In the 1930’s, 1940’s, and 1950’s kids would flock to Hollywood, California in search of their dreams of stardom in the moving pictures aka the movies. These kids, like Norma Jean or John Wayne, would hit town and immediately begin the process of “being discovered.” The  4 steps they would often take can be equated to today’s job seeker or entrepreneur in their quest to find a job or “stardom” in their field.

1. Go to the Studio

Future Starlet or Star: Often the first (wannabe’s) strategy would be to go straight to Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox, or other big studio and beg for a meeting or interview from a movie mogul, director, or talent scout. Banging on doors, collecting names, finding information to follow up was often the best these kids would manage.

Job Seeker or Entrepreneur on Linkedin: Often the first strategy is for job seekers and entrepreneurs to begin to show up on Linkedin, the modern day equivalent of the Hollywood studio. Here are a few steps to take “on the set”:

• Create a powerful profile on Linkedin
• Utilize the Linkedin internal search engine to find names, facts, and contacts of people and companies looking for their talents.
• Connect with targets by joining groups
• Showcase talents by answering Questions and asking Questions

2. Get Discovered

Future Starlet or Star: The next step was for these kids to go hang out in the drugstore soda fountain or by the pool at the Beverly Hills Hotel. This was their form of networking to showcase their “look”, their style, or their originality.

Job Seeker or Entrepreneur on Facebook: The next strategy for a job seeker or entrepreneur is to build a Facebook profile. Here they can place pictures, videos, and samples of their writing. They can include links to their Linkedin profile as well as other information resources. Like the Hollywood actor in waiting, job seekers and entrepreneurs can showcase their expertise, originality, and focus.

3. Go to the Right Places

Future Starlet or Star: The next step would be to go to the Brown Derby for lunch or dinner. Ease drop on conversations, ask doorman or bartenders for tips on who’s in the place, and try to find the right people talking about the industry.

Job Seeker’s and Entrepreneurs on Twitter: Twitter is the place for people to find conversations about their industry, jobs, opportunities, and regional areas. Here a person can politely “inject” themselves into conversations, RSS subscribe to conversations, and begin to communicate and network with their targeted audience(s).

4. Hire a Manager, Talent Scout, Press Agent

Future Starlet or Star: Finally the wannabe would begin looking for help via an agent or other representative. The difficult process of trying to break in on their own becomes overwhelming.

Job Seeker or Entrepreneur establish their blog: Tired of sending out resumes, paying for advertisements, and waiting by the phone, these people establish their own blog. The blog becomes their press release, their talent scout, their agent, and their delivery system. It is the hub and centerpiece of their campaign to build a new business or find a new job opportunity. The steps include:

• Writing Articles: showcase talent and expertise
• Sending Articles: leaving links to their articles on other industry, company, or niche blogs
• Creating Video: video clips of themselves giving tips or explaining a process
• Recording Podcasts: recording their own “radio show” filled with information and expertise design to help people while showcasing their talents

Jakob Nielsen “King of usability”

Why is blogging and now micro-blogging such popular formats for content creation? We know it is instantaneous in it’s publishing process ready to be read at the push of a button. We know that it provides 24/7 global exposure for your brand and value message. We also know that blogging is accessible and nearly free for everyone who wishes to leverage their knowledge.

The answer is brevity or more precisely blog writing is a succinct format described as short writing. All other forms of written word fall under long writing formats.

Long Writing Requirements and Disadvantages:

• Far more time to construct your message
• Longer message length
• Far more time to deliver your message to your intended target
• Far less accessibility to your target audience
• Reliant upon an outside publisher to make your message available via newsprint, magazine, or book publishing medias

Advantages of Blog Writing Format:

• Instantaneous publishing capability
• You are your own publisher
• No reliance upon outside publisher
• Short, succinct messages save time
• Readers skim and scan; blog writing format fits there reading “style”

We are living in an instant messaging, instant recognition, instant solution society. People want answers now and they are unwilling to wade through 2,000 words to find them. Nobody understands this point better than Jakob Nielsen (Nielsen Norman Group) dubbed the “King of Useability” by Internet magazine and the “Guru of web page usability” by the New York Times.

Nielsen’s F-Shape Theory: Why Blog Article Writing is Most Effective Today

In Nielsen’s eyetracking study 232 participants looked at “thousands of Web pages” with the findings suggesting that:

“. . . users’ main reading behavior was fairly consistent across many different sites and tasks. This dominant reading pattern looks somewhat like a “F”.”

3 Components of the F-Shape Pattern:

According to Nielsen:

• Users first read in a horizontal movement, usually across the upper part of the content area. This initial element forms the F’s top bar.
• Next, users move down the page a bit and then read across in a second horizontal movement that typically covers a shorter area than the previous movement. This additional element forms the F’s lower bar.
• Finally, users scan the content’s left side in a vertical movement. Sometimes this is a fairly slow and systematic scan that appears as a solid stripe on an eyetracking heatmap. Other times users move faster, creating a spottier heatmap. This last element forms the F’s stem.

