We at The 405 Club love to share our stories, tips, tricks and resources with fellow 405ers.  As an online community we love it when our readers get involved.  Whether our readers are guest blogging, suggesting new topics to touch upon or sharing our posts with others, you are all a major factor in the success and motivation behind the club.  I wanted to take a moment to thank you all for your contributions and also make note of a few social media features we’ve included recently on the site that perhaps you can help us with if it so behooves you.

1. Twitter: First off, please follow us here.  Our posts are updated here simultaneously as they appear on this site.  Also, our twitter serves as a realtime chat with our readers retweeting other relevant articles and providing some jobless and humorous commentary as well.  Help spread our movement - retweet us and tell your fellow unemployed friends to follow as well! *UPDATE* If you like a post you can “twit^this” (share it on twitter) by clicking the icon on the right sidebar.
2. Ning, Facebook, & LinkedIn: While we have a solid presence on Facebook and LinkedIn, our Ning network is our networking home for 405ers, providing all the resources of The405Club.com, plus the benefits of a community.  Please join us to receive opportunities that come through The 405 Club first by clicking here.  Set up your own profile with a custom design as well as a link to your LinkedIn profile making it easy for recruiters to search for you.
3. FAQ Wiki: This serves as our official guide/”frequently asked questions” to unemployment in New York. Important topics like Health insurance, claiming benefits, interview, resume and cover letter tips are all found here on the FAQ Wiki via wetpaint.  The beauty of a “wiki” is that anyone can add information to the site very easily.  Therefore our FAQ Wiki is BY unemployed New Yorkers, FOR unemployed New Yorkers.  We’re living it, so we know about it! Help others by updating the wiki with your knowledge here.
4. Reddit & Add This: Along the right side of our posts you’ll find a button that says “share” above a button with a funny looking martian face that says “submit” or has an arrow pointing up and another down.  If you like our posts we ask you to please submit our story to these social bookmarking sites.  These help others find out about our site, which in turn helps others cope with unemployment and promotes the club.
5. Social Yell: Down on the left side bar you’ll find a jpeg asking you to yell at us on Social Yell.  This is a site that rates businesses.  It only takes a moment to go to the site and show us some love.
6. Blerp: Next to Social Yell is an icon for Blerp which allows active readers to “blerp” or post comments directly on our site.  Take a look here and blerp away my friends.
7. Technorati: Below SocialYell and Blerp is a link to add The 405 Club to your Technorati favorites.  Clicking on this link will again help others find our site which is always a good thing!
8. Blip.tv & Ustream.tv: These 2 sites are more of a work in progress for us here at The 405 Club.  Our blip.tv site is located here and currently hosts the AFP piece on our club.  We will continue to host videos from our events and newscasts we can acquire on this site.  Ustream.tv is also a venture into the video world for us, but it reserved for live action.  We’re hoping to soon broadcast live content and you will find it here on ustream.
9. Zazzle: The host of the official 405 Club merchandise is open 24-7 and lays home to the original “Friend Without Benefits” tee, alongside “My Company Just Wasn’t That Into Me”, “Is My Pink Slip Showing?” and “I Sound Great On Paper.”  Take a minute to browse the shirts here and if you like it, share them with friends!
10. Tumblr: Last but not least, our site is powered by Tumblr.  We love it.  It allows us the freedom to adjust the design of our site with extreme ease, while including fantastic search, follow and reblog features that make it easy to find others like us who are on this journey of unemployment.  Other Tumblr users have the ability to follow our tumblelog and our tweets all on their dashboard simultaneously.  Our comments within Tumblr are powered by Disqus and of course it goes without being said that comments are always appreciated! Content is king, but conversation is queen!

We’re always searching for the newest technologies to help spread our message effectively and consistently.  Thank you again for helping and inspiring us! If you’re interested in sharing your story and perspective you can also help write for The 405 Club. If interested, send us an email here.

-By Garrett Dale, Founding Member and Social Media Expert

If you have any useful ideas for us let us know! Are we missing something? Can we improve on something?