6 Things You Should Never Do on Twitter or Facebook

Since the unspoken rules of many social-networking sites evolve daily, it’s all too easy to commit online gaffes and sabotage your career-advancement goals. Here are six common online missteps to avoid.
1. Don’t be a job-search bore
Few people would walk into a professional meeting and ask for job leads, but many seasoned professionals commit the online version of this faux pas regularly. No matter how well you know contacts — or how panicked you are about unemployment — never mention a job hunt in an initial note to anyone on a social-networking site. “You’ve got to think of all the people who are looking for jobs right now — they’re probably being overwhelmed,” says Randy Hain, managing partner of Bell Oaks Executive Search in Atlanta. Instead, offer some praise or acknowledgement or, even better, some well-thought-out help or advice with no strings attached.
2. Don’t be too stiff


While you don’t want to share too much, leaving all personal information out of your profiles to protect your privacy can put you in the same league as colleagues who show up for casual Friday in a business suit. A few well-chosen items about your interests or charitable activities can make it easier for other like-minded folks on a site — including potential employers — to strike up a conversation. “If you just put your resume on LinkedIn, you’ll be like 500 other people who share the same skill set,” says Hain.

Antoine Dubeauclard, president of the Web-development company MediaG in Troy, Mich., says his company routinely researches potential hires on social-networking sites to figure out what type of projects would be a good fit for them. If he found from a person’s Facebook page that a candidate was really interested in music, for example, he might try to see if he could have them work with music-industry clients. “We want to get to know them,” Dubeauclard says. “What are the things that get them really excited? When we can dovetail, that makes them much happier.”

3. Don’t remain invisible
Put up a photo, even if you haven’t lost that 30 pounds or tried Botox. It makes the process a little more human and warm. And if someone is going to discriminate against you because of how you look, you probably don’t want to work with them anyway.
4. Don’t market yourself on anyone’s Facebook page — or even look like you’re trying to
“Some people really cross the line,” says Matthew Fraser, a senior research fellow at INSEAD and co-author of Throwing Sheep in the Boardroom: How Online Social Networking Will Transform Your Life, Work, and World. “As soon as you accept an offer to be their friend, they’ll write a note on your wall: ‘I’m Bill Jones. I’m a life coach. I help people solve their problems.’ You realize someone is using your personal space as a billboard for their business, and it’s irritating.”
5. Don’t goof around
“I get a lot of people poking me on Facebook and sending me goofy stuff,” says Sharon Rich, founder of outplacement consulting and coaching firm Leadership Incorporated. “If I’m working on building a business relationship with them, I’ll respond and say thank you. But privately I find that I think of the person as being less than professional.” It’s better to just stick to direct messages on Facebook with your professional contacts.
6. Don’t let your networking end online
Many people rack up new connections on sites like LinkedIn without ever solidifying the relationships they’ve started there. Try to set up an in-person meeting when you can, or perhaps even arrange a “virtual coffee,” where you both chat by phone over a cup of coffee at your desks, advises Rich. “Once you’re in a real relationship with someone, you find out who they are and how they’re doing,” Rich says. “And when you help them, they’ll try to help you back.”

Facebook, Twitter and More: The New Rules of Social Networking

If you aren’t using social-media sites to tap into career and business opportunities in today’s tough economy, you should be. A survey released in January by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that more than one-third of all Americans now have profiles on social-networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, up from just 8 percent in 2005. And it’s not primarily kids, either: The average LinkedIn user is 40 years old; most Twitter users are now 35 and older; and people from 35 to 54 now represent the biggest group of users on Facebook. “You get access to people via LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter that you can’t get in other ways,” says Sharon Rich, founder of outplacement consulting and coaching firm Leadership Incorporated. “I think it’s mandatory to be on there.”

