How to Use LinkedIn to Find a Job - Or Have a Job Find You

For seniors who are graduating soon....LinkedIn.com might be a very good social sites to get good job.

-Create a Profile. Create a detailed profile on LinkedIn, including employment (current and past), education, industry, and web sites.

-Consider a Photo. You can add a photo (a headshot is recommended or upload a larger photo and edit it) to your LinkedIn profile. Note that it must be a small photo - no larger than 80x80 pixels.

-Keywords and Skills. Include all your resume keywords and skills in your profile, so your profile will be found.

-Build Your Network. Connect with other members and build your network. The more connections you have, the more opportunities you have, with one caveat from Kay Luo, "Connect to people you know and trust or have a business relationship with, no need to go crazy and connect with everyone."

-Get Recommendations. Recommendations from people you have worked with carry a lot of weight.

-Search Jobs. Use the job search section to find job listings.

-Use Answers. The Answers section of LinkedIn is a good way to increase your visibility.
Respond to questions, and ask a question if you need information or assistance.

-Siew Ching-

References: About.com, Job searching, LinkedIn, "LinkedIn and your job search", retrieved on
20th March 2009
URL: http://jobsearch.about.com/od/networking/a/linkedin.htm

Facebook applies in iPhone

As most of ys know that Facebook is a popular social networking sites that plays host to Web pages, discussion boards, graoups of people with like minded interests and lots of other contents.

Now users can log into Facebook through Iphone too. Not only that, users get to enjoy the Facebook application through iPhone but Facebook connect files a different need which they serve as the glue to let other applications exchange information as part of a social network.

I heard from one of my friend that he uses iPhone to play the Facebook games such as Texas Holder and he said that it is kind of familiar with the one we usually play through computer and it is still very fun. Other than playing games, iPhone created an application for Facebook which iPhone users get to enjoy the application without entering the actual site. But the application which iPhone offer is different from the actual site and still there are some applications that couldn't be use.

I feel that there are advantages and disadvantages of using the applications.
What do you think? Do you think it is good or not good?

References: Tech yahoo, "Facebook Connect expands iPhone app social networking"
Retrieved, 16th March 2009
http://tech.yahoo.com/news/macworld/20090316/tc_macworld/facebookconnectexpandsiphoneappsocialnetworking_1

-Rachel-

Users give thumbs down for Facebook redesign

Facebook just like to get massive attention from the public, isn't it?

Last week, I posted a blog post about the changes in the Facebook new design. This week, Facebook users from around the world are making big noise and complaining about the Facebook new face as if it is a big changed in their life (more serious than economic crisis =_=).

As I was browsing through the internet, I have seen many many web sites reported on the Facebook face changing issues. Sigh, is it really that "important"? I mean, ya I found it quite inconvenient too on the new design, but I just live with it. Just try to get used to it. There is no need to form a club protesting on this issues. People around the world are crazy about Facebook....it has becoming more like a disease.....

What do you think? Are you protesting too?
-Siew Ching-

Facebook, you are not the only one ok......

Here are some others SNS:

• Twitter.com — Micro blogging anyone? what is micro blogging anyway? Twitter only allows a maximun of 140 characters. That’s really short but that’s what it means by Twittering, just for others to follow and not make long announcement. Short announcement. Really short. Just enough to let people know what you are up to. Is it really useful? Some people says it does. However I can’t seem to find it useful. After all, you could make short announcement in your Facebook or in your MSN messenger. As a web site made solely on short announcement for people to follow seems a little offbeat. Sign on anyway just to make short announcements! Ha-ha! As an added usefulness, you can link it to Facebook and put a twitter badge on your web site too!
• Jaiku.com — Similar to Twitter but at this moment still in beta testing stage. Can’t really review it because sign up is by invitation only. Its interesting feature is that you could install their app into your phone like Nokia E66 or even a Java enabled phone.
• Placeshout.com — Another micro blogging site which we rarely heard of. As what their name is about shouting out a place, a location where you can rent or rave about the place. And the places to shout about? Mostly restaurants located in USA and Europe. Not so useful for Asia Pacific and Australian region.
• Yelp.com — Another restaurant micro blogging site. Similar to Placeshout. Usefulness? USA only.
• Delicious.com — This is about sharing personal bookmarks online. In time it also became a place where you could use it to promote a bit of your web site too, however with the rel=”nofollow” in the link you can’t use it to raise your Google page rank, but still a good way to check your web site popularity and see how many people save your site on their delicious bookmark.
• Digg.com — Similar to delicious.com but not as a bookmarking site but more like a popularity contest. The more people digg your site or article, it gets promoted to their frontpage which in turn increases more exposure to your web site or article web page.
• Stumbleupon.com — Similar to digg.com and well as per namesake, while happily browsing around, you stumble upon some interesting website or page and decided it is worth sharing with others.
• Flickr.com — Now part of Yahoo and quite a popular social photography web site. As a hobby site to share and showcase your photography ability. Could also be use in conjunction with your photography or travel related web site. Usefulness? Get a kick out of the number of people admiring your photos.
• LinkedIn.com — This one is different from Facebook. This is where professional network to look for jobs and contract. Call this business version of Facebook. This is a no nonsense social web site. It would do no good to have your partying photo shown to potential employers or business associate would it? This is where you post your work experience and show your best foot forward.

