1.     Everyone Must Work Together – IT, digital, marketing and sales should work together

2.     Top Management Must Be On Board – Willingness to change is the new bottom line for every business today

3.      Don’t Expect Overnight Success – Once you have created the community, listen to it. They will be your best advocate

Where Should Your Company Start?

• Realizing that employing social media in the marketing mix is a long-term commitment to change, the best way to start is to pick manageable, measurable goals.
• Pick a small number of social media goals for the coming year.
• Resolve to respond to customer service issues within three hours, via social media

What is Twitter?

Twitter is an information network. Millions of people, organizations, and businesses use it to discover and share new information.

On Twitter, anyone can read, write and share messages of up to 140 characters. These messages, or Tweets, are public and available to anyone interested in them. Twitter users subscribe to your messages by following your account. Followers receive every one of your messages in their timeline, a feed of all the accounts they have subscribed to.

What does Twitter do for businesses?

As a business, you can use Twitter to quickly share information, gather market intelligence and insights, and build relationships with people who care about your company. Often, there is already a conversation about your business happening on Twitter.

Twitter for Businesses

Twitter connects businesses to customers in real-time. Businesses use Twitter to quickly share information with people interested in their products and services, gather real-time market intelligence and feedback, and build relationships with customers, partners and influential people. From brand lift, to direct sales, Twitter offers businesses a chance to reach an engaged audience.

Best Practices

Build your following, reputation, and customer’s trust with these simple practices:

1. Share. Share photos and behind the scenes info about your business. Even better, give a glimpse of developing projects and events. Users come to Twitter to get and share the latest, so give it to them!
2. Listen. Regularly monitor the comments about your company, brand, and products.
3. Ask. Ask questions of your followers to glean valuable insights and show that you are listening.
4. Respond. Respond to compliments and feedback in real time
5. Reward. Tweet updates about special offers, discounts and time-sensitive deals.
6. Demonstrate wider leadership and know-how. Reference articles and links about the bigger picture as it relates to your business.
7. Champion your stakeholders. Retweet and reply publicly to great tweets posted by your followers and customers.
8. Establish the right voice. Twitter users tend to prefer a direct, genuine, and of course, a likable tone from your business, but think about your voice as you Tweet. How do you want your business to appear to the Twitter community?

Glossary

Twitter users have developed short-form syntax to make the most of 140 characters. Here are the fundamentals.

·         Mention

Once you’ve signed up and chosen a Twitter username, you and others can mention an account in your Tweets by preceding it with the @ symbol, eg: “Glad your shipment arrived @janesmith!”

·         Retweet

When you see a Tweet by another user that you want to share, click Retweet below it to forward it to your followers instantly.

·         Message

If you want to privately Tweet to a particular user who’s already following you, start your Tweet with DM or D to direct-message them, eg: “DM @joesmith234 what is your order number?”

·         Hashtag

Users often prepend # to words in their Tweets to categorize them for others eg: “Check out our new products for the Fall: http://t.co/link2 #fallsale” Think of hashtags as the theme of your Tweet. Users can then click on a hashtag to see other similarly-themed tweets and find yours in search.

Notes:  Jet Blue Case Study – http://business.twitter.com/optimize/case-studies/jetblue

Peers play a big part on adolescence years. Adolescents spend more time in school and with peers then with other groups. Teens become more aggressive and self-centered, this is normal since personality it’s forming and ideas are being developed. A healthy Family relationship is important in the development of a teenager’s personality; a good communicative relationship could be very healthy in the transition from childhood to young adult hood.
As a parent of a 9 year old I am in the beginning of this journey, I feel it is my job to get as much information on this issue and take an early start on this unprecedented event.

How children come to see themselves in relation to others begins with the parent-child relationship, which is essential for early attachment and adaptation. Children can have multiple attachments to parents, grandparents, and other caregivers, all of which create the early foundation for learning to relate to others. Upon entering the school system, peer relationships become essential to children and act to further modify and shape their view of self and the manner in which they relate to others. In adolescence, relationships expand to include intimacy and romance but remain heavily influenced by the nature of previously observed and experienced relationships (Wolfe, 2006, p 30).

