Tag: social media

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don't speak...don't speak! rant

The Perils of Unemployment

Being unemployed means you have 40 extra hours a week to fill with something.  I have a lot of free time.  Problem is, I like it.  I do “nothing” better than anyone I know.  Mainly because I can do “nothing” for a very long time and love every minute of it!  Besides, you can only job search so many hours a day.  And networking is lunch, dinner or if you’re lucky just a drink!

I was laid off last September. I knew it was coming long before September. There’s no place in a box, with high walls and excel spread-sheet to fill out for a crazy right brainer like me.

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Although I think that I do well in that world and have a nice balance. But I’m about relationships, the company I was with was about the transaction. Ca-Ching!

Since September I attempted to write a novel. Still working on that actually. I think the core of the story was too much about my life to keep me interested. I haven’t had a bad life, but it hasn’t been one big party after another either. And, I guess, you know I’ve heard it all before. I know how it played out, so no need to hash it all out again. Nothing will change from it. And I couldn’t spin it enough to make it interesting enough I guess to keep me.

I attempted a career shift, tried to become a social media…something? Not an expert. That takes 10,000 hours. Not a guru, for me that implies following. Even though that’s what Twitter is about, don’t really want people following me. Practitioner feels to medicinal. I put on LinkedIn Social Media Wrangler. I spent the last 10 months reading, exploring and deep diving into the social media space. I have a bunch of accounts.  Even have my own Poken, do you?  Some of those accounts are listed here. A lot of places to be huh?  My list of social media is a FRACTION of that.  But some days too many.  I’m still not as glued to it as I was.  Twitter was down day before yesterday.  That’s what I heard.  Didn’t even know it until later that night.

I belong to Social Media club. I Twitter and FB for PSU and set up my friend at Bonneville Spa. But you see, these “social media” spots are either in the marketing or communications departments. Crazy me thinking that I could get a job in communications? It’s so specialized. How dare I step outside my box! Right. Not in a box, never have been. But my past “title’s” are defining me and have me square in the middle of a box.  Maybe that’s why I’ve thrown so many away in the last couple of weeks while purging?

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I started cleaning out closets and purging boxes and storage. After several trips to Goodwill, ARC and the Community Warehouse, I’ve gone from two full storage units to one almost full. I have a few things left to shred and recycle.  But have to wait for them to empty the big dumpster’s around the complex.  Seems I’m not the only one.

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Got my car cleaned up to sell. Time to get off my ass. Besides, the $500 a month that I’ll save and the cash in the bank from the sale will make unemployment a bit manageable incase it’s a few more month before I do find work.

for sale $11,000

Now I’m going to attempt to do what I’ve wanted to have done since I moved into my condo. The kitchen cabinets have about 27 layers of paint on them. So many in fact that some of the doors don’t close for the paint on the hinges.

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I’m actually hoping that I kind of get started, find a job and then can pay someone to finish it! 😉

Although selling the car will allow me to hold off and not just take any job. Of course with unemployment if I get offered a job I have to take it. But no on is offering so I’m not worried about that.

I don’t however think I have the skill and ability to finish that cabinet job…

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that social media place

UPDATE! Multnomah County Social Media Coordinator postion

As Multnomah County Chair Ted Wheeler announced on Twitter yesterday, he has decided to suspend his search for a Chair’s Office Communications Director/Multnomah County Social Media Coordinator at this time.

I want you to know that we appreciate your interest in working for the Multnomah County Chair’s Office. We hope you will watch for future career opportunities with us.

~ I’ll write more later ~

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that social media place

Social Media Coordinator

Read my newest post at, Webmanual.org in response to the new position that Multnomah County posted last week.

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don't speak...don't speak!

Social Media~Web 2.0~PSU

One of the newer classes at PSU in the Multimedia program is Social Media and Web 2.0. The instructor John Anthony Hartman created a blog for the class Webmanual.org. PSU is building a curriculum to offer a certificate in Social Media next year. John created the blog so it could become a living document of the class and program. I was the first student to post! Here is that post;

It might just be me? This new thing, this new space “social media” for some is a very scary place. I sat in a seminar this week listening to people talk about twitter, blogging, facebook and etc. All of the questions asked about social media came from a place of fear. What if this happens? What if that happens? What if the sky fall?

Now I’m no brand expert, but. What if someone starts talking about your brand for you and it’s off message? (btw-they are!) What if they don’t like you or don’t understand what your brand represents. If they have an audience, (many do) they could put you in reactionary recovery instead of a proactive space of retaining and managing your brand message.

At the very least, use social media as a tool to LISTEN to what is being said about you or your brand. Don’t have your story reported via, as Gillmor says, twitter the new AP wire.