I recently got an email from Chris Brogan who offered a free copy of his eBook – Using the Social Web to Find Work.
I headed to his site and firstly noticed it was on a blog page from over 3 years ago so would it still be relevant.
But we are still in an economic downturn and still so many people fail to use social media to help them in their job search, even some of my clients don’t want to do it and need lots of encouragement from me!
Much of the book focuses on LinkedIn, and I’m a great fan of this. To help my clients I worte the ebook – How to use LinkedIn to Find a New Job.
LinkedIn is future focused – the emphasis on where we are going, not where we have been.
He writes the importance of having an effective headline, it’s what people see when you ask to connect and is seen every time we make a comment this will appear, and you really want to write this as clear as can be.
He says your summary should be refreshed every 2 weeks, really, but so much remains the same – I need to think about this. I recommend updating status 2 or 3 times a week, but the summary, really?
I like the way he says that in the work experience section he suggests that the past experience supports current and future aspirations. There is so much that COULD be included so pull out the achievements to meet career goals, – good point that, and one I get me clients to do.
Recommendations are powerful and only ask for them from people who know you. Seems obvious but I regularly hear of peple being asked to write recommendations for people they don’t know – do they honestly think they will get one!
Connection Strategies
Chris Brogan says to connect with as many people as possible. Here is where we differ, I’m choosy about who I connect with and if somene sends me a generic message I take that to mean they are doing a big trawl with everyone in the ir contacts list so I delete
Write to be Read
We agree again here, be interesting and make it clear what you do and what you can do.
The ebook also covers an article
1: Template for Building a Small Powerful Network
His advice includes having a blog, asking probing questions on Twitter. Find people on Twitter and send @ messages to ask them if they want to talk about collaborating. Then look for ways to help each other.
2: Social Media for Your Career
He suggests building an online presence with your career in mind. A blog is an excellent way to do this. This should not be just formal articles but also as a means of helping people to get to know who you are.
Having a blog hosted on WordPress is recommended, and free!
He also talks about the social media resume (CV) and although he doesn’t go into detail this could be a great way to link to articles, and provide short videos. So, if you are a trainer, have a video which shows you in a training role – how you present and facilitate.
3: Social networking
Like me Chris doesn’t think much of traditional networking events when people stand around and chat. But online networking is perfect – following people on Twitter, joining with them on FaceBook etc and Chris even mentions networks I don’t know if – Seesmic and Utterli.
4: Have a Gmail account
You get more than an email account, you also get access to Google Reader, Google Calendar, Google Talk etc.
Also consider
FriendFeed is a way to aggregate your presence and that of your friends online.
Digg and StumbleUpon and del.icio.us accounts – Use social bookmarking communities to share things you like, to find things youʼre interested in, and to grow a social view of news and information.
- Upcoming.org for events to attend in this space.
- Flickr account – for photo sharing, and gives you an easy place to put your pictures on the web.
- Skitch account – for screen captures, should you want to post a picture off your computer screen simply. (Mac product)
- PayPal account – for easy financial transactions used by many websites.
- Plaxo or Batchbook – for online contact management (always keep a backup).
And finally – be human, network because you care not because of what you want.
You can access the eBook from Chris’s site – here is the link to access Free eBook- Using the Social Web to Find Work.
