Topic: jibberjobber news

Keep your pipeline FULL!

This is a long story, so I’m not going to write anything more than THIS IS NOT MY STORY. I kind of had this happen to me, but this particular story is from a JibberJobber user, and reader of this blog. If you area job seeker this story will make you sad and mad at the same time.

Jason, I’ve just had an experience which you may want to share with your readers in a blog post. Perhaps others can learn from it.

As you know, it’s been tough to find my next position as my work spans over multiple departments. Last year I went through an interview process for a position that had a job description that seemed perfectly suited to me. I had several interviews over a few months. In addition, someone who worked at the organization worked with me previously at my current organization and had supposedly put in a good word for me. At the end, I came in #2 to another candidate.

This summer, I saw the person who I used to work with in the park near my office, only to find out that the person they hired hadn’t worked out and they would be soon looking for a replacement. He added ‘they should have hired you.’ I followed up with an email to the organization executive director to keep my connection open but not mentioning my conversation.

A few months later, I was contacted by the organization and the interview process started again. I met three times with practically the entire executive staff, which seemed very promising. I also joined the organization’s email lists and made sure that I prepared well for every conversation, tracking my interactions in JibberJobber.

Suddenly about a month ago the process stopped. I followed up with an email to the executive director, and received a response that he would call me the next day. The next day came and went - no response. Three weeks later, I followed up with another email and received a response that he wanted to call me but ‘didn’t have my phone number.’ This seemed a bit strange, but I sent back my full contact information and we arranged to chat the next day.

After an exchange of voice mails, I finally spoke to him yesterday. Needless to say, I wasn’t expecting a positive experience, but the conversation was very discouraging. He started off by saying that the recent financial crisis had made them ‘re-evaluate’ whether or not to fill this position. While I could understand the concern, the role of this spot in maintaining all of the organization’s online communications seemed a bit too important to discontinue in the face of the recent stock market fluctuations.

He then continued to say that even if they decide to go forward, they probably would not continue with my candidacy, even though I had been given more interviews than most others who had applied for the position. This still seemed a bit hard to understand, so I asked whether there was some part of my qualifications that didn’t match the position. I was told that they were now looking for a ‘different’ set of skill sets, but that he hoped I had benefited from the experience.

Needless to say, the conversation left me angry and frustrated about having devoted so much resources to an organization that clearly doesn’t have its act together. On the positive side, I was grateful that I didn’t end up working there for someone who didn’t even have the decency to probably wouldn’t have given me any type of update had I not followed up several times.

The lesson? While it’s useful to focus on opportunities that seem to be especially the right fit, it’s dangerous to spend too much time concentrating on one possibility. I received several signs that this would at least result in an offer, and twice I was burned. Now having had my job hunt go on for two years, I’m wondering what it takes to move to the final stage. One thing I’m planning to do is to do some mock interviews with my career coach to hopefully find out if there’s anything I can do to improve my presentation.

Please keep my name anonymous but please emphasize to your audience the importance of having multiple possibilities going at all times and to be aware of any warning signs during the interview process that an organization may be dysfunctional and is NOT a good place to work, even if the job sounds perfect.

I’ll just repeat one line:

“While it’s useful to focus on opportunities that seem to be especially the right fit, it’s dangerous to spend too much time concentrating on one possibility.”  Keep that pipeline full!

Tomorrow morning at 10MST (noon EST) I’ll host my first 45 minute BlogTalkRadio show.  You can listen live (through your speakers), call in with questions, or download and listen to the podcast later.  All the information you need should be on the BlogTalkRadio JibberJobber page (http://www.blogtalkradio.com/JibberJobber).

To listen live with your speakers, just go to this page at the right time (10am MST): http://www.blogtalkradio.com/JibberJobber

To callin and chat, the number is: (718) 766-4825

Susan coauthored Job Search Bloopers, which I’ve read and loved.

We’ll see how I do as an interviewer, and not an interviewee!

Last week JibberJobber was the first thing mentioned on Fox News (My Fox Gulf Coast / Fox 10).  Here’s the description:

On Monday’s Daily Dot Com, Charissa Cowart shows you a website to help you organize your job search materials. She also tells you that you can find video memories of Yankee Stadium on the Yankees website. Check out the websites here.

Here’s a link to the clip (click on the image below):

Want to know how it happened?  I met Charissa Cowart on Twitter, we exchanged a few tweets, she checked out JibberJobber, and the rest is history. 

What, you say, Twitter is lame?  It worked pretty good this time  Thanks a bazillion Charissa!

About a year ago we introduced the import your Gmail contacts feature.  It was buggy, and Gmail seemed to change their API (the protocol that allows a third party (like us) to tap into their system).  We just sat and waited, and moved on to other things.  It’s hard chasing around moving APIs and keeping up to date.

One of my developers told me they had really updated their API, it was more stable, and ready to look at again.  So we fixed the import on our end, and it seems to work!  However, I did an import and saw stuff that I didn’t want in my database, and a user did an import and had some other issues.  The import works, but you may get a bunch of garbage in your JibberJobber database… so a few thoughts:

This is a premium feature (only $9.95/month).  Mouse over Network or Tools, and then click on Import/Export.  You’ll see the Gmail tab in there.

The import pulls all of your Gmail contacts in.  If they don’t have names (first name, last name), they that will be BLANK… but it will pull that e-mail address in.  Kind of useful, but it means you have to go and clean it up

On our lastest implementation, there were some duplicates created, and tags and categories got duplicated.  This should be fixed now, but if it’s not, let us know!

If there are fields in your Gmail contacts that are not coming over, please let us know… we’ll see if we can grab those also.

If you do an import and you get a bunch of junk, you can delete in bulk (I’ve done this a number of times).  Here’s how:

1. Go to the Network List Panel,
2. Click on Manage Columns (next to the search box above your contacts)
3. In the middle column, show up to 255 contacts (right now we are capping it at 255)
4. Click save, which takes you back to the list panel
5. Click on the checkbox on the top right, which selects ALL of the 255 contacts on the page,
6. Scroll to the bottom, and click the delete, which will delete those 255.

This would be repeated for all of the contacts you want to delete (in batches of 255).  You can order by Date Created, so you don’t mix in other contacts with the contacts from that import.  WHen I did an import, it pulled in about 2k or 3k new contacts…

One other option to consider, just export from Gmail into a csv file, clean up the csv file, then import that…!

Very cool to take those relationships to the next level, but yes, I am overwhelmed at the number of people I’ve communicated with over the last two years in Gmail!

Since the beginning of JibberJobber there was a cool little feature you may have seen when you added a target company.  At the top of the screen you would see this checkbox:

Last week, in the upgrade where we introduced the new Silver level (1,000 contacts and 1,000 target companies for $5/month), we also introduced Phase II of Global Companies.  This is a very exciting enhancement for you.  Here’s where the idea came from:

When I got laid off, I was fairly new to Salt Lake City.  I had only lived here about 18 months, and I spent most of my time either commuting or working… but no networking.  The only companies I knew about in the Salt Lake area where those I could see when I drove down the road.  In my job search I found out about more companies, specifically, those which posted openings on Monster or in the newspaper.

I knew there were hundreds, maybe thousands of other companies I should know about, some of them with my next job!  But I had no idea how to find them.  How in the world do you turn over eery rock to find these companies….???

