Tips And Tricks On How A Small Business Owner Can Hire An Intern

Many small business owners don't know how to hire an intern. They are good at running the business and dealing with clients, but when it comes to hiring interns they just don't have the time or knowledge of what they need to do. Some of the steps that many small business owners get tripped up on are writing a winning job description, figuring out how and where to post the job description, and screening candidate resumes once they have interns applying. If you can get these three steps down, you can be hiring interns for your small business in no time.
The problem with writing a job description for a small business internship is that the intern will probably be working all over the place instead of just one area like marketing for example. A good amount of schools are actually ok with broad ranging internships because it will introduce the intern to a wide variety of work experience. The key is to be as detail oriented as possible with your job description. You should co ver things like: what the learning outcomes for the intern will be, the kind of work the intern will be doing, and why you are hiring interns and how they will benefit your company.
There are many techniques when it comes to posting your internship opportunity. Some small business owners choose to post their internships on mass posting sites like NACElink, UCAN, or LACN. This approach is good because it makes sure that you are going to receive a huge applicant pool. Another popular method that many small business owners use is to post their internships to individual schools. Many small business owners hire interns this way because it lets them control the quality and type of students that can apply. It is also very rewarding when you can hire interns from your alma mater.
The final step in hiring interns is to screen through all of the resumes. If you wrote a really good job description and followed an effective job posting strategy then you should be receiving a large number of applicants. The standard approach that many small business owners take is to separate resumes into three separate piles for yes, no, and maybes. We prefer to take our resume screening process one step further and add a resume screening tool. A resume screening tool can be something basic like a requirement to write a cover letter or a small about me paragraph. What you are looking for here is not the greatest cover letter ever, but the ability for the intern to follow directions. This extra little step helps insure that the best students are applying for your position.
Every small business owner should look into hiring interns because it is a very effective way to help grow and expand your business. When writing your job description, always remember to be as detailed and honest as possible. Next, choose the job posting approach that will allow you to hire the best interns for your small business. Finally, add in an extra little resume screening tool to make sure you are receiving high quality applicants.





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Everyone is a "Small Business Owner" so Build Your Brand

Most business owners' primary focus is to grow their business. To do so, many focus on messaging, branding, public relations and stellar service/products to drive repeat business.

All of these strategies and tactics work to bolster business development. But, why not take business development a step further and develop a personal marketing plan for yourself? Of course most successful companies/organizations have a marketing plan, but what about a personal marketing plan to build your brand and cultivate business?

Do you think of yourself as a small business owner? Probably not if you're not literally the owner. In many professional services firms, individuals strive to become partners or shareholders; others participate in profit sharing and stock programs. In essence they are "small business owners." This concept can apply to anyone who's serious about their career with some entrepreneurial spirit: "the company of me" and I'm the owner.

Once you are a small business owner, suddenly your mindset and effectiveness magically change. As a public relations professional, I've seen this consistently when collaborating with clients to develop personal marketing plans. "Small business owners" take business development more seriously and personally. It's no longer the job of the "other guys who know more people" to bring in the business.

Since many organizations get much of their business from personal referrals, the foundation of a personal marketing plan is about increasing your network, developing relationships and building your circle of influence. When people know you, they are more likely to remember you when they - or others in their sphere of influence need your services.

Individuals can develop their "brand" with a customized mission statement and blueprint. Then research, facilitate and make things happen. Sample elements include:

Become a professor of Lunch 101, 201, building to 301: Strategically reconnect with people and meet new desirable "leaders"

Be a connoisseur of meetings: Go to those in town and out of town that your "dream clients" attend Join a community/civic organization - something you are passionate about, or you won't do it. Seek out your most prestigious organizations/trade groups; be a speaker at their next conference Find the "best" program/event for your company to sponsor and make it happen.

"Small business owners" are very resourceful. They make things happen. They seek out experts to help them achieve their goals. Why not become a small business owner today?

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Technology and 21st Century Small Business Owners

When I received my marketing degree 10 years ago, the coursework did not include classes for the types of marketing media that are available today. Having a website then was not as important as it is today. Although we had computer classes, how to design and build a website wasnt included in the syllabus. How to create effective e-mail marketing campaigns and design e-newsletters were not being taught. The choice of marketing strategies 10 years ago included distributing fliers, word of mouth, radio and television advertising, posting ads in newspapers, Yellow Page listings, and sales letters. Technology has changed how 21st Century small business owners (SBO) market their products and services, as well as their options of communication tools.

Nowadays, 21st Century small business owners marketing strategies include e-mail marketing campaigns, e-newsletters, Google AdWords, writing articles and blogs, participating in target markets forums, and online networking, to name a few. However, word of mouth is yet the most effective and efficient marketing medium. If a small company has a large enough budget, some of the marketing strategies and media of yesterday can still be used. Technology, however, has leveled the playing field. Small business owners have the option of online marketing, which is less costly than the traditional offline methods.

Technology has also changed how businesses communicate. Ten years ago, the only choices were snail mail, fax machines, and telephones. Now, a 21st Century small business or large corporation choices include Skype, e-mail, digital computer camera (webcam), teleconference or virtual meetings, video e-mails, Instant Messaging (IM), GoToMeeting, and GoToMyPC. Skype is software that allows you to use the Internet, headset or speakers, and a microphone to place phones calls around the world. With e-mail software, documents can be sent between recipients as e-mail attachments. Webcam and the Internet are used to perform teleconferences or virtual meetings between two or several people. Webcam is also used for creating videos for video e-mails. IM is real-time conversation between two or more people using typed text and the Internet. Yahoo and MSN provide the software for instant messaging capabilities. 21st Century small business owners have the ability to schedule and atte nd online meetings with GoToMeeting software and the Internet. Using GoToMyPC, a business owner is able to access his or her PC from anywhere with a web browser or wireless device. In addition, if the owner has a virtual administrative assistant who needs to access his or her desktop to perform certain administrative tasks, the assistant would be able to with GoToMyPC software.

Thus, technology has made it possible for SBO to have administrative assistance without the person being present in their offices. These administrative assistants are known as Virtual Assistants. Technology allows administrative assistants to provide their services virtually. Virtual assistants are business owners also; therefore, they are able to anticipate the business owners needs, which make the working relationship beneficial and viable.

Technology has provided 21st Century small business owners with the ability to operate similarly to large corporations. Now SBO can afford to market their products and services. In addition, their budget can accommodate retaining the services of a Virtual Assistant, which will cost less than hiring an onsite administrative assistant. In the last 10 years there have been a lot of changes in how 21st Century small business owners conduct marketing, as well as the choices of communication tools that are available due to technology.

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5 Smartphone Apps for Small Business Owners

Smartphones do more than show movies, update Facebook and provide driving directions. They provide a powerful platform that can help small business owners do more in less time and with fewer resources. To help businesses owners, here are 5 smartphone apps that can help them develop the habit of using smartphones to make their business run better.

Square

With Square, small businesses can accept credit card payments using a card reader attached to their smartphone. Square serves as a transaction processing agent that deposits collected funds on the following business day. Perfect for selling at flea markets, trade shows and at customer sites, Square makes it possible for any business owner to sell almost anything anywhere they have access to a wireless data connection.

CamScanner
Businesses require much paperwork, so an app scans receipts, invoices, black boards, handwritten notes and other papers can help a business owner with recordkeeping. CamScanner uses the iPhone camera to make it a document scanner that can crop, tag, scan, print, store and share vital information for any business.

Evernote

As one of the most popular smartphone apps small business owners use, Evernote rarely disappoints. This application clips Web information, bookmarks, notes, voice recordings, photos and more and stores in a user's online account. Users can access this information from their tablet, laptop and desktop computers. The ability to save and share content from multiple platforms helps business owners always have access to the information they need.

Google Voice

Small business owners need to keep costs low, and Google Voice can help. It provides a second phone number for mobile phones and introduces powerful call-managemen t and voicemail features. Without the need to buy expensive business phones, small businesses can use Google Voice to become more competitive.

Scatterslides

Carrying a laptop everywhere a business owner needs to show a presentation can feel awkward and look old fashioned. Scatterslides allows users to show their presentation on large from a smartphone connected to any Wi-Fi network. Business owners can create their presentations using Microsoft Office or OpenOffice. Equipped with Scatterslides, smartphones also act as a remote control so presenters can sit or stand anywhere in the room while they present their slides.

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To special educate or not (Part 1)

To special educate or not . . .

For many reasons we as a society and educational institution cant accept that some kids will always be behind. One reason for this that you dont hear discussed is grade levels, which have a negative cumulative effect for roughly half the school population. In college everybody has heard of or learned about the bell curve; which tells us it is normal and expected to have a range of abilities. Yet it amazes me how society, politicians, and educators seem to forget this fact. In education classes teachers even learn that in a given class you can expect a six year grade range. In other words, in a 5th grade class there will be kids with reading levels ranging from 2nd through 8th grades. Time out; did anybody ever tell the general public this? Also, how did this information apparently get erased from the memories of every professional working in the schools? Getting back to grade levels, consider this. The bell curve tells us that half the children will be below average. So in any grade, half the students will be behind. Think about when students start out in first grade. Half of the students will leave first grade below average (or below their peers), or below where they should be at the end of first grade. This cycle continues for most of these kids school years because they dont catch up. And we wonder why so many kids drop out when they reach high school? They have already experienced years of failure. Grade levels tell them, and remind them daily that they are failures. If you dont think so, try explaining to them year after year why they are behind.

Another way society has denied the real-life differences among children and tried to deal with the crippling effects of grade levels is through special education. The development of the categories of special education was influenced more by politics and social pressures than by research. Even today, the few categories that include the vast majority of children in special education (Leaning Disability) are highly subjective in their definitions and decisions of who is labeled and placed into special education. Research into the effectiveness of special education has shown that once a child is placed (get a label), his/her chances of graduating greatly decrease. Of course, nobody tells parents this at an IEP meeting! The child in special education receives an Individualized Education Program (IEP), which sounds impressive. Who wouldnt want an education program tailored to their needs? Well, the problem is that the goals in an IEP are at a level far below his grade placement. Whats even worse is that most of these students never get up to grade level, or catch up. So what happens when one of these children gets to high school and theyre still reading at a third grade level? I have been in many uncomfortable meetings trying to explain this to parents. But hey, they have a label, and have received professional help, so its ok to be years behind, or sometimes even nearly illiterate. The IEP becomes a license to fail.

Special education is just a reflection of the problem with our unrealistic expectations. We cant accept the fact that some kids will always be behind, no matter what we do. Since the 1970s, when the government passed massive special education legislation, the numbers have swelled, and it has been plagued with controversy. Its interesting once again how people in education so readily accept research when it seems acceptable, or they are told by the higher ups that they will accept it, but when its to the contrary educators and legislators turn the other way. The research has shown for a long time now that special education is not working. Kids who are in special education dont catch up, and they are more likely to drop out. I believe this research because I see it every day. Another thing the research tells us is that there are no clear and consistent interventions (treatments) that distinguish the children identified with the disabilities that represent the majority of kid s in special education. The disabilities that comprise the majority of kids in special education are Learning Disabled, Mentally Impaired, Emotionally Disturbed/Behavior Disorder, and Other Health Impaired (this one has so many kids because ADHD falls under it). In other words, when an Individualized Education Program (IEP) is made for these children, which specifies the goals and objective of how each child will be taught, they differ very little from disability to disability. A learning disabled (LD) childs IEP will look very much like a mentally impaired (MI) childs IEP, and so on, with all the various comparisons. And I believe this research because I have seen thousands of IEPs. The interventions always involve something like repetition, a multisensory approach (hearing and seeing it, and hands on), having directions read to them, and extended time limits. If you looked at a childs IEP goals and objectives, and didnt know their eligibility, you would have a very hard ti me figuring out what their eligibility (disability) was. What it really boils down to is we are bringing the material down to their level. If a learning disabled child is reading at a second grade level, he will have the same (or very similar) goals and objectives as a mentally impaired child reading at a second grade level. What needs to happen is that we need to teach kids at whatever level their at (remember the bell curve); but we have to stop pretending that all kids are the same, and hiding as many of the ones that we can get away with that arent at grade level or behaving in special education. This is malpractice and we have to stop doing it.

After special education legislation in the 70s it was common for schools to have self-contained classrooms. These are classrooms in which special education students spend most or all of their school day. The class size is small, with paraprofessionals to assist the teacher. As with many things in our society, there were more than enough researchers and experts to provide the proof demonstrating the reasons and benefits for these classrooms. Well in the 90s this all changed with self-contained classrooms being gutted from school districts. When I started in the field in 1990, I worked under a principal who had already been in education for about 25 years. He told me how they (people in education) had worked so hard to get these classrooms and now they were getting rid of them. And of course the experts had all the research to show why we needed to get rid of these classrooms. I guess they got it wrong the first time? I dont know, but maybe somebody should tell the taxpayer! The research and experts once again helped lead us on another humongous, costly wild goose chase, which only delayed the inevitable. For years the learning and progress of students who were learning and behavior problems were sheltered and protected from scrutiny and real accountability. Basically, as long as you had an IEP it was OK to be far behind all of your school years. And if your behavior was so bad that you werent learning, that was OK because you had an IEP. I know this sounds harsh and cruel, but dont misunderstand me. Teachers, schools, and districts were doing what they could, and trying to work within the rules they were given to try and educate these problem children. As more kids were becoming more problematic, the schools were expected to deal with them. So kids were often given a label, and any label would do. By the 90s it became obvious that there were too many kids in special education. After all, how could there be that many disabled children? So of co urse the research was provided to show that self-contained classrooms and labeling were actually detrimental to these children. Nevertheless, the reason the number of children in special education was growing is because there was a growing number of children that the regular education classrooms could not deal with. But that didnt matter, and we were pressured to reduce the number of kids in special education!

More to come on this topic.

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Resume

How to Make a Resume

Because of the volume of resumes employers receive; most of them now use some kind of resume tracking or applicant tracking system. This automates many of the tasks necessary for tracking candidates, and also makes it possible for an employer to find a resume they received months or years later. As a result of the technologies used, its important to keep your resume in a certain format that will be correctly read and interpreted by the systems. This used to be referred to as a "scannable" resume because of the hardware that used to scan paper resumes into the computer. Now, career websites and resumes received via email are "parsed" and stored in a database.
Once your resume is stored electronically, employers use keywords to match the stored resumes with their open positions. In order to find the resumes, employers (and recruiters) use keyword searches, usually a boolean search.
Because of the technologies involved in parsin g the resume, it is important to keep the format of your resume very simple and somewhat plain. This means that you should generally avoid fancy fonts, graphics and and other "special effects" that dont always make it through the technologies correctly, at least for your electronic resume (you might want a more elaborate version to hand out at job fairs, but it really isn't necessary). A resume that is not formatted correctly wont appear in a search for matching keywords, which greatly reduces your chances of landing interviews. I have seen some resumes come through with "gibberish" as a result of the writer trying to use charts or pictures on their resume.

Resume Format >>>
Here are some practical tips for formatting your resume:
Use a simple font. Do not use a decorate font. Times New Roman and Arial parse most accurately and are the "standard" fonts for business communication, which your resume is.
Use a standard font size. For business communications, fonts of 10 and 12 points are the norm.
Avoid using charts, pictures, tables or graphs in your resume. These rarely make it through. If you have information that needs to be in that format, consider an addendum to your resume or, perhaps, a web page that you have created that stores the information, with a link to the web page from your resume.
If you are applying for a job where it's important to show off your formatting or creative skills to land a job, such as a Web Designer or Graphic Artist position, distribute copies of your fancy paper resume at interviews. Better yet, send both a fancy and plain resume format, or create a fancy Web resume and portfolio, and include the URL in your emailed resume or cover letter
Technical Resumes - Tips, Samples, Examples and Templates

Your resume remains one of the most important components of your job search. A well written resume that gives the employer an accurate vi ew of your skills will help you stand out from the crowd. Here are links to some of my favorite resume tips, resume samples and free resume templates. I have also included links to some actual resumes of employees I have hired in the past for various technical companies.

Resume Writing Tips - How Not To Write a Resume
A recent poll of technical recruiters and hiring managers asked for the top "pet peeves" - things they see on resumes and cover letters that make them less interested in speaking with a candidate. These make great examples of how not to write your resume.
Use of the current "tense" in all jobs on the resume.
Writing the resume or cover letter in the third person.
Too many grammar and spelling mistakes.
Use of tiny, tiny fonts (10 pt or less) so as to cram as much information into the resume as possible.
Photos on resumes (this is a cultural preference).
A listing of their personal interests and activitie s.
Sending a resume attachment named 41808res.doc - use your name or descriptive label.
Writing the resume using table formats (columns).
Using a resume that is password protected (without sending the password).
Including references - but not professional ones - just friends and co-workers.
Having no contact information on the resume or including a phone number that is no longer valid.
When a candidate's email address is not appropriate for the work environment. Example: BigFoxyMama@.com
Resumes that are too long. Most seem to feel that general descriptions pertaining to work history for the last 10 years is sufficient.
Resume stuffing, for example, listing of every software application you've ever touched as a "skill".
Education written so its not clear if the degree was obtained.
Job hopping, which could be contract positions but it's not explained. (If you have been on short term contracts, make sure yo u clarify that they are contract jobs).


Top 7 Tips for Effective Resumes
Ever hear the saying "you never get a second chance to make a first impression?" Your resume gives a potential employer a powerful message about what kind of employee you would be. With only a few seconds to capture the attention of the reader and showcase your extensive skills, you need to make the most of your resume. Read on for resume tips and tricks.
1. Resume Tip 1: Spell Check and "Reality Check"
Before you submit your resume, make sure you give it a spell check using your word processing software. After you spell check it, have someone else give it a quick "reality check" to make sure that the spell checker didn't miss anything and to make sure that you didn't make a mistake that your computer can't catch. It is important that you get a second set of eyes to look over the document that could be responsible for your next job.
2. Resume Tip 2: Not Too Long, But Not Too Short
How long should your resume be? This is always a tough call. Some experts believe a one page resume is the perfect length. I would disagree, unless you really have few skills and experiences to share. Go into enough detail to give an accurate view of your skills, but not so long that the reader falls asleep. You do not need to list every project you have ever worked on. Summarize, but be inclusive.
3. Resume Tip 3: Formatting Counts
Have 2 versions of your resume available. One to be viewed online, and one to be handed out at in-person interviews and job fairs. Fancy formatting with pretty fonts, lines, boxes and bullet points just does not make it through on most computers. Anything you send or submit online should have very basic formatting (spacing and paragraph breaks, for example).
4. Resume Tip 4: Keywords are Key
When an employer searches a database, they use keywords. In general, they expect the results to be r epresentative of what they are searching for. This should mean a couple of things to the resume writer:
Include relevant keywords in your resume, because this is how you will be found.
Don't stuff your resume with keywords that are not relevant of your experience. A list of keywords that do not represent your expertise should be avoided.

Check out How to Make a Resume for more on keywords.
5. Resume Tip 5: Include the Basics
A technical resume should include the following information sections.
An objective: 1-2 sentences describing what you want, customize this for the job you are applying for.
Education: Any degrees you have completed or are working on, as well as relevant classes or certifications. Only include your GPA if it is very high.
Experience: List your past employers and/or major projects you have worked on. Start with the most recent.
Technology Summary: List only the technologies you know well.
6 . Resume Tip 6: Have Multiple Versions
If you are in more than one role (or have skills that may fit more than one role) you should have multiple versions of your resume available that highlight those skills. For example, if you have years of experience as a software engineer, and also have project management expertise, have two resumes: one highlighting your software engineer experience and another highlighting your project management experience.
7. Resume Tip 7: Make Your Resume Viewable
Recruiters and hiring managers like to search and "source" for candidates. If your resume (or bio) is not someplace where an employer can find it, then they don't know you exist. In addition to the regular job boards.

