Twitter and Social Networking: Job Search Power Tools or Time Killers?
Filed under: Career, Current Affairs, Life and Business, Marketing, Marketing Yourself, Professional Growth, Social Commentary, Your Professional Development "To Do" List
One of the best lessons that I’ve learned from working on about two million fix-it and improvement projects with my Dad is to match the right tool to the job at hand. This is particularly true in searching for a job, which can be one of the more vexing projects for many people.
Fortunately, there are a number of interesting new power tools available in the form of social networking platforms, to help today’s job seeker. However, unlike the tools in the picture, there are few guidelines on how and where to to use these tools to good effect.
Sidebar 1: Most of us probably know more than a few great people looking for work, and hopefully, you are providing your help and support in the form of networking contacts and moral and morale support.
Sidebar 2: A friend indicated that she now knows what it might feel like to suddenly be the person that no one is comfortable interacting with anymore. It seems her friends have responded to her lingering unemployment by doing what many people do when someone gets sick or suffers a personal loss…they disappear. Please don’t do that.
OK, back on topic. One of the issues that I make it a point to always ask my job searching colleagues about is their social networking strategy. I’m both curious how people are using the tools and whether they are finding them helpful or distracting. The feedback is mixed and interesting.
My informally captured, non-scientific research findings indicate the following about the use of social networking tools in the job search:
- Use and enthusiasm for social networking seems to vary by age and experience, with younger job seekers comfortable leveraging a broader swath of the social media spectrum than the more experienced (translated: older) professionals. No surprise here.
- LinkedIn is the most common tool that senior managers opt for initially. Again, no surprise.
- The minority of people that I’ve spoken with are Twitter users, and the perceptions of what Twitter is/can do are all over the map. Again, not surprisingly, there’s a great deal of ignorance about Twitter and a fair amount of cynicism. It usually goes something like, “I don’t know how telling people what I had for breakfast will help me find a job.” That’s certainly one point I agree with…, there’s no chance that telling people what you had for breakfast is correlated with landing a job!
On the positive side, I’m also hearing some interesting ideas and uses of the various media coming from some of the more adventurous job seekers.
The tone/theme of this feedback is: I don’t expect social networking to replace the hard work of researching, live networking and effective marketing and selling, but it is a valuable supplement and source of ideas, leads and contacts.
That’s a good, well-grounded perspective.
Some of the best uses that I’ve heard are (paraphrased):
- Targeting: I target the firms that I’m interested in working for, then I leverage the social media platforms to learn as much as I can about the company and the people. I’ve openly shared with people that I’m interested in their company and have received some great insights and suggestions.
- Culture Assessment: I look at how involved a company and its employees are in social media as one indicator of culture. I don’t want to work for a firm that is restrictive or paranoid.
- Pure Networking: I use the tools to meet people and learn about exciting new firms.
- Research: I use the tools to find people writing about or offering advice for job seekers.
- Power Research: I use the research capabilities of Tweetdeck (an application to help organize your twitter world) to search on key terms and find firms and people talking about things related to the type of work that I do.
- Introductions: Several times I’ve asked for help from my LinkedIn colleagues for an introduction to a contact of a contact, and they’ve come through for me every time.
- Rest, Relaxation and Rejuvenation: Social networking is my life-saving coffee break. I let myself jump into the conversations twice a day for about 15 minutes each time, and I come out rejuvenated. I meet great people and we exchange ideas and then I get back to work.
The Bottom Line for Now:
My two-cents suggests that it’s critical to use all of the tools available in securing a new opportunity. Social Networking may not hold the easy answer, but it certainly can be part of finding the answer. Savvy job seekers recognize the information and research power of social networking and are leveraging these new power tools to help get the job done.
A Rant on Social Networking Etiquette or, When did Rude Become Acceptable OnLine?
Filed under: Life and Business, Marketing Yourself, Social Commentary
Call me old-fashioned, but just because so many of us are interacting from behind a screen doesn’t mean that the rules of etiquette and common courtesy have been suspended.
