What are the "tangible benefits"?

Neal Schaffer writes:

The intent of this blog post was not to convince you to delete Foursquare yourself but to reconsider your own ROI of being active on various social media sites or utilizing certain social media tools that might provide a lot of eye candy or seem fun at the time but might not have much tangible benefits to you. From a corporate social media marketing perspective, there are compelling ways of using Foursquare and engaging with their 10 million users as part of your marketing mix and social media efforts, but I will save that content for a future blog post.

You'll need to click through to Neal's website to read the full post with his thoughts about Foursquare.

As an occasional user of Foursquare myself I do reconsider from time to time my use. Especially when my wife gives me that look and says: "What are you doing? Checking in?"

The real message for today is what social tools are you using and why? Do they bring value to your presence, your brand, what you are trying to accomplish?

Hopkinton Networkers Group - "How to use the Boston Business Journal as a Job Search Tool"

Hello Everyone,
The agenda for this Friday's Hopkinton Networkers Group (HNG) meeting will be featured by our speaker, Abby Grant. The facilitator for this week will be William Lam, which will be his last because he will be delving into training as an insurance agent. We will devote the first hour, from 10 to 11 AM to the following agenda: Welcome, Landings, Announcements, New Member Intros, and Needs & Leads. Please arrive early, so we can make every effort to start on time. In the second hour, Abby will talk about "How to use the Boston Business Journal as a Job Search Tool."

How to Use the Boston Business Journal as a Job Search Tool:
How can we more effectively use resources such as the Boston Business Journal (BBJ) as a tool in a job search? The Boston Business Journal is the leading business publication covering regional business. You will discover how to turn up job leads and connect with leading industries and top executives. All attendees will receive a 4 Week Free Trial Subscription to the BBJ and a copy of the current issue.

About Abby Grant:

Abby brings a unique perspective with a background in recruiting and recently completed her own job search. She has close to 20 years working in the communications field including publishing, advertising and public relations. Abby currently works in the Circulation Group at the Boston Business Journal - Boston's premier business publication. Prior to that, she was with Hollister, a Boston-based recruiting and staffing firm, conducting business development for the creative and marketing group. She has held business development and account management roles for several Boston-based public relations and advertising agencies. Abby holds a B.A. from the University of New Hampshire and a M.A. from Emerson College.


Schedule for HNG Meetings:

July 1, 2011 Wendy Gelberg Personal Branding
July 15, 2011 Patricia Hunt Sinacole "A Practical Guide to Landing a Job in Today's Employment Market."
August 5, 2011 Gail Greenberg
August 19, 2011 Amy Mosher STEMPower Program
September 2, 2011 Workshop
September 16, 2011 Dan DeMaioNewton "Dealing with the Afflictive Emotions of Job Seeking"

General Information:

The networking group meets in Hopkinton, at St. John the Evangelist Church parish hall. The meeting occurs, from 10 to 12 noon, and will meet the first and third Friday of the month. The parish hall has a capacity for 250 people and there is plenty of parking spaces in the parking lot and on the street. Around the perimeter of the parish hall are rooms to allow us to have focused network groups or for any other purpose we need. We chose every other Friday to allow everyone to attend the Acton Networking Group or any other networking group, if they wanted, on the Friday we do not meet.
We will maintain our close affiliation with Acton Networkers by using the same list-server to share information between the groups. Any e-mails specific to the Hopkinton Networking Group (HNG) will be indicated in the subject line either by "Hopkinton Networking Group" or "HNG"; this way anyone attending these meetings will know the e-mail is intended for them.

We will follow the following agenda items:
Welcome
Landings (with doughnuts)
Announcements
New member introductions
Needs and Leads
Speaker(s), Workshop, or Focus Group
Cleanup

For those new members who give their introductions, this is what we would like to know:
Name
Skills and Value Statement
Where have you been?
Where are you going?
Your title
Your target companies
Geography of search
Name and e-mail address

If anyone wants to join our team, please let one of us know; we could always use the extra help and input for ideas.

Directions:
Take Rt. 495 North/South and get off Exit 21A. Go through three traffic lights. Colella's Supermarket is on the right at the third traffic light. The first street after the third traffic light is Church Street, take a right turn. The church is on the right. Go around to the left of the parking lot and go into the side entrance of the parish hall.
Depending upon where you live, perhaps you may want to use Mapquest for a more direct route. The address of the church is:
St. John the Evangelist
20 Church Street
Hopkinton, MA 01748

Regards,
Hopkinton Networkers Group (HNG) Coordinators:
Steven Hakar hakar4@hotmail.comm
Gil Krispien g.krispien@verizon.net
William Lam wmlam508@yahoo.com
Barbara McKee barb6635@comcast.net
Salpi Sarafian ssarafian@rcn.com

"there is no job search silver bullet"

Jessica Miller-Merrill, writing on the TweetMyJobs website says:

Twitter is an essential tool for the job seeker and is described as social network where members post micro-blogs in 140 characters or less similar to a subject line of an email. As a user of the platform, you have instant access to millions of other business professionals who are eager and open to talk to you. 

While Twitter an ever-evolving chat room and uber networking tool, it can sometimes be overwhelming. Here are five job search focused ways to connect with others, learn about job openings, build your brand, and land a job you love.

While there is no job search silver bullet, I do believe that Twitter is one good tool to have in your job search tool kit. Click through to read the remainder of what Jessica has to say on using Twitter for your job search.

For the older job seeker

The Hopkinton Networking Group meeting today will address looking for work as an older job seeker. For both of the Job Search Jam Sessions, this topic was requested an well attended. The plight of those of us north of 40 finding work these days has been documented and talked about. 60 Minutes did a piece not too long ago on the 99ers, many of whom were in that age category.

So when in the course of my cruising around the internet, I found this site, my eyes perked up right away.

WorkForce50 - Is a job search tool targeted for the 50 and older person.

Check it out, it may be the tool you can use!

Update your toolkit

FINS has been posting some good insights on the job market.

Accenture to hire 7,000
http://it-jobs.fins.com/Articles/SB128689698623746029/Accenture-s-John-Campagnino-Hiring-7-000-This-Year

Intel to create 1,000 new jobs
http://it-jobs.fins.com/Articles/SB128750066088748505/Intel-To-Create-Thousand-New-U-S-Jobs

Are you watching their page or your RSS feed to keep in touch?

Do you have your RSS Reader set up? Do you know what an RSS Reader is?

I encourage you to view the brief video explaining "RSS in Plain English" by the wonderful folks at Common Craft. Click on the link here.

The video was created in April 2007 and is still very much accurate. I use Google Reader. I can process what I read quickly and send an item to a blog, to someone else via email, or to Twitter. Very efficient!

Update your catcher toolkit

What kind of catcher are you?

Do you wear a mask and protective gear?

Or are you open to softly catch the rain?

You can add to your catching toolkit by participating in the Job Search Jam Sessions to be held on Friday, May 14th. You can register here: http://jobsearchjamsessions.eventbrite.com/

Note - you can pay via PayPal or credit card in advance or select "show other payment options" to reserve your ticket and pay at the door. Either way, your reservation will help us plan for the amount of people to expect that day.


Photo credit for the catcher goes to
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kalsbeek/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kalsbeek/3633719531/sizes/m/