Posts Tagged ‘facebook’

Facebook, Job Search, and You!

How many of you have considered using Facebook to boost your job search?  Today, we discussed just that.  There were so many great thoughts, I would like to share a few with you.  Here’s a new job search bumper sticker: friends help friends find jobs.  So, it’s logical that your Facebook friends (even the ones you don’t know) want to help you find a job.  So, let’s give it a go.  Here are my ideas for how to use Facebook to find a job:

1. Let your friends know you are looking (create a Hire Me campaign). See my vizualize.me example from earlier in the week.
2. Use the Facebook time line to create graphics that feature your strongest skills.
3. Be a story teller: the story is you, and your career-your strengths, your proudest accomplishments, paint a picture using words about what you can do.
4. Remember it’s about them, not you-focus more on what you can do for the company.
5. Conduct company research. Get out your targeted company list, find them on Facebook, read their page daily, identify the thought leaders, and go get ‘em.
6. Find a friend who knows someone at the company where you want to work, and ask them for a referral.
7. There are many recruiter centric groups on Facebook, join them, and connect with a friendly recruiter who can point you to a recruiter that specializes in your occupation and industry.
8. Job Boards are now using Facebook to post jobs, check them out.
9. Investigate Apps like Beknown, and Branchout: build your contact network, and ask for referrals.
10. Check out Quora: it’s a great source of information and discussion.
11. There’s a new kind on the Facebook block called Cachinko.  They’re connecting people with jobs. They are job matching careers, and people on Facebook.
12. 76% of recruiters screen candidates on Facebook vs. 48% on LinkedIn. Source: http://t.co/4TQ5Nc1u #
13. Conduct searches of your occupation, and industry.  Facebook has groups for most, and they are a great place to network.
14. Finally, if you are looking for a job, remember what I always say: imprint this in your mind, before every single status update, begin it with the invisible words, “Dear Future Employer.”   Job seekers, clean up your language, and consider what you choose to post will be seen by everyone, including recruiters, and potential employers.

There’s my top 15 tips for using Facebook for a job.  Be sure to check out our HireFriday website.  Our transcripts will be posted soon.  Please leave a comment if you attended today’s HFChat, I’d love to hear you opinions.

Your job search pal,

HRMargo

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Be The Life Of The Party, Not The "Talk" Of The Party

It’s December.  You are looking for a job.  Are you thinking about the most creative, and interesting ways to find one?  Have you considered jump starting your job search by launching a high profile professional presence on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn?  Listen job seekers, if you are a member of our HireFriday Community, participate in HFChat, this is no time to be shy.  It’s ok to toot your horn. In fact, I implore you to toot it so loud that everyone hears you…you can do this without being noisy. In fact you can be quite slick in how you present yourself at holiday parties, networking events, coffee shops, informational interviews, meetings, and professional association events.  You can, and should participate in Twitter chats. This is an excellent way to get noticed, and found by recruiters, and companies.    You don’t have to be an extrovert to be creative your job search campaign. Introverts are very successful with their online presence because they have the safety of the computer screen to shield them from over stimulation.  You have to ask yourself one critical question: How and where do you recharge your inner battery, and where can you make the biggest splash.

Here’s my top 5 tips for staying on top of your game:

1. Secure speaking engagements for the coming year with the organizations to which you belong: This is a cool way to get your name out there in your industry, and get some personal brand recognition. Public speaking is a brilliant way to position yourself in the market place, and can be a great way to receive the recognition you deserve.
2. Create a list of questions in advance targeted toward the people you want to meet. Make these questions industry specific, and relevant to the person you want to meet. People like to talk about themselves.
3. Ask questions: come prepared with a few conversation starters in case you find yourself suddenly scared, or feeling insecure: It happens to the best of us, we are in a crowd of people we don’t know at a holiday party, and suddenly we are overcome with the jitters.  You can overcome this by finding out in advance who is going to be at the party.  Run a Google search on the people you want to meet. Find out about their background, interests and accomplishments.
4. Don’t drink too much at holiday parties, or events: You never know who has a camera, or whether or not an unflattering picture will wind up on Facebook, or Twitter. Beware of people who can be “brand killers.”
5. Be the smart one at the party, not the life of the party. There’s a time and place for everything.  If you love working the room, by all means do so, particularly if that’s one of your skills.  However, don’t be the goon who dances like a fool, or worse who thinks s/he looks good while dancing.  If you don’t know how you look when you dance, be sure to check it out before it winds up on YouTube without you even knowing it.  There’s good publicity and bad publicity.

You are not Brett Michaels, Sorry. He Can Get Away With It, You Can't.

When you are looking for a job, you have to be the guardian of your image, and online reputation. No one will take better care of you than you.  So be sure you are the smart one at the party.  Make sure that don’t do or say anything that will offend or embarrass your boss.  If you are passively looking for a job while employed, that’s incredibly important.  The last thing you want is to find yourself fired before you are ready to leave.  If you are unemployed, and in an active pursuit of a job, the holidays are a monumental opportunity to find and secure a position…or at the very least get on the short list for the position you want when it comes open.

Tomorrow, I will continue the series with more secret sauce…job search tips…and encouragement.  Encouragement, is perhaps what we need most when job hunting, so hang in there.

