So from time time I will write a post relating to a new social network or the power of social networks.  Social networking and social media have changed my life, in the last six months, in ways that I never imagined.

Social networking used to be known, simply, as Facebook or MySpace.  Twitter came along in 2007 (but really became a hit this year) and that infrastructure began changing the way I communicate to people.  It also widened my network of “friends” and these past six months, I’ve met some amazing people. The best way for me to explain this is through my own, personal story:

If you recall, I’ve written a few posts on specifically how social networking is changing the foundation in how we connect with others online.  Whether it’s by finding a job with Twitter or interacting daily with people outside of your physical network, social networks are here to stay.  Web 2.0 isn’t 2.0 without the social networking piece embedded into it.  So, this post isn’t about me trying to persuade you that social networks are important; rather, it’s here to show you how it’s helped me in the past 6 months.

I’ve been awarded three part-time jobs thanks to my networking via Twitter, Plurk and blogging.  I’m a guest writer on Culture Feast and PC Authorities.  I’ve also had the opportunity to create corporations’ profiles on Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.  Obviously, the extra income has been a pleasant surprise.  I recently was interviewed by Brazen Careerist because I started my company’s first-ever recruiting approach using social networking and microblogs.

I’ve been a guest on The Neal Show and when I wrote about fixing Woopra on a Mac, Geekbrief’s Cali Lewis mentioned me on her show which caused my Woopra post to be one of the highest read posts I’ve ever written.  I still get around 30 to 40 unique hits per day on that post which was written a few months ago!  How did this happen?  Luck had a part of it.  Social networks had the rest.  Twitter has some of the most amazing people I’ve ever had the chance of knowing.  99% of them are educated, interested in what you have to say and they will support you in almost anything you ask.  I don’t find too much on other social networks.  Plurk, Twitter’s first cousin, has that beginning support, but it’s not as strong as Twitter, in my opinion.

I’m also currently working with Tony C. Hall on a podcast that he and I will be publishing very soon.  It’s all about microblogging and I really think it’s going to be a great success.  I wouldn’t have had the chance of meeting Tony if it weren’t for social networking.

So, in my eyes, social networking and social media have changed my life in the last six months.  Those that know me will know this blog post isn’t me bragging.  On the contrary, it’s just showing those who may not “get” social networking’s power to understand how “little ol’ me” has blossomed in this wonderful world of technology.  I may not be a Cali Lewis or a Michael Arrington, but I am Jeff McCord… and well, that’s just moxie to me!

Share your story… how have social networks changed your life or your perspective in 2008?

I’ve had the wonderful opportunity these past few months to lead a group of coworkers in educating the company I work for in social networking and social media. Social networking has become a powerful medium for me. But what is the deal with social networking? Why are companies and individuals becoming so interested in this and what does social networking really mean?

I’m not an expert on social networking but what I am is someone who is actively involved in it. Wikipedia defines social networking as a social network for communities of people who share interests and activities or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. I like to define social networking as the foundation that attracts and holds like-minded individuals together. Social media, on the other hand, is the format or the substance that adds value to the foundation (social networks). The two go hand in hand but surprisingly to most “novices,” social media and social networking are not the same thing. One is a part of the other but both are separate in nature.

The best way I know how to write about these topics is to give my own personal story. As most of you know, I started this blog in late 2007. The reason I started my own blog was because I got involved in a few social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Friendfeed) and I became “friends” with so many unique and wonderful people that I instantly wanted more. So what better way to evolve than to create my own forum in my own social network: my personal blog. Some of the social networking sites that grabbed my attention then allowed me to share different forms of media (mainly videos) so that I could connect to the audience I wished to connect. It then snowballed when I got the opportunity to meet my two favorite podcasters, Neal Campbell and Cali Lewis and I got to be on The Neal Show a couple of times.

Like I wrote earlier, I also got the opportunity to get involved in social networking/social media with my employer, a top ten digital advertising agency here in Dallas. This new opportunity allowed me to formally educate myself on the newest and hottest trends in social networking. As most know, I’m a professional recruiter by day so I also got the opportunity to create some profile sites for the recruiting team I work with. I then decided that we could recruit top-notch talent by getting more and more involved in particular social networks and that’s been a great success not only in finding the people we want, but also getting our brand out to the world. And now I’m currently working a few freelance opportunities as well as getting the opportunity to be a weekly writer on CultureFeast.com! So social networking has literally changed my life in such a short amount of time.

So why is this important? Well, my friends, social networking is literally the way of the future. Whether is communicating daily to friends across the world on Twitter or uploading home videos on Vimeo or sending out your latest geotagged “what’s going on” on Brightkite, social networks and social media are here to stay! Also, don’t forget my post on why your reputation is SO important when it comes to social networking sites… for my post on Reputation 2.0, click here.