Resume Writing - Guidelines for New Grads

Resume Writing A Guide for New Grads

Purpose of Resume Writing
When you are writing your resume, it is important to keep in mind the purpose of the resume. The resume is meant to spark interest in you as a candidate. Your resume writing should be with the intent to get an interview, not a job offer. It is not meant to list every single course, skill or accomplishment you have. Remember, resumes get interviews, not jobs.
The resume should do the following:
Create a positive first impression. This is done by showcasing your communication skills and making the resume easy to read. The resume should be succinct and easy to follow.
Tell who you are. When you are writing your resume, you are telling the reader who you are and why they should consider you for a position.
Describe what you have learned. Especially for a new grad, your resume should highlight the courses and projects that are applicable for the job you hope to be hired for.
List your accomplishments. Your resume should highlight any special accomplishments you have achieved. If you made a 4.0 while working full time, were awarded a special scholarsh ip, or received special recognition of some kind, it should be listed under your accomplishments.
In order to make your resume pleasant and easy to read, you will want to follow some resume format guidelines. The resume format is important because you want to make sure to keep the readers interest and, ultimately, be called for the interview. A poorly formatted resume, one that is hard to read, contains many errors, or doesnt flow well, is not likely to accomplish your goal.
Resume Format General Guidelines
The following guidelines follow typical resume format and business letter writing standards. These a general resume format rules:
Font size of 10 or 12
Perfectly typed with about a 1 inch margin (even if sending via email, since it will likely be printed out)
Use only one font. You may vary size for emphasis, if necessary.
Do not use different font styles. If you need to call attention to something, you can bold it, but use this sparingly.
Avoid all-capital letters and italics as they are difficult to read.
Resume Format - Section Titles
Begin your resume with a heading which includes your name, address, phone number and email address. This is usually centered at the top or left justified.
Omit personal information such as age, sex, or marital status.
The resume objective states the position type you are seeking. It looks very professional if you tailor the objective to the position you are applying for. Other than that, don't make this section too narrow.
A well organized technical skills or career skills section can be placed after the objective. This should include skills in which you are at least proficient.
The education section should identify your training by listing the university(s) attended with degree(s) conferred, major, and grade point average.
The work experience section comes next and details the most recent positions or areas of ex pertise first and continues in reverse chronological order. Project experience can be listed here if you don't have any formal work experience. I also see many graduates add internships and their larger projects in this section.
The accomplishments section comes last and highlights specific areas in which you have excelled, including leadership activities, memberships, and honors or awards.
Before Writing Your Resume
Before you sit down to write your resume, it is helpful to think through a couple of points. The first is to think in keyword terms, because employers will use them to search for resumes.
Some general keyword examples:
Ability to ... (delegate, supervise, etc.), analytical ability, detail oriented, problem solving, results oriented, communication skills, team leader, lead
Some technology industry examples:
Software, systems, UNIX, Linux, SQL, Oracle, java, .NET, Operating System, CAD, Mechanical systems, Design, OO Programm ing, SDLC, coded, programmed, administered, engineer, programmer, developer, network, Cisco, Microsoft
Tips for Resume Design
The following tips for resume design will help ensure that your resume is easy to read and can be parsed to a resume database properly.
Keep the resume design simple. Using a standard resume template will help with this.
Use standard font styles (Times New Roman and Arial are standard.
Use a font size from 10 to 14. Font sizes of 10 and 12 are standard, with some titles and headings in a larger font.
Avoid 'fancy' styles (italics, underline, bold, fancy fonts etc.).
Do not use horizontal or vertical lines, graphics, charts, tables or boxes. They don't parse well to resume databases and they often print out looking funky.
Use bold fonts for section headings.
Use common names for section headings (i.e., Education, Experience, Technical Sills, etc.)
Put your name at the beginning of the res ume, with contact information on separate lines, immediately following the name. I cannot tell you how frustrating it is to have to read through the entire resume to find an email or phone number.
Avoid abbreviations, except for popular acronyms.
Be concise in your descriptions of projects and work experience. Longer is not necessarily better!
After the Resume
After the resume is written, make sure to proofread. See these Resume Tips for more ideas that will help ensure your resume gives the best first impression possible!
Print the resume out, to see how it looks for a manager that might prefer hard copies. Adjust any spacing as necessary. You will want printed resume copies to take with you to job fairs and interviews.
Sample Resume - Experienced New Grad Resume Sample
Resume Sample - New Grad
This resume sample is from an experienced new grad. Use this resume sample as a guide for writing your own resume.

James Shah
1255 University Avenue
Sacramento, CA -95825
(916) 555-1111
jshah@email dot com

Objective
To obtain a challenging internship/full time position in the field of Computer Science and Software Engineering.

Education
M.S. in Computer Science, California State University, Sacramento, CA, USA GPA- 3.7/4.0
B.E in Computer Engineering, C.U.Shah Engineering College, India GPA-3.8/4.0
Skills Inventory
Programming Languages: BASIC, C, C++, VB6.0, PROLOG, COBOL, VC++, HTML, DHTML, J2EE, JSP, JAVA, ASP, ASP.NET, C#.NET, PHP, XML,JCL
Communication/Network Protocols : TCP/IP, Mobile IP, VoIP, 802.11
Operating Systems: UNIX, Linux, SUN Solaris, Windows NT, Windows 2000 server, HP-UX ,Mainframe
Database: Oracle 8i, SQL, MS Access 2000, FoxPro, Microsoft SQL server 2000, MySql server 5.0, DB2

Experience:
Intern Data Analyst, May 06-sep 06, Vision Service Plan (VSP):
Migration of Metadata web site:
Phase 1: Move the Old Web Site to new IIS server: Since the Metadata web site was running on old IIS box, we were facing the speed and crashing issues everyday. So the first phase of this project was to move the current structure of Metadata web site which is ASP pages and MS Access Database to new server.
Phase 2: Migrate the Database from Access to DB2: Due to the business need and reliability issues, Data base of Metadata was migrated from Access Data base to DB2 Database. I was responsible for designing the new database schema, conversion of all the queries into the DB2 compatible format, as well as change the ASP code to fetch correct data using DB2 database.

Phase 3: Change the Front end: To make the Metadata web site more user friendly, I have re design all the ASP pages and added some extra facilities which can help the user to find information easily. The new front end is more organized and meets all the standards of VSP intranet.
Projects

Data mart design and implementation for Engineering Dept of CSUS (M.S. Project): To maintain the quality education of CSUS, design the web site and accept the feed back from the users i.e. faculty, students and workers about the quality of education, current majors offered by CSUS, Courses offered, Lab facilities as well as the education level of faculty members using ASP.NET and store that data into data mart using OLAP facilities of Analysis Manager of Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and generate useful reports using Pivot tables of MS Excel. The current statistics are on MS Access 2000.

Data link layer: Designed and implemented a data link layer services using UNIX and C Socket utilities. The Project provides all the functionalities of the data link layer like flow control, error control using CRC-16 protocol, piggybacking, and compression using algorithm at client and server.
Executi on of the Instruction Using Pipelining: Using Hardware Language, Verilog, implement the 5 stages of the pipeline with nop as a detection and correction of the data hazard between multiple instructions, which are executing simultaneously in the pipelining and also generate the corresponding control signal using hardwired and microcode logic.

Voice Recognition: Software that can recognize the voice identifies the pitch of the tone and makes a graph of the comparison, and telephony application to record your messages. Online Hotel Booking: Developing a 3-tier application for hotel booking using J2EE, JSP, JDBC, My SQL Server 4.1 and HTML, Tomcat Server.
Design basic Compiler Utilities Using SML: For a given source code and grals grammar definition, provide parsing which can convert the given source code into abstract syntax, provide static semantic to validate the given code, provide dynamic semantic to generate the desirable result for given source code.
Solv e problem definition using various Algorithms: Develop various Algorithms such as Divide and Conquer, Backtracking, Dynamic Programming, Branch and Bound to solve given problem.

Design SRS for Iguana Vision Inc.: As a part of SDLC, Design the SRS document to specify the functional and non-functional requirements as they pertain to the intended product to be designed by Iguana Vision, Inc for Single Medical Provider Franchise. The scope of this document is to describe the proposed inputs, outputs, problems, proposed logical & technical solutions to those problems and project management aspects which can help to take design, development and validation related decisions. Here Client wishes to expand their medical practice by providing a single provider franchise license with turn key software to manage the business. One key portion of business management is the scheduling and management of client appointments for different types of services using Use case diagram, ER D, Data Dictionary, Class Diagram and UML modeling.
Relevant Courses:
Mobile Computing
Programming Language Principles
Advanced Computer Networks
Database Design
Data Model &Data Management System
Data warehousing and Data Mining
Software Engineering
Telecommunication Network Management
Algorithm and Paradigms
Computer Architecture
Data Mining and Data warehouse
Honors & Activities
Presented a National Level Paper on "Hacking" at C. U. Shah College of Engineering and Technology, Surendranagar, India.
Lead the Technical Committee in and organized Technophile State level symposium.
PROFILE: Sincere, Hardworking, Self Motivated, excellent written & oral communications skills, quick-learner, Team-Player, Able to adapt to new work environments & situations, possesses responsible leadership qualities.

Example of a Software Engineer Resume

oe Employee
555 Main Street
Sacramento, CA 95628
myname@myemail dot com
(555)555-1111


SUMMARY
A results-driven, customer-focused, articulate and analytical Senior Software Engineer who can think "out of the box". Strong in design and integration problem solving skills. Expert in Java, C#, .NET, and T-SQL with database analysis and design. Skilled in developing business plans, requirements specifications, user documentation, and architectural systems research. Strong written and verbal communications. Interested in a challenging technical track career in an application development environment.
Experienced in:
Engineering web development, all layers, from database to services to user interfaces
Supporting legacy systems with backups of all cases to/from parallel systems
Analysis and design of databases and user interfaces
Managing requirements
Implementing software development life cycle policies and procedures
Managing and supporting multiple projects
Highly adaptable in quickly changing technical environments with very strong organizational and analytical skills


EMPLOYMENT

E*Trade Financial, Sacramento, CA July 2002 Present

Software Engineer (Customer Service Systems)
Re-engineered customer account software systems used by brokerage teams. Web developer for user interfaces to trading inquiries, support parallel systems.
Developed and implemented new feedback system for users concerns, bugs, and defect tracking regarding use and functionality of new interfaces.
Coded web designed interfaces using Java, XML, XSL, AJAX, and JWS.
Support system for existing intranet for employees, including designing and developing the Advantage@Work system company wide.
Code and support provided through ASP.NET, T-SQL, Microsoft SQL Server, and Oracle 9i.
C ollaborated in the development of in-house development of new banking software interfaces. Supported existing legacy system to provide newly created cases and insured they were available in the systems in parallel until legacy systems were retired.
Intel Corporation, Folsom, CA Jan 2000 Jul 2002
Systems Programmer (Remote Servers and SSL Product Analyst)
Deployed and tested Remote Installation Services(RIS)-Server Installs on Windows XP.
Focused deployment of Server builds and handled some client builds.
Modified Visual Basic applications for use in post-server builds for customizing builds.
Researched RIS and Active Directory for future deployment world-wide. Presented findings to both the Networking Operating System Network Technology Integration team and the Microsoft Joint Development Team (JDP) at Intel. Produced a document binder for RIS and Active Directory to follow the project to the next team representative.
Wrote bi-m onthly progress reports, participated in weekly staff meetings and JDP team meetings designed to develop white paper processing.
Provide technical support to the SSL team, managing inventory.
Participated in testing and use of new SAP system as it was integrated into Intel.
Managed Chipset products for IO Business Units.
CSU Chico, Chico, CA 2000 2002
Business Department (Visual Basic Teaching Assistant)
Computer Science Department (Supervisor MS Office Suite Teaching Assistant)
Supervised all lab assistants, guiding them with student project development.
Provided one-to-one guidance with Visual Basic programming instruction techniques.
Wrote small program projects for assignments.
Presented structured learning labs where students could ask questions regarding Visual Basic Programming construct and syntax.
Prepared structured teaching guides pertaining to chapter material that complimented the lectures by the professor.
Provided customized software for tracking student progress throughout the semester. It included reporting for the professor on assessments, projects, homework, lab work, attendance, and overall grades.


