10 Tips to Getting the Most out of a JibberJobber Upgrade

I have recently spent hours interviewing JibberJobber users across the world, as well as career coaches and resume writers. I am very interested in hearing what they think about JibberJobber, and what they would like to see… I’m also completely intrigued at what their experience in the job search is like, and what frustrates them.

These calls are exhilarating and exhausting at the same time.

One thing I’ve learned is that people use JibberJobber quite differently. Based on the input, I wanted to share tips on how to really get the best out of using the premium JibberJobber level. (we just lowered the upgrade by 40% from $99 a year to $60 a year… tell me that isn’t awesome. See what you get in the upgrade here)

Tip 1: Create Contacts and Log Entries using the way-cool Email2Log feature. I was amazed to talk to people who upgraded only because they needed more room for Contacts or Companies. If you aren’t adding Contacts using Email2Log, you are spending a lot more time than you need to. There is a blog post and video on how to do it here. Do you realize you could cut out anywhere from 2 – 10 minutes on adding each Contact with this awesome feature? Not to mention the emails becoming a Log Entry… all in under a second. Amazing, and super valuable to anyone.

Tip 2: Enter as many Contacts and Companies as you want. The free level gives you room for up to 500 Contacts and 500 Companies… and it will take you A LONG TIME to actually meet and talk with that many people. If you only used JibberJobber to store information and conversations on people you talk to, I bet you don’t need that many records. But some people like “having everything in one place,” and using JibberJobber as a backup to your other contact systems (like LinkedIn, Gmail Contacts, your iCloud, etc.). On the premium side you have as much room as you want… some people have loaded more than 100,000 contacts. I don’t really like that, but so far we aren’t stopping anyone from doing it.

Tip 3: Import, import, import! There are no tariffs here, folks! Bulk importing is your friend. It should be obvious that you can import from a csv or vcard (the two most common formats we hear about). Most people will import once or twice a year (usually when just starting), but let me recommend that if you go to a networking meeting and get a handful of business cards, you simply type those into a spreadsheet, save it as a csv file, and then do one quick import. If I have 5 or 10, I might do them by hand, but if I have more I’ll make a csv and import… it is much quicker to do data entry on a spreadsheet than on any webpage…

Tip 4: Schedule follow-up reminders to come to your email and/or your phone (text/sms). My job search spreadsheet did a pitiful job of helping me remember my todo’s, follow-ups, tasks and action items (which are all the same thing in JibberJobber). When you create an Action Item, you can see it on the front page of JibberJobber (like all users, free or premium). As a premium user, you can also schedule these to come to your email or phone (via text/sms).

Guess what – those are all the reasons anyone would upgrade! We moved the other features to the free side… which means if you don’t upgrade you get a ton of value for free…!

But, upgraded users are still not getting all the value they could… I know, because I talk to them on the phone! Here are six more tips for anyone who uses JibberJobber, whether you are on the upgraded account or not!

Tip 5: Get REPORTS to help you be accountable. Whether you are showing the unemployment office that you did in fact make contact with three companies the first week of January, or you have a court-ordered obligation to prove you are in an aggressive job search, you can pull reports to help show what you have been doing. My favorite way of doing this is in the Log Entries and Action Items report, where you can

Tip 6: See pending Action Items. There are various ways to see Action Items, including the homepage, in your email/phone, on a Company/Contact/Jobs page… but you can also go to the Log Entries and Action Items page and show ONLY pending or open Action Items.

Tip 7: Keep up with contacts regularly. One of the newer COOLEST features we added is the ability to create RECURRING (or repeat) Action Items. I know you can do this on your calendaring system, but the ability to do it on a Contact, Company or Job is priceless. For example, you meet someone at a networking event and know you want to keep in touch with them monthly or quarterly, or maybe just once a year. Simply create an Action Item and make it recurring monthly, quarterly or annually (or whatever makes sense). This is really a powerful addition to JibberJobber. It wasn’t easy to add, but it will add a lot of value to you.

Tip 8: Find relevant job postings and enhance your search. Not necessarily to apply to (works for some, not all)… but these postings could have a wealth of information for you. Some people are skeptical that applying online will get you anywhere. What I’m saying is to find relevant postings so you can do research. Here’s a high level example of what I’m talking about: open ten similar postings side-by-side, and compare them. Pull out key words and key phrases that you might not have thought about and consider whether you should add those to your marketing (aka, your cover letters, resumes, mini-stories, etc.). You can do a very cool analysis of keywords and keyphrases with our new analysis tool on the Job Detail page.

Tip 9: Do quick research on Google and LinkedIn. I was talking to a premium user who was doing a lot of research on LinkedIn before he made contact with people, and he was simply going to LinkedIn, typing the person’s name in the search box, and seeing what he could find. In JibberJobber there are LinkedIn search icons throughout the system that allows you to do that with one-click. They are usually by the Google search icon to allow you to search and research on Google.

Tip 10: Access JibberJobber from your phone. Go to m.JibberJobber.com from any phone and you’ll see a smaller version of JibberJobber. We will be redoing this in the next few months, so if you have any suggestions or requests, please let us know!

A user recently said there is a lot of magic in JibberJobber. I wish I could simplify it and say “we do this, and we do it well!” But it is hard to define the “this” because JibberJobber’s breadth and depth have expanded over the last almost-eight years. Now we are suffering from what I call Excel Syndrome. I argue that most people use 5% of Excel’s amazing features, and that is really enough. BUT, there is so much more that they could use.

In talking with my users I’ve realized some of the things I depend on and love are unknown, almost hidden features for them. That’s why I encourage you to jump on any of the weekly user webinars… otherwise, use the Contact form and give us feedback and ask us questions. We are just as committed to making JibberJobber more valuable to you as we have been every day since we launched in 2006.

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