Social-media sites can become a time suck, so you’ll need to limit the time you invest in them each week. But done right, social networking is a powerful way to build your professional reputation, find out about job opportunities, and keep abreast of the latest news and gossip in your industry.
Build a Powerhouse Profile on LinkedIn
LinkedIn’s business-only focus makes the site popular with successful professionals (so far, the site has 43 million members in more than 200 countries), so it’s the best place to start your social-media push. LinkedIn’s large amount of traffic also means that your profile there is likely to be the first thing that potential employers and clients see when they google your name, so it’s important to invest some time in building a strong profile. “Why not tell the story your way?” says Randy Hain, managing partner of Bell Oaks Executive Search in Atlanta. Hain knows firsthand the value of a good profile: He recently signed a client (who will do an estimated $100,000 to $200,000 worth of new business this year) when the client searched for Hain’s LinkedIn profile after reading an article he wrote in a trade publication.
How to Shape Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn:
Seek out recommendations from past bosses, key clients, colleagues, and direct reports to create a 360-degree picture of your strengths. Tell them that you’ll be happy to do the same for them.
Instead of a generic job title at the top of your profile, such as “Owner of John Doe and Associates,” use a short description of valuable credentials that you can quantify, such as “20-year veteran of $100 million in high-tech mergers,” advises Chris Muccio, author of the book 42 Rules for 24-Hour Success on LinkedIn.
# Fill out the “Interests” section with pursuits, such as charitable projects, that reinforce your value to potential employers and clients.
# For consistency and branding, use a good head shot of yourself as your photo, and use the same photo on other social networks, advises Megan Hendricks, director, employer relations at the College of Business at the University of South Florida.
# Opt for a free vanity address for your profile that uses your full name, such as linkedin.com/in/janedoe, so colleagues can find your profile easily.
Use LinkedIn’s Tools to Research Potential Job Opportunities
LinkedIn’s profiles of more than 360,000 businesses and organizations can be used to gather invaluable intelligence on job openings and opportunities. Start by entering your target company’s name in the search bar at the top of the page and specifying “Search Companies” to find its LinkedIn profile. From there, you can see the names of current employees that are in your network, job openings, the names of recent hires, employees who have left the firm, and even the top feeder company and the most popular next employer among those who have left.

You can also choose to “Search Answers” on the name of a particular firm to see questions its employees have posted for other members to answer, their replies to other questions, and Q&As that mention the company. These pages can provide useful information on the corporate culture or current challenges the company is trying to solve that will help you with your cover letter and interview strategies.

To find out about unadvertised job opportunities, try contacting people you know at the target company, including those who are second- or third-degree connections (to contact them, you’ll need to get an introduction from your mutual contact first). If your network is small and you don’t know anyone at the target company, consider upgrading to a paid business account on LinkedIn, which starts at $24.95 a month. With one of these accounts, you can contact anyone on the site directly, although there’s a limit on how many people outside your network you can contact per month. When contacting strangers, it’s a good idea to browse their profile and see if there’s any common ground in either their work or personal interests you can point to that will make your initial message warmer.

Another way to expand your network is by joining LinkedIn discussion groups pertaining to your industry and becoming active in posing and answering questions. Bill Snyder, 42, recently ended a long job search by answering a question on LinkedIn about which were the best conferences for meeting the heads of nonprofit organizations. The question turned out to have been posted by the founder of a start-up called We-Care.com, who then invited Snyder to a lunch the next time he was in town. One month later, he offered Snyder a job as the company’s general manager.
Tweet Your Way to Greater Career Visibility
Twitter is a fast-growing “microblogging” site that lets you send out frequent 140-character messages (“tweets”) to a network of people who have opted to follow you, as well as to follow the updates of anyone in your network. Many professionals use Twitter to send short bits of useful information, such as business tips or links to interesting articles, to help build their professional visibility and make new contacts. The trick is to make sure you limit yourself to messages that are truly useful (or at least entertaining), so that they’re of value to your followers.

To make sure you build an appropriate audience, go to the “Settings” menu and check the box that says “Protect My Updates.” This will enable you to approve each new follower request — a smart move if you want to block spammers on the site. Conversely, choosing to follow well-connected thought leaders in your field can help keep you abreast of trends in your industry, as well as the latest gossip. One good way to find people and sites in your industry is to search by what are called “hash tags” — key words preceded by the “#” sign that people can include in their tweets to make them searchable. For example, to find people posting about law or lawyers, you’d search under “#lawyer,” take a look at all the relevant tweets, and then choose to follow some of the people or groups with the most interesting posts.
Master the Delicate Art of Using Facebook Effectively
Facebook can be a great way to reconnect with old friends who may now be in a position to help you with your career goals, as well as to stay in touch with colleagues on the site. But since there’s always a chance that someone in your network could post an embarrassing photo of you or make comments you don’t want your work contacts to see, make sure you’re familiar with the site’s privacy settings before building out your network of friends. Go to “Settings” at the top of your page, choose “Privacy” from the pull-down menu, and you’ll come to a page that lets you control who can see almost every posted item on your page, who can post messages to your wall, and even whether strangers can search for you and how much of your profile they can see.

Facebook is also rife with professional groups that you can join and subsequently exchange news with others in your industry and make new contacts. Simply type in the name of your profession or industry into the search bar and you’ll see a list of relevant groups, most of which you can join immediately. While these groups on Facebook are sometimes not as active and professionally focused as those on LinkedIn, they still can be a good way to meet new people.

Facebook can be particularly useful for getting the word out and building a community around a new business venture, but experts advise setting up a separate “fan page” of your venture to avoid making your personal page too promotional. John Mooney, principal of marketing firm JRM Communications LLC, recently advised a Manhattan client who sells waffles from a mobile truck to create a Facebook group. The client sends out news of the truck’s future whereabouts to people in his network that he’s invited to become fans, which has helped increase sales significantly. “They’re all in New York, and they’re all really into food,” says Mooney of the group’s members.

But of course. Social networking is all about quickly finding people in every possible niche. Especially the one that matters most to your career: that marvelous niche of folks who might just help you succeed.

The End of The World ?

The end of the world has been cancelled for now, if we are to believe recent market movements. Confidence is slowly returning to investors, who have discovered they are still alive after last autumn’s near-death experience. Government policies – from unorthodox central banking to stress testing – have soothed the worst fears.

The signs of rekindled optimism are everywhere. A long rally has brought equity markets back from the abyss reached earlier in the year. The oil price, though still far below recent records, is pointing up. So are sovereign bond yields – indicating investors’ wariness of where public finances are headed but also a renewed willingness to tolerate volatility in stocks. The mood has changed so much that people are even willing to buy bank shares.

Governments deserve some credit for this. Comparisons with the 1930s notwithstanding, policymakers have not addressed this crisis by doing nothing. Their behaviour has not always been productive – or even seemly, as with the protectionist rhetoric of some. But they have at least understood quickly that something needed to be done.

The US government’s stress test of the country’s largest 19 banks is the latest instalment in a long series of policy initiatives to combat the economic crisis. The explicit goal is to remove uncertainty from markets about the extent of losses banks face; and to force the recapitalisation necessary to absorb them.

Many of the results leaked out in advance and markets mostly reacted with indifference. US authorities have not tried to make banks’ balance sheets look prettier than they are: their estimates of banks’ losses and earnings over the next two years in the test’s “adverse scenario” are consistent with predictions by the International Monetary Fund.

Tim Geithner, US treasury secretary, has staked his financial rescue policies on the premise that markets are malfunctioning because of radical uncertainty as much as (if not more than) real losses caused by silly investments during the boom. If he is right, there are mutually beneficial trades waiting to be made – if only market participants are given more and better information that will lift their panic.

Hence the focus on bringing transparency to the market, in the hope that this will restart financial flows and gradually reduce the need for government-provided lifelines. The market’s recent positive developments and its largely accepting reaction to the stress test give Mr Geithner reason to be satisfied: although the economy is still suffering, markets are becoming less paralysed by radical uncertainty.

Appearances may deceive: from 1929 to 1933 the stock market fell by 89% in nominal terms in spite of a sequence of temporary rallies. But for now, at least, we are seeing a return to confidence. We must hope it is not a trick.

European Leaders Pay The Price

Europeans have grown more critical of their governments’ handling of the financial crisis in spite of recent signs pointing to economic recovery.

The findings of a recent poll show the price that European politicians are paying for the deep recessions in many countries. Europeans believe their leaders are responding more poorly to the crisis than do poll respondents in the US, where support for the government’s action has risen under president Barack Obama.

