How to get a job with a small company

{{Seth Godin offers some great advice about getting hired - especially relevant in the 'new economy', and parallels what I was just talking about with my son last night. It's not just what you can do, but how you can *present* what you do.}}

How to get a job with a small company:

Most advice about job seeking is oriented around big companies. The notion of a standard resume, of mass mailings, of dealing with the HR department--even the idea of interviews--is all built around the Fortune 500.

Alas, the Fortune 500 has been responsible for a net loss in jobs over the last twenty years. All the growth (and your best chance to get hired) is from companies you’ve probably never heard of. And when the hirer is also the owner, the rules are very different.

1. Learn to sell. Everyone has sold something, some time, even if it’s just selling your mom on the need for a nap when you were three years old. A lot of people have decided that they don’t want to sell, can’t sell, won’t sell, but those same people need to understand that they’re probably not going to get a job doing anything but selling.

Small businesses always need people who can sell, because selling pays for itself. It’s not an expense, it’s a profit center.

2. Learn to write. Writing is a form of selling, one step removed. There’s more writing in business today than ever before, and if you can become a persuasive copywriter, you’re practically a salesperson, and even better, your work scales.

3. Learn to produce extraordinary video and multimedia. This is just like writing, but for people who don’t like to read. Even better, be sure to mix this skill with significant tech skills. Yes, you can learn to code. The fact that you don't feel like it is one reason it's a scarce skill.

Now that you’ve mastered these skills (all of which take time and guts but no money), understand the next thing about small businesses--they aren’t hiring to fill a slot. Unlike a big company with an org chart and pay levels, the very small business is an organism, not a grid. The owner is far more likely to bring in a freelancer or someone working on spec than she is to go run a classified help wanted ad.

And many small businesses are extremely bad at taking initiative that feels like risk. They’d rather fill orders than take a chance and go out prospecting for a person who represents a risk. And that’s your opportunity.

When you show up and offer to go prospecting on spec, offer to contribute a website or a sales letter or some sales calls--with no money on the table--many small business people will take you up on it, particularly if they are cash-strapped, profit-oriented and know you by reputation. (Please don't overlook that last one).

Hint: don't merely show up and expect a yes. It's something you earn over time...

The rest is easy. Once you demonstrate that you contribute far more than you cost, now it's merely a matter of figuring out a payment schedule.

This is probably far more uncertainty and personal branding than most job seekers are comfortable with. Which is precisely why it works.

Studio Ghibli’s The Secret World of Arrietty Is on Its Way to America (With Trailer)

Studio Ghibli’s The Secret World of Arrietty Is on Its Way to America (With Trailer):
The latest Studio Ghibli animated feature to make it to America, The Secret World of Arrietty has the same beautiful and elegant craftsmanship expected of all their films, even though this one was written and supervised — but not actually directed — by the legendary Hayao Miyazaki.

It won’t be out in U.S. theaters until February 17, but I had the chance to see the version dubbed for American audiences a short time ago, and I loved it. The Secret World of Arrietty has all the polish of a classic Miyazaki film, but is closer in plot and characterization to classic American animated films, so may be more accessible to U.S. audiences than most Japanese animated films. Based — somewhat loosely — as it is on Mary Norton’s classic Borrowers children’s novels, the film may in fact seem somewhat familiar to American kids. See the trailer below.



I very much hope it will succeed, as it has the potential to become a classic of the genre. The dubbed American voices of Amy Poehler, Will Arnett, and Carol Burnett (among others) fade seamlessly into the film as though it had been made with them in mind.

The only thing I don’t love about the film is its title, which I’m afraid may not resonate with American audiences because of the unfamiliar name “Arrietty” (which is taken from the Borrowers, but still isn’t exactly a commonly-heard name). But it has the weight of Disney’s marketing behind it, so let’s hope it finds the audience it deserves.

Why Content-Driven Community Strategies Are Flawed

((What if you forgot about content for a moment and focused your efforts solely upon the community? What if you initiated interesting discussions and invited people to participate? What if you promoted events and activities that were taking place in the community? What if you created a strong and unique community culture? ))

((What If?))