The idea for Global Companies was born, and that’s where you come in.  When you check the checkbox, you are sharing certain company information with all JibberJobber users.  You won’t share your private information, like how you rank them, notes, log entries, etc.  You won’t even share that YOU are the one who added the company to the list of Global companies.  You’ll share something like this:

Simply general information.  How cool is that, that I can share this with other JibberJobber users?  Better yet, I can see with others share, based on where I am targeting (based on the address I have on my own profile):

If I am searching for companies in a different location, say, Seattle, I would simply change the data in the drop down.  Or, if I’m going to relocate and know that I’m moving to Seattle, I’ll change my home address under My Account so it always comes up with the Seattle area.

From the image, you can see I can comment on the company, which can help others learn about the company (any information you want to share).  The comments will show as anonymous, but if we find trolls or abuses, we’ll have to clean up the junk and figure out what to do with those who are trolls).

I can also rank the company, and have my ranking contribute to an overall ranking for that company.  Between the comments and the rankings, this can be an excellent way to share more information about potential target companies with JibberJobber users.

Notice the add icon () next to the name of the company.  When I click on that icon, I add it to MY PERSONAL list of target companies.  So if I find a company that someone else has entered into JibberJobber, and I want to store private information about it, I just click that link and it shows up in my list of Target Companies.  That’s where I’ll do things like create notes, action items, log entries, tie people to the company, etc.

If I want to get more comprehensive information about the company, I simply click on the name of the company and it takes me to a page with the shared information, comments, ranking, and even a Google Map with directions to MY HOUSE to the company, miles between us and estimated driving time!!  How cool is that?

We encourage you to share your companies as a Global Company.  You can either do this when you first set up the company, or when you edit the company, by clicking on that checkbox at the top.

Or, on the Company Detail Page, you’ll see a new icon:

When you click on this icon, it will make that company a Global Company.

Remember, no other JibberJobber user will know that you added the company as a Global Company, or how you ranked them, or what your comments were.

Cool?  Powerful?  We think so!  Simply login to JibberJobber, mouse over the Companies Menu Item, and click on Global Companies at the bottom!

I’m excited to announce a new upgrade level on JibberJobber.com.  This comes after a number of people have told me that $9.95 is too much (I would not have paid it, as I didn’t have any money, but I think someone in my family would have paid it for me), but the free level just wasn’t doing enough. In fact, most of the feedback about the free vs. premium levels is that they really just need more contacts, and more target companies.

The Silver Level is a step up from the free level, with up to 1,000 contacts and 1,000 target companies.  You can still get ALL premium features, and unlimited contacts and companies for just $9.95. Here’s a summary of each level (you can see a side-by-side comparison here):

Regular (Free): We designed this to be more powerful than a job search spreadsheet.  You can track an unlimited number of job postings, whether you find them on Monster, through networking, etc.  You can track up to 250 network contacts and 75 target companies, and post up to 10 log entries on each of those records.  You get a lot of tools, some reports, and more.  Note: when you first login you get 14 days of premium services for free.

Silver ($5/month): You get all of the Regular features PLUS an additional 750 network contacts and an additional 925 target companies.  This is an intermediate level designed to give those who are more budget-challenged an opportunity to use JibberJobber more effectively in their immediate job search.

Premium ($9.95/month): The floodgates open and you get all kinds of cool stuff.  My favorite premium feature is the action items e-mailed to me, so I don’t have to login to JibberJobber to see what I have coming up.  No wait, my favorite premium feature is the ability to import/export my data, so I can keep all my LinkedIn contacts, Cardscan contacts (buying one soon), Outlook contacts on JibberJobber.  No wait, my favorite premium feature is that I can use the Get Contact List to export my contacts based on a number of things, like tags or categories.  No wait, my favorite premium feature is that there are no limits on number of records I put in, or number of log entries I have… you get the point, right?  This level is optimal for those who are either serious about their job search, or not in a job search at all but very relationship-oriented (or career management oriented).

You want to know what may become the best premium feature yet?  The Outlook plugin, which hopefully will be in beta in the next few weeks.

We are trying to fit your budget - for $0 you get value.  For $5/month you get more value.  For $9.95 a month you get a bunch more value. Cool?

It was two years ago yesterday that I wrote my first blog post.  I thought I was a darn good blogger until about 6 months into it one of my respected peers said “hey, it sounds like you are finally finding your blogging voice!  Congrats!”  I know it was a compliment but I was offended because I didn’t know I had sounded so lost before that :p

Anyway, this week I’ll share some special stuff with you, like I did for last year’s anniversary.  Stay tuned for that.

Today I wanted to share information on something called Sourcing, which is something that recruiters rely on.

If you are a job seeker, check out the description below - you should know what techniques and tactics recruiters are taught so that you can optimize your chance of being found.

If you are a recruiter, fork over the $149.97 to attend this session by the master of sourcing, Shally no-last-name-required.  Shally (okay, it’s Shally Steckerl) is one of the most respected people in the recruiting space, and probably has some kind of super-human abilities.  He is an expert at searching… that is, finding talent.  Whether it’s through LinkedIn or Google, or however he does it, Shally finds hidden talent.  This is a must-not-miss opportunity.

If you are a career professional who works with job seekers (job search coach, resume writer, career counselor, etc.), consider taking the course so you can learn how to better position your clients.

There you go - a two-fer blog post… first, happy birthday to us (yeah!) and second a recruiting event you shan’t miss!

Peter Clayton has been good to me. Really good. He introduced me to the HR world when JibberJobber was just ONE month old, and that led to many great relationships which I carry on today.

I was honored that he would ask me for another interview (the third), to celebrate my two year anniversary. You can find the interview HERE. It’s only 22 minutes.

He has amazing interviews on his site… take some time to scroll through past interviews and listen to what  industry leaders think about careers, employment, the job search, job boards, social networking… all the stuff you are interested in. If you have time, you can hear my FIRST interview with him, in June of 2006!

Thanks Peter Clayton!!

For a while I’ve wanted to do a simple presentation to share what JibberJobber is, who I am, where we came from, etc.

I took some time to try and come up with something creative, captivating, interesting, and helpful… and came up with this:

| View | Upload your own

If you want to put this on your own blog, or website, I’d love that. Simply click on embed on the bottom left of the slideshare screen and you’ll see a bunch of code to copy over to your site/blog - and huge thanks in advance!

I’d love to know what you think!

Just a quick post for any of you who didn’t know about the buy-one-get-one-free offer to celebrate our second year at JibberJobber - we had to extend it through TONIGHT.

Pay $99 and each month turns out to be $4.13 … ! That’s a pretty sweet deal. Why would you do this? Here’s a few of my favorite reasons:

1. JibberJobber is a LIFETIME career management tool! You might be in a job search now, but when you land your job you’ll be in-between job searches! The government says we’ll be in transition every three to five years (yes, that sucks), but my partners who work with executives say that, depending on your role (CxO), you might be in transition every 12 - 18 months. WOW! What are YOU doing about it?
2. The premium version e-mails you your action items. I don’t expect you to login to JibberJobber to see what you have going on today… but I do suspect you live out of your e-mail (I do). I’ve missed too many appointments, and in my job search I missed a call-back because my calendaring system was messy. As a premium subscriber you can choose when you get the e-mail - two days before it’s due? Cool. Five days? No problem. Twenty days… on the day… whenever? It’s up to you!
3. The premium version has NO limits on number of records stored. Currently, anyone who subscribes as a premium user can have as many target companies, network contacts and documents (resumes, reference letters, etc.) in the system.
4. The premium version allows you to import and export. Have your contact lists elsewhere? Target companies in a spreadsheet? You can simply import them into JibberJobber. And if you are concerned about backups (more than what we do, which is a nightly tape backup), you can export your data as often as you please.
5. The premium version has a “Get Contact List” option. This allows you to get your contacts in a variety of formats, including .csv, .html, vcard, etc. Want to send an e-mail to just a segment of your list? No problem, the Get Contact List was made for that…

As a bonus, anyone who is a premium user, with a one-year-or-more subscription, can get any of the CEO Training webinars for 50% off… anytime!

