Mike Abasov

Last year I’ve written a number of resolutions for each letter of the alphabet. Not everything went the way I expected but, in general, I’m happy with my 2011. Here’s the revised list.

Accomplished:
A - assume less, listen more. D - develop better studying habits. E - English, master. G - Gary Vaynerchuk, meet. H - help more people than I’ve helped in 2010. I - improve relationships with my parents. K - keep being awesome. M - meet someone truly amazing. N - notes (music), learn how to read. R - raise, get. S - speak in public about branding. T - turn 22, hopefully. X - forget about her. Y - because.

Failed:
B - build and improve this blog. C - Chris Brogan, meet. F - fight laziness. J - join a marketers’ association. L - lose 10 pounds and keep it that way. O - obey this resolution. P - post guest posts to some top-of-the-line blogs. Q - quit watching so many tv-shows. U - utilize video content more effectively. V - visit New York. W - write a book. Z - come up with a task for “z” next year.

Highlights of 2011

In April, I became the president of the UBC eBusiness club, and it’s been a rewarding on-campus experience that opened doors for new people in my life and provided me with an opportunity to master a variety of new skills.

In May, my friend and I started NotChefs, a social network for sharing recipes. After 2 months of development, we decided to put the project back on the shelf due to limited resources.  

In September, after working at HootSuite Media for 13 months, I left the company to pursue new adventures. I’ve been working a few small contracts since then.

In November, I went to Startup Weekend and co-founded EpicBets, a social game that takes betting on sports against friends to a whole new level.

In December, I’ve reached an important milestone — 1 year of school left. Yay!

There have also been many huge positive changes in my lifestyle and social life. I learned to enjoy the rain and really fell in love with Vancouver. Overall, it was a great year.

Looking Forward to 2012

There are some major events that will be happening in the next 12 month. I’ve been invited to write for a student magazine and a student blog as a guest author. I’m continuing to work on a variety of projects and getting deeper into the startup and agency communities in Vancouver. Finally, I’m planning to graduate in December 2012 and will soon start looking for a permanent job. Exciting stuff!

(And of course I’m totally stoked for the Zombie Apocalypse.)

There is nothing more important for your success than networking. Your marks matter zilch. Your initial capital is irrelevant. In order to be successful, you need networking. In order to get your dream job, you need networking. 

You need networking, and there is no substitute for this need.

What can networking give you?

Every job I’ve had so far, I got because of the people I’d met. I’ve also gained a lot of knowledge and insights from these people. And opportunities present themselves all the time. 

Let’s look at a few examples.

When I was working as a freelancer, my classmate suggested bidding on a project for a company who’s owner was a family friend of his. This connection gave me an opportunity to rebrand one of the largest recycling companies in Ukraine.

My online efforts, such as blogging and participating in different forums and social networks, resulted in an unexpected proposal to work as a social media manager at uCoz.com. I wasn’t even looking for this job; the owner contacted me himself.

When going to meetups this summer, I’ve met people from HootSuite. Two weeks later I started my internship there, which resulted in an amazing part-time job.

On another note, even getting to know baristas at my local coffee shops gets me regular discounts and much better customer service.

What is it all about?

Networking is not about using people, and it’s purpose shouldn’t be selfish at all. I see networking as an opportunity to help others achieve their goals, which eventually leads to others helping you.

For instance, I’ve brought tens of contracts over the years to my freelance friends without asking (or hoping) for any reciprocity.

Consider it karma. You meet people; you help them; they help you. The act of helping is not always direct (me – you, you – me), but magically good things happen all the time.

Widening the net

The more people you know, the more opportunities present themselves. The deeper your connections with those people are, the better are the opportunities.

And, of course, the more interesting, influential and important those people are, the more awesome things await.

Hiring involves humans

You might think that marks are all that matters. You are mistaken. In the end, the act of hiring boils down to a small number of people involved in the decision. Knowing these people beforehand influences the outcome dramatically.

Your “A+” in “Chemistry 101” means nothing, when your competitor had a meaningful discussion with the CEO at a recent conference.

On the other hand, your “C” in “Managerial Economics” means nothing, if you were recommended to the business owner by her friend who is also your ex-boss.

4.0 GPA will not get you your dream job. You have to realize that, get over yourself and start doing something actually useful.

More posts to come

There is no way I can talk about everything networking-related in one post. But I have about 20 more posts to come in the future weeks.