About half of respondents believe interest rate cuts and government spending will stoke inflation in the near future. Concerned by the crisis as the holiday season starts, almost half of respondents in some countries said they would cancel or cut short their holidays or spend less.

However, support for central banks’ actions has risen. About one in five people thinks central banks – the Bank of England, the Federal Reserve and the European Central bank – have responded appropriately to the economic downturn. This is a larger proportion than last August, before the collapse of Lehman Brothers aggravated the financial crisis and prompted aggressive rate-cutting by central banks.

Carried out in five European countries and the US between June 24 and 29, the poll shows no expectation of a quick end to the economic downturn. Most respondents expect the crisis to last at least another year – similar to the situation at the end of 2008.

The revelation of growing discontent at government performance is particularly stark in France, where respondents had previously been the most generous about their government. Only 8% of French respondents think President Nicolas Sarkozy’s government has handled the crisis well, compared with 23% in November.

Some 16% of US respondents rate the Obama government’s performance as good, compared with last November when just 4% thought George W. Bush’s administration was handling the crisis well and two-thirds thought it was poor.

Germans remain the least critical of their government but support for its performance has been eroded ahead of the general election in September.

Only in Italy have impressions of the government’s response to the crisis remained stable.

Poll respondents in Britain have remained more supportive of their central bank than respondents in other countries. Some 28% of those in the UK think the Bank of England – which last week held its main interest rate at a record low of 0.5% – has responded appropriately, compared with 23% last August.

Economic gloom is hitting holiday plans in the US and Europe alike, with almost two in five Americans and almost half of French and Spanish respondents curtailing, cancelling or spending less on holidays.

Only Germans remain relatively determined to enjoy their break, with almost half saying the crisis would have no impact on their plans.

Google: Browser is the Platform of the Future, Even on Mobiles

Every company that’s built a major mobile platform is trying to make their platform attractive for developers and a great experience for users. Since Apple started their hugely popular iPhone App Store (recently they’ve reached a milestone of 1.5 billion downloaded apps), RIM, Google, Nokia, Palm, and Microsoft have followed suit. But Google thinks that – similar to what is happening in the world of desktops – in the future, the actual platform won’t matter much, because the web browser will become the dominant mobile platform.
As Google’s Vic Gundotra, Engineering vice president and developer evangelist, said at the Mobilebeat conference in San Francisco on Thursday, “We believe the web has won and over the next several years, the browser, for economic reasons almost, will become the platform that matters and certainly that’s where Google is investing.”
Google has certainly put their money where their mouth is when it comes to mobile versions of their web applications, such as Gmail, Google Calendar and others, most of which are available on all significant mobile platforms, and many have mobile browser-based versions. They also have their own mobile platform, Android; however, what Gundotra is saying means that having the best mobile browser will also play a significant part in the future of mobile computing.
Surprisingly, it seems that everyone besides Opera, which puts a great effort into development of Opera Mobile and Opera Mini and Apple with their open sourced WebKit was late to this game. Mozilla’s Fennec is still in very early stages of development, while Microsoft’s Internet Explorer was there from the very beginning, but it was – and still is – a bad mobile browser. Nokia’s Symbian and Google’s android use WebKit-powered browsers, but Gundotra’s statement might mean that Google is finally preparing to launch Chrome for mobiles, and in this space, competition is more than welcome.
Most importantly, if Gundotra is right, it means that many developers might be wasting time trying to port their application to various mobile platforms out there. Build for the mobile browser; it might not look like a very good idea now, but it might pay off in the future.

Twitter Users Agree: IE6 Must Die

Yesterday, we published a story entitled IE6 Must Die for the Web to Move On, which analyzes HTML 5, the future of the web, and the roadblock that Internet Explorer 6 poses to web innovation. While we thought people would agree with us, we couldn’t have ever imagined the overwhelming response of the social web. Apparently a lot of you just can’t stand the 8 year old browser.
Now one Twitter user, James Lynch (@lynchjames) has seized the momentum and taken matters into his own hands. Specifically, he has used Twibbon, a service that overlays a small icon onto your profile picture, to create a Twitter petition to rally support for ending the use of IE6. Now, the Twibbon petition is gaining steam, as nearly a dozen people a minute are adding a “No to IE6″ image to their profile pictures.

