BGG Exclusive - Online Community Startup Guide

We will not start to see an up tick in the economic recession until the end of the year. Until then there will be an unprecedented number of layoffs growing the ranks of the unemployed to all time highs. Many smart people will be out of work until the economy starts to pick up early next year. Some of these knowledge workers will choose entrepreneurship as a way to make money until things pick up. And then there will be a talent war to pick the best and the brightest for new and exciting projects.

At Blacks Gone Geek, we believe that whether you looking for a job or starting a small business, you will need the same thing, an online presence, a web presence that brings legitimacy to you and your cause. Believe it or not, it has become really easy to get started with little or no financial investment. All it takes is a little time and know how and a passion for building your following online.

This "how to guide" will give you all you need to know to start building your very own onlline community today.

Questions to Answer
What is an online community, social media, social networking?

How much time does it take to build and grow an online community?

Why do we use a web centric model?

Why build an online community (job seekers, churches, non-profits, entrepreneurs)?

What are the steps to create an online community?

Doucment Outline
Introduction
Basic Website
Advanced Website
Blogs
Social Networking Sites
Basic Marketing
Advanced Marketing
Branding
Writing Tips

Stay tuned for updates...

Online Community Start-up Guide Innovation Center on CollectiveX

http://blacksgonegeek.collectivex.com/group/StartupGuide

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IT Job Seeker? Out of Sight, Out of Mind? GET PERSONAL!

IT Job Seekers Unite!!
http://blacksgonegeek.org/JobSeekers.aspx

I wondered why my Grandmother, Mary Haynes, read the Mount Airy news from her home town in North Carolina every day, even though she lived in Chicago for over 40 years! Now I know how she survived the great depression as a successful entrepreneur (She owned "Haynes Beauty Shop" on the west side of Chicago).

She knew how to "GET PERSONAL".

She kew the buzz. She talked to her relatives, friends, and customers and share the lastest news, everyday, all the time! Everybody knew my grandmother. She knew everybody. She knew how to "GET PERSONAL"!

Are you an IT Job Seeker? Do you need help finding a job? Do people know who you are? If not, try reading the news and sharing the news.

Check out these articles, wow!

Meltdown 101: Unemployment By the Numbers
http://money.aol.com/news/articles/_a/bbdp/meltdown-101-unemployment-by-the-numbers/300395

New Jobless Claims Top 600,000
http://money.aol.com/news/articles/jobs/_a/bbdp/new-jobless-claims-top-600000/332129

Unemployment Rate Bolts to 8.1 Percent
http://money.aol.com/news/articles/_a/bbdp/unemployment-rates-spikes-to-81-percent/371970


Are you tired of being a statistic? How can you stand out? Social Networking is the key!

Layoff survival: Ways to keep your skills sharp
http://money.aol.com/news/articles/_a/bbdp/layoff-survival-ways-to-keep-your-skills/379221

Lessons learned from one entrepreneur’s struggles
http://myofficelivecommunity.com/discuss/blogs/officelivecommunity/archive/2008/10/24/lessons-learned-from-one-entrepreneur-s-struggles.aspx

Offering help, hope, U.S. "job clubs" see surge
http://news.aol.ca/article/offering-help-hope-us-job-clubs-see-surge/547833/

8 technology etiquette tips for job-seekers
http://money.aol.com/news/articles/_a/bbdp/8-technology-etiquette-tips-for-job/349889

GET PERSONAL: If you resort to e-mail pitches, make them personal. If you're introducing yourself to a hiring manager you've identified via a professional colleague, type that colleague's name in the e-mail's subject line and succinctly explain the link (e.g. "John Doe referred me") so the manager is less likely to hit delete.

Are you"out of sight out of mind"?
Don't despair. Read the news. Forward the news. Write a post. Let people know who you are and what you're looking for and how you're doing. Get personal! Sound off!!

You can yelp to the crowd!

Things To Do When You're Unemployed?
http://www.yelp.com/topic/chicago-things-to-do-when-youre-unemployed

Or...

