Social Media gone crazy..(part 1)

This past week has been interesting to say the least. I have heard of possible positions of employment..that have materialised into nothing, I have heard of some that may come to fruition…who knows, all I do know is I am still unemployed! And to be honest I still don’t like it..ha ha ha…but I am still positive I will find employment, and being pro-active to the cause.

I have a twitter account http://twitter.com/PaulWeston33 for those that are interested in following me), and I am following a couple of hundred or so people, mainly within my industry, or with a link to my industry, and similarly nearly a couple of hundred that follow my tweets and random offerings… I am not talking 1000′s of people here with a direct link to me.

I posted my blog regarding being unemployed “Chin up old boy” http://weston007.wordpress.com/2010/03/09/chin-up-old-boy/  earlier this week, and put it out on twitter, where it was re-tweeted by friends, and then again by their friends and so on, it seemed that throughout the whole day all that I saw was “Please help @PaulWeston33 find a job”, or tweets of a similar message. Lots of people looked at my blog, and I was receiving messages of “good luck” from random people I had never spoken to before! The power of Twitter eh? It was very heart warming to be receiving all of these messages, people going out of there way to help in some small way. Also, the amount of people that looked at my blog that day went through the roof! Exposure!!

The following day I was advised ( @SuButcher) to update my blog with what I can offer to an employer, so I did, and posted my most recent blog “Dusted myself down..let’s crack on!!” http://weston007.wordpress.com/2010/03/10/dusted-myself-down-lets-crack-on/ , within this link was a rough CV, and I tweeted it with a link to my blog! The twitter world went crazy again, my blog being re-tweeted to all and sundry, it was madness to be honest, and I think people must of been sick of the sight of me on their screen all day!! And again good luck messages from lots of people kept coming through….it was amazing. Even people in America were re-tweeting me …… WOW!!

To date, I have a meeting arranged with a potential job offering for next week, and I have spoken to some kind, helpful truly wonderful folk all with getting me employed in mind! I have never met some of these people remember, I only converse and interact with them on Twitter mainly….well get this, this is where the power of social media goes crazy….read on…

Yesterday a lovely lady called Shana Pearlman http://twitter.com/ShanaBP sent me a direct message on Twitter, saying, and I quote “I know you are using Twitter for your job hunt, but can we help you on the radio at all with an interview?” Yes, you did read that correctly….a radio station had picked up on the twitterworld madness evolving around my search for a job, and was now offering me a chance to go live on the radio to speak about using Twitter and social media to find employment! Holy F word!!!

I spoke to a couple of Twitter pals, and they advised me to grab the opportunity by the curlies…and so I replied to Shana that I would be pleased to do an interview, sent her my mobile. After a very friendly chat on the phone, a date is arranged for the interview. Tuesday 16th March BBC Essex around 10am..ish! So that’s me then!!

So you see, from this social media activity on Twitter, mixed with a good network of friends, and maintaining a positive attitude and being pro-active, I have now got a possible employment opportunity and am being interviewed on live radio…..all in a week!

It’s a crazy world we live in innit!!

I would like to thank a few people that have helped me this week (there are probably quite literally thousands to be honest)

My wonderful wife http://twitter.com/JaniceFLP), Su Butcher http://twitter.com/SuButcher), Roberta Ward @RobertaWard), Lee Smallwood http://twitter.com/leesmallwood), Rob Cameron http://twitter.com/robjcameron), Bradley Knight http://twitter.com/bradleyvast), Jim Slater http://twitter.com/JimSlater69), Philippa Bowen http://twitter.com/philippabowen), Philip Ross http://twitter.com/philippross), Keith Kelly http://twitter.com/pagroupuk)…and many more…these people are all on Twitter, I suggest you get to know them as they are lovely people to know.

I will be updating the next part of this story after Tuesday’s interview…..unless it gets a little more crazy before!!