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DEVELOPING YOUR

NETWORKS FOR CAREER

SUCCESS

9 NETWORKING MISTAKES YOU CAN’T AFFORD TO MAKE—TURNING STRANGERSINTO NETWORK CONTACTS—HOW TO USE TWITTER FOR YOUR CAREER

+ USING BEKNOWN FOR PROFESSIONAL NETWORKING ON FACEBOOK

1Monster Guide to Online Networking

Contents

02 The BasicsAdvancing Your Career with Social Networking Sites

04 Brand YouDetermining and Deploying Your Online Personal Brand

08 Using BeKnownThe Professional Way to Network on Facebook

10 On TwitterHow to Establish an Online Presence, 140 Characters at a Time

12 Getting ConnectedHow to Turn a Stranger Into a Network Contact

15 Networking SecretsShould You Connect to Your Boss on Facebook?

18 Building GoodwillYou Have to Give in Order to Get

19 Safety FirstSurf Your Way to Your Next Job—Safely

22 Networking Don’ts9 More Mistakes You Can’t Afford to Make

EDITED BY CHARLES PURDY MONSTER.COM CAREERS EXPERT


The BasicsAdvancing Your Career with Social Networking Sites

BY ROBERT DIGIACOMO AND CHARLES PURDY, MONSTER SENIOR EDITOR

The invitations to join social networking sites and to create profiles on professional networking apps such as Monster’s BeKnown are flooding your inbox from friends, colleagues, former coworkers, college classmates and even your boss. Do you accept them all or weed some out? And how can you build on these relationships to advance your career?

If you’re just getting started with professional networking online, the thought can be daunting. This is a new and fast-changing world, so it must be complicated, right? Not necessarily. If you’re a human being, you already know the rules of online networking— because as with much of our virtual existence, the rules for online networking follow those of the real world: Follow-up is key. Reciprocity is important. Flattery works. And you have to be careful with your reputation.

Networking Made EasierAdding online contacts is just the first step of networking—you must also keep in touch with them, says Alexandra Levit, a career consultant and the author of They Don’t Teach Corporate in College.

“Mind your networks, and make sure you’re using them to keep track of people,” Levit says. “One of the biggest mistakes is to make a valuable contact and let it drop.

This is a key to successful professional network-ing: Make sure that the first time a contact hears from you is not when you need a favor. Spend at least a few minutes each week looking at what your contacts are posting, so you know what’s up with them—that way, you will know when you have infor-mation that might help them. Also look for genuine reasons to reach out and say hello to someone—even if that’s just to pay a compliment or, for instance, share a relevant article you found online.

Protect Your IdentityIf you would rather your boss not find out certain de-tails of your personal life, you might consider sepa-rating your virtual personal life from your professional life on dedicated social networking pages, according to Anastasia Goodstein, founder of the YPulse.com blog and the author of Totally Wired: What Teens and Tweens Are Really Doing Online.

Tell your boss you’re setting up a page for pro-fessional contacts—here’s the link and ‘friend’ me there,” Goodstein says. “Find a way to do it gracious-

ly, but keep it separate from your personal page.However, many experts recommend maintaining a

profile in one place—and simply keeping it relatively clean. This doesn’t mean that you have to be all busi-ness, but think of it this way: There are things you tell your parents. There are things you tell your friends. And there are things you tell your boss—what you put online should probably fit in all three categories. (Obviously, it’s OK to let your boss know that you went on vacation or celebrated a birthday, just as it’s smart, in terms of professional networking, to tell your friends what you’re up to at work.)

Monster’s BeKnown, the professional networking app on Facebook, can help you manage your social life and your professional life in one place, because it lets you build a professional network on Facebook while keeping your social posts separate from your BeKnown contacts.

But do keep in mind that the Internet can have a surprisingly long memory, and today’s social

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Monster’s BeKnown networking app on Facebook


acquaintance could be tomorrow’s contact at a prospective employer.

Invitations and RecommendationsThere will often be times when you’re invited to con-nect with someone you don’t know very well (or, per-haps, don’t care for much). Rather than rejecting an unwanted “friend,” accept the invite, but limit your interactions with him or her. Levit says, “Just accept-ing the person as a contact isn’t going to do you any harm. “Where I would draw the line is writing any kind of recommendation or endorsement of that person.”

But don’t overlook recommendations: you can use social and professional networks to garner rec-ommendations; conversely, you can strengthen your ties to business associates and colleagues by post-ing referrals for them.

“Nothing will endear you to the person more than telling them what you think of them and doing some-thing nice,” Levit says.

When asking for a recommendation on a career networking site like BeKnown, make sure your re-quest is realistic. (Never ask for a recommendation from someone who can’t honestly evaluate your work.) Also, it can sometimes be helpful to give some guidance in your request. For instance, you might say to a former coworker, “I was hoping you could speak to the success of some of the press releases I wrote, or what it was like to collaborate with me.”

Keep It ConfidentialCheck your company’s privacy policy before conduct-ing certain kinds of business on a social network. Many companies are using search engines to moni-tor blogs, so watch what you say and where you say it.

“If you’re talking about your top-secret product with a coworker on Facebook, I’m sure the IT depart-ment won’t be very happy,” Goodstein says.

But sharing your employer’s successes (and trum-peting your role in them) can be a great way to build your brand as an enthusiastic team player and as someone who is doing important things at work.

Goodstein adds that smart employers will spell out what’s appropriate for chatting, posting or blog-ging—and what’s meant for internal correspondence only. If you’re unsure, ask your manager or your HR department.

Context Is KingWhen posting personal information or photos, leave out any revealing images, references to drug use and polarizing political commentary. “Don’t have anything on there you’d be embarrassed to have grandparents see,” Levit says.

Managers may not automatically discount a can-didate with a questionable photo or posting, depend-ing on whether the material violates company policy or can be chalked up to a youthful indiscretion. But you can’t count on that.

“It’s a great opportunity to ask them about it in an interview,” Goodstein says. “Younger people have been online for most of their lives, so it could be something they posted 10 years ago, but they’ve probably evolved since then. You can tell by how they answer if somebody’s going to be a good fit.”

More and more, hiring managers and recruiters are researching candidates online before calling them for an interview— you should regularly do Web searches for your name (or, if you have a common name, your name and location or your name and your industry). If you don’t like what you find, you should work to correct it.

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As with much of our virtual existence, the rules for online networking follow those of the real world.


combinations including your name and your profes-sion, your name and your city or state of residence, or your name and the name of your current or most recent employer.)

If you’re happy with what you find, great! But if you feel that you need to do a better job of telling the world who you are, first make sure you understand who you are.

Determining Your Brand in Five Steps 1. First, identify the primary product you have to offer (your special skill, your professional niche or what makes you unique). If you’re currently employed, your job title is a great place to start. 2. Second, list your values (what’s most important to you), your primary passions in life (what you love), and your key talents (what you’re especially good at).3. Then take a good look at this list of talents and qualities, and choose a few that you feel especially strongly about. 4. Now see if you can take your primary product, your talents and passions, your core values and your career or life goals—and craft them into a kind of mission statement, much like a company would have. This is a good distillation of what your brand should be. 5. Finally, create a tagline that sums up your mission statement and who you are—maybe you’re “An Eco-Minded Interior Designer Who Creates Family-Friendly Spaces” or “An Award-Winning Journalist, Master Wordsmith, and Grammar Expert.” Take your time—don’t rush it. Understanding who you are will help you tell your story to others. A tagline is like an

Brand YouDetermining and Deploying Your Online Personal BrandWhether you know it or not, you already have an online “personal brand.” It’s a combination of your reputation, your best-known achievements, and what people can easily find out about you online. Nowa-days, a professional (in just about any industry you can think of) needs a well-defined brand. Here’s how to understand, define and establish yours.

Taking Stock of Your BrandWhen is the last time you searched for yourself online —typed your name into a search engine and checked out a few pages worth of results? If it has been a while, you should definitely take a look, because you can be sure that the hiring managers, recruiters and coworkers in your future are going to be doing so. (If you have a common name, try some search

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advertising slogan: it helps other people remember a key point about you.

Another way to zero in on your brand is to gather feedback from your professional contacts, includ-ing your manager and coworkers (or former manag-ers and coworkers). Even if you’re not creating your brand, this exercise is very valuable: When you un-derstand how people perceive you, you can start to figure out what works with the way you communicate, as well as what might be sending the wrong message.

Test-Marketing Your BrandOnce you’ve created and refined your mission state-ment and tag line, review them with people you trust. Someone with whom you have a professional rela-tionship is a good start—if you have a mentor, ask him or her for guidance.

For further guidance, see how people you admire have branded themselves. Ask yourself: How is my brand similar? How might I brand myself the same way, and how do I need to differentiate myself?

Deploying Your Brand in Five StepsYou have a mission statement and a tagline—you’re well on your way to establishing your personal brand. To make the most of these tools, you need to deploy them consistently. But first, you should also consider some other digital elements of your personal brand.

For instance, most social- and professional-net-working tools (Twitter, BeKnown, Facebook, and so on)

allow you to use a picture, or “avatar.” Yours should be a clear, professional-looking headshot (steer clear of cartoon characters and pets—they can come across as immature), or perhaps a graphic logo if you’re branding yourself as a company. Then use this image wherever you are active online.

Other visuals can also be deployed in a way that promotes consistency—for instance, fonts and colors (in most cases, readability and subtlety should be guides: shocking colors and wacky fonts say, obvi-ously, “I’m shocking and wacky”—probably not the professional message you want to send).

Now here are some ways to think about using your new tagline and mission statement: 1. Use them on your Twitter profile, as well as on your BeKnown profile and other networking sites that allow you to say something about yourself or post a headline. (For more on using Twitter, see “What Should I Tweet About?” on the next page.) 2. Use your tagline and maybe some of your visual elements in all your digital communication (for

example, create a custom email signature). 3. Use your tagline as a primary element at the top of your resume.4. Consider using your tagline and other visual ele-ments on your business card. 5. Incorporate your tagline into your “elevator intro-duction” or elevator pitch. (It should be a key part of your answer to the question “So, what do you do?”)

Finally, consider adding a personal website or a blog to your repertoire of online tools. It can incor-porate all your branding tools, as well as serve as a platform where you can discuss all your professional activities. Plus, promoting a personal blog or website can help obscure older, less relevant information that may be following you around the web.

Building your unique brand is an organic and ongoing process, and it may depend in large part on your current employer. So consider yourself and your career a work in progress, and take time to re-exam-ine your personal-brand messaging as you and your career mature and change.

A tagline is like an advertising slogan: It helps other people remember a key point about you.

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My colleagues and I at Monster.com think and talk

a lot about using social media—as it relates both to

companies and to job seekers, and to networking,

personal branding and so on. Recently, I was speaking

to a group of Monster customers (HR pros, recruiters

and hiring managers) about the role of social media in

the modern workplace. After the event, a woman came

to me with an important question: “I understand that

Twitter and all of these things are important,” she said,

“and I know we have to start using them. But what

should I be tweeting about?”

It’s a deceptively simple question. In most

discussions about personal branding on social

networks such as Twitter, personal branding is

described as the first step and primary consideration.

But it isn’t. No matter who you are, or where you are in

your career—or whether you’re representing yourself or

your company online—there are three things you have

to do before (and while) you’re online and personal-

branding up a storm.

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What Should I

Tweet About?

By Charles Purdy, Monster Senior Editor


STEP ONE:Be awesome. I’m not joking. If your focus is on pro-moting yourself but not on doing things worthy of promotion, you’re going about your career all wrong. (And if you’re not being awesome or doing awesome things, you don’t really have much to tweet about.) I don’t want to belabor this very simple notion, but it’s often overlooked at the personal and at the cor-porate level. Simply being on Twitter is not enough. Simply blogging about current events or connecting to everyone you’ve ever worked with isn’t develop-ing your career or building your brand. If you haven’t taken the time to first be awesome, all this activity in an online space is a waste of time.

All of us, but perhaps young people especially (because they are at the receiving end of a lot of personal-branding advice) should try to keep in mind that a great personal brand should be thought of as the frosting that completes the rich, delicious cake of your achievements.

