offer infrequent sales letters so they get discounts galore on some months, then just tell them. It would be better if they choose this option for themselves. Instead of being annoyed, people would feel empowered, because hey, you gave them the choice to receive something of value when they subscribed to your mailing list.

Is there a way to make your offer even more powerful? YES.

Double opt-ins can make two things possible: first, reduce the chances of your mails being automatically junked by Spam filters and second, a double opt-in can filter out not-so-serious takers from the serious takers. By asking them to confirm their subscription, you can also take the opportunity to pitch another product or upgrade. Make your mails creative! Creativity rules in the realm of email marketing.

Why are you sending them to your homepage?

We know your homepage is one of the well-designed parts of your website, but does it really drive home your message? Does your homepage really contain the information that would get you a sale, based on the unique content of your email? Remember the basic rule of sending out emails over a period of time? Each email has to be unique but should employ different strategies in selling whatever it is you need to sell. It might be useful if you had unique landing pages based on what your emails are promising to your recipients. For example, if you offered them a money-back guarantee, the link on your email should lead to a landing page that talks about the money-back guarantee more. It’s all about efficient dissemination of information, right?

Quality is also an issue here. We know that it can be tiresome to write new information for your mailing lists. It’s not unusual for webmasters to have people rewrite things that have been sitting on their website for years already. Hey, people notice these things. If every email is mirror of the last one, what’s the point of reading these mails anyway?

Re-thinking graphic-laden emails

Most email services these days offer recipients the ability to download or ignore images – many choose to ignore them. Should you quit using graphics altogether? Not really. Visuals work very well, but you have to balance it out. 75 kilobytes is the ideal size of HTML emails with graphics.

Back to the basics of copywriting

Should copies for your emails be shorter or longer? Some people say that shorter copy works better in conveying what needs to be said. For example, “Know How To Take Care of Baby Tigers Without Being Eaten!” is definitely an eye-catching headline (and it’s only 11 words long!). How long should the email copy be? It all depends on what you are trying to sell. Some products require short copy; some need longer copy in order to sell well.

Subject lines are for nerds? Not anymore!

Every part of the email matters, not just the body of the email. If you have an insufficient sender’s address you get fined. If your subject line is lousy, you’re missing out on getting fast clicks and genuine interest in what you have to say! Now, how can you make those profit-laden subject lines? It’s easy! What’s the gist of your email offer? Are you offering discounts or bonuses? Write those down! Try to create a subject line that’s 6-8 words long. If you need to be wordier, just make sure that people can read your subject line in one breath, okay?

Learn how to link your emails with Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Online marketing is all about creating synergy. Isolating one part of your advertising campaign from the larger body can be detrimental to your efforts in building a name for yourself or your company. Twitter and other social media networking services can be avenues of fast information relays. But you have to make sure that what you’re saying on your emails are also connected with what you are saying on Twitter. For example, an ideal link to your Twitter page would be “Liked the 10% discount here? Get more discounts and freebies. Follow us on Twitter at (insert your Twitter link here)” It’s easy, it doesn’t take up much of your time and your clients would think that they’ve hit a gold mine with a single email that you sent. Email marketers need to provide a lot of useful content to people in order to gain their trust.

Now, don’t forget mobile phones. Mobile marketing is very promising if you do it right. Immediacy can also make a world of difference. For example, if you own an online bookshop, you can send a message to your mailing list that would get a fast response: “New York Time Bestsellers at 50% off, only 2 days to go!” Because of the time constraint, people who are already thinking of buying a book would probably check out your website since you are offering a big discount on selected books.

Are you bored with testing?

Testing emails? People might scoff at the idea at first, especially if they’ve read too many books and they feel generally lazy. But it works, that’s the point. Get a small segment from your current mailing lists and send them different emails. Measure the response rate. It’s easy mathematics: the email that gets the most number of good responses is the mail that is most effective in laying down the cards!

I rarely promote contests on this website – but this was one was too good to pass up! Izea asked me if I’d be interested in sharing with you guys – and I was all for it. In this economy, the stuff a business really needs (like a technology upgrade!) can often take a back seat. But, thanks to AT&T – one small business can get exactly what they need.

AT&T is Giving away a Technology Makeover. On July 16th, AT&T launched a cool resource website for small businesses. To celebrate, the company is giving a Small Biz Tech Makeover to one lucky prize winner.

The grand prize consists of 2 Samsung Epix Smartphones, 1 – year subscription to AT&T Tech Support 360SM Advanced Service Package; 1-year subscription to AT&T UNIX or Windows Enhanced Web Hosting Services; AT&T Web Design Service; 1-year subscription to AT&T Unified Messaging; Digital Express Direct Mail Extreme Membership along with the first 500 postcards; AT&T Connect five (5) Integrated Edition Named Hosts Web conferencing and one-on-one consultation with a small business expert.

