Cedric is an extremely talented character designer and humorous illustrator who specializes in mascot design, cartooning, animation, logos and other forms of marketing entertainment. Some of Cedric’s clients include Disney, DreamWorks, Wal-Mart, Target, Crayola and many, many more.

If you’d like to see some a Cedric’s art please visit his site at:
http://www.cedricstudio.com

or his blog
http://cedrichohnstadt.wordpress.com/.

Cedric’s Downloadable portfolios:
http://www.cedricstudio.com/portfolio-download.html

More about Cedric:

http://www.cedricstudio.com/bio.html

In this episode, Bob takes a quick breather and Chris steps in to talk about a couple of interesting tools for managing your online social activities.

Avatar Management:
Gravatar (Globally Recognized Avatars) http://gravatar.com/

Comment Management System:
Disqus http://disqus.com/
Cocomment http://cocomment.com/

Not mentioned in the show itself are the differences between Disqus and CoComment that Chris feels are relevant.

“First, Disqus tracks comments based on your email address, but unfortunately, can only track one email per account at this point, so if you use multiple email addresses, like me, you have to open multiple accounts. However, Disqus also does a lot of other things better than Cocomment, such as being able to pull your Avatar from Gravatar, Twitter, Facebook and other places.

“On the other hand, Cocomment uses a Firefox browser plugin instead of email addresses to track comments, so you can track ALL of your comments in one account. However, this means that if you use more than 1 machine regularly (I use 3) you need to install the plugin in all of your machines. Also, the plugin is currently limited to Mozilla-based browsers, like Flock or Firefox, so if you tend to favor another browser, you have to start up Firefox and make the comment from there. Cocomment does have a bookmarklet option for other browsers, but that tends to be a bit more work than I’d want to have to do.”

“I have accounts with both, but I tend to favor Disqus, and simply hope that at some point in the near future, they’ll let me manage all of my email addresses under one account.”

Dan Thompson’s Rip Haywire online comics.com: http://comics.com/rip_haywire/
Dan’s personal blog: http://riphaywire.com/

Topics covered this episode:

• Inviting your friends and colleagues.
• Finding people on LinkedIn
• Using LinkedIn’s Search
• Setting up contact options
• Finding and Joining Groups
• Starting Groups
• The Creative Independence group on Linked In
• Job Search
• Job Posting
• Questions and Answers
• Setting up your company profile
• Polls
• Quick overview of the Account Settings

Have any tips that we missed in these two episodes? Please swing by the Linked In group and drop your answers in the Linked In Tips discussion there.

Feel free to swing by and connect with both Bob and Chris on LinkedIn, and while you’re at it, if you like the show, drop us a recommendation on our LinkedIn accounts.
http://linkedin.com/in/aithene
http://linkedin.com/in/bobostromstudio

The CI Group on Linked In:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=2489632&trk=anet_ug_hm&goback=%2Ehom

In Part 1 of our in-depth discussion on setting up yourself on Linked In, Bob and Chris walk through a number of key features including:

• Signing Up
• Setting up your Business Card
• Setting up your Profile
• Importing your contacts
• Requesting and Giving Recommendations
• Using your contacts to connect to colleagues and friends who are already on Linked In
• Using your contacts to invite friends and colleagues to join you on Linked In
• Tweetdeck integration w/ Linked In
• Multi Language profiles
• Custom URLs
• Linked In Applications

Coming up in Part 2 we will cover:

• Connections more in-depth including Searching, Browsing, Introductions and sending InMails
• Groups
• Questions & Answers
• Job Boards
• Company Pages
• Account Settings

]]> http://creativeindependence.net/2010/01/06/ci-211-learning-linked-in-part-1/feed/ 1 branding,Creative Independence,Freelance,freelancers,group,job hunting,linked in,self promotion,Social Media,tweetdeck Chris and Bob take a look at Linked In. This episode is the first in a two part series showcasing the many features available on Linked In.  Once you've listened to the show please visit Linked In and join the CI group . Chris and Bob take a look at Linked In. This episode is the first in a two part series showcasing the many features available on Linked In.  Once you've listened to the show please visit Linked In and join the CI group . Don't forget to let us know you heard us on the show. As always thanks for listening and Pod On. In Part 1 of our in-depth discussion on setting up yourself on Linked In, Bob and Chris walk through a number of key features including: Signing Up Setting up your Business Card Setting up your Profile Importing your contacts Requesting and Giving Recommendations Using your contacts to connect to colleagues and friends who are already on Linked In Using your contacts to invite friends and colleagues to join you on Linked In Tweetdeck integration w/ Linked In Multi Language profiles Custom URLs Linked In Applications Coming up in Part 2 we will cover: Connections more in-depth including Searching, Browsing, Introductions and sending InMails Groups Questions & Answers Job Boards Company Pages Account Settings Bob and Chris no 46:16 http://creativeindependence.net/2009/11/04/ci-208-getting-social/ http://creativeindependence.net/2009/11/04/ci-208-getting-social/#comments Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:16:18 +0000 Chris http://www.answers-for-freelancers.com/2009/11/04/ci-2-8-getting-social/ This episode, Bob and Chris talk about the business applications of social media: promotion, networking, community and lead generation.

The social media scene is so big that there’s no way we can touch on everything, but we can definitely talk about some of the more relevant types of tools available, and we can certainly list a bunch of them below. The categories below are very general guidelines, especially when you consider that many of the tools really blur the lines and could easily fit into more than one.

Broadcast Media:
If you’re looking to broadcast your ideas or message, its a 1-to-many conversation. Even though your audience can communicate with you through comments and trackbacks, for the most part its a one way medium.

Video

YouTube
Blip.TV
Vimeo
UStream
Seesmic

Audio

Utterli (formerly utterz)

Text

WordPress
Blogger

Professional Networking:

Linked In

Personal Networking:

Facebook
MySpace
Plaxo

Water Cooler/Chat

Twitter

Image Sharing Communities:

Flickr
Picasa
SmugMug
Photobucket

Start Your Own Community:

WordPress MU
Ning
KickApps

Aggregators:

Google Profiles
Chi.mp

Also mentioned specifically is Dani Jones “Dani Draws Live” UStream channel.
http://danidraws.com/danidrawslive/

Homework Assignments

1. Go sign up for accounts at:
   • Linked In
   • Facebook
   • Twitter
   • MySpace
2. Friend Bob and Chris on Twitter:
   • Bob: http://twitter.com/bobostromstudio
   • Chris: http://twitter.com/aithene
3. Start thinking about our visual branding. We’re going to start implementing visual elements within the next 2 shows, so it would be nice if its ready to go.

Then moving on, once you have figured out what you want your business to be, the next thing you’ll probably do will be to come up with a name. And of course, once you’ve got a name in mind, you’ll need to making sure its available and that you can get a domain name to match your business. So, using GoDaddy.com as his domain registrar of choice, Bob walks us through the basics of searching for and purchasing your name.

For a discount on GoDaddy domain name purchases and hosting plans, and to help support the show, use this link:

GoDaddy.com Hosting Plans

See our mind map here.

To import the above map into your own account and to edit it for yourself, you can sign up for a free MindMeister account here: