Social networking for career success

Surranna Sandy
President – Surcorp Group
Founder - Resume Solutions

 Certified Expert Resume Writer
 Certified Employment Interview Professional
 Certified Web Portfolio Practitioner
 Certified Job & Career Transition Coach
 Certified Job & Career Development Coach
 Certified Resume Specialist – Information
Technology

 © 2011 Surcorp Group of Companies

www.SurcorpGroup.com 1

 Social networks to advance your career - how to use
LinkedIn, Visualcv, WhyHire, Ecademy,Twitter, Plaxo and
Facebook to identify career opportunities.
 Profile management and maximization – how to put your
best face forward in your network profiles
 Information Transparency & the Internet WayBack Machine
– how to make sure your blog
posts, comments, articles, and photos don’t come back to
haunt your career for years and years.
 Friend segmentation and information safeguarding – how
to separate out what your spouse, the boss, and your
friends can see on your Facebook profile.
 Bonus social career resources – sites for job
search, resume management, salaries, and more.


 The best way to find a job is through networking. You can go to networking
meetings, tap into your own personal network, or ask friends who they know.
 With the Internet buzzing with social media, there are similarly many ways to
use social media in order to network, and eventually find a job.
 Social sites help you in your job search. Some of these sites allow you to craft
a resume, while others are networking platforms that contain job listings.
 By signing up for multiple sites, you increase your chances of getting a job
and decrease the amount of time you’ll spend searching for a new one.
 Social sites can be combined with other sites to be more impactful. Support
these sites with either a traditional website or blog, so that you have more to
present to employers, in addition to your profile.

 Getting a Job  Word of Mouth marketing
 Pay and Promotion  Strategic alliances
 Influence and effectiveness  Financial stability
 Venture Capital & Financing  Democracy
 Organizational learning and doing  Global reach


Do I really need this? Tips to get Started:
 Professional branding is important  Check Your Brand: Google your
for anyone who is job searching or name and see what shows up.
building their career. Does this reflect how you want the
world to see you? Do you even
 It's important to create a personal show up??
brand that portrays you in a
professional light.  Keep Your Personal Life Private:
make sure that it's only available
 Employers and contacts need a to the people you want to see it.
positive impression of you as a Be careful what you write on your
high-caliber individual who would blog, or other people's blogs or
be an asset to their organization. social networking pages.
 Job seekers need to have a  Build Your Brand: proactively put
professional online presence that together your online presence by
can easily be found by hiring signing up for a variety of social
managers, recruiters, and career and professional networking sites.
contacts. This will also bump the not-so-
good stuff down the list in Google.
 Establishing a personal brand
allows you to differentiate and  Keep Active & Consistent: make
position yourself from the sure all your profiles and sites
competition and claim your job. send the same message. Make a
habit of regularly
updating, posting and submitting
new content to keep your brand
fresh!

Allows you to create a personal website that is integrated with
social media sites, can host your resume, blog and career
tools. Offers access to online learning material.

create your own profile and your “pulse stream,” which is made
up of your presence on other social media sites. Allows you to
create an address book to keep all your contacts organized and
within reach.
platform for networking with employers who are offering jobs,
while you’re searching. You can upload your resume, embed your
video resume, showcase links to your site, your picture and tag
your skills.
tries to pair you up with a job that best fits you. Their “Mutual
Suitability SystemTM” that enables them to match your wants
and needs to those of employers to find the best relationship.

prime source for professional networking. You have your own
online profile, can join business networking groups based
around your expertise and exchange messages with members
privately. www.SurcorpGrou
p.com 6

 Linked In is a professional “social networking” site
 Linked In is an online network of more than 100 million experienced
professionals from around the world, representing 150 industries.
 12.5% are senior management
 It is free to join. After you join, you create a profile that summarizes your
professional accomplishments. Your profile helps you find and be found by
former colleagues, clients, and partners.
 You can add more connections by inviting trusted contacts to join Linked In
and connect to you

LinkedIn will help you to:

 Stay informed about your contacts and industry
 Find the people & knowledge you need to achieve your goals
 Control your professional identity online


 Add connections to increase visibility and request introductions.
 Use Advanced Search to find people with similar
expertise, jobs, and companies.
 Get to know companies and interviewers by searching for them.
 Be thorough -- think of this as your online résumé, with even more
added detail so as to cross-reference with other users

 Join groups to network with like individuals, and further build your
brand.

