My Interview Answers For an Upcoming Book

A certain individual is currently writing a book on the powers of social networking. Since I answered his interview questions via email, I thought I would utilize the power of blogging to publicly transmit my responses. I hope this doesn’t give too much away.

1. Have you or do you know of anyone who has lost their job or have been looking for employment and have found employment utilizing social networking sites i.e. twitter, ning, facebook, etc.

No, but I have heard a ton of stories about Twitter.

2. Have you or do you know of anyone who has decided to start their own internet business utilizing primarily social networking sites i.e. twitter, ning, facebook, etc.

Yes, me. I have recently co-founded a social media marketing company that centers itself around building communities and networks within online tools. It’s the cheapest and easiest way to market and earn a much higher ROI along the way.

3. Do you have or know of anyone who has a traditional brick-n-mortar business whose sales have declined due to the economic crisis and have begun to use new media/social networking as a vehicle to increase sales or company exposure.

A lot of our new clients are seeing the power of social networking, blogging, and other mediums for promotions. If what you are currently doing to market your shop isn’t working, it’s time to reconsider your options, especially if your demographic is a younger generation.

4. Looking for examples of stay at home moms or dads who have recently started a blog and utilizing social networking sites to increase traffic and generate revenue.

I go to a lot of new media and blogging conferences. Believe it or not, over 20% of the attendees are stay-at-home moms. For obvious reasons, homemaker blogs are extremely popular to other stay-at-home moms who have time to browse the internet during the day.

5. Looking for examples of people using social networking in out-of-the-box ways.

My companies use Twitter to recruit new staff members. We just send out a tweet about the open position and wait for responses. Most of the time, the responses are overwhelming. We also use Twitter and other microblogging sites to giveaway items (such as concert tickets). This is a great way to increase promotions for something. We usually ask trivia questions that require participants to research the item(s) that are being promoted for the campaign.

Finding Freelancers

As an owner of a web-based business, I notice all of the trends that arise in the industry. As always, the demand for web design and development is at its peak, specifically in newer “Web 2.0” styles. There seems to be so many freelance developers and designers nowadays, that it makes it extremely difficult to make a decision on who to hire.

My company, Endagon Innovations, is in the eye of the storm. As an idea generating and social media marketing company, we don’t really strive to have developers and designers in-house. As much as we would love it, the overhead far outweighs the need. Therefore, what we decided to do is outsource all of our design and programming needs to trustworthy and experienced candidates that offered us the cheapest rates. Sometimes it is a single worker and other times it is a design company. Either way, this partnership should be strategically formed to benefit each party.

Usually we recruit such talents from websites. As simple as it sounds, Craigslist is a great resource for finding ambitious workers. Aside from the obvious, sites like Getafreelancer.com, Guru.com, iFreelance.com, Elance.com, and Project4hire.com are all amazing ways to land competent creative minded individuals.

As for the aspiring professional freelancers, the trick is to get your work out as much as possible. Having a website that is hosted at “yourname.com” is a great way to promote your portfolio and experience. I, for one, rarely hire individuals if they do not have their own website. It just looks much more professional to the employer.

The next goal is to network, network, and network some more. The more people you meet in the field, the more gigs you will land. There are always local meet-ups and user groups that meet weekly or monthly to talk about the creative industries. Find these groups and start attending. You’ll be surprised what you find out about your community.

When getting hired, sometimes the most difficult part is quoting prices to the client. How you charge and how much you charge are both critical issues in solidifying gigs. The best thing to do is offer more than one way to accept payment and bundle some of your unique services into packages that might appeal more to the client. Hourly rates are always good, but can leave a false impression of value in your work. Plus, you’ll always have to battle the trust issue.

Right now, the best thing an aspiring freelancer can do is get out there. If you are not on social networks like MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter, join them right now. You will notice that just by promoting your work to as many people as possible as often as possible, you will receive more than enough projects to work on. If you make your work more important than it is, people will respond positively. It is hard work, but it doesn’t have to be if you love what you’re doing.

Wearing a Lawsuit

As an entrepreneur, there is no question that you need to know a great deal about jurisprudence and the American legal system. I had the benefit of learning law in college, studying under some of the best instructors in Florida. Needless to say, I took those courses very seriously and it has benefited me immensely in my career thus far.

Contracts:

One of the scariest aspects of going into business is having to deal with all of the contracts. Today, there are contracts for everything, and it is highly suggested that you utilize them every time you make any sort of strategic move. The only problem is actually conjuring something impressive that the other party will feel protected by. That is where a fusion of law knowledge and writing skills come into play.

Verbiage

The terminologies used in law can be very difficult to grasp. For those of you that see a lot of contracts, you can probably recognize words like “Hereinabove,” “Whereas,” and “Aforementioned.” Although most people don’t use these words in everyday conversation, it is of extreme importance to understand how to read this terminology and translate them into realistic meanings - especially when a third party is the one presenting you with the contract.

Lawyers:

Whenever you can, it is obvious that an entity should seek out their own lawyer. There is always an overabundance of greedy attorneys waiting to represent you - that isn’t the problem. The biggest hurdle is dealing with the fees and the overwhelming expenses entailed with their services. If you can get one on your side, however, you are golden. If you have a friend or relative in law, start there. From there, you can always strike deals with attorneys at a lesser value. Some cut their costs for equity, and others work the nightshift for you simply out of wanting to help out “the little guys” in town, which is rare but a possibility.

The Future:

If you’ve made it at least a year without your own lawyer, keep at it. You’re obviously doing something right. Just realize that, at some point, you will want help in the area. As your business continues to expand and your operations build a larger breadth, there will be no way that you could take on the all of judicial duties anymore.

So start scouting around town and begin anticipating your next move. Until then, use your resources and continue to expand your knowledge of law.

Striking Deals

Even though I don’t have time to post on this blog today, I thought I would at least post something. But what I really want to talk about is confidential at this time. What a shame!

I guess you’ll just have to wait to hear more about what we have in the works. All you need to know right now is that we are striking some deals at the moment.

Get excited!