-Siew Ching-

What do you think of Facebook's changes?

All of you must have notice the makeover new design on Facebook lately. So what do you think?

The main changes

Here are the key changes to the Facebook home page users are coming to grips with:

1) Stream

Much like the old News Feed, the Stream tells you about what your friends are doing. It has added real-time updates, celebrity page feeds with comments, and user control over which friend's updates they want to see.

Some users (like me) are not comfortable with seeing all the information streaming in one place.

2) Publisher

Facebook has changed the status update question from "What are you doing right now?" to "What's on your mind?"

This has also become the place to post links, pictures, video, and other types of content.

It's hard to tell when you updated your status without the date and time clearly posted, and also hard to tell the different between status updates and wall post.

3) Highlights

This new column shows long-term information and announcements from subscribed sources.

It includes friend and event updates, birthday notifications, pokes, notes, links with comments, and Facebook announcements. It does not contain advertisements.

4) Filters

There's a new box in the top-left corner that lets users control the flow of information.

Facebook says it has built some default filters such as location, regular contacts, and existing friend lists, so users can click one and excess info should drop off the home page.

However, some users didn't like the new system and some did like the new system. How about you?

-Siew Ching-

Poll result 13/3/09

Does social networking issues affect your daily life?

This is my this week poll vote question.

Here comes the result. The answer of:

Yes, 35%

Sometimes, 40%

I don't know, 13%

No, 12%

What do you think about this question? Is it important to all of us?

From my own opinion, I feel that it is very important as we have to know whats happening around the world. News are happening around us and it is world wide as we need to get to know about it so that we get to know whats happening and whether it affect our daily life not.

Sometimes when i read through some social networking news, some does affect my life and some doesn't. So I feel that it depends on what kind of news is that and what is it about.

What about you out there? After voting I bet there's some words from you.

Don't feel shy to do so, be brave to sound it out so that things around you will change.

-Rachel-

Social networking sites overtakes email use

Ever imagine of social networking sites overtakes email use?
When i read this article, i was like "Oh my God."
Email use to be one of de main ways for users use to connect and contact each other. But as we can see, social networking sites are taking more grants than email.
What kind of social networking sites? Lets take Facebook as an example.
There's tones of users using Facebook and it became a very well known social networking site.
There's a lot of usage in Facebook such as email, uploading photo, chat through Facebook, leaving comment etc. You as a user can see how wide it can be and how well known it could be. This made more and more users would like to spend more time on social networking sites than email. That is how social networking sites overtakes email use.

Since this issue occurred, why don't they improve their usage so that more users will spend more time on emails than social networking sites. They can expand email just like how social networking site does. If this happens, I bet arguments between users will occurred talking about both social networking sites and emails. Which will be the best? haha!!!
Nobody knows what will happen. But never try, never know what the results will be like.

What is your opinion regarding this issue? Does it affect much? Will improvements affect anything? Come and share it over here.

Reference: Pocket-lint, "Social networking sites overtakes email use", Retrieved 10 March 2009
http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/news.phtml/22822/23846/Social-networking-overtakes-email-use.phtml

-Rachel-

Twitter fail cause by Gmail

I read through a news from a site and it says that Twitter failed because of Gmail problems. This problem occured in Melbourne. It said that Melbourne had a quiet night on that happening day.
This made me feels that there are a lot of users from Melbourne who log on to Twitter. I bet it gave a big impact towards all the users and it sounds quite troublesome for all the users.
At first, some thought that the problem was caused by Twitter, but in the end they found that the problem isn't caused by Twitter, but was caused by Gmail.

I feel that if any problems ocurred, the website itself should inform the users so that they know what is happening and will not fear that everything will get lost. At least inform the users whats going on and how long does it takes to solve the problem so that users get to know and by the time users can surf Twitter again.

Heres some pictures which i found where users were talking about the problem which occured.

Below this picture is about the problem which occured.

What does all of you out there think about this issue? What I apply above does it make sense? I bet some of you out there is a user of Twitter too. Did you encounter this problem too? Come and share with me and others too.

References: Social Networking News Daily, "Gmail Fail and Twitterfall". Retrieved 24th February 2009
http://socialnetworkingnewsdaily.com/social-networking/gmail-fail-and-twitterfall/

-Rachel-

No no no...

After using Facebook for a period.....I have some of my own thoughts that I think is not suitable to do on Facebook......

1. Use Facebook mail instead of proper email
When you Facebook mail me, I have to log into my real email to find that you mail me on Facebook, then I have to go and log into my Facebook account to read and reply to your message. If you’ve got my real email address, please use it. =)

2. Add old friends and then forget about them
This is the biggest social networking crime of them all. How many times has it happened? You haven’t seen someone for 20 years; you vaguely recognise their name but not their face. They add you as a friend on Facebook and then after you accept them, you never hear from them again.

