Social Capital

Off to hear "Julien Smith on Social Capital, Trust Agents and the New Tribe" tonight as part of the 3rd Tuesday meet-up group.

Training

I'm putting on a workshop for photographers on how to start a web site and make it easy for your potential clients to find.  I'll post more details once the dates are confirmed.

Networking

I’ve been meeting over the past few weeks with old long time friends and colleagues whom I’ve not seen in years. I’d like to say thanks to all of you who’ve renewed your ties with me and it’s been great catching up and finding out how people are doing. My friends are predominantly the types you see holding Blackberrys, home office with the laptop and who are never really off work. Let me tell you about some of my findings:

• People are willing to take a lower paying job if they get to turn work off a few nights a week and the odd weekend.  A few are tired of getting out sourced and are looking at changing into a career where this is less likely to happen.
• Having a long list of acronyms (alphabet soup) after your name are merely table stakes these days. They don’t guarantee anything but you better have a Bachelor degree, some certifications (PMP, ITIL etc...), hopefully and MBA, Six Sigma etc. or you are likely to be immediately disqualified.   A friend who just had her first child was astonished “I’m not certified to be a parent!” (She was joking, sort of...).
• Social networking IS important but you had really better follow it up with face to face contact.
• Leads and tips happen almost any where providing you get out and meet with people.

New page into Google - follow up

I've sent a note to the guy who own Dave Porter Photography in the UK to see what he's doing in Toronto that beat me out of top spot. I'll let you know what he says.

I've noticed it's an ongoing issue to stay near the top, you need to keep adding content as it's now Thursday and I'm starting to slip a bit...

Taking a new page and getting it into Google

As many of you are aware, I have a budding photography business called PortersPixels.  Using the tips I received from my network of friends, I have managed to take my new web site from not being indexed to showing up rather well in the Google search results on November 1, 2009.

Some of the methods I used that worked for me:

• Don't spend a lot of money on tools to make this happen, I promoted my photography site this using Twitter, Blogger, Facebook, LinkedIn and Flickr.
• Do make Google your best friend.  This includes using their Feedburner, Analytics and Webmaster tools.
• Do keep your site current and have interesting content.
• Do have business cards that name your web site.

When I started this effort, I had no idea quite how many other David Porter's there are in the city.  After my first post in my photography site, it didn't even show up in the results (unless I cheated and mentioned the URL). 

Now, as long as people remember my name, there's a good chance they'll find my web page.  I'm not number one on the list yet, and they do have to use the search phrase "david porter toronto photographer", but it's coming along OK for 10 days worth of work.

Contact me if you want the details on how to do it.

Social Media Enthusiasts Meetup

Another way of meeting people in industry that I've found helpful is social events.  One of the tools out there is a web site called meetup.com.  This page is full of groups that have a common interests and invite guest speakers to events.  One of my current favourites in Toronto is a group called Third Tuesday This group talks about how to use tools like Twitter, Blogger and Facebook to good effect. 

Tonights meeting is at the Hard Rock Cafe across from the Eaton Centre.  The cost is only $10 and might be worth a look.  Tonights speakers include people who write reviews online.

People I used to know....and still do

One of the best ways to generate leads is by contacting people with whom you have dropped out of touch with.  Blow the dust off some of those old notes and files and see if you can find out where people are now.  Some pointers that may help that first phone call / email:

• Don't call up and tell them you are looking for job.  No one I've ever met has a few spare jobs in their back pocket waiting to give out.  This turns people off like a switch for a light bulb.
• Do say you're interested in hearing what's going on in their career, get some pointers as to what's working well for them and what's not.  Remeber, you're trying to get a feel for what's happening outside your own corner of the world, to do this you want some perspective.
• Do see if you can meet them in their office, or failing that, offer to buy them a cup of coffee after work.  You are asking for their time as well as knowledge.
• As the conversation progresses, try to garner names of people, companies and projects going on.  Don't immedialtely dismiss anything as you are trying to generate ideas to help get your next job.  Sometimes a really silly idea can seem brilliant after you've had time to think about it.

Networking and primary research

Over the past several months, I've been reaching out to talk to old colleagues, class mates and friends to get a feel for what's happening in the market place.  As an analyst, I enjoy meeting with people one on one to get a feel for what's happening in their jobspace.  It allows me to gather data and start doing some of my own analysis. 

Any time there has been an economic down turn in the past, there have also always been opportunities if you can identify them.  This involves performing your own research and being ready to act on the opportunities as they arise.

As we're all aware, the job numbers are grim these days and many people are looking for new opportunities.  This blog is a journal of my job search efforts and I'll be posting some tips and techniques that have worked for me as I go, including:

• networking with people you know
• getting warm referrals to other people in the industry
• doing cold referrals
• finding and attending various local events that will help keep you current in the market place