So you started a blog, congratulations! It’s fun, right? You have all kinds of plans and dreams for what you’re going to post and share. Soon everyone will be reading and sharing what you have written. You’ll be the go to expert in your niche. 

Fast-forward a couple weeks and the blog that seemed like the greatest idea is just sitting there. You only posted one or two times and now… nothing. This sound familiar? 

Just like that diet you started in January and shortly ditched; your blog is kind of like the digital equivalent of that. You tried and now you’re over it. No one is reading it anyway..

You only have a couple posts and one of those is that you’re starting a blog, so really why should anyone care? 

That passion you had when you first started now just feels like a chore, something that has to get done; it’s work and you started this for fun. 

I totally understand blogging is hard, it takes time to come up with content and even more time to come up with quality content. There are times I find myself wondering why I put in the effort and whether it’s worth it. But I’ll keep writing and sharing. Why? Well because I want to get better, improve my writing and share my knowledge and experience but more importantly I’ve come this far with it and I don’t want to stop now.

Blogging should be an enjoyable experience both for the reader and you. If you do not enjoy blogging then your audience will not enjoy reading it! Shut it off or maybe invest in a faster, lower-effort option like Tumblr.

It’s been interesting to see how the attitude about sharing work has changed this year from last year. Has anyone else noticed? I’m not sure if this is so much just my own personal take on how I’m working or a collective of the people I talk to and hang out with. It seems like the pattern last year was to always be working, starting new projects and to share with everyone all the great stuff you have going on. Did everyone get burnt out? I have no doubt that everyone is working just as much this year as last and I know we all have the passion and drive. I think its the talking about hustlin’ and sharing all the fun stuff that’s declined. Did the amount of sharing get in the way of the actual work? Maybe… Or after a year or so of over-sharing, we’ve learned how to do it better and reduce some of the noise. I know this is true for myself. The work hasn’t slowed, if anything I’m busier. Compared to last year I know I’ve been even busier and I’ve been focusing on work and haven’t been talking about the work quite as much. It’s a fine line to walk; staying social and at the same time learning to do more and better work.

I love creating successful work as much as the next person but I always try to remember to share what I’m working on as I’m creating it. Whether its the final product or samples of some works in progress. And I love when I see people take the time to tweet out links to works in progress or share finished projects on Facebook. I feel like not enough people do it though. So many times people I know only share their work when they put together a new reel or are starting to look around for a new job. Maybe its because they don’t want to look too self serving or to seem like they are bragging or being too much of a self promoter. Well I think its important for you to talk as much as you walk. Your talent needs to be shared and you can’t just have your head down pounding away at the keys every day… You have to find time to connect with the right people and share with them what you’re working on. Sharing a work in progress is fun for people to see because it can gather interest, make people feel like they get a sneak peek at a project or even add some suspense for people who follow your work.

Admit it, when you are proud of something you’ve created, you like to show it off to other people. And in showing if off you are actually performing a crucial role. If you are a freelancer, you need to show off your skills so that when someone is looking to hire they remember that project they liked of yours. If you run a company or work fulltime its also vital to get your work seen in order to attract future clients or future employment.

So why not take some time out of your day to talk about and share what you’re working on? Shout it and share it for everyone to hear and see. Become that unabashed self promoter. A true hype man. Use social media networking sites to share what you’re working on and to demonstrate your abilities and aspirations.

Openness has become an important way I work and live. I share a lot about what I’m working on and where I’m working at. Since I am often working on projects alone it’s great to use the community online to get feedback on designs or ideas I might be struggling with. Being able to share allows me to get feedback quickly to see if this idea is working and what’s not. What I might think is a great and new idea might be dumb and a copy of something else out there. You need an outside point of view to critique and make sure you’re creating the best work possible. If someone is able to point this out to me before I spend too much time with it, I’m able to adjust before too much time and energy was spent on a bad idea. When an idea or style gets positive feedback, it can feel good knowing that I’m on to something and on the right path. Of course whatever I share I make sure never to give out much sensitive information on projects; a client wouldn’t like all their secrets exposed. Instead I share just enough to give a tease and get some initial feedback. With the speed at which work is watched and copied. Why not share early to make sure you’re creating the best work for the client?

Most of the time when people talk about business you’ll hear things like, “business is cut throat,” and “business should never be personal.” Everyone runs their business differently, no one answer works for all but I don’t believe that a person must always separate their personal feelings from that of their business relationships.

Zig Ziglar had a great saying “You will get everything in life that you want if you just help enough other people get what they want.” I try to be generous to others in my private life but I also find it important to help out people in business too. There are a lot of opportunities to be helpful in business relationships; from making introductions between people to sharing resources like office space and equipment with others. Sometimes its just something as small as referring someone else for a job. I often pass on work to my friends and colleagues that I’m too busy for or if a project is beyond my skills. Most of the time people I refer for projects end up working out and both that client and the friend benefit. In return, these people thank me and sometimes refer me to someone else for another project. These referrals are on projects that I would have never got if I didn’t first think of someone else. Just by taking a few moments out of my day to refer someone else ended up getting me more work. This is just one example of how being courteous can improve your life and business. That good deed you do for someone else will usually come back to you twice over. It all begins with thinking of others first.

So, is there anything I can do to help you out?

