Every day just seems to bring more bad news. Today, I learned two old friends and colleagues, with decades of service to the same company, were dumped and given a mere week’s severance.

Yesterday, I learned about the ax falling for the employees of the Rocky Mountain News, Colorado’s oldest newspaper. Another industry in turmoil and good people on the street.

Sadly, for many of the folks in Colorado as well as the two people I heard about today, things are going to be tough. Both of the people I know are older (one in her late 40s to early 50s, and another in his 70s). Both have dutifully worked for the same place for decades, and counted on their paychecks and 401ks to support their families. We all know so many in that same predicament.

Unfortunately, right now it’s a buyer’s market (for employers), and any hiring that gets done tends to skew toward younger and cheaper workers. So if you’re older, it’s imperative to remain relevant as well as flexible in terms of what you’re willing to do, and for what amount. Another former co-worker emailed yesterday and offered to work for me for free in exchange for some knowledge sharing!

I also have a younger family member who’s been unemployed and looking for months. I recently discovered she has an outdated profile on LinkedIn and just three–three!–connections. And she’s not using Facebook or other tools like Twitter to make connections.

All these examples make me sad, but also angry. Angry in the sense that too many people sit around, complacent in their situation and not taking active steps to ensure their very survival. This latest economic malaise has done nothing if not show us all that in a palpable way, it’s every man and woman for herself now. So today, I’m imploring everyone I know to face the reality that no one’s job is safe. And the best way to protect yourself is to ramp up your networking efforts–before it’s too late.

As I look around, I see a lot of hope in people who are out there helping others. Much of this is taking place thanks to the very networks I mentioned, like Facebook and Twitter.

I’ve spent a lot of time through this website writing about ways to connect with others using social media. I encourage you to read Top 10 Ways To Improve Your Personal Brand Image Online and A 4-Step Plan to Achieve Social Networking Fame, among other posts.

Rather than rehash those articles, I’ll just add a few more observations:

• If you’re not actively using and learning about social media tools, now is the time. Stop complaining and worrying about your life and just do it. As long as you have an Internet connection, 99% of this stuff is free. All it takes is time.
• It’s never too late to get started.When you first join social networks, you might go weeks or months without making many connections. This is pretty normal. The same goes for creating a blog; I wrote for months and had very few people reading what I said. It can be discouraging, but stick with it! These efforts pay off in the end, if you’re diligent and have something valuable to share with others.
• I just mentioned the real secret to social media: sharing. You can’t join social sites and spam people and expect it to do you any good. You must seek opportunities to connect with, help and share information with others. Daily. This week, I had the pleasure of meeting Peter Shankman of Help A Reporter Out. During a presentation, he mentioned that back in the ’80s, media titan Barry Diller used to get up early every morning and randomly called 10 people in his Rolodex. Over time, it made Diller one of the most influential people in Hollywood. Peter brought that notion forward by sharing that one of the first things he does daily is log in to Facebook and send greetings to all his friends who are having birthdays. It’s a simple gesture, but incredibly powerful. Thanks to doing little things like this and using simple technology, Peter Shankman is now a renowned and sought-after speaker and consultant. For a similar story of a guy who has used networking to catapault to the top of his industry, study Gary Vaynerchuk of WineLibrary. A lot of what Gary shares has nothing to do with wine or his company. He says he’d rather have a million friends than a million dollars, and I believe him. And the funny thing is, the more friends he makes, the more money, too.
• Embrace social networking—online and off. If you just sit in front of a computer all day and don’t make real, physical connections, you’re missing out.Just yesterday, as I was wracking my brain trying to promote a client, I got a tweet from a journalist that led to a phone call that led to a TV interview. Then, I met another friend from Twitter for lunch. It turned out his father-in-law was a notable and frequently quoted expert on the very subject I was pitching for my client! Another great connection made.
• Start Googling, taking classes and reading blogs and great books by the new masters of networking, like Chris Brogan and David Meerman Scott. These are real people with fantastic ideas that just flat out work. I’ve never met either of these guys, but both have taken the time to email me or leave comments on my blog. To me, that’s impressive.
• Secret #2: Help others. Right now, that especially means young people getting out of college in a tough market, as well as the older generation I mentioned. They need all the encouragement they can get.
• Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Lots of people will be happy to do so.
• Sharpen the saw. It sounds trite, but thinking about the analogy of the ax falling on so many people makes me think of Stephen Covey and his 7 Habits’ saw. Instead of dreading the blade, grab it and start polishing like crazy. In a real sense, this means taking a real hard look at your life and talents and figuring out how to use them as best you can. Don’t let others dictate the outcome for you, or prescribe your unhappiness. Stay focused, work hard, make connections and good things can happen!