 Take part in Q&As to attain expert badge status in a topic area.
 Search for jobs and use your connects to get a virtual “foot in the
door”
 Upload SlideShare.net presentations that show your expertise.


The LinkedIn Title Bar showcases Optimize it!!
your: • Use the first and last name that is
• Name most searchable
• Professional designations • Add ALL your designations
• Brief professional headline • Include keywords in your headline
• Geographic location • Choose your industry strategically
• Industry / Sector

Consider adding a photo, but make sure
it is professional and you are easily
recognizable

Includes:
• Current Employment
• Work history
• Education
• LinkedIn stats
• Online links
• Social Media links
• Public profile link

Optimize it!!
• Strategically select
employment
experience & roles
• Include ALL education
& training
Boost your online brand equity: create a • Increase connections &
personal website, publish a blog and post on recommendations
Twitter – feature your social media links on
LinkedIn! • Get a vanity URL

Includes:
• Text based space best
used for a professional
biography, career
summary or explanation
of who you are, what you
do and what you’re
seeking
• Allows for a 2000
character (spaces
included!) description

Optimize it!!
• Don’t be shy, use all the
space available to tell a
compelling story of your
career
LinkedIn doesn’t allow text formatting. Use • Use industry keywords
Caps Lock, text symbols and paragraph and highlight successes
spacing to add visual interest.

Includes:
 Text based space best used for
a high impact list of
professional strengths
 Allows 500 characters (spaces
included!)

Optimize it!!
 Research and integrate
powerful, industry keywords &
competencies
 Ensure that skills encompass the
Showcase a diversity of scope of ability and maintain your
professional stature
Specialties but maintain
a targeted focus – don’t  Create a balance between
technical/hard skills and personal
be a “jack-of-all- attributes/soft skills
trades”

Includes:
• Position title
• Company name
• Length of employment
• Professional
contribution
s

Optimize it!!
• Strategically select
jobs that add value
• Feature accomplishments Be accurate and maintain
• Integrate industry keywords confidentiality, your profile is
visible to a broad network

Includes:
 Name of academic institution
 Type of studies undertaken:
degree, diploma, certificate, et
c.
 Subject studied
 Date attending

Optimize it!!
 Add ALL education and
professional development to
substantiate your qualifications
Enhance your Education by
including Activities & Societies  Ensure academic institution
and Additional Notes, such as names are correctly entered for
awards, special projects, LinkedIn tags
publications, etc.


Includes:
 Unlimited access to online groups, professional
discussion forums and information sharing links
 Opportunity to start your own group & recruit members
 Wealth of information in your current or targeted sector

Optimize it!!
 Identify and join Groups related to your interests
 Participate actively in Group discussions by
answering and posting questions

Use Group Directory to find
relevant Groups .

Expand your network by
connecting with members
of your Groups!

Tips for finding jobs with LinkedIn:

UPDATE YOUR PROFILE
A complete, updated profile helps
recruiters find you with opportunities.
 Edit your profile!

GROW YOUR NETWORK
Your chances of getting any job
are much better when you know
someone at the company.
Add connections!

GET RECOMMENDATIONS
Your profile represents you so
make sure you put your best
foot forward.
Request recommendations!


Includes:
 A selection of options from
LinkedIn that indicate your
reasons for seeking connections
 Alerts viewers of your profile if
you are likely to accept
invitations

Optimize it!!
 Choose a wide variety of contact
settings to encourage other
LinkedIn users to connect with
you

Expanding your Job Search:

 LinkedIn is partnered with
“Simply Hired” (search engine)

 LinkedIn may have unique
opportunities that are not
posted elsewhere online!

