If you know me well, chances are you know I am a fan of mustaches. I have never seen my father’s upper lip bare. He rocks a handlebar mustache that is almost mandatory as he works in law enforcement. I have been growing a mustache off and on since my early college days, and the only mustache I have been known for is the handlebar mustache, so all my friends nicknamed me BARS.

Let’s just say, mustaches have been part of my life for a long time. I have relatives who are long gone that had mustaches. I don’t know what has happened since the 1970′s that made mainstream mustaches out to be creepy – for pedophiles or porn stars – but regardless of the popular opinion of mustaches, I like them.  A study conducted by the American Mustache Institute and Quicken says men with mustaches make 8.2% more money than those with beards, and 4.3% more than those with clean shaven faces.

Michael Halvorsen eating Altoids for Movember (credit Reuben Yau)

Last year, I helped set up a team at Manta for Movember. We raised some money and helped bring about awareness. I have been trying to talk every man I know into participating in Movember because it is truly for a good cause. For those of you who are not aware of what Movember is, it is a month long of mustache growing in support of men’s health. All funds raised for Movember go towards funding the Prostate Cancer Foundation and Livestrong. While the risk of testicular cancer is roughly 1 in 250, the risk of prostate cancer is much higher as 1 in 6 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer! So for me, it’s a no brainer to grow a mustache during the month of November in support of Movember. Women can also participate by donating and telling their friends and family about Movember.

It’s easy as hell to participate in Movember. On November 1, men start with a clean shaven face – that means no beards and no pre-existing mustaches allowed. Throughout the month, you shave the rest of your face daily and grow the mustache from scratch. And to do more for the cause, you can register your team over at Movember.com and begin collecting donations both online and in person. Last year, the team I set up at Manta raised money and was also featured in the Columbus Dispatch newspaper.

This year while at SMX Advanced, I talked to both Matt Cutts and Duane Forrester together about them participating in Movember. I asked them to participate again on Twitter and they both agreed to.

Talking to Matt Cutts & Duane Forrester about Movember (credit Thomas Ballantyne)

Matt Cutts and Duane Forrester Agree to Participate in Movember

Will you be participating this year? You should! For men, our mustaches are our pink ribbons. When someone asks you, “Why the creepy mustache?” You can answer, “Cancer.” If you don’t want to grow a mustache and set up your own team, you can donate in my honor.

The Distinguished (look of) Michael Halvorsen

UPDATE 10-28-2011: Duane Forrester made the official announcement on the Bing Webmaster Tools blog.

Photo credits: Reuben Yau and Thomas Ballantyne of Bullwark Pest Control.

So I have a Google+ account now and I do have invites. If you follow me on Twitter, I will follow you back. You send me your email address via a direct message on Twitter and I will send you an invite. I know that sounds like a pain in the butt. I don’t want people leaving comments with their email addresses on my site. Sorry.

Brownie points to those who share this page on Twitter using the share button to the right and to those who use the Google +1 button.

UPDATE:
I’m getting some sleep! I will continue doing it tomorrow! In the meantime, my buddies @traxlertees are doing it as well:
Get a Google+ account from them

Update #1 January 5, 2010: According to Dave & Jimmy’s Facebook fan page, the Columbus Golden Radio Voice Ted Williams will be on the radio tomorrow morning (January 5) on WNCI 97.9 in Columbus at 7:15am:

He also appears to have a Twitter account as well – GoldenVoice614.

Update #2 January 5, 2010: From listening to the radio this morning, Ted Williams was offered a job working for the Cleveland CAVS and other teams that play in the Quicken Loans Arena. They also offered to make his mortgage payments for him. Yet another life changed by Social Media.

Earlier today my friend Corey Hammond sent me a video of a homeless man from Columbus that I have seen several times on my way home from work. In short, this guy has an amazing voice. Someone took a video and it ended up on the Columbus Dispatch’s website. Their video player sucks so I won’t make you enure that. However, someone reposted it to YouTube and I have included that for your viewing pleasure:

I have been working on a Facebook privacy guide for 2010. Personally, I don’t have much to say about Facebook’s newer privacy settings. However, after beginning to write this guide, it is clear to me that it could be confusing to many.

