With record unemployment numbers lurking now is the time to take advantage of the free online social marketing tools available to you to find a job. Sites like Facebook and Myspace are great for reaching out to decision makers in order to find a job.

Instead of visiting the job search sites purchase yourself a subscription to Hoovers and find out who the decision makers in your industry are. Sites like this will allow you to find out people’s names at companies that you want to work for. Try isolating 10 or 15 companies that you would want to work for in your area. Once you have done this trying to track down people’s names in the search engines requires a few clever searches. Once you track down someones name try search for that name online and see if you can find a profile they might have either on LinkedIn, Myspace or even Facebook and connect with them. If they are the right person you are looking for try starting conversation with these individuals. Some might think you are a weirdo and some will actually engage in conversation. This will give you an advantage over the possible hundred resumes they have already sitting on their desk.

At this point it doesn’t hurt to try some creative techniques to find employment. It will not get any easier to find employment and these social media marketing platforms are perfect for getting your foot through the door.

I don’t want to beat a dead horse here and I know there has been a great deal written on Obama’s approach and reach with his online marketing campaign but how much has he really changed the landscape of social media marketing?

He has ultimately changed the way politicians and business owners in general will engage in marketing themselves during campaigns and elections but it will take more than just launching a Facebook page for yourself. Has Obama possibly even given social media the jump start it needed? We all know that social media has been like a runaway train and most people are just trying to hold on to the ride but as you get an older crowd of business owners really paying attention to Barack Obama and what he does to communicate with his people I can’t help to wonder if some of those older viewers who might have a hard time turning a computer one are starting to really wonder what Myspace and Twitter are. Many of these individuals will be business owners and if they see that their president of the United States of America is actively engaging in these things than maybe it will entice an older generation of business owners to start to dabble in this area. If Barack Obama can become the president from his efforts online a local business owner should be able to get the attention of a few people local in their town about what they offer.

I think many people agree that social media is not just a fad and that it is a powerful tool that really works in getting touch with your audience on a much more personal level. When we see world leaders using to their advantage then it must work we just have to be able to find how it works for our business. Each business is different and it will be important to try out as many different efforts as possible to fin the one that works best for you.

Social networking and social marketing seems to still scare many business owners. I understand it can be very overwhelming when someone or a business first decides to get involved in social networking. There are so many different websites to join that your head starts to spin. Which do you start with.

Nobody has an answer on which are right for you or your business. Experts might have opinions depending on which target audience will best connect with your business. Bottom line is that you need to experiment and try many of them until you can accurately decide on which ones you should drop. You might find out that your business responds very well to Myspace but in Facebook it just can’t get any traction. This type of information will only present itself if once you have spent sometime actively engaging in the top social networking platforms. It is important to try them before you rule them out. Remember that there is no magic pill in online marketing and it requires many different efforts acting simultaneously. Much of your target audience will cross paths and use multiple social networking platforms to engage with others so it is important to be in all areas so you are visible at all times. Much of online marketing is trial and error. It is very difficult to predict what outcomes you will have as an organization or business.

Recently young Scottish entrepreneur, Scott Campbell has launched his own regionally targeted social marketing and networking website called ScotBlog.net.

ScotBlog focuses greatly on anything and anyone Scottish. If you are from Scotland and have been raised with a Scottish background ScotBlog will be a great website to network on. Now we all know that social networking websites are nothing new but the fact that this has been conjured up by a 13 year old entrepreneur is enough to get me to stop by the website and take a look. I see social networking sites pop up at every corner but when you are this young and have a passion for online marketing and networking than your website really has no where to go but up. At first glance ScotBlog’s appearance is nothing to write home about. Doesn’t exactly have that web 2.0 and social marketing feel just yet but I have a feeling this will change as time goes on. I highly doubt it will be pulling away any visitors from some of its competitors but it is definitely worth checking out. Scott has been making his rounds of recent blog posts across the internet. Don’t be surprised if continue to see his face arounf town.