Why You Need Social Mediaby Dan SweetMBA Class of 2009for Notre Dame MBA Career Development

What is Social Media?“Social media is a shift in how people discover, read and share news, information and content. It's a fusion of sociology and technology, transforming monologue (one to many) into dialog (many to many) and is the democratization of information, transforming people from content readers into publishers.”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media

What can Social Media do for you?Free advertisingThe easiest networking you’ve ever donePowerful research toolGreat way to stay on top of an industry

How do I get started?Assess your Social Media savvyDecide on your personal brandDetermine your level of involvementChoose the most appropriate toolsStart connecting and creating content

Assess your Social Media savvy0 – 2 Internets, what?3 – 4 Heading in the right direction5 – 6 Doing great 7 Social media superstar

Determine your personal brandWhat are you passionate about?What are you good at?Develop a personal brand statementChoose a consistent image of yourself to use across all sites online (called an avatar)Here is mine: aim forprofessional recognizablefriendlyAlign your resume, cover letter and online profiles around your brand statement

Determine your involvement

Choose the most appropriate tools for your goalsFacebook connecting with friendsLinkedIn business networkingTwitter broadcast txt messaging – networkingGoogle Reader inbox for blogs you readWordpress/Blogger/Typepad start a blog and share your perspective

The Basics of the ToolsFacebook – privacy settingsLinkedIn – connections, recommendationsGoogle Reader – setup, adding blogs, useTwitter – setup, following others, tweets, @replies, DMs, Tweetdeck, search, groups

Facebook A recent survey showed 1/3 of hiring managers are looking at Facebook profiles Turn offs: poor judgment, rude comments Don’t be this guy!

FacebookFacebook is primarily for your friends Either keep it clean or consider removing yourself from search resultsVisit your search privacy settings page and under “Search Visibility” select “Only Friends” (Remember, doing so will remove you from Facebook search results, so make sure you want to be removed totally. Otherwise, you can select another group, such as “My Networks and Friends” which I believe is the default.) Click “Save Changes”Consider altering your privacy settings so people can’t tag you in photos if you want to control your image onlineVisit your profile privacy page and modify the setting next to “Photos Tagged of You”. Select the option which says “Customize…” A box will appear. Select the option “Only Me” and then “None of My Networks.” Now no one will be able to tag you in pictures.

LinkedInMany great resources available for LinkedInCheck out these guides:Official LinkedIn ‘09 Grad GuideGuy Kawasaki’s 10 Ways to Use LinkedInLinkedIn: 22 Ways to DominateOne Tip: Profiles with more connections and recommendations rank higher in search results. Write a few recommendations for others and ask former bosses and colleagues to recommend you as well.

Google ReaderAn Inbox for the blogs you read regularly

You don’t read blogs? Only guys like this are into blogs?

These people all blog:George SorosCarl IcahnMark CubanBill GatesPaul AllenSergey BrinLarry PageJerry YangOprahGuy KawasakiSeth GodinRichard BransonBlogs are written by people in every industry. Reading them regularly allows you to stay on top of what is happening in an industry and keep up on their latest thoughts and ideas. In many cases commenting on the blog will start a conversation with the author.

Google Reader TutorialSignup for an account from Gmail.com (try for yourname@gmail.com or something close) ND’s Gmail isn’t integrated w/ Reader Set up your ND email to forward to your Gmail1Reader is missing!23

Accessing Google Reader Just click “Reader” from within Gmail or go to reader.google.com and sign in Treat it just like your email. It is easy to stay current in just a few minutes a day.

2 ways to add subscriptionsFrom the blog you want to addFrom within Reader (if you know the feed address)Look for RSS logo or “Subscribe”

Navigating in Google ReaderThe blogs you subscribe to are on the leftThe number of unread items is in parentheses

A few blogs by industryVenture Capital / PEA VCGoing PrivateMarketingSeth GodinGuy KawasakiDave KnoxAlan WolkBackPocket from ProphetBanking / InvestingAbnormal ReturnsLeveraged Sell-OutVix and MoreCapital Chronicle Paul Kedrosky’s Infectious GreedTechnologyTechCrunchScobleizerFake Steve JobsValleywagNon-ProfitSpare ChangeHave Fun – Do GoodHealth CarePharmalotPharmaGossipConsultingBlogs by McKinseyitesGDIFCSubscribe to a few of these and you will quickly find more

Twitter What is it? (from Twitter.com) “Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?” Twitter is more useful when you answer the question, What is on your mind? No one cares you just ate some cake. Try to make your tweets “value-add”

Get Twitter setupGo to Twitter.com and signupPick a username as close to your real name as possibleUpload your picture (avatar)Put a link to your LinkedIn/Facebook or blog in your profileFollow some people Start tweeting!

Quick Twitter DefinitionsTweet (n) = a Twitter messageTweet (v) = to send a Twitter message @replies = put an “@” in front of anyone’s name to send a public reply to themDMs = direct messages – send a private message to someone who follows youRT = retweet – a way to pass on a tweet you find especially interesting, useful, or funny

Finding people to followFollow me “dsweet”Look through the people I am following and follow some of themIterate indefinitelyOnce you are following some people you like, use MrTweet.com for customized recommendations of good people to follow

Getting people to follow youBe interestingBe funnyBe helpfulTalk to people using @repliesGet your friends and family on TwitterIf all else fails, read this article:Guy Kawasaki: Looking for Mr. Goodtweet

Tweetdeck is Twitter.com on steroids

Final Twitter TipsDownload Tweetdeck at Tweetdeck.comSearch to find people in your target industriesOrganize the people you follow into groupsUse it to update your Facebook statusAlso, follow your Facebook friendsTake Twitter on the go and never be boredÜberTwitterfor BlackBerryTwitterific for iPhoneceTwit for Windows Mobile

Putting it all together…Use a personal home page or blog to link all the pieces of your online identity. Consider buying yourname.com or set up a free profile with a service like MeeID.com or a Google Profile.Create an email signature that links to your online identity and allows people to learn more about you easily

Examples:www.meeid.com/dansweetlookuppage.com/users/dansweetemail signature

A final word of caution:Don’t blow yourself up…Consider steering clear of these topics online: religion, politics, and sexPresent a consistent imageDon’t spam peopleThink before you type- a short case study:A lucky job applicant tweeted the following:Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work. A Cisco exec tweets back:Who is the hiring manager. I’m sure they would love to know that you will hate the work. We here at Cisco are versed in the web.(posted March 17, 2009 on I’m Not Actually a Geek)

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