We are in the final days of October, a month that will be remembered as “the time in which the credit crunch came to a head not only for the economy as a whole but for the tech community in particular.” (TechCrunch) Everybody in my office has been either asking or answering a very important question: “How does the current economic situation specifically effect the online sector?” And now we have a better idea…

Small Business and Startup Companies are being pushed to cut and focus on increasing their profit margin through better processes. Their “plan-of-action”? Layoffs!! Lots and lots of layoff, which keeps their bank accounts lasting a tad longer, especially for web companies that require little physical capital. VC firms like Sequoia Capital are urging their portfolio companies to cut costs and increase capital, with layoffs as the solution.

One of my co-workers at AC Lion made a great point, that as a recruiter you need to understand people should be more willing to hear about opportunities – in fact, they’d be crazy not to keep their ear to the ground about upcoming opportunities.  Layoffs are happening everywhere I look and I recently stumbled on a new site that effectively tracks these layoffs, company information, etc. – TechCrunch Layoff Tracker. They’ve begun tracking all of the relevant layoffs in the tech sector. They’ve mapped out…

• Total Layoffs Since August 27, 2008: 220
• Total Employees: 76,077

*These numbers are constantly growing. For an updated & comprehensive list Click Here.

A the end of the day, it’s important to know who’s laying off and why, and TechCrunch Layoffs is a great source for tracking firings…BUT I DO HAVE SOME GOOD NEWS!! I found another site, Web-Strategist.com, where Jeremiah Owyang, Sr Analyst at Forrester Research: Social Computing, started this post series (see archives) to recognize and congratulate folks who get promoted, move, or accept new exciting positions. Check it out, you may find your name on that list some day

Posted under Job Search

If you’re like me and you do Business Development (or leisurely keep up) on new startups, old startups…basically, every company…if that describes something you do on a daily basis (or even once in a while), then I suggest these 4 different sites that are perfect! Whether your looking for reviews, salaries or success – these sights do the trick. I use them religiously, so check ‘em out…

Posted under Blogs

It is very important to stay up to date on local events if you’re in the Online Marketing space. One of my first jobs since my promotion at AC Lion was to create a targetted, detailed list of new york local and west-coast based events. These sites serve as potential advertising opportunities for events we hosted as well. Here are the best places to source for events if you’re in the Online Marketing & Advertising space:

#1: Gary’s Guide: GarysGuide.org

Garysguide is the #1 Events Calendar for Technology & New Media professionals. Their calendar is a comprehensive edited list of all upcoming events related to technology, web 2.0, social media, online advertising & marketing, software, hardware, digital video, new media, entrepreneurship, startups and much much more. They are currently live in 13 of the top tech hubs in the country including New York, Boston, Washington DC, Chicago, Los Angeles, Austin, San Diego, Denver, Portland, Seattle, Toronto, Las Vegas and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Meetup.com is the world’s largest network of local groups. Meetup makes it easy for anyone to organize a local group or find one of the thousands already meeting up face-to-face. For Online Marketers, there are tons of tech related meetup groups including Online Video, Bloggers, SEO, SEM, Search, Buzz Marketing, Sales Executives, VC Elevator Pitch Groups, etc. They are loads of fun and are usually followed up with a drink.

BtoB is the magazine for marketing strategists, Published monthly by Crain Communications Inc. With 45,000+ subscribers, they also provide a detailed list of b2b related events. They currently hold events in New York, Chicago, Boston, and San Francisco. You can aslo opt-in for e-mail notification of future BtoBevents, by e-mailing BtoBevents@crain.com.

A. Events Listing – A list of MediaPost shows in which you will find detailed information on each of their signature events. And don’t forget, as a MediaPost member, you are entitled to a special discounted rate to attend.

B. Public Directory of Industry Events – This is a publically submitted comprehensive calendar of upcoming events around the country. Florida to New York, Chicago to LA, Portland to Seattle…this listing has it all.

Advertising Age (aka: AdAge) is the leading global source of news, intelligence and conversation for marketing and media communities. They host their own events and provide a comprehensive calendar of Industry Events in LA, NYC, Chicago and more.

…The best way to stay on top of these events is by subscribing to their e-mail updates and event RSS feeds. One way that works for me that I use on my personal web site’s events calendar, is to create a Google Calendar and combine all your events RSS feeds into one big mashup. That way you can monitor every event in one AJAX driven and clean looking window.

Good luck and I look forward to seeing you at upcoming events!

Posted under Events, Viral Marketing

“Viral Video of The Day” is part of this blogs timely Friday Tradition, as provided by my friends at ViralVideoChart.com.  They  marked an interesting #1 video for today.  So for all of you marketers and mobile junkies out there obsessed with your PDA and e-mail, you’ll love todays Viral Video of The Day:

Introducing Gmail for mobile 2.0

That’s right! A geekie video made it to #1…and with reason. For all of you using PDA’s, the proprietary email application can be quite plain (static, no html, courier new, etc.). Well, this is probably more applicable to “Blackberry Users”. Well, today’s viral video promotes Gmail’s Phone Application. The guy’s kinda funny in the video, in a geeky google kind of way. How this made #1 for the day, I’m not sure…

Posted under Viral Marketing

WiseStamp Signatures

This article is relevant for all of you who use the signature function in Outlook. For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, ever notice when you get a professional e-mail, the signature will have a company logo, colors, links, etc. And until recently, the top 4 free Email Service Providers have been lacking such options. Until now, Outlook ruled the “signature” space…but not anymore!

This article is geared for Firefox users (b/c that is what I am using). I was on the hunt for an awesome Firefox Extension for Gmail Signatures, when a friend of mine told me there was an even better extension that worked with the big 4 ESP’s: AOL, YAHOO!, GMAIL & HOTMAIL! WiseStamp is a Firefox extension that enables you to easily customize & add personalized email signatures on any webmail service (Gmail ,Yahoo ,Aol mail, Hotmail).

WiseStamp is without a doubt, amazing! Very easy control over your email signatures, with granular level customization. Easily insert your Instant Messenger & Social services (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) The best part is you don’t even have to know HTML. It’s as easy as using Microsoft Word, with a library of premade signatures here, and the option for HTML is there. I suggest this for everyone. It increases your visibility with every e-mail, and in this space, transparency is necessary if you want to get your name out there.

Posted under E-Mail, Viral Marketing