So, to answer that nice woman’s question: Be awesome. Do awesome stuff. Then tweet about that. Repeat as necessary.

STEP TWO:Be human. Have you ever known someone who talk-ed only about himself or herself—who was, to put it in theater terms, all monologue and no dialogue? This is what a lot of Twitter activity sounds like, to me. Using your Twitter stream (or Facebook profile or blog or vlog) only to broadcast your own news is not social. It’s antisocial. And it’s not human. What do humans do in social spaces? They notice other

>>people. They ask questions. They pay compliments. They share opinions. Sometimes they even talk to people who are not in their immediate networks (or, we might say, cliques).

So this is another answer to that woman’s ques-tion: Say hello. Pay a compliment. Ask a question. Answer a question. Share an opinion. In other words, be human.

STEP THREE:Be goal-oriented. People tend to get so excited about a new platform, tool, or technology that they leap on it before they think about whether they need it. Web 3.0 gives us so many ways to put ourselves online —to display our personal brand. But how often do we ask ourselves, “What do we want this display to achieve?” For anyone with a career, at least one an-swer to that should be “Advancing or maintaining my career.” So all of your online social activity should move you toward that goal (or at least not take you away from it—for example, as inappropriate pictures on your Facebook profile might). You should have a social-media plan, with long-term and short-term goals—because if you don’t know what you want to achieve, how will you know what’s working and what isn’t?

So that’s the final answer to the question “What should I be tweeting about?” And it’s an answer in the form of another question: I don’t know; what do you want your tweets to do for you?

Answer that, and you’re well on your way to figur-ing this social media thing out. Join me on my Twitter adventures at @monstercareers.


UsingBeKnown

What BeKnown Does For YouIf you’re on Facebook, you can use Be-Known to:• Create professional networks within a professional environment, designed by Monster—without ever leaving Facebook. (So there’s no more need to switch back and forth between sites.)• Easily invite contacts from other social networks to expand your Be-Known network beyond your exist-ing Facebook friends. (You can add a contact to BeKnown without having to become his or her Facebook friend.)• Keep social activity with friends and family separate from work-related ac-tivity with professional contacts.• See Monster’s millions of job post-ings—and see who among your pro-fessional contacts on BeKnown is connected to the companies you’re interested in.• Connect professional networking to Monster’s job search and browse tools, and import your Monster profile to BeKnown from right within the app.

Getting Started on BeKnownJoining BeKnown is easy—the app guides you through a very quick setup process. You can opt to use your Face-book profile information and/or pull in-formation from other networking sites, as well as your Monster.com profile. Then you simply invite connections to join you and start earning badges to showcase on your profile. Ta-da! You’re using BeKnown.

BeKnown Dashboard OverviewYour dashboard on BeKnown provides a snapshot of your professional net-work, and keeps you up to date with your connections. You can review your network stats, including the badges and endorsements you’ve earned and

the number of companies you follow.Plus, you’ll also see suggested

tasks that’ll help you get the most from BeKnown, as well as recommend-ed connections.

Making ConnectionsManaging your professional and social life has never been easier. With Be-Known, you can invite friends and colleagues to connect professionally even if you’re not friends on Facebook —and your friends-only social commu-nications will never be disclosed on BeKnown.

We’ve also made it easy to invite your professional connections from networks other than Facebook—for in-stance, Twitter—to help you build your network faster.

And if you have contacts in your Gmail or Yahoo! Mail account, you can invite them in just a few clicks.

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The Professional Way to Network on Facebook

Monster.com created its BeKnown networking app to allow people to build a professional network on Facebook (the world’s largest and most active social network), while keeping personal and work-related contacts and content completely separated. That’s the 700 million people on Facebook and the 97 percent of Fortune 500 companies on Monster coming together on one platform.


BeKnown BadgesBeKnown badges are based on your work history, your education, the size and composition of your professional network, the endorsements you’ve given or received and more.

You’ll have fun competing with your connections to see who has the best badges. Check out the badge gallery to find out what it takes to unlock badges.

Think you have what it takes to get the Epic Connector badge? Good luck!

BeKnown EndorsementsEarning endorsements has never been easier.

With BeKnown, the person making the endorsement can choose to either

Company Profiles on BeKnownExplore connections on BeKnown with Company Profiles. You can see the people you’re connected to at a company—as well as the people you should be connected with.

Companies can claim a profile for free and provide information on prod-ucts, services, job opportunities and more.

To get the latest news and updates from a company, click “Follow Com-pany” on a Company Profile page. All company updates will be posted auto-matically to your Network Updates.

provide a simple “stamp of approval” of the skills you list on your profile, or provide a written recommendation.

When a connection writes an en-dorsement for you, we’ll email you and ask for your approval before post-ing it to your profile. You can even earn badges as more people endorse your skills.

Jobs on BeKnown BeKnown finds and recommends jobs that match your skills and experience —before you even do a search. In the Friends’ Jobs section, you can also view jobs that are posted by people in your network. (These are jobs where you have an inside connection, and they might not be found anywhere else!)

Or you can search thousands of jobs to find the perfect one for you.

Interested? Simply click “I’m Inter-ested” and you’re done! We’ll email the job poster and include a link to your BeKnown profile, which serves as your resume.

Setting Up Your BeKnown ProfileYour BeKnown profile showcases your work experience, skills, accomplish-ments and interests. It starts out looking something like a resume, but it can become so much more as you earn badges and endorsements that become a permanent part of your pro-fessional identity.

Feel free to edit your profile at any time. And here’s a tip: Save time and import your profile information from your Monster.com profile.

Also, be sure to take advantage of the BeKnown privacy settings that allow you to control what you share and with whom.

Remember that you can upload a professional photo to your BeKnown profile—instead of using the Facebook photo that shows your social side. Be-Known always keeps your professional life separate from your social life.

To see BeKnown in action, go tobeknown.monster.com

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On Twitter How to Establish an Online Presence, 140 Characters at a Time BY CHARLES PURDY, MONSTER SENIOR EDITOR

The number of job seekers using Twitter in their search for a new job is rising rapidly—but not as rapidly as the number of employers and recruiters using Twitter, both to share important information about their companies and to research potential can-didates.