Want to enter? Please do so before August 31st, 2009.

All you have to do is create a short video sharing your small business story and upload it to their small business technology makeover site.

All the best!

In the past, employers had to rely on pricey background checks and lengthy interview processes to get the gist of what a job candidate’s been up to prior to the interview. According to the study done by Harris Interactive, more than 2,500 human resource departments reported to have been using social media networking for primary screening of potential employees. A staggering 35% of them reported to have not hired certain individuals because of what they found online. Facebook, MySpace and personal blogs can become basis for being hired (…or not).

What kind of stuff can cause an employer to doubt your character as a good employee? First, nearly-naked (or completely naked) pictures can cause problems, as well as revealing things that just shouldn’t be shown online (like when your partied last Friday night – and didn’t remember it). 53% of respondents in the Harris Interactive study said they won’t hire you if they see such images and info on your social networking site.

Anything that has to do with drugs and alcohol has also been the basis for outwardly rejecting job candidates (44% of the respondents didn’t like this at all). Now, have you said anything nasty about your past employer in your personal blog? If you have, remove it NOW. In the past, there’s been a classic case of someone posting every ‘secret’ of his past employer on his social networking site. This can be the main reason why an employer won’t hire you. 35% of the respondents in the Harris study said so.

Is it all bad? Fortunately, no. A sizeable 18% from the study said that they found some sterling material on some job candidates’ social networking sites, which convinced them to hire immediately. As you can see, right now more people are posting stuff that are not helpful with their careers. Don’t make the same mistake; there’s opportunity here, and if you can find the right balance in the things that you put on your social networking sites, then you can really be heads and tails above the competition.

How headhunters are adapting to the changing times

The nineties was the age of self-help books, self-made tycoons and the birth of advanced headhunting strategies to get the best possible people for the job. Did cheaper internet, the Google Economy and social networking affect all this? A big yes. Seasoned headhunters from resilient companies in the US and elsewhere all say the same thing: in the past, it was hard to find the right guy for the job with the right employment history and educational background. In the past decade, headhunters had to spend days or even weeks trying to find a person with just the right profile. When they did find this person, they contacted him immediately and offered him the job. But now, if you needed someone for a job, you do a search on LinkedIn and you will find hundreds of people with identical profiles. This insane amount of information was what threw off headhunters when this kind of technology and networking finally became popular.

How do headhunters find people these days? The obvious choice would be massive databases like LinkedIn, but make no mistake: headhunters aren’t limited to LinkedIn. If they want to find someone who’s interested in a particular aspect of web development (like using the language Ruby), they would try to find Tweets for it or regular Yahoo! Groups that are already sharing information about Ruby. It’s as easy as that. Now headhunters have to reorganize their headhunting strategies, because they have a limited time to contact the right people. Of course, if 500 people in LinkedIn come up with basically the same credentials, headhunters would have to choose from this mess of qualified profiles.

So how do you pass the headhunter’s test, anyway?

Standing out on LinkedIn

Being on LinkedIn is like having a small cubicle, where you can put up your resume and other important stuff that can get you hired. The problem with this setup is that there are hundreds of other cubicles that tend to mirror each other in appearance and content. So when a headhunter finally looks at all the cubicles, he’ll say “Hmm… I think I’ll pick this one (not your cubicle) because it has everything I need to make a good choice as an HR person.” You graduated from a well-known university, you’re a team player and you know how to bring in roaring profits for any company you work for. So why didn’t you get hired? Maybe it has something to do with how your LinkedIn profile looked.

Here are some ways of improving your chances of getting noticed on LinkedIn and hopefully, getting that dream job you’ve always wanted.

• You must have great recommendations from people you’ve already connected with; colleagues, friends and former employers are good sources of such recommendations. There’s nothing wrong with asking them to be more detailed about the recommendations. Hey, if they’re setting aside time to write a recommendation, they might as well give a bit more effort, right?

• Your profile as a professional must be as complete as possible. Write down anything and everything that can be use by headhunters to compare you with other candidates.

• If you are a member of an online group or a community, make sure that your group is associated with your profession. This shows how you live and breathe your skills as a professional.

• Yes, your picture matters. Upload a nice picture. And don’t forget to smile!

• Your hobbies and interests are important to headhunters, too. Why? They reveal what kind of person you are. They also show how passionate you can be about something (or not).

• Your status updates are also vital. Updates show that you are monitoring your LinkedIn account and you’re eagerly waiting for someone to directly communicate with you for a job offer.

• Vital links on your profile must also include your former employer or present employer, as well as relevant sites that you are really interested in.

Blogging to the tune of “you’re hired!”

As a professional, your blog should also be a reflection of who you are as a private individual and as a worker in your chosen field. What do headhunters look for in personal blogs? Here are some of the most important things that you should remember:

• Be relevant- as a professional, you should have things to say about your industry, right? Say it! Show your insight and showcase your critical thinking on your blog.

• Share a bit about yourself- “oversharing” is the problem; but headhunters want to see what you are as a private citizen as well. If you like mountain climbing or angling, write about these things. Speak easy on your blog; there’s no need to be very careful with the things that you really want to blog about.

• Insults can ruin your chances- as mentioned earlier, talking about a former employer negatively can ruin your chances of being hired. Just don’t do it! It’s relatively pointless anyway; you’ve already left your former employer.

• Where’s your resume?- your resume should also be available through a hot link. Google Docs is a nice place to store your document.

• Regularity- as with your LinkedIn profile, it also pays to post regularly. This allows headhunters to create a better profile of who you are as a professional and as an individual.

• Be true- you don’t have to be perfect. But if you can present an honest writing voice on your blog, that’s a plus, too.

• Blogroll- if you have a blogroll that points to relevant blogs related to your profession or hobbies, you’re doing great. Relevancy and professional interests are key.

Facebook

To create the best possible impression on headhunters, your Facebook account should also be relevant to your profession. The following should be observed to avoid being rejected by potential employers:

• Make sure you know when you are already oversharing; propriety is a sign of maturity and professionalism. Keep private matters private.

• Having frequent updates is also good; headhunters can more or less see what you’re up to when you’re not working.

• Your groups should also be relevant to what you do as a professional. Skip any groups that start with ” I bet I can find a million people who”

Twitter

Believe it or not, headhunters are also looking at your Tweets. Here’s how to Tweet to success:

• Valuable Tweeting is best.

• If you’re following lots of people, lots of people should also be following you. This shows how big your network is. That being said, quality ALWAYS trumps quantity.

• Private matters must also be kept private; don’t overshare.

Why are employers using social media to screen job candidates, anyway?

Company attitudes and headhunters’ attitudes are changing; since there is no shortage of formally qualified candidates today, employers want the full monty: the right attitude, skills, work experience and of course, chemistry between candidate and employer. It’s all about improving the harmony of the company by finding people with the right temperament and approach to work and their private lives, in general. If they are comfortable with what they see on something as simple as a blog, then they can be sure that they would be comfortable with you as a person, working for them on a daily basis.

Isn’t it illegal for an employer to judge me based on private personal preferences?

If it is online, it isn’t private.

In fact, there are millions of people that use these social media sites every day for one purpose or another. If you’re looking to broaden the market for your company or brand, online marketing is an excellent resource.

In this current climate of downsizing and stretching not only every dollar but every resource, more and more people are realizing that online marketing is not just for the technology minded. Below are just a few of the top benefits of using this marketing strategy.

Top 5 Reasons to Market Virtually

1. The Required Time Investment (Preparation, Commute Time, Event Attendance, etc)

If you’re like many companies, you’re either trying to do more work with fewer people. If you’re shorter on time than you’d like, online marketing is a perfect answer. Gathering leads and new contacts is only a few clicks away, not miles away at the latest industry event. There’s no commute time on the World Wide Web, and, depending on the level of your marketing effort, the time preparing and implementing your campaign is minimal.

2. Relevance of Target Audience

On social media sites, the size of your audience grows exponentially. The potential for leads is practically unlimited, but you can also tailor your audience to ensure you are reaching the people you want. Facebook and LinkedIn are very group oriented media spaces. Where you choose to post your marketing material will determine the audience you reach.

3. Competitive Research

The internet is making our world more transparent every day. Company information is no longer relegated to hardbound directories or industry databases. All the public background information you need is available with a touch of a button or the click of a mouse. If the company, person, or brand you’re interested in has any kind of online presence, you can find them. Check their popularity with the public, get information on their marketing efforts, and check their corporate structure. Having this much background information available can also come in handy when you’re trying to really target your audience, as well.

4. Ease of Follow-Up

Even with a targeted audience, the results of your social media marketing campaigns could be quite significant. In the world of business cards and hand scrawled names and phone numbers, follow-up can be a nightmare. There is a relatively short time to follow-up with your contacts to ensure they’re still interested and fresh on the details of your meeting and interaction. With online social media marketing, follow-up can be as simple as sending an email. With today’s email clients and scheduling software, you can even automate your follow-ups to help guarantee you never miss an opportunity.

5. Environment Impact (“Greener” Method)

Now more than ever, the environment is at the forefront of concern. More people are realizing the damage we’ve caused by thoughtlessness and poor planning. Online marketing has many advantages, but one of the most important is that it is environmentally sound. Media marketing is paperless, requires no commuting, and uses little energy. The effects of your marketing campaigns will increase many times over; at the same time, your effect on the environment shrinks to almost nothing. Saving your planet has never been more important – or easier to do.