We are fans of user activism through social media – it’s widely believed that a Twititon for lowering the price of iPhone 3G S upgrades was central to AT&T caving to consumer and offering $199 iPhone 3G S mobiles to its unhappy userbase.

It’s clear that campaigns like the IE6 Must Die Petition can be effective at rallying support and awareness for a cause, although as we pointed out in our original article, the people that must be convinced aren’t the leadership at Microsoft, but the managers at outdated IT departments and the websites that still put significant resources toward IE6 support (hint to developers: charge more for IE6 support!).

In other words, don’t expect a Twitition to quickly fix this Internet-wide problem, but we definitely hope companies, websites, and media take notice.

Vostro All-In-One: Helping Entrepreneurs Reclaim Their Desks, One Desktop at a Time

Vostro All-In-One: Helping Entrepreneurs Reclaim Their Desks, One Desktop at a Time
Last month, you heard about the Vostro 1220, an ultra-portable laptop helping entrepreneurs work wherever and however their businesses require to keep going and growing. Now, with today’s introduction of the Vostro All-In-One we’re helping small businesses worldwide break through the clutter and reclaim their desks with a stylish, compact and affordable desktop computer.
If you want to see more images of the Vostro All-in-One, go to this set on our Flickr page.



While I could go on and on about the speeds and feeds of this machine (which does feature full processing power), the real magic of the All-In-One comes in its clutter-free design. In fact, our own survey demonstrates that cluttered spaces go well beyond simple eye sores -- they hamper productivity. But don’t take our word for it… to prove the power of design in improving business productivity we gave two customers a sneak-peek at the Vostro All-In-One.


On July 16, 2009, Dell announced its first All In One desktop computer designed exclusively for small businesses. The Vostro™ All In One helps small businesses say goodbye to cramped spaces and overcrowded desks. It is available starting today in Asia Pacific and Japan (customers in North America and Europe, Middle East and Africa will be able to order the product starting August 11 and August 23, respectively). For additional information on the product's specifications, Dell commentary, and global “Reclaim Your Desk” survey results and contest rules, see the Related Article and Links in the right navigation of this page.

Designed to minimize the amount of space a desktop computer occupies, the Vostro All In One provides small business buyers with a powerful, stylish and affordable desktop computer. What’s more, the computer’s full desktop processing power is backed with Dell’s worry-free small business support.

From box to business in less than four minutes, the Vostro All In One, when used with the optional VESA mount, saves customers as much as 79 percent of their desk space versus a traditional desktop and monitor setup. When combined with optional integrated WiFi™ and a wireless mouse and keyboard, the result is a wire-free desk. The new Vostro also offers Intel® Core™2 Duo processors and an integrated Webcam that enables businesses to enjoy remote collaboration.

“Reclaim Your Desk” Contest

To demonstrate the difference the Vostro All In One can make, Dell is challenging small business owners to reclaim their desks. If you own a company with 1–25 employees, you are invited to submit a photograph of what you believe is the world’s messiest desk for a chance to win a free Dell All In One. Photo entries must be submitted by uploading and tagging a picture with /reclaimyourdesk on www.Flickr.com. To see the complete contest rules, please click here. Entries are being accepted now until July 31, 2009.*

Here’s how to enter:

Take a photo that best depicts “The Messiest Desk.” Be sure to review the Requirements for Entry and Judging Criteria set forth in the contest rules.
To submit your entry, you must first have a valid Flickr account. If you do not have a Flickr account, you can register for free at www.flickr.com. The Flickr tag for your photo must be /reclaimyourdesk.
Once you have registered, follow these instructions to submit your entry on Flickr: (a) go to your picture on Flickr; (b) click on the “All Sizes” icon; (c) select “Medium;” (d) copy the HTML link that appears below the picture; (e) paste the HTML into the comment box along with any relevant comments you might have.
There is a limit of one entry per company.


*The contest is open to any small business entity that has its principal offices in the United States, China, France, Germany, India, Spain or the United Kingdom, and has at least one and no more than 25 employees.