In fact, a recent survey found that only ten percent of companies are not engaging in social-media activ-ity of some kind. This doesn’t mean that you’re going

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to be conducting your next job interview in answers of 140 characters (the maximum length of a tweet) or less. We’re nowhere near ready to abandon tradition-al job-seeking methods like a well-crafted resume, online job boards and face-to-face networking. But in these days of “Job Search 2.0,” social networking sites like Twitter are valuable tools: they keep you informed, they help you network and they allow you to establish a credible online presence. And that’s important for professionals in almost any industry:

Not really looking for a job right now? Then now is the perfect time to get started. If you start online net-working only when you need something, you’re much too late. Here are some simple first steps:

Go to Twitter.com and Create an Account Choose a username that is appropriately profession-al and descriptive. And be sure to add a tagline that explains who you are and why people might be in-terested in what you have to say (see “ Brand You: Determining and Deploying Your Online Personal

Brand,” elsewhere in this book, for more on creat-ing a tagline). If you have a new career goal in mind, express it here. If you already have a personal Twitter account, consider adding a second, more profession-al stream. (A playful Twitter handle and a stream full of comments about your love of Justin Bieber isn’t going to earn you any job offers.)

Find People to FollowAfter you create your account, Twitter will offer you categories to browse, will offer to search your email address book for contacts already on Twitter, and will then let you conduct your own searches. Search for people you admire, leaders in your industry, compa-nies you respect (or would like to work at), and in-dustry publications or websites. (And look at whom they follow.)

You’ll be amazed at what you can find out from spending a few minutes each day reading their tweets: not only valuable industry news but also spe-cific information about companies—info that you can employ when you craft a cover letter, meet someone for an interview or just circumstantially run into a po-tentially valuable network contact.

Start ParticipatingA key to building momentum on Twitter is to par-ticipate—join (respectfully) conversations that the people you follow are having. If someone you follow says something interesting, retweet it (forward it to your followers), with or without adding your own comment; this is a great way to get a casual dialogue started. It’s also a great way to get noticed—even


terest: “I see you’re making SEO marketing improve-ments: my area of expertise. I’d love to set up an info interview to discuss working together.”

5 Career Experts on Twitter

Follow @MonsterCareers for daily tweets with career advice, cool jobs and more. Then consider these experts—just a handful of the many great career experts out in the Twitterverse.

large companies have dedicated social media teams who notice when one person engages regularly and appropriately with them on Twitter.

Gain Followers and Build Your ReputationThere are many ways to do this: When you read some-thing interesting online, share a link to it via Twitter. For instance, if you know that friends are looking for jobs, you may want to share links to career-advice articles. (Or if you see a Monster job listing a friend might be interested in, forward it via Twitter simply by clicking on the listing’s Share button.)

Also share your own insights, humor, achieve-ments, and so on. Twitter works best if it’s a mix of personal and professional, and it lends itself to light-heartedness. Just keep in mind that if you hope to someday use Twitter in your job search, you should avoid tweets like “Playing hooky from work and watch-ing soaps in my pajamas.” This may accurately reflect your activities on a certain day, but no employer is going to look at that and think, “This person would be a great fit for my company!” Make sure all your com-munications on your social networks are consistent and support your professional and personal goals.

And make sure people know you’re tweeting: Add your Twitter handle to your email signature for in-stance, and include it as a way to contact you when you comment on blogs.

Manage Your Twitter AccountNumerous programs add a fuller-featured dashboard to Twitter, and help you with things like shortening URLs without making you go to a separate Web site.

I use TweetDeck and HootSuite; both are free. Test-drive a couple, and see what other people on Twitter are using, to see if one works for you.

Stay Involved OnlineKeep up the momentum you’ve gained by staying active. Consider starting a blog related to your pro-fession or even one of your hobbies (if it’s at all germane to your career—or at least doesn’t detract from your career goals). This is a great way to con-tinue establishing your online reputation.

Get Back from TwitterManaging a Twitter presence takes minutes a week. The preceding steps are designed to establish your good reputation and create a foundation of goodwill —when you need to reach out to your contacts for assistance, they’ll be more inclined to help someone they feel connected to.

Say you decide you’d like to go for a marketing job at Company X. If you’ve been following the company’s main Twitter account, its CEO, and its marketing di-rector, you’ll have a good idea where the company and its marketing department are—this already gives you a tremendous advantage over the competi-tion. Even better: If you’ve been retweeting the com-pany’s tweets, making helpful suggestions, adding positive comments to company and industry blogs and sharing your own insights, important people at the company may already be aware of you.

That’s the goodwill and good foundation that allow this Twitter direct message (a message you send pri-vately to another Twitter user) to be received with in-

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HEATHER HUHMAN @heatherhuhman

MIRIAM SALPETER @keppie_careers

J.T. O’DONNELL @careerealism

CHRIS PERRY @careerrocketeer

DONNA SVEI @avidcareerist


Getting ConnectedHow to Turn a Stranger into a Network ContactBY CHARLES PURDY, MONSTER SENIOR EDITOR

Whether you’re looking for a job or trying to advance your career, networking is crucial. And networking shouldn’t end when you log off of BeKnown or head home from a conference.

Many valuable contacts are just beyond the perim-eter of your social circle. They’re the parents of your kids’ school chums, they’re sitting next to you on airplanes, and they’re your second-degree contacts (that is, your contacts’ contacts)—basically, they’re all around you every day. So how do you turn these people from relative strangers into valuable network contacts?

STEP 1: Identify Good ContactsAn effective professional network has a wide variety of types of people, including people from outside your industry. So how do you decide whether some-one you meet at a cocktail party is someone you want in your circle? Career expert Liz Ryan says it’s more about “feel” than logic. “You’ve got a certain

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style and approach, and people who are comfortable with you and with whom you’re comfortable will make up your A-list for network cultivation,” she says.

Look for people who are active in and passionate about their field (whatever it is), and who seem inter-ested in what you’re doing. Also, people who com-municate well are likely to be “connectors” who have their own networks that you may be able to tap into.

