JibberJobber was unavailable for a few hours yesterday and we are sorry (

JibberJobber was unavailable for a few hours yesterday and we are sorry ( Yesterday I rolled into the office and pulled up my normal sites JibberJobber, JasonAlba.com, etc.  None of them were coming up. Oh crud I could tell you what happened, technically, but it really doesnt matter.  I could tell you about the meeting I had with my server admin yesterday in the evening, after the dust had settled, but that doesnt matter (and it would be a bad idea to publish how what we are doing with our server). The bottom line is that we were down for a few hours, and it was unscheduled.  And we are sorry We work hard to make JibberJobber better, faster, secure, and more valuable to you.  None of us like down-time.  We scramble to figure out what is wrong, and get the site back up before anyone notices.  Yesterday we scrambled, but it took longer than it should have to get the site up. We are putting a plan together to help with the next time this might happen.  We already have various things in place, such as nightly backups and off-site backups and a few other things.  Now we are going to the next level. The preliminary plans for that next level includes some new components that could also increase the speed of JibberJobber, so Im pretty excited about that but thats down the road. For now, just a simple were sorry. Were aware, and were working on doing better (even though its not uncommon for a website to go down or have issues, we recognize that the service we provide is a service that needs to stay up!). JibberJobber was unavailable for a few hours yesterday and we are sorry ( Yesterday I rolled into the office and pulled up my normal sites JibberJobber, JasonAlba.com, etc.  None of them were coming up. Oh crud I could tell you what happened, technically, but it really doesnt matter.  I could tell you about the meeting I had with my server admin yesterday in the evening, after the dust had settled, but that doesnt matter (and it would be a bad idea to publish how what we are doing with our server). The bottom line is that we were down for a few hours, and it was unscheduled.  And we are sorry We work hard to make JibberJobber better, faster, secure, and more valuable to you.  None of us like down-time.  We scramble to figure out what is wrong, and get the site back up before anyone notices.  Yesterday we scrambled, but it took longer than it should have to get the site up. We are putting a plan together to help with the next time this might happen.  We already have various things in place, such as nightly backups and off-site backups and a few other things.  Now we are going to the next level. The preliminary plans for that next level includes some new components that could also increase the speed of JibberJobber, so Im pretty excited about that but thats down the road. For now, just a simple were sorry. Were aware, and were working on doing better (even though its not uncommon for a website to go down or have issues, we recognize that the service we provide is a service that needs to stay up!).

