Sharpen Your Job Skills With Blogging 101
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A popular workshop in Midtown is helping some of the city's unemployed gain ground by blogging themselves back into business. NY1's Asa Aarons filed the following Employment Report.If you're looking for a career, it may be as close as your computer screen.
A crash course in social media known as Bloggers School is designed to bring out your online talent. Students explore ways to use Twitter, Google, YouTube and other communications sites to get a message out and money back in.
For example, Carlos Sanchez of Sneakgeekz already receives plenty of attention with his website about collectable sneakers. He attended the class recently to find out ways to better utilize it.
sneakgeekz
"I have thousands and thousands of people that follow me everyday, I have large email subscriber lists. I'm here because I want to take it to the next level and I wanna find out how I can get sponsors," Sanchez said.
Daria Wright of DariaWright.com is hoping a blog will expand her image and income as a celebrity hair stylist.
"I constantly get asked by other black women things to do about their hair, that they have no idea. And it's just so easy to me. So I decided why not have a platform where they can come to me and I can be the virtual hairdresser for them," Wright said.
While many bloggers are media professionals, experience is certainly not a prerequisite.
"It's leveled the playing field for people who are on a different level," said Bloggers School instructor John Ciampa. "Either you had money back in the day and the printing press was invented, a select few were allowed to have that printing press because of the cost. Now, with WordPress everybody is able to put out their own little piece of news and that's what makes it special."
If the the image of the lone blogger sitting at home in a bathrobe was ever really true, it has been shattered. Ciampa says the classes are increasingly populated by people who are bringing blogging to the corporate world.
"There's all new job skills opening up. Big companies are gonna need bloggers, they're gonna need content creators, people to put the stuff online for them," Ciampa said.
Diana Wirzburger is a good example. Her company recently picked up the tab for a session at Bloggers School.
"Our company is just looking for ways to reach out to new people, be more involved with the online social community," Wirzburger said.
According to the bureau of labor statistics, there are 20 million bloggers online. By some estimates, two percent make a living at it. If the stats are correct, the number of professional bloggers compares to lawyers, bartenders and CEOs. But like so many things online, the actual numbers can shift.
The people running the Blogger School seminar are sure of one thing -- classes and the program's popularity are growing.
If you have an employment story, a job, a new interview technique, or something you want to share with those looking for work or those doing the hiring, contact Asa Aarons at askasa@ny1.com.