STEP 2: Interact OnlineThe people you interact with online can become great contacts, even if you never meet them face to face (and even if they live thousands of miles away). A spirited debate in an industry forum, a few mutual retweets on Twitter, or even some shared contacts and shared interests are reason enough to send a re-quest to connect—either via a professional network-ing app or just a friendly email. These connection

requests work best if you have something to offer, even if it’s just a compliment.

STEP 3: Manage Your ContactsProductivity expert Stever Robbins, author of “Get-It-Done Guy’s 9 Steps to Work Less and Do More,” offers tips for managing the business cards you re-ceive—and a similar strategy can apply to managing your “virtual” contacts:

First, if you’re at a conference or a similar event where you’re receiving a lot of business cards, Rob-bins suggests jotting down quick memory-aid notes on the backs of cards—so when you enter the con-tact in your digital address book, you can record (in the Notes field) the name of the conference and what you talked about.

Then, immediately after you put a new person into your digital address book, send a brief “Great

to meet you” email—with a note about your conversation and a brief follow-up.

Keep your contacts’ information up-dated, so you can see at a glance what they’re all about if it has been a while since you’ve spoken.

STEP 4: Offer Value Effective networking begins long be-fore you need to get something from your network. First, you must demon-strate that you have something to of-fer—this builds a foundation of good-will. Every time you talk to someone in your professional network, you should

ask what he or she is working on, so you’re aware of the problems your contacts are trying to solve.

In his book “Well Connected: An Unconventional Approach to Building Genuine, Effective Business Re-lationships,” executive coach Gordon S. Curtis offers suggestions on how to offer value to a new contact: Consider how you could supply information, new cli-ents or interesting products—or even other contacts. “If you make the right introduction, both parties will feel you’ve done them favors,” Curtis explains.

STEP 5: Stay in TouchYour efforts to meet, record and court new contacts are wasted if you let relationships lapse. An effective networker is participatory and involved.

Sound like a lot of work? It doesn’t have to be—in fact, your networking efforts shouldn’t take a lot of time. Read an interesting article or book? Ask your-self who else might benefit from it. Planning to attend

Be concise with your requests, don’t pester people and don’t take it personally if someone isn’t able to help you.

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an industry conference or networking event? Find out how you can get more involved. Have something to say? Update your blog, and comment (thoughtfully) on the blogs of people in your network.

It doesn’t have to be all professional, either. De-pending on the nature of your networking, sharing travel tips, restaurant reviews, and so on can be a way to stay in touch as well. (Just remember—it’s usually best to keep things positive.)

STEP 6: Get Back from Your Network If you’ve been conscientious about maintaining con-nections with your network, asking for something like an introduction or a favor will seem less like an im-position.

One key to getting results is to make specific requests of specific people. Sending your entire network a tweet saying, “My interior-design firm is accepting new clients!” probably isn’t enough—be-cause it’s not speaking directly to anyone, and it’s not offering a tangible value. A better tactic is a tar-geted message to the right people—for instance, an email describing your expertise in decorating bou-tique-hotel lobbies and asking for an introduction to a contact in the hotel business.

Be concise with your requests, don’t pester peo-ple and don’t take it personally if someone isn’t able to help you—the reasons may be beyond his control. And finally, don’t forget to say “thank you”—if one of your contacts finds a way to help you, look for a way to help him or her, so your relationship will grow even stronger.

Set Multiple Networking Goals

Don’t make it all about a job offer. Perhaps a new contact could give you a five-minute resume review or professional-development advice. Or think about what you have to offer, and make doing so your goal. Don’t overlook the opportunities presented by brief informational interviews with people who are having career successes you’d like to emulate.

Volunteer at Large Events

This can give you a reason to speak to a large number of people—and help you avoid simply standing in a crowd and feeling tongue-tied. Being part of a team can give you confidence. Alternatively, another way to avoid feeling nervous at large events is to arrive early—when the conference room is still sparsely filled, people are less likely to have formed conversation “knots” that can be hard to break into.

Start Online

Social networking sites, as well as professional networking sites such as BeKnown, help you keep up your connections with people who may be able to help you, and connecting virtually can be less stressful than face-to-face interaction. (Just be sure you don’t spend so much time connecting online that you never connect in person.)

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Networking Tips for Shy People

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NetworkingSecretsShould You Connect to Your Boss on Facebook? BY CHARLES PURDY, MONSTER SENIOR EDITOR

In all the recent buzz about Monster’s new BeKnown app on Facebook, there have been a lot of very positive reactions—both from career experts and in social media circles.

But amid all the excitement, a note of alarm has sounded. Some bloggers have asked, “But if you’re friends with your boss on Facebook, he or she will see that you’ve joined BeKnown—what about that?”

Well, what about it? If you’re already friends with your boss and other colleagues on Facebook, letting them know that you’ve joined a professional net-work (one that’ll help you develop your career and connect with other people in your field) will benefit you. It shows you take your career seriously. And considering the other things many people put on their Facebook walls, it sort of seems like the last thing a person should be worried about!

All joking aside: BeKnown and other profes-sional networks are great places to connect with new customers, clients, industry influencers and new employees. Why wouldn’t a boss thank you for extending an invitation?

If you’re already friends with your boss and other colleagues on Facebook, letting them know that you’ve joined a professional network will benefit you.


Trouble? What Trouble? There is, it seems to me, a misperception that peo-ple are going to “get in trouble” if it becomes known that they’re involved in a professional network—that suddenly their employers will discover that they’re looking for a job.

But that’s just not the reality for almost everyone—a job search isn’t something that’s either turned on full throttle or completely dormant: According to a recent Monster.com poll, 92 percent of workers said they would at least consider a new job opportunity. And employers know this! They know that the line between “actively looking for work” and “not actively looking for work” has disappeared. So if you have a sane boss (I understand that not everyone does!), adding him or her to your professional network is a good idea.

Everyone Is “Looking for Work,” and Employers Know ItAt Monster.com, we talk to a lot of employers—be-cause knowing how companies feel about their em-ployees is our job. Bosses, recruiters, HR people and hiring managers are all concerned about retain-ing their great employees; these people-managers know that almost all of their workers are hire-able. Even if a great employee doesn’t have a resume on Monster.com or a profile on BeKnown (for example), he or she will have friends, former colleagues, and many other ways to find out about new job opportunities.

