Social Media and Career Success Workshop

Social Media and Career Success Workshop Written by: Heather Coleman, Training Facilitator Lauren Sibula, Training Assistant Edited by: Kay LeMon, Assistant Training Facilitator Ferndale Career Center 713 East Nine Mile Road Ferndale, MI 4820 (248) 545-0222 www.linkedin.com/ferndalecareercenter www.facebook.com/ferndalecareercenter www.ferndaleschools.org/fcc Copyright: May 29, 2009 Last Revision: June 19, 2009

What do I need to know?

80% of companies use or are planning to use social networking to find and attract candidates this year:

95% will use LinkedIn

59% will use Facebook

42% will use Twitter

HR people use social networks to research candidates:

76% use LinkedIn

67% use Google

44% use Facebook

21% use Twitter

Dan Schawbel, Personal Branding Blog: “Your Network is Your Only Insurance Policy.”

Companies Directly Benefit from Your Internet Presence In today’s recession, companies cannot afford to pay job boards thousands of dollars to post positions In Michigan, 800–1000 resumes are received per every job posting via traditional job boards Posting positions on professional sites decreases cost and increases effective hiring for employers Companies are overwhelmed and understaffed to handle this high volume of resumes Passive recruiting on employee social networking sites creates automatic references, higher quality employees and costs nothing for the employer HR directors and managers are able to research you, your professional accomplishments and goals, and your recommendations in a matter of seconds

What Is LinkedIn?

So…how exactly can this network be utilized to find a job? 1 st or 2 nd level connections can be used to introduce this candidate to 3 rd level connections. All levels may know someone who knows someone who can get you a job – and you can do the same for others. At any given time, this candidate can reach 700,000 people in the Metro Detroit area.

Examples of job search results: This candidate already has connections to two positions of interest. So, I have the connections – now how do I make the connections?

Click on the job description to see who connects you. Choose a connection to introduce you to the hiring manager or recruiter.

Make the connection! Employers are pleased to receive introductions and referrals through people they know directly. This expedites the hiring process and lends confidence to their decision. Utilizing LinkedIn makes connecting directly to the employer possible. The employer will see your accomplishments and recommendations with one click of the mouse!

More ways to utilize LinkedIn…

Update your status on a daily basis. Notify your network:

Career goals

Informational interview requests

Upcoming events you are attending

Projects you are working on

Questions regarding your field

Also read the status updates of your network connections. You can have discussions directly off of the homepage, or email people with a ‘private reply.’

JobAngels and JobsDirectUSA Professionals all over the United States have made a commitment to link up to job seekers via LinkedIn. This is a valuable opportunity to connect directly with recruiters, managers, HR professionals and other people in your field of interest. The purpose? For employers to assist unemployed candidates in obtaining positions exclusively via LinkedIn.

Should I join a discussion group on LinkedIn? Absolutely join discussion groups geared toward your field of interest! This is a huge opportunity for you to interact directly with employers and other contacts in your field. Other people see your comments, can comment back to you and check out your profile. This is job networking at its best. Every time you join in a discussion, Google will bring your name up. This is a positive ‘hit’ for your job search.

Why Use Social Networks?

Using Facebook for Career Opportunities Use your status updates to notify friends and former colleagues of your career goals. Literally dozens to hundreds of people will see your update within hours. In this example, 11 people responded to the update within 45 minutes. Dozens of people read this update in the same time frame.

Examples of Status Updates

Professional Profiles

Employers search Facebook for potential candidates to gain an understanding of their personalities

Especially when job searching, it is imperative that your profile is appropriate

Facebook is used for social/professional networking, so be aware of your language and interaction

Facebook has several options for locking down certain aspects of your profile. Your privacy is protected - you decide who sees what.

Privacy Settings First, click on “Settings” Now, click on “manage” next to “Privacy.”

Facebook offers many options to maintain control of who views which parts of your profile.

“ Twitosphere” – An expression used to describe the ‘world of Twitter.’ The world of Twitter? Yes, that’s right – Twitter is literally changing the landscape of the Internet, marketing, career search, networking and beyond. Did you know… That many companies are using Twitter to find passive job candidates? With one ‘tweet’, thousands of people can be notified of job openings in their specific field. This is significantly more effective - and far less expensive - than posting to traditional job boards. Why?

So…Twitter can be used for job search? How??

Twitter Job Alerts

When you post an update, the people ‘following’ you will receive a “tweet.”

Notify your followers of your career goals, and they can “re-tweet” to you with

information on possible connections, job openings and information.

They can also tweet their followers on your behalf!

Many people set up their tweets to arrive throughout the day on BlackBerrys

and iPhones.

Start with updating your status.

www.twitterjobsearch.com

www.twitterjobalerts.com 1. Type in your twitter sign-in name 2. Click here to ‘follow’ job alerts 3. The actual twitter site will pop up – now click the ‘follow’ button 4. Type in jobs of interest and location, then choose how often to receive updates

Twitter will then send your job alerts directly to your email and/or your cell phone. The only job alerts you will receive are those that you chose as your field(s) of interest. www.twitterjobalerts.com will pull leads from every job board and send them directly to your email or cell phone.

3 Keys to Making Social Media Work in Your Job Search

Putting It All Together

Blogging

Blogs in Plain English

To get started blogging, go to:

www.wordpress.com

www.blogger.com

www.xanga.com

www.technorati.com

External Twitter Sites

URL Shorteners:

www.tinyurl.com

www.readthisurl.com

Twitter Search Engines:

www.search.twitter.com

www.twellow.com

For user name availability on social networking sites go to:

www.namechk.com

We’ll see you online!

www.linkedin.com/heathercoleman

www.linkedin.com/kaylfcc

www.linkedin.com/ferndalecareercenter

www.twitter.com/heatherecoleman

www.twitter.com/ferndalecareercenter

www.facebook.com/ferndalecareercenter

www.myspace.com/ferndalecareercenter

Social Media and Career Success Workshop

1 comments

Notes on slide 1

3 Favorites & 1 Group