SOFTWARE SKILLS
Experience with:
Databases: MySQL, Oracle, Access, SAP
Software: Microsoft Office, Remedy, Microsoft SQL Server, DB Artisan, Eclipse, Visual Studio.NET, FrontPage
Languages: C#, Java, Visual Basic, ASP, XML, XSL, JWS, SQL, and T-SQL
EDUCATION

CALIFORINA STATE UNIVERSITY, Chico, CA
BS Computer Science/ Business Minor
4.0/4.0 GPA
COLLEGE OF THE SISKIYOUS, Weed, CA
AS Computer Science

3 sample of General resume

Sample: Resume


FirstName LastName
87 Washington Street
Hopedale, NY 11233
Phone: 555-555-5555
Email: xxxxx@xyz.edu

EDUCATION

XY Z UNIVERSITY
Hopedale, NY: BA, American Studies
Cumulative GPA: 3.93

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY STUDY ABROAD
University of Trier, Germany (Summer 2005)

AMERICAN UNIVERSITY
Washington, DC: Washington Semester in American Politics (Spring 2004)

RESEARCH AND ANALYTICAL EXPERIENCE

U.S. Department of Education
Intern, Office of the Deputy Secretary (Spring 2005)
Generated concise written synopses of current legislative action for use by the Department, Congress members, and the general public through the ED website.
Researched and presented to policymakers several successful school design and construction projects to support the Administration Schools as Centers of Community proposal.
Washington Semester Independent Research Project
American University (Spring 2004)
Examined how the increasing dependence of needy students on federal loans instead of grants for higher education has affected college access and enrollment; culminating in 65-page paper
Historical Society of Saratoga Springs
Research Assistant (Spring 2003)
Researched archival materials, wrote text panels and selected objects for a historical exhibit on Saratoga in the 1930s

LEADERSHIP EXPERIENCE

Vice President/Academic Affairs
Student Government Association, XYZ University (2003-2004)
Chaired 60-member body representing each academic department and student perspectives on curricular issues
Participated in college-wide policy decisions concerning such ethical issues as the sale of cigarettes on campus
Made detailed oral and written presentations of curricular reform actions in public student fora
Presidential Search Committee
XYZ University (2002-2004)
Served as one of two students on a college-wide committee to nominate the sixth President of XYZ University, through all stages including:

o A detailed self-study of institutional needs and goals to determine selection criteria
o Search for, and hire of, a higher-education specialty consultant
o Written evaluation of each applicant, interviews and final recommendation to the Board of Trustees
Honors Forum Council
Student Body Representative, XYZ University (2001-2002)
Set goals and guidelines for the first two years of Skidmore?019s innovative, comprehensive honors program whose mission is to increase intellectual engagement and academic rigor in students?019 freshman and sophomore years

ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES

Student Alumni Society: Founding Member (2002-present)
Committee on Academic Freedoms: Student Representative (2002-present)
Skidmore Orchestra: French Horn (2001-present)
American Studies Club: Secretary (2001-present)

COMPUTER/LANGUAGE SKILLS

Prof icient in written and spoken German
Extensive experience with Internet Explorer, HTML, Lexis-Nexis and Microsoft Office

Sample 2: Resume

FIRSTNAME LASTNAME
67-61 75th Street
Any town, NY 00000
(555) 555-5555 xxxxxxxxxx@aol.com 87 Washington Street
Hopedale, NY 11233
(555) 555-5555
xxxxxxx@xyz.edu

________________________________________

EDUCATION

XYZ University
Bachelor of Arts, May 2000
Major: Psychology. Minor: Studio Art
Hopedale, NY

BRITISH AMERICAN COLLEGE OF LONDON
Student during the semester of Spring 1999 London, ENGLAND


EXPERIENCE

Fall 1999 AMERICA READS PROJECT
Tutor
Assisted children ages 6-7 with the fundamentals of reading
Aided with capitalization, punctuation and printing
Read stories aloud, entreating children to addr ess content
Helped with other activities, from math assignments to art projects
Eased frustration by providing support and encouragement Hopedale, NY
1997-1999 XXX CAREER SERVICES

Office Assistant

Gathered alumni career surveys and updated hundreds of data files utilizing Microsoft Access
Maintained employer literature and credential, counseling and recruiting information files
Compiled materials needed for mailing of credential requests
Performed various administrative duties Hopedale, NY
Summer 1999 CITYARTS, INC.
Intern
Researched corporate and foundation funding sources, using resources at the Foundation Center
Drafted preliminary correspondence with possible philanthropists
Prepared grant applications and supporting materials
Helped with fundraising events such as benefit auction
Provided general office support New York, NY
Summer 1999 MUSEUM OF AFRICAN ART< /p>

Artist Assistant

Supervised young participants in painting workshop
Aided children in the creative process by providing support with painting
Assisted the lead artist in all phases of project implementation, from hanging canvases to cleaning workspace New York, NY
Fall 1995 NEW YORK PUBLIC INTEREST RESEARCH GROUP
Volunteer
Collaborated with others to rebuild a brownstone in Brooklyn under the auspices of Habitat for Humanity
Recruited others to participate in NYPIRG meetings and events
Posted material around the Queens College campus which advocated public awareness of issues Flushing, NY


SPECIAL SKILLS/TRAVEL

Microsoft Word, Microsoft Access, Netscape, and research databases, including PsychInfo. Travel throughout Europe.

Resume Sample 3: Resume/Student

FirstName LastName
email: xxxxxxx@xyz.edu

PRESENT AD DRESS:
XYZ University
Hopedale, NY 11233
(555) 555-5555 PERMANENT ADDRESS
155 Essex Street
Anytown, CT 00000
(555) 555-5555
________________________________________
EDUCATION

XYZ University, Hopedale, NY
Candidate for Bachelor of Arts, May 2000
Major: Government 3.83 GPA Minor: Business 3.87 GPA

The Williams School, New London, CT
High School Degree, June 1995

WORK EXPERIENCE

Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc., New Haven CT, Summer 1999
Completed a rigorous internship working closely with retail and institutional brokers examining US markets and industries. Researched and analyzed equities, derivatives, and bonds utilizing Merrill Lynch computer systems.

Hartford Superior Court, Hartford CT, Summer 1998
Conducted in-depth project studying daily flow within the courthouse including data collection and analysis utilizin g Microsoft Excel. Participated in data correction and filing in both criminal and civil case flow offices.

ACTIVITIES/SERVICE

Social Integrity Board Chairman, XYZ University, Fall 1999 Present
Appointed by Student Government Association Executive Committee and confirmed by Student Senate as member of Social Integrity Board. Adjudicate and sanction students in violation of the XXX Student Codes of Conduct. Lead board members in delivering opinions and sanctions to students in hearings and written form. Conduct cases in close collaboration with Head of Residential Life and examine XXX's social policies and honor code.

Student Speakers Bureau Member, XYZ University, Fall 1998 Present
Allocate funds to various organizations throughout the XXX community to bring speakers to campus.

COMPUTER SKILLS

Microsoft Office 2000
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Access Po werPoint
WordPerfect
Lotus 1-2-3 I.E. 4.0 and Netscape 4.6
Adobe PhotoShop 5.0
HTML/Web Publishing

iAutoblog the premier autoblogger software

Be The Media — Creating and Accelerating Your Message

In February of 2009 Michelle Tennant Nicholson of Wasabi Publicity, Inc., sat down to speak with David Mathison author of Be the Media the ultimate guide on how to create and accelerate your message your way. From self-published authors, bloggers to community owned TV, film producers and musicians, there has never been such a comprehensive guide. Phil Donahue said this book, "Takes publishing and broadcasting power away from industrial titans and hands it to you."

Here's the transcript:

Michelle Tennant: Hi everyone. It is February 19th and I'm Michelle Tennant. I am known to most as Story Teller to the Media and you can actually read my blog at storytellertothemedia.com. I co-own Wasabi Publicity, Incorporated and also a technology company that is best known for presskit247.com. And what I want to do today is talk to you and everybody on the call about David Mathison, who I'm going to introduce in just a minute. But let's do a little bit of housekeeping first.

This is what we generally have been doing for years and years and years, something called the Wasabi Club, so it's a very informal meeting where we get to talk about a compelling topic in the area of PR and marketing. And rather than just having a bunch of talking heads at you, we actually open up the forum so that it's more like a club atmosphere, like we would just be sitting around having drinks somewhere and shooting I almost said a little blue word there (laughs) that's how casual we are, I almost said a cuss word but they are just like talking about different things that we would in our trade anyway, and we just kinda open it up to business owners in case they wanna find out publicists and marketing professionals and all of us who are getting the buzz out there, what we actually talk about.

And so, if you're with us and you want to just put us on the speaker and you want to mute yourself, you wanna hit *6, to mute yourself and to unmute yourself and you wanna actually ask a question or talk with us, you hit *7. And I'll actually remind you about that in the future. So, but anyway, without any further adieux, I want to talk about this great, great guy that we have today for the Wasabi Club. His name is David Mathison. So, not only did he just write this op Be The Media, which you can, if you're in front of your computer, which most of us are, you can just go right to Bethemedia.com and look at it. But he is also just somebody who used to be a [skip] let me just do the bio, some of the accolades I have right here in front of me, cause he is a pretty big deal. I'm very excited to have him here. So, David, you got a lot of stuff here. I'm just gonna go for it. Okay?

David Mathison: Sure.

Michelle Tennant: From 1998 to 2002, he was the founder and CEO of Kinecta, a syndication services provider for you know, they do Reuters, the Financial Times, The Economist, Dow Investments and Yahoo. I mean you get the picture of how big deal this guy is. So, as CEO, Mathison raised $30 million in venture in strategic funding in less than two years. And now, Kinecta is actually part of Oracle, which most of us know. And before that, Mathison was the Vice President for Reuters, the world's largest news agency where he pioneered standard base online syndication.

So, if you're in the PR industry, Reuters is like big, big deal, in the line with all the other big syndicaters like the Associate Press and so forth, so you get a Reuters hit as a publicist, then you got that hanging that up on your wall as something that you're really proud of. And the other thing that he does, is that he really is, he serves on the board [beep] Media Freedom Foundation, The Mountain Play and webhood.org and served on the board of Conveners of Marin Community Media Center. So some of the people from California might actually be on and be really excited to hear from David today, too. And he has a Masters Degree in International Affairs from Columbia University.

And so, all that expert in every area and we're really excited. If you haven't already gotten a copy of Be the Media, you've got to, cause this is one of those books that is really gonna be a bible for many of us for the future, especially when it comes to doing it yourself and doing it your way, rather than actually being pushed or really forced into a particular way of doing something that doesn't really fit with your own integrity. So, it really is an honor and a privilege to speak to you today, David. Welcome.