3. Adding people you don’t even know
It’s one thing to add an old friend and then never speak to them. It’s another to add anyone whose name you kind of vaguely sort of recognise. It’s like that old man in the pub who slaps everyone on the back as if they were old pals, when in actual fact he has no friends.

4. Write on a wall instead of communicating privately
The driving force behind the success of Facebook is… vanity. People love the idea that others are watching what they’re doing. Tell me this: for what reason would you invite someone to a private party by writing on their wall, other than to show off to all the people on their friends list who you don’t want to come?

5. Upload photos to Facebook and deleting originals
Uploading photos to Facebook can be a very handy way of sharing your holiday snaps. But for the love of God, don’t lose your originals. Facebook is terrible at compressing and resizing images. Facebook is not a suitable place to store your precious photos!

Well....just some of my opinions... ^^ Share your opinion here or comment about my post! You are most welcome!!

-Siew Ching-

Poll results 6/3/09

"Does the use of Social Networking sites affect your work quality?"

This is this week poll vote question.

Does it affect yours?

Some voted yes, no and sometimes.

Overall answer I get from the voters are sometimes.

Now, let me reveal the voters votes.

Yes: 30%

No: 30%

Sometimes: 40%

For me, it does affect my work. How does it affect?

It happened sometimes, not all the time. Well, while i was surfing some sites which required me to surf for the purpose of my assignments. Till half way while I was surfing, everything gone and this made me so fed up with it as I have to search all over again from A to Z.

Not only that, while I was surfing other sites, not the purpose of assignments, but the purpose of my own entertainment. Till half, everything gone too and I have to start all over again.

Imagine how annoying it is. If you don't believe it, try it and you will feel how I felt.

It is so terrible.

What do you guys out there think about this problem. How did this problem affect you?

Jot down some of your comments and share it with everyone.

-Rachel-

If Facebook causes cancer, porn prevents it

Mr Phang taught us about headlines, he said headline is to attract readers to read your articles or ads, so I'm using the "curiosity" type of headline.....wOOt!
Ok ok, enough of that craps.
My partner, Rachel, has wrote a post that is about social networks can harm health, mentally and physically. So I went to look for more information on this issues because I think everyone is concerning their health in every ways.....
and then I saw this article....
According to this article, yes, it is true that some of the experts did researches that showed people are easily to get cancer, strokes or heart disease if they keep playing SNS such as Facebook because it reducing levels of face-to-face contact, and by not meeting up with real people will increased isolation that alter the way genes work and upset immune responses, hormone levels and the function of arteries. It could also impair mental performance.
But if we're going to take this internet cancer stuff seriously, why don't we look at the other side of the coin? Because it turns out that internet porn can prevent cancer. Hooray!
According to the australian researchers, "men could reduce their risk of developing prostate cancer through regular masturbation".
And what do people do when they want to masturbate? Mostly they will be going to XXX web sites....
All these information on getting cancer and preventing cancer are scientifically proved.
So what do you think? LOL.....I LMAO when I was reading the article....kind of making sense actually...

-Siew Ching-

References: Techradar, World of tech news, article on 19 February 2009, "If Facebook can cure cancer, porn prevents it," Retrieved 28 February 2009.
URL:http://www.techradar.com/news/world-of-tech/if-facebook-causes-cancer-porn-prevents-it-533741

Digsby =IM + Email + Social Network

Have you guys heard of Digsby?
I've found this little thing called Digsby while I'm searching for more latest news on social networking issues to write about.
Digsby's an industrial strength combo of cross platform instant messenger and social media status updater. Connecting with Windows Live Messenger, Google Talk, AIM and Yahoo - it also boasts Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and LinkedIn status update tools. Digsby is a proprietary multiprotocol instant messaging application developed by dotSyntax.

Well, I've downloaded it and trying to use it. It takes me some times to get used to it because I'm not really good in all the technology stuff (It took me 1 month to get used to Facebook =_= !).
There is this buddy list, and as you scroll over the buddy names their away message pops up along with their profile. So no clicking on anything to view profile and away messages which is nice. You can also see that the Facebook add on and email are up at the top.
When you click on the Facebook link you get a sidebar that pops up with whatever you chose to include basically what you have when you log into your Facebook profile.
And there is a conversation window, its pretty straight forward. From the conversation window you can view their profile, IM, send them a file, send them an email or even video chat (I haven’t tested it out)
This is the little notification that pops up when somebody IMs you or sends you a message. Its pretty awesome as you can reply right through it and don’t have to open the window. I found it great to use when I was in Illustrator or Photoshop so it wouldn’t slow anything down.
Another thing is that when changing font the window freezes for about 45 seconds which can get annoying, luckily I don’t do that often.
If you are interested in this little thing called Digsby, you can come to here to download and try it out! It only cause you 4.63 mb.

-Siew Ching-

References: Digsby
URL:http://www.digsby.com