Social Media Job Success

8/14/2019 Social Media Job Success

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How To Use Social Networking and Web 2.0 To Find Your Next Job PageDave Saunders web20igoblog.co

TheLayoftheLandIf you believe the papers, finding a job today is only a bit easier than climbingMt Everest naked. The number of jobs cut from the economy is huge. The sheer

number of people who wants jobs is also huge with the Bureau of LaborStatistics estimating a whopping 12.5 million people are unemployed andlooking for work.

That means you have some competition out there.

Companies with jobs aren't sure how to best look for new applicants. Whichjob site should they post on? Should they continue to run ads in the paper?Should they use social media? Does anyone over 18 even use social media?

As a former hiring manager, I can also tell you from experience that mostpeople are pretty lousy at applying for a position.

As a job seeker, how do you stand out above the pile of resumes?

One time I received a resume with a cover letter that literally opened withIhavea180IQ.Iamasupergenius.I nearly blew hot coffee out my nose from laughing so hard.

Yes, this guy stood out, but unfortunately the rest of his resume didn't even puthim on the short list for what I was looking for.

How do you get noticed and get hired, and how do you do it in the least amountof time?

Meanwhile, the media is running horror stories about how finding a job is nextto impossible. People who used to make six figure salaries are sweeping up for

gas stations just to pay for their cell phone.

Lots of people are confused about what it takes to find a job and many eventhink it's not even worth the effort.


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The good news is that while there are a lot of layoffs happening withcompanies big and small, people are also getting hired from coast to coast.

SocialMediaIstheSolutionAn entire movement is underway on the Internet and it's known as SocialMedia or Web 2.0. The chief characteristic of social media is that you haveequal access to the creation of content. Contrast this to a few years ago whereyou needed technical expertise to create web pages and interaction betweenthe page's content and a person visiting the site was next to nothing.

Social media brings people together online and has led to the creation of online

villages numbering in the 100s of millions of people for some of the mostpopular sites.

Search engines love social media. They add just about anything from a socialmedia site to the search listings. That includes anything you create, be it yourresume, a video, or a blog post. As more of this content is created, the moreothers can virtually know you based on the way are you seen online, the wayyou interact with others and the trail you leave from your online activities.

This might sound like a Orwellian nightmare to some, but if you learn toharness this freedom, as have so many others, you can find yourself beingfound by your next employer, referred to the ideal job by a friend or an onlineacquaintance or you can more proactively park yourself right in front of ahiring manager you uncovered through your online network.


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TheSocialMediaEdgeForFindingaJobBy using social media and web 2.0 tools, you gain an advantage over others.You can match yourself to a great job by using these tools to seek out the

people who are looking for you.

Social media gives you two benefits:

1. It connects you to people with greater ease than running out to everymixer and socializing with other jobseekers, many of whom have thatvacant look of the walking dead.

2. It lets you create an online portfolio of value which pulls people into you.This can lead to referrals, direct job offers and validation when a hiringmanager Googles You; an increasingly common practice.

ShouldYouBeLookingForAJob?Ok, this may sound like a dumb question, but the answer may not be obviousto everyone.

You may think the job situation is so bad there isn't any point in spending your

last dollars on gas just to go get rejected. Again, now is the time to pull up yoursleeves and turn your own economy around. It may take days, weeks or evenmonths, but you'll find something a lot faster when you're taking action.

If you are employed, you may think holding onto your current job for dear life isa great survival strategy. Maybe it is if survival is good enough for you.However, this is a time of reconfiguration and could be your best opportunityto increase your income by moving into a new position.

When you look at the combination of the current economic situation and theemergence of new social media technology on the Internet, you realize you'rein the middle of a perfect storm when it comes to finding a new job.


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Companies need to survive and are looking for top hires who will bringin VALUE.

Social media has created a new opportunity to stand out and get noticedby recruiters, hiring managers and even friends and acquaintances.

These people are either hiring, or (more likely) know someone who is.

What this means to you is that anyone who knows how to harness the newtools for networking online have an advantage over those who don't.