Please bookmark or send this article to people you know who are looking for work, or scared about losing their jobs, using “Share This Post” below.

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So you’ve decided to move beyond Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter and ratchet up your social media, marketing and PR efforts. Congratulations! There are dozens of ways to take full advantage of the Web You.0 era.

Whether you’re embarking on a broader effort for personal or business reasons, there are a number of things that will help make the process go more smoothly. Some are must-haves in order to create key accounts.

Here is a recommended list of the top tools to set up, before you dive into the deep end of the social media spectrum:

Google Account

OK, you don’t have to have a Google account, but in my experience it will make your life much easier in several important ways.

Begin by creating a new account, specific to your social media campaign. In other words, unless you’re doing this strictly for personal use, do not associate your social media accounts with an existing, personal Google account. Instead, set up one tied to your organization’s name. In a few minutes, you’ll have the full arsenal of Google toys to enjoy.

Gmail:The first thing you’ll benefit from is a Google Mail (Gmail) account. This is both an ideal email address and a full bore system to use when setting up other social sites, for a couple reasons:

1. You can set up filters in Gmail to easily and automatically organize and archive emails. For example, you can create filters (Gmail’s answer to folders) for various types of social media sites, like Audio Sharing Sites, Image Sharing Sites, Social Bookmarking Sites, Social Networking Sites, etc. As you set up new social sites, you will specify how the emails you receive from each domain should get filed. You can also set up rules to forward certain emails, send auto-responses and more. It’s well worth your time to activate and learn Gmail’s keyboard shortcuts, too.
2. Many social media sites allow you to look up and connect to friends using your Gmail address. This is especially helpful if you already have an active Gmail account; if you don’t, think about importing your contacts into Gmail prior to expanding your social media campaign.

Google Docs: With a Google account, you also get the benefits of Google Docs. You can use this to create online documents and spreadsheets to keep track of all the social sites you join, including user names, passwords, profile information, answer to any “secret questions” for lost passwords, etc. Most importantly, you can share key information with specific people and set permissions on whether they can just view or edit items. I recommend creating a spreadsheet with multiple tabs for accounts like Microblogs, Audio Sharing Sites, Content Sharing Sites, Social Bookmarking Sites, etc. Notice how this structure can correspond to the same filters you set up in Gmail.

Google Calendar and Google Reader: In addition to Gmail and Google Docs, you get Gcal and Google Reader. Both are valuable. Google Reader is especially useful for subscribing to various RSS feeds, which the majority of social media sites offer in one form or another.

Yahoo Account

You might wonder, why would I need both a Google account and a Yahoo account? The main reason: you must have a Yahoo ID in order to use Flickr and Yahoo Video. For Flickr alone, it’s worth going through the hassle of getting a Yahoo ID. If you aren’t going to use Flickr, you can ignore Yahoo (and Yahoo Video).

When you sign up for a Yahoo account, don’t worry if the email address you want is taken at the main @yahoo.com URL; you can also try @ymail.com or @rocketmail.com (check for both options during the signup process).

Personal Information

Many social media sites are tied to a real person, as opposed to a faceless company. So you need to be prepared to designate or create a personal page or presence in many instances. For corporations and other entities, naturally this should be your CEO or another high-level person who will take responsibility for actually using the social channels you set up.

You will frequently be asked for demographic information when setting up social media sites, such as gender and birth date. You can’t skip it, though in some cases you have the option to show or hide this information publicly.

The essential personal details you’ll need to have on hand include:

• First and last name
• Gender
• Birthday (MM/DD/YYYY)
• Biographical information: I recommend a few variations of a bio or company description, one approximately 250 characters and another about 160 characters in length
• Interests: Common ones include your favorite book, band, city, movie, song, sport, TV show and website
• Company/occupation and role/title

Photo or Graphic

You will need a quality photo or graphic for your profile on most social sites. This will be used to create your profile image or avatar. If your purpose is social networking for a business, then use your logo or other promotional graphic; for personal networking, use a good photograph.

