Writing a mystery is fun. Your imagination can soar. You can play with your readers, intrigue them, twist their minds with your plotting and then zap them with an exciting mystery ending. What fun! � �Problem is, mystery readers are pretty smart characters themselves. They’re not easily fooled - and their continuing interest requires your forensics to be accurate, your plot to make sense, and your characters to fit the role you’ve created for them. � �OK, so you really do have to work at it!�How to Write a Great Mystery Novel / Book ?� � �Ask any mystery writer though - writing mysteries really is fun! But it does require a lot of resources and background information to make the stories real for your readers. So where do you find information on forensics, plotting, and character creation? � �You can spend hours and hours online looking for information. You can spend more hours and hours searching for experts in forensics or someone on a police force that will help you. OR � �You can simply look up the resource you need in Murder By Proxy.�
Welcome to this week’s Discuss HR, the blog written by members of Human Resources UK.
I’ll keep my introduction concise as this week I have also written the article, so do not want to bore you with rambling for too long. This week I have looked at something that every reader will have experience within. Whether you’re reading this via the LinkedIn group or the blog page, you will be using social media. This is my thoughts on how I have used this medium to great success. (Ed Scrivener)
Be social & engage
Somebody please help me escape!
We’ve all been there; you’ve got up at the crack of dawn to attend a networking event; you’re wishing you were still in bed; you’re sipping on a lukewarm drink that someone has the audacity to call tea; and you’ve been cornered by someone who is regaling you with their life story and the you’ve realised it’s a longwinded sales pitch; you can’t escape this assault on your senses! Well, the beauty of social networking is that you can escape these situations!
Many people are put off using social media to network due in large to the technical jargon that is bandied around. The truth, however, it that networking is exactly the same if you’re doing it in person or via a tweet (the aforementioned jargon!). Similarly, the way to reap the benefits is exactly the same. If you sit in a networking event and do not speak with anyone else and leave at the earliest opportunity the chances are you’ll never hear from anyone. However, if you chat with others and show an interest (but maybe not to the extent of the sales pitch above!) you will find this will build beneficial relationships. Simply put you need to engage with people.
I use social media on a daily basis and it has grown from being a fringe aspect of my business to being the central focus. I use it for 2 key aspects, namely resourcing and networking and with both elements it is integral I engage with others for it to be a worthwhile exercise.
As a recruiter conducting resourcing is naturally a huge part of my day job. Over the course of the last 2 years over 50 % of placements I have made have come via social media. To put this further into perspective, traditional advertising has been responsible for less than 10%! With the exception of having a paid LinkedIn account I have spent no money on social media compared to £1,000s on advertising – which is no wonder I recently decided to limit my advertising expenditure as the ROI is simply not worth it. Clearly social media requires time and effort which is a cost in itself, however, it is a medium that is proving to be very successful.
I did not achieve this success overnight. In fact, my early attempts were woeful and I very much learnt through trial and error. I fell into the same trap that many recruiters and organisations do when using social media to recruit, only using it to advertise jobs. For example, when using Twitter I would just tweet “HR Manager job, Reading, £45k, call...” and this would be the sole content of my Twitter account. I didn’t share my thoughts or more importantly engage with others, especially my followers (who at that time were very limited). I was somehow hoping that a person looking for this job would trawl the 175 million Twitter accounts and find my job! My initial conclusion was that it was a waste of time and I moved back to more traditional methods. I would suggest many others dabble in social media, don’t use it effectively and then give up for the same reasons.
It was only through luck and a timely article that reignited my interest in the medium. This time I made the effort to look at what successful people were doing. I realised I needed a management system and downloaded the free tool TweetDeck to manage all my social media accounts. I now received updates in a similar way to receiving emails. I could see when my LinkedIn connections had updated their status to publicise their availability; I was able to reply to interesting tweets when they were first published – essentially I started engaging with people!
I still tweet about the jobs I am recruiting for, but this now only makes a small part. The difference now is that I have far more followers who I have interacted with and they interacted with me. Therefore, when I tweet about a job many will then retweet my post – which is like CC’ing an email to all you contacts. So previously, my job centric tweets were going to a nameless list of 10s of people they now go to 1,000s of people that I have a genuine link with. Needless to say this is producing tangible results.
la la la la la, I'm not listening to you!!
LinkedIn has proven to be the most successful medium and the rules are no different. I am not a “LION” which stands for a LinkedIn Open Networker as I firmly believe a network is only as good as the strength of the relations – having 1,000s of connections who you do not know does not appeal to me. I currently have a network just shy of 1,000 people, all of whom I have a link with. It has taken some time to build this trusted network, but it tends to mean when I reach out to them about a job I will either receive applications or referrals. Again, this has largely been achieved by engaging with people. If I post a discussion to a LinkedIn group and someone leaves a comment I will always reply. If you were at the networking event and someone asked a question you wouldn’t just turn your back on them, yet many people feel the anonymity that a computer screen gives allows you to ignore these questions. I have seen many discussions posted that ask for advice, which group members take an active part in, yet the original poster does not respond. More often than not, when the same poster asks another question the response is very limited. Whereas those that have engaged with others tend to receive higher volumes of support.
