All this hoopla about a new “Facebook” and how it was the next wave really excited me!  If fact, I was invited by a few friends to join this + beta network and I could hardly stand my excitement to play with my new toy!   It was like Prince was giving me a new Little Red Corvette and I couldn’t wait to test drive it!

HOW.EV.ER, I was quickly turned off.   I would consider the fact that I haven’t spent enough time on the platform a bias when discussing this topic, but isn’t that the point?  It should be as user friendly as possible to adapt for usability of the features to the early adapters.

It’s no wonder they put a symbol in the name.  It will quickly become the platform formally known as +.  Just makes you want to go, huh?

After that, people got smarter and America got Online. Email, chat rooms, and a/s/l was born! All the while, those entrepreneurs were educating people and showing them how to play Frogger, how to scan pictures, and how to bookmark their favorite porn sites. People were EXCITED!

Then one day, the lines went dark and busy tones were heard round the world. That freaked everyone out, so America left Online and got their own.

The entrepreneurs had been busy though! Friendster was born, the very first social networking site. It put all those things like email, bookmarks, pictures, and profiles in one place! But, Friendster got old and had kids. It birthed MySpace, a retarded cousin of the college educated Facebook.

It wasn’t long before California made smoking illegal and a part-time student, part-time worker had to use facebook to fill their 15 minute breaks. When their employer caught them, they asked what this was all about? Their employer, The Man, used chinese water torture to get all the secrets about Facebook.

The next day, The Man made a Facebook profile. He disguised it using his beautiful wife’s picture, but all he ever talked about was their business. When his wife found out, she was mad! She said, naturally, you should talk to other people and ask how they are too!

So, he did.  Two weeks later he was a billionaire.  And, THAT’s how Social Media Marketing was born!

After recently acquiring a new job (Nature’s Table Franchise, for those of you who aren’t up to speed), my own participation in these borderline addictive outlets came to a screeching halt.  I have been training, reading, and on the road with my latest responsibilities and found that keeping up with the Jones (aka Chris Brogan/Guy K.) is really time consuming and a bit of a hassle!

Soon, I found myself feeling guilty for having neglected my online audience in lieu of my new found lifestyle.  Did people care what I was saying or was that just my own withdraws getting the best of me??

Summary of my online existence.

Regardless of the answer, I now often find myself and my friends doing/saying things with the immediate intent of publishing the content to their “profile.”

How many times in the last year have you heard: “OH!  That has to be your new facebook picture!”
or
“I can’t believe he wrote that on your wall.”

We have become so hypersensitive to syndicating our real lives to our online audience that sometimes its easy to spend more time telling our stories than making them.  Which brings me back to those people… who are still holding out on social media participation.  Do they have the right idea?  Are they having more fun than me because I am handcuffed to this blog? (A lie, by the way, because I haven’t blogged in over a month now.  Slacker.)

I find myself now twitpic-ing everything “fun” that happens… see: Corey Smith Concert and Universal Studios.  I can’t decide if this is a good or bad thing.  I guess as long as the boss doesn’t figure out how to “follow” me on a sick day, its fine for the time being.

This whole social media VS real life scenario makes me think of teens texting each other instead of actually talking.  (Feel free to post your own captions below.)

Boy: “I am sooo getting to 2nd base tonight.”
Girl: “If he touches my butt, I am going to stomp on his foot.”

Primo Example...this is real folks, not iStock

Shout outs to:

1.  My surrogate dentist, Yahaira and sidekick Stephen… who told me I definitely need a root canal, today.

2. All those that have refrained from the MJ pandemonium. He was just a person, not a power source.

3. My Mac- for helping me impress the new employer with improved proposals.

Who:  Nature’s Table Franchise Company

Where: Downtown Orlando

What Role: Franchise Sales Manager- responsible for all sales of new franchise restaurant/bistros/cafe’s internationally. I also oversee all corporate Marketing, PR, Advertising duties…

After this painstaking, yet exciting, journey through unemploymentville… I am happy to say that it was a wonderful experience personally and professionally.  My new place of employment has thus far, really made me appreciate the value of a good team of people and how they can truly make or break your work experience.  I think that I am coming to the realization that no matter what your job is or where, the people can be the most important component.

