Zahid Lilani – Technology and Social Media for Business

How To Get A Job Using Twitter

Posted on 09. Sep, 2009 by Zahid Lilani. View Comments

In this tough economy, you don’t want to leave any stone unturned. Even though this might sound hard to believe, it is possible to get a job using Twitter or find out about a job that you didn’t know existed. Even if you don’t get a job, you will end up learning something new and in the process make new friends and create a bigger social network.

Before I tell you how to get a job using Twitter, it is important to tell you what Twitter is.

What is it?
Twitter is a microblogging site that allows the user to post updates, or tweets that are limited to 140 characters. It works around the idea of “short and sweet”. You follow people you think are worth following because they are interesting and vice versa.

Profile
Twitter profile allows you to describe yourself in 160 characters, it might not be enough for you to describe your past, present and future but it should be enough if you know how to make a first impression.

My Tip: Be concise and clear

Design
Twitter allows you to customize the background of your twitter page, it is not like MySpace so be careful. Your focus is the extreme left side of your page, the part that is visible to most people. It’s same for the right hand side but don’t bother, it looks kiddish. You can customize your page by posting a photo and choosing a wallpaper design to represent yourself.

My Tip: Read Don’t let your online profile sabotage your job prospects and Give a personalized touch to your Twitter page.

Why Twitter?
Because I like it, no seriously, I am not the only one though. Twitter is all the rage at the moment, and it’s common to hear stories of people getting jobs using this tool. While there is no guarantee that you will land a job using it, incorporating it to diversify your job search can open doors to get you introduced to key hiring managers.

Benefits
- Twitter lets you communicate with anyone instantly.
- It is the only “informal” meeting place online.
- On Twitter you’ll find CEOs, top-level executives, hiring managers, recruiters and everyone in-between!

What to Tweet about?
Things that move you is probably very vague for most people but that’s exactly what Twitter is. If you are a news junkie, post interesting news stories. You have to walk the talk here, if you say in your profile you like sheet music but don’t tweet about it, you are not being true to yourself and it reflects in your Tweets.

You just learned what Twitter is, how to create a decent Twitter profile, benefits of Twitter and what to tweet about. Let’s talk about jobs now…

How to search for jobs on Twitter?
Just because you are using Twitter doesn’t mean jobs will land on your lap, you still have to be pro active and search. Here is where you should start:

- TwitterJobSearch: It is designed specifically for people who are searching for jobs. You can sign in using your Twitter username and password, don’t worry it’s safe. You can then save jobs to your account, add your online resume and follow others.
- TweetMyJobs: Get instant notification of a new job that is specific to your geographic location and job type. It doesn’t get any easier than this.
- Search.Twitter.com: Twitter search is destined to replace Google search some day. Once on Twitter search, click the Advanced link and input your query, it is pretty self explanatory.

Who should you follow?
People who are experts in your industry and of course the company you are interested in working for. Being in Accounting industry, someone like me would follow the Big 4 Accounting Firms and other local firms. Besides that, you might want to follow:

@JobAngels – Helping the unemployed find jobs
@indeed – One search. All jobs.
@jobshouts – General job postings
@simplyhired – Job search site
@StartUpHire – Jobs at VC backed companies
@twithire – Job board service
@GetFreeLanceJob – Contract/Freelance Jobs
@JobDetective – Job aggregatorr and re-tweeter.

If you do get a job using any of the above suggestions, do let me know. If you don’t, at least you know you tried.

Did I mention that you can follow me on Twitter @zaddy

5 Simple Ways To Get Linkbacks For Your Blog

Posted on 09. Sep, 2009 by Zahid Lilani. View Comments

Blog or a website, it should rank high on the search engines for anyone to notice it. Simply put, a linkback is a link from another website to yours, one sided. More linkbacks means more authority, especially in the case of a blog. You cultivate links overtime and not overnight, it takes time and patience.

That said, lets deal with the real devil… how to get linkbacks from other websites? You should have the answer to that question by the time you read this post.

5 Simple Ways To Get Linkbacks

Link Directories

There are number of free link directories on the web, the most popular one is dmoz.org. The problem is, once you submit your link, it can take ages for the link to show up on the directory. You should still give it a shot because a link back from dmoz.org is priceless. Most link directory owners approve your links within few days and there are growing number of directories out there.

Comment Posting

Posting comments on articles and other blogs is beneficial in two ways, it creates communication between you and other commentators and it allows you to linkback to your blog. You should try to comment as much as you can but also make sure you are not bombarding senseless words.

Forum Signatures

Forums allow you to have a personalized signature, use that signature to your advantage but linking back to your website. You might think your blog is unrelated to the forum so why bother but you are wrong. A linkback is a linkback is a linkback.

Article Submission

If you are a blogger, write a couple of posts and don’t post it to your blog. Go to ezine or other article posting website and submit your blog post. You will gain authority, linkback and who knows maybe a couple million page views if you write something really good.

Guest Post

This is my favorite way to build up linkbacks, guest posting on other blogs. This is beneficial for both the blog owner and the blog writer because one gets free content and the other one gets free promotion and a permanent linkback.

I just told you about the five simple ways to get linkbacks for your blog. Try to follow the above mentioned guidelines and maybe one day you will thank me.

5 Reasons You Should Be Guest Blogging

Posted on 09. Sep, 2009 by Zahid Lilani. View Comments

There is no point in maintaining a blog if no one is reading it. Unlike a diary that you keep under your bed, a blog needs to be discovered by everyone. There are many ways to promote your blog but nothing does it better than becoming a guest blogger.