(stolen from FeverBee)


Information Needs and Why Content-Driven Community Strategies Are Flawed:

Two weeks ago, I met with an organization looking to build a community for entrepreneurs.

Their plan was to create great content to attract people to visit the site and then include forums and other community elements. Voila, a community!

Can you spot the problems here?

First, content is ridiculously competitive and people have a limited amount of time. There is far too much content on almost every topic on the internet. It's difficult to be the best (expensive and time-consuming too). Building up a larger audience to create a community rarely works.

Second, content attracts people looking to satisfy their information needs. Converting these information-seekers to community members isn't as simple as adding community elements. There is no direct connection between reading content and participating in a community. Just think how much content you read every day and how much you talk about.

What if you forgot about content for a moment and focused your efforts solely upon the community? What if you initiated interesting discussions and invited people to participate? What if you promoted events and activities that were taking place in the community? What if you created a strong and unique community culture?

It's far easier to create a unique community than unique content. In fact, many of the most successful communities I've seen are simple forums or mailing groups with no centrally-produced content at all.

Free information doesn't have to be the pull to your community. I suspect participating with some of the most passionate, knowledgeable, friendly, funny or active people in your sector is a pretty big draw too. It's better to attract people to a community that want to participate in a community.

When is it okay to start worrying?

((Stolen from Seth Godin))

When is it okay to start worrying?:

A friend was waiting to hear about the results of a job interview. He hadn't heard in a while and he asked me, "how long before I should start worrying?"

Of course, the answer is, "you should never start worrying."

Worrying is not a useful output. Worrying doesn't change outcomes. Worrying ruins your day. Worrying distracts you from the work at hand. You may have fooled yourself into thinking that it's useful or unavoidable, but it's not. Now you've got one more thing to worry about.

Relax: Your cell phone probably doesn’t cause cancer

Relax: Your cell phone probably doesn’t cause cancer: The largest study of a possible link between cell phones and cancer has found no reason to drop calls, the Associated Press reports.

Danish researchers who studied more than 350,000 people didn’t find a difference in cancer rates between those who had used a cell phone for about 10 years and those who had not, the report said.

Fears of a connection have continued even though cancer rates haven’t increased after cell phones debuted.

ASUS -- next generation Transformer will be announced Nov 9, ICS on existing hardware this year

((10.1" Android goodness; quad cores, under $500. Nice.))

ASUS -- next generation Transformer will be announced Nov 9, ICS on existing hardware this year:


Johnny Shih, chairman at ASUS, had a few things to say of interest to Android fans about the popular ASUS Transformer tablets at the AsiaD conference in Hong Kong this morning. When asked about the next generation Transformer (check out the teaser video here), Shih said to expect the formal announcement on November 9, and tonight was a sneak peek of what he dubbed the "Transformer Prime". He went on to mention the quad-core NVIDIA chipset, a 10-inch display, USB and mini-HDMI ports, SD card slot, and the Transformer Prime's 8.3mm thickness. He also let the cat out of the bag for the original Transformer and any Ice Cream Sandwich plans, when asked if ASUS would have it by the end of the year he replied "Maybe earlier than that". Finally, he talked about the Padfone -- a combination tablet and phone that should come around early next year after carrier testing. That's all great news, let's hope it works out that way. In the meantime, we're all waiting patiently for a couple weeks until the Transformer 2, err Prime, gets official.

Source: All Things D

Sprint announces the Motorola Admiral, coming Oct. 23 for 99

(Best part? Hardware MUTE button. Been missing this for a long time)

Sprint announces the Motorola Admiral, coming Oct. 23 for 99:

Sprint has finally announced the Android-based Motorola Admiral, one of its new Direct Connect phones. It'll be available in stores Oct. 23 for $99 on contract and after $50 rebate, and in all Sprint channels on Nov. 13.