In case you didn’t get the memo on the importance of professional courtesy in an on-line world, this is it.
I am increasingly fascinated and horrified by the way people conduct themselves through sites like Linkedin and for networking introductions provided via e-mail.
I’ve compared notes with a number of my colleagues and have found that I’m not alone with my observations and annoyances.
Invitations to Connect on Linkedin:
Let’s tackle Linkedin first. This popular and powerful business networking tool is an ideal way to catch up with colleagues from firms long-ago as well as to facilitate introductions for these seeking to connect. I like it…it merits a few minutes a day of maintenance, it is a good resource for learning something about people you might be meeting or interviewing with, and the forums and discussion groups have some merit for like-minded professionals.
What irks my about people’s behavior on LI is the way some people seek to reconnect. I won’t name names, but more than a few colleagues from a life two decades ago have found me on Linkedin and sent along the following boilerplate message:
“So and So has identified you as someone they trust and would like to add you to their network.”
That’s it. No “Hello!” no “How are you?” or even a “Hey, great to see that you are still breathing.” Heck, an ”I didn’t like you 20 years ago, but now that it looks like you can help me, I want to be your friend,” message would be better than nothing. At least it is personal and honest.
Most people offer nothing. Silence. Nada. Zero. Zip.
What’s wrong with you people?!
Can you imagine bumping into a colleague on the street after many, many years and not offering a smile, a polite greeting and some questions about what they are up to? I can’t.
Proper Etiquette: Use the message function of Linkedin and send a polite greeting. After the connection is made, exchange notes and engage. The goal is to create quality connections and to find ways to support each other should the occasion arise. Start engaging…not just linking.
e-Introductions:
I love this one and again, my colleagues report the same. Someone goes to the trouble of sending a nice note out suggesting that two people might share interests and might benefit from connecting, and then one or both parties ignore the introduction.
I make it a habit to always send a nice greeting to the person that I was introduced to and offer my contact information and encouragement for a chance to connect via a brief phone call. It is amazing how many people never respond.
Was it my courtesy? My enthusiasm for meeting great new people?
The lack of response speaks volumes about the person.
Proper Etiquette: Always, always, always take the next step after an e-introduction. Be the better person and extend the opportunity to connect. You may decide after 60 seconds of phone time that there is no fit. Or better yet, you may find a valuable new relationship, a kindred spirit on a professional topic of interest or someone who turns into a valuable network partner.
If you don’t follow-up, all that you tell everyone is that you are a jerk.
The Bottom-Line on this Rant for Now:
We all have a remarkable number of ways to interact and while we are all busy, YOU are never too busy that skimping on courtesy is acceptable. Bring Etiquette Back!
Mind Your Knowledge Gap: Why Social Media is Essential to Your Career
Filed under: Career, Crisis Leadership, Current Affairs, Leading the Generations, Life and Business, Marketing, Marketing Yourself, Professional Growth, Social Commentary, Your Professional Development "To Do" List
This is a wake-up call to my mid to late 30 to 40 something (and older) contemporaries. It’s time to figure out what all the noise is about social media and how to leverage it for yourself, your career and your organization.
It’s not going away. It may change and morph, but there’s a whole new world of conversations and interactions going on and if you are not plugged in, you are tuned out and wandering aimlessly.
Do You Tweet?
If I had $100 for every conversation that included something like (with a tone of disdain), “Twitter sounds ridiculous. Why do I want to know that someone is taking a shower or what they ate for breakfast,” I would be well on my way to recovering a few losses in my 401K.
I’m two months new to Twitter and amazed at the quality of the conversations and the number of great professionals that I’ve met. I’m also flabbergasted to think about the conversations, resources and talented professionals that I was missing out on prior to joining.
Are You LinkedIn?
Or another exchange that I had with a brilliant and talented and dear friend the other day, “I only signed up for LinkedIn because I was looking for someone. I hope this isn’t a mistake.”
Sigh. Instead of a mistake, in the right hands, this is a remarkably powerful research tool and the most efficient way to-date to connect with and maintain a dialogue with former and current colleagues. The only mistake is not to take advantage of it.
Thought About Marketing Lately?
I chat with many experienced marketing professionals that still view their jobs and their profession through the eyes of individuals that grew up and never left the teaching and prevailing wisdom of the 80’s.
Meanwhile, Seth Godin (Tribes) and Guy Kawaskai (Reality Check) and David Meerman Scott (World Wide Rave) and others are serving up powerful arguments that the processes of reaching people, building visibility, building brands and establishing credibility are all different.
The Younger Generation, Blogging and On-Line Learning:
As the MySpace/Facebook generation asserts itself in the workforce (see my post: In Hopeful Praise of the Millennials), the relevance of old approaches of working, leading and promoting will fade into history.
In my own case, a mere two years ago, I wasn’t certain about blogging and the prospective value from the time it would take in my daily schedule. Now, I’m a raving advocate for the medium as a means of establishing a dialogue with sharp people and for building your brand. The time commitment is down to less than one hour several times per week. I’m also curious about what’s next.
I am an education junkie (and passionate about great universities and great educators) and love the chance to bring a heavy dose of pragmatism into my MBA classrooms. I was slightly cynical about the potential of on-line education and wondered what all of the noise was about. In following the old adage, “if you want to learn something, sign up to teach it,” I did. Three times.
Once you rethink and acclimate to the communication dynamics, the potential to integrate on-line and live education is remarkable. In my hybrid class (one week face to face the next on-line) in Project Management this past winter, the on-line portion provided the ability to research and share perspectives much broader and deeper than any I’ve ever witnessed in a straight classroom setting.
The Bottom-Line For Now:
I’ll be back on this topic sometime soon.
My advice to you or for your doubting colleagues is to show them the networking and research power of social media. Highlight examples of brand-building and thought leadership development that cost nothing but time. Showcase the savings from eliminating many interruption-marketing techniques in favor of the new approaches. Invite them to Twitter and show them how to filter out the noise and focus on connecting with the many, many sharp people.
There are no silver bullets in life or business, but there are sure-fire ways to fail. One of the best is to start acting like some of our parents and avoid what we don’t understand.
Hey, by the way, join me on Twitter or connect with me on LinkedIn. The conversations are great.
Now, if I could just figure out what all of the fuss is about Facebook. I just don’t get it…
Seven Survival Tips for the Newly Independent
Filed under: Career, Life and Business, Professional Growth, Your Professional Development "To Do" List
I suspect that we are all engaging with former colleagues, friends and family members that have recently been furloughed from the corporate world.
A few that I have spoken with are struggling to adapt to the new reality and are finding themselves floundering as they struggle to replace the comfortable routine of getting up and going somewhere with wandering around the house wondering what to do and where to start.
Here are some ideas that I’ve either learned myself over time or have gained from others that have mastered the art of working alone and managing themselves without the services and security of a mother ship. I would love to hear your suggestions as well
7 Suggestions to Survive and Prosper in your Period of Corporate Independence:
1. Define your new work, establish goals and create and work your plan.
If you are looking for a job, that is your full time job. Set goals for yourself. Create plans to achieve the goals and dive into your new work. A number of people I know like to establish daily targets for networking and prospecting activities.
If your new work is reinventing yourself or pursuing a venture other than a job, it may be a bit harder to set goals…but you need to identify the priority activities that will move you towards your objective and focus on those activities. Exploration, networking, research, plan development, vetting, more networking and so on.
2. Create a new routine.
Allow yourself to enjoy the break from fighting traffic every morning, but don’t lounge away your time reading the paper. I like to hit my home office with cup of coffee in hand by 5:30 a.m. I allocate 45 minutes to write a post and then I’m off to the races on my priority tasks. (Note: not all of the neurons are firing this early, which explains my occasional typos and editing lapses!) Breakfast consists of a run for another cup of coffee, enough time as it takes me to assemble a bowl of oatmeal, add milk and raisins, heat it in the microwave and return to my desk. Elapsed time: about 3 minutes.
Depending upon what I’m working on, I’ve identified optimal times for networking calls and prospecting as well as time for content creation/preparation for the next engagement etc. It took some experimenting, but there are better times to catch people than others, as any salesperson will tell you.
3. Give yourself a routine break and work off stress.
Some new independents have a severe guilt complex if they vary the routine off of work. If that ‘s you, get over it. There’s nothing more energizing for me than the mid-day workout at the health club. As long as I’m comfortable that I am not missing prime networking opportunities, an investment in one hour at the club returns huge dividends in the form of stress relief and energizing you for the next part of your day. Oh, you can turn this into a networking opportunity. Unplug the headphones from your ears and say hello to the person next to you on the treadmill. It might just be the CEO of the company down the street that is looking for someone like you.
4. Learn to leverage the new technologies but don’t become consumed.
I’m a huge fan of the power of social networking technologies and am active on LinkedIn and Twitter. I do however set strict time limits on my use of these services. I allocate 15 minutes per weekday. Otherwise, it would be possible to get lost in an on-line existence.
I’m still under 1-month new to Twitter, but I’ve met a number of great professionals who are now part of my extended network. A few benefits thus far: I’ve conducted and have scheduled numerous phone calls with prospective clients or partners that I met on Twitter. I’ve been invited to be interviewed for a podcast aimed right at my target market, and I’m talking with other successful bloggers about exchanging guest posts. My blog traffic is up considerably thanks to the Twitter referrals and the free access to new prospective readers. Plus, I’ve reconnected with former associates in a way that a simple phone call would never allow. We are interacting daily…140 characters at a time. There’s something to it, and you need to approach it with clear objectives in mind.
Also, as an fyi, that was a long commercial for Twitter. LinkedIn offers some remarkably powerful professional networking tools. You should learn how to leverage this great service. It may be one of your best friends in a job search.
5. Invest in yourself.
I don’t care what you do, but do something that shows that you are concerned about your own personal/professional development. Take a class, read books, start a blog and immerse yourself in a topic to feed the creation of posts. Start your MBA or explore courses that fit with your business or career aspirations. Do something productive with your brain or it will atrophy or worse yet, it will allow negative thoughts to take root and grow like wildfire.
6. Help others.
Strive to give way more than you are asking for. Help others with their networking activities. Help at school, at church or check to see if your county has a Volunteer Center. I am now on the board of my county’s Volunteer Center and excited to be helping this organization recast its vision and strategy.
7. Stay positive, celebrate your victories and your progress.
Don’t preoccupy on the defeats and rejections. Again, every great salesperson knows this style of thinking. They have to stay positive or the rejection would push them over the edge.
–
There are many, many more ideas. Feel free to share your own in the comments.
My bottom-line for now is: keep moving, keep thinking, keep planning, follow-up and keep improving.
Feeling the Economic Deep Freeze? Ten Actions that You Can Take to Thaw Out and Combat Your Blues
Filed under: Career, Current Affairs, Life and Business, Marketing Yourself, Professional Growth, Your Professional Development "To Do" List
The thermometer here in Chicago this morning indicates that it is -12 degrees outside. Fahrenheit. That’s cold. We get a deep freeze like this every winter, and it gives the local newscasters something to blather about for the few days that the world here looks like a scene from the movie, Dr. Zhivago.
As the economy continues to crumble around us, one of the common themes that I am hearing from people at all levels and in all forms of positions and professions is that they “don’t know what to do.” Much like the weather outside, people are frozen in place. Fear will do that, and it’s definitely not healthy.