Facebook is not just about connecting with family and friends anymore it’s also becoming an effective networking tool. If you think of Facebook as a place that you like to keep separate from work, then that’s fine there are plenty of other tools out there to find work. But if you’re looking for work why not use every tool you can to connect with the people hiring. Companies and recruiters are becoming more focused on using Facebook, both for looking up potential candidates and finding new hires. If you’re looking for work either as a freelancer, for fulltime or a potential job move in the future why not leverage this powerful social media network.
You never know which one of your friends or acquaintances are going to have a job opening or know of a job opening and are going to think of you. Word of mouth works and someone is more then happy to recommend you if you are a good worker and have genuinely grown to trust and like you from what they have seen of you from Facebook. Since Facebook’s main focus is a place for friends, people get comfortable and end up posting things or sharing things they wouldn’t normally share. Don’t forget Facebook is rather public, unless you are savvy enough to lock down your profile it’s easy for people to see what you are posting and sharing. I personally have my Facebook account open, I’m happy to live in public and hope nothing I share or post now will come back to hurt me in five or ten years. I have a few things I’d recommend if you’re looking to use Facebook as more then a place for friends without going all business as if you were on Linkedin. You shouldn’t post anything on Facebook or put anything on the Internet you don’t want your mother or potential employers to see or know about you. Assume that everything that goes into the cloud is available for public consumption and that means any future employer can find it. If you don’t like that bad photo a friend posted of you on Facebook then un-tag yourself or ask the person who posted them if they would mind removing them. You’d be surprised how understanding people are with removing something you think might be inappropriate. Even if you’re only using Facebook to reach out to your existing social network, you might still want to consider revising your Facebook profile to be more employer-friendly.

Make sure your profile is looking sharp and be sure that across the board you are telling the same story on all your social media networks. Don’t lie, the information is out there and you will get busted. The first thing potential new clients or employers are going to see is your profile photo. Make sure it is you and something that looks good. I’m bad at that… right now I think I have a photo of myself eating a sandwich from Big-Ass Sandwiches. So in this instance, don’t follow in my footsteps. Next thing is your work history and education; make sure these dates are correct as I said it is very easy to check if those are right. Also on your profile you should list any volunteer work as well. Anything truthful that can make yourself stand out is worth mentioning. Now that you have your profile looking sharp and professional, don’t forget Facebook is a community. Post updates on work you are doing, either client work or personal projects. Also share your work and career knowledge. If you have a blog, you should make sure those updates are being posted to your Facebook stream. Install one of the applications that not only posts a link to your latest blog entry into the Facebook stream but also use one that creates a note for each post as well. Notes carry more clout then a link in the Facebook eco-system and notes allow for people to leave a comment in a more blog friendly sort of way. With all this work and business posting be careful not to get too serious it can be a turn off, especially for your real friends on Facebook. Don’t forget to let your true personality shine through on your page. Show that you have a sense of humor and have interests outside of work. Be sure to keep them clean and try and keep them unoffensive. Employees and clients want fun people that they can work well with. All of this posting can quickly become a one sided conversation so don’t forget to give back and engage. Like Twitter and other social media outlets you need to build relationships. Get involved with the conversations going on within your network. Don’t just make meaningless comments, add some opinion and in depth answers, engage in proper conversations. Your network will see you commenting in this meaningful way and as I have mentioned a couple of times, it helps build credibility and presence. Through such engagement your network or friends are going to feel more comfortable potentially recommending you for work.

Feeding your Facebook profile and friends with quality content is great but you can’t rely on clients and recruiters just finding your profile or your friends to know you’re looking for work. Facebook is here to connect people, so use it. With so many people on Facebook and with so many people looking for work, don’t be shy about saying you are in the market for work. Your friends, colleagues and people in your network would expect you to help them if they were in need, they are likely to help you in your job search process. All you have to do is actually tell them you are looking for a job. The best way to land a job is still by having someone who already works at a company mention your name. If it’s someone in your network that knows you, they’re more likely to think of you when opportunities are available. Don’t just write a generic status update – “need work”. It’s going to get lost in the stream of updates that happen on Facebook. Instead consider writing a private message to each of your Facebook friends.

Finally, an interesting tool I came across the other day was from a recent New York start-up. It’s called Jibe and it’s hoping to revitalize online job searching using Facebook. And recently it just came out of beta. For job seekers, it’s looks interesting and is something to keep an eye on and give a spin.

I hope that as a job seeker you find this interesting and learned a thing or two. Of course there are other ways to successfully leverage Facebook to network and find a job and I hope you share any of those with me.

Just like you make time to keep your home clean, you need to make time to keep your portfolio clean and updated. Think of yourself as your own client and plan time to update your site with new work; keep your portfolio fresh. Keeping your portfolio current and up to date is important because you never know what could happen. You may unexpectedly get fired or that dream client might visit your site out of no where. Your portfolio is a reflection of yourself and your skills, if you have grown as a designer you should share that.

Not only should you keep your site updated but you need to keep your exposure up also. Keeping your exposure up goes further than just updating your own portfolio on your website. You should also submit your websites to galleries, post videos on YouTube or Vimeo and post your work on behance and deviantArt. The more opportunities people have to see your work the more likely you are to get noticed and land the dream job or client.