The mil-spec phone (meaning you'll have to work hard to break the thing) features a 3.1-inch VGA touchscreen, 1.2GHz processor and Android 2.3, with a front-facing QWERTY keyboard. Other specs include:

• 5-megapixel camera with 720p HD video capture, flash and 4x zoom
• Quickoffice
• 3G Mobile Hotspot capability supporting up to five Wi-Fi enabled devices simultaneously
• 802.11 b/g/n
• 4GB internal memory, plus microSD card
• Sprint Direct Connect
• Group Connect
• NextMail
  

Source: Sprint

Visualizing Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan to redistribute wealth from the poor to the rich

Visualizing Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan to redistribute wealth from the poor to the rich:

Maybe you've heard about Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan for America: 9% sales tax, 9% income tax, and 9% corporate tax, and wondered how it would play out in the real world. Here's a chart that illustrates the answer neatly (click for full, farcically long-ass version): the poor will pay a little more (or a lot more, relative to their income), and the rich will pay a lot less, and the very rich will pay so much less that it takes 9403 vertical pixels to express how much they'll save.

(Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

Weather Check!

Rolling out next week for a nice little ride. Weather check - at least I'll get out of the Kansas Hot!

Chamberlain, SD - 75 and wet
Spearfish, SD - 65 and wet
Red Lodge, MT -50's and wet
Moscow, ID - 60's and wet
Nelson, BC - 70's and wet
Glacier NP - 60's and wet in the valley, 50's and wet up top.

 At least it'll stay above freezing . . .  Seriously glad I'm not camping this trip!

(update 13-June, departing day after tomorrow: No Change. Still Wet.  Sigh.)

What am I doing lately...

Boss wanted a list of what I'm doing these days...
Assorted Roles, Responsibilities

E20 Internal Social Media – Provide VP level consultation, implementation and training for Internal social media efforts on Jive and Sharepoint
Community Technology – Define, drive execution strategy for platform upgrades
Community  Strategy – Contribute and collaborate with team on Community strategy for customer facing site
Community Execution – build custom community layouts, assist team with technical implementation of widgets, layouts
Community Reporting – Execute custom SQL reports for variety of requests
Community Network Space Owner – read, review, respond to network concerns by customers; work with Sprint Network team to identify pain points and deliver communication to customers.
NO&W Leadership Program – VP Core Team Representative for NLP program providing support to mentors and protégées, VP reporting on status, leading internal Social Media efforts for NLP program.
Google Analytics – provide consulting, metrics from Google Analytics for Community and other Sprint.com sites.
Google Webmaster – work with system admin team to optimize Google crawl rate, exclusions for Community and other Sprint sites.
Akamai Admin – Provide technical, implementation, contract and reporting support to IT, Marketing, Sprint.com teams for Akamai Edgesuite content distribution network
Search – Provide technical, implementation, best practices consultation for Google Site Search option; Inquira search of Community.
Support – Provide technical, content, layout and implementation best practices consultation for Support team.
Assorted Web Stuff -  System Admin, network admin, app admin for TheMobe.com and Varacam.com supporting both Sprint.com and Marketing initiatives.
TheMobe.com – provide Drupal / Word press technical assistance to internal teams.

Community Kickoff

"...rally their core supporters to .. seed the community with killer content that will make newcomers feel welcome and pique their interest. Make it irresistible for them to dive right into a vibrant conversation, instead of asking them to create the first content."

- Ian Greenleigh on building uptake on a community.

http://daretocomment.com/breathing-new-life-into-books-with-official-hashtags/

Another Statistically Impropable Phrase

I find the coolest terms that aren't in Google. Before: "mudsucking shitfoot" I used to be the only hit for that phrase.

Now I found another -- "bio viral interface implant", or "BV two eyes" from the book Dome by Michael Reaves and Steve Perry.

Came up on a teleconference today about future phone interfaces. And of course there's no summary or link to explain what it is.

And then the call degenerated into a talk about vajazzling your cellphone.

Nuclear War May Stop Global Warming?

Sorry, what? In 2006, National Geographic posted that, "Even a small nuclear conflict would cause long-lasting global devastation that could kill tens of millions, scientists warned this week."

Then last week, they posted that, "Even a regional nuclear war could spark "unprecedented" global cooling"

Sorry, what? Is global warming such a concern that 'long lasting global devastation' is a reasonable risk?

Hat tip to FerFal for the pointer.

ATT Data Rates for 4G LTE

Was just reading from TiPB about proposed AT&T data rates for their upcoming 4G LTE service. It runs from 5MB/sec to peaks of 12MB/sec. They're offering two tiers - 200MB and 2GB of data. How's that add up?

