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.