David Mathison: Thanks so much Michelle. Hi everybody from the Wasabi Club and others who have joined the call from some of my tweets maybe, and some of my Facebook status, I'm glad you're all here.

Michelle Tennant: Yeah, and so here's how it goes, okay? On the Wasabi Club first of all, we do sort of a little reality sort of check in with what I'm dealing with, at Wasabi Publicity and our campaigns, and then we kind of open it up to other people who are on the phone to really talk about what's on their minds with regards to well this particular talk we're gonna talk about Twitter. So, I'm gonna give you an opportunity to talk about that in just a minute, but let me first pose a question. So if we go through the call, what we all like to do, cause the miracle of the Wasabi Club from the past is we [skip] pose in our club and then somebody will find a solution that benefits all of us, and I've gotten emails that they're like, my god, you know?

I took the suggestion of what other people on the Wasabi Club said and I completely revamped my business and doing really well and so forth. So, I've been pretty amazed at some of the brainstorming and the creative energy that comes out of these calls. So, I would also like to leave the call today with something fresh for all of us. I mean, a lot of us are already using Twitter. We're already using social networking sites [skip] gonna tell us today, David, about the do it your self way and how we can actually all be the media. But I'm really interested in what's relevant and on our minds today.

So, I'll pose the first challenge, if you will. So, one of the things that I do everyday, David, is I'm out talking to the media and pitching them story ideas on my clients. And I oftentimes struggle between knowing, do I use Twitter for that or should I use personalized emails? It used to be, because I've been doing this for 20 years, [beep] pretty clear. You pick up the phone. You send some mail. You actually maybe you know, well it used to be just fax, you couldn't even send an email. Today you've got the email factor. How do you know when it's the best to actually send it via a social networking site or send it through an email?

I think what I'm doing right now, just to give you kind of an insight, is if I know my person that I'm targeting doesn't really like email, and I'm trying to get her attention? Like I did this today, actually, cause I knew that she actually pays more attention to her social networking site, so I sent her a message through linked-in and I got a message right away back. I was like "Oh, awesome", you know? So, but I knew that if I sent her an email, sometimes her emails get lost. So, how would you advise the rest of us on how to prioritize whether we're using Twitter, linked-in, and the rest and [beep] you actually give advice on which one, maybe give us a little one liner on what it is, a little definition in case there actually is somebody on the line who might not know what we're talking about.

David Mathison: You really have to establish relationships. I mean, that's exactly the point of my call today, which is a lot of people are joining the call because they heard that I sold 5,004 books on Twitter through one connection and they're kinda like "Oh my god. I wanna know how that happened." And to be honest, just like you said, it's really understanding -. It's just basic follow up and follow through on understanding who's listening and what way they prefer to have their information.

You know, it's funny. I sent out a tweet, a direct message yesterday. I was announcing my book launch and the person said "No, not interested." And then I followed up with an email on Facebook and said "Do you mind if we have a phone call?" and I gave her a little bit more information. And we followed up on a phone call today and sure enough, now she's in the plan. So, you know, sometimes it really, I think especially for those high end journalists and those people who are really busy everyday, some of them prefer email, some of them prefer linked-in, some of them prefer telephones, but it really is a requirement of everybody out there to get to know the audience.

And just if we speak specifically to Twitter, you'd be surprised at how quickly giant news organizations, like I have a lot of journalists following my Twitter feed and the New York Times, CNN, even Rick Sanchez and others at CNN have Twitter feeds and they're watching it. And even with Reuters, you know, Biz Stone, the founder of Twitter was interviewed by Roy O'Connor and Biz said that Reuters began watching Twitter for trends and found out that it worked really well and the Twitter folks even gave [skip] to the Reuters lab people so that they could use it more effectively. So, it's interesting.

Sometimes Twitter is used especially for breaking events. The recent earthquake in California, it was announced nine minutes before the first Associated Press alert came out. The earthquake was already being used in Twitter. So, like journalists are actually watching Twitter for breaking news. Now how bizarre is that? Usually Reuters and Associated Press are fighting each other to basically be the lead on the story, to be the first news organization to announce these stories, and now some of these news organizations are watching Twitter feeds to find out breaking news. It's fascinating.

Michelle Tennant: And don't you remember also, years ago, before we really started using social networking, the news sources were really watching bloggers. So, it's interesting to see the entire environment on the internet evolve and grow, don't you think?

David Mathison: Absolutely and that's interesting, too, because now we've had a saddle search engines like Google for websites, and now we've got Technorati for blogs and recently, Twitter just bought a search engine Sumize I think it's called, and so that, again is critical for journalists because now imagine if you could search the real Twitter stream. It was great to, you know, Google search on websites can be days or even weeks old. But a Technorati search on a blog can be the same day. Well, if you could get almost instantaneous news by searching the Twitter stream, that's a really powerful tool. So Twitter has got some really interesting applications happening as we speak.

Michelle Tennant: So to your advice to someone like me, a publicist who's pitching people like I mean, right before the call I got off helping Good Morning America with something, yet another segment. And so, you know, I've got regular producers and reporters to rely on me to connect them with families, to connect them with reliable, credible sources. You know, I've got different tools that I've created with my IT team. Like we've got a, like I was talking about with our online press kits.

We just launched something last week called pitchrate.com and if you're in front of your computer you can actually take a look at it. Pitchrate.com is a free service where we're connecting the media with experts and people who want to serve the media, so the media in a closed manner so they don't actually have to share their email address, they can go on there and say "This is the need that I have." And then all the experts and all the publicists can pitch them and it's rated based on the star system, one to five stars. And then the experts can then be rated in the future. So I've got those tools and then I've got I'm just getting -.

It's like my crayon box is getting really full, David, right? So what crayon do I pull out? So then I'll play, you know, I'm [skip] miracle I'm like, "Use pitch rate cause pitch rate is really one of those tools that's gonna be efficient use for all [skip] to really connect with the media in the background and stuff, but when I'm actually driving for a relationship, you know, what is that? A phone call or -? Like how do you know? How do you know when you're actually using your social networking tools and when you pull out the crayon from the crayon box, what are you asking yourself?

David Mathison: Right, and it gets more and more challenging as you build out your base. So, I've got 3,500 followers in Facebook and 2,500 followers on Twitter, like how do you really identify "Well out of each of these followers, who are the most important people?" You know, according to the story or according to topic and that's where I say, like the whole point of my being on this call today is to say that yes, I've sold 5,004 books through a Twitter connection, but it was good old fashioned gumshoe. You know, it was good old fashioned finding out. I think a lot of people are on Twitter now or on Facebook and just basically aggregating followers or aggregating friends and not really taking the time to find out who those friends and followers are.

The whole point of my call today is to say "You need to treat these followers as [beep] gold. You know, if you're not doing the hard work of finding out "Okay, who is that person that just followed me? Let me go to their Twitter profile. Let me go to their -." On their Twitter profile, they have a link to a blog or to a website, let's go to their blog. Let's go to their website. Let's go search them on Facebook and see what they have on their info page in Facebook and befriend them and find out more and more about them. And I think the more that you find out about your leads, the better able you'll be able to determine how they want to be followed up with.

And interestingly enough, this 5,004 book sale came from a Twitter follow up and then I followed up with them and then I went to their Facebook page and then I went to their homepage and then I went to their blog and really, it was just doing old fashioned detective work to find out how that person wanted to be approached and what the message should be that I would approach them with. And we can get into the details of that if you like because it's kind of a fascinating story of -.

Michelle Tennant: No, I really do. We're gonna give you a chance to do that in just a minute, David. Usually right about 15 minutes after the Wasabi Club, I actually take a moment and say "For those of you who want to ask questions, remember it *7 to unmute yourselves. If you're having lunch or making noise in the background, you want to mute yourself, just hit *6. I intentionally now I can mute all y'all, but I actually want us to have a conversation. So this is the time we're now gonna move into the next phase, where we're actually gonna start doing some Q&A with David.

But let's just give him about five minute to really kind of round out the story of how it happened, because I know that's what we're all really in here today. And then we'll actually move into questions and answers and so forth, so I'll let you know when we're gonna open up for questions, but David, go ahead and I really wouldn't have -. What I'm hearing you say today, is "Look, Michelle, you're already doing a lot of work on the phone and with your email and maybe spend as much time developing those Twitter connections that you would in developing those relationships on the phone." That's what I'm hearing you say.

David Mathison: Everybody is an important, you know, anyone that comes and follows you in Twitter could be a critical lead for you, absolutely. And treat it just like you would treat any other relationship and really investigate that. Now maybe you'll find that nine out ten, but you get the same thing at a trade conference, right? Nine of ten leads maybe not into anything at all, but there may be one golden lead in there and I think that's what I see a lot of going on, is that a lot of people are just treating them as just followers and not really treating them as leads and as human beings and people that they may have interesting partnership opportunities with.

Michelle Tennant: Well as you're talking about Twitter, if you're in front of your computer, let's all go to David and so that we're following him, follow him, it's Twitter.com/Bethemedia, so I'm looking now. Of course, please follow me too. I don't have thousands and thousands like David does, by I'm Twitter.com/michelletennant. But go ahead David, I'm on here with you. I'm lookin at there you are. You've told everybody about the Wasabi Club today and take us back in time before you sold the 5,000. I wanna know.

David Mathison: That's actually we should. Maybe we'll take a step back, I mean the big point I want to get across is somebody followed me on Twitter. In one day they bought I then had an auto response message. Whenever I get a follower, it automatically replies, "Thank you for following me on Twitter. I like you already." You know, something silly, but then pointing them to my website. And it's the result of that pointer to my website ended up that the follower bought four books. So, of course, whenever somebody buys a book, I jump for joy, but when someone buys five books I'm ready to send roses.

So, I sent them a direct message saying "Well thank you very much." And then that turned into ten days later, that within a couple of days, I was invited to speak at Baruch College in New York City, from this same connection on a symposium on sustainable journalism. And then that was basically the night after that, we shook hands on a 5,000 book deal and 20 days later, from initial contact, I had a wire transfer into my account for 5,000 books. So I sold 5,004 books. But it's interesting, I think I'm gonna go back a little bit because not everyone's really on the same page with Twitter. Let's make sure everyone kind of understands what it is and how to use it.

Michelle Tennant: Yeah, please. That's great.

David Mathison: Three years ago, when I heard of Twitter, I thought it was just a silly little toy, you know, you're limited to 140 characters and so you can't really tell a large story, but based on what happened to me over the last 20 days, I can say it's definitely not a toy. But I also don't wanna lay down any dogma. There's no right way or wrong way to do it, but like every community, there is some etiquette you should be aware of and you should follow. But my big point today is absolutely, positively make sure you follow up on leads wherever they come from. So, if you're not on Twitter, make sure you go to Twitter.com, join right away and put in a unique user name, either your name or the name of your business.