Go ahead and get the 2GB plan -- it's good for almost an hour at normal speeds (only 22 minutes if you get the max speed). Overages will only cost you $1.10 a minute.

Want to 'save' some money? Their lowest plan ($15 a month) at 200MB will last you 5 minutes and 33 seconds at 'average' speeds (5MB). Just 2 minutes and 13 seconds at peak speed. Overages would range from $2.81 to $6.75 per minute of use. Classic! Just like the good old days of Ma Bell Long Distance rates.

Keep in mind - those are *monthly* plans - you get to use your LTE from ATT for anywhere from 2 minutes a month to almost a whole hour a month before they charge you extra. Isn't that nice?

Mo Bloggin

Wow, native blogging software on the HTC Evo. Nice. Is Blogger becoming relevant again?

Even offers in post photo adding:

Bill of Attainder - not just for civics class anymore

he needs to be prosecuted to the, the fullest extent of the law; and if that becomes a problem, we need to change the law

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Blog Post Wrapup

Lately most of my writing has been on the Sprint Community - I've called out a few of the posts I've written over there if you're interested:

• Spotlight on Sprint Stuff - getting help
  
  
• Social Commerce SEO Benefits
  
  
• Developing Apps for the Samsung Galaxy Tab
  
  
• Vlingo for Android with In Car Mode Review
  
  
• What's in your Social Media Policy?
  
  
• AT&T's Facebook approach
  
  
• A Faceless Corporation Speaks!
  
  
• Complaint Handling on Social Media
  
  
• Campaign or Long Term Engagement
  
  
• What’s Community About Anyway?
  

Social Commerce SEO Benefits

Lots of buzzwords there in the title - but in a nutshell, putting customer generated content on your product pages helps people find your stuff in search engines.  Bazzarvoice hosted a webinar last week featuring Cabelas.  Cabelas has always had a great online catalog, but hasn?t always had great placement in the search engines.  They?ve started featuring the latest 4 or 5 customer reviews directly on the product page.  Many other sites (Sprint included) tend to keep the reviews hidden behind a tab or a sub-modal somewhere.

By placing the customer reviews right on the product page, the search engines index the product and the words real customers use to describe the product.  Instead of having to manually (and often disingenuously) seed your page with the words you think your customers may use to describe your product, you let the customers do it for you.  By putting real world customer words right on the product page you end up with multiple benefits:

• Better search driven traffic - north of double the organic traffic
• Fresher content - the page is updated frequently with customer reviews.  Search engines like fresh content 
• More transparency - you show you aren?t afraid of customer opinions of your product.
• And the above should lead to increased sales and more revenue.

Win - win situation.  You get more traffic and sales, your customers feel more trust in your product and brand.

Where are you using your online product reviews in your site?

What tools or tactics do you use to encourage your customers to contribute reviews and user generated content for your social commerce platform?

Originally posted on the Sprint /meta discussion Community

Adding Value

You can add value in two ways:

• You can know the answers.
• You can offer the questions.

Relentlessly asking the right questions is a long term career, mostly because no one ever knows the right answer on a regular basis.
Via Seth Godin

Designing for Social Media

Jason Falls writes an insightful article on the design of social  media websites on Social Media Explorer.  Great quote (emphasis mine):

There’s a really good reason people love apps, and in particular applications from brands. They are often streamlined and simple versions of a company’s website or serve a specific purpose. There’s no annoying copy in marketing speak, no flash banners slowing down the page load, no pop-ups and, often, no confusion on where to go to get what you want. Why? Because mobile or tablet/iPad apps are supposed to be simple, serve 1-2 purposes and get out of the way.

Which is precisely what most users want from a corporate website.
[...]
Want to make your website kick-***? Build it like you’d build an app. Think of the 1-2-or-3 things your main audience wants from your website, or cool stuff you can give them. Then just deliver that.

http://www.socialmediaexplorer.com/2010/09/01/how-mobile-apps-can-inspire-website-design/

[image courtesy Electrolux Design Lab
http://www.flickr.com/photos/electrolux-design-lab/4730081230/ ]