A close relationship with the family and open communication is especially important during adolescence as children experience many physical and mental changes. Research shows that teens that have positive relationship with the parents are less likely to smoke, drink and be aggressive.

Most children between the ages of 12 and 14 find themselves much more drawn to their friends than to their family. They are making the transition, at some point during these years, from a known and familiar way of life to a new and strange one: from primary to secondary school, from junior or middle to senior school. In general, parents find that they have very much less to do with school life on a day-to-day basis than previously – perhaps especially if they were used to meeting children in the playground, going into school with them, and chatting to teachers. Now they feel almost left out: they don’t have a “sense” of the school or of the nature of their children’s daily experiences any more (Waddell, 2005. p 29).

Most teens at the age of 14 – 16 feel invincible and that nothing bad could happen to them. This will cause them to engage in risk behaviors. Most teens experiment with alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana, and sexual intercourse increases during this point.

Self-esteem evolves through adolescence, children become self aware and in search of self identity. Most of the social interactions build on their perception of them self’s. Friendships and intimacy is more common than in younger years, they learn to become more social that will prepare them for a grown up world.

Levels of self-esteem have a big influence on how we form and maintain relationships with others. This includes important relationships, such as with partners and close family and friends, as well as those with acquaintances, such as people we work with for a short while or meet up with while we are at school or college. How we see ourselves will affect how we view others. If we think that people are judging us, we are likely to act in a defensive way. This could mean that we become aggressive or perhaps very passive. If we fear rejection, we may be tempted to avoid forming close relationships all together. Our behaviour will then undoubtedly affect how others behave towards us (Plummer 2005. p 178).

Sometimes feelings of low self-esteem can mean that we don’t get the most from our encounters with other people because we have never learned or have forgotten the social skills that some others seem to take for granted. These skills are needed in everyday life, to be able to communicate effectively with family, friends, neighbors, people in shops, etc., and to be effective in whatever work we choose to do.

Adolescence and Puberty go hand in hand. Puberty is defined as the biological changes of adolescence. By mid-adolescence, if not sooner, most youngsters’ physiological growth is complete; they are at or close to their adult height and weight, and are now physically capable of having babies.
Biological changes are taking place at this time over which he or she has no control. These are the physiological, anatomical, hormonal changes called “puberty”. Puberty occurs in different bodies at different times, at different rates and in different ways. It usually happens earlier for girls than for boys. Some nine-year-old girls are already menstruating, some do not begin until they are 15 or 16. But for both boys and girls, the most usual time for puberty is between 12 and 14.

Each is becoming sexually more mature, though not necessarily emotionally, an adult. The girls begin to have periods, to develop breasts and pubic hair. The shape and contours of their bodies are rapidly changing, often with a sudden increase in weight. They are sweating, smelling and often suffering unfamiliar aches and cramps. The boys experience their first ejaculations (usually initially in wet dreams). They often have a sudden increase in growth, they fill out, develop bodily hair, possibly spots, their voices change. They, too, sweat and smell. They become awkward and clumsy in their unfamiliar bodies (Waddell, 2005. p 13).

The mental development takes a fast pace during the adolescent years. In the early Teenage years children gain knowledge of life skills such as house chores and personal responsibility. In school they take part in learning both to think and reason more critically. In the middle adolescence they think more abstract and include more philosophical concerns and think more long term. During late adolescence as less self-centered thought improves and more personal decision making takes place and start to prepare for an adult society.

We have to remember that some youngsters who are very bright at 12 or 13 are making the transition to what Piaget (1972) calls formal operations. They are becoming very different people in terms of their cognitive ability. In many ways, those youngsters who have made the shift can think about the world in an adult fashion. Those teens with this new cognitive ability sometimes create problems when they want to know the why of everything and just exactly why you did not tell them sooner. Parents and adults probably did tell them these things earlier; however, the youngsters did not understand the explanation or maybe even did not believe the explanation (Holmes 1995. p 35).