Personal Branding Interview Paul Dunay - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Personal Branding Interview Paul Dunay - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Today, I spoke to Paul Dunay, who is an ex-Personal Branding Blogger, author of Facebook Marketing for Dummies and is the Global Managing Director of Services and Social Marketing for Avaya.   In this interview, Paul tells us why the web is the best place for marketing, how he got his book deal by blogging, tips for marketing on Facebook, mistakes people make and more. Do you consider the web the best place for people, products and companies to build their brand? Why or why not? Absolutely the web is the best place to build your brand for several reasons: It is so much easier to build a brand these days by using the web the web makes your brand and your message so much more portable people can share stories of your brand, tag it and reference it later, recommend your brand to other. When you think of the offline world that type of portability for your brand message was just so much harder. Because of the extra visibility that the web provides for your brand you need to be sure your brand is differentiated and the best way to do that is just be interesting. By being interesting you can actually attract the type of audience you want to have they will become attracted to you! From an advertising perspective the web is just so much more efficient you really dont see many companies these days building their brand using TV since the web provides a trackable, measurable source of media that TV cant compete with at a fraction of the price. How did you get your book deal? Did the publisher come to you? Was it because of Facebook marketing? I got my book deal from my blog http://buzzmarketingfortech.blogspot.com I wrote an article reviewing 5 custom applications on Facebook and the business benefit of them and Wiley reached out to me about doing a book on Facebook Marketing. So it wasnt because of Facebook Marketing but more about Facebook Marketing that intrigued them. While we are close to this topic I would like to share with you and your audience that my blog has done wonders for my professional career. It is the single best thing I have ever done. So many things have happened for me because of my blog. I got new positions at work as a result of it, I get tons of job offers in fact I got my new job because of it, and of course I got my book deal. But most of all it forced me to crystallize my thinking and to always keep looking to push the envelope in my role and report the results in real time to my blogs audience. What are your top three tips for marketing on Facebook? Have a Strong Presence A Facebook presence, like a website, is a fundamental tactic and should be on everyone’s list of must haves for social network marketing. Once you have your presence you will need a strategy for posting updates as frequently as you can with interesting content. Be sure to get your employees involved. Encourage them to become fans and drive the conversations to create a thriving community. The reason being, you will want Facebook users to be able to discover your Facebook Page through their friends’ profiles and with Facebook searches. This is the key to growing your fan base “virally”. Also keep in mind Facebook Pages are indexable so be sure to write your content with good SEO in mind. Do some Advertising You will find that advertising on Facebook is unlike any other advertising experience you have ever had. Mainly do to the unique ways in which you can precisely target a specific ad down to the person’s profile. For example if you want to target MBA graduates that are 3-5 years out of school and working in Southern Connecticut that like Classic Rock music whose favorite food is Sushi â€" you can do that! There are 2 basic types of ads: Display ads and Social ads. And they can be purchased like banner ads with Cost per Click (CPC) and Cost per Thousand (CPM). And they work similar to online banner ads but try not to use them in the same way. Most Facebook users feel more comfortable staying within the Facebook environment. So try to direct them to someplace on your Facebook Fan page. With the new Facebook Fan page design, you can send them directly to a tab of your Fan page since each tab has a unique URL. Throw an Event There are 2.5 Million events on Facebook every month! Facebook Events are a great way of getting people together virtually or in person in support of your local business, brand or product. They are also a very economical way of getting the word out beyond your normal in-house marketing list by inviting the Fans of your Page. Fans can also help you promote your Facebook Event to their friends by sharing the event if it seems of value to a group of their friends. Also don’t forget to follow-up after your event, it’s just good protocol to do so. If you had a very healthy debate with lots of questions â€" why not send a transcript out to everyone who attended or even those that didn’t attend. If some questions didn’t get answered because of time constraints â€" why not write up the answers and send them to the all attendees too. The key point is try not to take a “set it and forget it” mentality to any social presence you have. While the costs of social market ing are low don’t let that fool you. The true cost is found in the creation of content. And your key to success will be the consistent participation and willingness to engage your customers you can create by using great content. What common mistakes do you see marketers make on Facebook? Any funny stories? The most common mistake made by marketers is actually not that funny it is simply that fact that they set up their Facebook fan page and dont feed it full of content. So another tactic to consider if you already have a steady stream of rich content is using Facebook as an outpost for your content. If you already have a blog, podcast series or video series you can effectively use Facebook to attract another audience to interact with those assets. There are a variety of ways to syndicate content on your Fan page. You can use the Notes page to import blog posts to your Fan page, you can use the My Del.icio.us application to import any bookmarks you may have made in your Del.icio.us account, you can use the Simply RSS application to bring in all the RSS feed you may have on your company website, you can edit your links section of have a variety of blogs or websites you may want to highlight perhaps by employees or partners of your company, and don’t forget to edit your Feed settings t o include the complete versions of all your blog posts so they appear not only on your Fan page but on the Feeds of all your fans. The funny stories that I found mostly had to do with individuals speaking out against their employer and getting fired because of it I collected the best of them and put them in an eBook called 5 Ways Facebook can get you Fired!, which never made it to the book for obvious reasons! Facebook has a new search engine. Why is this important for brands? Because search is so ripe for innovation. In 2001 when Google introduced AdWords and gave themselves a business model that was a rocket ship to high performance surpassing AOL, Yahoo and MSN marketers flocked there. I know used to buy keywords on the Top 4 search engines in 2002-2003. But soon after that I single sourced keywords and optimized my pages just for Google. Now there are so many new player since we all realize that their is more to search then keywords. What makes Facebook so different is that it runs on real behavioral data rather than keywords. This means that Facebook can connect search to my social profile thereby making a truly intelligent search engine that will know where I work, and who my friends are. Then I will be able to narrow down a search in seconds based on the company I work for, members of my marketing team, friends I have in my network and get a completely different view of the internet that I can’t get now. I call this Social Search and it should be common place soon â€" we should see social tools like Facebook Connect or OpenID which are already out there, used for search. Right now Google has 87% of the US marketing and 90% of the European market so perhaps Yahoo or AOL can revive their search business by going Social! For more ideas like this please check out my latest eBook called 7 Ways Facebook will Change your Life! Paul Dunay is the author of Facebook Marketing for Dummies (Wiley).   He has spent more than 20 years in marketing, generating demand and creating buzz for leading technology companies such as Google, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, Nuance, Cisco and BearingPoint. He also has delivered work for American Express, Motorola, Genzyme, Novartis, Citigroup, Cendant and Ernst Young. Paul currently is the Global Managing Director of Services and Social Marketing for Avaya. His unique approach to integrated marketing has been recognized as the 2008 Winner of the DemandGen Award for Utilizing Marketing Automation to Fuel Corporate Growth, a 2007 2006 finalist and the 2005 winner of the Driving New Demand award by the Information Technology Services Marketing Association (ITSMA). Paul has been a featured speaker for the AMA, BtoB Magazine, CMO Club, CMO Council, MarketingProfs, Marketing Sherpa, MENG, and ITSMA his articles and research have appeared in BtoB Magazine, CMO Magazine, Information W eek, MarketingProfs, and Marketing Sherpa.

