Unless you were placed in a time capsule before 2004, you have heard the words “Social Media”. A whopping 80% of jobs found are from networking – and this includes the social networks.
From the Career Perspective Social Networks can be an asset, or a liability. Their important continues to grow. But as Social Network expert Dick Fisher (e-merge) likes to point out – reflect on yourself first. Are you a social creature? If not, you will probably not be successful in social media networks. So ask yourself right now: “Am I a social person?” Only you can answer that. But if you have been called a bully, too angry, a sexist, a bigot, or pushy, you have some soul searching to do.
Once we have considered our social behavior, let consider the social networks. There are literally hundreds of social networks that exist. But the biggest 15 are:
1) Facebook 100,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors
2) Twitter 310,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors
3) LinkedIn 255,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors
4) Pinterest 250,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly
5) Google+ 120,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors
6) Tumblr 110,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors
7) Instagram 100,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly
8) VKontakte 80,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors
9) Flickr 65,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors
10) Vine 42,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors
11) Meetup 40,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors
12) Tagged 38,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors
13) Ask fm 37,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors
14) MeetMe 15,500,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors
15) Classmates 15,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors
(Source ebizMBA)
Before we focus on those networks that are best aligned for career, and business – realize that any off color, racist, overtly political, or sexist posts you have made will hurt your career, and your hiring profile. Larger companies use software that scans social networks for damaging posts that you made. If there are hits these will come back to bite you in the hiring process. If you have posts that you are not proud of, that meet the negative criteria above, delete them now. If you feel embarrassed that a post can be tracked back to you, that is a red flag. Clean up or delete those posts as soon as possible.
When it comes to job networking LinkedIn is the 300 lb. gorilla. Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ are other networks that lend themselves to career, and job searches. But LinkedIn is all about career networking. LinkedIn is a robust network. So robust that a small book could be devoted to its use. In addition to a “chat” area, LinkedIn offers marketing services, and ads. These ads can be very finally tuned to career, industry, educational level, and region of the country. For our purposes we will focus on the free features of LinkedIn. Below are suggestions for use of LinkedIn when to comes to career development, career visibility, and job networking:
Facebook: There are some that feel Facebook is not appropriate for job or career networking. My personal feeling is that it can be used in this area, as part of sharing other parts of my life. Facebook is for networking my life, and my job, and career are big parts of my life. At the end of the day this decision will tie back to your comfort level. But I think most people will be fine with job networking in Facebook – just make it one piece of the share that you have.
Twitter: Most companies now have teams that post to the company’s twitter accounts. For job searches, TwitJobSearch.com is a tool worth looking at.
For the above networks and others, you may join, the general guidance of creating a profile holds true. If your posts reflect thought, kindness, good ideas, helpfulness, leadership, and sound values, and most importantly social-ability, you will be at your best in any social network. Remember that 80% of the jobs to be found are through networking. And 94% of recruiters use LinkedIn. On the topic of social networking, first and foremost be sociable, then select your social networks.
From the Career Perspective Social Networks can be an asset, or a liability. Their important continues to grow. But as Social Network expert Dick Fisher (e-merge) likes to point out – reflect on yourself first. Are you a social creature? If not, you will probably not be successful in social media networks. So ask yourself right now: “Am I a social person?” Only you can answer that. But if you have been called a bully, too angry, a sexist, a bigot, or pushy, you have some soul searching to do.
Once we have considered our social behavior, let consider the social networks. There are literally hundreds of social networks that exist. But the biggest 15 are:
1) Facebook 100,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors
2) Twitter 310,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors
3) LinkedIn 255,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors
4) Pinterest 250,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly
5) Google+ 120,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors
6) Tumblr 110,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors
7) Instagram 100,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly
8) VKontakte 80,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors
9) Flickr 65,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors
10) Vine 42,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors
11) Meetup 40,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors
12) Tagged 38,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors
13) Ask fm 37,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors
14) MeetMe 15,500,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors
15) Classmates 15,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors
(Source ebizMBA)
Before we focus on those networks that are best aligned for career, and business – realize that any off color, racist, overtly political, or sexist posts you have made will hurt your career, and your hiring profile. Larger companies use software that scans social networks for damaging posts that you made. If there are hits these will come back to bite you in the hiring process. If you have posts that you are not proud of, that meet the negative criteria above, delete them now. If you feel embarrassed that a post can be tracked back to you, that is a red flag. Clean up or delete those posts as soon as possible.
When it comes to job networking LinkedIn is the 300 lb. gorilla. Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ are other networks that lend themselves to career, and job searches. But LinkedIn is all about career networking. LinkedIn is a robust network. So robust that a small book could be devoted to its use. In addition to a “chat” area, LinkedIn offers marketing services, and ads. These ads can be very finally tuned to career, industry, educational level, and region of the country. For our purposes we will focus on the free features of LinkedIn. Below are suggestions for use of LinkedIn when to comes to career development, career visibility, and job networking:
- Create a profile. Try to make this as complete as you can. List companies, and jobs you have held for at least the last ten years. (Unless your total job history is less than this.)
- Upload a photograph. This one is pretty important. A professional head shot is highly recommended. There are other places you may want pictures of you with the family dog, or the new baby – but LinkedIn is not the place for this.
- Try to use messaging as a one on one tool. There are times that you may want to blast a message out to all your contacts, but don’t over use this. A good rule of thumb is no more than two mass messages per year. Best advice – use messaging selectively.
- Ask for Connections. Browse under “Add Contacts” and look for people you know, and want to have connections with. Send connection requests out. Be patient if you don’t get an accept right away. Many people keep LinkedIn activity as a lower priority in their daily tasks.
- Watch for posts that interest you, and join in the discussion. Ideally, experts such as Dick Fisher (e-merge) say, you want to have a conversation with others. LinkedIn use is best as a pull in network, not a push network. In short, participate, and ask questions.
- Job Searches. LinkedIn now supports job searches. Once you have a complete profile, and picture in place, select the “jobs” link at the top of the page. When prompted, key in job title, keywords to search on. By selecting “advanced” you can filter on region, industry, salary, and other criteria.
- Apply for jobs. In LinkedIn you can apply for jobs through LinkedIn, or through the hiring company’s website. You also have the ability to save jobs, and apply for them later.
Facebook: There are some that feel Facebook is not appropriate for job or career networking. My personal feeling is that it can be used in this area, as part of sharing other parts of my life. Facebook is for networking my life, and my job, and career are big parts of my life. At the end of the day this decision will tie back to your comfort level. But I think most people will be fine with job networking in Facebook – just make it one piece of the share that you have.
Twitter: Most companies now have teams that post to the company’s twitter accounts. For job searches, TwitJobSearch.com is a tool worth looking at.
For the above networks and others, you may join, the general guidance of creating a profile holds true. If your posts reflect thought, kindness, good ideas, helpfulness, leadership, and sound values, and most importantly social-ability, you will be at your best in any social network. Remember that 80% of the jobs to be found are through networking. And 94% of recruiters use LinkedIn. On the topic of social networking, first and foremost be sociable, then select your social networks.
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