The best way to drive healthy intellectual development during adolescence is to expose children to a variety of topics and life issues of everyday life. Encourage them to talk and share ideas and have them think alone while assisting them with advice on their thought process. Help them set up goals and setting possibilities for their future and maybe pick a career path.

This type of dialogue helps a teenager to own his or her challenges, tasks, and problems; and prevents the teen from forcing parents or other adults to take over their issues. In order for teenagers to move toward autonomy, work on their identity, and become more competent socially, they have to have a sense of themselves as powerful. The dialogue is very respectful of an adolescent’s new power or control around his or her choices. It emphasizes that the adolescent can choose or not choose to do certain things the way you would like them to be done. The dialogue is different from the dialogue you would have with an 8-year-old. Most 8-year-old boys and girls passively submit to being socialized a particular way at home and at school (Holmes 1995. p 35).

Stress and depression are serious problems in a teenagers life, a high number of teens suffer from depression in their teenage years.
In the last decade, depression has increased significantly among adolescents. Clinical depression often plays a role in a teen’s suicide attempts or actual suicide. Data by the Children’s Safety Network (1991) suggest that suicide rates over the last decade increased dramatically for teenagers and continue to increase significantly for younger teenagers (Holmes 1995. p 35).

Eventually, most young people will go through radical emotional changes during the teenage year. Family and teachers need to be aware of the signs of depression, taking action if needed to assist on their emotional development.

As kids grow through the teen years, a slow and hard process has passed. The highs and lows of adolescence are behind us as they’ll become more independent, responsible, communicative young adults. The best thing is to remember that this is a stage in life both for the parents and teens.

(Fall 2010 – Final Paper Child Development Course.)

Works Cited

- Wolfe, David A.; Jaffe, Peter G.; Crooks, Claire V.. Adolescent Risk Behaviors : Why Teens Experiment and Strategies to Keep Them Safe .
New Haven, CT, USA: Yale University Press, 2006. p 30.
Copyright © 2006. Yale University Press. All rights reserved.

- Waddell, Margot. Understanding 12-14-Year-Olds.
London, , GBR: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2005. p 29.
Copyright © 2005. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. All rights reserved.

- Plummer, Deborah. Helping Adolescents and Adults to Build Self-Esteem : A Photocopiable Resource Book.
London, , GBR: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2005. p 178.
Copyright © 2005. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. All rights reserved.

- Holmes, George R.. Helping Teenagers into Adulthood : A Guide for the Next Generation.
Westport, CT, USA: Greenwood Publishing Group, Incorporated, 1995. p 35.

http://site.ebrary.com/lib/bridgeport/Doc?id=5004989&ppg=50

Copyright © 1995. Greenwood Publishing Group, Incorporated. All rights reserved.

Twas the Friday before Christmas
And all through the day
You found not a job
That was willing to pay

You scoured web
You searched right through lunch
You thought this was it
The best of the bunch

Until an email arrived
From out of the blue
Telling of tales
Of the jobs on Talent Zoo

You jumped to the site
And saw what was there
New jobs had been listed
It was more than you could bear!

Soon it was time to go home
But you knew not to fear
Not all jobs were not gone,
TalentZoo made them appear

Happy holidays from your friends at Talent Zoo

Example Cover Letters from the real world

This article will dissect some real world example cover letters from my career in IT. As a software developer, I have started a job every 2 years since graduating university in 1996. That’s a lot of cover letters, resumes and job interviews.

The example cover letters that I use were created from this program called Amazing Cover Letter Creator ->

I have always been successful with the cover letters it creates. That is not to say that I get every job that I apply for, but I do get to the interview stage for 95% of the jobs that I apply for. This is not because I am the perfect candidate, but because I now know how to write the perfect cover letter.

