Sunday, April 8, 2012

Using social media for your job search


Lately I’ve been writing a lot of short blogs that are more advice than really anything hardcore you can use for you job search....until this week.  I really want to talk about how to use social media to help jumpstart your job search.  So, here’s the deal.  This post is your playbook on how to go from unsocial to social....and have more success finding a great job.  Ready....set...go:

1) Get an email address that’s not embarrassing - Wait, I said social media...not email.  Correct. However, if you have a stupid email address like “superhero314”.....um, you’re not doing yourself any favors.  Ok?  Think name and or initals @gmail.com.  You’ll want this to be a gmail account, trust me later in the post.  Anyway, moving on...

2)  Open up a LinkedIn Account - LinkedIn is like a modern day resume.  Really, it’s that important.  You should open an account, fill out the profile COMPLETELY and then connect to people.  You want to be aggressive with the connections and go after former colleagues, classmates, friends, family, networks and recruiters at companies you admire....the goal, build up a network you can use.

3) Start a Twitter Account - Half of you just got queasy...don’t.  Twitter is an amazing tool for your job search.  You can meet people, learn from industry experts and also build great networks and connections just like other social platforms.  Honestly, I’ve had more networking success from Twitter than most any other site.  Anyway, open the account, fill out your profile and find people to follow who are in your target industry.  For example, looking for recruiters?  Got to a tool like TweetGrader and pull a list of the Top 100 Recruiters on Twitter (ahem, you’re missing someone there people...), follow them and interact.

4) Start a Facebook Account - And only use it the same way you’d use LinkedIn...you can use tools like BeKnown and Branchout that make Facebook act like LinkedIn.  Other than that, I’d avoid lots of status updates about your search.  That’s right, with the stories of companies asking people to hand over their passwords I feel like this whole thing has the potential to  jump the shark for anything beyond posting photos and generally keeping in touch w/ people.  I still use Facebook, I’m not a hater but I think for job search you can use some of the tools and focus on other platforms.

5) Start a Google Plus Account - I really like Google Plus it has some great attributes but the killer feature is hangouts.   Hangouts allow you to do a video chat with anyone in your circles (Hangouts on Air are basically WebTV).  Using Hangouts will allow you to build better relationships with people in that you could do a quick video chat and have a way better conversation than you would over the phone.  Try it, trust me, you’ll love it.

We interrupt this blog to warn you...the next tip is REALLY aggressive and most people will not want to do it.  I think you should but if you aren’t up for it, skip this section and go right to the conclusion.

6) Start a blog about your job search - Those of you who were squirming with Twitter probably just go ill but I think this is a great idea. A short blog that will allow you to talk about your experience and share insights with other job seekers would be great exposure and a great chance for you to meet people who are like you.  Now, you don’t want to do rants or freak out over jobs you didn’t get (clearly that would not be cool) but sharing your experience and learning how to blog will help you in the long run as blogs are a great way to “get out there”.

Conclusion

Social media is a critical component of any job search at this point.  You can really go crazy and do video blog on YouTube or even set up ads that advertise “you” but the point here isn’t to go crazy.  The point is to take these tools that literally have connected millions of people around the world....and leverage them to get a great job.

I should have another short post later in the week.  Let me know if you have any topics/ideas you’d like me to hit on.  Busy week as I’m speaking at MIT on Tuesday and also starting my class at Northeastern so I’ll be online a lot!!!

Good luck out there!

8 comments:

  1. Great tips here, Jeff! Thanks for sharing your insight! :)

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  2. I enjoyed this post very much! Didn't know the TweetGrader recruiter lists existed and I've been ignoring all of the Branchout facebook requests because i thought it was another game application that would make my facebook experience more unproductive(sorry don't play games on facebook). :) Anyway, thanks again and always love reading your posts on my Google Reader account! :)

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  3. Ideas for future content… How much relevancy do you think a résumé or curriculum vitae still has in this social media world? Still lots at the later stage of hiring? And what's your advice on making it publicly available, e.g. from one's job-search blog or LinkedIn page.

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  4. Thanks for the comments guys, really appreciate the support. @Ralph, I love the question about relevancy of a resume. I'll try and tackle that this week or next. Thanks!!

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  5. Nice post. I also didnt know that TweetGrader recruiter list and the importance of Branchout as Khalid. Thankx for the infor

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  6. thanks for the post! great have you discuss social media at MIT today. definitely sparked a lot of good conversations throughout the afternoon.

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  7. Hey Jake, glad to have sparked a little conversation! Hope it was a worth the time. Always fun to chat w/ you guys at MIT!

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  8. Thanks. I commend your blog posts, Jeff. They do help a lot. I, personally, got nuggets from your posts and they sure will help a lot. Thank you once again. LinkedIn Profiles are so helpful. Check out their tutorial from Career Confidential. Thanks.

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