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

David Billings AKA Sparky Firepants

Bob and illustrator Sparky Firepants (AKA David Billings) talk about marketing. David shares some of his surefire marketing techniques including, slowing down, networking, using social media, and the importance of forming strong and trusting relationships with your clients.

Davids hilarious new comic Botpreneur

If you are not familiar with Davids work you can find him at SparkyFirepants.com. (don’t forget to sign up for his newsletter). You can also find him on Twitter.

Along with all the other great things you can find on David’s site he also has a new comic out called Botpreneur.

There are scores of places on the web to find the definitions for this texting shorthand that is developing around short-form messaging, but here’s a decent on to start with:

http://www.webopedia.com/quick_ref/textmessageabbreviations.asp

Twitter Tags – what do they mean?
@<username> – Use this tag when you want someone <username> to see your post, such as when you’re talking about her or asking her a question.

.@<username> – If you want everyone to see the post regardless of whether or not they follow <username>, don’t start the post w/ @. You can use anything, even a simple period to accomplish this.

D<space><username> – Use this if you want to send a private message to a user.

#<keyword> – Use this if you want a tweet to be picked up by twitter search for a topic.

RT @<username> – Use this when you want to pass a tweet along and want to give credit to the originator.

Twitter Search – http://search.twitter.com/

Setting up email (for MAC)

Go to http://search.twitter.com/set up your search term. Find the RSS feed link. From the options “Subscribe to this feed using” select applications. Under applications find mail. Hit subscribe. Apple mail uses an RSS feeder to send alerts. They’ll show up just like an email.

If you want to have search terms sent directly to an email address there are several 3rd party apps you can use.
If you have a favorite please let us know which one you are using and why you like it.

Setting up rss reader alerts:

The easiest way to follow search results is to add a search column to Tweetdeck or whatever Twitter application that you use. However, on the results page from http://search.twitter.com/, you can grab the RSS Feed link and add it to whatever feed reader you use, such as Google Reader.

Trending Topics

Use trending topics to find out which topics are hot in a specific area. Especially if you use current events to draw attention to your blog, or for inspiration for your comics, art, writing or what have you, trending topics is a great tool to see what might be relevant.

Listed

Dunbar’s Number is a concept that basically states that most people can only handle about 150 people/connections in a single organization before you get too big to really manage. Lists helps you break down a large group of people into more easily manageable sets, and also lets your followers know who’s who in your follower list.

By putting someone in a list, you define why you follow them, and let people know who you feel is worth following in a certain topic. You and your friends can all list each other to help other people find you.

Favorites

Favorite tweets that you or others make that you want to remember or be able to more easily find again. I’ve been told that there is also some Google juice to this, but I’m not entirely sure of that.

Retweeting

When passing along tweets that you particularly like, use the tag RT before a username (for instance – RT @username) to give them credit. Its polite, good web karma, and will keep people from thinking of you as a plagiarizer.

Creative Independence Twitter Page

http://twitter.com/thecinetwork

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/

140 Characters

So, maybe if you’ve been living on a deserted tropical island or under a rock you haven’t heard of twitter. This episode, Bob and Chris talk about the basics of Twitter and go through the process of getting you set up and branding your account. Twitter helps you reach clients and grow your business 140 characters at a time.

WordPress 2 + WordPress MU = WordPress 3: http://ocaoimh.ie/wordpress-mu-291/

I answered Marty Qatani from MartyToons.com‘s follow up questions about Linked In on the Creative Independence group on Linked In. Also, sorry Marty, I believe I called you Marty Quintas in the show.  Besides my answer to that question, there’re also a slew of great tips for improving your Linked In profile and even a way to post video to your account.

http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&gid=2489632&discussionID=10647783

All of our original Answers for Freelancers! episodes have been migrated and archived at http://AnswersForFreelancers.CreativeIndependence.net/

http://twitter.com

http://twitter.com/artisttarareed
http://twitter.com/brendaboo

twitter: geotagging applications
http://foursquare.com/

Want to find out when people’s homes are empty? This site brought to you courtesy http://pleaserobme.com

Find Bob and Chris on twitter at:
http://twitter.com/bobostromstudio
http://twitter.com/aithene

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: