social media & your job search

SOCIAL MEDIA & YOUR JOB SEARCH

Social Media is used by hiring professionals 83% of companies hiring in 2010

used social networking sites to find and attract employees 78% use LinkedIn 55% use Facebook 45% use Twitter

Jobvite 2010 Social Recruitment Survey, available at http://recruiting.jobvite.com/resources/social-recruiting-survey.php, accessed at 2:59pm, June 6, 2010

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Rules of the internet

Rule #1: The Internet is forever

Rule #2: You are easy to find

Rule #2a: But you don’t stick out

You are a product – market yourself!

1: Stick to your message! (e.g. “I am a creative and hardworking legal expert in Antitrust Law with a background in Mergers and Acquisitions”)

2: Use different media to attract different people Pictures, videos, micro-blogging, quick-

blogging, blogging, audio, etc.

Personal Marketing doesn’t mean be boring Combine your personal posts with

professional ones

Don’t be one dimensional

Don’t be forgettable

Use Common Sense

Don’t swear, tell bad jokes, etc.

Grammar and proofreading matter

Shy away from politics and religion

32% of employers reported they always searched candidates online profiles, 38% said they occasionally do.

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2Jobvite, supra

Are the rules different for lawyers? Legal profession is a conservative

one that is resistant to change. Most hiring partners are older and

less like to be hyper-plugged in. Many non-profit groups are likely to

be leveraging the internet to stretch limited resources.

You need to be appealing to both sets of people

Your Toolbox

Email

AOL is ancient history, Hotmail is outdated, Gmail is today. Studies show that people judge your by

your email domain Have a professional email address

madhatter057@hotmail.com = bad Billy.Joyner@gmail.com = good

RSS Feed

You will need information and a great deal of it

You will need to have it easy to access and organize

RSS feeds make this task easy Google Reader FeedReader FeedDemon Newsfire

RSS feeds, continued RSS readers allow you to read blogs,

websites, twitter feeds, etc all in one place

Who are you?

Facebook and LinkedIn

In This corner. . . . . . . And in this corner

Facebook

Generally more social and less professional 1 in 13 people on earth have a Facebook

page In the United States, over 70% of internet

users have a Facebook page. Internationally, Facebook is more likely to be

viewed as a professional networking site like LinkedIn

Because LinkedIn is not as big internationally, Facebook remains the professional network of choice overseas.

Your Facebook Profile

1: Make sure you have a professional picture

This is ok, but probably should be more formal

2: Give lots of detailed information about your work andeducation history

If you wouldn’t want your grandmother to see it then you probably don’t want a potential employer to see it

3: Get rid of your college party pictures

4: Use your privacy settings

“Everyone” = your boss

5: PROOFREAD!!!!

Your LinkedIn Profile

Use LinkedIn to your advantage Where facebook emphasizes

friendships (photos, comments, wall-posting, etc), LinkedIn is all about professionals and what makes them professional.

Fill out every detail of your work history. Discuss projects you have completed, awards and accolades you achieved at each job, etc.

Complete the LinkedIn profile

Linked in tells you how “complete” your profile is…

…and how to complete it

Get Recommended!!!

Click on the “Get Recommended” button

It is so easy employers may think less of you if you do not get recommended

Click on “asked to be endorsed”

Or, click on “manage” to see and follow up with previous requests

Recommendations are asked through a simple messaging interface

Creating your network

Like it!

- Don’t be afraid to “like” pages or join groups. Your social media profile necessarily tells an employer who you are.

- Use your likes, groups, etc to create a network of your interests

If you stalk them, they will comeDon’t be afraid to “Friend” the people you look up to and want to work with

Obviously, since Facebook is a more informal and personal site, some common sense should apply.

A person will be more likely to accept a cold friend request if you have friends in common, have recently met, or have similar backgrounds/interests

Groups on LinkedIn

Groups on LinkedIn provide discussion forums, networking opportunities, and even job boards.

Groups can have obvious benefits

Some groups might not be so easy as to offer a career fair, but because LinkedIn is essentially for the sole purpose of professional networking and career building, most groups will cater to those purposes

Groups to join

Alumni networks Trade Organizations Search “Lawyer” on LinkedIn and get

225 results Program on Law and Government The more groups the better

Apply with LinkedIn

LinkedIn is reported to be working on a widget for the site that would allow you to apply to companies by simply clicking a link. The link would use your LinkedIn profile to create a job application and the server would send it to the HR manager of the company.