There's still a vast ocean of people simply submitting their resumes throughplain vanilla job seeking websites.

To me, this is the ultimate humiliation. These job sites make me think of someCharles Dickens novel where some poor schlep crushes his hat in his hand,begging for a few pennies.

I don't care if you've been unemployed for years. Someone out there needsyou.

You're doing them a favor by letting them hire you. The value you bring to thatcompanyand I don't care if it's behind a fast food counteris that the

application of your skills and ability to learn makes your employer more moneythan you cost.

You equal profit to your employer.

The Pitfall: thinking that social media, by itself is going to magically make youstand out, get noticed and get hired.

Behind all the wizbang features any social media site offers, you'll find people.

Behind every company, big and small, you'll find people.


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Your number one asset when it comes to finding your new job is your ability tobuild relationships with people, and work through them to connect to otherpeople until you find the one who wants what you have to offer.

Your mission is to build your network and build your visibility so others cansee who you are and what you're up to.

SocialMediaMindsetThink of a giant cocktail party and you should have an idea of how social medialworks. Different social media sites represent a different atmosphere, but allsocial media sites represent gatherings of real people.

As with any party, you can participate in a variety of ways.

You can hide behind the punch bowl.

You can talk to the same three people you always talk to.

You can grab the first person that makes eyecontact and hijack them asyou talk endlessly (about yourself) for the entire evening.

Or

You can use the opportunity to connect to many people and enjoy eachconversation by interacting and being interested in what others have to

say.

In case you've missed it, the several other times I've mentioned it, social mediais about people.

This report is not an exhaustive howto guide for how to set up all your socialmedia accounts, where to click. There are plenty of resources to help you learnall that. This report is a blue print of the activities which you will use to createa presence online and get yourself in front of, or referred to, the hiring

managers in charge of the job you want.


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JobFindingSocialMediaBlueprintCreateContent

Create profiles on each of the sites listed in this report, check out what othersare doing and start creating your own content. Online activity lets you findothers and let's you be found. Every time you create a profile, a blog, orcomment on someone else's content, you create virtual real estate pointingpeople at you and the value to bring to the world (or more specifically, anemployer).

BuildYour

Network

What's the point of networking groups? To build a network. Expanding yournetwork is a benefit to you and it's a benefit to those in your network. As youhelp others gain access to people in your network, they open their network toyou.

When it comes to online activity, don't get hung up on the term friend. In theworld of social media, a friend is a contact.

More contacts means a bigger network.

BuildYourBrandYour personal brand is represented by the relationships formed between youand each person that encounters you.


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This means that each person who read your blog, creates their own impressionof who you are and what you're about from that virtual meeting. Before youstart creating content, you may want to take a moment to decide what youstand for. As you create content, be consistent. Not everyone will like you.That's just the way it is. Consistency at least keeps you in trust with those whodo.

Your Social Media Properties

LinkedIn.comOne of the things you're really going to love about using LinkedIn.com is therich opportunity for networking with people you know, the people they knowand meeting new people from around the world.

When setting up your free LinkedIn account, fill out everything completely.There are sections that allow you to mention your awards, groups you belongto and all the stuff that makes you more than a sum total of your workexperience. Filling out this information allows you to be found.

I've been approached by people simply because they were looking for people intheir area with SEO experience and who were also members of Toastmasters.

Another important field in your LinkedIn Profile is the summary field. This bigtext box allows you to describe yourself, what you're looking for and give theperson reading your profile a feel for who you are. Use the summary field tothe fullest. Also include links to your VisualCV and other resources to allowpeople to join your network. The creates opportunities for referrals byincreasing your own visibility.

LinkedIn is also the home to a large social community. Click the Answers link at

the top of the window and find people asking questions which are in yourareas of interest. Be helpful and answer the questions. This creates moreexposure for you, leaves a trail, strengthens your brand and creates moreopportunities to grow your network.


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Finally, use the widgets provided by LinkedIn and share a PowerPointpresentation explaining the value to can bring to a company that hires you.Link in your blog too. Doing so will automatically pull your new blog posts intoyour LinkedIn content.

