New Career Finding Strategies for Job Searchers

My now-fiance had a great blog post idea: How social media is transforming the job search and recruiting field – Thus, here we are, and below I hope you find some great helpful resources and add to this developing list.

****************

Social Networking Sites

Linkedin – Not only does Linkedin allow people to post jobs, but you can also post jobs yourself, or send jobs to your connections. In addition, you can search for jobs at certain firms, see who posted them, and see if you know anyone who works there. Very informative for the investigative types.

Facebook – Certain Facebook group and fan pages are used for recruiting potential job candidates. For example, the U.S. Department of State uses its fan page as a recruiting tool into foreign policy, public affairs, foreign services officer, or even offers to help navigate a career path.

MyWorkster – MyWorkster offers its users a professional presence online. You can create a profile, resume and even a video resume. This network also has a job listing database, blogs, and more.

Twitter Recruiter’s/Job Postings

Many people post job openings they’ve either heard about or are currently trying to fill in a tweet, with a link to the job posting. (One great reason alone to become a Twitter-er!) However, more companies and individuals are creating Twitter-streams to post jobs and recruit talent. Some include:

• Jim Stroud
• Jason Alba
• InfoSourcer
• IMC2
• Interactive Jobs

Jim Stroud over at the Recruiters Lounge has posted about recruiters and Twitter…surprised that he could only find 85 recruiters in a Twitter search! In my opinion, that’s 85 reasons right there to start a twitter feed.

To find information on a particular industry or job field, use Twitter Search to conduct a search query for certain keywords like “job positions,” “recruiter” or “career advice.”

TwitHire is also a Twitter application that lets you bundle your job postings into 140 characters. It’s also a great resource to look at current job openings.

Blogs

Jeremiah Owyang has created a blog series “On the Move,” highlighting individuals moving within the social media profession. The series also lists great resources to getting plugged into a social media job, as well as listing current high-profile movers and shakers in the social media world (those who work at Fortune 5000 firms with 1000 employees or more).

Alltop.com, a blog aggregate service by topic, has a ‘career‘ page, which features numerous blogs about how to get a job, keep a job, recruit for jobs and more.

Search for blogs based in the city you want to work. For example, KCRecruiting is a Kansas city blog that works to connect job seekers with KC opportunities or author Jim Durbin’s other more general blog, Social Media Headhunter.

More

There’s also other, perhaps more traditional, job search and recruiting strategies too:

• Monster,
• Job Fox,
• Job-Hunt ( who has a list of Fortune 500 career sites and employers by state!),
• Careerbuilder,
• the Web site of the firm you want to work for,
• employee blogs or Twitter account,
• CEO blogs of the firm(s) you want to work for,
• researching the firm’s social media use/presence,
• industry-specific list servs,
• your college/University network,
• your schools network (i.e. Mizzou Mafia for Missouri Journalism),
• fraternity and sorority networks,
• professional organization networks and Web sites,
• Honorary organizations (i.e. Delta Sigma Pi, Omicron Delta Kappa)
• listen to career advice and industry news podcasts
• Word of Mouth (friends, parents, mentors)

Basically, my research has shown that social media is revolutionizing now only business – but how to get employees, find employees and to become an employee.

I know this is a huge, developing topic. And, there’s lots to add, so I look forward to hearing from you all and your experiences. =)

*Note: I didn’t make this information industry specific, but I could if you guys would like. It does lean a bit towards those in social media….course, I’ve also noticed that for social media job searchers, in a way, you have the easiest of jobs because those are the jobs people are posting in the social media space. Other fields/industries are a bit slow to catch on…are
am I wrong?

photo credit: rockronie on flickr

Your Facebook Professionalism Policy: Balancing Your Relationships On and Off the Clock

For many Gen-Yers and young professionals, Facebook started out as a social network. Then, high-schoolers were allowed in. Now, understandably, more and more people are joining that range in age – and in relationship to you. Point in case:

• My friend recently helped her mom create a Facebook account.
• Another commented that all her co-workers want her to become a Facebook friend.
• According to Quantcast, in July 208, 46% of Facebook users are 18-34.
• in July 2007, ComScore reported a 181% growth of users ages 25-34, and a 98% growth in users 35+.