The best way that I know to combat fear and unfreeze your mind from the “what might happen” or “what just happened” mentality is to start moving by taking action. Actions generate energy, push out the negative emotions and provide hope.
Here’s my randomly generated and in no specific order list of 10 ideas for anyone seeking to thaw-out and start moving forward in spite of the sub-zero headwinds. This list is good for anyone…employed or unemployed. I’ll be back in a future post on things to do in the workplace while the rest of your colleagues are frozen in fear.
1. Don’t Preoccupy on the News-it’s mostly bad. It’s amazing how traumatizing it can be to have the “nattering nabobs of negativity” (thanks, Spiro Agnew) blathering on incessantly about how bad things are and how much worse they might be in the coming months. Turn it off.
2. Update your professional resume/cv
This seemingly onerous task feels great once you get going. For many, the resume is a core marketing tool, and the intellectual effort of thinking through where/how you created value for your organizations serves to remind you that you do have something good to offer prospective employers.
Get help with this task if you need it. Ask colleagues and former managers to review a draft and provide you with ideas and feedback. Use my recent posts: Marketing Yourself, The Irreverent Opinions of a Resume Hobbyist and Marketing Yourself Part II: Defining Your Professional Value Proposition to jump-start your process.
3. Jump-start your networking activities.
For business professionals, LinkedIn is a great tool to facilitate this task. Creating your LinkedIn profile is a natural part of the resume update process, and developing your list of former and current colleagues will help you recognize how many people you know. Not everyone is on LinkedIn however, so don’t restrict your communication activities to just those that you find in this environment. (For those of you out there that would like to connect, click here to go to my profile and send me a note with your invite. If you are new to this tool, I will be happy to offer my two cents worth on using it effectively.)
Remember that networking works best if you give more than you get, so carry this philosophy forward by helping others connect with colleagues in your network that might offer help. Start reaching out and connecting with people. Most actually appreciate the contact.
4. Read or listen to something by Seth Godin. Seth is a popular marketing author and guru, and every time I read or listen to Seth, he reminds me that many of our most ingrained patterns of thinking are just plain obsolete. Spend some time with Seth and stretch your brain a bit.
A great starting place is the recent podcast: Seth Godin Thinks You’re Boring, that Seth conducted with another of my favorite and provocative gurus, John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing. Seth and John help you make sense out of some powerful new approaches to thinking about the world, about marketing yourself and about competing in this environment. He’s got a new book out: Tribes, We Need You to Lead Us, and I expect to finish it this weekend.
5. Do something physical. Hit the gym, chop some wood, clean the basement, paint a room, or do anything else that gets you moving. (Yep, that too.) You will feel better.
6. After doing something physical, start a blog. I’ll agree with Seth here. I don’t care if there are 190 million blogs worldwide. The act of setting up a blog and the discipline imposed by writing and publishing regularly will change you for the better. Drop me a note if you want some ideas on getting started.
7. Figure out how to leverage Twitter for business purposes and send me a note. OK, this one is a bit self-serving, but I am new to Twitter and while I find it exciting and fascinating and socially very cool, I have not yet cracked the code on this popular new form of communication. Join and let’s “follow” each other and see where this thing takes us.
8. Sign up for that class that you’ve put off or get going on the degree. Tough times are a great time to get to work on improving your skills and advancing your education. There’s nothing on TV you can’t record, you shouldn’t be Twittering and blogging more than a few minutes a day, so evenings are a great time to be in class or on-line in a class.
9. Volunteer. Someone in your community needs help. Your school, your library, your church or the many shelters and nonprofits.
10. Connect with people in person. Limit your time on the computer and increase your face time with real people. It’s too easy to sit behind the screen in this world. Find a networking group, join or start a book club, attend an occasional seminar. Push away from the keyboard.
The Bottom-Line for Now:
Do something. Anything. Stop worrying, start taking action and success will breed success. Maybe my list will prompt some ideas of your own. If that happens, remember to share. Pay it forward.
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