Increased visibility, with less effort, is a good thing.

VisualCV.comFounded in early 2008, VisualCV.com provides a simple way to create, manageand share multimedia resumes.

Here's a cool example from venture capitalist and author, Guy Kawasaki.

VisualCV has been adding new social features to improve the ability to shareresources and connections.

Creativity is the real benefit with VisualCV. Instead a mentioning a sales awardyou won, you can include a picture of you receiving it at your sales conference.Don't just talk about your skills as a speaker. Add a video showing you in frontof an audience.

With VisualCV you can make more than one VisualCV (resume) per account soyou can customize them according to the jobs to which you apply. VisualCVscan be shared openly and even indexed by the search engines or you can makethem private and only people you invite can gain access.

You should make at least one VisualCV public. This puts information about youon the Internet that you control. When someone Google's your name, they'llfind your VisualCV along with your other online properties.

VisualCV.com is also host to a highlydetailed guide to creating a great lookingresume called the Insider's Guide to VisualCV. Read it.


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Facebook.comThough you might want to skip Facebook because you think it's just for college

kids, Facebook may actually be your best source of networking with yourprofessional peers. Today Facebook sports a massive network of nearly 240million users.

When you log into your account at Facebook.com, the first thing you see iscalled the News Feed. This feed is the recent activity of all of your friendsconnected to your Facebook profile. Similarly, your friends see your recentactivities when they log in as well.

Use this to your advantage. Share pictures of your work. Change your statusregularly to let others know what you're up to.

Don't limit your updates to pure work. Just as with real life, your friends liketo know you do things other than work. Of course, it may not be supportive toyour aims to share pictures from your last drinking binge or your naked streakparty in college.

Leave comments for your friends too. As they share their lives through thenetwork, comment on the picture of the homemade Irish Soda bread a friend

made for St Patrick's Day.

As with LinkedIn, you can import your blog into Facebook Notes. Each timeyou post a blog, it will be created as a note and will also show up in the newsfeed of your friends.

WordPress.comBlogs are the corner stone of social media. A blog is your prime property forsharing your life and connecting it to what you love to do.


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Create value with your blog. Take what you love to do and share it by writingarticles on your blog. Be conversational and write from the heart.

Here are a few things you can blog about.

How to information Lists of resources

Roundups of other experts in your field

News items and your take

The White Elephant that others ignore

Your blog reinforces your expertise in your field. Add to it on a regular basis.One of the most common failures of blogging is to loose interest and stopposting updates after only a couple of weeks.

Twitter.comFor some (ok, most) Twitter starts out as one of the most confusingexperiences and then becomes an addiction. Messages on Twitter are limitedto a mere 140 characters and as you follow more people, the more activity youwitness.

The key to Twitter is to not treat it like CNN. You don't need to keep up with

every single thing that's going on. Check in, say hi, engage others and move on.Do this a few times a day and develop an online presence and create newrelationships online.

You can share updates about your other site updates through Twitter as well.For example, when you update your blog or create a YouTube video, share amessage on Twitter along with the link to the content. Don't expect millions ofhits but as people get to know, like and trust you online, more people will checkout your content and your circle of influence will grow.


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YouTube.com

You're probably aware of the fact that YouTube is one of the hottest propertieson the Internet. What you may not be aware of is how darn easy it is to make

your own videos and share them with others.

For equipment, pick up a Flip Video camera. It is the best selling video camera,costs less than $200 and is deadsimple to use. After you shoot a video, plug thecamera directly into your computer and upload the video to YouTube.

It really is that simple.

What do you make videos of? Not a boring reading of your resume. Instead

create demonstration videos of you doing what you do best. Create teachingvideos of you imparting your knowledge. This content positions you as anexpert and is also a great way for people to get to know you online.

FollowmeonlineTo get some ideas of the types of content you can create online, follow me onthese sites.

Blog: http://www.davesaunders.net/blogFacebook: http://www.davesaunders.net/facebook.html Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/davesaundersLinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/nemockYouTube: http://www.youtube.com/nemock

More resources: http://www.web20iGoBlog.com

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Social Media Job Success