Michelle Tennant: Yeah, maybe I could do both, David, now that I'm seeing what you've done here. Maybe I should go snag, you know with some of the stuff related to my businesses and my brand.

David Mathison: Snag or stop it, yeah.

Michelle Tennant: Do you do both?

David Mathison: Yeah, I do both and I put my name in parentheses. You can do that, too. I think down the road, you know, my company I'm trying not to build a kind of cultist personality or else we would have a lot of internet marketers, if you get sick or Steve Jobs, or Martha Stewart you get thrown in jail. You know, your whole stock price goes down with the cultist personality. So I try to keep the business separate from my personal life, but in social media, it is really important to have a picture of yourself up, but again, no dogma. I don't use a picture of myself. I use a picture of my brand and my company.

There may come a time down the road where I'll put my own personal account where I'll just be tweeting personal messages, but right now, it's really focused on the company, Be the Media. So, put a picture up for sure. People want to network with people and see that you have a picture up and then tweet a few things that might leave a lasting impression on people. There's a great book that you might want to get started with. It's by Warren Whitlock. That's W-H-I-T-L-O-C-K. You can follow him at Twitter.com/warrenwhitlock.

And actually, if you are on line and you want to go look at his profile, Warren has written a great book called Twitter Revolution and you can see if you're an author listening, you can see that in Warren's profile, he has a picture of his book. So, it's great. You can see his profile to the right. He's listed that he's the publisher of the Twitter Handbook and the more information that you put into your profile, the better because this gives people an opportunity to follow up with you and get more information about you.

So, a little bit more about Twitter, though, before we get into detail. You're limited to 140 characters, so you really have to be concise. It's kind of like Haiku. And about 6 million people are already on Twitter and about three months ago, Twitter rejects a $500 million take over offer from Facebook. It's just a small [beep] 30 person company, raised about $55 million and basically, they've put up this stage where you can kind of express yourself and connect with a community. And all of your messages are sort of known as tweets and you can send them from your computer, but you can also send them from your mobile phone. And usually what people do is they set up their account, which we've done now and we start following people. So the real goal is to try to get well, I shouldn't say real goal' is to get a lot of followers.

There's two trains of thought on that, but you do want to build up a base of followers that relate to whatever it is you're doing or selling or talking about. So, I started out with just friends and family and then I started building that out into colleagues. Again, I was in sort of the toy phase, but then I started seeing how other people were really building it to create these big communities of followers. And so there are ways, too, to build out your followers and there's a couple of tools one place I would point everybody to is Kevin Rose, the founder of Digg.com, wrote a great little article. You could Google it. It's called "Ten ways to increase you Twitter followers."

And Kevin basically says things like retweetings, filling out your bio, linking to other people, using hash tags, following top Twitter users and things like that. And those were all useful tools. And then there's the other line of thought from people like Robert Scovil, if you read through all the comments on that post by Kevin Rose, you'll really get some great ideas and you'll see some of the different ways of using Twitter, but Robert Scovil, he has like 50,000 followers or something. He said a couple of great ways to get followers are to survive a plane crash and tweet it, get arrested and tweet from jail. Have sex with someone famous and tweet that. You know, he's kind of poking fun at it, but the whole point isn't really to get tons and tons of followers, but to really say important things and to get people to follow you because of the content that you give them and not just because you're aggregating, you know, kind of a dead list.

You want to get people who are really engaged in what you have to say. And that's kind of what happened to me, you know, I started at this point, I'm building out a base. The other thing about Twitter is it can get out of control really quickly as you start to build out your base of fans. So you really want to have an application that can assist you in managing all of your Twitter followers. So, I would suggest things like Twhirl.com which is T-W-H-I-R-L dot com. And that basically just allows it sits on top of like Windows or Mac operating systems and lets you do all kinds of makes life a lot easier. There's another tool called Tweetdeck, T-W-E-E-T-D-E-C-K, which is another application that basically let's you manage you're friends as you get more and more followers.

Michelle Tennant: I have a question about that because I don't know we also work closely with Dan Hollings, and he has a Twitter toolbar and he's also got he's at Twitter.com/dhollings. He's one of the internet strategists behind that smash hit movie The Secret, and I'm just wondering if you like how do you know the difference between the bars? Because he's also got like a little Twitter bar and he did 100 Secrets to Twitter, and that kind of thing, so I'm just what would be your recommendation on that, David, on like whose bar do you take?

David Mathison: I'm not sure what you mean by whose bar'.

Michelle Tennant:: He's got like a little bar that you put at the top of your you know, you could put like a tool bar at the top of your computer.

David Mathison: Oh, yeah. Like I recommend Twhirl or Tweetdeck, but there's lots of others. Those are two really popular applications that make life a little bit easier. But there's all kinds of things like -.

Michelle Tennant: What do you use? I'm just curious about what do you use?

David Mathison: I use to use Twhirl, and now I'm experimenting with Tweetdeck, and I like them both. And you know, if you're a Mac user, maybe you just want to use Twitteriffic. It works a lot like Twhirl, but it's really specific for the Mac. Then there's Twitterfox, which is a Fire Fox extension. So there are lots of different things you can try, depending on your operating system and you know, like I think Tweetdeck sits on Adobe Air, whereas Twhirl sits on top of Vista and Window platforms and Mac platforms.

Michelle Tennant: I'm really glad you wrote a book because already like my eyes are glazing over. I'm like "Oh, my god. I can't even take notes. I can't even take notes quick enough to what you're saying. I'm sure everybody else feels the same way. I promise everyone, we're going to open up to questions here in just a minute, but this is all very good stuff and let's keep it simple, because I'm already glazing over, David.

David Mathison: I believe you. Well there's two great ways to really start building out your base and one is go to Twitterholic.com. Twitterholic and other services let you see who the top 1,000 Twitterers are, based on their number of followers. So for example, Barack Obama's got like 300,000 followers. And what you can do is you can kind of see well who are the most popular Twitterers, not only in the nation and in the world, but also in your specific region. Like, if you, Michelle, wanted to know who the top Twitterers are in your region or if I wanted to know who the top Twitterers were in New York, I think right now, New York is like Jimmy Fallon who just took over for Conan O'Brien on the Late Show, so things like that you can break it down and you can start following people from there. And then, what I did was maybe we'll go back to my little story, it was kind of bizarre what really happened. I don't know if you want to open up to questions before we get into how - .

Michelle Tennant: Do you think you can do that now? I can just hear. They're just excited. They've not needed themselves. They're like any minute now, she's gonna say "After questions" they're going like "I got a question." So, can you marry the questions in also with your story, so we can get both done?

David Mathison: Absolutely. Sure.

Michelle Tennant: Okay. Who's got the first question? Now that I've made a big deal don't forget *7 to unmute yourselves. Oh, I put everybody on the spot then.

David Mathison: Should we keep rolling?

Michelle Tennant: Yeah, and then, okay, so if you've got a question, then all you have to do is "I got a question." And then we'll then know that you're gonna be part of the panel, though. I think I did that to David in the past Wasabi Club, he told me. I'm like "You asked a question?" I was like "Now you're part of the panel." But it's just because it's really like we'd be sitting around a bar and we're all just talking about different topics and it's just a way it is in your life, right? You know and answer her face to face.

David Mathison: And you know, there's probably a lot of experts out there, a lot more advanced than I am on Twitter, so -.

Michelle Tennant: Well go ahead with the story -. Oh, we got a peep out there. Or should I say a tweet out there?

J.D. Lassiter: David, this is J.D. Lassiter, here. I don't know if you take suggestions but when I first heard about this crawl I looked at Twitter.com/davidmathison and I didn't see anything. And I added you as first to find that you were actually on Be the Media. And one of my personal gripes is it's hard to find people on Twitter. So I'm wondering why more people don't actually just have a place holder page and then say, I'm actually tweeting over at Be the Media.

David Mathison: Yeah, thanks, J.D. for joining -.

Michelle Tennant: See there you go. That was my question cause I wasn't sure if I could do my name or my various companies and so that's a great suggestion.

David Mathison: It is and you know, like I just did a search on Jill Koenig, who's a good friend and she also has a site called Gold Guru, and I thought her last name has an S at the end and I couldn't find her and then I went to Gold Guru and what she did was exactly what J.D. is saying. She kind of plays smart both places and on the I think it's the Gold Guru page, it says on that page it's just one entry and it just says Yes, you've come to the right place, please follow me a Twitter.com/goldguru and I need to do the same and J.D.'s right.

Like, I am by no means, the expert at Twitter right now. I'm still working on it. As a matter of fact, my background profile, a lot of people say that the profile picture doesn't really describe me or my company or what we do or what we offer and there are a lot of really great profile pics out there with people who and there are companies also, now, outsourcing services where you can get your profile picture done. Again, if you look at Warren Whitlock's page or Jill Koenig, or if you look at Joel Conn, he's got on the left of his profile, he's got his picture. He can tell you how to get in touch with him through his blog. He shows all of the books that he has. He has a book cover. So, yeah, I'm a long way away from being there, J.D., but if you do have any other suggestions, I'm all ears, and of course, I'm Twitter.com/bethemedia and I will, right after this call, go grab David Mathison, as well.

Michelle Tennant: Yeah, we need perfect. Now, the reason why we are doing this call with you David cause this little story about how it all came to pass because I think everybody's interested in you being cause I've heard pros and cons, right, like "Oh, you've gotta tweet, but at the same time, you don't want to be overly promotional. You don't wanna really -." And I could see where, and then I was like "Okay, I'm tweeting, but I'm not really, but I'm slanting it more toward work than I am my personal life." And just like interesting blogs. You know, interesting blogs are really about your life, really what's happening in your life, and that we're all really interested in what we're doing in the background. You know, are you traveling to some place interesting? Are you doing some kind of interesting hobby? So let's take a little grunt into this story and then if other people have suggestions or questions I love that suggestion, thanks so much J.D., you're now part of the panel, by the way. So go ahead and -.

David Mathison: J.D., you absolutely should be part of the panel. J.D. knows better than anyone. J.D. also co-founded, if you get a chance, go to ourmedia.org, which is a fantastic community site where users contribute content and all the content's created common licenses, so, it's all about the community. And I agree with you Michelle, you know originally, when I started I was posting personal things and then I started posting more business oriented stuff and tips and tricks, I think are the kind of things that, you know, your user community wants to know and wants to share and then give you feedback on and maybe even have better ideas.

But I don't think that there's too much value in using Twitter if all you're doing is to promote your own site. It's all about a community and you build your network by getting others to follow you and also contributing to those communities and to the conversations. I should say, it's not just about community, it's really about conversation, as well, and an interactive conversation with people in the community. So I just learned more stuff from J.D. that really, things that I need to do, they're all on the to-do list, but who has time to do all these things?