The conversation about “letting your boss know you’re looking for a job” needs to include this fact: Bosses (and HR folks, and so on) are, in most cases, human beings. They are people who are managing their careers, just like we are. They live in the same world we do. They have the same concerns about career maintenance that we do. And they connect to networks the same way we do.

In this connected world, a lot of our activities could be called “looking for a job”—joining a profes-sional network (online or in the real world), posting a resume online, maintaining a blog, meeting a for-mer colleague for coffee, participating in volunteer work, and so on. BeKnown simply lets you manage and display, with ease, all these components of your professional life. If you don’t think your boss gets

The boundary between work or “public” life and private life is blurring—thanks in large part to social media.

this, you do have problems—but your employer has even bigger problems.

But What About Facebook Itself?Connecting to your boss and colleagues on a profes-sional network such as BeKnown seems like an obvi-ous win-win: You can help one another in your current jobs, and you can take advantage of one another’s contacts in your search for industry information, new clients, new hires, and so on.

But navigating connections on more-social sites can be trickier—for instance, Facebook itself.

BeKnown keeps your professional contacts com-pletely separate from your other Facebook activity— and the question of whether you should let your boss (or other colleagues) see that activity is a personal one that depends both on your relationship with your boss and on the way you use Facebook.

An Open BookThe boundary between work or “public” life and pri-vate life is blurring—thanks in large part to social media. And many people think of social media as an open book—a clear look into their lives, even the not-so-nice (or just the not-safe-for-work [NSFW] parts).

If that’s you, you have to be certain that you want to provide your colleagues and your boss access to that book—don’t rely on privacy settings to keep you safe.

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Always Professional, All the TimeBut consider the changeable nature of the world, and you may decide to become your own filter for what you share via social media. People change jobs and careers at a faster and faster rate—today’s col-league may be tomorrow’s boss, and today’s Face-book friend may tomorrow’s valuable professional contact.

This is why some of the oft-repeated advice about what not to put on Facebook is good advice: Avoid sexually suggestive photos and posts, posts about illegal or questionable behavior, and (perhaps espe-cially) complaints about work or comments about how you’re goofing off at work.

Just consider that friend of today, in a potential context of tomorrow: You’re looking for work, and she is your potential “in” at one of your target companies. But she remembers that you used to spend work-days at your previous job playing Facebook games, complaining about your coworkers, and forwarding links to NSFW videos. As much as your friend may like you (and as much as she might even be engaged in the same activities at work), she will likely hesitate to recommend you as a potentially great employee —because as far as she can see, you’re not one.

Many people balk at the notion that they have to be “all business” on their favorite social media sites like Facebook and Twitter—they feel that these platforms should be about self-expression and free speech.

And that’s true—but it’s also true that these platforms are stages, and they put the whole world in front of you as your audience. This isn’t to say, however, that you have to turn your “performance” into a bland recitation of the news.

You don’t have to be all business. But think of it this way: There are things you tell your boss, thinks you tell your parents, and things you tell your best friends. What you put online should fall into all three categories—because by putting something online, you are in effect doing that.

All of these people can safely hear about your hobbies, your kids’ activities, your home-improve-ment ventures, books you’re reading, your high Scrabble scores (earned outside of work hours!),

your thoughts on your favorite TV show, and so on. They can all see photos of your vacation, your new puppy, your friends celebrating your birthday at a restaurant, and so on. Also, all of these people should be reading about your suc-cesses and activities at work—this goes

back to establishing your professionalism as part of your “personal brand” (for more on that, read “Building Your Brand,” elsewhere in the e-book).

Online behavior requires that you employ a bit of restraint—like just about all activities that in-volve interacting with other people.

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Your Boss, Your Parents & Your Best Friend


I have to offer?” Well, you might be surprised! Con-sider these six ways to get involved with the people in your professional network, so you stay present in your contacts’ minds—in a positive way.

1. Rebroadcast Their Activity It is definitely possible to overdo this—but one way to help your contacts (and to put yourself on the ra-dar of people and companies you want to develop relationships with) is to selectively rebroadcast their activity. For example, if you see that one of your con-tacts has recently put up a blog post and shared it, then you might forward it on to your contacts. Or if you see that a company has announced a cool new product or marketing campaign, you might comment approvingly on it and pass the information on.

2. Comment on Their ActivityIf your contacts maintain blogs or other types of Web presences, visit them regularly—and join the conver-sations there (in a positive, respectful way, of course). If you’re blogging, be sure to link to contacts’ blogs where appropriate (either in your blogroll or when you write a post related to something they’ve said).

3. Share Information and IdeasMany people use social media to share pop culture and recommendations for pop culture (music, books, movies and so on) but not everyone thinks to do the same when it comes to business-related informa-tion. Again, this can be overdone—you never want to seem to “spam” your contacts. But when you find broadly interesting articles (related to your indus-

try, or even about job-search tactics, for example), share them with your network—or when you read an industry-related book, recommend it to the specific contacts you think might enjoy or benefit from it.

(Consider signing up for email alerts related to key terms in your industry—this way, you can stay “in the know” and be the first to share interesting new articles.)

4. Introduce People to One AnotherChances are, there are two people in your network who would benefit from knowing each other—so why not make an introduction? Doing so can help two people at once! This can be especially helpful for someone who is actively looking for work or needs help in his career—but may be shy about asking.

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Building GoodwillYou Have to Give in Order to GetElsewhere in this publication, we’ve mentioned the importance of providing value to your network —of making sure that your networking is reciprocal (that is, that you aren’t reaching out to your contacts only when you need a favor), and that your social media activity isn’t merely broadcasting your achievements (or, even less helpful, only your Facebook Scrabble scores).

But for a job seeker or someone just starting out in his or her career, a question might be “What do

Offer your help as freely as you can, even if it’s something as simple as a five-minute resume review.


