Leveraging Social
Networking For Your Career
Linda Skrocki
Sr. Community Engineering Program Manager
1 1

Table of Contents
• Sun's Community Site Galaxy
• Why Participate?
• Do's and Don'ts
• Getting Started
• Resources
• Tips
2

Sun's Web Presence
3

Why Participate in Social Networking?
• Experience serendipitous connections
• Collaborate with others who share your passion
• Engage directly with the experts
• Contribute to the sum of all knowledge
• Drive awareness of your initiative
• Advance a cause
• Teach
• It's the new resume
4

The Light Side of Social Networking
Think Before
You Participate
Conversations
in the marketplace:
A win for you & the
company. “If it doesn't
kill you, it'll make
you stronger.”
5

Do's and Don'ts
• Do
>Be authentic
>Be informative & entertaining
>Be personal
>Respond to comments
>Engage in others' conversations
>Link to others' conversations
>Be aware postings are immediately syndicated via feed readers
• Don't
> Be contrived
> Sell your soul to ads
> Steal content: Sharing is good, but get approval & cite your source
> Delete comments that you may not agree with, politely counter them with
your thoughts
> Use too many widgets
> Feel compelled to use every tool out there
6

Getting Started – Step One
What do you want to share & how?
• Topics
> Professional only?
> Personal only? What depth?
> A mix of both?
• Objective?
> Drive awareness?
> Join existing community?
> Nurture a new community?
• Which tool best aligns with the above?
> Company community site?
> Non company site?
> What functionality best meets your objective (blog, micro-blog, wiki, forum, etc.)
7

Getting Started – Step Two
IF you decide to use corporate community sites...
...know the laws of the land!
Fully read and understand Sun's Guidelines on Public Discourse:
http://www.sun.com/communities/guidelines.jsp
• Quick read
• Conversational in tone
• It'll help keep you and the company out of trouble
8

Getting Started – Step Three
Get going! Simply start.
9

Sun Resources
• Sun's Guidelines on Public Discourse:
http://www.sun.com/communities/guidelines.jsp
• Sun Social Networking wiki space:
http://wikis.sun.com/display/SocialNetworking
• Sun external facing communities & “how to” resources
> Blogs: http://blogs.sun.com http://wikis.sun.com/display/SunBlogs/Home
> Wikis: http://wikis.sun.com http://wikis.sun.com/display/Help/Getting+Started
> Forums: http://forums.sun.com http://wikis.sun.com/display/SunBlogs/Home
> File hosting: http://mediacast.sun.com http://wikis.sun.com/display/mediacast/Home
> Feed aggregation: http://planets.sun.com https://wikis.sun.com/display/SunPlanets/Home
> Video sharing: http://channelsun.sun.com
> Sun on Twitter: http://wikis.sun.com/display/twitter
> Community types: http://www.sun.com/resourcesfor/index.jsp
10

Great Reads...
Guess which cool tech
company is mentioned
in every one?
11

Closing Advice
• Keep your posts short. Writers's block usually happens when people
are trying to be too complex. Long posts are fine too – just don't let
one long, imperfect post bump you out of your goove.
• Join in on other people's conversations. Add new and valuable
information. Extend the conversation, but don't try to control it.
• Participate in social media meet-ups. Visit upcoming.org to find
events, get out there often.
• Don't push out to communities, but integrate into communities. Get
close, immerse yourself, listen, and be transformed.
• Cross-pollinate your participation. Post a link to your blog from your
Twitter profile & vice versa, etc.
• Social tools enable easy connections to experts more than ever
before – take advantage of this opportunity to mentor or be mentored.
Pro tip: Find a mentor who's not already in your corner. You'll learn
more. :-)
12

Q&A
• Session Q&A
• How to reach me after the session
> first.last@sun.com
> http://blogs.sun.com/lskrocki
> http://twitter.com/lskrocki
> http://facebook.com/lskrocki
> http://www.google.com/profiles/laskrocki
> http://www.linkedin.com/in/lskrocki
13