What Employers Really Want Growth Potential

What Employers Really Want Growth Potential Embed from Getty Imageswindow.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'hYz2XEy-R9tnRxP2Tcs_7w',sig:'beswETGxUg3Ht5wjmJzaEsowTSCTS93No3oLjke1-YQ=',w:'509px',h:'339px',items:'665222464',caption: false ,tld:'com',is360: false })}); This is one of a series of posts based on LinkedIn’s Talent Solutions’ Guide: 30 Behavioral Interview Questions to Identify High-Potential Candidates. Here’s the list of the qualities managers value: Adaptability Culture add Collaboration Leadership Growth potential Prioritization The Millennial generation cares about growth, and they understand that it’s their own responsibility. That’s why so many of them ask about growth potential early on in their careers. I think that’s a great improvement over the passive approach that previous generations have taken. When employees ask for more responsibility, it shows that they understand the correlation between more challenging work and compensation. You can gauge potential for growth by offering frequent opportunities to learn and perform new tasks. Employees who enthusiastically take on new challenges â€" and master them â€" are worth your investment of time and energy. Here’s what LinkedIn’s manual says about Growth Potential: “Today’s fast-paced work environments require employees who can do the job now, and have the  potential to grow into new roles or leadership positions at your company in the future. After all, if  an employee leaves, it costs your company 1.5 times that employee’s salary to replace her. That means  that hiring people who have the potential to grow within your company not only saves you the pain of  replacing them, but also saves you money.” Here are questions managers recommend to screen for growth potential: Recall a time when your manager was unavailable when a problem arose. How did you handle the situation? With whom did you consult? Describe a time when you volunteered to expand your knowledge at work, as opposed to being directed to do so. What would motivate you to make a move from your current role? I would add these: Do you see yourself as a specialist or generalist? Why? How could a manager support your growth in that role? If you could design the perfect career path for yourself, what would it look like? If you have a high growth potential worker, be aware that they probably value growth over company loyalty. You’ll need to offer them opportunities to learn and take on more challenging work, and you’ll need to reward them for their efforts. If your company can’t or won’t, they will soon be looking for one that will.

Thinking your problems are special ends up making you stuck

Thinking your problems are special ends up making you stuck I wait until my kids and husband go to bed. I wait ten extra minutes just in case. Then I take my new book out of the bag: Family Violence: Legal, Medical and Social Perspectives. Its a textbook organized by types of violence. The only light on in the house is the one next to the sofa where I curl up to read. I flip through pages: Neglect, sexual abuse, ritual abuse. Everything is here. I pause at physical abuse.  There are lists of signs. Inconsistent stories from caretakers. Belt marks. Hand prints. Burns are most common for kids under three. I think of my burn. How old was I? I was older, because I could walk to the doctors office by myself. I read more. Kids hurt themselves doing normal, every day activities. They bruise themselves when they bump or fall on bony parts of their body: elbow, knee, forehead. The book says to look for marks on fleshy parts where kids would not fall or bump: the underside of an arm, the area around the genitals. I shut the book. I cant read more. It is 11pm. I should go to bed but I cant because I dont know what would go through my head during that time from when my head touches the pillow and my brain goes to sleep. Anything could come up. Some nights I stay up so late, get myself so tired, that I dont remember the moment between putting my head on the pillow and falling asleep. Those are my best nights. I walk around the house cleaning. Waiting until I can pick up the book again. I have twenty emails to answer. I have three business plans to review. I have a magazine article to write. I am not doing that. I am doing something else, but if you asked me what Im doing I would not know. Its midnight and I sit down on the sofa to read again. I flip through random spots in the book so Im sort of reading and sort of getting ready to stop reading. There are six pages of burns. I stare at the pages. I have a scar from a burn. Its so prominent that its on my passport as an identifying mark: on the inside of the upper right thigh. I can remember filling out the passport form. I remember one of my parents I dont know which one reminding me that I can fill in the section about scars. I remember thinking I didnt know they knew I had a scar there. Or I didnt know we acknowledge it. I just remember thinking, really? We are going to put that on my passport? Everyone said that the iron fell on me. I pulled the iron off the ironing board and it fell on me. But just now, this late in life, I realize that an eight year old cannot pull an iron off an ironing board and hit the inside of her thigh. And, even if it did, somehow, hit the inside of my thigh, how could it have been there long enough to give me a third-degree burn? I went to the doctors office after school for weeks. The burn was disgusting and she treated it with yellow stuff and gauze. For a few weeks, the doctor was there for me every day after school, and I got a lollipop after each redressing of the wound. If I rearranged things in my head I could tell myself that my life was getting normal because someone was meeting me after school and giving me an after school snack. No one questioned whether or not I pulled the iron. We all just kept saying that I pulled the iron down. I do not have any idea what happened. But heres what I know: my ability to see abuse is really limited. I am terrified that I have no judgement for how to parent. Im terrified that abuse seems full of nuance and I dont see it. I dont understand how people learn what is abuse, and my kids are growing up. Its getting too late. I answer emails at 2am, 3am. My kids see me nap in the day so often that they tell people I sleep all the time. At this point I dont have a work schedule because I need a clear head to work, with lots of room to think, but as soon as I get that, bad thoughts might come. Which makes me almost scared to clear room in my life to do work.  I walk around worrying that a thought will come up that I cant get rid of. But the truth is that Im operating at about half my ability because I let myself be unproductive. I tell myself Im special so I can stay up all night and then not function during the day. I tell myself I have that burn on my thigh. Or the scar on my eyebrow, or the nail in my heart. Whatever it is. Thats why I tell myself I dont have to function like a normal person. But thats more sad than all the stories hidden in my head. The saddest story is thinking youre special, youre different, youre too messed up to take responsibility for adult life. It is not interesting to be the messed up person who never goes to sleep. All people who think theyre special in their fucked-up ways are boring. They are boring because they use the idea that they are special to excuse them from meeting the regular struggles of adult life, like getting enough sleep and being accountable for a to do list. I can only let myself buy books about family violence and tell  stories about my messed up childhood if Im not going to let it derail me. There are milestones I need to hit throughout the day: make breakfast at a normal time, dont leave dishes in the sink. Answer the phone for a scheduled call. Meet writing deadlines. Follow through on promises to the kids even if it means playing Go Fish. Its so easy to say youre different and special. Its much harder to hold yourself to the standards most adults hold themselves to. So what am I doing to stop acting like Im crazy and absolved from adult life? Going to sleep before midnight. Its a small step, but making small, intentional behavioral change is what works to create bigger, more substantive change.

Why is Hiring a Professional Writer Important?

Why is Hiring a Professional Writer Important?In the competitive jobs market today, your potential employers are employing more resume writing services. The number of companies that offer this service has also increased as competition is becoming stiff. It is the job of your hiring firm to find a quality and reputable agency for this kind of work. Here are some basic facts about this kind of service.Resume writing services use their own writing staff to complete the works of the client. However, there are some companies that have their own writers who are involved in the job. Sometimes, there are also freelance writers who would be hired by the firms for this purpose. These services also provide assistance to the candidates to write their resumes.There are good benefits of these services. For example, the employers can get a well-written resume from the various resumes. Your resume should be absolutely unique and one-of-a-kind. This is exactly what these firms can help you achieve. T hey can customize your resume according to your particular needs.The client will have the opportunity to customize their resume according to their needs. You can ask them to cut down some parts. You can also ask them to add a few words on certain parts of your resume that need it. Since these companies are experienced in this work, they are able to provide you with such customized services. Also, they can develop your resume as per your specific needs.Apart from the above benefits, you can also benefit from hiring a professional writer. When you hire a professional writer, you are assured of the quality of the work. It is important to mention here that the professionals do not have any hidden agenda or motive. This means that you need not worry about their suggestions or their recommendations.Hiring a professional help gives you the chance to obtain a well-written resume that makes your chances of getting the job much higher. The hiring firm will give you a number of options to sele ct the kind of resume that you want. Most of the firms offer different types of files. You can browse through these options and choose the best one that suits your needs. Additionally, you will also get a chance to discuss with your prospective employer about your resume and give him or her a chance to go through it as well.Apart from helping you in completing your resume, hiring a professional writer also allows you to get feedback. You can call or email your writing services and ask them to provide you with some feedback. In this way, you will be able to get your resume editing. This way, you will get to know what needs to be changed and what needs to be kept the same.In short, hiring professional help is a very good option for any person looking for an opportunity to improve his or her career. It is necessary to hire an agency because you want to secure a good career for yourself in the future.

