The Social Media Jump-Start

3 Ways Social Media can Jump-start your Job Search

By Chris Aldred

Job seekers in this economic downturn are faced with a heart-wrenching imbalance: An army of unemployed workers battling for a handful of positions. Unfortunately, the more experience you have and the more specialized your position, the worse this dilemma tends to get.

But here’s the upside: There are more tools than ever available to help you find that job that’s right for you (or at least help pay the bills, for the time being!). Social Media is one of those tools.The following are three ways that Social Media can help you network more effectively and prolifically, find positions that aren’t posted elsewhere, and make you more “attractive” than other candidates.

1. Build your “professional brand”.

This is both the most obvious and the most critical element to social media job searching. The concept is simple: You want your Social Media “presence” to be polished, professional, and stand out from the competition. There are very few hiring managers and HR departments these days that don’t factor in what they see about you on Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and LinkedIn into their hiring decision-making process.

So how do you put your best “social media foot” forward? Simple: Keep your personal life private and “pimp” your professional profile. Myspace, Facebook, etc. all have easy ways to hide those drunken late-night escapades and obscenity-laden rants about your home team’s poor performance that could be a black mark against you to potential employers. Here are some links to show you how:
MySpace Click Here Facebook Click Here (Courtesy of eHow).

So, onto the next step: Pimping your professional profile. I’m only going to focus on LinkedIn, because, quite frankly, none of the other sites (Plaxo, Ecademy, etc.) are worth your time and energy. Unless they’re extremely paranoid and bored, LinkedIn is the only place potential employers are checking up on your professional history.

Now that we’ve got that cleared up, the “pimping” falls into two categories. Your profile and your recommendations. In short, you want to keep your profile engaging. Avoid copying and pasting your resume – Describe your experience using specific adjectives that show both what you did and why you did it so well.

For example, say “managed a team of 40 engineers in 5 countries” rather than “responsible for managing a global engineering team”. Since I don’t want to get too in-depth on this topic, here’s a great, quick article on some more vital LinkedIn profile building tips: 10 Practical LinkedIn Tips Click Here (Courtesy of 901am)

The second, and arguably more important step is securing qualified, relevant and diverse recommendations. What you want to do is “stack the deck” by defining what kind of recommendations you want and then specifically asking for them. The key here is to ask people to include specific examples of how you excelled in areas relevant to the type of job you’re seeking. For example, if you’re applying for a customer service position, ask your contacts to share an incident where you went above and beyond to help out a client or co-worker, and what the results were. Sounds simple, but this kind of specific experience is much more powerful than a general, “so-and-so is the greatest thing since sliced bread” recommendation. Finally, whenever possible, get recommendations from a varied audience: Co-workers, Superiors, Subordinates, Customers, etc. Including recommendations from people inside and outside of your organization, and with various levels of responsibility, adds a higher level of credibility than “props” from your fellow coworkers.

2. “Work” Your Network

If you’re just using Social Media sites to search for jobs and connect to a bunch of people, you’re selling yourself short. One of the hugest benefits of LinkedIn, Twitter, and other Social Media sites is being able to see who your contacts are connected to and “work” them.

I’m going to focus on LinkedIn, but you can use this concept on other sites as well.

Though it may sound creepy to “stalk” your contact’s connections, here’s why it’s a good idea: No matter how well you know someone, you may be surprised who they know. Specifically, your contacts may know somebody who works in a company you’re interested in (or where you’re applying for a job) who can put in a “good word” for you. To find out, simply change the “search people” to “search company” at the top of the LinkedIn page. Click on the company name and you’ll see that company’s overview. Scroll down and click on the “See More” under current employees to view everyone you’re connected to in that company and which of your contacts connects you to them. In small companies, merely being introduced to anyone in the company can be beneficial.

In larger companies, it pays to search for someone either in Human Resources or the same department/division the job you want is in. Make a list of all relevant connections, and ask the people who connect you to them for introductions. This is a great way to either find out “insider information” like job openings that may not be posted on the Internet, or get a warm introduction to people influential to the hiring process for a job you’re pursuing.

3. “Follow” companies and recruiters on Twitter

For businesses, Twitter is a great way to get news out to a mass audience of willing listeners for free. Many companies include job postings in their tweets, especially if there are a lot of openings for a particular position (e.g. when they’re opening a new office). My advice: Follow every company you’re interested in, and review their tweets at least daily. When you do find tweets about job openings, you can often reply directly to company recruiters on Twitter – Reducing layers of bureaucracy you might run into applying for jobs by more traditional means.

Of course, independent recruiters and headhunting firms aren’t missing out on the power of Twitter either. Search for local recruiting firms that specialize in your industry and area of expertise on Google, and see if they have a Twitter account you can follow. Many recruiters post jobs on Twitter before they do on Monster and other job sites, since it’s free and gets out to a large audience right away. Here’s a list of a few position-specific recruiting Twitter pages to get you started:Twitter Recruiters Click Here
Finding a job in today’s economy is tough, but hopefully these Social Media tips can give you the edge. Happy Hunting!

Chris is a self proclaimed “marketing guy” who has spent the last 10 years managing trade shows and seminars, doing PR, designing sales materials, and writing marketing copy for emails, newsletters, Websites, blogs and more. He currently is the Marketing Programs Manager for Expert Technology Associates ( Expertta.com ). Visit Chris on Twitter at @caldred

Take a couple of Polls before you leave.