The takeaway point of these few paragraphs is simple: networking is very important. As long as you understand it, you are half-way to success.

Please, if you have any questions about why or how to network correctly, ask them in the comments below or by contacting me directly. I’ll be happy to answer them for you and other readers.

Also, subscribe to my newsletter, if you don’t want to miss important tips on becoming successful and living the next level of learning!

If you were following any of my advices, you are probably struggling with finding time for everything like I do. I’ve never been so busy in my life, but, as time goes by, I find new ways to make the most out of every hour and not burn out. It gets easier with practice.

Here are a few things you can do to find time for everything and make your time constraint less binding.

Utilize

Look back at your days. You might find that you’re not utilizing a huge junk of time. You spend 2 hour a day commuting while doing nothing but mind wondering? You stay in lines for 10 minutes feeling bored? You wash your frying pan many times every day?

No wonder you feel like there is not enough time for anything! Try this.

Audiobooks for your commute time
I’ve been listening to one business book a week while driving for the last 3 weeks, and it’s an amazing time-saver! Try them at Audible and get a membership, if you find them awesome.

Multitask
Audiobooks is the first steps to multitasking. I also manage to check-in on Foursquare, while waiting for my tall no-whip mocha, or check email, if the line gets lengthy. How can you make the most of your wait time?

Group tasks
This one is about frying pans, for example. The problem with cooking every day is that you need to clean after yourself, heat the pan, etc. every day. Try cooking for a few days ahead in one session. This is also a great way to cut on sandwiches and chinese (nom-nom-nom!).

Utilizing sleep time is bull shit
Sleep is very important. It helps you learn and increases your productivity. You might want to cut on sleep to fit in more (I’m guilty of that), but it only results in low creativity. And low creativity stops you from finding easy and fast solutions (Rework). 

Speed up

You can do a lot of thing much faster.

Say showering. I got this advice from Men’s Health, and it really makes sense to spend under 10 (or even 5) minutes showering.

Or speed reading. As a student you are going to read a lot over a long period of your life. Why not learn to read fast? Try apps like EyeQ.

What else? You can do almost anything faster. For example, if you’re a blogger, check out these articles: “How to Write a Great Blog Post in Just 15 Minutes” or “HOW TO WRITE THREE BLOG POSTS A DAY.”

Hack It

You can be more productive by changing the way you do things, perceive them, or by using some tools. Research how other people make most out of their time. My favourite places are Lifehacker for recipes and Appstorm for apps.

Even such an incompetent source as myself can show you something cool, right? (Smile, you’re on camera ;-).

Classic Time Management

Use a calendar
I prefer iCal (Mac OS), but Google Calendar is pretty good too. Log everything to your calendar: birthdays, classes, regular workout times, etc. I believe that a perfect calendar has no empty spots.

Also, and this is a good one, set up automatic import of your events from websites like Facebook or Meetup.com. This is the most awesome thing that has ever happened to calendars. Ever!

I also use wall calendars to separate some specific categories of activities, like blogging.

To-Do lists
Gotta love them. I use Things (Mac OS, iPad, iPhone), combined with iCal and Highrise for my to-dos. I separate tasks by activities, such as “School” or “Shopping,” and by projects, such as “HootSuite Internationalization” or “Commerce 295.” 

The main reason to use these lists is pure simple—you forget less. The runner-up reason is also about memory. When you backup your memory in such a way, you can concentrate your thoughts on more important issues and be more efficient. 

That’s it

Sorry for taking so much of your time. But look, if you were reading this post at 1,000 words per minute, while on a bus taking a break from listening to “Crush It!”… you get the point!

How do you fit everything you need to do in you tight schedule? And, on another note, am I crazy?

There are a lot of talks about social media and how active one should be online. The general picture I see here in Vancouver with the people my age is: 98% have Facebook, 20% have Twitter, 10% have LinkedIn, 1% have blogs, barely anyone is more active than that.

Why Get Active Online

I believe that students should develop a habit of using social media and trying out new resources, networks and tools for a few reasons.

1. It can be beneficial
Not reading blogs throws your knowledge back many years. In order to stay on top of what is relevant to your industry, you need to find time to consume this kind of information daily. This is more important than reading newspapers.

On the other hand, producing content in your blog and/or twitter can help you start building your brand and networking. I’ve met tens of interesting, helpful, important people through blogging and tweeting.