Supporting Street Smart - NAB Graduate Charity Night - Jane Jackson Career

Supporting Street Smart - NAB Graduate Charity Night - Jane Jackson Career We were delighted to be a part of the NAB Graduate Charity night in February by donating a $450 Resume LinkedIn Coaching Session as a prize.   The lucky winner of this prize on the night was Antonia Waddy!   Congratulations and I look forward to coaching you, or you can donate this prize to someone you know who would benefit from this coaching session!The funds raised during this NAB Graduate Charity night go to Street Smart,   who take action against homelessness. They raise funds and awareness for small, hard to reach grassroots services and projects which provide critical services and emergency aid as well as promoting social inclusion, empowerment and sustainable change for people who are homeless or at risk. 100% of donations raise from the public are distributed in the form of grants. To date they have raised and distributed over $2.55M to 724 grassroots projects.Read this excellent write up in Office Athletes on this great night! http://www.officeathletes.org/nab-looking-ways -help-communities/

Where to Find the Job - Pathfinder Careers

Where to Find the Job - Pathfinder Careers Where to Find the Job Over the past five years, I have taught résumé-writing classes to literally thousands of people, and every single time I get into a classroom, I ask the attendees where they are looking for employment. Believe it or not, but out of all of those people, Ive only met two (yes, really-2) that have ever found employment via a job board like Monster.com. This can be pretty discouraging for a job seeker. So this now begs the question: Where exactly DO you find jobs? Hint: The website ExecuNet reports that 70% of executives find employment through their networks. What does that mean for you? The answer is the same: the key to job search success is totally based on the people that you know. Building your network means getting out of the house and meeting people, and there are plenty of avenues to do so. Here are some tips to get you started: 1) Trade Associations What industry are you in? Chances are, there’s some kind of trade association for it, and usually those membership-driven organizations have monthly networking meetings. Usually a fee is charged to attend, but imagine what kind of value you’d get for paying $35 to sit next to the CEO of the company you’re gung-ho about! 2) Business groups A chamber of commerce or business association is usually a bonanza for meeting people and connecting to potential employers. Even if there aren’t any open positions at a particular company, this could prove to be a great opportunity to talk casually with influential people who could be tapped for an informational interview later. 3) Seminars and workshops Connecting up with like-minded people in industry-specific training can be a great way to link up to fellow professionals who could be the ‘eyes and ears’ in the industry and keep you posted on imminent job postings. 4) Online business networking With the advent of such sites as LinkedIn, Plaxo and ZoomInfo, having an Internet presence can boost your networking opportunities. Are you an expert in a particular field? Answer questions on sites like LinkedIn and establish yourself as an industry source. That helps position you as a helpful and knowledgeable contributor, which can have a great benefit when employers search these sites. 5) Talk to your friends Letting friends know you are on the job hunt can also bring contacts and informational interviews. Everyone needs a job search advocate or two, and the people that you know can step into this role and even connect you to possible employment opportunities. 6) Don’t be afraid to use your Rolodex In this ‘dog-eat-dog’ world, everyone else is leveraging their contacts to the fullest, and so should you. Most business people have a healthy Rolodex bulging with business and industry contacts. It’s time to cash in those chips! You need to be absolutely fearless and jump right in. Send these contacts an email or give them a ring to let them know what kind of job you are seeking. You might be completely surprised what happens next! Hopefully, these tips have gotten you thinking about what you need to do to escalate and elevate your job search. It’s not about sitting at home on the computer and sending in a résumé to a website. That’s the front-door approach. How you get the job is by coming around through the back door utilizing a contact that you know and can be an internal advocate for you. Executives are doing it, and so can you!