Building Social Capital With Social Media For Job Seekers

Building Social Capital with Social Media: 10 Ways to Beat Your Competition in the Job Market By Gideon F. For-mukwai XtraMile Emergency Solutions • April 24, 2009 URL: www.1xtramile.com • email: gideon.mukwai@gmail.com • Tel: 775 225 2755 1

Building Social Capital with Social Media: 10 Ways to Beat Your Competition in the Job Market Tip 1 Assess Your Niche and your Skills Look before you leap, they say. Take time to determine what you want to achieve with social media before using it to build social capital. This will enable you to make good choices in penetrating your niche. Ask yourself, who really needs my skills and where can I find that person in the new media land- scape? Is he on LinkedIn, or Facebook or MySpace? Ideas for implementation: ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... Tip 2 Inform your Spouse Your success with social media will be partly dependent on the support you get from your spouse because social media takes a great deal of time in building relationships. This entails transparency and understanding if you are in a relationship. It is important to let your spouse why you are on Facebook, else... Ideas for implementation: ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... URL: www.1xtramile.com • email: gideon.mukwai@gmail.com • Tel: 775 225 2755 2

Tip 3 Find a Collaborator Job search is a fairly lonely affair. However, with social media, you can reach out and connect with people who share your views. More importantly, find a collaborator with whom you can exchange ideas especially on the trials and tribulations of using social media to build and sustain strong relationships. Look for old friends and stay in touch. Your high school best friend or college mate. Ideas for implementation: ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... Tip 4 Sow Countless Seeds Sow seeds in all fertile grounds. By sowing as many seeds as possible, you can have the best possible har- vest or returns. This will in turn encourage you to work even harder. Consider using a tool that you are already familiar with and subsequently go farther. Go from Facebook to Diigo etc or start a blog to showcase your skills, experience and understanding of issues facing potential employers. Ideas for implementation: ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... URL: www.1xtramile.com • email: gideon.mukwai@gmail.com • Tel: 775 225 2755 3

Tip 5 Celebrate Minor Victories Celebrate minor victories, but insist on major breakthroughs. Learning a new tool or technology takes a patience and persistence. As often as possible, share your breakthroughs and frustrations with your your friends and associates. For instance, after uploading your photos to flickr, call all your friends and inform them to check them out and give comments about your recent vacation, or wedding, new baby etc. Ideas for implementation: ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... Tip 6 Find a Tech-Savvy Friend The backbone of using social media is technical support. Within your current network of friends and friends of friends, it is likely that there are some tech-savvy people who will be keen to help you out. They can provide to you with incredible technical support that will help you grow your network. Recall that making friends with Generation Y can have huge pay offs. Ideas for implementation: ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... URL: www.1xtramile.com • email: gideon.mukwai@gmail.com • Tel: 775 225 2755 4

Tip 7 Ask “Dumb” Questions. Before the planting season begins, ask yourself, what are some the challenges that I will face on this farm. Based on your expectations, develop FAQ-type questions that will clarify your doubts about concepts and issues that need to be addressed in the course of the ‘farming season’. Ask help from Digital Natives. Ideas for implementation: ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... Tip 8 Invest Time in Branding Social media is not a get-rich quick scheme. It is like farming. It takes time a while for the crops ie (relationships) to grow and it takes even longer start harvesting crops. If you could add only one person a day to your network, how many will you have in a year? You can self-produce videos to sell your skills. Use either Youtube or Blip.tv for distribution and sharing. Ideas for implementation: ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... URL: www.1xtramile.com • email: gideon.mukwai@gmail.com • Tel: 775 225 2755 5

Tip 9 Building Rock Solid Networks As you go about building your network, think of existing communities and clusters that you need to reach for. With a careful analysis of what each network cares about, you can make a pitch or get introduced into that network. Check out Meetup.com and bookmarking sites for common interest groups. Ideas for implementation: ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... Tip 10 Benchmark Others The grass is always greener on the other side. Sometimes, it is true. The best way to find out, is to check it out. With social media, one of the best ways to grow is to observe what others are doing to increase their traffic, stickiness, visibility and brands. As you observe, ask questions and take note of new ideas you need to implement in your own arena. Ideas for implementation: ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... Building Social Capital with Social Media: How to Beat your Competitors in the Job Market URL: www.1xtramile.com • email: gideon.mukwai@gmail.com • Tel: 775 225 2755 6

Presented by: Gideon F. For-mukwai, CEM Author & New Media Facilitator Originally from Cameroon, Central Africa, Gideon F. Mukwai, is the author of “Facing Adversity with Audacity: Thriving in Odds, Obstacles and Opportunities”, published in 2008. He was a previously a fire officer with the Singapore Civil Defence Force. He served as commander of first responders and subsequently as a senior instructor in charge of training of police, navy, narcotics and civil defence officers. In 2003, he founded XtraMile Solutions, with no clients, no contacts and no cash. Five years later, Xtra- Mile had trained over 8,000 personnel from fields like safety, banking, petrochemicals, hospitality and property management. He has delivered training programs in countries like Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, South Africa and recently in US and Canada. \" Today, Gideon is a graduate fellow at the Reynolds School of Journalism, University of Nevada, Reno where he studies new media and journalism. He is active with the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) and the National Speakers Associa- tion, (NSA). \" Gideon considers himself a life-long learner of new ways of thinking. In his spare time, Gideon enjoys writ- ing and presenting poetry. He also loves volunteering for good community projects. URL: www.1xtramile.com • email: gideon.mukwai@gmail.com • Tel: 775 225 2755 7

Building Social Capital With Social Media For Job Seekers

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