Keeping Myself Busy – The Hunt for Work through Social Networking

Incredulity is mean. “So Drew, how’s the job hunt?” “Fine,” I tell them, “I am networking a lot using tools like LinkedIn and Twitter.” That’s when I usually get, “really, how are you going to get a job like that?” Non-believers. The simple truth is that for managers at my level, 85% or so of us will have to get our jobs through networking. Job boards like Monster and Dice just won’t cut it for us. Neither will recruiters. What’s funny is that I got that stat from a recruiter who will no doubt read this. Maybe Mike will post the source for that stat.

So that is how I spend my day, networking and working a temp job that I actually really enjoy. But that is a story for another post. Nope for now, let me got through a bit of what I have learned and what I have actually found myself doing.

Online Presence

For me it all started with a professional online presence that I could be proud of. I like WordPress and have worked with it extensively, so I quickly redid my own domain name, www.drewselman.com, to be social media friendly. This included an about page which include an HTML and downloadable version of my resume, an active blogging area and a professional look and feel to the entire thing. It included links to what I believe is an ongoing virtual interview of me. My potential employers should know what I can deliver and that distinguishes me in the market place. I am currently working on building the Visual CV version of myself and I highly recommend Dan Schawbel’s excellent how to on the subject, here.

Now, I do have a pretty strong web development background and so a lot of what you see on the site is because I somewhat understand the underpinnings of HTML. WordPress is somewhat forgiving, but I highly recommend you keep it simple, collected and well organized. Make sure every article is shareable and that you don’t have any dead links. Professional is the key here.

I also use a plugin called LifeStream that creates an ongoing log of my social media activity. Setting it up is complicated and I will write up what I learned just as soon as I am sure it doesn’t completely stink.

Social Networking

Next for me was the bevy of social networking platforms that had to be adopted for the purpose. Beyond my Twitter account (SocialMediaWonk), was my Delicious, Digg, Facebook, Flickr, Last.fm, LinkedIn and StumbleUpon. It took quite a bit of time to not only locate all of them but to sign up. The bottom line is that all these are fairly easy to use and deploy. For the most part they work straight from a browser and serve to put your name in the world even more.

Also important is to actually write articles. I know that sounds obvious, but original content is your friend. If you are an expert at something, don’t say you are – write authoritatively. Watch the Social Media keyword on Twitter for five minutes and someone will make fun of a so-called “expert.” Don’t be the target. If you write well and you have a following your reputation will grow and you will earn the trust of the people following you.

You should also make your Twitter self job search friendly. There is plenty of space in the profile and you can easily put your elevator pitch in the biography. Its 160 characters so be precise in your language choice. Mine? “Social Media Evangelist, Senior Project Manager & Photographer seeing meaning and a new job in an unstable world.” Make sure your avatar is professional looking. Mine is a photo of me that was done for a recent book I appeared in, so I was lucky. I then tweet about my need for new professional employment on a constant basis. It is usually re-tweeted by friends and I am hopeful.

I also use a more professional looking Twitter background and include www.drewselman.com for easy access to my resume and site.

So that’s the setup. Next time I will go through some of the sites, twitter follows and other things that I have visited and what kind of traction and relevance I have found. As always I look forward to your comments.