Living Under a Bridge – Day Four

It’s been a cold, but dry, weekend under the bridge. We did some hunting for small rodents Friday night, and found quite a few. My son liked them, but my daughter said they’re too crunchy. We’ve kept the kids running on the people-wheel to power the laptop and a small radio we found. They seem to enjoy their time on the wheel, but without showers the smell is beginning to offend our bridge-dwelling neighbors. We’ll need to address cleanliness before we invite the in-laws over for dinner.

Let’s get to Friday’s results; day three…

Unlike day two of the experiment, Friday saw an outpouring of support, well-wishes, and tips and tricks for finding a job quick. Thanks to all of you who helped. As we go through this together, I will continue to try to publicly thank each of you – but be sure to send me an email or tweet if I forget you…there are so many!

I actually didn’t do nearly as much work on the SMJH test on Friday. I had a meeting to attend in Bend, Oregon – which to those that aren’t familiar is about a 3-hour drive, over Mt. Hood, from Portland; 4-hours with snow, ice, and occasional stops. So, I only had a few hours in the morning to do all I could do – then I was off on a 9-hour trek to Bend and back.

What did I do in those few hours that was so successful? I spent the morning creating and sending personal emails and private tweets to my closest friends, family, and colleagues. Instead of a broad-reaching, vague message – I took this time to speak on a bit more of a personal level about the SMJH and requested help from anyone able to lend a hand.

The funny result was getting dozens of phone calls from parents, grandparents, uncles, and the like – all asking what is this “Twitter Thing?”, and “what is LinkedIn and what am I suppose to sign?” They were so confused. I explained what I was doing and that word of mouth was great too – just keep the email handy and send it to people who are close to you.

On a serious note, a good number of friends and colleagues responded quickly with links, tweets, posts on their own blogs, and private notes back asking what else they could do to help. I’m not kidding; it felt incredible to know so many people cared to help out.

I watched as numerous Tweets went out exposing the experiment and retweeting the cause. I continued to gain followers across Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, and I noticed track-backs from many sources. In fact, there was a spike of interest/traffic that crashed my site, www.scottorth.com. The biggest problem was that I was on the road and unable to fix it until late Friday night.

I had an interview with an executive recruiter, scheduled a meeting with another, and took a handful of phone calls from others inquiring about my skills and experience. Seriously? With all this going on you didn’t already see my resume? Damn, how many more places do I need to post it?

I also had a great meeting in Bend that just might turn out to be something fantastic, and I received another four or five inquiries for contract or freelance work. I think this experiment may end soon – and just as I was starting to have fun!

I’ve yet to find value in LinkedIn, but I have some plans to test that platform this week. Facebook has continued to be a promising place to connect, and Twitter…well, what can I say? I couldn’t fathom “twittering” six-months ago; but now it’s one of my most-used resources.

Other top day-3 resources included some great information in the book “Stop Sending Resumes”, by Paul Copcutt (www.squarepegsolution.com), and in the spreadsheet of who’s hiring https://is.gd/6XWr, as listed by cnet.

I said in an earlier post that I am a novice at social Media Marketing (SMM) – but some that are “in-the-know” let me know that I haven’t even scratched the surface. With a new arsenal of information, I am excited to see what happens this week.

If you’re new to this experiment, it all starts at www.scottorth.com, where you will find links to the original post and each daily update.

Thanks again to everyone who has taken interest!