Your job search pal,

@HRMargo

Margo Rose

Hey are we connected on LinkedIn?  Mention HireFriday in your invitation, and I will gladly accept http://linkedin.com/in/margorose

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Social Media: Go Big, Or Go Home

If you aren’t using every single social network platform directly related to your industry, occupation, and brand you are missing an important opportunity.

It is incumbent upon you, and your organization to secure the maximum penetration of your vertical market.  If you don’t know how to do this, or if you don’t have the band-width, consider outsourcing that work to an individual, or consultancy that does.

Go big, or go home. If you can’t make every attempt to go viral, and swirl like a whirling dervish around the internet, you might not be spending your time efficiently.

Even fish in small ponds can make a splash.  Take me for example, The HireFriday Facebook Page, and LinkedIn Group.  That group only has 1,040 members.  Their Facebook page only has 876 likes, but why does this small community make such a huge impact world-wide?  Because they being working with the individual (they think global and act local).

Margaret Mead suggested that we should never doubt a small group of committed volunteers.  They can change the world, and indeed they already have.  Small grass roots groups get traction, and leverage influence by gaining instant access to thought leaders.

They can still go big, and when they go home, they do so with a smile on their face.   Making money is important.  Businesses are not charities, they exist to make a profit, but with that said, they can be profitable, and still be charitable.

The huge brands have the resources to buy influence, and traffic.  The most successful brands however, engage in strategic philanthropy, service learning, and steward leadership.  They know that their teams are stronger when they volunteer.  They know that volunteering creates better communication.  They realize that employee retention increases when employees know that they are a part of a larger mission.  They are connected to the organization’s vision, and mission.  You can’t buy loyalty, but you can sure earn it.

So go big, or go home?  Maybe we should reframe it: go big, and go home.  Enjoy the quality of your life, love your family, and be as concerned with making a difference as you do a living.

Your moment of social media goodness by,

Social Media Margo

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This week’s guest host for #HFChat is Dave Ryan, SPHR is the Director of Human Resources for Mel-O-Cream Donuts International in Springfield, IL. He has been in HR since it was Personnel.  Dave is also Director of Social Media, and Chief Blogger for the Illinois State Council of SHRM. On his blog site, HROfficial Dave talks about his role in HR and his role as USA Hockey Certified Referee. Dave has two sons and a wife of 32 years.  Dave is active in Social Media, SHRM, and Ice Hockey and loves all things electronic. You can find him on Twitter asDaveTheHRCzar, Linkedin and Facebook. Here is his topic:

Hire Friday is an event that has been around for a long time, at least in the twittersphere. If you have been out here in the HR space you would know this. The genesis of show is based in “good,” and is the brain child of HRMargo.

I have been friends with Cyndy Trivella for quite some time. We interact on twitter frequently. Well recently, she asked me if I would Guest Host a chat session.  I was flattered, honored and flabbergasted all at the same time, but without question happily agreed to do so.

So part of my responsibility as the host is to frame the discussion with a concept and five questions to drive the discussion.  The concept is gaining employment in a small to medium size organization, compare to large organizations.  So here are the set-ups and the questions.

Just like gaining employment in a larger organization, finding a cultural fit with the organization is crucial.

1.) How do you learn about the culture of a small privately-held Company?

Smaller organizations may be more difficult to get specific information about products or services, however if you have some mastery about the Companies offerings you will appear to have a leg up on other candidates.

2.) Where do you go to get good insight on a small Company’s product or service line?

Smaller Companies often times do not have the resources (dollars) allocated for research, marketing or other project.  In an interview you might be asked to solve a $500,000 problem with a $5000 budget.  This often involves technology or equipment.

3).Do you have a story of effective and cost effective problem-solving which might intrigue a small Company recruiter?

While most of us HR veterans know that nepotism is not a good thing, you should be prepared to see it in a smaller Company.

4.) Working in a small Company, how can you prepare yourself for dealing with management decisions involving nepotism?

We have talked about many of the down sides of smaller employers.  There are also many opportunities that a smaller Company would afford an employee that a larger Company could offer.

5.) What type of opportunities might you get in a smaller Company that you might not get in a Fortune 500 Company?

Ok so there is the discussion for Black Friday #HFchat. I hope to see you on the tweet stream.  – Dave “theHRCzar” Ryan

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Chris Brogan, Author, and Social Network Consultant

Chris Brogan is a marketing genius, and his artistic palette is in social networks.  How do you improve your sales cycle using social media?  Chris Brogan answers this question in my interview today on my podcast Compassionate HR (you can listen to our interview under the tab right here on this blog)  Chris helps businesses add profits to what he calls the human digital presence.  He discusses how to turn a prospect into a customer, and loving up the customers they are with through digital storefronts.  Chris says he helps businesses be better digital shop keepers.   His new book  teaches companies how to use Google+ to build business, and how to use Google+’s create strong business branded pages.

Listen to this podcast to learn his critique about how people use Facebook, and LinkedIn.  He notes that Google is the #1 search engine, and that Youtube is #2.  He draws distinct lines in how businesses can use Google’s functionality.  He cites the how The CEO (Michael Dell) of Dell holds Google+ “hang-outs,” which are incredibly popular.  He also cited one of the most creative use of Google+ hang-outs: A super-fun live action game show held by John Herman.   You gotta hear this podcast to truly appreciate the magical, marketing genius of Chris Brogan.  You can reach Chris at http://chrisbrogan.com

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