I Got Distracted

I sometimes say that I have "mild ADD" -- I think most business owners do. We enjoy wearing lots of hats, and don't like doing the same thing every day. I think it's what makes us great resume writers -- I know a little bit about a lot of subjects, and I'm naturally very curious ... which makes it easy for me to get interested in the wide variety of professions that I've written resumes for. It also makes me very distractable.

Which brings me to this blog post. I started Resume Writers' Digest about 12 years ago, I think. (I could go look up the first issue, that that would just distract me from writing this blog post.) It started as a print newsletter, six issues a year for $36. It was initially 8 pages. At some point along there (again, I'm not going to look it up, but I think it was about 2002), I started putting out 16 and 20 page issues ... I think one was even 28 pages. I raised the subscription fee to $60/year ($10 an issue, six issues). It was wildly successful. We "covered" all the major conferences. I solicited paid articles from the top names in the business. (I particularly loved Louise Kursmark's column in each issue). We had advertisers... lots of them.

But then I got distracted. I can't even remember why now, but I had another project (or another client) that took up so much of my time that I couldn't keep on top of the newsletter. So I let it die out. I was sad to see it go, but I had a lot of other stuff going on. (If I recall correctly, it was also around the time that I got married and moved my business into my home.)

A few years ago, in September 2007, I brought it back again -- this time as a free online issue, supported by advertising and the sale of my special reports. But several of the earlier advertisers weren't around anymore, and I got a lot of pushback from one resume writing association in particular, who were upset about the conference coverage write-ups. (They felt that session write-ups would keep people from attending the conferences themselves. My response, that the write-ups were coming after the conferences were over, and that there are many other reasons to attend a conference other than just the content, fell on deaf ears.)

Lots of family issues from 2008-2010 kept me from staying focused on Resume Writers' Digest. The laptop I blogged on died. My former sister-in-law had a midlife crisis and cheated on my brother. My aunt (of whom I'm a primary caretaker) had a stroke. All of these, combined with the need to keep my "main" business going, led to a lack of attention to Resume Writers' Digest. I got distracted.

But I want to get back to making Resume Writers' Digest a priority again. I have a database of about 4000 professional resume writers and career professionals ... more than 800 of them subscribe to the Resume Writers' Digest newsletter. I receive a couple of emails a week from folks wondering where the next issue is. I've got dozens of articles that are ready to go ... ideas and even some full-fledged special reports ... but not enough hours in the day.

I don't really have any grand announcements in this blog post. I mostly just wanted to let you know that I'm working on it. I need to put a plan and a timeline in place ... and say "no" to some other things so that I can get back to what I really am passionate about ... supporting resume writers. That's been an interest of mine since I started my business in 1996 ... and 15 years later, I'm still passionate about it. It's time I put my focus back on Resume Writers' Digest.

Let me know what you want ... Does the newsletter format still interest you? Should I be putting more focus on my blog? Any particular topics for special reports you're interested in? I've got lots of ideas, but I need to know what you want too... please feel free to comment.

Trends in Resumes and Career Marketing Communications

Where is the resume field headed? Get some insights on "Trends in Resumes & Career Marketing Communications" from Career Thought Leaders Deb Dib and Louise Kursmark.

I've been a resume writer since 1996. Certainly, a lot of things have changed in the careers industry during that time -- and things will continue to change in the future. But the need to assist job seekers with clarifying their job search goals and strategies and developing messaging content to fulfill that role will continue to be needed, both now and well into the future.

But even with changes in technology, the job search is still fundamentally about people. Connecting with the people with the authority to hire you. (There's a resurgent interest in networking -- both with and without social media -- which is interesting, because it's always been about connecting with other people.)

What NOT to Do On Your Facebook (& Twitter) Page

I am friends with lots of careers industry folks on Facebook. Some of them (Barbara Safani, Jason Alba, Dawn Bugni, Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter, etc.) do a fabulous job with their online brand.

Others, not so much. The screen shot on the left is from MJW Careers. I'm not sure who the resume writer behind this page is, but I do know that they write resumes for $50.

I am amazed they have 308 friends, since the majority of their posts are ... for lack of a better term ... spam.

For the past week or so, once or twice a day, they blast 3-4 posts on Twitter (that are automatically reposted on their Facebook page) about their cheap resume writing services. If you go back through the history, though, you find that they also apparently provide recruiting services. It actually was more interesting when they were posting "people needed" status updates for various *specific* positions versus the basic, blanket posts.

Some keys for resume writers to keep in mind with Facebook:

1) Remember the 80/20 ratio. Eighty percent of your posts should be content (resources, opinions, encouragement, links to good articles) etc. Only 20% should be promotional. And don't just rely on Twitter to update your status. Because of the way it's tagged, we can tell when it's a Twitter repost. Give us something original on Facebook every once in a while.

2) Think about your brand. For most resume writers, it's a good idea to set up a Facebook page for your resume writing business. While you can use your personal page to promote resume-related items, you're better off getting "Fans" (or "Likes") for your business page than to add friends to your personal page. You can then drive traffic to your business page by linking to items on your personal page.

3) Don't forget to have a personality. If you link to an article, provide some brief commentary. I always like hearing about resume writers whose clients are having success. But remember that -- like we advise clients -- anything you post online is totally public (even if you have your Facebook privacy settings locked down, there's nothing to prevent one of your "friends" from taking a screen shot of it.)

Seth Godin Says Folks Shouldn't Write Their Own Resumes

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog

While he doesn't suggest having your resume written by a professional, he does suggest job seekers don't write it themselves. See his post (dated 10/2/10) here.