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Using Online Social and Professional Networking in your Job Search

Over the past year, social networks, such as www.myspace.com and www.facebook.com, among others, have become all the rage among millions of people. While you may have avoided interacting with people online in this type of situation, you should give some consideration to taking the opportunity to network with other people in you profession or career field. Social and professional network services provide a great opportunity for you to prove your expertise and discuss potential employment opportunities.

According to www.wikipedia.org: “A social network service focuses on building online communities of people who share interests and activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. Most social network services are web based and provide a variety of ways for users to interact, such as e-mail and instant messaging services.

Social networking has created new ways to communicate and share information. Social networking websites are being used regularly by millions of people, and it now seems that social networking will be an enduring part of everyday life… Popular methods now combine many of these, with MySpace and Facebook being the most widely used in North America;[1]

Take advantage of creating and posting a profile that is directed toward your professional aspirations, rather than your personal life, in order to get you noticed by the right people. In doing so you should remember that whatever you post online is accessible by many people. If a potential employer googles your name, you want that person to find that everything about is is professional. You should treat your profile as if it were a job application. Avoid typos and misspellings. Be professional in your postings, questions, answers, etc. Use your name as your user ID so that potential employers can find you.

If you sign up for www.youtube.com you can also take advantage of creating and uploading a video profile in which you present youself as a professional in a variety of areas.

Professional network services, while similar to the social network services are targeted toward increasing your exposure to, and interaction with, other professionals in you career field. Linkedin (www.linkedin.com) is one of the most well-known an highly-used professional network services on the internet. According to wikipedia.org, “A professional network is used for the business to business marketplace. These networks improve the ability for people to advance professionally. Business professionals can share experiences with others who have a need to learn from similar experiences. Additionally, the ability to find, connect and network with other business professionals is one reason

why LinkedIn has grown from less than 8,500 members in 2003 to over 18 million today.”

To post a profile on http://www.linkedin.com/ you will want to have all of the information that you gathered to develop your resume close at hand (previously in this book). If you did a good job on the lists that you created to get your keywords, you will already have a list of the most important points you want to make. While the resume you created limits the space you use to talk about your accomplishments, your Linkedin profile gives you the opportunity to expound on these accomplishments in detail.

You will also want to remember the keyword importance of the resume. People on social and professional networks will be searching for other people like them by keywords and phrases. Businesses and hiring professionals may also be searching these networks for potential employees. So, be sure to include those important keywords in the About Me section of your profile.

Let’s walk through the signup process for Linkedin.com as an example of what you would want to do for any professional or social network service, in order to get you noticed.

First, you’ll want to go to the home page at www.linkedin.com. Click on the Join Today link at the top on the right side of the page. Fill in the very simple signup form and click the “Join Linkedin” button at the bottom of the form.

You’ll want to check any of the boxes on the next page that allow you choose what you want to find and who you want to be found by, the click the save button to continue the signup process. Depending on how you want to use the service, you can select any number of options. If you are looking for a job or contract work, be sure to indicate that. Then, click on save settings.

Once you save your settings, you’ll be redirected to your profile page, where you can create your profile, manage your network, meet new people, find people, and much much more. This is where you will have an opportunity to express yourself.

The first thing you’ll want to do, however, is to fill out the profile with all of your relevant professional information. Make sure you complete all of the information. Each portion of the profile is given a percentage weight and on the right side of the page you’ll be able to see how much of the profile is completed. While it may take a few sittings, be sure that your profile is 100% complete. Or, at the very least 95% complete. I say 95% because you may or may not want to include a picture. In some states in the US, it is illegal for potential employers to make candidate selections for positions based on appearance and, therefore, the growing popularity of using a picture on a resume is causing problems. (If you have used a picture resume and had it returned to you, you’ll understand what I’m talking about.)

So fill out the profile section as if you’re completing a job application, with full attention to detail and perfection in the language and grammar.

From that point, you’ll want to see if anyone you know has a profile on the service and contact that to include them in your network of contacts. See if you can get them to give you a recommendation, and add applications to your profile, as you see fit.

Once you’ve completed your profile and added contacts, you can search for jobs that have been posted on the site, that match your skill sets and geographical region or browse for other positions.

Craigslist and other classifieds web sites

Classified ad web sites are another way of searching for jobs on the Internet. If you go to www.craigslist.org you can select a geographical area where you want to look for a job or post your resume. Craigslist may be one of the foremost job posting and resume posting web sites, in the world, that doesn’t require you to post a profile or enter any additional information other than your resume in order for it to be searched.

Once you select the geographic area on craigslist.org, you’ll be redirected to a page that includes links and information for the selected city. If you are in a medium town, there’s a possibility that you won’t find your exact town or city on the list, so you’ll have to select the next closest mediumr area to search from.

After you get to the page that contains information for the area that you have selected, you’ll want to, first, create a resume posting. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the link that says “resumes.” When you post your resume make sure you give it a title that will attract attention for the type of position you’re seeking. If you’re an accountant, title the submission Accountant. If you want to emphasize a specific area of accounting you could say something like Accountant with expertise in program budget management, or Non-profit Accounting Manager.

Remember, all postings on Craigslist.org are limited to 45 days and you can only post one resume with the same title and information. So you’ll need to be sure to repost your resume every six weeks.

After you have posted your resume, be sure to browse through the jobs. You can click on the jobs link and do a search for a particular job title or skill set by making sure that you search both the keywords or phrases in both the title of the posting and the body. Don’t check the box that says “only search titles.” Doing so will severely limit the return on your search. You have the option of narrowing your search for job postings by checking any of the boxes in the search form to include only particular types of positions. The options available to you are: telecommute, contract, internship, part-time, non-profit, and has image.

Using a classified ad site means that you will be communicating directly with the person who posted the help wanted ad. So be sure to include a cover letter in your email and, if they want you to send the resume in the body of an email, not as an attachment, you’ll need to copy and paste your resume in the email, following the cover letter. Because of problems with email attachments and potential viruses, many recruiters and hiring professionals cannot or will not accept html emails. So be sure to use a text only version of your resume to copy into your email.

Best,

August