Question:

Shout outs to:

1.  Megan Hopkins at KForce Professional Staffing for referring me to my new wonderful company!

2.  Rain: for making me thankful for all the sunny florida day’s

3.  Paychex: for finally refilling my bank account after a drought

However, what about all those other nice little perks that give a position it’s silver lining?  Healthcare, Profit Sharing, Retirement funds, Vacation time… etc.   All these things can be added incentives that may influence one’s decision to select one job/company over another.  Or do they?

Question:

While my job search continues into May, I am evaluating each potential company and job offer with extreme detail.  The people, the company, the history, the values, the mission, and the purpose.  If all of those things align with my own, does it ultimately come down to the fringe benefits of a job?

I tried to complete this nice little worksheet that Google provided me, but I guess I am not as smart as a 5th grader.  It seems that this decision can’t be decided by a formula… hrrmph.

Shout outs to:

1.  Daytime TV-  for motivating me to get back in the work force, so I don’t have to watch any more of these ridiculous shows.

2.  Vintage Rollover minutes- allowing me to chat it up more than usual without paying ridiculous amounts for overages.

3.  Orlando Magic- ballers.  literally…

You don’t want to over-shoot the mark, for fear of self elimination from a viable job candidate.  However, you also want to let your interviewer know that:

1. You think highly enough of yourself to warrant an appropriate compensation for your skills
2. You understand your worth VS the job’s ROI to the organization
3. There may be room to grow with that number, based on performance

There is a fine, fine line between overstepping your boundaries/expectations OR selling yourself short of your worth.  In a market where jobs are scarce and candidates are plentiful, do you lower your requirements for compensation?  If so, should you voice that to your potential employer?

When companies are throwing around terms like “leaning out” and “domestically realigning,” this can be quite a hurdle to overcome without shooting yourself in the foot…so to speak.

After being asked this question by multiple parties at various job interviews, I continue to believe that honesty is the best policy (as usual).  My answers usually oscillate between a blunt compensation number or parameters of specific compensation range.  I try not to patronize the question.  I tend to answer with a confident, but understanding tone.

I like to relate this delivery style to a personal trainer asking what you ate today.

You:  “Well, I ate pretty good…but I had a cookie after lunch today.”
Personal Trainer: (look of support, but empathy for your situation)  “Ok, we can deal with that. Let’s get started because we have a lot of work to do.”
You:  “Good…because I can’t take back eating that cookie and it was so delish that it was worth it!”

At least that’s how I like to picture it in my head.  Now, as to how the other party/interviewer sees this scenario playing out is still TBA.  I just continue to hope that after having multiple job offers, I am able to find a nice mix between compensation that reflects my worth, a passion for the organization and position, as well as a healthy verbal appreciation by my potential employer.

Question:

Shout outs to:

1.  The Jimmy Buffet Bus Driver: for making me believe once again in Karma and the goodness of people.  He returned my iPhone, hallelujah!

2. Mexico:  for making the USA look like we are having “good times.”

3.  Ryan Coffey: for continually going out of his way to help me.

Current update based on 20 days progress:

Number of total opportunities that have been referred-  15+
Number of  interviews- 8
Number of follow up interviews- 7
Number of verbal job offers- 4
Number of newspaper articles written- 1

More to come…

Even my Dad wasn’t even all that pumped.  I sent him the link and all I got back was a reply email saying,

“Brit good article I am impressed……….love you DAD”

Literally, that was it.  No phone call or questioning.  Nothing.  I hope I am still in the will.

Not pumped by my "fame"...

Now my Mom on the other hand, kept calling me throughout the day to see if Good Morning America had contacted me about an interview yet.  lol.  She doesn’t get it, but it’s sweet.  Then she asked if I could “twitter” them, to show them the article.  Hey, she understands better than a lot of Marketing Depts.  Redemption.

She hates this pic, but I just love it!