There is a growing online community for African Americans in IT where you can make yourself known.

Caution: IT recruiters and hiring managers are members of these social networking sites and they are looking for talented diversity candidates looking for jobs. So when you GET PERSONAL, keep it professional!

BDPA Chicago Jobs on Yahoogroups
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/BDPA-Chicago-Jobs/join

BDPA Jobs on Yahoogroups
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/BDPA-Jobs/join

BDPA Chicago Jobs on Facebook
http://blacksgonegeek.org/ConnectOnFacebook.aspx

Career Center on BDPA CollectiveX
http://bdpa.collectivex.com/discussion/forums

Careers in IT on Blacks Gone Geek CollectiveX
http://blacksgonegeek.collectivex.com/discussion/forums

Who's Hiring Initiative on BrightFuse
http://blacksgonegeek.org/JoinUsOnBrightFuse.aspx

Who's Hiring Initiative on Blacks Gone Geek
http://blacksgonegeek.org/WhosHiring.aspx

Want a coach?

Coaches Corner on Blacks Gone Geek
http://blacksgonegeek.org/CoachesCorner.aspx


Hired! Going to Church to Get a Job
http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2009/03/03/hired-going-to-church-to-get-a-job/?ncid=AOLCOMMjobsDYNLprim0001
By Jessica Dickler, CNNMoney.com staff writer

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GEEKS Gone GREAT talks with Shellye Archambeau

Shellye Archambeau shares vital tips to navigate today’s precarious career climate [click this link to see full bio-link and photo]

GGG: Shellye, your bio reads like a Who’s Who of Women to Watch in Corporate America! As our first C-Level personality featured at GGG, let’s talk for a minute about CEO and what that looks like. You’re currently the Chief Executive Officer of MetricStream Incorporated, a market leader in Enterprise-wide Governance Risk and Compliance for global corporations. Please tell our BGG family, and our young geeks-in-training, how early did you envision your success? You obviously aimed for greatness, but how methodical was your plan to get there?

SA: I’ve always been a goal oriented person, and very big on planning. At some point during my high school years I decided that I wanted to run a business, I wasn’t sure what kind of business initially, but I knew I wanted to ‘build’ something.

In the early 80s Apple, distributed technology, and personal computers were just emerging and the industry was starting to boom. I thought technology looked like a growing, inviting area, and so I decided to start a career in technology.

GGG: Growing up as a person of color, for our generation and previous, in many cases, our parents didn’t say, “be sure you do well in school so you can be a CEO one day”. Or, there may not have been talk at the dinner table on the importance of value proposition. What were the primary driving forces that led to your career aspirations?

SA: One driving force for me to succeed was that I wanted to have resources (the means) to live comfortably. Growing up, I was the oldest child; my mom had 4 children in 5 years! The good news is that we’re all very close today. My parents did fine raising us within their means, but it was the simple things that sometimes stood out. I remember that it was always cold in our house - the thermostat was never above 68 degrees in the winter! My dad worked hard and did well for what he earned and my mother was a stay at home mom, so things were financially tight sometimes with our large family. I remember wanting to one day be able to have certain resources for myself and live differently.

GGG: And today, what does a typical day in the life look like for Shellye Archambeau?

SA: There is no typical day, but there are typical cycles. What is typical is that my days are very long and full! For example yesterday, we were having our board meeting, and I needed to get into the office early to prep for this meeting, so I wasn’t able to work out that morning. By the way, I’d gotten home the evening before after 10:30 p.m.! I arrived to the office around 8:00 a.m., the board meeting started at 8:30, followed by another meeting about 11:00, my staff meeting was later that afternoon, and I ended up leaving the office early to rush to attend a formal networking event- I was in the typical rush hour traffic for about an hour, and arrived to the event that ran well into the evening!

GGG: So, for a CEO this “typical” schedule is par for the course. How do you find your work-life balance?

