“. . . even if you’re new to the party, you’re still well ahead of the curve.” –Mashable’s Adam Ostrow on the adoption of social media and blogging

According to eMarketer.com, cited in a great Mashable article “82 Million User-Generated Content Creators and Counting” by Adam Ostrow :

“More than 82 million people in the US created content online during 2008. . .71 million people created content on social networks last year, while 21 million posted blogs. . .”

The message is clear if not definitive: the paradigm shift is here to stay. The eMarketer.com graph below shows the trend in user content:

Trend to Social Networks and Blogs:

• 82 million people generated content on a monthly basis online
• In 5 years, nearly 115 million people (30% increase) will generate content monthly online
• 71 million people generated content on social networks in 2008
• In 3 years, 94.7 million people (33% increase) will generate content on social networks

Reasons to Adopt Social Media and Blogs Now

• First adopters benefit from the shift more than anyone else
• Establish your Google indexing; stake your SEO “positioning”
• Defend your reputation online and control your name searches
• Build your network to support your career
• Establish your brand as a go-to source of valuable information

“Hiring managers are using the Internet to get a more well-rounded view of job candidates in terms of their skills, accomplishments, and overall fit within the company”–Rosemary Haefner Vice President of Human Resource Careerbuilder.com

Susan and I presented our workshop “Web 2.0’s Impact on Job Seekers: The Changing Roles of the Resume, Job Search, and Job Seeker” at CSIX this past Tuesday to a packed house of over 110 hopeful job seekers. As we settled into facilitating this workshop, we realized that for the first time we were about to present our complete thesis and theme.

We have been supporting blogging as a more powerful and proactive “living” resume since June of 2008. Yet Tuesday was our first opportunity to evangelize the emergence of a paradigm shift, where social media tools and Web 2.0 strategies replaced the resume, as a job seeker’s main marketing tool.

Web 2.0 Paradigm Shift in Communications

The decades of mass media dominance and stranglehold over the control and flow of information is waning. Today is the greatest time in human history for communication, connectivity, collaboration, networking, and delivering your message of value, expertise, and experience to your strategicially targeted hiring managers and companies.

There is a global conversation going on between bloggers, people networking and finding opportunities on Linkedin, resources and messages being broadcast on Twitter, and companies searching for human capital talent throughout the social media stratosphere.

Companies Adopting Web 2.0 and Blogs: Tools to Promote Business

Our friend and blogger Ray Schiel, of globalsocialmedianetwork.com, has produced a massive resource page that outlines the participation of 105 major corporations in blogging, 64 on Facebook pages, 12 podcasting, 12 crowdsourcing sites, and 100’s of companies microblogging on Twitter.

Job Seekers’ Tip: These social media tools are being used by major corporations to promote their products, services, and business practices. If you want to connect with your target company, and they utilize social media tools, then this is a major opportunity to connect as well as demonstrate your understanding of their efforts.

Companies Monitoring Web 2.0 and Social Media: Screening and Hiring Practices

Not only are major corporations utilizing these tools for their own business practices, they are using them to find new talent and perform due diligence on potential applicants. Computer World’s “One in Five Employers Uses Social Networks in Hiring Process” outlines a Careerbuilder.com survey of 31,000 employers. The results are very compelling:

1. 24% of hiring managers “found content on social networks that helped convince them to hire a candidate.” In addition hiring managers said that “profiles showing a professional image and solid references can boost a candidates chances for a job.”

2. 22% of the 31,000 employers said they “peruse social networks to screen candidates.”

3. 9% more of the 31,000 employers said they are planning to do so

4. A total of 9,600 employers are going to search for candidates and perform due diligence rather than rely on resumes to tell a job seekers story

Deliver Your Value First

The conclusion is that job seekers must deliver their value first before attempting to deliver their resume. Social media and Web 2.0 are changing job search. The resume is no longer a job seeker’s marketing tool. It is up to job seekers, in this very rough job market, to utilize these tools in order to stand apart and become memorable.

Robert Scoble is one of the most successful bloggers with his Scobleizer blog, technology evangelists, and well respected resources in Silicon Valley. His article “If you are laid off, here’s how to socially network” is a call to arms and a blue print for EVERY job seeker. Please heed his warning and take the steps Robert outlines. And by the way, many of these steps are steps we have already identified, written about, and continually evangelize in our Inner Architect business.

We added our comments to some of Scoble’s steps denoted by “IA.” The following are what we feel are the most important of Robert’s 19 steps for job seekers.

Scoble’s Steps for Job Seekers:

1. Your blog is your resume. You need one and it needs to have 100 posts on it about what you want to be known for.

IA: 100% agree with this statement except the idea of producing 100 posts. Your blog is your ability to deliver your value message of expertise, experience, and accomplishments–no resume can come close.

2. Remove all friends from your facebook and twitter accounts that will embarrass you. We do look. If we see photos of people getting drunk with you that is a bad sign. Get rid of them. They will NOT help you get a job.

3. Demonstrate you have kids and hobbies, but they should be 1% of your public persona, not 99%. Look at my blog here. You’ll see my son’s photo on Flickr once in a while. But mostly I talk about the tech industry, cause that’s the job I want to have: talking to geeks and innovators.

IA: You are best served by creating a message of your value, expertise, and experience as the themes for your content on your blog. You are building a case for why people should be interested in you. You also want to be considered a “resource” of great information.

4. Put what job you want into your blog’s header. Visit Joel Spolsky’s blog. He’s “on software.” That’s a major hint that if he were looking for a job that he is totally, 100%, thinking about software. If you want a job as a chef, you better have a blog that looks like you love cooking, like this.