Optimize it!!

 Use Advanced
Search to refine
your criteria and
look for jobs by
keyword, location, i
ndustry, etc.


Leverage your connections for the inside contact to find the hiring
manager / decision-maker to improve your chances of success


Featured Applications

 Linked In Applications enable you to enrich your profile, share and
collaborate with your network, and get the key insights that help you be
more effective and social.

Add Applications that allow to both share information
(WordPress – blog) and gather data (Polls) from your
network of contacts.

 Word Press
 Reading List by Amazon
 Huddle Workspaces
 Polls
 Box.net Files
 Blog Link
 Slide Share Presentations
 Google Presentations
 Company Buzz
 My Travel


 More than 400 million active users, mostly
social, some business
 Facebook is the 4th most trafficked website in the
world
 Facebook is most the trafficked social media site in
the world (surpassed MySpace)
 About 50% “out of college”
 #1 site for people ages 17-25, 50% of them visit
daily
 25-35 yr olds are fastest growing audience


 Establish a profile that is discreet and
professional, and does not contain any
inappropriate or overly personal
information, photos, videos that may
compromise your reputation.

 Include a friendly Profile Picture of
yourself that is casual and appropriate.

Add connections, including family, friends,
former classmates and colleagues. Always
consider how certain connections affect your
professional image.

Consider abstaining from adding current
colleagues and supervisors in order to
maintain your professional distance,
especially if you use Facebook as a highly
personal network.

Stringently manage your Privacy Settings!!

• Segment personal and professional networks;
prospective employers should not be able to see
inappropriate personal groups, photos, or posts.
• Search for professionals by name or search for
companies.
• Network with friends, family and business colleagues.
• Join/start groups for networking with like individuals
and sharing expertise.
• Announce events or programs to your network or
globally.
• Upload videos, photos and slideshare presentations.
• Consulting? Create a company page.


companies.
globally.


• Follow others and post informative tweets to create an ever-growing
audience.
• Establish a powerful micro-bio to express who you are to your
audience.
• Perform topic searches and be found by others performing topic
searches.
• Create a network -- find and follow experts/people without gaining
permission first.
• See who those you follow / who follow you are following for more
relevant connections.
• Tweetlater.com – schedule tweets and search all posts by
keyword to find topics.
• Tweetdeck.com – set up a desktop version for monitoring /
participating.
• Twemes.com – follow hashtag (#) posts or posts grouped by
topic.
• Tweepsearch.com – search user profiles to find recruiters in your
field.
• Justtweetit.com – get listed in a database.
• Twitter search – http://search.twitter.com.
• Twist http://twist.flaptor.com – view and follow popular
discussion trends on Twitter.

 Search for actual salaries (and jobs) - http://resumesolutions.ca/careeradvice.htm

 Job Search Engine for Twitter: TwitterJobSearch - http://www.twitterjobsearch.com/.

 Create a social network for your area of expertise (or join an existing one): Ning -
ww.ning.com.
 Rising in popularity, social network similar to LinkedIn: Xing - www.xing.com.
 Create a social media resume: VisualCV – www.visualcv.com. Also, www.gigtide.com and
www.emurse.com.

 Find people by name in a job search: Wink People Search - www.wink.com.

 100 places online to find jobs (categorized by field):
http://mashable.com/2008/12/16/find-jobs/.
 Take your PowerPoint presentations viral (more proof of expertise): Slideshare -
www.SlideShare.net.
 Learn about creative commons licenses for ebooks and PowerPoints -
http://creativecommons.org/.


• As you can see,
there is no shortage
of social networking
and media sharing
website and
applications. Join in!

• New applications are
being created and
popping up online
everyday!

• Click around and
sign up with the aps
that work best for
your e-
communication and
sharing style!

Social networking for career success

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