5. Offer Your ExpertiseEveryone has skills and knowledge to share —es-pecially with younger people or people at an earlier stage in their career. Offer your help as freely as you can, even if it’s something as simple as a five-minute resume review. The benefits of helping out someone younger or “lower on the food chain” may not be im-mediately apparent—just keep in mind that jobs and careers (and “the food chain”) are growing ever more changeable.

Plus, sharing advice is a great way to become known as a resource in your network—and in your industry. So don’t stop at social or professional networking platforms; also get involved in industry forums and in question-and-answer sites such as Quora or Yahoo! Answers.

6. Be HumanThe things that strengthen relationships in the world of face-to-face interaction also work in the virtual world. So don’t hesitate to pay compliments and of-fer congratulations to the people in your professional network.

Also, don’t be shy about reconnecting with people you’ve fallen out of touch with. Send a brief note to say hello and ask what they’re up to (you should stay up-to-date on what’s going on in your contacts’ lives, so that you don’t miss opportunities to help them—or to turn a situation to your own advantage).

Find authentic reasons to reach out and say hello, and stay active in your professional network—so it’s there when you need it.

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Your blog can be a cornerstone of your online branding efforts, as well as an indispensable net-working resource.

And it doesn’t have to be extremely complex or take a lot of your time—numerous free servic-es such as WordPress and Blogger make creating a simple (but effective) blog very easy.

Even a blog not related to your profession—fo-cused on, say, a hobby or a career-aligned inter-est—can give you an additional way to interact with your network contacts.

Of course, a blog related to your industry (at least peripherally) is the best way to build your professional brand and create a space for online professional networking. Your blog can position you as an expert, help you create new relationships, and provide a forum for speak-ing about what’s going on in your career.

Not sure what to blog about? Look to the parts of your job you love (or hate!) most for in-spiration. And don’t get overwhelmed: if you’re able to get at least two or three posts up a month, you’re showing good consistency (also, consider video posts if you don’t enjoy writing). Here are a few ideas for blog-post generators.

Your Work Projects: For instance, if you were

part of a team that released a new marketing cam-paign, you might blog about your part in the creative process.

Interviews: An interview is a great way to network with someone influential in your field. Just ask the expert for five minutes of his or her time, ask some pertinent questions, and write up the answers (along with a two- or three-sentence bio) in a blog post. The post will generate traffic for you, it compliments the person you’ve interviewed, and it positions you as an expert with great connections.

Book or Article Reviews: For instance, write a short summary of a professional-develop-ment or industry-related book you’ve read. (Alternatively, your thoughts on a recent mov-ie or TV show may be apropos. If you’re in advertising, say, perhaps you’ll want to blog

about an episode of “Mad Men,” for example.)

Lists: For example, put together a list of your favorite industry-news sites, good people to follow on Twitter, your favorite mobile apps in a specific category—all of these can generate conversations while position-ing you as an expert.

Advice and Tips: If you discovered a public-speaking tip, figured out how to do something cool in Excel, or just found a great restaurant in a city you frequently travel to for business, share the info!

Your Blog & You


Safety FirstSurf Your Way to Your Next Job—SafelyBY JOHN ROSSHEIM, MONSTER SENIOR CONTRIBUTING WRITER

This cyberspace of job hunting abounds with useful information and helpful people; it’s also full of misinformation, dead ends and the occasional economic or social predator who’s looking to take advantage of people.

Follow these tips for getting the most from online networking while protecting yourself.

Six Ways to Maximize Your Online Networking:

1. Join Genuine Affinity Groups. Look for an online community focused on a specific affinity, whether it’s your industry, occupation, city, alma mater or former employer. “I looked for every possible membership group I had any affiliation with,” says Tim Johnston, the author of “Diary of a Job Search.”

2. Be the Hub of a Group. Some of your strongest connections may be to ex-colleagues at a small start-up that dot-bombed. Form a group with them, or if no one from your alma mater has started up a local alumni group (or the group lies fallow), get it going yourself, whether with a Web site, newsletter, blog or weekly chat. But commit before you launch; it takes time and effort to put karma on your side.

3. Participate in Online Seminars. “Network with your fellow participants,” says William Arruda, a ca-reer coach in New York City. “Seminars are a great way to network with people anywhere in the world who are interested in your topic.”

4. Cast a Wide Net. To locate valuable lost acquain-tances who don’t show up elsewhere, try not only professional networking platforms but also search engines such as Google and Yahoo!.

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5. Craft Email Subject Lines Carefully. When you send unsolicited email to a networking tar-get who doesn’t know you by name, your mes-sage will have to elbow its way through a sea of spam. In your subject line, mention the name of a mutual acquaintance or a very specific topic of interest to your target, and make it snappy. Generic subject lines, like “Request for help,” or coy notes, like “I know someone you know,” will just get you trashed. 6. Give Something Back. After you ask net-working contacts to do something for you, do something for them. And whenever you can, of-fer even modest help to anyone in your broad network. “Confidently know that something will come back to you,” says Diane Darling, author of “The Networking Survival Guide.”

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5 Ways to Stay Safe While Networking

1. Don’t Give Yourself Away.

Keep personal data, especially identifying

information, to yourself until you have reason

to trust your correspondent. “One of the freaky

things about online relationships is that you can

overexpose yourself,” says Darling. On the Web,

one piece of information—name or address or

phone number—lets your genie out of the bottle.

Also be careful about disseminating documents,

like your resume, where your identity is embedded.

2. Set Up a Safe Email Address.

Consider establishing a separate email account

for professional networking. Choose an email alias

entirely unrelated to your real identity, and be sure

the email service doesn’t allow anyone to retrieve

information you may have provided, like what you

entered in a registration form.

3. Watch What You Say.

What you write in an online forum may be

retrievable by search engines for years. You can

imperil your good name and even lose your shirt by

recklessly trashing an associate, boss or employer.

Get a voodoo doll instead.

4. Safety in Numbers.

Be wary of face-to-face encounters with people

you’ve only known online. “If you meet people in

a group, a public place is pretty low-risk,” says

Johnston.

5. Infect Others with Good Ideas, Not Viruses.

The only thing more destructive to your reputation

than spamming the world with your resume is

allowing a PC virus or worm to send itself to

everyone in your address book. Install antivirus

software and keep your subscription current.