5. Post something that teaches me something about what you want to do every day. If you want to drive a cab, you better go out and take pictures of cabs. Think about cabs. Put suggestions for cabbies up. Interview cabbies. You better have a blog that is nothing but cabs. Cabs. Cabs. Cabs all the time.

IA: This is a critical point and should be the driving force behind what you write for your blog.

6. If you want to be a plumber, look for other plumbers to add to Twitter, friendfeed, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Remove all others. Be 100% focused on what you want to do.

IA: Twitter is one of the most important free social media tools to bring awareness of what you can offer an employer, building your credibility, and networking within your niche.

7. On Twitter you can tell me what you had for lunch, but only after you posted 20 great items about what you want to do. Look at Tim O’Reilly’s tweet stream. Very little noise. Just great stuff that will make you think (he wants a job as a thinker, so do you get it yet?)

IA: The best strategy for what you should “tweet” is to provide information that is helpful, interesting, and has relevance to either a niche, industry, or public awareness.

8. Invite influentials out to lunch. Getting a job is now your profession. If you were a salesperson, how would you get sales? You would take people out to lunch who can either buy what you’re selling, or influence others who can buy. That means take other bloggers (but only if they cover what you want to do) out to lunch. That means taking lots of industry executives out to lunch.

IA: We can not agree more. Too many job seekers are stuck in the past where a job search was a part time activity. If you are not ready and willing to treat your job search as your JOB you are in for a very long period of unemployment

9. Send out resumes. Make sure yours is up to date and top notch on LinkedIn and other sites where employers look for employees. Craig’s List. Monster. Etc.

IA: We agree that resumes are still part of the requirements for landing a job. But the role of the resume has changed. The resume is NO LONGER your marketing tool for landing an interview leading to a job. Until you understand this fact, you will be stuck in “response” mode, applying for

10. Go to industry events. I have a list of tech industry events up on Upcoming.org. If you want to be a plumber, go to where contractors go. Etc. Etc. Make sure you have clear business cards. Include your photo. Include your Twitter and LinkedIn addresses. Your cell phone. Your blog address. And the same line that’s at the top of your blog. Joel’s should say “on software.” Yours should say what you love to do. Hand them out, ask for theirs. Make notes on theirs. Email them later with your LinkedIn and blog URLs and say “you’ll find lots of good stuff about xxxxxxxx industry on my blog.”

IA: Again we agree that the blog should be the “hub” of your marketing plan in landing a job. Linkedin is your new resume and critical to notifying people you are open to “new opportunities.”

11. When you meet someone who can hire and who you want to work for. Follow them on Twitter. Facebook. LinkedIn. Their blog. Stalk them without being “creepy.” Learn everything you can about them. Build a friendfeed room with all their stuff. That way when they say on Twitter “I have a job opening” you can be the first one to Tweet back.

IA: What Robert is alluding to is your strategy to connect with hiring managers and companies. It is up to YOU to be proactive and place yourself in position to be noticed, appreciated, and ultimately contacted back.

12. Tell others where the jobs are. One thing I learned in college is by helping other people get jobs you’ll get remembered. So, retweet jobs messages (if they are relevant to your professional friends and to you). Blog about job openings. Help people get jobs. Hold lunches for people who are jobless. Some of them will get jobs and they’ll remember you and invite you along.

IA: The law of reciprocity or what comes around goes around does happen. According to Jeffrey Gitomer, expert networking and sales trainer, you must give first before you can expect to receive. It is that simple.

The New Years holiday is my favorite because it always sits me down to think about what I want to achieve in the fresh year. I am reminded of all the possibilities. When I focus my complete attention on creating my desired life, a few things come up that I know are vital to the process:

1. Develop a clear vision: Knowing specifically what you want to create or achieve enables you to play an active role in building it. Vague goals don’t give you anything solid to believe in, visualize or reach for.
2. Give yourself permission to be prosperous. Financial success comes from thinking that prosperity is your natural right, just as much as breathing. Work on making this belief your habit if it isn’t already.
3. Adjust your beliefs about your life with what you want your life to be. Become keenly aware of that little voice that is constantly telling you what it thinks is possible for you and make the commitment to override it with statements about what you want to be true for you.
4. Understand the power of visualization and use it to create the reality you want. Think of yourself as a co-creator of your life and see visualization as your tool for molding your creation.
5. Make a habit of consciously creating your life. Start each day focusing on your vision, be sure that your beliefs are aligned with your vision and follow through with a visualization that brings your vision to life.
6. Approach your work with positive expectations. Believing in your potential to succeed will inspire you to follow through with the right actions.

Dean and I spoke yesterday at Silicon Valley employment group, CSIX Connect, on the topic of Web 2.0 Networking. While most of the participants embraced our Twitter and Linkedin tips with great enthusiasm, there were a few skeptics among the crowd of sixty. Despite the success stories we brought forth in our presentation, “Who’s really using these sites?”, was a question initiated by one man at my lunch table. As I got involved in the debate, I realized that the question was more about, “What’s in it for me?”

How Early Web 2.0 Adopters Benefit:

1. You demonstrate that you are “with it.” You prove that you are keeping up with the latest business trends, and are not allowing yourself to become a dinosaur. You demonstrate the traits that are desirable in any business partnership.
   
2. You increase your professional value by having added new skills to your portfolio.
3. You expand your networking circle. While real world networking is still vital, you can make a lot more new connections every day by being an active social media networker.
4. You combat age being an issue in landing jobs. Employers are likely to place greater value in your willingness to learn the latest skills over your chronological age. Youthfulness is a state of mind.
5. You maximize your exposure and it’s free.