SA: I have a phenomenal husband. Everyone should have such a great partner or support system. That is how I am able to make my life work as I have always envisioned. From the very beginning my husband was an awesome partner to help us accomplish our goals. For example when I graduated from college I married my husband and got pregnant soon after. I told my husband as we were looking for our first home, that we needed to have a nanny in order to support our careers. We looked into areas where we’d buy our home and we didn’t start out with the best home right off. Our priority was the welfare of our child and we spent more money on the nanny than buying the better home. It was a matter of a trade-off and what was needed at the time.

GGG: So you made a strategic choice and deferred instant gratification.

SA: Yes, it was important to us to have children, it was important to me to be able to have my career and achieve the kind of goals I set for myself and I didn’t believe I could do it without that kind of help.

So, having said that, the situation of the nanny didn’t last forever, but we leveraged certain decisions that would work for us. We did move into a better house eventually, it was all about the planning. People really need to spend time planning for themselves and then working their plan. Had we not planned for a nanny, when buying the house, we might not have had the financial resource flexibility that we needed.

GGG: One of your LinkedIn recommenders says of you, “Shellye is an awesome business person. She has a gift for taking the complex and making is really simple"… How do you take the complex and make it really simple?

SA: I do it out of self-defense! I can only handle so many things. “What is it that I need to achieve and what’s the value proposition” is my overall approach and I just go from there.

GGG: The current state of our economy and job market is creating the highest levels of competition and creative strategy for employment – at any level. What do you feel gives people the competitive advantage in a company?

SA: Tactically, it is extremely important that right now people concentrate on doing the best possible job and showing their value in their current roles. Companies across our nation right now are in survival mode. There will be time for getting to the next level, but for now, while we are in this unique period of pervasive layoffs and corporate down-sizing, it is critical that people are able to show the value they bring to their company.

GGG: What about the thing everyone wants to know about, as you speak of the shrinking job market and people needing to show value and being able to own the job they have, what about corporate politics, as another factor to challenge job stability?

SA: You have to communicate on all levels. Ensure that people at different levels in your company know the value you are contributing today as well as what your aspirations are for the future. If you’re a project manager today and you want to be a director tomorrow, how well have you communicated what you want to do? No one will know if you don’t tell, don’t worry about politics per se, focus on building good relationships– because after all, politics is really just a bunch of interpersonal relationships that affect outcome, isn’t it?

# # #

Shellye Archambeau is CEO of MetricStream, Inc. She has a proven executive management track record and over 20 years of experience driving sales growth in the technology industry. Prior to joining MetricStream, Shellye was Chief Marketing Officer and Executive Vice President of Sales for Loudcloud, Inc., responsible for all global sales and marketing activities. For speaking requests Contact Shellye at SArchambeau@MetricStream.com

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Geeks Gone Great - Remembering Ollie Morgan

Check Out Ollie Morgan in this video at 5:34.




Remembering Olllie Morgan
by Milt Haynes

Ollie Morgan died on March 2, 2009.

Ollie was BDPA Chicago Chapter President when I joined BDPA in 1990. Under Ollie’s leadership, BDPA Chicago moved from the 2nd largest Chapter behind Detroit to the nations largest chapter. A proud accomplishment we have maintained ever since.

Ollie was a great leader, a role model and someone we all looked up to. When Ollie was president, we never had trouble finding volunteers. We had fun. We had a great time. We worked together, at all hours of the day and night, weekdays and week-ends, because we loved donating our time and money to BDPA. We could call anybody at anytime to talk BDPA. We worked together as a team. We got things done!

Ollie was a pioneer. He was one of the first to join a BBS with a 300 baud modem. This turned into the Internet and AOL chat rooms. He was the first to build an online resume database. This turned into the talent management system on monster.com. He built a membership database and processed monthly transmittals. This turned into the BDPA Global Membership database. He maintained a marketing database on ACT that eventually turned into our corporate marketing database on salesforce.com. Ollie taught us how to try new things and go beyond where we had gone before.

Ollie taught us that every member is a member of the membership committee, responsible for membership recruitment. Ollie taught us that every member is a member of the marketing committee, responsible for getting the word out on BDPA events, programs and activities. Ollie taught us that every member is responsible for financial support and fund raising and bringing in new sponsors. Ollie taught us that each and every member should plan their annual BDPA budget to include their membership dues, a ticket to the Awards Banquet and a ticket to the Education Banquet.