So tell me your story. What got you here to my blog? Do you know me on a social network? Did you find me from some of my personal social media? Let me know how you found me in the comments below!

Google recently announced a new service that will motivate any website owner into getting more involved in the social media realm. Google Friend Connect was made to socialize the internet for every-day users. Users will be able to add profile information, videos, photos and other great “widgets” on any website that uses their service. Even better, the website owner doesn’t even need to know programming since Google will have a wizard type set up to install this new service on to any website.

Why is this a big deal? In my opinion, this opens the playing field for the average blog site and even though we will never be competing directly with the MySpaces and Facebooks of the world, it at least gives us the chance to provide social networking and the fun that goes with it to our viewers.

According to e-Week, “the key to Friend Connect is ease of use. Google has built a wizard-like page where a Webmaster can enter the name of his or her site, choose applications from a Google application gallery, and cut and paste pieces of code right into the site.”

Once Google Friend Connect is launched to the masses, there will be more and more widgets available that will allow you, the viewer, to bring your friends with you on any website you want. Social networking will definitely be altered once this service launches, in my opinion.

What are your thoughts? If you own a blog/website, do you have interest in using this service? If so, why? Please leave a comment below!

If you’d like Google’s video introduction of their new service, Friend Connect, please click on the video below:

PC Magazine defines social networking sites as a website that provides a virtual community for people interested in a particular subject or just to “hang out” together. In this ever changing and expanding era of social media, I can’t begin to describe the impact that sites like YouTube, Twitter, Pownce, MySpace and Facebook have had on me personally.

In a matter of a couple of months, I’ve been able to build a wonderful community on Twitter that consists of peers, co-workers, friends and acquaintances. No longer are the days where people JUST sit in a chat room and socialize. Just last week, @nealcampbell and @calilewis had a Dallas Twitter social in which I attended. Instantly, I began recognizing people as they walked in the door. It didn’t take long for me to begin thinking “wow, what have we started here?” Check out some of the pictures from our Dallas Twitter hangout here.

Social networking is definitely the future of the web, in my unprofessional opinion. These sites and mediums are no longer just for the geek or just the expert. Anyone and everyone is welcome. If you can’t find a community of similar people on any of these major social networking sites, then you just need to continue looking. I really believe that social networking can be a positive move in the right direction when it comes to lending support (technical, professional, personal) to your fellow neighbor.

So, my awesome blog readers, which social network site is your favorite? I would love to know so please leave a comment below.

Reputation is defined as the opinion of the public toward a person, a group of people, or an organization. More specifically, online reputation is a growing concern in this Web 2.0 world of networking and recruiting.

I decided I wanted to write my next recruiting post related to online reputation and the effects some social media sites have on it. Even if you currently are not looking for a job, your online reputation is everything. Just like your credit score, it’s a perception of how you function in life as a human being. Regardless of your present job situation, evidence is growing that show companies do care what you say and what others say about you online. Even if you’re not a popular blogger with your own domain site, companies can view your online reputation within minutes.

In a recent survey by a social network, 59% of employers are influenced by what they find on a candidate’s social network profile and/or online in general.

As a recruiter for 9 years and counting, reputation used to be based on a reference check or a referral. If I found “John Doe” on CareerBuilders.com and I thought he may be a good match for my company’s position, I would bring him to my office for an initial screening and then ask him to provide me two references. These references would then be the avenue in which we assessed the person’s reputation and credibility.

Now, with the creation of social media and web 2.0, reputation has taken a new course. Do you know that recruiters, HR departments, headhunters, and hiring managers not only do background and reference checks, but will also go online to assess your online reputation? Do you think it was smart to post that video on YouTube that showed you and a few friends doing a prank to a neighbor? Or what about those heated, political comments you left on a MySpace bulletin one night after a few drinks? Did you publicly breakup with your partner and then leave a personal yet humiliating message to him/her one night? It’s not as private as you may have thought.

Below are three main areas of where recruiters and your employer may begin assessing your reputation online…

(1) “Google You” - the first and easiest assessment of your reputation online is to google (or yahoo/MSN/altavista) the candidate’s name. These results can vary from your high school entry in your online yearbook to an award you won in college. They also can show results of one’s picture with one’s girlfriend or fraternity brothers on a MySpace page. If you tag your name to any image on any social media site, it can be easily found. “Googling a potential candidate” also shows what social media sites he or she is involved in and some of these sites could be considered questionable by your potential employer.