Michelle Tennant: Well, that big, too. You've gotta actually choose which crayon you want to go out with. So tell us about this story cause we're really -.

David Mathison: Yeah, J.D. might have a comment on that and then we'll move.

J.D. Lassiter: I got another -. Thanks to the shout on our media, you know, I'm still earning all this Twitter stuff myself, so I don't know how many experts there really are out there.

[Laughter]

Michelle Tennant: You know, you know and there's gonna be the next big thing, right? Whatever is after Twitter and then we're all going to have to reorient ourselves, too. Okay, well here's another crayon out of the box, right?

J.D. Lassiter: Hear me?

Michelle Tennant: Oh, yeah, we can hear you.

Jacob M: I wasn't sure I was talking to myself. I actually had a comment. This is Jacob. Hi J.D. We're actually connected on Twitter and this is how I actually found about this whole call, which is interesting. But I'm actually doing a webinar specifically for authors and one of the reasons why I got on this call is that I was going to use your examples, sort of on the webinar. And I actually have a e-book that I put together with somebody on Twitter, specifically for authors and different social media channels that they could look at and how they could use Twitter and sites like Red Room and Facebook, specifically for authors, and a lot of the questions I keep getting were "Are there any specific case studies for authors?" So David, if you don't mind, I'd definitely like to include you as a case study on somebody was able to social media to sell books.

David Mathison: Absolutely. I should probably tell the story before you commit to it. Maybe you won't want it.

Michelle Tennant: And Jacob, I want to make sure that this recording gets to you, so I need to make sure that I'm connected with you. So, you're at Twtitter.com/what is it? J-A-C-O-B?

Jacob M: Jacob M on Twitter.

Michelle Tennant: Okay. I'll make sure that everybody has access to this recording. It is available on our DIT member place, on publicityresults.com, but I'll just make sure also that I'm using Twitter for this, so I can up the ante on what I'm doing on Twitter.

Jacob M: I thought you mentioned The Secret because the author that's hosting the webinar, she's Ariel Ford. I don't know if you're familiar with her.

Michelle Tennant: Oh, she's one of my resource partners over here at Wasabi Publicity. Yes, it's a small world after all.

Jacob M: Yeah, exactly. So webinar is with her on March 4th and she has her book coming out, too, so I kind of teamed up with her and I explained how to use social media for authors. So, yeah, small world.

Michelle Tennant: I'll have to give a shout out to Ariel after this. And she's got soul mate, How to Find Your Perfect Soul Mate. And so yeah, she's over at the Ford group and she was on the Today Show talking about that, so she's just a PR master mind.

Jacob M: Yeah, I told her to give a plug for Twitter while she was on all these traditional media sites and she didn't.

Michelle Tennant: Well you know, we all have to pride what we're actually putting food on our table for, too, right? So anyway, without any further adieu, David you know, get this story. We're all like now at the edge of our seat.

David Mathison: Sure, and thank you Jacob for the invite. That's very nice of you. So basically what happened was, what I usually do is when somebody follows me, I think the majority of the people out there, and I may be wrong, but are just aggregating followers and [beep] really following up on who these people are. If they don't know them, you know, a lot of people in the beginning, you follow people you know, and they follow you back, and that's fine. But as you start building a base and you get 2,500 or 15,000 followers, it gets a little bit challenging and there are automated tools, but I was basically following up on people, and I did have an auto responder.

So, on January 20th, I got a direct follower and the name was Ruth Ann Harnisch, and so I followed up on that with a direct message. You know, I didn't send it out. It was an auto responder that basically said "Thanks for your follow. I like you already. And go get a free copy of the intro of my book, from Bethemedia.com. So again, the key thing there is make sure that you give people something. I think having a digital download or a free gift is important for people to go find a little bit more about you and also just to give back. It's that right after that direct message came out, this follower sent me a direct message saying "I like you, too. I just bought four copies of your book."

So, as I said before, when you get a book sale you're happy, but four book sales you kinda go over the moon. So, I did a little bit and this is where I go back to, again, treat every lead, treat every person with respect and find out who they are. Do the hard work, because you do the same thing when you go to a conference, when you go to meet someone at a networking event. You find out more about them, you'll start chatting with them. And don't just treat it as aggregating leads because it could really, really build you community this way. So, sure enough, I went to her website and I found out that she was the founder of the Harnisch Foundation, which is a catalyst for sustainable social [skip] work for both coaching and -.

Michelle Tennant: Hold on, David. I hear some feedback. I'm gonna address that. Everybody hit *6 to mute yourselves. That's minimize the feedback we're hearing from David's story. Go ahead David.

David Mathison: So the Harnisch Foundation is a philanthropic organization that funds sustainable journalism and coaching initiatives. They have a website, a nonprofit site called, I'm pretty sure, if you look at the Harnisch Foundation, which is the VHF.org, you'll find all about them, but they fund representative journalism. And there's a thing called the coaching commons, which is at coachingcommons.org, which was launched last year and they're basically building a nonpartisan tent where coaches can build the future together. And then when I found a little bit more about them, they have the foundation of coaching, again, which is a nonprofit, noncommercial independent resource for coaching. And then I also found out that they fund a thing called Thrillionaires, which is one of their projects that teach people how anyone can be a thrillionaire from just giving things away from writing a song to designing a website.

Michelle Tennant: Are you saying "Thrillionaire" or "Zillionaire"?

David Mathison: Thrillionaire, T-H.

Michelle Tennant: Like a thrill. That's neat, okay.

David Mathison: The thrill of giving, right. And so then I went to her Facebook and I looked her up on Facebook and I found that after I befriended her, she was basically going to Baruch College in New York City that week because they were having she had just given some money to Baruch to start up their journalism program. And I found out, obviously, from the beginning in my bio, you heard that I used to be at Reuters, cared very much about journalism and with thinking started a community funded journalism initiative here in my local Long Island area. And she invited me to drop everything that was Thursday night, I guess and come to this meeting on Friday, with a lot of people that I'd already known, actually.

So at that meeting, we chatted a little bit more and she liked what she heard and she basically, we did a handshake deal on 5,000 more books. And then within 20 days of our initial meeting through Twitter, she had wire transferred money into my bank account for another 5,000 book order. So, in total, it was 20 days from the minute she followed me on Twitter, somebody who I didn't know at all, to basically ordering 5,004 books. But not only that, the wonderful about this relationship is, and the wonderful thing about following up on leads that you get, wherever they come from, is that you never know where it will lead. Right now, our goal is to actually give these books away to needy journalism students and to folks that really could use the power of Be the Media, teach them how to blog and create a website and create, you know, use videos on the internet, but give them to people who may not be able to afford the book.

So the wonderful thing is that we've already identified a number of different journalism schools and enough different needy folks out there that might be able to get this book into the right hands of those people that may not be able to afford it. So, we look at this as not just the beginning of our relationship, but we're looking at potentially doing a lot more things down the road with the Harnisch Foundation, beyond just selling four books. So, it's a much bigger story even than just a 5,004 book deal. But to most authors, for those on the call who aren't authors, a successful book is usually a book that sells 10,000 books over it's print you know the life of the book. And we just basically got half way there with one phone call.

And there are two wonderful things about that is, one is it's one person. You're not like an itinerant peddler selling trinkets door to door. To get 5,000 books, you need 5,000 people. We got one bulk sale and we only have to ship it to one location. The other wonderful thing is it came right before our first print run, so we were about to go to the printer and to print books, the bigger the volume, the less the per book run rate, so we immediately cut our per book print run rate more than half by getting that 5,000 book order. And a lot of folks also look at that first initial print run, you know, publishers and foreign sales representatives look at your first print run as an indicator of how well the book is doing. So, again, that's a real shot in the arm to be going to the printer and coming out with more than 6,000 or 7,000 books for our first print run.

So, it was a really, really valuable relationship and it all comes from, again, not just aggregating followers and getting as many friends as you can on Facebook, or getting as many followers as you can in Twitter, but really understanding who those people are and doing the legwork to nurture that relationship as far as much as you can.

Michelle Tennant: Well and I think, you know, what it comes to mind for me is I've always said there's an old adage in business, is, it's who you know. Oh, you'll be successful and dozens of things. Well I always it's not just who you know, it's also who knows about you. And when somebody actually follows you, then you have an opportunity to get to know them and just kind of seeing and check it out. Okay, is this a viable contact for me? And then you just never know. Now that person knows about you and like just how this happened for you, that's just -.

You know, one of things that I think that social networking allows all of us, is the opportunity to really nurture those relationships, cause you know, they come out of the woodwork don't they? Like all of a sudden, you're like hey, this person wants to get to know you. This person wants to get to know you and whether you're an introvert or an extrovert naturally, there's something there for you. You know?

David Mathison: And let's say there's so many things that could've gone wrong, like let's say I didn't follow let's say I didn't go on Twitter. This relationship may never have happened. Let's say I didn't have an auto responder that said "Hey, please go to my website." Well, Ruth Ann Harnisch, she's my angel. You know, she came at the right time. It's almost like she was listening cause we really were about to print and this was just such a Godsend for us to get this relationship. But if I didn't have an auto follow that said "Hey, go to my website and take a look at it more", she would've just followed me on Twitter and never had a never had a place to go.

And then. if I didn't follow up on her four book sale, by trying to find out more about her, I never would've been invited to Baruch and I never would've been able to explain what we were doing with Be the Media in a way that was intimate and that let her understand how serious we are about sustainable journalism. And that built that relationship, literally that day of the Baruch conference. That night, the next night at Saturday at 10:00 p.m. at night, we had a phone call and we had a deal done, that night. So there were so many things that you really, you know, that could've had that lead just fall through the cracks, if we didn't follow through.

And then, literally the next day, she left for the TED conference in Palm Springs, which is a huge conference and she was talking up our relationship with a lot of the participants at TED. So, now all of a sudden, my book is sort of top of mind on people at that sort of leading edge of sustainable journalism and community journalism initiatives throughout the country, and that kind of press you just can't buy. You know, this kind of relationship is priceless.

Michelle Tennant: No, and what you've really taken care to do is actually make people feel human in their interaction with you. You know, they're not just a number. They're not just another follower. You're investigating a little bit about who they are and you know, I can see that you can be efficient in your time with that, too, just like when we talk to the media, cause you've been on both sides of it David, but one of the golden rules for publicist is always, you read the person's magazine or you look at their blog or you watch their TV show.

It's just respect so that when you can talk to them, you have a working knowledge of what their beat is, who they are as a journalist, what they care about, and if you really are interested in building a relationship with them, you would do them that common courtesy and that's what I think that needs to be extended to these social networking sites, as you've demonstrated here. Because you're not quite sure who these people are and when you reach out and actually don't treat them as a number but as a person and as a relationship, then who knows what's possible next? How do you prioritize yourself now though, now that -?

