Tag Archives: twitter

Nominated Neighbor: Len Edgerly shares his love for social media, art and his motto to: TLFC

Please forgive my delay in posting. I had to defend my thesis, travel from DC to KC to Columbia and get all my paperwork together in the past 5 days! However, Len is a great sport and was nominated by our previous neighbor Beth Dunn, over at Small Dots. Read below to learn more about the newest addition to the blogger neighborhood!

Blog Name: LenEdgerly.com

Blog Topics: Arts, technology, politics, travels.

About the Author: Len Edgerly lives in Denver and Cambridge, Mass., and is retired from careers in journalism and the natural gas industry. He podcasts every Wednesday, alternating between the Audio Pod Chronicles and the Video Pod Chronicles, both available at iTunes and from links on his blog. He is a board member of the New England Foundation for the Arts and the Denver Commission on Cultural Affairs. He enjoys giving presentations to arts groups and introduce them in non-technical terms to the wonders of the Internet and why they should be playing around with things like Twitter, podcasting and Qik. He is a Kindle enthusiast, an avid photographer, and an Obama volunteer.

If you could live on any street, what would that street be named and why? Easy Street, and I already live there, it seems. I’m very fortunate since age 45 to have been able to work hard at what I love, without having to worry about finances.Flickr Farm1

Who would be your dream real-life neighbor? The poet W.S. Merwin.

If you customized your own license plate, what would it say and why? In fact, I do have a customized license plate. It reads TLFC. My wife, exasperated with all my spiritual striving in Zen and elsewhere once asked me, “Why don’t you ever just take life as it #$%*& comes?” This struck me as an inspired formulation for a good life, something we could agree on, thus the plate. Please don’t tell the state of Colorado Motor Vehicles Department, though. On the form applying for the plate I said the letters stood for “Take Life as it Fully Comes.” Either way, I like it.

What would you gift to a new neighbor as the perfect welcoming gift? A fresh bag of coffee beans.

What’s your favorite blog post and why? “La Belle Grammaire,” one of the posts I labored long and hard to write in French three years ago when my wife and I spent two months at L’Institut de francais, near Cannes.

What’s one lesson you’ve learned from blogging? Twitter is hell on my blogging habit. [You can follow Len @LenEdgerly.]

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This continuous weekly series highlights different blogs and their respective bloggers in the blogosphere neighborhood. Following the great Mr. Rogers, who tells us to ‘Get to know your neighbor,’ this series introduces us to our blogger neighbors, making for a more unified, collaborative voice for the social sector. Like to nominate someone or be featured yourself? Contact me @ socialbutterfly4change@gmail.com.

New Career Finding Strategies for Job Searchers

My now-fiance had a great blog post idea: How social media is transforming the job search and recruiting field – Thus, here we are, and below I hope you find some great helpful resources and add to this developing list.

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Social Networking Sites

Linkedin – Not only does Linkedin allow people to post jobs, but you can also post jobs yourself, or send jobs to your connections. In addition, you can search for jobs at certain firms, see who posted them, and see if you know anyone who works there. Very informative for the investigative types.

Facebook – Certain Facebook group and fan pages are used for recruiting potential job candidates. For example, the U.S. Department of State uses its fan page as a recruiting tool into foreign policy, public affairs, foreign services officer, or even offers to help navigate a career path.

MyWorkster – MyWorkster offers its users a professional presence online. You can create a profile, resume and even a video resume. This network also has a job listing database, blogs, and more.

Twitter Recruiter’s/Job Postings

Many people post job openings they’ve either heard about or are currently trying to fill in a tweet, with a link to the job posting. (One great reason alone to become a Twitter-er!) However, more companies and individuals are creating Twitter-streams to post jobs and recruit talent. Some include:

  • Jim Stroud
  • Jason Alba
  • InfoSourcer
  • IMC2
  • Interactive Jobs

Jim Stroud over at the Recruiters Lounge has posted about recruiters and Twitter…surprised that he could only find 85 recruiters in a Twitter search! In my opinion, that’s 85 reasons right there to start a twitter feed.

To find information on a particular industry or job field, use Twitter Search to conduct a search query for certain keywords like “job positions,” “recruiter” or “career advice.”

TwitHire is also a Twitter application that lets you bundle your job postings into 140 characters. It’s also a great resource to look at current job openings.

Blogs

Jeremiah Owyang has created a blog series “On the Move,” highlighting individuals moving within the social media profession. The series also lists great resources to getting plugged into a social media job, as well as listing current high-profile movers and shakers in the social media world (those who work at Fortune 5000 firms with 1000 employees or more).

Alltop.com, a blog aggregate service by topic, has a ‘career‘ page, which features numerous blogs about how to get a job, keep a job, recruit for jobs and more.

Search for blogs based in the city you want to work. For example, KCRecruiting is a Kansas city blog that works to connect job seekers with KC opportunities or author Jim Durbin’s other more general blog, Social Media Headhunter.

More

There’s also other, perhaps more traditional, job search and recruiting strategies too:

  • Monster,
  • Job Fox,
  • Job-Hunt ( who has a list of Fortune 500 career sites and employers by state!),
  • Careerbuilder,
  • the Web site of the firm you want to work for,
  • employee blogs or Twitter account,
  • CEO blogs of the firm(s) you want to work for,
  • researching the firm’s social media use/presence,
  • industry-specific list servs,
  • your college/University network,
  • your schools network (i.e. Mizzou Mafia for Missouri Journalism),
  • fraternity and sorority networks,
  • professional organization networks and Web sites,
  • Honorary organizations (i.e. Delta Sigma Pi, Omicron Delta Kappa)
  • listen to career advice and industry news podcasts
  • Word of Mouth (friends, parents, mentors)

Basically, my research has shown that social media is revolutionizing now only business – but how to get employees, find employees and to become an employee.