Trying to figure out LinkedIn or Facebook? You can get the webinars at just $24.95, instead of $49.95.

Want to get a book out and enhance your personal brand, develop yourself as a subject matter expert and thought leader? Write Your Book has gotten great reviews, and you will be able to get it for just $24.95.

Have a great blog that no one reads? This two hour special recording of Blog Marketing 201 - 501 will be just $24.95 if you take advantage of this special.

So go login now, upgrade for $99.95, get two years of premium features, and then head over to the CEO Training site and get some webinars!

Who should take advantage of this? YOU!

As I wrap up this week’s anniversary posts, I figured I’d talk about how I see the next year unfolding. Some of this might be news to you, so consider it an announcement :p

I should mention, Monday is the last day to get the Buy-1-get-1-year special. This makes the monthly price for JibberJobber less than $5 … just login and click on the upgrade link at the top of the screen!

In a comment on Monday Darlene from Interview Chatter said “Have a great 3rd year!” It may sound dumb to you but I was so wrapped up in the first two years that I didn’t quite think about us being in our 3rd year. That means so many things to me.

We’re not a startup anymore (are we?). As the CEO, we *should* be at certain places with our metrics (revenue, profit, subscribers, conversions, visitors, blog posts, etc.)… I’m mentally thinking about where we *should* be and where we are, and what we need to do to get there.

In my original business plan I had goals to realize in the first 2 - 5 years… and now we are at the first part of that! Man, that went fast. Mark from Hirevue commented “I remembered when you first launched, it seems like only yesterday.” Yes indeed, I feel like that too… it’s really been two years?

Here are some things I see happening in the next year:

Increase in rate of JibberJobber signup and user growth.

I would like to pretend that all signups are “users,” like I’ve seen other websites report (”we have xxx,xxx,xxx,xxx users!”), but really, it would be a disservice to those of us who really watch the metrics to mix the two. Not everyone who signs up for a web service uses the service.

Over the next year I see the rate of signups and users increasing significantly. We’ve been on a good rate of increase, but I’m talking about a big increase, for various reasons. Contributing factors include the formalization of JibberJobberUSA, as well as a few strategic partnerships not yet announceable.

I should note that this is one of two key focuses for me this year - growing the signups and user base of JibberJobber. The other things below are fun, exciting and good, but this is the core of my business and my focus.

Make more valuable information available to my “audience.”

I have to put audience in quotes because my audience does not consist entirely of JibberJobber users. It includes blog readers, newsletter subscribers, and those who participate with me in social environments (Twitter, Yahoo! Groups, LinkedIn, Facebook, Ning networks, etc.).

The valuable information I’m talking about is found at the CEO Training series. I’m not sure if my favorite training is “Blog Marketing 201 - 501,” which turned out to be a two hour webinar full of what I’ve learned (and what I do to increase blog readership, etc.), or “Write Your Book,” which is a seventy minute webinar sharing ideas and knowledge to help you get your book going (we talk about publishing options, marketing, etc.).

These are things I had no clue about two years ago, but have played huge roles for my personal/corporate brand as well as my networking. You can get on any training live, or buy the recording.

I have partners who are developing their material to contribute to the CEO Training, which I’m excited about. One of my partners correctly requested that I focus on the technology and leave the career advice to them, since my advice was, um, not adequate :p So really, do you want to get job search advice from me, the guy who couldn’t get a job, or from my career expert partners, who know this game/industry from the inside-out??

Promote career, networking and job search services more.

I have 30ish official partners. These are career experts who are paying for an annual license. I’ve been asked by other firms if there is a simple (free) affiliate program, but I think there’s a lot to be said for a service provider who forks over money for the license fee…

I am regularly asked who I would recommend for resume writing, or job coaching, or something like that. I’m going to formalize this part of JibberJobber this year, so that people don’t feel like they need to ask me (rather, they see it clearly when they come to JibberJobber). One thing we did was put up a Career Experts page that has much more information about each of my partners (this is not done yet, but you get the idea here).

Increase strategic partnerships.

There are various entities with whom I’d like to partner. I have been investigating the outplacement world for almost two years, and have been in talks with various groups. There are exciting possibilities here.

I’m also interested in partnering with the right websites, companies or organizations where they can see JibberJobber would provide value to them and their users/viewers. I’m in talks right now with about half a dozen groups, and it’s pretty exciting. Again, hopefully there will be a few announcements coming soon.

Allow for job postings.

When I started I specifically stated that I didn’t every want to enter the job board space. It’s a muddy, noisy space (as far as I could tell). Monster “owned” it (that’s what I thought), and there were over 40,000 boards out there. What a frustration, from a job seeker’s perspective!

And then of course there are all of the problems with job postings. Nothing was more frustrating than getting a call during dinner from an “employer” who found me on Monster, only to find it was so I could join a MLM, or become one of his insurance sales agents (commission only). Seriously, what a let-down.

But guess what… I’ve been getting inquiries over the last few months about posting jobs. And it just seems to make sense. JibberJobber subscribers and users are… dare I say, smarter than Monster users. That might be crass to say, and if Monster ever wants to acquire JibberJobber they will probably make me take that statement down, but think about it. Monster is the default place to go, which means everyone goes there.

JibberJobber users are more sophisticated… they have a better understanding of career management, networking, using a CRM-like tool, understand technology (the Internet, websites, etc.), and more. These are people who are more career conscience. So yeah, I think you are smarter than the average Monster user.

And recruiters and hiring managers are, and will, notice this. This is a good reason to put job posting dollars into JibberJobber… right?

Who knows, maybe job posts on JibberJobber will be a total bust… we’ll see. And if it takes away from the overall value of JibberJobber for individuals, I’ll take it down.

Speaking.

I entered the world of professional speaking, and it’s a blast! I enjoy speaking, and I think I have fun and interesting stuff to say. I would love to be on the road every single week, speaking about the stuff I speak about (social networking, social tools for revenue generation, personal branding, corporate branding online, and all-things-career). Aside from actually getting paid to do this (!!), it gives me an excellent opportunity to travel the globe, get face-to-face time with JibberJobber users, and present at job search and networking clubs, as well as meet with potential strategic partners.

Yep, weekly, is what I’d like to do. I doubt that’ll happen this year, but I’ll work towards it. I’ll speak at association conferences, company conferences, chamber of commerce meetings, etc. Hopefully I’ll come to a town near you, and we can meet in person!

So that’s kinds of a brain dump of JibberJobber in it’s third year! Shoot me any ideas or suggestions you have, if this seems off-base, or if there are opportunities I’m missing!

Today is our two year anniversary! We are offering a buy-one-get-one-free offer for a one year upgrade (through Monday night) to JibberJobber - click here for more info!

I’ll never forget it… anticipation had been building and everything was coming together.

That night, May 15, 2006, I closed shop and drove 20 minutes away with my five year old son for a “fathers & sons” campout. I was anxious because sometime while I was gone, JibberJobber would go live. I remember calling my wife about every half-hour asking “Is it live yet? Is it live yet?”

I doubt I slept well that night.