Some people send the same cover letter to each potential employer with their resume. This is not what you should be doing, but hey, at least you have a cover letter. Some don’t have one at all and simply send a resume. This is much worse.

Your letter should be written specifically for each role that you are applying for. For example, my cover letter for a C++ programmer role was very different for the web developer role. Each role, while in the same industry, required a different set of skills and I needed to demonstrate a different set of interests.

Web Developer Example Cover letters:

Dear Wayne,

My name is Jimmy Cregline and I am writing to you to apply for the Senior Web Developer job advertised on seek.com.au

I have been programming with OO PHP for 5 years and have completed many large projects.

I am currently employed as a Software Engineer and Project Manager at an online marketing company. The main technologies I use daily are OO PHP, MySQL and Perl.

My former employer was NetFlix. I was part of a development team that designed and implemented an online DVD rental system. This software has since been licensed and is currently used all around the world. Telstra Bigpond is one of the more well known licensees.

I’m looking to advance my Software Engineering career by learning new technologies and completing new and exciting projects.

I’m a hard working and reliable person always looking to grow my knowledge and learn new technologies and skills. I’m sure if I am given the opportunity to meet with you I will be able to tell you more about my achievements and aspirations.

I look forward to meeting with you.

Kind Regards,

Jimmy Cregline

C++ Programmer Example Cover letters:

Dear Cathy Jones,

My name is Jimmy Cregline and I am writing to you to apply for the Software Engineering job advertised on seek.com.au

I am currently employed as a Software Engineer and Project Manager at an online marketing company. The main technologies I use daily are OO PHP, MySQL and Perl.

I also have experience in programming with object oriented C++. My former employer was NetFlix. I was part of a development team that designed and implemented a DVD dispatching system using Microsoft Visual C++. This software has since been licensed and is currently used all around the world. Telstra Bigpond is one of the more well known licensees.

I’m looking to advance my Software Engineering career by learning new technologies and extending my C++ experience. I have not had any experience with true real time systems but I have recently been involved in time sensitive projects in telecommunications. I was heavily involved in a team that developed an advertiser sponsored telephone system called sponsortel.com which involved processing and routing live telephone calls around the world in real time. This kind of technology excited me as it was new and challenging.

I’m a hard working and reliable person always looking to better myself and learn new technologies and skills. I think I have a lot to offer BGE Systems and a career at BGE Systems would be very rewarding. I’m sure if I am given the opportunity to meet with you I will be able to tell you more about my achievements and aspirations.

I look forward to meeting with you.

Kind Regards.

Jimmy Cregline

As you can see, the cover letters are similar and they even list similar past employers but each of them focus on different technical skills that each employer is seeking.

The Windows 7 Release Candidate is available. Download it here when you’re ready.

As for performance, I think Microsoft is going to surprise people. And if you’re working for an enterprise that hasn’t upgraded to Vista because it won’t run acceptably on your existing PCs, you’ll want to look again at Windows 7. Paul Thurrott, Supersite for Windows

About this talk
This demo — from Pattie Maes’ lab at MIT, spearheaded by Pranav Mistry — was the buzz of TED. It’s a wearable device with a projector that paves the way for profound interaction with our environment. Imagine “Minority Report” and then some.

About Pattie Maes
At the MIT Media Lab’s new Fluid Interfaces Group, Pattie Maes researches the tools we use to work with information and connect with one another.

About Pranav Mistry
Pranav Mistry is the genius behind Sixth Sense, a wearable device that enables new interactions between the real world and the world of data.

Please be aware of a damaging virus/worm called Win32 Conficker (AKA Downup, Downadup and Kido) that will trigger on April 1, 2009. As usual, please pay attention to emails and files that you read and/or open as it could be an infected file. If you do not know the sender or do not recognize the attached file or email message, please delete it. You may want to contact the sender before opening any suspicious emails.