Using LinkedIn.com May Be Recruiters Hottest Tool!

Image via CrunchBase

Recently I conducted a social media training for District 52 Toastmasters in Los Angeles on social media basics for Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.com.

One of the questions that came up was why be on LinkedIn if I am on Facebook?  Good Question, but the reason is they are two different social mediums.  LinkedIn.com is a professional networking environment and Facebook is more of a friends networking environment.

You need both, but for different reasons. LinkedIn for professional contacts and business relationships, and Facebook for friends and connections from other organizations not professional.

Recruiters use LinkedIn.com to find their best candidates. This has been a known fact for a long time.  For those who are on it, and keep their profile up-to-date and active they know it.  http://blogs.forbes.com/elainewong/2011/01/18/why-linkedin-is-every-recruiters-hot-search-tool/?boxes=financechannelforbes.

The above article makes reference to why other sites which offer job hunters opportunities is not the way to go.  Staying active on LinkedIn and being active in Groups and looking for work in the field of your ability within the connections you have is the best way to find open positions.

Your connections on LinkedIn.com will know of openings before the job sites do.  Keep this in mind.  Job sites are not the place to find the most recent opening, and sometimes, by the time you see the opening, it may have already been filed.

Make your Profile 100 percent on LinkedIn.com and keep it current.  Make your contacts aware of your search, but offer to help others as well.  Do not be the one with your hand out , help others and then your help will arrive.

Related Articles

• Fortune 100 And LinkedIn.com (online-pr.blogspot.com)
• How Many Coloured LinkedIn Dots do You Have? (gabrielcatalano.com)

Losing Jack LaLanne – Closing a Door on Fitness?

Image by Hollywood BLVD via Flickr

Jack La Lanne passed this week at age 96.  I grew up watching him on TV while my mother ironed my father’s shirts.  Yes she ironed and starched my father’s shirts for work.  While she was ironing, I was watching Jack and doing jumping jacks and twists with him.

Of course our elementary school had physical education and we did these skills there too.  We all used to go outside and play games on each other’s front yards and chase each other until dinner time.

None of us had problems with weight as children, I look at our elementary school pictures on Facebook and I see how fit we all were.  Jack taught us from television, and we learned in school to have recess and to play outside.

We need to teach our children how to stay fit now.  Our children are suffering from an obesity epidemic and most of it is because they are not having recess at school, or physical education or running in each other’s front yards when they get home.

Growing up now is difficult, but taking children to safe places to exercise is still important.  YMCA and the YWCA are wonderful organizations with sliding scale programs to help families keep their children fit and safe.

Going to the park and letting children run and play is still very important.  Teaching our children what we grew up with Jack La Lanne is essential to our future.  We must curb our culture’s obsession with food and regain the joy of play.

Related Articles

• 5 Things We Learned From Jack LaLanne (self.com)

The Challenger Disaster – Do You Remember It?

Image via Wikipedia The Crew of the Space Shuttle

Twenty Five Years Ago today, the Challenger spacecraft as it was rising into the air blew up.  I remember watching it on TV in the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic Building in Rancho Mirage, California where I was working at the time.

The whole staff was gathered around the TV and when it happened there was a silence and then a collective gasp.  None of us could believe what we saw.  We all looked at each other and said it didn’t just happen did it?  The space program had the Apollo disaster, but nothing like this.

We all were speechless and then the TV announcer came on and confirmed it had indeed blown-up.  The whole day was cloaked in gloom, not wanting to believe that these wonderful people were gone.  These heroes, schoolteachers, scientists, astronauts had all lost their lives in an instant, in front of a nation on television.

My daughter was 11 months old just about to turn one.  I remember when I picked her up that afternoon. Holding her tight and kissing her as if I hadn’t seen her for days.  The reminder of how brief life is and how quick it can be taken away was present on my mind.

To many of us who saw the explosion, we all know where we were and what we were doing that moment and who we were with.  Just as I wrote a few weeks ago about the Oklahoma City bombing. Tragedy never leaves your memory, it stays with you and is there all the time.

This was the death of many of our space heroes, and the set-back of the space program.  However it did make the program safer.  Our nation made it through a national tragedy and came back stronger because we all came together to make the space program better.

Related Articles

• Reagan’s memorable speech on Challenger disaster (sfgate.com)

Disabled Parking Is for the Disabled – Not Delivery Trucks!

Image via Wikipedia

Disabled Parking is for people who have Disabled Placards, not for Delivery Trucks.  I can’t tell you how often I see a Coke Truck or a Beer Truck parked in the Disabled Parking spot and using the ramp to deliver their goods.  I just wish I could write that $400. ticket.

The other part of the Disabled Parking are the strips next to the parking spot.  These are for people who use vans and must exit out the side.  These strips are not for parking cars or trucks and blocking the van exits.  Once again, I wish I could write a ticket for every person who does this.

And of course the one that I love when you tell someone they shouldn’t park there, “I’m just running in.”  If they can “Run in” they shouldn’t be using the Disabled parking!!!