(2) Blogging - anyone knows that all someone has to do is create a google alert with your name on it and anything that’s in a blog (video, picture, text) has the potential of showing up in one of the several search engines around the world. Blogging has become a controversial topic between employees and employers because some argue that every one has the right to express themselves in any way they see fit. If it’s not on company time then it’s not my company’s business, right? Others argue that your blog and personal branding online can damage the reputation of your employer. So where does the line get drawn? A lot of companies require their new employees to sign an “exclusivity agreement” as well as a “Code of Ethics.” In a Code of Ethics, most companies have now begun to create a “blogging policy”. While it’s true that some companies allow you to blog as long as you leave the company’s name out of it, others absolutely discourage your right to blog about anything, depending on the level of your position. And if you sign this code and continue blogging, your employer has the right to terminate you.

(3) Social Media Sites - Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Twitter, Pownce, etc. All of the profiles you build, comments you leave, videos you post, tweets you write and other personal promotion can lead to your potential employer OR your current employer making an assessment of you, regardless if it’s accurate or not. Recruiters are using MySpace and Facebook not only as network venues but also to pre-screen their candidates before presenting them to their hiring managers. Assessing your online reputation is huge. Companies are all about assessing risk and that even goes with assessing the risk of hiring a potentially controversial or unethical employee. Take it from me, I recently learned that every message I write on Twitter is indexed by Google. Therefor, I have the potential of someone reading one “tweet” completely out of context. It was eye opening for me.

These are just three ways for anyone to assess your online reputation. What you create about you is the most easily controlled. What others say about you or how they react to a comment you made or a video you published is much harder to control. The reason I wrote this post is to make people more aware of your online reputation. Your “online footprint” isn’t in sand… rather it’s in wet cement and it can stay online for years and years to come.

If you’re further interested in managing your online reputation, LifeHacker wrote a brillant article about how you can begin managing your online reputation proactively.

I’d also LOVE to hear YOUR comments about this. Do you feel like companies and recruiters are taking this too far? Is this an argument about freedom of speech or privacy issues? I’d love to hear your comments below.

I’ve been a recruiter, professionally, for 9 years and I’ve recruited everything from Creative Directors to Designers to Information Technology peeps to Finance people. One of the hottest trends in recruiting is the ability to announce job openings on social media sites. The biggest example is Google. Google’s HR recruitment campaign on YouTube went viral in a less than a week. Companies all across the world are beginning to create profiles on MySpace, Facebook and upload videos to YouTube.

So enough about us HR folk. What I want to discuss is how YOU can find a job by using social media.

The hottest social media site, in my opinion, on the ‘net is Twitter. So how can you use Twitter to find a new job? Easily.

If you think of Twitter as the “center of the ‘net” or as the “watercooler of the net,” (these comments coined by Geekbrief’s @calilewis) then you’ll soon realize the potential of Twitter. It’s easy. It’s quick. It’s instantaneous. You can read 40 people’s “what are you doings” in less than a minute, thanks to Twitter’s 140 character response field. If recruiters spend, on average, less than a minute to brief over a resume then recruiters should love Twitter. And we do.

So if more people are beginning to use Twitter, what better avenue to market yourself and your resume! As a recruiter, my team has begun the social media route in finding the top, best talent. The Monster.com’s of the world are, in all honesty, over-populated with resumes. If I’m looking for a designer who has a love for the web and who knows the latest and greatest in advertising as well as social media, would I find that person more quickly on Monster or on a social medium, such as Twitter or Facebook? To me, it makes perfect sense to use social media sites to attract top-notch talent.

We’ve begun advertising our job openings on Twitter, Pownce, Facebook and MySpace because we know that the talent we’re looking for are going to be more involved in these sites rather than they would be on the regular job boards. All you need is your resume and portfolio online and then you can just broadcast your website on Twitter or follow someone you know who is a recruiter (example: www.twitter.com/imc2recruiter).

Most HR departments these days have created their own MySpace and Facebook profiles. They’re there to not only give more presence to their company but to also “add friends” (aka add potential candidates) to their network.

Should you not upload your resume to the job boards? No, I think you should. But you definitely should think outside the box and begin to use social media sites as well to network. Network, network, network.

Watch the video below to see how companies and recruiters are using social media to find YOU.

http://www.vimeo.com/948866

As most of you know, Flickr added video uploads to it’s ever growing platform yesterday.  And most of you know, a lot of people are “protesting” and deleting their accounts on the original photo-sharing platform becuase they’re upset that Flickr has gone this route.  Don’t we have other things, more important, to protest about?  Seriously….

One of my favorite women on the net, iJustine, made a video she uploaded to Flickr and I couldn’t have said it better myself.  OMG - this is hysterical.  She rocks… and is super moxie.