Thus, with Facebook going from social status —> professional network, it begs the question, what are the new the rules of thumb for one’s Facebook account? So I asked followers on Twitter. The results:

1. All or nothing. One of the most popular answers was to go all access with everyone. This route shows to your co-workers and professional network that you own who you are. Nothing to hide. Some also responded that this helps increase the office culture and camaraderie.
2. Oil and water don’t mix. It gets murky. Best to keep Facebook separate. One person commented that you can come to know too much about someone and that can distract from business.
3. Go Half and Half. Others answered saying they prefer to keep professional work colleagues and co-workers at bay by using the ‘limited profile’ feature on Facebook. Or, setting privacy settings so only certain friends or groups can see certain applications, photos or the wall.
4. Work It. Lee Aase, on his blog, Social Media University, suggest a shortcut. While waiting for Facebook to devise a way to better differentiate relationships with a system more sophisticated than the limited profile graph, Aase suggest creating a group for your professional contacts and name it “FirstName LastName Professional Contacts.” Aase explains further on his blog. Or, use Facebook’s friend lists to differentiate Aase also suggests.

No matter what you prefer, it’s best to adopt a strategy early, be wise, cautious and careful. Even those that believed in full access agreed that in the past year, they’ve tweaked their their own personal guidelines. i.e. Adopting the self-policy that one must meet someone in their professional network in person before they cozy up on Facebook.

For me, currently, I adopt a mix between the full access and the limited profile. This is largely for one reasons:

• I want you to get to know me. I have nothing to hide. But, I’d prefer someone get to know me in person, before just reading my profile and making assumptions or place me into some category or description of who they think I might be. It’s one thing to know someone in the office, but it’s another to befriend a person.

Some other guidelines friends mentioned through my Twitter survey. Don’t post:

• Inappropriate pictures (nudity, over-drinking, kissing, dancing, etc.)
• Clean up those pictures from college frat days
• Represent who you are, but be keen to what information sparks controversy
• Don’t use foul language
• Review your privacy settings
• Understand what happens to your profile when you add an application
• When you ‘become a fan’ or join a group, understand some may not get your inner circle’s inside jokes or may think you are endorsing certain ideas/services/products
• If you wouldn’t show it to your mom, you probably don’t want your boss to see.
• Don’t make your profiles busy or hard to read if you want to use it for networking.

What’s your Facebook Professionalism Policy? or, what do you think of mine?

photo credit: Flickr, Amit Gupta (from Newsweek article)

Social Media Highlight: Ning is Great, but waiting for Relevance

Next up in the Social Media Highlight Series, where I sign-up for a certain social media site/app/platform, use it for a couple of weeks and offer a reflection on my thoughts and experience, is the social network Ning.

About: Ning was co-founded by Netscape founder Marc Andressen and onetime Goldman Sachs banker Gina Binachini in 2004. It’s software enables anyone to create their own social network based around any idea, topic or mission. There are Ning groups about hobbies, gourmet food, geographic locations, causes and more. Interestingly, 50 Cent has his own Ning with over 100,000 members. Ning was recently estimated to be worth half a billion dollars with 237,000 current networks and growing at 1000 a day!

Use: Ning allows for any user to create his or her own social network. The service is free, and you don’t have to know how to code. Ning is currently all the buzz and is said to have a bright future as more and more capabilities are added onto to service. Currently, Ning can incorporate video, music, discussion forums, google maps, flickr, web badges, and ways to cross promote with Myspace and Facebook.

Demographics: Anyone and Everyone. NING features a diverse group of users that run the gamut in uses and interests. However, according to Quantcast, Ning is especially popular with African-Americans, who make up 75% of Ning’s users. With age, Ning is most popular among users 18-34, followed by users 35-49.

My Rating: 3 out of 5 wings

Rationale:

• Good:
  • Ning has a lot of potential and is doing a great and innovative service that no one else really provides except for CrowdVine. However, Ning was first, and usually the first gets more brand recognition because it’s well, the first. However, I think CrowdVine has a great promotional strategy of separating it’s call to action for users around groups and events, whereas Ning’s call is primarily more individual based (e.g. “You can create your own network”).
  • Also, Ning is nice because you don’t have to be a developer to use it, there’s numerous groups, it is more niche and interest based than say Facebook of MySpace, and it’s growing.
  • And, if you purchase your Ning page, you don’t have to display ads and more security features can be added.

• Bad:
  • Though its big and its growing, I didn’t find much on Ning that I thought was relevant to myself. Thus, for the everyday user, it could be too niche-focused. Perhaps I will become more interested when I attend a conference that has a Ning page. I did find the 29-Day Giving Page on Ning which I enjoy, so its not that bad.
  • You have to do some digging once on Ning to find something that grabs you, or, you have to be pointed to use Ning by a certain group.
  • And, when you do want to join, you have to go through a lot of steps.
  • You can join multiple social networks, but then, that’s can become a lot of managing different profiles and group communities.