The next day we left early, instead of playing all the games. I rushed home to see the site… what would become my new career. My eight year old daughter surprised me with a birthday cake for JibberJobber… this was definitely a family affair!

I sent e-mails to friends and family and we had our first few hundred signups. I’m not sure if any of the first signups are still using JibberJobber, but it was cool that we had people signup :p (If I ever do this again I doubt I’ll announce it to friends and family asking them to signup!)

Let me share some of the “wins” that we have had in the last 730 days of JibberJobber:

• we were introduced to the recruiting blog space by CM Russell, author of Secrets of the Job Hunt, when he did a five-question interview asking what the heck JibberJobber was
• we announced our military special which led to a podcast interview with Peter Clayton
• from that podcast interview we established a relationship with various groups, including Spherion’s outplacement division (which has since been acquired), and then a relationship with the largest technology association in the world, IEEE
• I started blogging, almost daily (except weekends and holidays), which for more than a year was the most important thing I did for marketing, for the brand, and for my networking
• the blog led to a mention in the Wall Street Journal’s Career Journal (they moved their link, so I can’t link to it :()
• I joined three career associations attending their annual conferences and participating where I could on their eLists and in other ways
• because of my blog, and relationships I created, I was invited to speak at the largest career coach conference last April (I think I was the first speaker who wasn’t a career expert)
• I increased my blog networking strategy and came across some amazing people, some of my very close friends
• I signed a contract and eventually, finally wrote the book on LinkedIn: I’m on LinkedIn — Now What???
• I subsequently got interviews with all kinds of places that I had been trying to get ink in, including the NYT, Newsday, Wired magazine, CIO, etc.
• I ended up in PRINT, a full page, in US News & World Report
• I started speaking, and getting paid to speak, which has evolved my company and offering
• during all this time, my development team has faithfully plugged away, polishing and enhancing JibberJobber
• our rate of subscribers has continually increased each month, each year, as has the conversion rate (those who upgrade)
• we finally released JibberJobberUSA.com, which formalized the offer we created almost two years ago
• I started other blogs, including one for the LinkedIn book, the Facebook book, JibberJobberUSA, and one where I rant about personal issues
• … what am I missing? There are some pending partnerships in progress, but I can’t announce them yet.

So let me give some thanks, where thanks are due:

First, to my wife. If I can’t think of any other critical success factor in a business like mine, for a married guy, than the support of the spouse. Even though we both grew up with government-employed parents, she has a grand capacity for this crazy entrepreneurial venture. If anything could have shut down JibberJobber, it would have been her - but she has a vision of how JibberJobber helps people when they most need it, and is fully supportive of these last 2 years. Thank you!

Next, to my kids. My children have been very supportive as well. Their excitement when I share “wins” with them, when I come home from work, when I come home from a trip… it’s contagious and helpful. I especially appreciate hearing them include JibberJobber in the evening or meal prayers… it’s on their mind and they are my greatest champions.

Next, to my extended family. From investing in JibberJobber to passing business cards around to acting as sneezers and champions and tippers, I’ve felt immense support from you and I’m deeply greatful.

Next, to my very competent team. We feel extremely blessed to have our dev and QA professionals behind us… these are the people who make us look good! I’d like to talk more about them but I don’t want anyone to steal them away :p

Next, to my career partners. I am honored to have partnered with some of the biggest names in the career coaching and resume writing industry. It’s humbling, in fact, when I think about who has partnered with JibberJobber, and their continual support, encouragement, and advice.

Next, to all of my cheerleaders and champions. Whether they are users or not, there are plenty of people throughout the country who recommend and talk about JibberJobber. How cool is it that I’m not in this alone, and having people who help spread the word!

Finally, to all of the people who have taken a few minute to signup, and start using JibberJobber. I hope that this is something that has proven useful to you. I have a virtual group of users in my mind who have sent me feedback, ideas, suggestions, requests, and even bug notices… YOU have helped mold JibberJobber, and I thank you!

Okay, has it all been roses? Nope, absolutely not. Check out this e-mail that I just got:

“I want to unsubscribe to this damn thing…”

For the record, only once in two years have I heard JibberJobber called “this damn thing.”

But there are far more fun/exciting times than down moments. The future is bright - here’s to Year 3!

A full page… it’s pretty cool. The article is the same one that was posted online a few weeks ago (you can see it here).

The picture, which is pretty big, is the result of about two hours of picture-taking in Santa Rosa (where I grew up). It isn’t the picture that I would have picked for me, as I think it makes me look like a weirdo-chump, but hey, I’m happy with what I got! And the photographer didn’t have much to work with

Anyway, thank YOU a gazillion for your support… this is another awesome part of JibberJobber history!

Oh yeah, it’s the edition dated May 12, on page 55.

In March I read a post by Lucian Beebe, Director of Product Management, called Get Your Inside Connections with BusinessWeek & SimplyHired. I was simply jealous at the very cool interface that BusinessWeek offered to their readers, and immediately sent an e-mail to the address at the bottom of the post asking how we could do the same thing.

Thankfully, we got a quick reply and were able to give this functionality to YOU. How cool is that? A huge THANKS to LinkedIn (and the LinkedIn API) to help make your experience richer! Here’s how it works:

First, you get real data when you are actually logged into LinkedIn … so go login to LinkedIn! If you don’t login to LinkedIn, you’ll be prompted to, like in this picture:

Next, log into JibberJobber and go to the Company List Panel. This You can get there by clicking Companies on the main menu (or, in the image below, click on the link in the QuickView Stats for your Target Companies).

Next, on the right side of the List Panel you’ll see all the icons. You should see the little “in” icon (if you don’t, click Manage Columns and add that icon). Simply click the in icon and you’ll see a popup of who you know at that company, like this (these are the contacts that I have that have eBay in their profile… based on my connection relationship with them… so your results will look different):

Finally, you can drill down to any of the options they show… which goes to LinkedIn’s page, and shows as search results.

Again, thank you LinkedIn for opening up and allowing this type of functionality - it really does make the web a richer place!

After many votes have been casts, and many comments submitted, I’m happy to announce the results of the rebranding contest.

I wanted to announce this last week, but from Thursday through Sunday I was battling a computer virus that really cramped my style … alas, I think I’ve got the virus resolved and I am ready and anxious to rock and roll.

So, here were the final four options:

1. JibberJobber: Career Management 2.0
2. JibberJobber: Empowering tools for lifetime career control
3. JibberJobber: The portal to your career management
4. JibberJobber: Managing the information to manage your career

What was your favorite?

I thought the hands-down leader would be Career Management 2.0. It is cool, hip, and obviously something that means “we are done with version 1.0, and taking career management to the next level.”

I’m a software guy (my first real job in my field was developing for Simplot’s intranet, back in 1998, 1999!), so the 2.0 made a lot of sense to me.

And then I got an e-mail from Deb Dib my trusted advisor, mentor (she doesn’t know I consider her a mentor), and thought leader in the career and branding space, with this message:

For what it’s worth, my hands down, win-by-a-mile favorite brand statement for JJ is #4. The one about managing information to mange your career. It’s SO solid, says what JJ does, and hits me at a gut level.

Makes me think, if I were a job seeker, I want that — I NEED that!. The others are nice, but just not specific enough, esp #1 — a lot of people won’t even know what web 2.0 is, let alone what that means in relation to JJ.

I found that profoundly interesting. I didn’t like #4 too much because (a) it is too long to fit under (or within) my logo, and (b) it is… well, too simple — it does describe what we are doing, doesn’t paint us into a “job search” corner… but it just seems too simple, doesn’t it?