So I guess I should answer some questions that continue to arise:

1.  How did you get that article published?!?!?

Hm.. well I wish I had that much pull.  Fortunately for me, I had a couple people looking out (::cough cough:: @sterlingrafael @elizabethb) after hearing that Etan was writing an article on people losing their jobs and promoting it through social media.  Enter: stage right… Moi. After some questioning and a photographer who came out to my house to snap those awful pics, I made my debut.  Mind you, I had no idea that it would be a front page article…

2.  Why do you have that many Facebook/Twitter “friends”?

Great question.  At just under 1,300 facebook friends and 900ish twitter followers, one might wonder such a thing.  Well, let me preface this answer by saying that I have been using Facebook religiously since 2003.  This was back when it was only for college students and revolved mainly around posting your drunk pics from the weekend before (not that much has changed since…).  Not many people (if any)  fully understood the consequences of social media and being selective about who to accept as a “friend.”

Anyway, fast forward to 2009.  I don’t think I have ever deleted anyone from my friend list, unless for valid reasons (see: ex-boyfriends).  I would actually venture to say that I have met, in person, upwards of 85% of those who are on my friend list.  Not impossible to image over the period of 5 years.  You do the math.

It never struck me though, until having been through this little unemployment phase, that those friends would be so helpful/useful in finding a new dream job.  (I could go on a tangent here about how there are 2 kinds of Facebook users, literal VS networker.  I will save that for another post.)

Oh also, I used both Facebook and Twitter a lot for my previous job.  Sounds weird, I know.

3.  Do you have a job yet?!?!

No.  See the first line of this post.  However, I have had 2 offers and a total of 8 interviews so far, all with follow-ups.  There are others in the works.  Recession, what?  I feel really fortunate to have the ability to be selective about where my next job will be.  I think its a powerful thing when you can find a fit for both you and the company.  Everyone is happy.

Finally, I think that there have been many opportunities to come out of this write up about me and my lack of a day job.  I will say though, it has stirred up quite the hater groups.  I never took into consideration that any publicity comes with both good and bad consequences.  Silly me, I should know better.

Question:

Shout outs to:

1.  Shannon: for dragging my butt to the gym tonight.

2.  Parrot Heads: thanks for the awesome tailgate and concert this weekend, in advance.

3.  My Aunt Renee: for being my first Gen X family member on Facebook. w00t w00t!

Wow.  (And by “famous”, I use that term loosely for these purposes.  Think Kathy Griffin or something…)

Today at 7:20ish I woke up to 4 text messages, 2 facebook emails, and about 3 DM’s from Twitter.  They all went a little something like this “HEY!  Call 106.7 XL because they want to talk to you about your article in the paper!”  Huh?

The radio station had apparently name dropped me and not so coincidentally set off a chain reaction of texts/calls/twitter/facebook messages to my  my new phone (which by the way, I lost my numbers so don’t yell at me for not knowing who you are right away).

Now, I knew something like this article would be making an appearance in the paper today thanks to @etanowitz.  What I didn’t know, is that it would be on the front page and not underneath the “$200 washer/dryer for sale” articles.  Hm, surprise surprise!

A few minutes after the first friend called, I got a message:

So, naturally I looked up their phone number.  My call was greeted by a friendly voice, “HEY! What’s up?!  How are you??”  I was confused by this response, as I had just dialed the main phone number to the radio station.  God bless caller ID.

A short radio interview later and a few dozen text messages of replies from friends, my head was in a spin.  Next step, call Mom.  She said that she too had already gotten a few phone calls about her daughter being in the Orlando newspaper.  Thanks in part to social media, I didn’t have to go about retelling my story to her again. haha.

Who would have thought this could draw so much attention?

As I continue the job search, the bottom line is I am really grateful to have such support and assistance from all my contacts.  I will continue to look for my next career move in hopes that I can better myself and any organization out there looking for a talented employee.  I have some very interesting prospects on the horizon and hope this will turn out to be a positive venture in lieu of my unemployment.

Good luck to anyone out there in my shoes!