2. It’s a skill
As social media keep taking over the world, not only businesses but almost every profession is going start using them. Engineers would collect feedback online to improve their inventions. Lawers would research the Internet for help with their cases. Politicians would use it as their major promotion channel. Superstars would build relationships with fans. The list goes on.

As the demand grows, you might find yourself one day in a workplace where you need to actively participate in social media. Wouldn’t having previous experience be awesome?

3. It’s interesting
Even if you don’t see any particular benefit from social media, you should try it just as a curious person. You are curious, aren’t you?

Where to start

Here are 3 websites I want you sign up for now. These are the most basic and simple ones.

1. Twitter
 

Twitter will be your first step to creating content online. There is a ton of info written all over the web about how to make it work for you.

I want you to register and follow all your friends and classmates. Then start tweeting something useful, helpful or just interesting. Tweet casual stuff too but don’t overdo it.

2. LinkedIn

I got my job at HootSuite thanks to LinkedIn. This website is your online resume plus a place filled with networking opportunities.

Sign up, friend everyone you know, fill out your profile and join a few groups related to your future profession. Check out discussions in those groups, participate. I’ll show you how to rock this space later.

3. Blog
 

Sign up on Tumblr. This is the simplest and sleekest way to start blogging in no time. I use it; it’s cool. 

A good idea would be to start with a personal blog and then change directions, when you figure out your topic. Whatever you blog about, make it interesting for the reader, not yourself. Try being helpful, insightful and fun.

I also got my previous job at uCoz thanks to blogging. Just saying.

These 3 networks are a very good start. Now, explore them. See what interesting content you can find, how you can improve your accounts. And let me know how is it working out. I’m here to help you, after all.

This is so awesome, there is no way to underestimate its awesomeness.

Micro-reward your fans! The easiest way is to say “thank you,” but there is so much more you can do with minimum money spent. Here are some ideas:

• Share traffic. Give links to your fans’ websites on your blog or newsletter. A little promotion for your grateful customers shows them that you care, which reinforces their evangelism. And, as you remember, turning fans into evangelists is one of your goals.
• Send them swag. Well, first of all, having swag, such as stickers, pins or t-shirts is very good for promoting your business. If people decide to wear your stuff, they are also ready to talk about you and promote you. Send your fans a small package of treats, and they will feel appreciated and become able to sneeze about you. HootSuite does this with their HootKits, and the results are amazing. Just check out many pictures on flickr:
  

Do you have any other ideas about micro-rewarding your fans?

Continuing the “Twitter Monitoring Series.” Check out the other posts for the basic things implemented in the following advices.

You can learn a lot from your competitors. Businesses should monitor what is happening in the market, so here are a few things that make monitoring easy:

1. List your competitors. Create a private list of your competition and a stream for it. See what they tweet about, how they act and how you can use that to your advantage.
2. Search for brand names. Set up a search using the previous tips and examples to monitor what people are saying about your competition. Sometimes, they’ll be looking for alternatives or complaining about bad service, and this is a great opportunity for your company to turn these people into your customers.

Here is an awesome search stream that Toyota could use to monitor people talking about Honda (see an opportunity in the first tweets?):

This post ends the series. If there is anything else you’d like to know, tell me, and I might write about it too. Also, take a look at my super-engaging-tip.

Continuing the “Twitter Monitoring Series.”

Search for people talking about your topic (e.g. free website builders) and you will find many potential customers that you can approach. You will also be on top of all trends and know what’s happening in the industry. Let’s use the HootSuite keywords tool to set up a stream for “website builder,” “free cms,” “create website.”

The problem with this search is that people tweet A LOT about this, and it becomes impossible to follow. There are 3 things you can do to make your search awesome:

1. Divide. Instead of using one combined search query, try using 3 separate. Here is the stream for “website builder.”
   
2. Use question marks. Add a question mark to the query, and you will only see people asking questions.
   
3. Cut the links. This move will save you from most of the spam, blog posts and other irrelevant tweets. Add “-filter:links” to cut off any messages with links. You can also write “-http” to save space.
   
4. Use Klout. You can filter your stream by Klout Score to see tweets from influential people. This can help to find high-profile customers or potential clients.
   
   Note: not all of your customers are going to have a high Klout Score. The relationship looks like this: the average Klout Score of the customers is as high as geeky the brand/topic is.

This is all for today. Please share your tips in the comments below or/and share this article with your friends, if you like it! Tomorrow I’ll talk about monitoring your competition.