Today’s career environment is different, at least for the information workers. What’s different is that there are more ways to influence getting a job than in the past. You probably already know that the old saying is true: “it’s not what you know; it’s who you know.” Well, the people you know has expanded a bit, thanks to social networks, and what people know about you has grown, too, thanks in part to the various tools you can employ in social media.

What follows are some ideas on building your online presence with your career in mind.

Your Blog Is A Resume

If you’ve not considered this yet, let me explain that my blog has been responsible for HUNDREDS of inquiries over the years.…

Back in the 1990s, NBC had this perfect little plan for their super powered Thursday night line up. They’d run Friends, then some other show, then Seinfeld, and then some other show, then ER. The “other show” slots were where they placed their not-so-popular products that hadn’t yet learned to stand on their own. They were incubator spots. And that’s my recommendation to you, if you’re looking to grow your audience.

Find Your Friends / Seinfeld / ER

If you’re a medium sized or small sized blogger or podcaster, find the content that is most similar to what you’re talking about.…

Enterprise software isn’t very sexy. I agree with Robert Scoble’s perspective on this. And though others are disagreeing with this, people like Nick Carr are seeing Scoble’s point. The conversation around the argument is that enterprise applications aren’t meant to be sexy; they’re meant to work flawlessly for the organization. Well here’s where it’s interesting to me.

saisons poulsbo isn’t exactly a friendly place.

Social Media Works for You

EVERY tool that social media counts in its arsenal: blogging, podcasting, videoblogging, microblogging (Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce, Tumblr), and all the rest — every one of them is a tool equipped to offer you personal power.…

Work of any kind requires an understanding of the appropriate tools for the job, and social media is no different. You can’t pitch hay with a shovel, and you can’t dig a ditch with a pitchfork. Here are some serving suggestions for a set of social media tools. The actual applications will change, over time, because technology does that. But the basic functions should evolve a little more slowly.

Listening

In social media, as in life, listening is twice as important as speaking. Online, the tool for listening is a news reader. This type of software allows you to understand the conversation going on out there, and the best of them permits you to do a little more understanding of what you’re “hearing.”

I recommend Google Reader.…

Creativity, creation, communities of interest, and culture itself are at the heart of what social media is equipped to enable. We view this area as a system of technologies, but even further down the stack, so to speak, is the simple realization that we have rediscovered our inherent right to be creative and to participate in the creative experience.

Somewhere in the early 1900s in America, creative culture shifted from being strongly participatory (people got together to sing songs, reading off their most recent subscription of sheet music) to being a consumer experience (people gathered around the radio to hear bands perform).…