And then… I was talking to my wife about this and she said “what is 2.0? I have no idea what that means.” And I had flashbacks of all of the bosses and non-tech clients/customers who I ever worked with, and realized they, too, would look at 2.0 and have no idea what that meant. More head scratching, like what you do when you see “career toolset,” which is my current tagline. What does “career toolset” mean???

But I still loved Career Management 2.0. Haven’t you heard of web 2.0? Finance 2.0, sales 2.0, etc? It is catching on, and carries meaning, even though people are trying to be ahead of the curve and define 3.0 in many areas.

That was when I realized the voting results where going to be interesting. I was surprised at how it ended.

Here are the results:

In the voting, there was actually a tie for first place. The two winners will each split the $900, each get one lifetime premium upgrade, and both of my books in eBook format.

Congratulations to Kirsten Dixson, Partner in the Reach Branding Club, and submitter of “Career Management 2.0.” I should mention here that Kirsten has had a significant impact on my career with JibberJobber, as she invited me to speak with her at the Career Management Alliance conference last year, which was a huge credibility nod in my direction.

Congratulations also to Steve Duncan, submitter of “Managing the information to manage your career.” Steve has been following my JibberJobber journey for a while and has shot me e-mails here and there with ideas and suggestions. He actually submitted the very first entry in this contest!

How will I use two? You’ll just have to wait and see!

The second place winner is, well, Kirsten Dixson (again!). She also submitted “Empowering tools for lifetime career control” (and a few others… there were many people who submitted multiple ideas). She’ll get another lifetime license of JibberJobber, as well as two more books. Since she is connected to so many career professionals I’m guessing she’ll use these as awards, gifts or incentives for them.

I’ll be getting in touch with the other entrants in this contest this week (hopefully! I have some catchup to do from the virus last week :().

HUGE thank you to everyone who submitted, voted, and commented. I received dozens of e-mails with ideas and suggestions on where to head. On the survey I had dozens of excellent comments on what we should do, and how to best meet your needs.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Three things to share today. I’ve been struggling with a computer virus since last night and it’s really killing me. I forgot how much I hated viruses (I used to be an IT Manager and babysit an office full of PC’s). Today I even got the blue screen of death, which I probably haven’t seen on my own computer for over ten years!

(I know, a mac will solve all my problems… I know).

So, let me share something about the voting on JibberJobber’s rebranding. It is NECK-AND-NECK! I didn’t realize how close it would be, I thought that one was the clear leader… but this is a real contest! VOTE NOW since it closes tonight!

And, about US News & World Report. This comes from the Jason is bragging department… I had an interview a few weeks ago with Elaine Appleton Grant for about an hour. I’ve done interviews for “about an hour” before, only to see a half-sentence attributed to me in the final writeup. This was different. This article blew me away - not only did it cover so much ground, it, well, was mostly about what I’m doing! How cool is that?

How did I score that interview? Through networking. In fact, it was through a second degree contact, which means Elaine is a third degree contact from me. See, it gets really interesting once you get to that third and fourth degree! Let me give a huge shoutout to my buddy Mike Murray, who was that first degree contact who made this all happen - thank you Mike!!

Here are the final choices for the final taglines. Two of these got almost 20% of the votes. Which is your favorite? Go to the survey and vote for ONE.

• JibberJobber: Career Management 2.0
• JibberJobber: Empowering tools for lifetime career control
• JibberJobber: The portal to your career management
• JibberJobber: Managing the information to manage your career

Again, go vote here - voting closes Thursday at the close of business (specifically, 11:45pm MST)!

Tomorrow I’ll share what I’ve learned from the other, follow-up questions. You have told me what JibberJobber is, what it needs to be to make it better, etc. This process has been very, very interesting!

Thanks a ton to the sponsors:

• Deb Dib - Personal Branding Expert for Senior Executives
• Walter Akana - Career and Life Strategist and Personal Branding Expert
• Megan Fitzgerald - Expatriate Career and Personal Branding Expert
• Louri Russel Boilard - Executive Resume Writer and Career Psychologist/Counselor
• Makini Harvey - Career and Resume expert
• An anonymous corporate sponsor - donating The Planet Earth DVD Set
• Mark Hovind - Job Bait: The #1 Way to Land 6 and 7 Figure Jobs

If you haven’t voted yet, please head over to the Survey Monkey page to vote on your favorite taglines.

I need to mention, there were two messups. First, the very first option should be 2 different lines:

• Career Management 2.0, and
• Empowering Tools for Lifetime Career Control

Second, the very first submission I received got lost in my filing system and didn’t make it on the survey. It is:

• Managing the information to manage your career

Sorry two the people that affected…! If you want to submit a vote for either of these, please write it in a comment on PAGE 2 of the survey. To see all the other submissions, go click on the survey (and vote!).

Today’s the last day to vote… on this round. I can see some clear leaders and will do a second vote with the leaders narrowed down.

Thanks a ton to the sponsors:

• Deb Dib - Personal Branding Expert for Senior Executives
• Walter Akana - Career and Life Strategist and Personal Branding Expert
• Megan Fitzgerald - Expatriate Career and Personal Branding Expert
• Louri Russel Boilard - Executive Resume Writer and Career Psychologist/Counselor
• Makini Harvey - Career and Resume expert
• An anonymous corporate sponsor - donating The Planet Earth DVD Set
• Mark Hovind - Job Bait: The #1 Way to Land 6 and 7 Figure Jobs

On Thursday I blogged about the new features we had recently released - one new feature is the ability to get Action Item reminders popup on your taskbar. You know how a new e-mail, or instant message, or something like that will cause a popup notification? Here’s what you do:

First, find a free program which takes RSS feeds and pops them up in your task bar. I tried a couple and settled on BalloonRSS. It’s the only one that actually worked the way I thought it should. Install the program, and then clear out all the feeds that it comes with (otherwise you’ll get popups on news stuff) - make sure you set it up with the instructions from this page.

Next, login to JibberJobber. As a Premium User you’ll see three new RSS feeds on the Action Items panel, choose one (or all) to put into the BalloonRSS “channel settings.” This is where you ADD any of the three feeds from JibberJobber.

Next, go into My Account, Preferences and make sure the Activate Action Items Feed is checked.

Next, create a new Action Item, and put the TIME the Action Item is due.

Now you are all set! If you have your RSS application set up correctly, you’ll get the popups notifying you, like this:

or this:

How cool is that???

I should mention, there are a few things we need to polish on this, to make your experience better. If YOU have any ideas for us, please send them to me - we love to enhance JibberJobber for you!

It’s finally here - I can share the submissions I’ve received! Thanks for your patience over the last few weeks… there’s lots to say but today I’m just going to share the submissions. Please VOTE for your favorite(s) on the Survey Monkey Page, not on the comments section of this post. Without further ado:

Career Management 2.0 Empowering tools for lifetime career control.

When you outgrow managing your career with a spreadsheet.

When you can’t manage your career with a spreadsheet.

Next-generation career management tools that cut through the clutter of career resources.

Next-generation career management tools developed by a regular job seeker who was overwhelmed just like you.

networking for smart job seekers

The Missing Link

Work & Life Links

Link Force

Link to Last

Manage Your Career, Organize Your Brain

organize - utilize - strategize

JibberJobber - The portal to your career management.

a career management center for you - before, during and after a job search.

connecting people with people, resources and the tools to survive in today’s new world of work

networking your way to your next job

your competitive advantage in the job search

your own personal CRM – a place where you can manage leads, contacts, accounts and opportunities to help you grow “You Inc”.

