Community Development

The construction of a resume is more of an art than a science. To build a great resume, you must partake in a difficult balancing act. On the one hand, you really want your resume to stand out amongst the hundreds of others. On the other hand, the manner in which it stands out must be: clever without being pretentious, cool without seeming insincere, and interesting without appearing desperate. On top of all that, the applicant must go about this process knowing that what appears unique and interesting to one employer, will come off as strange and gimmicky to another. The truth of the matter is that there is no such thing as a perfect resume, but there are most certainly bad resumes. Bad resumes are those that are poorly written, poorly arranged, and just plain boring. While there are plenty of websites and books that can show you how to format your resume correctly, there are far fewer that can tell you how to give your resume some personality. The first rule of resume creation is to know your audience. Today's job market is more complex then before. With many more emerging jobs in technology and web-based businesses, expectations for the traditional resume is dead. Careers at Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and similar companies, for example, are some of the most sought-after. Decision makers  for these companies clearly articulate that they look for bright, creative, industrious individuals. For someone that is trying to acquire one of those coveted social media jobs, this means, "Anything except a boring resume, please!" So how might an individual make their resume standout to someone at Facebook, Zynga, or Google? First and foremost, your resume is a list of things that prove you have an appropriate amount of skill for the position you are seeking. You must list your education, your previous jobs, and your relevant skills. Essentially, anything that will prove to the reader that you would be great for the position. But don't stop there. You must turn your resume into an example of your impressive skillset to really excite employers. Here are a few examples to get you started:

1. YouTube Channel

Imagine a resume that, at first glance, appears to be a screenshot of a YouTube channel. Upon closer examination, however, the reviewer discovers that your picture is in the video box, your personal information is in the sidebar, and all of your work and education information is displayed as video comments. Awesome!  Try it out.

According to a poll from Effie Worldwide and Mashable, 70% of brands plan to increase their social media spending by more than 10% in 2011. So, the big question is no longer whether social media is an important segment of a marketing plan. Instead, the question is how important social media is to a successful marketing plan. The only way to determine how important social media is to a company is to determine how extensively brand reputation relies on social media. There are three critical ways your brand relies (or should be relying) on social media, customer service, personal connection and engagement, and converting naysayers. Customer Service Perhaps the most obvious way in which brand reputation relies on social media is related to customer service. The phone number of a customer service centre with a ridiculous call holding time is not nearly as effective as it once was. A contact form with a note promising a response within twenty-four hours is even worse. Today, customers want instant responses, and social media allows you the opportunity to provide just that. If your brand is not already using social media as a way to improve customer support, now is the time to look into it. More and more customers are turning to social media for answers to questions not covered on your website.

Since the collapse of the dot-com bubble, tech startups have become the economic champion of freelance technology. New forms of web development and computer technology are being bankrolled each day in the hopes of becoming the next big thing. While it seems a world apart from service-based business, tech startups can provide examples and advice to service businesses looking to get off the ground and ignite economic growth.

Financing While tech startups often require either venture capital (VC) or angel investment to launch and scale, service businesses are only occasionally reliant on initial outside investment. However, it can still be wise to follow in tech startups' footprints and use that knowledge to gain potential investors for the future. In preparation for finding investors, a tech startup must refine its product, indicate growth opportunities and prove which markets will be most interested. Having clearly defined goals with solid statistics for potential growth can gain the interest of investors.

Investors are concerned with the rate at which they can realize their initial investment and how they can profit.

Social Media Even though social media networks are deeply entrenched in the tech market, they have just as many benefits to offer service businesses. Through social networking with current and future customers, businesses are able to test the markets for what makes the best possible product and make alterations mid-production to suit demand. With the right marketing, there is also enormous potential for customer onboarding to establish a loyal following that will help launch the brand or a new product line. Whether founding a tech startup or a service business, the best social marketing examples demonstrate the advantages of lean product development. By its very nature, marketing socially provides instant feedback from customers, sparing new brands the repeated trial and error process of developing a product. Gaining customer feedback only after a relatively lengthy run of each prototype is a process of the past. Utilizing social media to present new versions of products and respond to customer needs trims a large portion out of the research and development budget. That turns into savings, which can add up to a much larger profit margin.