Archive for November, 2008

Yesterday Linkedin announced their new search platform, which refines your ability to search for potential hiring managers, customers, business partners and colleagues. The new search platform offers many enhancements to search functionality by expanding the number of data fields available to query. While doing so, it also expands your opportunities to be searched and found.

Key enhancements:

• Search people by keyword. Type in any text string and Linkedin will search profiles to find those that contain the string. This is a great feature for building your list of prospective employers or clients.
• Refine search by name, title, company and zip code.
• Assign search criteria to current or current and past jobs.

How to leverage this information to increase your chances of being found:

1. Be sure that the keywords associated with the job or service you want to be hired for appear in your profile.
2. Designate a professional headline (basic information data field on your profile) that supports what you want to be known or hired for. This professional headline is the description that appears under your name in a query search. Make sure it speaks clearly to the people you want to view your profile.
3. Don’t list a temporary job as your current job if it doesn’t utilize the skills and expertise you wish to employ in your long-term work. Why?

Instead, describe any interim work in your Summary, where you have the opportunity to position this work how you want it to be perceived.

Twitter, like blogs, is fast becoming an effective tool, for jobseekers willing to take the next step in their integration into social media, as a job search strategy. Consider the testimonial provided by David Murray in David Meerman Scott’s eye opening article “How David Murray found a new job via Twitter.”

The Scenario

David Murray was laid off from his job. He immediately jumped into the traditional job search strategy of completing a resume, calling people, and networking. David quickly realized he would have to utilize Web 2.0 tools in order to stand apart from his job seeking competion

The Strategy

Twitter Public Announcement: Dave decided to reach out on Twitter, @DaveMurr, in order to publicly announce he was looking for work. As Dave explained, in Scott’s article:

“I guess you could say I used a new tool for old school networking. . . The response was overwhelming and I received several leads and opportunities that were far more fruitful than my previous attempts.”

How Did He Do That?

Twitter Search: Dave gives social media star Chris Brogan credit for his Twitter search strategy. Brogan outlined his strategy of utilizing RSS feeds aka Really Simple Syndication as a method to keep up with his thousands of followers.

Dave’s Search Strategy:

1. Enter Keywords into Twitter’s Search that match the company, industry, niche, or community you are targeting. Examples of Dave’s search keywords included: “Hiring Social Media”, “Social Media Jobs”, “Online Community Manager”, and “Blogging Jobs.”

2. RSS Feeds are available for every keyword “conversation” on Twitter. Dave simply clicked on the RSS chicklet next to the search box of the information he wanted to track.

3. Google Reader is a tool that allows you to aggregate information, via RSS feeds, into one spot so that you can read what is important to you. It’s like creating your own newspaper or library.

Dave simply ” pulled the RSS feeds of these keyword conversations into Google Reader and made it a habit to check these first thing in the morning everyday.”

Next Step

Introduce Yourself is as easy as following and reading conversations. If something sounded like a good fit for Dave, he took the initiative to introduce himself via Twitter.

1. Hidden Job Market: According to Dave, “Many times when inquiring about the open positions, the jobs had not been officially posted.” And more pointedly, “How cool that on Twitter you can express interest in a job opportunity that hasn’t even been announced yet? It’s like inside information.”

The Results: Dave’s New Job

Dave is happily employed as Assistant Webmaster, Client Services for The Bivings Group. Davide Meerman Scott’s best quote came from Heather Huhman Entry Level Careers pages for Examiner.com:

“The Internet is changing just about everything – the internship/entry-level job search included. Gone are the days of printing out your cover letter and resume on ’special’ paper, sticking both in an envelope and mailing the application package off. We are officially in the Job Search 2.0 era.”

Job seekers are beginning to embrace the advice touted by the Wall Street Journal in April 2007 about the value and benefits of using a blog to land a new job. While many are motivated to expand their job search to include Web 2.0 strategies, taking those first steps to become transparent to the online world often stirs up a bit of insecurity; at least it did for me.