Your best bet is a square photo or graphic in the .JPG format, typically no larger than 2-4MB in size. Make sure you have several sizes and resolutions to choose from, such as a larger version of approximately 300×300 pixels and a smaller thumbnail of 100×100 pixels. A lot of the sites have built-in cropping tools, so you can always start with your highest resolution and scale it down. Having multiple options to choose from will make your set up experiences less frustrating.

Password Manager

Once you get in the groove of setting up multiple social media profiles, you’ll be entering a lot of passwords. It’s a very good practice to create unique, strong passwords for different sites.

Inexpensive software like 1Password (Mac) or RoboForm (PC) is a lifesaver. Both of the products mentioned will not only generate strong passwords for you, but also store these and auto-fill usernames and passwords later.

Also consider that some sites will only allow you to use letters and numbers in passwords. So a good one like #$ay@anything won’t work on one site, but will be fine elsewhere. Just another reason to have a password generator. If you can’t spring for $30-$35, at a minimum create several combinations of strong passwords that you can use interchangeably. (And good luck avoiding carpal tunnel syndrome as you tediously type your usernames and passwords over and over and over.)

Autofill/Copy-and-Paste Manager

Another time- and finger-saving device is software like Jumpcut (Mac) or ClipMagic (PC). These will store text items you copy to your computer’s clipboard, making it much easier to paste in long usernames, passwords, bios and other information as you move between social sites.

The Patience of Job

Be prepared to spend a lot of time as you sign up for social networking sites…set up your profiles…fill in a gazillion annoying captchas…upload and resize photos…and verify new accounts by email. As you progress, you will also need to make note of all URLs, passwords and other pertinent details in your Google Docs. You must stop and do this at the same time you complete the setup of each site, or else run the risk of forgetting vital information and locking yourself or your company out!

Finally, a comfortable chair and good lighting will help, too. Signing up for dozens of social sites is frankly a boring and laborious process, but it’s worth the effort in the long run.

Do you have any tips for software or other essential information to have on hand when signing up for social networking sites? Please leave them in the comments below.

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Photo credit: Mykl Roventine

As I sit here working on my home/web-based business, I am momentarily distracted by yet another disturbing piece of news about the U.S. economy. I mostly avoid this stuff, but this particular video is indeed frightening in its implications. Apparently, last September the economy was on the brink of collapse, literally within a couple of hours. (As if you thought it couldn’t get any worse.)

Well as scary as that is, my question (to myself and you), what the hell am I supposed to do about it? My best answer is, nothing. Or more to the point: nothing different from what I was doing five minutes ago, which is working, like I do every day. Working on my plan, and trying to grow my own business to the best of my abilities.

The fact is, neither you nor I have any impact whatsoever on what happens with the government. Sure, we vote, we pay taxes and all that—but when it comes to something as monumental as the very financial system itself, we are pretty powerless. And no amount of worrying about it is going to do you or anyone else any good.

My advice is to control what you can, which is all between your ears. You can tune out all the negative news and energy, all the stuff you can’t control, and focus on the stuff you can. Stop complaining and blaming the economy, the government, the banks, etc. and do your part to make the world better—starting with your attitude and outlook.

It sounds elementary, and it is. But I firmly believe that if more people took responsibility for their well-being, stability and output, and relied less on some benevolent employer or the government to take care of their needs, we’d all be a lot better off.

I’m not going to sit here wondering what the collapse of the economy might’ve done to me, my family, the country and the world. Instead, I am going to post this and get back to work. I sincerely hope a lot of people are doing the same thing.

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Photo credit: Duchamp

This article is a call for feedback. I’m seeking your input on the topics you’d most like to know more about when it comes to starting and running a web business, or using the web to improve your marketing and sales efforts.

I’ve been spending a lot of time recently delving into the growing area of social media, for example, and look forward to sharing more about this. But I want to understand what other “burning issues” you may have that we can start conversations around.

Please use the comments area below to list topics of interest to you. Thank you!

Photo credit: Eleaf