Social Marketing and Ning:

• Marketing4Change is one step ahead with their Ning, aka their own social networking site, dedicated to social marketing. You can join them here.
• There are groups for library 2.0 and numerous groups for those involved in government and health communications.
• My own ID is SocialButterfly. I like the idea behind Ning. I’m just waiting for when it becomes uber-relevant for something I need. Like, if we would want to create a “Social Marketing Network” and then get everyone to join, that would be awesome. I even saved the Ning name “Fly 4 Change,” just in case. However, not all of us social marketers are connected online…so, I figured it be me and a few of the trustees that I already stay in touch with through blogging, Twitters, email, facebook, etc.

What do you think? How would you rate Ning?

Social Media & Innovation Combine to Launch 1st Non-Profit Christian Movie Studio Where You Decide

Who’s more influential – Washington D.C. or Hollywood?

Stay with me. Obviously, not all may agree on the content. But, this is worth taking a few minutes to review even if only:

• You enjoy social media
• You like learning about new business models
• You have a heart for nonprofits
• Want to learn more about the power a community can have
• You want to know how all the above can combine to create CHANGE

IJNP, In Jesus’ Name Productions, launched last week during the Cannes Film Festival. It’s promotional video is below. It’s a bit long, but fast forward to the last minute, and you can get the *details.*

In sum:

IJNP desires to leverage social networks with the purpose of uniting Christians around the world to have a ‘say’ in the making of film. IJNP offers Christians to have an influential role in determining which movies the studio makes and/or partners with.

• For $10/month (the price of a movie ticket), members can be a part of ‘participatory film making’ from beginning to end through IJNP’s soon to be launched member social network.
  • At 50k-100k members, movies on par with Hollywood can be made.
  • At a million members, summer blockbusters can be made.
• IJNP will work with the best Christian filmmakers in the industry and has integrated a Christian Film making Apprentice Program.
• IJNP’s Advisory Board currently has representatives from Campus Crusade for Christ, Hollywood Connect, Luis Palau Association and Youth For Christ.
• More details on how a financial gift breaks down, IJNP’s elected advisory board, ‘participatory filmmaking,‘ and learning how to get involved, visit the newly launched website.

First thoughts? And, this is posted in terms of looking at the non-profit business model and the use of social media through social networks.

This should be interesting… =)

 

Social Media & Innovation Combine to Launch 1st Non-Profit Christian Movie Studio Where You Decide

Who’s more influential – Washington D.C. or Hollywood?

Stay with me. Obviously, not all may agree on the content. But, this is worth taking a few minutes to review even if only:

• You enjoy social media
• You like learning about new business models
• You have a heart for nonprofits
• Want to learn more about the power a community can have
• You want to know how all the above can combine to create CHANGE

IJNP, In Jesus’ Name Productions, launched last week during the Cannes Film Festival. It’s promotional video is below. It’s a bit long, but fast forward to the last minute, and you can get the *details.*

In sum:

IJNP desires to leverage social networks with the purpose of uniting Christians around the world to have a ‘say’ in the making of film. IJNP offers Christians to have an influential role in determining which movies the studio makes and/or partners with.

• For $10/month (the price of a movie ticket), members can be a part of ‘participatory film making’ from beginning to end through IJNP’s soon to be launched member social network.
  • At 50k-100k members, movies on par with Hollywood can be made.
  • At a million members, summer blockbusters can be made.
• IJNP will work with the best Christian filmmakers in the industry and has integrated a Christian Film making Apprentice Program.
• IJNP’s Advisory Board currently has representatives from Campus Crusade for Christ, Hollywood Connect, Luis Palau Association and Youth For Christ.
• More details on how a financial gift breaks down, IJNP’s elected advisory board, ‘participatory filmmaking,‘ and learning how to get involved, visit the newly launched website.

First thoughts? And, this is posted in terms of looking at the non-profit business model and the use of social media through social networks.

This should be interesting… =)

 

Do You…Razoo?

Social networking gains momentum everyday. My latest find includes the beta Razoo. Razoo is a New Zealand word for a small coin. Founder J. Sebastian Traeger likes to think that a lot of something small good can turn into something great. According to the website:

Razoo is a community united around making a positive difference in the world. Where passion leads to action, and a whole lot of collective good comes from individual contributions.

Razoo is a for-profit online community where members can create profiles, join groups, create groups, post comments, share blogs, support causes and keep updated on new events in the non-profit world. Causes include a full range from saving the ocean to aiding the homeless to international development. In turn, Razoo then donates grant money to the causes who host the most members. I encourage you to check the site out. The best past about the site is that you do not have to be a member to browse.

Razoo has recently been featured in the Washington Post. Both articles come from December 07:

1. Social Networking for Social Causes. This article talks about Razoo and other social networking applications that work for the social good.
2. Social Networking for the Socially Minded. This article provides more background on how the internet start-up began and its history.