Guest bloggers typically write about their topic of expertise. It is like your 2 minutes of fame where you get to use the podium to show the audience if you are worth it. Until recently, I didn’t guest blog and didn’t really know how beneficial it can be. Well, to say the least, I like the response so far with one guest post already published and second being in the pipeline.

5 Reasons You Should Be Guest Blogging

1) New Readers
Guest posting will expose your blog to new readers that may not have previously known about your blog. Chances are, if they like what they read, they will click through to your website to find out what else you have to offer. Isn’t that what you want as a blogger?

2) Polish Writing Skills
Writing for yourself is different than writing for someone else. You are more careful, you want to get it right the first time and sometimes you might have your reputation at stake. In the process of writing for someone else, you become a better writer. This makes sure that you put your best piece forward and in future posts exercise the same skills.

3) Search Engine Optimization or SEO
PageRank is Google’s way of ranking your page. Google counts the number of links that point to your blog from other high PR blogs and websites and decides what your blog pagerank should be. Guest blog posts have a short bio of the author at the end where you can have at least two links pointing back to your blog, those links can be priceless.

4) Networking
Networking is thrown around quite a bit these days and there is a reason. Things get done quickly and opportunities knock from unknown places if you are well networked in your community. Blogosphere is a community where bloggers are citizens and more citizens you network with, more you gain in terms of reputation, integrity, and consciousness.

5) Gain Credibility
Sharing your knowledge about a topic is seen by most people as doing community service. When you write a guest post, you are giving your piece of mind to someone else for FREE. No matter what the situation, if you were requested to guest post or you offered to write a guest post, your expertise is the focus and the thought that you contributed counts.

Being a blogger, you should be actively looking for other blogs to guest post on. It’s fruitful, it helps you become a better writer, increases your readership, helps your SEO efforts and it makes you feel proud of yourself.

What Happens To Your Facebook Profile After You Die?

Posted on 08. Sep, 2009 by Zahid Lilani. View Comments

Like most people, you don’t think about death everyday. If you don’t think about death then it would be a wrong to say that you know what will happen to your social networking profile when you die. I personally don’t care about any other website besides Facebook where my deeds are depicted in most personal fashion imaginable.

The question I sometimes ask myself is what will happen to my Facebook profile when I die? I decided to search for the answer in Facebook’s Terms and Conditions but couldn’t find anything. I then searched for the term “Death” on the Facebook Help page and this is what I found:

Please report this information here so that we can memorialize this person’s account. Memorializing the account removes certain more sensitive information like status updates and restricts profile access to confirmed friends only. Please note that in order to protect the privacy of the deceased user, we cannot provide login information for the account to anyone. We do honor requests from close family members to close the account completely.

To report a death of a family or a friend, fill out a simple form and Facebook will memorialize the account. You might want to put this in your will or something, if you have one.

In my view memorializing an account might not get the job done for the family of deceased, specially if the profile picture depicts a person with a middle finger or with a vodka bottle. A friend of mine lost his nephew, 18 years old, in a car accident couple years ago. The nephew, being a teenager, had a very indecent picture on his profile and people were leaving comments saying how bad they felt on his death. It all seemed like a joke because on one hand there was a picture of someone not in their best behavior and on the other hand people who were deeply hurt were sharing their emotions.

It is a good thing that Facebook honors requests from close family members to close the account completely, that’s the option I would personally opt for. Maybe I should just use this post to make it clear that “I would appreciate if my profile from Facebook is deleted as soon as I pass away.”

Facebook should create an application or some kind of an option that authorizes friends or family members to manage a profile after someone is deceased. I know it is not something Facebook will consider anytime soon because the majority of the people who use it are young but if you read Fastest Growing Demographic on Facebook: Women Over 55, you will find out that Facebook will not be able to avoid this question for a long time.

For the time being, try using a service like LegacyLocker. It is fairly new and it is little pricey but the FREE account can get the job done for anyone having 3 or less social networking profiles.

All this makes me wonder, what about my blog? Hmmm….

5 Ways To Use Twitter To Promote Your Blog

Posted on 08. Sep, 2009 by Zahid Lilani. View Comments

Twitter is now more popular than ever. Anita Hamilton at TIME magazine said “While some people call it microblogging or moblogging, I like to think of Twitter simply as blogging for regular people.” She said that in 2007 when Twitter was a baby… it is now microblogging powerhouse.

Bloggers shouldn’t be disappointed because even though you might like to write more detailed posts and not be limited to 140 characters, you can still use Twitter to promote your blogs and keep in touch with your readers.

Here are 5 Ways To Use Twitter To Promote Your Personal Blog

1) Choose a reasonable twitter username that reflects your personality or your blog. If your blog doesn’t have a set topic, which is the case with most personal blogs, go with any name of your liking. It is recommended you use your real name if you are comfortable or a nickname. Avoid numbers, make it simple and easy to remember.

2) Create a background image for your twitter profile page and have the name of your blog in a prominent place or tiled through out the page. Make sure you have a nice left column that has your picture and a small introduction about you or your blog.

3) Every time you publish a post on your blog, send a tweet to all your followers. Use a URL shortner to make long ugly links smaller and less scary to click.

4) Use Twitter search function to find other bloggers and tweeters who have similar interests as you and start following them. This is also useful if you want to generate topic for your next blog post.

5) Instead of just talking about yourself and your blog, try to make conversation with other people. It is as easy as replying to a Tweet that you consider useful or have something to say about. That’s how you will make friends and get more followers.

The more followers you have, the more exposure your blog will get. Time for some shameless promotion. Follow me on Twitter