Tips for moving beyond obstacles that often come with launching a blog:

• Leverage your opportunity to create a new brand for yourself. If you are just beginning to blog, you have a clean writing slate to work with. See this as an opportunity to build your expertise, and consequently, what you are known for, in the direction you want to go. You build your expertise through research and becoming involved. Don’t feel limited to write articles about where you’ve been and what you now know. Give yourself the freedom to move in whatever direction you want by writing articles that showcase your knowledge or expertise in that subject. There is great wisdom behind the statement “fake it until you make it.”

• Give your writing voice credibility. Allow yourself to write with the same level of confidence and authority that you have demonstrated throughout your professional career. Focus on the value of your expertise and don’t worry about who might poke holes in what you have to say.

• Think of yourself as a problem solver. Offer solutions, how-tos and tips for addressing a specific need, issue or problem.
  

Twitter.com is quickly becoming one of the most useful, fastest growing social media tools available today. Yet a large number of twitter advocates are making the most basic mistake in social media which is costing them valuable opportunities and slowing their desired results.

#1 Mistake to Avoid: Collecting Numbers

Stop collecting and start connecting! Too many people view twitter as a place to collect followers. This syndrome is not exclusive to twitter as many people make the same mistake on Linkedin. The collection of connections little value unless you create communication leading to relationships.

#2 Mistake to Avoid: Staying within Your Own “Tribe”

Many people are guilty of staying within their “tribe.” Many people fail to communicate or investigate outside their sphere of choice. Instead they tend to limit much of their messages to their industry.

#3 Mistake to Avoid: Stop Hard Selling

Often people have been trained to push their features and benefits with an ongoing hard sell sales strategy. In today’s information rich, Web 2.0 savvy world, the hard sell is dead. Instead people must provide valuable information on an ongoing basis: no sales pitch attached.

What does this mean to your efforts on twitter? A: If you only provide links about you and your company, people will quickly begin to stop paying attention to your messages. Which brings us to the next challenge.

#4 Mistake to Avoid: Narrow Focus

Avoid delivering the same narrow focused message over and over: it is not compelling. Do not continue to leave links to your industry, business, products, services, or about page. Without a variety of information, people do not have the opportunity to know more about you.

Then What is the Strategy?

Like any social media community, twitter is most valuable when you engage other members in meaningful communication, provide valuable information to the community, and then collaborate when given the opportunity. Antidote to the 4 Mistakes:

1. Stop collecting numbers by communicating with people, show you care, and get involved.

2. Go outside your industry or niche and make new connections with people from other career paths. Also consider people with similar hobbies and interests as viable networking partners.

3. Stop hard selling and become a provider of valuable information. By doing this people will perceive you as a valuable resource and somebody to be read and respected.

4. Widen your subject matter for a more well rounded approach to your messages. Personalize and humanize by providing information about things other than your business. Create value for your business connections as well as your networking partners who have no business ties to you.

Whether you are a job seeker or an entrepreneur selling your services, you increase the odds of getting hired by applying the practices used by traditional direct marketers. The most effective marketing campaigns involve multi-channel strategies that touch your prospects several times. People rarely respond to what you are offering them on the first effort.

If you have ever subscribed to a magazine, you’ve experienced receiving numerous letters asking you to renew your subscription. When I was in the magazine business, a 60% renewal rate was considered respectable. Yet our renewal strategy consisted of 8 efforts and we only expected to get 10% on the first mailing. Look at what we would have missed if we would have stopped after the first attempt.

Likewise, we promoted subscriptions through a number of different channels because we understood that our best prospects could not be reached with one single method. We spent a fortune on direct mail because it was the quickest and easiest way to bring on a number of subscribers at once. Yet we also used insert cards, space advertising, and subscription agencies as channels for sales. All of this was in an effort to cover our bases.

Most people don’t think about their employment search in such comprehensive terms, but when you think about it, why shouldn’t something as important as landing a job be any different?

How do you start to develop a comprehensive employment campaign?

You begin by conducting research to develop knowledge and build target lists:

• What industries are growing enough to be in hiring mode?
• Which of these industries interest you and need your expertise?
• Which companies within these industries match your values?
• Who are the hiring managers?
• What channels will best reach them?

Once you’ve compiled your target list details, develop a contact strategy that promotes your expertise by delivering your blog articles through the various channels you’ve learned you can reach your target prospects.