As you will see, social media has been a hugely effective medium for me, however, it is not my only medium. My strongest connections are with those that I have met many times, many of whom I met long before I started in the world of social media. However, I am connected with all of these via social media and the relationships have been strengthened by using this medium. I have also built very strong relations with people who I first met on social media and have subsequently then met several times.
So for whatever reason you choose to use social media, it is important to treat it in the same manner as you would in a room full of people. Engage with them and respond to them and you will find it to be a very useful medium - it is called social media after all!
About the author
Ed is an HR recruitment specialist and social media trainer. He holds over 8 years industry specific experience recruiting mainly for middle and senior HR management positions. He stumbled upon social media a few years ago and has since become passionate about the subject. He now trains job seekers and independent consultants in social media techniques. He is the Group Manager of Human Resources UK and Editor of Discuss HR and occasionally his humour will creep into articles!
Discuss HR is the blog for Human Resources UK, the leading LinkedIn group for those involved with HR in the UK. Next week’s Discuss HR will be published on Thursday 4th August and will be written by experienced HR professional Dawn Clarke.
On July 9th, the eve before my family was to move to our new home, myself, my wife and friends went to see the movie Tree of Life.
One of the previews before Tree of Life was for the movie The Debt. I remember taking note of it at the time mainly because it starred Helen Mirren.
Alongside Mirren in The Debt is Jessica Chastain who also starred in Tree of Life, the movie I was in the theatre to watch.
Also starring in The Debt alongside Mirren & Chastain is Sam Worthington.
Sam knows lots about the Tree of Life from his explorations as a Navi on Pandora from the movie Avatar. While on Pandora he fights on side with the indigenous people to protect their own spiraling Tree of Life.
Both Chastain & Worthington being connected to the Tree of Life is a vivid sync, but it is best informed by the third star in the equation - Helen Mirren.
Mirren stars in 2010: The Year We Make Contact where she travels to Jupiter and is instrumental in igniting Jupiter as a second sun.
I find the star child on the poster of 2010 resonant with the child's foot on the poster of Tree of Life. 2001: A Space Odyssey syncs with Tree of Life even more so. The posters seems to suggest a full baby.
Helen Mirren is famous for playing The Queen in movies. She is the Queen of Hollywood. Our Jovian Queen of the Heavens. I write this post on July 26th, her birthday.
Happy bearthday Helen!
Helen Mirren voices the super computer Deep Thought in the movie Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy where she computes the answer to life, the universe and everything as the number 42.
The alchemical symbol for Jupiter (and Tin) can be seen to have 3 numbers encoded in it. This is why at least for myself, I first saw relationship between 42 & Jupiter. The three numbers being 1,2 & 4. Below is how this is so.
As Queen of Heaven, Mirren tends to see RED when her children are BAD(214). The word bad seems to resonate Jupiter by way of the numbers it's letter are in the alphabet. B=2, 1=A, D=4.
Is she the Red Queen because she is mad? Are we "IN THE RED" with her? Are we in debt to her. Of course we are. She's our Mother.
All this debt talk in the news syncs quite powerfully with the sync brightness of the upcoming movie The Debt which stars Mirren, Chastain & Worthington.
The big debt showdown in the USA that has the whole financial world on edge culminates on AUGUST 2ND.
August 2nd is also Sam Worthington's birthday.
That's the Sam that not only is a Blue Avatar, but also a Tin Man with big heart (Terminator Salvation) and of course Perseus, Son of Zeus (Jupiter), in the movie Clash of the Titans.
From a spiritual standpoint I interpret this DEBT sync web as suggesting that our spiritual debt is maxed out. Judgment time is upon us. What does this mean? It means we must face ourselves. Any debt we have is really only owed to our self. We must let it go if we want to be free. Forgive yourself and others (who are just reflections of our self).
As has been mentioned by others in the comments here, Debt is an illusion. Indeed it is. Everything we identify here is an illusion. Still perception of debt is a great teacher that helps us awaken and be free. For many people material & spiritual debt is very real. This is why it is compassionate to help those entrapped by it to let go of it.
Joy is but a moment away for all of us.
DEBT is the DB E.T., or the 42 Extra-Terrestrial.
Making contact with the Joy from on High.
I will add more as flux permits.
Peace everyone.
Jim
July 27 - 2011
I'm back. Following sync is one thing, starting to write about and lay it out, that's its own special kind of monster. Something that is harder and harder for me to do in this fast flowing world of sync racing to the singularity.
I first posted this last night, on Helen "Cosmis Queen" Mirren's birthday. I also did an Ayahuasca ceremony. Something I like to do after I manage to write a post here.
Then today as I was mulling over the syncs of this post I noticed via Wikipedia that August 2nd aka DeBt default Day & Sam "Avatar" Worthington's BDay, is the 214th day of the year.