I know this is a huge, developing topic. And, there’s lots to add, so I look forward to hearing from you all and your experiences. =)

*Note: I didn’t make this information industry specific, but I could if you guys would like. It does lean a bit towards those in social media….course, I’ve also noticed that for social media job searchers, in a way, you have the easiest of jobs because those are the jobs people are posting in the social media space. Other fields/industries are a bit slow to catch on…are
am I wrong?

photo credit: rockronie on flickr

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The Government’s A-Twitter: Comprehensive List of Government Twitter Feeds

This post is written in the spirit of social media guru Robert Scoble’s visit to DC and his interviews with political reps to discuss tech policy. Specifically, let’s talk about the fact that the U.S. government is a-twittering. True words, government and Twitter in the same sentence. Scoble reflects in his post here.

Even U.S. President George Bush sent out his 1st Twitter with the help of Sen. John Culberson when Sen. Culberson was showing the President both Twitter and Qik. You can see it here!

American Flag

Government Agencies

For government agencies, most often, the Twitter account is in conjunction with the government’s related blog. So, now, we’re getting government agencies who are not only blogging, but using TwitterFeed to promote the posts through Twitter. I am still rounding up info. to find government accounts on Jaiku and/FriendFeed.

@dipnote – The U.S. Department of State

@govgab – USA.gov, component of their blog, GovGab

@greenversations – The Environmental Protection Agency

@TSABlogTeam – Transportation Security Administration, Based on TSA’s Evolution of Security Blog

@USAgov – USA.gov

@GobiernoUSA – USA.gov’s Spanish Portal

@womenshealth – Womenshealth.gov

@NASA – Well, it’s NASA =) Check out NASA’s Twitter box and find various other NASA Twitter feeds about certain missions including @MarsPhoenix, @nasacolab, and 13 other NASA related feeds!

Government Officials

@BarackObama – Barack OBama

@joebiden – Sen. Joe Biden

@JimDeMint – Sen. Jim DeMint

@SenatorDodd – Sen. Chris Dodd

@ChuckGrassley – Sen. Chuck Grassley (Iowa)

@frankwatson – Sen. Frank Watson

@jiminhofe – Sen. Jim Inhofe (Oklahoma)

@johnculberson – Congressman John Culberson

@MarkUdall – Congressman Mark Udall (Colorado) On his website, he is even implementing his own mini-social network for citizens to join, blog and join county groups!

@TomLatham – Congressman Tom Latham (Iowa)

@neilabercrombie – Congressman Neil Abercrombie (Hawaii)

@ThadMcCotter – Congressman Thad McCotter (Michigan)

@CongJoeWilson – Congressman Joe Wilson

@schwarzenegger – California Gov. Arnold Schwarsenegger

@GovernorGibbons – Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons

@govgranholm – Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm

@johncherry – Michigan Lieutenant Gov. John Cherry

@PeterKinder – Missouri Lieutenant Gov. Peter Kinder

U.S. States

@coloradogov – Colorado Government

@kygov – Kentucky Government

@vermontgov – Vermont Government

@UtahGov – Utah Government

@SCGOV – South Carolina Government

@www_maine_gov – Maine Government

@rigov – Rhode Island Government

Other

@TheWhiteHouse – The White House

@HouseFloor – U.S. House of Representatives

@SenateFloor – The U.S. Senate

@NRSC – National Republican Senatorial Committee

@secgen – The U.N. Secretary General

If I missed any, please let me know and I’ll add them to the list!

Ok, what are your thoughts? Is this a good thing? What does this mean, and how will it affect or impact constituent and government relations? LOVE to hear, =)

photo cred: Flickr, vagabondrhythm


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5 Points I Learned About Blogging (while not blogging)

Hello again friends, and I thank you for your patience as I took a much needed California vacation and attended my graduate school graduation from the Missouri School of Journalism. And, after all my hard work, especially the past couple of months, I had a moment where it all was captured in tears of joy….as I walked across the stage. Yes, I was that girl. haha

In the past week and a half I learned some things about blogging…while actually not blogging. For better and for worse, they are:

  1. The Big Duh. If you are not daily checking in on the blogosphere and your online community, your growth and readership will be stunted. (duh right?) =) But, I realized this would happen, and am completely content with it, as I know I fully plan to continue blogging and developing this further in the future. But for the time being, I just needed a break.
  2. Connect. Connecting with those you care about in real life, is just as important, and more important (sorry friends) than connecting with those online. While in Cali, I remembered more of the joys of living away from a computer, a phone, email, etc…and made a mental note to keep my online social life in check. On the other side, I thought of many a time to Twitter, especially for site/restaurant recommendations!
  3. Don’t be bashful. Tell your family and friends about your blog…they too are interested. And this alone can spark and spread word of mouth, and provide instant feedback.
  4. You will miss it and feel out of the loop when you return. Beth Dunn discusses this feeling in-depth when she took a hiatus from blogging for the first time in 5 years this past March.
  5. Your body can only take so much. After going off of maybe 4-5 hours of sleep a night the past five months, conducting research, writing a thesis, traveling on vacation, moving to Washington D.C., commuting up to 3 hours a day, doing event marketing off-site for our MS Quest non-profit and other freelance work…I woke up the day after graduation with a sore throat, no voice, and $15 worth of cough drops and cold medicine. Love your readers, but remember to love yourself too. 😉

Look forward to continuing the social marketing and social media conversation…as I’m back!

You all know what I have been up to lately…feel free to fill me in on what you’ve been up to in the comments or through email at socialbutterfly4change@gmail.com.

Photo Credit: bettisue (Flickr)