Related Articles

• Wheelchair-bound motorist finds police car in disabled parking bay (dailymail.co.uk)

The Guinea Pig Diaries-Writers Invited to Check Out!

The Guinea Pig Diaries. For my writer friends, here is some great information from Kristen Lamb’s Blog, especially for writers on social media.  You will enjoy the pictures of the Guinea Pigs too. Happy Monday.

Take a Moment and Blow a Bubble With a Whale

Enjoy your life and blow a Bubble with a Whale.  Yes if you have not seen this video, sit back and blow a bubble with a whale.  This is the most amazing video of whales from Japan.  It has been circulating on Twitter for several months.

It is very relaxing and on a Sunday, we all need to take a breath and relax and think about our upcoming week. Blow some bubbles and release some stress.  Look at all of the fun these whales are having.

Finding What is Best For You

This wonderful piece was developed by Box of Crayons, entitled, Find Your Great Work.  Some of you will remember one of Box of Crayon pieces earlier this week.  This is another one and one to help you think about What is Best for You.

We sometimes get locked into things and think there isn’t a way out, but there is.  We just need to get unstuck and move in another direction.

School Bus Stop Signs Mean Stop! Not Go Around!

Image via Wikipedia

Coming home tonight, I observed three cars going around a bus which was stopped letting school children off.  The bus had its Stop Sign out at the back of the bus and yet cars were going around the bus and zipping past it.

There was a cross walk in the front of the bus, and there were children in the cross walk.  Many of the cars were racing through the cross walk after they zipped past the bus.

Now granted the light was green, so the cars could go through the light legally, but they were going around the bus to go through the light.

Per the California DMV: I stands for Infraction.

•  

  I	22112(a)	School bus driver shall activate amber warning light system 200 feet prior to stop. Driver shall deactivate amber system upon stop. Driver shall activate flashing red light system and stop signal arm when the bus is stopped for loading and unloading pupils.
  I	22112(b)	School bus driver, stop to load or unload pupils only at designated school bus stops.
  I	22112(c)	School bus driver, when required, ensure the flashing red signal system and stop signal arm are activated and it is safe to enter or exit the school bus.
  I	22112(d)	Schoolbus driver, escort pupil with hand held stop sign, require all pupils to walk in front of bus, ensure all pupils and pedestrians are a safe distance from the bus before departing.
  I	22112(e)	School bus driver, may not activate the amber warning light system at specified locations, except where pupils must cross the highway.
  I	22112(f)	Activation of either the amber warning light system or the flashing red light system at a location determined by the CHP as necessary.

   

Drivers in and around Los Angeles need to remember that the Laws apply to everyone, and the fines are very steep. I’m sure that having the death of a child on your conscience would be worse than a fine anyway.

Teaching Social Media Basics

Image via Wikipedia

This Saturday at Glendale Community College, I will be teaching social media basics for Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn for District 52 Toastmasters International.

Last night I was doing a practice run-through with my equipment and the college equipment to make sure everything was going to work perfectly.  As Bill Shamhart, from Glendale Community College  and I were going over the proper placement of the laptop and the height of the podium, he was learning a few of the basics that I would be teaching on Saturday.

He asked me how I started in Social Media, and I told him I attended a Gravity Summit at UCLA about three years ago  and  many of the leading teachers of  social media today were there, it was the first one.

Beverly Macy and Rodney Rumford, were the creators of this great summit.   I have followed them and many of the  innovators who attended the first summit  on Twitter and on their Blogs and have learned from them.

If you get a chance to attend one of the Gravity Summit’s run, because they bring the best together and it will be a day you will never forget.

Social Media isn’t Rocket Science, but it can be confusing to someone who has never attempted it.  When I started my Twitter account, I didn’t tweet anything for a while, I just read what people were saying.

Rule 1. You want to listen to what people are actually discussing before you enter a conversation, just like in life.

We now have people doing things on the net that are breaking the rules of common decency, and we need to remember that if you wouldn’t do it in front of someone, you shouldn’t do  it on the net.

Rule 2. If you wouldn’t shout  obscenities at someone in public because you would be arrested for being disorderly, you shouldn’t do it on the net on Twitter or on Facebook. When someone does this, I drop them as a follower or un friend them.

If you are local in the Los Angeles area, I do hope you can attend the TLI  and sign-up for my workshop, at http://www.district52.org.    They will have some wonderful workshops throughout the day, and will have an excellent Key note speaker as well.

Related Articles

• Personal Branding Interview: Beverly Macy (personalbrandingblog.com)

The Eight Irresistible Principles of Fun

The Eight Irresistible Principles of Fun.

When you click on the Eight Irresistible Principles of Fun above, you will be taken to a quick little movie that will rock your world.

Michael Bungay Stanier is very witty and he is the writer of the Eight Irresistible Principles of Fun.   Take a moment and enjoy and then do the 8 lessons.  Start to have Fun today.  Because after all none of us are going to make it out of this life alive!  That’s right, we all go out the same way.  Why not have fun!  Enjoy your life have no remorse for what you do today and love those around you in your life.

We do not know how long we have in this life, so hug your family and friends and share your wisdom and laugh.