CareerEnlightenment.com explores the overlap of job search and social media. There is no longer any ignoring the impact an effective social media strategy can have on your career. But most blogs only offer general, and often, outdated advice about what to do about it. Career Enlightenment provides actionable, specific and entertaining tips backed up by real-life stories and statistics. We go way beyond the basics of what social media is and explore strategies, frameworks and new tools to show you how to stand apart from the crowd.
When I was laid off two times in six months back in 2008, I decided it was time to really understand the modern job search. By applying my knowledge of social media to proven job search strategies, I found that I was winding up in the interview chair in a fraction of the time it took my peers.
But it was too soon for me after the layoffs. And so the only images in my head during the job interviews were pictures of getting laid off from yet another great company. Yep. I still had plenty of healing to do. So I decided that while I was recovering, I would help other people who were ready for the job. That’s when I started Career Enlightenment, it was late 2009.
Through research, interviews and case studies, I managed to figure out some of the most important key principles that work in today’s job search. My advice has been published on Forbes, International Business Times and Mashable.
From the blog came opportunities to speak and train other job seekers and career professionals. And through my own use of social media and good old fashioned networking, I found some contacts in Wiley to pitch my book idea. They loved that I had over 100 articles with regular blog readers. The book deal was a no-brainer for them. Job Searching with Social Media For Dummies was published in September, 2011 and continues to be one of the For Dummies group’s best selling titles.
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Guest Posting Guidelines
If you are seeking to have a post you wrote featured on my blog, please follow these guidelines, which I’ve borrow from Ramit Sethi. I will ONLY accept posts which deal directly with social media in the job search, job search technology, job search success stories or reverse engineering recruitment. And I am NOT interested in basic “here’s why social media is good for you” type of lame-o posts. Those add no value to my readers. Give me new ideas, tricks and tips that have proven to work, research and new technologies. Here’s Ramit saying pretty much the same thing only with more eloquence:
I’m thrilled to send lots of traffic to people with interesting ideas — especially up-and-coming bloggers. I’ll speak for myself, although many high-traffic bloggers will tell you the same thing: If your guest post is simply a rehashed old point, it’s dead in the water. Here’s what I look for.
- Original content that tells my readers something new. This is simply the most important factor of all.
- Posts that are backed up by research, charts, data, and expert quotes, not your opinion. It’s easy to write what you think. It’s much harder to produce data that backs up an argument.
- Substantive discussion. Short posts usually get rejected (though there are exceptions).
Common mistakes with guest posts
- Writing the guest post before you pitch me. Please send me multiple story ideas, with bullet-pointed sub-points, and let me suggest the best one for my audience. See sample pitch below.
- Not doing your research. Here’s a 2-part suggestion: (1) Note how I format my posts, then copy it. When I submitted to Tim, for example, I noticed that he uses a large image with a small caption, then long, detailed posts. Here’s my guest post for him. (2) Writing something called “Credit cards are evil!” also reveals that you’ve never read my site and its key messages. Educate yourself. Here’s an over-the-top example of doing research before submitting a guest post — and it works.
- Not sending writing samples. Bloggers are lazy and risk-averse. I don’t want to invest a bunch of time in back-and-forth email exchanges if the end result turns out to be a crappy post that I can’t use, and I don’t want to disappoint you by saying “no” after you put in all that work. If you don’t have writing samples, get some — start by guest-posting on smaller blogs. Always include writing samples — preferably ones written on other blogs — so I can see if your writing style is a good fit.
- Limiting yourself to guest posts in your domain. There’s no reason to. My site isn’t just about personal finance, it’s about entrepreneurship, optimization, lifehacking, etc. If you have an interesting guest post on how you altered your car to make it drive longer, or how politicians get policy wrong, I might be interested. Check out Tim Ferriss’s take on this:
“Trackbacks from diverse leading blogs and guest posts on popular sites like Huffington Post. To the first point, I write on a diverse range of topics, so I can get linked to from more social circles. From muscle building to ultralight travel, I tie it all into a larger concept of ‘lifestyle design.’”
This is a classic application of the Kevin Bacon game, who was the most-connected actor because he had acted in high-value movies, low-value movies, and everything in between (whereas Tom Cruise mostly acts in high-value movies only).
- Submitting trite linkbait. Here’s an example of a post I will never run: “23 reasons equities are doomed!” 99% of list-y articles are idiotic link-bait and will be forgotten by the next day. High-traffic sites, for the most part, want great articles that will stand the test of time.
- Making the blog post all about your opinion. Nobody cares about you. Use research, charts, and expert quotes to back up your argument, and create an interesting thesis. Not convinced? Witness the citations in the back of any Malcolm Gladwell book as evidence. And he’s Malcolm Gladwell. Yeah, it takes work.
- Underestimating how long it takes to write a good post. My post on Tim’s blog (see below) took over 18 hours to write. It sold hundreds of books in 24 hours.
- Including your affiliate links. Just don’t do it. In fact, if you’re linking to another Amazon book, you should add myAmazon code (see next bullet point) to make my life easier.
- Making me do additional work. When you submit the final guest post, it should be fully ready to be inserted into WordPress and it will just magically work. This means you should write your byline, format your post, add images on your own server (but also attach them to the email), and otherwise make it 100% ready to go. More on this here.
The Career Enlightenment Blog
The Career Enlightenment blog is a resource for job seekers looking for comprehensive information about conducting a job search online. Along with other guest writers, we explore practical applications of The New Job Search. Explore our Articles section to see our range of topics.
Speaking
I’m often asked to speak at career-related events for job seekers and career professionals. To learn more about booking me for your audience check out the Services page.
Training
I train career coaches, unemployment office personnel and job seekers on the latest strategies for finding work. See sample proposals, topic sheets and pricing available on the Services page.
For questions about how I can help your organization, please get in touch using the form on the left.
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