David Mathison: Yeah, that's the challenge. There are tools, like I go back and forth on the auto responder issue, because my auto responder was great, but it also was kind of impersonal and for those out there that are looking into auto responders, you know, it's just like Aweber or 1shoppingcart auto responders in email, you can have an auto responder in Twitter at things like tweetlater.com or socialtoo.com, J.D. and others probably have other [beep]. And I've used it pretty effectively, but I also found that it distanced me, that one after Ruth Ann came in, it gave me that one level of distance and as you said, Michelle, when you don't pitch a business week author or a journalist who covers Wall Street, you don't pitch him your gardening book, you know?

If you're not doing your homework, you're gonna get a bad rep with journalists pretty quickly, if you're just spamming folks. So I found that when I took the auto responder off, it took a lot more work on my part because I had to follow up with every individual follower, which can get really challenging if you've got 10 or 20,000 followers. So I don't really know how to deal with that yet. I'm open to ideas and suggestions, but I've used auto responders off and on. Right now, I'm responding directly and I also have an intern, who I believe is on the call, Andre, thank you very much for all your help. He helps me with a lot of stuff I'm doing on Twitter.

Michelle Tennant: Well lets take that to the whole club members who are actually joining us today, so *7 to unmute yourselves, and this is a challenge that we all have today. One of the reasons why we actually created pitchrate.com because the media would use other services that connect them with experts and authors and so forth and then, if you ever used that and made a request, all of a sudden because I was doing that when we were doing Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day', it's coming around again, and I got like 100, 200 responses to my request for a family and a business who was actually doing Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day' and I was overwhelmed that day.

So, that's what people like top tier journalists deal with on a daily basis. I think my Good Morning America producer told me she got 1,500 emails in a 3 hour span. So how are people prioritizing out there? How are you actually getting through the muck of all your social networking things and your pings and you're emails and how are you doing it? Anybody got suggestions?

J.D. Lassiter: This is J.D. I'll just throw in something really quick. Yesterday I got the first complaint I've even gotten about my auto responder. I do use socialtoo.com, that's T-O-O dot com and I explained to her that "Look, I get like 100 followers a day. I've got two websites I'm trying to get up. I've got a full time job, other stuff going on and to me, it's more personal to have a sort of personal sounding auto respond than to not respond at all. So I think it depends on how you do it. If it's like a pitch for something to sell or something, I admit that's kind of a turn off. If you have the time, then yeah sure, go in one at a time and have a conversation with all your new followers, but at a certain point it doesn't really scale.

David Mathison: And J.D. how do you -.

Michelle Tennant: We got a question for you, J.D.

David Mathison: Yeah, and there comes a time, too, like when you do hit a follower, like I notice, you know, I try to give respect even to those people who aren't tweeting, you know, maybe have just gotten started. God knows there are relatively real famous people are not famous people out there who you probably want to follow, but you don't see any tweets yet, or you don't see any other followers or it looks like a spam alert, it's like you think you're following someone like Joel Conn and it's actually a spammer using Joel L. Conn, you know? Like some of those where since I stopped having the auto responder, I was able to identify pretty quickly what are kind of spam bots or people that are just hacking through and it allows me to at least get rid of those followers that I think are really just in it to promote something, you know what I mean? But it is a pain in the neck because you gotta go through every -.

J.D. Lassiter: There are two kinds of auto responders, too, right? There's a way that you just have a response, which is like a message that goes to them, and then there's a secondary option of actually automatically following people who follow you. So that's two different things.

David Mathison: Right.

Lynne Melville: I've got a question.

Michelle Tennant: Sure, what's your first name?

Lynne Melville: I'm Lynne and had read your message at Reuters conference in San Francisco and I listen to you with my cell. God bless these telephones. You mentioned having an intern and I really need one, but how do you find one? How do I go about doing that?

Someone help me.

J.D. Lassiter: Facebook.

Lynne Melville: With my Facebook and my Twitter and all those things like to a certain point and I -.

Michelle Tennant: I think you could use Craig's List.

David Mathison: Yeah, Craig's List and you know another great resource is like I'm lucky in well both in the San Francisco area, pretty lucky the Bay Area has got a lot of universities and right now, there's a lot of people, there are a lot of budding journalism students who are really bright and who know how to write and there are great business school students, so I look at Hathsha and Ithaca and Stony Brook and Columbia and St. John's and CW Post. They are right in my area.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, you've got a lot of great universities there and they are also, sadly, a lot of people getting laid off right now, experienced journalists, experienced writers, people in the media industry that are looking for maybe part time work or just to work for free just to keep their toll in the game and even with people like that I'll offer to give them and email address and a recommendation. At least they have an email address and a phone number where if they're looking for work at least they can tell people that they're doing honest work, you know, blogging here or helping build our list or just responding to Twitter posts.

Michelle Tennant: You know, I will recommend, Lynne, you know, I've been doing PR for 20 years. My first job was in Chicago when I was at DePaul and I went every little university is gonna have the work/study programs and I went to my you know, the motivated college students are gonna be going to that center, wherever that is in the university, to look for opportunities and you can actually phone that office that you have an internship opportunity and then they'll actually connect you, they'll put it in a big binder well, probably now it's more electronic than 20 years ago was, but I remember I found a person who was looking for an inter to do PR, and that's where I first learned PR years ago.

Lynne Melville: Oh, okay. That's what I'm -.

Michelle Tennant: Cause really, what David is saying about reaching out to, you know, you can reach out to a local community by using something like Craig's List, cause they'll have the localized slant to this. There's networking people, but also don't forget to just use the old pen and paper method of getting to your university and picking up the phone and saying "I've got this opportunity" and even getting on the phone with the Dean of that particular, you know, the English Department or the people who are actually in charge of the Journalism Degrees.

David Mathison: And who knows? Maybe there are people on this call who want to help you, so if you want to shout out your contact, if you want to do that over the call.

Michelle Tennant: Yeah, how do we reach you, Lynne?

Lynne Melville: Yeah, I'm at my name is Lynne Melville M-E-L-V-I-L-L-E at Comcast.net, that'd be my email. My question is, how do I know who's capable? What questions do I ask?

Michelle Tennant: Well that to me, seems like a really good Wasabi Club topic for maybe even next month. I think I might take that on, Lynne. We're gonna have a Wasabi Club next month on internships because I think that it is one of the ways that I I think back to all the internships that I did when I was in college and it did give me the step up and today, people are really hurting for work. So then, how do you set yourself apart from the competition? My recommendation to you would be to ask for where they see themselves in five years and then actually to see if what they're working toward is actually a fit for what you're working towards.

Lynne Melville: Well I need to know what they know about Twitter, what they know about Facebook, what they know about blogs.

Michelle Tennant: Well it depends on if that's the type of work, if you know what you're gonna be doing some type of media work or some type of author a book, that kind of stuff that we're talking about with marketing and so forth, I think that that is imperative today and that's one of the things that's really great about the millennials that are coming right out of college and high school today. You know, they've got a foot up because they've just been immersed in this culture of social networking from day one.

I was talking to a friend last night who's dating somebody new and you know, happens to be a 20 year gap between the relationship, okay? And the person, they had like a little fight and then the young person, the millennial said to the Gen X-er, "You know what? If you don't get along with my friends then we can't date, because dating me is dating my whole network of friends" and that couldn't be farther from the truth with millennials. You know, when you're hiring a millennial today, you are hiring them and their entire network cause they've actually been raised in a community of social networking.

Lynne Melville: Right, exactly, exactly, yeah, and that's it. Well there a Laura Smith is big on social marketing and she has actually she wrote a new book on actually having an intern just being your personal -. Sending books and doing all of that stuff that makes it look personal, but yet, have it done. You know, I'm a writer. I'm a speaker. I'm a coach. I don't have time to do all that. I need someone to handle that for me. So, if you do the teleseminar on internships and how to manage it, my concern is I have friends who are plotting this out but they're going on the internet and they're paying somebody in India to do it, and I want the money to stay in this country. You know, you can actually get it online. I don't want to do that. I want our people to get it, but I thought that would an excellent conference next month.

Michelle Tennant: So, yeah, I think it is also the terminology "intern", most of the people on the call they're interested in Twitter. I think the other thing that we can talk about with regard to Twitter, and maybe you want to look at the partners that you have, Lynne, so it's not just about your support staff, but also your affiliate partners. Like earlier, we were talking about partners that we have. I think it was Jacob who said that he's gonna have Ariel Ford on and so forth. Well, Ariel Ford is a publicist who is in charge, we did Depok Chopra and publicized Chicken Soup for the Soul. She's one of our affiliate partners. So, maybe to get to the same goal it's not also just having an intern back at the office, but it's also how are you expanding your own network so that you're actually building those relationships in a new and different way, sort of like what David was talking about, to get to the same goal? Maybe you need an intern. Maybe you need an affiliate partne r.

Lynne Melville: Yeah, I'm familiar with Ariel Ford and [skip] and all the big people on there and I've taken the Telephone Large on their workshop. I'm pretty good at promotions. But this promotion to Twitter and Facebook is really my issue at this point in time, so I'm really glad you have this workshop. Thank you.

Michelle Tennant: Oh, you're welcome Lynne, and I want to just invite everybody, you know, if you couldn't cause Lynne she's on a cell phone. She's going in and out. Lynne, when you get back to your office, go ahead and email me so that if anybody needs to reach you, then I can actually connect the two of you. My email address is pretty easy to remember, it's Michelle, two L's, I'm a two L-er, at publicity results dot com. michelle@publicityresults.com And there's an S at the end of results, so that I can actually connect people with you.

Lynne Melville: Well you know the other way is they can just mail me, Lynne Melville, and I'm all over Google with my book and my website. I got two blogs. There's lots of contacts there, too, so they can -.

Michelle Tennant: Okay, great. Alright.

Lynne Melville: Thanks.

Michelle Tennant: Oh, you're welcome. And before we complete our call, are there any other burning questions?

Male: Hello, hello.

Michelle Tennant: And I'm gonna talk about how to get to David. We already know about Twitter, but are there any burning questions before we complete the call?

Tonya Fitzpatrick: Yeah, I have a couple. This is Tonya Fitzpatrick with the traveling on radio show. And hi. I think, Michelle, we're Facebook friends, too, which is -.

Michelle Tennant: I know you sound familiar yeah.

Tonya Fitzpatrick: Yeah, and I guess I've been following you on Twitter. I just looked you up and lo and behold. And David, I just started following you. I am new to all of this technology. I am a lawyer turned travel journalist. I'm not as savvy with technology and so Twitter has actually been, it's been a bit of thorn in my side and I'm still trying to learn how to work it out and I thank you, David, for sharing socialtoo.com with regards to implementing an auto responder. But one of my questions is kind of a logistical one.

You suggest following people wh



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