Blogs

As ironic as it may seem, unemployment is the ideal time to build up your personal brand. One way job seekers can do this is to create and maintain a blog⁺.

Get Started: Before you create your blog, make sure you read up on the top blogs relevant to your industry．Which types of stories do the bloggers cover? How do they construct their posts? How do they distribute their content - on a syndicated Web site? Or perhaps via Twitter⁺? You'll want to have fresh content and a unique voice on your own blog, but mimicking the best practices of lead bloggers in your field will provide some much-needed guidance if you are new to the blogosphere⁺.

Social media⁺ is quickly emerging as this year's hottest trend in marketing. Nearly 60 percent of top-performing brands say they plan allocate more dollars to social media outreach this year* - all while ad spend on other channels continues to shrink.

One social network⁺ that has felt the social surge is Twitter⁺. Companies are harnessing the powerful microblogging tool to drive sales, evangelize potential customers, connect with brand loyalists and improve customer service. Here are ten brands whose sweet tweets are worth checking out:

1. Dunkin Donuts
# Followers: 12,477
In 140 characters: The @dunkindonuts Twitter stream is friendly and helpful. They sure kin do it.
Sample Tweet: "This Iced Coffee has been helping me through current meeting & it's almost gone... http://twitpic.com/2gvf8"

Social Media⁺ Club

Social Media Club is being organized for the purpose of sharing best practices, establishing ethics and standards, and promoting media literacy around the emerging area of Social Media. This is the beginning of a global conversation about building an organization and a community where the many diverse groups of people who care about social media can come together to discover, connect, share, and learn.

WALK-IN SPACE FOR THE TWEET UP IS AVAILABLE - come by at 8pm!

A Public Tweetup Sponsored by H&R Block⁺ - with Open Bar for as long as it lasts.

Roger Smith Hotel
Lexington Ave & E 47th St
New York, NY 10017 

Earlier this month, Google CEO Eric Schmidt called Twitter a "poor man's email system" and a "note phenomenon" - an impressive innovation, yes, but lacking a "full offering" of services nonetheless.

What Schmidt fails to understand is that Twitter's beauty lies in its simplicity, brevity and immediacy. People use Twitter to learn about events in the lives of family members, friends, colleagues, celebrities and other key influencers as they happen.

And for such a simplistic model, Twitter has evolved into a multifaceted social media⁺ tool with almost as many uses as P Diddy (@iamdiddy) tweets per day.

You may think you're alone, that you're the only person who is online, but isn't using social networking. Wrong. In fact, new accounts on Facebook⁺ alone top 600,000 each day - combine that with the hundreds of other social networks and this closes in on one million. With such exponential and explosive growth, how can you stand out from the crowd? You really are one in a million - and that's just for today.

So, why "helpful?" Put simply, we want you to end your session on this Web site proclaiming, "That was helpful!" Everything we post is sanitized of any confusing geek-speak, made into simple actionable tasks and posted in plain English to make this the most usable Web site of your day.

Here stands the first post of the helpfulsocial.com blog⁺! Thank you for visiting our brand new website.

Who is this website for?

We've noticed a huge increase in requests for help getting started in social media⁺. Well, perhaps more specifically, people just need help getting social media. This web site is for the third wave. How do you know if you're a part of this wave? If dont have a handle on what these bullets mean, this website is for you. We're here to help.

• Ew. MySpace⁺. How in the world did you end up there?
• Tweet me when you find out the time for the tweetup, love you tweeple⁺!
• Why would anyone want to tell the world about everything they do?