JibberJobber - Your online career journal

Managing your career Journey

Career Planning For LIFE

Know Who You Know

Managing Your Career Connections

Helping You Get From Jobs To A Career

Making a Career Out Of Your Connections

Connecting To Your Career

Contact Management For Career-Minded People

(Or Those Who Want To Be)

Turning ‘Who You Know’ Into A Career

How To Know ‘Who You Know’

Career Planning Tools for Getting Ahead

Career Power Tools

Power Tools For Your Career (or career management)

Manage your career. Manage your life.

Get your act together… and keep it there.

Your life at your fingertips!

At your fingertips… your contacts, your career, your life.

Central HQ for your career, your relationships, your life.

Your Career Control Center

One-stop “central control” for your career, your relationships, your life.

Your Career, More Than a Job

Get work. Don’t make work.

JibberJobber - your source for job search management tools.

Jason Alba - The strip mall of relationships!

Your internet pit stop to vroom your career

Your virtual career coach

JibberJobber: The toolset for managing your career.

JibberJobber: all the career tools all of the time

JibberJobber: targeting your career with tools to help

JibberJobber: tools for the next action in your career

JibberJobber: Career Management Mastered

JibberJobber: The only career management toolset you’ll ever need

JibberJobber: Career Management Tools Delivered

JibberJobber: Career Management Tools on Steroids

Your virtual assistant for managing

your career Your virtual assistant for your job search

Making the job of job-seeking easier

securing stream(s) of income

it’s not what you know but who knows you.

Again, please don’t vote here, in the comments. Click on over to the contest vote page and weigh in (voting closes Friday)!

Thanks to the sponsors:

• JibberJobber, of course!
• Deb Dib - Personal Branding Expert for Senior Executives
• Walter Akana - Career and Life Strategist and Personal Branding Expert
• Megan Fitzgerald - Expatriate Career and Personal Branding Expert
• Louri Russel Boilard - Executive Resume Writer and Career Psychologist/Counselor
• Makini Harvey - Career and Resume expert
• An anonymous corporate sponsor - donating The Planet Earth DVD Set
• Mark Hovind - Job Bait: The #1 Way to Land 6 and 7 Figure Jobs

Getting this put together is taking more time than I expected, but the voting is almost available.  Thanks for hanging in there!

The branding contest is just about done. It’s been so cool to get submissions and e-mails with your thoughts. Next week we’ll have voting and announcement of the award ($900 + The Planet Earth DVD set, etc.).

One thing I’ve been thinking about for a while is a common theme I’m hearing in your feedback. It all centers around this concept:

The JibberJobber Brand

vs.

The Jason Alba Brand

The purpose of this contest is to help people come to JibberJobber and say “oh, I get this and I need it!!” Or to help in interviews or networking situations so people can so “oh my gosh, that solves one of my life problems… I’m signing up right when I get home!”

When I was in California a couple of weeks ago I would describe JibberJobber like this:

JibberJobber is like a Salesforce.com for you, with an emphasis on career management. Job transitions and networking relationships, you manage it all with JibberJobber.

Sounds kind of weird written out, but it rolled off the tongue when I described it to people on my trip. It would be cool to have something like that on my front page, but it still is not answering the “What’s In It For Me?” question.

Going back to confusion and dilution… a common theme I heard about since the beginning of the brand contest is “Jason Alba is…”

What if “Jason Alba” isn’t around? What is JibberJobber then? It has to stand alone. This is bigger than “Jason Alba.” So no matter what “Jason Alba” is, don’t let that sway you on what JibberJobber is. At the very least, don’t let “Jason Alba” dilute the JibberJobber brand.

Here are the previous posts for this contest:

• What is YOUR Mission (Statement)?
• New York Times & Wired & Newsday and THE CONTEST (which had one submission)
• Branding Contest Update and Recruiter Rant About Job Seekers
• What JibberJobber *Might* Have Been Called (Branding and Names)
• Mark Hovind (JobBait.com) on Brands, Tag Lines, and “Getting It”
• JibberJobber, The Brand, And The Education Factor
• The Issue With JibberJobber’s Brand Is…
• Branding Contest Questions And Answers
• I’ve Got A Branding Problem. And At Least $600 For You, If You Help Fix It.

This contest is sponsored by:

• JibberJobber, of course!
• Deb Dib - Personal Branding Expert for Senior Executives
• Walter Akana - Career and Life Strategist and Personal Branding Expert
• Megan Fitzgerald - Expatriate Career and Personal Branding Expert
• Louri Russel Boilard - Executive Resume Writer and Career Psychologist/Counselor
• Makini Harvey - Career and Resume expert
• An anonymous corporate sponsor - donating The Planet Earth DVD Set
• Mark Hovind - Job Bait: The #1 Way to Land 6 and 7 Figure Jobs

I got an e-mail from contest sponsor Louri Bollard today, asking me what my mission statement is. I can’t come up with a brand statement without understanding what my mission is, can I?

I’ll share my ideas on this in a little bit, but for now I’m wondering what YOUR mission statement was. I’m thinking back to when I was employed, wondering what my personal mission statement would have been. Perhaps something like this:

I want to have balance and purpose in my life, taking care of self and family while tending to work and social responsibilities. I work hard to “get ahead” financially, with wisdom and diligence so when I need to retire I can without worry. I want to do my best at my professional role and not have any regrets at what I may have accomplished. At the same time I will not slight my family.

Now, for JibberJobber. I just went to my first and my latest business plan drafts, and couldn’t find a real mission statement in either document. But thinking about it, here’s what it comes down to:

JibberJobber’s mission is to provide a real, useful tool to the masses, helping them through job transition(s) and with their personal efforts to nurture relationships.

JibberJobber should help “level the playing field.” By that, I mean that a job seeker seems to be at a huge disadvantage because they are in a position of want and need, and have less power than the job givers. HR and hiring managers have time and tools. Recruiters have time and tools. Both of these groups (usually) have income. A job seeker has a much higher sense of urgency … getting back to me “next week” hurts, and “next month” might mean my car gets repo’d, or my house goes into foreclosure.

JibberJobber doesn’t fix the sense of urgency but it gives power to the job seeker, helping them manage information, track statuses, organize appointments, prioritize contacts and job postings. Because I don’t have to scribble in a notebook, or use a homemade tracking spreadsheet, I can feel like the empowered professional that I am.

JibberJobber should make you feel empowered.

JibberJobber should make you effective in your job search and time management.

JibberJobber should make you a valuable network connection, because you can know how to give back to your contacts.

What is the mission of JibberJobber? To empower the individual in their career aspirations.

Sure there is some business purpose with JibberJobber. But at the very core, this is what I work for. Individual empowerment. The business (aka, money) will follow.

That’s my mission - can you feel that?

This contest is sponsored by:

• JibberJobber, of course!
• Deb Dib - Personal Branding Expert for Senior Executives
• Walter Akana - Career and Life Strategist and Personal Branding Expert
• Megan Fitzgerald - Expatriate Career and Personal Branding Expert
• Louri Russel Boilard - Executive Resume Writer and Career Psychologist/Counselor
• Makini Harvey - Career and Resume expert
• An anonymous corporate sponsor - donating The Planet Earth DVD Set
• Mark Hovind - Job Bait: The #1 Way to Land 6 and 7 Figure Jobs

New York Times Mentions JibberJobber and my books

Welcome to New York Times readers, who came across JibberJobber (and my books) from a mention in yesterday’s Career Couch column. Huge thanks to Eilene Zimmerman for the opportunity to share my thoughts to her readers. Of course, it’s an excellent column, talking about what to do in an extended (yuck) job search.