Conclusion

Very few people read articles online word for word. Instead people’s reading habits comprise a skimming or scanning activity meant to save time. Consequently blog article writing is the perfect format for today’s reader and writer. Although the chart below shows that readers tend to stay longer on a blog article with more words, “users have time to read at most 28% of the words during an average visit; 20% is more likely”

The following chart shows the average time users spend on pages with different word counts:

Last week I received a phone call from a small business owner who called because she wants to get more business. She told me that she realizes that she needs to launch a blog. This woman gets it. When I started telling her about the various things she can do to deliver value through her blog articles, she chuckled and said, “Wow, that’s a lot of work…yet what I am doing now is not working for me!”

Dean and I are constantly promoting the value of a blog. Yet so often the response from a person wanting to grow their business or land a job is that they don’t have time or don’t want to invest the energy to write a blog. Many people just don’t understand that a blog is the most powerful marketing tool you can put to work for you. And it’s free!

Consider these benefits of blogging, just to name a few:

1. Your blog is your branding platform, a 24/7 virtual space from which to share your expertise.
2. Your articles demonstrate what you know, how you think, how you approach your work, and the issues that are important to you.
3. Your articles deliver your value a lot more effectively than promotional copy talking about your value.
4. Your blog content is more believable than what you write about yourself.
5. Your blog enables you to differentiate yourself and stand apart from your competition.
6. Your blog enables two-way communication with your readers, paving the way for relationships to develop and build community.
7. You demonstrate that you are keeping current with the latest business trend by writing a blog.

If you haven’t yet seriously considered a blog, you haven’t stopped to acknowledge the paradigm shift in doing business. You and I started our careers working for companies who promoted their products and services through print, with the four-color brochure being the model. Then came the internet age, with static websites becoming the storefront. Now Web 2.0 enables social networking, blogs, and video sharing as effective tools for connecting, communicating, and collaborating.

What’s holding you back from integrating the most powerful tool you have available to market yourself? I would love to hear from you so that I can support you in breaking through these obstacles.

Robert Scoble is one of the most successful bloggers with his Scobleizer blog, technology evangelists, and well respected resources in Silicon Valley. His article “If you are laid off, here’s how to socially network” is a call to arms and a blue print for EVERY job seeker. Please heed his warning and take the steps Robert outlines. And by the way, many of these steps are steps we have already identified, written about, and continually evangelize in our Inner Architect business.

We added our comments to some of Scoble’s steps denoted by “IA.” The following are what we feel are the most important of Robert’s 19 steps for job seekers.

Scoble’s Steps for Job Seekers:

1. Your blog is your resume. You need one and it needs to have 100 posts on it about what you want to be known for.

IA: 100% agree with this statement except the idea of producing 100 posts. Your blog is your ability to deliver your value message of expertise, experience, and accomplishments–no resume can come close.

2. Remove all friends from your facebook and twitter accounts that will embarrass you. We do look. If we see photos of people getting drunk with you that is a bad sign. Get rid of them. They will NOT help you get a job.

3. Demonstrate you have kids and hobbies, but they should be 1% of your public persona, not 99%. Look at my blog here. You’ll see my son’s photo on Flickr once in a while. But mostly I talk about the tech industry, cause that’s the job I want to have: talking to geeks and innovators.

IA: You are best served by creating a message of your value, expertise, and experience as the themes for your content on your blog. You are building a case for why people should be interested in you. You also want to be considered a “resource” of great information.

4. Put what job you want into your blog’s header. Visit Joel Spolsky’s blog. He’s “on software.” That’s a major hint that if he were looking for a job that he is totally, 100%, thinking about software. If you want a job as a chef, you better have a blog that looks like you love cooking, like this.

5. Post something that teaches me something about what you want to do every day. If you want to drive a cab, you better go out and take pictures of cabs. Think about cabs. Put suggestions for cabbies up. Interview cabbies. You better have a blog that is nothing but cabs. Cabs. Cabs. Cabs all the time.

IA: This is a critical point and should be the driving force behind what you write for your blog.

6. If you want to be a plumber, look for other plumbers to add to Twitter, friendfeed, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Remove all others. Be 100% focused on what you want to do.

IA: Twitter is one of the most important free social media tools to bring awareness of what you can offer an employer, building your credibility, and networking within your niche.

7. On Twitter you can tell me what you had for lunch, but only after you posted 20 great items about what you want to do. Look at Tim O’Reilly’s tweet stream. Very little noise. Just great stuff that will make you think (he wants a job as a thinker, so do you get it yet?)

IA: The best strategy for what you should “tweet” is to provide information that is helpful, interesting, and has relevance to either a niche, industry, or public awareness.