Publishing

Micro, quick, and plain old blogging Blogging = Publishing news,

commentary, or opinion on a website usually with interactive comments from other users.

Micro Blogging = Short blog posts such as a Facebook status message or Twitter tweet.

Quick Blogging = Short comment on a photo/video/link/etc on a platform such as Tumblr or Posterous usually performed via email or smartphone.

Blogging

Blogs allow you to share your talents with the world. You can showcase your intelligence, insight, and interests with potential employers.

Good blogs use a variety of media along with crisp and entertaining writing

Digital resumes

On your website or blog should be your resume – but not your boring list of previous jobs

You should make it a narrative emphasising challenges you overcame and accolades you received

Consider also creating a video resume and treat it like a one sided interview – don’t be too rehearsed and be smart, friendly, and courteous.

Any blog or website should be linked to your other social media accounts if you have them

Digital resumes

Video Resume

“Narrative” resume

Link to Facebook and LinkedIn page

Twitter Feed

Digital resumes can be on your blog “about page” and are an emerging way to communicate with potential employers

Blogging

Mix your content – post personal and professional items (but use categories and tags to organize)

Use different media to appeal to different users

Link to sites to “cite” sources and provide more in depth information for your readers

Writing makes or breaks the blog – edit and proofread!!

Blogging

Use pictures and other media to add visual appeal

Link liberally to give credit to other websites and cite to sources

Quick Blogging

“Quick Blogging” is a shorter form of blogging. You can still use it to showcase yourself, but the format is limited.

Micro-BloggingMicro-Blogging, usually associated with Twitter, is blogging in very compressed messages. Like quick blogging, it allow you to showcase your interests and to some degree your insights.

Most importantly, quick-blogging and micro-blogging allow you to network and communicate with like-minded people such as potential employers.

Bring it all together

You have to decide what works for you.

There are many applications that allow you to post to multiple sites at once.

Your Social Media footprint is as personal to you as the content you fill it with.

Maintaining your “footprint”

Keep it up to date

Especially LinkedIn and Facebook

Add new jobs and activities as soon as practicable

Delete old information as soon as possible

Make absolutely sure your contact information is always correct

Content

Keep content fresh and varied The content does not have to be long,

short posts can be just as effective at spreading “your message”

Pictures, Videos, and audio clips all add to your words to make your content more vibrant and appeal to more people

Fresh does not mean all the time – it is ok if you only have time to post things periodically. Just make sure that your profiles/pages don’t become “dead.”

Attract followers

Content! More posts, more interesting posts, fresh and varied posts

Interactivity with your community Interaction is a two way street – be sure

to reciprocate to other users Comments on blogs, retweets, wall

posts, etc Follow/Friend/Connect with others

who you wish to participate with

Google: Opportunities and threats Set up Google Alert for yourself

“optimize” your “footprint”

Do you have a google problem?

Google AlertsGoogle alerts allow you to have google perform a constant search on any topic and deliver the results to your email whenever the search discovers a new result.

At the very least, you should have an alert for yourself.

Google Alerts are an excellent way to gather news about particular topics

Setting up a Google Alert

Click on “More”

Click on “even more”

“Alerts” are at the very bottom of the Google Products Page.

Search Engine Optimization You want to be first (and second and third and so on) on a Google Search.

Step 1: Tag your site (high end web hosting allows you to add key words to websites)

Step 2: Index your site

Step 3: Crosslink!

Step 4: Promote your site

Index your siteTo index your site with Google go to: http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl

Cross Link

Make sure your Facebook , LinkedIn, Twitter, Tumblr, Posterous, Blog, etc all link to one another (on some this is not as easy to do – twitter for instance only allows 140 characters for your profile) .

These links will help your “Google Rank”

Do you have a google problem?

Google relies on algorithms to rank search results .If a page is linked to a phrase enough times it will increase the rank.

“Google Bombs” do this deliberately. (see Rick Santorum)

You may have an unflattering website that comes up on a google search.

Sen. Rick Santorum

Fix your Google Problem

You cannot make a website disappear, but you can reduce its relevance.

Best way to do this is to explode over the internet: Create a website, have profiles on all social networking sites, create streams on YouTube and Flikr.

Crosslink, post content, crosslink For serious problems you can hire a

firm

Big Takeaways

Keep Content fresh and use varied media

Manage your message and reputation through your footprint

Friend/Connect/follow those who you want to work with

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