I hope to have the in depth guide finished up before the end of next week. Until then, enjoy your holiday weekend.

I have quite a few friends who are unemployed right now and those who aren’t unemployed are most likely underemployed. It is really terrible how things are for people in my age group because it is hard to find a job, especially one that you would want to keep long term. It’s hard to believe how poor the job markets are today. They definitely didn’t teach us about these kind of hardships in high school or even college for that matter.

Lucky for me I found a dream job. But that is beside the point. I’d like to share a few tips that might increase your chances at landing a job or if you already have one, find a better one.

Facebook Privacy Settings
First and foremost, make sure your privacy settings are tweaked on Facebook. If you’re like me (or anyone who has attended College), there are bound to be plenty of pictures you are tagged in that you wouldn’t want a potential employer seeing. The image below is how I have my own privacy settings on Facebook. These settings should be good to keep your profile and its information locked down to outsiders:

My Own Facebook Privacy Settings

After your privacy settings are tweaked on Facebook, get all your other social media profiles locked down as well.

Twitter and Tweets – Build a brand for yourself
Next, if you are on Twitter you should probably look to make your tweets private (they refer to it as “Protected”). I’d also probably recommend you change your avatar to something else so a potential employer doesn’t make out the resemblance.

This next step is for everyone. Create a “public” Twitter profile using your REAL NAME. This is important because you WANT people to find this when and if they search for your name in Google. Twitter usually has an easy time appearing at the top of search results in Google so if you use your real name, people will find this. The next steps are important. The whole point of setting up this public Twitter profile is to become engaged in whatever industry you are trying to find a job in. Find other people, companies, or organizations that relate to your industry. Make it a point to retweet others links to articles, stories, etc related to your field. Even find your own links and post them. Make it a point to tweet about how you’re trying to find work in this industry. This public Twitter profile might help you find work through someone you follow or someone who follows you, but the real reason why this is important is because it will make you appear to be engaged in your field. Heck, it might actually make you engaged in your field.

LinkedIn
I would also recommend you get yourself listed on LinkedIn. Find all the companies you worked for in the past and connect with them. Find all your friends and colleagues. Search for industry groups and associations. After you’ve found them all, make it a point to ask for recommendations from those who you personally know and who you’ve done business with. The more you get, the better.

Resume & Cover Letter
Another important thing to take into consideration is your resume. Send your resume to friends and family and have them look it over. If you’re lucky, a friend or family member will give you good recommendations that help to will better your resume. After you’ve sent your resume to be peer reviewed, make it a point to send a different resume for each and every position you are applying for. Don’t assume your one resume will work for every job opening and position. If you have a reference that would suit a particular job opening better than another, change it up. Everyone thinks the only thing that needs to be custom on a resume is the cover letter. Do yourself a favor and make a custom resume for every job you’re applying for.

Finding Jobs in Ohio
If you live in the great state of Ohio, check out OhioMeansJobs.Gov. This site aggregates data from many different sources (Monster, Career Builder, etc. just to name a few). Do yourself a favor and check out their tips page too. Using the search feature of the site with some “custom” queries can help you narrow your search or expand it if you’re having trouble. Make sure you check that site on a daily basis and be sure to try different searches. Don’t just search for “marketing” or something generic every time.

Final Advice
One final word of advice — make sure you don’t get too comfortable if you already have a crappy job. Just because the media is still buzzing about how crappy the economy is doesn’t mean there aren’t job openings. I had a decent job before I found the dream job I have now. Keep looking and keep your hopes up.

Next week, I will have a guest blogger. Darrin Grella has over ten years of recruiting and marketing experience as a top performer in the recruiting industry both as a third party as well as an in-house senior executive recruiter. He placed me in my current job, has placed senior executives, interactive marketing, engineers and technical professionals within the B2B, consumer products and retail industries. Next weeks topic will be on preparing for the interview and the interview.