NetworkingDon’ts9 More Mistakes You Can’t Afford to MakeBY ZAC FRANK, TANIA KHADDER, AND ALICE HANDLEY FOR MONSTER COLLEGE

Networking, networking, networking.Trying to develop job leads and new

business contacts the wrong way can be just as damaging as not trying at all—if not worse. You want to (net)work smart, not hard, so make sure you’re making all the right moves.

Here’s how to build the network of your dreams without making the mistakes everyone else is making.

1. Not Knowing What You WantYou’ve gotten in touch. Your contact was very posi-tive and wants to speak to you further. You go to meet him—and all you’re prepared to talk about is what you’ve done in the past or your very vague plans for the future. You’re wasting his (and your) time.

Before you get into an extended conversation with a contact, figure out what you want for yourself. Is

there a particular job that he could give you ideas about how to get? Are you considering a new career path and interested in finding out what steps you should take to start down it? Is there a particular company you’re interested in and want to know more about? Make sure you enter all networking conversa-tions with concrete goals.

2. Resume, UnpromptedHow many e-mails do you get a day? Probably more than you’d like and probably fewer than someone who can help you move up or get a job. If you send your resume unprompted, you’re just asking for it to go straight to the trash. As in any conversation, you need to break the ice first. If a person can (and is willing) to assist you, he’ll ask for your resume.

3. Overestimating Your BondYou may think you know a contact well, but unless you’re seeing or corresponding with her regularly, it’s better to play it safe. If you come off as presumptu-ous, you come off as rude and drastically diminish your chances of getting help.

When you reach out to one of your “weak” con-tacts, be as deferential as possible. Ask more ques-tions; make fewer statements. And keep it short. If they want to and can give you more of their time, they will open the door for you.

4. Being Overly AggressiveWe’ve all been there: Stuck on a plane next to some-one who just won’t shut up about where he’s going, or stuck trying get away from the biggest bore at a

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party. You need to be outgoing and persistent while networking, but you certainly don’t want to be a pest.

Make sure you’re reading the verbal and nonver-bal signs for indications that your contact just isn’t into it anymore. Letting a reluctant person get away is better than forcing her to stay against her will. You might get a second chance!

5. Not Seeking MentorsYou have a new contact. He has extensive experi-ence. You’re about to start looking for a new job, so you send an e-mail:

It was so nice to meet you. I’m looking for a new job and thought you might know of some oppor-tunities.

This isn’t the email you should send. Especially with new contacts, it’s important to approach them as someone in search of mentors. While they may be able to help you get a job, they could also help you discover new career paths and opportunities you hadn’t even thought of. Try something like:

It was so nice to meet you. I was hoping you would be willing to talk with me further about the direction of my career. Your experience and insights would be immensely valuable.

What’s more, they get something out of the relation-ship. As your career advances, they can take satis-faction in having helped you—and you may even be-come a useful contact for them.

6. Not Following UpYou’ve gone to all that trouble to make the contact —why let it go to waste? You need to follow up after every meeting and job interview to reiterate your in-terest and to ensure that you remain at the very front of your contact’s mind.

Don’t let two weeks to slip by before you get back in touch. Sending a thank-you letter or email within 24 hours of your meeting will go a long way toward making a good impression and keeping you on your contact’s radar. And don’t be afraid to get back in touch within a couple of weeks if you still haven’t heard back. Persistence pays.

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7. NegativityYou’ve probably heard it before, but attitude is every-thing—and your attitude is catching. If you come off as negative, it’s going to be difficult for people to feel good about working with you in the future.

Remember: You’re selling yourself as much as you’re trying to get something from other people. Make sure you’re selling something they will want to buy!

You need to follow up after every meeting and job interview to reiterate your interest—and to ensure that you remain at the very front of your contact’s mind.

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to a high-level Apple exec? You can tell your friend about your desire to work for Apple, but don’t ask for an introduction right away. Instead, fill your friend in on your needs or goals, and then wait for him to of-fer to forward your resume, for instance. You can po-litely say at that point, “That would be wonderful, and would you by chance also be comfortable introducing me to [the exec]?” If the friend balks at your request, respect his feelings and don’t raise the issue again.

2. Asking for a Recommendation Without Reason: Your friends may be able to speak to a lot of your best qualities and provide character references. But unless you’ve worked with them in a professional ca-pacity, avoid asking for a professional recommenda-tion—it’s just not wise to impose by requesting what would surely be a weak endorsement from someone who isn’t really acquainted with your work. (If some-one asks you for an unwarranted endorsement, you can say something like “I wish I knew your work well enough to recommend you.”)

3. Being a Friend in Need, Not in Deed: Everyone lets some connections slip away over time, but don’t reconnect if you’re obviously only seeking a favor. If you haven’t seen someone in a long time, it’s highly inappropriate to invite them to lunch only to hit them up for job leads. Networking is an activity that needs to be focused on the other person, not on your needs.

8. Not Asking QuestionsPeople love to talk about themselves. Includ-ing you. But instead of talking incessantly about your needs, your goals and your inter-ests, throw in a question here or there. Give other people some room to get a word in. Prompt them to tell you a little bit about them-selves. The more you know about them, the more you’ll know what they can do for you and (in addition to what you can do for them—and this is key to good, reciprocal networking).

9. Not Tying Up Loose EndsYou found a new job! You reached out to every-one you knew who might be able to help you. They helped you find opportunities, got your foot in the door and secured interviews—and now it’s finally over.

Not quite. You will probably need those people again at some point in the future. Write thank-you notes and let everyone who helped (or offered to) know how your job search ended up.

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BY CAROLINE M.L. POTTER, FOR MONSTER+HOTJOBS

The rise of social networking has broken down barri-ers between our personal and our professional lives, but when you turn to one of your buddies for help with a career opportunity, beware of these network-ing-with-friends mistakes.

1. Cannibalizing Friends’ Online Connections: Are you drooling over the fact that a friend is linked in

Between Friends: Three No-Nos

http://apps.facebook.com/beknown/login/

developing your networks - wordpress.com · blog and the author of totally wired: what teens and...

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