8. Invite influentials out to lunch. Getting a job is now your profession. If you were a salesperson, how would you get sales? You would take people out to lunch who can either buy what you’re selling, or influence others who can buy. That means take other bloggers (but only if they cover what you want to do) out to lunch. That means taking lots of industry executives out to lunch.

IA: We can not agree more. Too many job seekers are stuck in the past where a job search was a part time activity. If you are not ready and willing to treat your job search as your JOB you are in for a very long period of unemployment

9. Send out resumes. Make sure yours is up to date and top notch on LinkedIn and other sites where employers look for employees. Craig’s List. Monster. Etc.

IA: We agree that resumes are still part of the requirements for landing a job. But the role of the resume has changed. The resume is NO LONGER your marketing tool for landing an interview leading to a job. Until you understand this fact, you will be stuck in “response” mode, applying for

10. Go to industry events. I have a list of tech industry events up on Upcoming.org. If you want to be a plumber, go to where contractors go. Etc. Etc. Make sure you have clear business cards. Include your photo. Include your Twitter and LinkedIn addresses. Your cell phone. Your blog address. And the same line that’s at the top of your blog. Joel’s should say “on software.” Yours should say what you love to do. Hand them out, ask for theirs. Make notes on theirs. Email them later with your LinkedIn and blog URLs and say “you’ll find lots of good stuff about xxxxxxxx industry on my blog.”

IA: Again we agree that the blog should be the “hub” of your marketing plan in landing a job. Linkedin is your new resume and critical to notifying people you are open to “new opportunities.”

11. When you meet someone who can hire and who you want to work for. Follow them on Twitter. Facebook. LinkedIn. Their blog. Stalk them without being “creepy.” Learn everything you can about them. Build a friendfeed room with all their stuff. That way when they say on Twitter “I have a job opening” you can be the first one to Tweet back.

IA: What Robert is alluding to is your strategy to connect with hiring managers and companies. It is up to YOU to be proactive and place yourself in position to be noticed, appreciated, and ultimately contacted back.

12. Tell others where the jobs are. One thing I learned in college is by helping other people get jobs you’ll get remembered. So, retweet jobs messages (if they are relevant to your professional friends and to you). Blog about job openings. Help people get jobs. Hold lunches for people who are jobless. Some of them will get jobs and they’ll remember you and invite you along.

IA: The law of reciprocity or what comes around goes around does happen. According to Jeffrey Gitomer, expert networking and sales trainer, you must give first before you can expect to receive. It is that simple.

“Your blog is your living resume. It shows how you think. It shows how you write. It shows what’s important to you. . . Mentor us through your blog. We employers love hiring mentors–they raise everyone’s performance.” Kevin Merritt as told to Linkedin Social Media Strategist Mario Sundar

Blogging and Web 2.0 social media tools, like Linkedin.com , are fast becoming the most effective strategies to actively deliver your message of value. If you are a jobseeker in today’s tough market, blogging is the most powerful tool as it allows the writer to deliver their expertise, knowledge, and value to strategic targets such as hiring managers, companies, and the global community on the internet.

One of the first challenges a new blogger faces is writing their first article for their employment campaign. The following is an outline, with the help of social media expert Mack Collier, and template a new job seeking blogger can utilize for the creation of their first blog article.

4 Question Format: Your first article should answer 4 questions

1. Who Are You?
2. Why Are You Blogging?
3. What Will You Be Blogging About?
4. How Can I Leave Feedback?

Example First Article Template:

Your Title

My name is _____ I have ___years experience in the ______industry culminating in a position as a _____ and _______. Today I am writing my first blog article on my new blog: yourname.wordpress.com. My blog is the centerpiece and delivery system, of my message of value, for my newly established employment campaign.

Why Am I Blogging?

I am writing this blog as a method to offer my expertise, experience, and knowledge to liked minded individuals. I am also seeking job, networking, and collaborating opportunities. Consequently, my blog will support my employment campaign which is a strategic, proactive plan to deliver my value to hiring managers and my industry.

What Is My Blog About?

I will write about. . . (your subject matter and topics here.) I will create helpful content, tips, how to guides, lists, and other material on. . . (your expertise, knowledge, and value message here.)

Dean’s Example: “I will write about social media tools and blogging. I will create helpful content, tips, how to guides, lists and other material based on my two years of blogging experience at deansguide and innerarchitect and my social media consulting background with Domus Consulting Group.

How Can I Leave Feedback?

I look forward to reader comments and participation as part of the learning process here on my blog. As I begin to learn more about Web 2.0, social media, and blogging, I hope to become a valuable resource to readers.  If you have comments, please do not hesitate to voice your opinions. If you would like to further connect with me:

Your email address
Your Linkedin Address
Your Twitter Address
Your Facebook page-list all the place you wish to point your reader