One of the new signups from the NYT article asked if JibberJobber is like a virtual career coach… here’s my answer:

Think of JibberJobber as a Salesforce.com for your job search. It’s all private (not a social network), where you put in your network contacts (import them from LinkedIn, Outlook, etc.) and track things to actually nurture a relationship (rank the relationships, add notes, log entries, action items, etc.). Put your target companies and do the same thing (notes, action items, etc.) Log who you meet in each company so you can “network your way into the company,” put in your elevator pitches, and all that. Basically, what a career coach would tell you to do, you do here, instead of a spreadsheet or a spiral notebook.

Of course, if you are looking for a career coach, I partner with the best in the industry. You can find my partners here.

Wired Magazine’s How To Wiki Reporter Writes about “Getting Ahead with LinkedIn”

I did a fun interview with a Wired Magazine writer Lora Shinn. Wired magazine? Who’d-a-thunk that a guy like me would get any ink there. I didn’t even know Wired had a wiki, and I’m usually not a proponent of wiki’s, but guess what? Lifehacker picked it up. Me in Lifehacker? Amazing. Very flattering.

Newsday Asks for LinkedIn and Facebook Strategy Makeovers

I talked to three Newsday readers and coached them on how to get more out of LinkedIn and Facebook. Of course, there wasn’t room to write it all, but it was an entire article. Thanks to Patricia Kitchen for the idea and opportunity to be the coach for this article, it was a blast. As a bonus, I hear the printed version actually had my picture in it… that might be a first

JibberJobber Rebranding Contest

Today is the last day of THE CONTEST. I’ll share one submission with you… it’s from my dad, so he’s automatically disqualified from winning

JIBBERJOBBER - securing stream(s) of income - it’s not what you know but who knows you.

I’ve received some great submissions, which I’ll start posting this week. Voting is coming soon!

What an excellent year this has been. Good think I wasn’t good enough to get a job on my own

I’m having a blast in Silicon Valley. I’m totally wiped out - I really wasn’t prepared for the high-energy culture there is here. Not that I’m lazy, but we’ll go for a solid 10-12 hours each day, with about two or three presentations each day, and meals with friends. I didn’t realize how much mental energy it takes to be “on” this long, all week long.

Tomorrow is the last day, which starts with breakfast at 8:30 and ends with a dinner around 5pm, right before I get dropped off at the airport. I fly into Salt Lake after midnight on Friday night. This trip has been absolutely packed. Thanks for being patient with me this week on blog posts!

I wanted to share a link to a blog post from John Harper, who attended my presentation last night. Mitchell, my publisher, said to expect about 20 - 40 people at this meeting. There were over 100 in attendance. The hostess was concerned that we wouldn’t have enough room - so I’ll consider that “sold out!”

I really appreciate this line from John Harper, who is an expert in all-things-Internet-marketing:

It was really one of the best events I have been to in a while – well worth the drive down and the time invested.

With that, I’m going to bed - I’ll probably post again on Monday, when I’m back in the office!

You may have noticed that I skipped my post on Friday… no big deal except I rarely skip a post.  I was battling over 500 e-mail messages in my JibberJobber inbox, and prepping for my trip to California.

I still have over 500 messages in my inbox (I get between 300 and 500 per day).  And I’m headed to the airport in less than two hours.

This week is really busy, I’m not sure what I’ll blog, but I want to share my week with you.

Regarding the branding contest, I think I’ve received over 100 submissions - some are short taglines, others are long explanations.  WOW.  Very awesome, I’m excited to write more about it soon.

If you are in Silicon Valley or San Francisco, drop me a line and perhaps we can meet.  Here’s my schedule.

If you want to read about how to recession-proof your career, check out Thom Singer’s recent post.

A lot of the submissions I’m getting for the branding contest talk about Jason Alba, not just JibberJobber. I know why, and I know how it has happened, I’m wondering if that is ultimately good. Why? What if there comes a time when Jason Alba can’t be JibberJobber (I cringe as I write this)?

I have received some extremely thought-provoking e-mails and submissions, thanks to all who are following, participating in and learning from this. It’s been a blast for me! But now, let me help muddy the waters a little by giving my schedule for next week. The reason I give this schedule is because it shows part of why and how Jason Alba and JibberJobber mix (because I try and get out there and my public face influences the JibberJobber brand).

Monday (Feb 18)

I’m flying into San Jose around 2pm.

7pm - 9:30pm - San Francisco - SNAP members - free event, with munchies and all that. Click here to register and for more details. (topic: I’m on Facebook — Now What???)

Tuesday (Feb 19)

7:30 - 9:00 am - Palo Alto - Midpeninsula Professional Alliance ($31.95 online (includes my LinkedIn book), $34.95 at the door) - Click here to register and for more details. Topic: LinkedIn

10 - noon - pending/open

noon - 2:00 - lunch with the My LinkedIn PowerForum crowd - this should be a lot of fun, to see the MLPF people in person! Place is to be determined, but coming soon!

2:00 - 5:30 - pending/open

5:30 - 8:30 - Mountain View - Silicon Valley Business Meetup ($25 ($30 at the door)) Click here to register (more details here). Topic: Facebook

Wednesday (Feb 20)

7:30 - 9:30ish - Palo Alto - SDForum Business Book Breakfast Club ($25 members/$30 non-members). Click here to register (more details here). Topic: LinkedIn and Facebook

10:00 - noon - private event at an outplacement firm - no charge, space extremely limited (might be at capacity now) - let me know if you want to attend. Topic: JibberJobber, LinkedIn, and other technologies for professionals in transition (or, who desire to become “recession-proof”)

12:30 - 2:30 - private lunch in Mountain View

2:30 - 5:00 - pending/open

5:30 - 8:30 - Sunnyvale - Silicon Valley Business Meetup - ($20 online, $25 at the door). Click here to register (more details here). Topic: using LinkedIn better

Thursday (Feb 21)

early breakfast - pending/open

9:00 - 11:00 - Right Management - Silicon Valley - free - this presentation has a limited capacity, let me know if you want to come and I’ll see if there is room. Topic: Using JibberJobber, LinkedIn and other tools in career management.

11:00 - 1:30 - pending

1:30 - 3:30 - Volt - Silicon Valley - free - this presentation has limited capacity also. Topic: LinkedIn with a corporate twist.

5:30 - pending, possibly a presentation in Cupertino

Friday (Feb 22)

open all day (as of right now)

Flying out of San Jose at 8ish pm

I’m going to keep this page updated as much as possible.

If any of these are interesting to you please register - the events that charge include my book if you register online. Otherwise, I’d love to meet you - shoot me an e-mail (jason at JibberJobber dot com) if you will be in the area and want to hook up!

As I was designing the feature set of JibberJobber, about two years ago, I picked up a book on inventions.

The book seemed to be about twenty years old but was written buy a guy in Colorado who worked in some kind of small business environment, meeting with tons and tons of inventors.

One of the things that stood out was one of 10 critical points for a retail buyer, let me paraphrase:

your product has to be something that people in the store can look at and say “oh yeah, I know what that is! I need one!”

So, value proposition aside (although, it’s not really aside… that’s what the whole contest is about), here’s another problem.

Let’s say that you “get” JibberJobber. You understand what it does, what the features are, what it’s all about.

There’s still education needed, to compel you to actually use the system.