Ollie was a die hard entrepreneur. He taught us how to run BDPA like a business. Ollie was a master at corporate marketing. He helped us make a $50,000 sale to DePaul University. This is still the largest single sale in BDPA Chicago history.

Ollie gave me my first board position as Finance Department Director for the BDPA Chicago Chapter. I ran against Ollie for BDPA Chicago Chapter President in 1997. Ollie was a formidable opponent who taught me how to run a political campaign. I’ll never forget what he said to me when I narrowly won. He said, “Milt, the president is the main person responsible for membership and money. Do your job!” And I eventually followed Ollie’s Chicago Chapter President tradition to serve as National BDPA President.

Why Hasn’t BDPA Gone Viral?

BDPA grows and shrinks, grows and shrinks, grows and shrinks, but we have yet to go viral, to reach our tipping point.

Today, for Ollie, let’s make BDPA go viral.

Forward this email. Talk to somebody on the phone. Text them. Tell them about BDPA, the premier organization for African Americans in IT. Bring them to the next BDPA chapter meeting. Sign-up and bring a group to National BDPA Conference. Ask them to subscribe to a blog. Invite them to join us on Facebook, LinkedIn, CollectiveX and Twitter.

We love you Ollie! We will keep you close to us, forever in our hearts!!

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A Geek is a Techie Version of a Hustler

This has been a week of enlightenment. My twin daughters went on a week-end trip to the Mall of America with their girl scout troop and asked me to help them download music to their Voyager phones. Since I manage their music repository, I get to sample their songs. Beyonce’s Diva caught my attention, “ A diva is a female version of a hustler”. Can we change the words, “A geek is a techie version of a hustler” and make a hit?

On Thursday I presented to 150 Chicago Public High School students for National Entrepreneur Week Career Day. I’m still in shock because when I asked how many were looking to pursue careers in IT, only 2 raised their hands. That’s right, believe it or not, 1% of those students are following behind us in the pipeline of geeks like us! What does that mean for the African Americans in IT talent pool 5 years from now? You do the math.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. One of the students has an impressive business selling skin care lotion, N.V.Lotion, and I featured her business on Blacks Gone Geek, http://blacksgonegeek.org/CPSEntrepreneurDaySession1.aspx. She’s using webs.com and blogspot to promote her business. Another student is using Myspace to promote an apparel business. And one of the teachers is using a Ning network to promote an Entrepreneurial Networking service. http://breakbreadeducationalservices.ning.com/ Online Communities are gaining in popularity in the Black Community. Check out A Mighty River and you’ll see what I mean.

On Tuesday we held our BDPA Chicago CAC meeting Computer Resource Solutions, a long time BDPA supporter. The owner, Michael Gaines, hosted a “lively” meeting of over 20 executives representing BDPA Chicago Sponsors. The good news is that most of these companies are hiring (http://blacksgonegeek.org/CACCareerWebsites.aspx). On Friday I met with Mark Pfeiffer, DSR Management. He’s looking for technical professionals to fill contractor positions in the Chicago area. Check out http://blacksgonegeek.org/StaffingServices.aspx for a list of Who's Hiring - Consulting and Staffing Services.

I have a newfound appreciation for web developers. The world has changed a lot since I started coding web pages in HTML 15 years ago. There are a myriad of web hosting services and a ton of web authoring tools. Adobe’s Creative Suite 4 and Microsoft’s Expression Studio are both impressive and both expensive! The good news is that there is open source and free web hosting solutions out there. Check out our BGG Readers Poll results for Web Hosting Solutions. The favorite web hosting service is “Go Daddy” and the favorite web content management solution is “Joomla” (guess who came in a close second).

See http://blacksgonegeek.org/WebHostingSolutionsPoll.aspx for full list of poll results.

And stay tuned for more tips and tricks on how to build an online community promote you and your business…

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