This made my little ol' head go spinning with joy.
214 for me reads BAD, as B is the 2nd letter, A the first & D the fourth.
214 for myself suggest Juno, the feminine aspect of Jupiter/Joy.
It was not until a later date that we realized the jovian number 124 could be rearranged to 214, which alphabetically gave us the word BAD.
To give you an idea of why these numbers might resonate, here are some recent images I've grabbed from the numbers 214 or various combinations of
Appropriately so, Rep Weiner, subject of a twitter sex pic scandal, was office number 2014. An overt BAD winks to us in that number.
Not too long ago I watched Adjustment Bureau and noticed the star Matt Damon come in contact with the jovian numbers once again.
Recently the movie BAD Teacher starring Cameron Diaz hit the the theatres. (BAD = 214).
U2 played Winnipeg recently as part of their 360 Tour. On the big screen above their stage they had all sorts of world statistics. The one for Winnipeg mentioned that our tallest building was 420 ft high.
Winnipeg's Rainbow Stage just had a run of the show CATS, and now HAIRSPRAY will run from Aug 4th to 21. The signs everywhere have 4, 2 & 1 on them. I recently noticed the sync between 42 and the show Cats from the movie Ghost.
Watching the movie GO not too long I noticed Sarah Polley be crowned by a 42.
On July 16th, or Will Ferrell's birthday, I watched the movie Semi-Pro. Of course it's loaded with jovian numbers. Below is a screen grab revealing 421 once again in close proximity.
Perhaps my favorite recent 214 is in a video made for Winnipeg's new airport opening soon. In the video I noticed the name tag for the employee speaking has the date May 20, 2014.
In my sync video 420 Bullseye I show the Queen in the new Winnipeg airport terminal. I also connect the Queen with numbers 4,2 & 1 more so in this video.
It's great that August 2nd is the 214th day of the year, but what even cooks my noggin' even more is that August 2nd, could be read 8/2 or 82.
The 8th letter of the alphabet is H.
August 2nd, or 82 then can be H2.
Things brings us right back to the Hydrogen & Water mysteries that been explored much here
Check out the post SUPER 8 for more around H & H2.
Peace In & Out for now.
Will try to come back in fill some of this out later flux willing.
Jim
Richard :-
The same day Jim uploads this post I was channel surfing and came across the movie PANic Room. It was already about half way through the film but I wasn't bothered as there was nothing better on the box.
I hopped into the scene where the panic stricken mother (Jodie Foster) and daughter (Kristen Bell) are locked away inside the Panic Room while three thieves try to figure out how to get at them.
Jodie comforts her daughter Kristen as she is on the verge of meltdown. Kristen is a DiaBETic and seriously needs her insulin...which is of course outside with the intruders.
Jodie Foster checks her daughters blood/sugar levels and see's that it's dropped to 42.
NOW is a good time for them to PANic!!!
At the end of Jims update he says:
It's great that August 2nd is the 214th day of the year, but what even cooks my noggin' even more is that August 2nd, could be read 8/2 or 82.
The 8th letter of the alphabet is H.
August 2nd, or 82 then can be H2. ---------------------------------------------------
If we spin Kristens watch we see that 2h (or H2) becomes 42, and makes me think that Jims noggin cooking is perfectly valid.
To top this off we see that DiaBETic Kristen Stewart connects to the 82/H2/2h/42 in more ways than one.
I like how her PANic Room mom Jodie Foster is the one who makes Contact with the DB ET's.
Notice above that Jodie is surrounded by big dishes.
I recently tweeted this next picture because I liked the way the new Battleship poster mirrored the one on 2012, and the one (marked with 42) on Kurt Russells soldier poster:
The Satellite Dish is linked to Jodie Fosters Contact with E.T's and I now realise that SHIP = dISH
The Battle Ship is also a Battle Dish, which makes me think of the recent relase of Kaptain America.
On Caps dish-shaped shield we see a Blue Sun rising.
You can find this linked to one of key figures in todays DEBT crISIS:
You can also find the Blue Sun rising from behind the Battleship/dish and young DiaEBTic Kristen Stewart:
I like how these two posters mirror each other with the diagonal stripe.
I also like the fact that Zeus/Aslan actor Liam Neeson is Captain of the Ship in the movie Battledish:
The Wheel of the Ship makes me think of the Dish of Contact.
Jupiter & Juno.
One of Jupiter's daughters was the Goddess of Chaos and PANic named Eris.
In the Greek legends Eris was always said to be a bit of a Wild One...
....so God only knows how her child's going to turn out!
This ship might be syncing but there's absolutely no need to panic.
Deep Breaths
p.s.
just checked out the latest images on IMDB.com and noticed two things of interest.
The first are these flying Battleships on the new poster for The Three MuskETeers:
The second is a subtle nod to the Blue Sun and Satellite Dish...
If you'd like to know more about the Blue Sun/Jupiter/Sirius connect then don't PANic. Go check out the Nature of the Beast.