Think about it - many of you have been reading my blog for quite a while. I try and encourage you to manage your career. To take your future into your own hands. I want you to care more about your career and future… more than anyone else.

And JibberJobber is a great tool for that. Isn’t it? Even so, with the constant encouragement, many of my blog readers are not JibberJobber users. There is an education issue, and it’s big.

You don’t need education on why to use toilet paper.

You don’t need education on why to use toothpaste, or a hair brush, or a TV, or anything like that.

But you do need education on using, or “buying” JibberJobber.

How can my brand upgrade change that?

This contest is sponsored by:

• JibberJobber, of course!
• Deb Dib - Personal Branding Expert for Senior Executives
• Walter Akana - Career and Life Strategist and Personal Branding Expert
• Megan Fitzgerald - Expatriate Career and Personal Branding Expert
• Louri Russel Boilard - Executive Resume Writer and Career Psychologist/Counselor
• Makini Harvey - Career and Resume expert
• An anonymous corporate sponsor - donating The Planet Earth DVD Set
• Mark Hovind - Job Bait: The #1 Way to Land 6 and 7 Figure Jobs New!

I got this e-mail from Louri Russel Boilard, CEO of Distinct Career (and a sponsor of this contest):

Jason the issue in branding you - You are an innovator - and an author - Those are 2 brands. You are quite frankly a steward as well - you see a need for something you create it and share and get lots of people involved. I have been thinking a lot about this. I still have a lot to think about on how to successfully merge all of your qualities into a unique brand - that said JibberJobber needs it’s own brand.

I agree, this is one of the issues. I’m a blogger, an author of two books, a columnist for The National Networker, and contributor to various publications (online and offline). I’m also an entrepreneur, etc. etc.

How does this relate to Joe Regular? I got an e-mail this morning from someone (I can’t cite him because I didn’t ask permission, but I’m guessing he’s now a new reader of this blog) with this:

WHY THE HELL CAN’T I GET A JOB?!?!?! How can I become more than my resume when I submit it? I am so much more than a piece of paper or just another normal person …

Won’t branding play a significant role in helping this person become more than a resume? Is that what you are - just your resume? One of hundreds of resumes, with no compelling message to stick way out?

Back to this contest, let’s whittle the branding issue down to almost two years ago, before I was all of the things mentioned above. All this muddies the water, and makes the branding process a little more difficult, but let’s assume we can cut some of this out and focus on the JibberJobber brand.

Is JibberJobber a job search tool? Yes - it is one of the most critical job search tools available to you, helping you manage complex data, track important information, and not miss critical deadlines or appointments. It can give you peace of mind.

What if you are not in a job search? JibberJobber is an excellent networking tool. Ever read Never Eat Alone? Want to nurture “intimate relationships?” You can’t do it with just Outlook (if you can, you are not normal). LinkedIn, Facebook, Plaxo and other systems don’t give you the functionality that you need to really nurture network relationships. That Excel spreadsheet is fine for a few dozen contacts, but you’ll max out after a while. If you are really into network relationships, JibberJobber is an excellent tool.

What if you are happily employed, and won’t be looking for a new job, and aren’t into networking? Like me, two years ago, before I got the knife in the back (I mean, before I got laid off)? Ya, well, this year isn’t looking so hot for you, is it. The word “recession” is flying around a lot. Even if you are happily employed, realize that no one cares about you. Not HR. Not your boss. Not the CEO or the board or the investors. And if any of them do care about you, who cares about them? If they get canned you lose your champion, and your supposed security.

You can see in these three simple examples that I think JibberJobber is appropriate for very different audiences. There are more, but I wanted to introduce this issue to you.

ARGH!

Does this mean I should have three different sites? All with their own brand?

Now, let’s go back to reality, and bring in all of my other stuff. The blog, the books, the speaking, etc. What is JibberJobber without Jason Alba? I’ve heard a lot about this… I do have my own brand, and it is connected with JibberJobber.

But, as Louri says, JibberJobber needs it’s own brand.

And that’s what this contest is all about. I’ve received about two dozen submissions already… go ahead and send me yours with this Contact Us form!

This contest is sponsored by:

• JibberJobber, of course!
• Deb Dib - Personal Branding Expert for Senior Executives
• Walter Akana - Career and Life Strategist and Personal Branding Expert
• Megan Fitzgerald - Expatriate Career and Personal Branding Expert
• Louri Russel Boilard - Executive Resume Writer and Career Psychologist/Counselor
• Makini Harvey - Career and Resume expert
• An anonymous corporate sponsor - donating The Planet Earth DVD Set

This last twenty four hours has been very interesting … thank you for the submissions, and questions, concerns and ideas!

During the next few weeks I’m going to blog a lot about this contest. Why? I think it will be an excellent exercise in how to develop a value proposition. Or “elevator pitch,” or “me in 30 seconds,” or “brand statement,” or whatever you want to call it. Just like The Resume Experiment we did last year, it’s more an exercise in education and ideas and brainstorming. So maybe we’ll call February “The Branding Month,” and I hope that what we do this month will help you rethink your own branding strategy and issues.

Let’s get to some questions and answers:

If I win, can I donate the prize to charity?

Yes, sure, that sounds great - you can do whatever you want with the money.

How many ideas/statements can I submit?

As many as you want.

How will judging be handled?

I’m not sure yet. I’d like to do voting, but we all know that whoever has the biggest e-mail list can easily “buy” the votes and totally affect the outcome. I’ve seen this for years and I don’t really care for that.

Here are some thoughts I have right now:

1. Incorporate voting. I really like this idea, and want to see how it plays out, but I don’t want to declare that it will be decisive, there are too many ways to “game” this.
2. Tap into my network. I am partnered with dozens of personal branding experts, and hope to tap into dozens of corporate branding experts. I want to get their feedback and input - you’ll be hearing from them over the next few weeks as we dissect this process.
3. Ask the JibberJobber power users. I will send out invitations to the people who use JibberJobber on a regular basis and invite them to give their input and feedback as well. These are people who are deriving value out of JibberJobber without that golden brand statement, and they have an idea of what the brand (and value) is. Their input will be interesting.
4. Maintain veto power for what I finally use. As noted in comments and e-mails and even phone calls, this is my company, and I am not totally outsourcing the final product. I will have the final say. I have to have the final say.

What will I do with the winning submissions, and all the rest that aren’t “winning?”

I have a lot of stuff to do once I get the branding in place… marketing material, documents, all kinds of stuff. I hope to get something out of this contest that is really compelling, and is just what I want. I will likely mix the other statements into blog posts and marketing materials, but hope to have one strong, consistent line to describe JibberJobber.

What are the prizes?

I’ll formalize this as we get sponsorships wrapped up, but the cash is up to $900 (did you notice the new image, with 9 $100s?) and a company is donating the Planet Earth DVD Set, which you can find at the Discovery Channel Store online. How cool is that? There will also be various packages of premium upgrades as well as eCopies of my books (LinkedIn book here, Facebook book here). If you have anything you want to throw in, just let me know.

What do I think my branding statement is?

Great question - excellent question! This will be answered in at least one future blog post - stay tuned!

Why don’t I just do this on my own?

Another great question. I have tried to do this on my own. And I’ve seen what other companies have come up with. This is not easy. In the last almost-two-years I’ve communicated what JibberJobber is, but it’s time to make the message more powerful, and consice, and and I concede that I don’t have the mental bandwidth or capacity to do it on my own.

Plus, this is much more fun.

And this is like the 360 Review, which has a TON of power.

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