Showing posts with label linkedIn. Show all posts
Showing posts with label linkedIn. Show all posts

When Seeking Employment, Pay Attention to Your Social Media Reputation.



Social media profiles are an increasingly important element of the job search. With over one billion people on Facebook and over half a billion tweets being sent every day and counting, social media plays a role not only in people's personal lives but also in the business world. If you're in the job market, managing your own social media profile is vital since you never know who's checking up on you.

Protect Your Social Media Reputation
Anyone with an Internet connection can see anything you post publicly on social media sites. More than that, they can see anything your friends post publicly. Just assume that hiring managers and job recruiters are taking a look at your Facebook page, LinkedIn profile and Twitter feed, and set your privacy settings accordingly. Delete or make private any embarrassing photos or comments. Be careful about when you post to social media sites, as hiring managers may want to see whether you tend to post during working hours. Don't say anything negative online about prior employers, don't divulge company information and avoid argumentative or vulgar comments. Your social media profile is more than just your nicely formatted resume on LinkedIn – it's actually everything you say on any social media platform, so don't let your Facebook photos or tweets work against you in your job hunt.

Stay Connected and Professional
Given the potential pitfalls, it might be tempting to avoid social media altogether. That's also a mistake, however. In an era where everyone is connected, hiring managers are often a little leery of job candidates who have no social media presence whatsoever. Stays connected, but tailor your social media profile to make yourself look as professional as possible. Keep your LinkedIn account active and updated, and make sure you have a presence on social media sites, forums or message boards specific to your field. Point out career achievements and accomplishments on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, and be quick to cheer on your colleagues as well.

Turn the Tables and Do Your Own Research
Job seekers aren't the only ones with social media profiles. Turn the tables on those hiring managers by checking out the companies in which you're interested using their social media profiles. Use Twitter hashtags to get job listings sent straight to your phone, and take advantage of the many features offered by LinkedIn and other business-related sites aimed at job seekers. Pore through the Facebook pages and company blogs of any businesses where you plan to interview, and learn a little about the people you might interview with to help you make a personal connection.

Remember, your social media profile is a representation of who you are in real life. When you're in the middle of a job search, your social media profile can hinder you or help you, depending on how professionally you manage it. Since social media isn't going away any time soon, harness its power and connectivity to help you advance in your career.

Expand your knowledge and enlighten your mind with the tools you need to excel in your life! Work with a Business and Life Management Coach with over 20 years’ experience empowering people to attain self-defined success in their professional and personal lives. Book a free session at www.denisedema.com today.


Maximize Your Career Search with Social Media



When you're trying to build your career, social media can be one of the best tools to help you find new opportunities and increase your personal brand. Right now, there seems to be a huge digital divide between job seekers.

On one side, you have the group of people who typically haven't had to look for a job in at least a decade. They hold tightly to the job search strategies of the past, like listing every job they've ever had on their resume and believing that they need to “beat the streets” to find work. This group uses email and online job boards, but they shy away from really creating a professional identity on social media sites.

On the other side of the divide, there are the workers who have been looking for a job for some time or who have found and lost a couple of jobs in the past 5 years. These job seekers are savvy about creating their social media presence, developing their personal brand and marketing their skills in a way that makes their resume an advertisement, rather than a biography.

Unfortunately, members of the first group are having a much harder time finding work. When I've asked people why they didn't have a cohesive personal brand, most said that they never really got the hang of social networking sites. Even though they saw the clear value in doing it, they didn't know how to make it work for them.

For those who haven't used social media (and those who want to tweak their social media usage), here are a few tips that will have you networking and making connections.

Make your profile interesting and relevant – Whether you're using Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn, you'll be given space to write your profile. It's usually one of the first steps in setting up your account and not surprisingly, it's the part that stops most users. It's hard to know what to write and many people find writing about themselves to be a painful process. LinkedIn's is geared more toward a professional platform that allows people to write their career story. We all have one so think about your career progress, your education and every career accomplishment you've made along the way. When you really think about them, you'll see how you've been moving forward and furthering your own goal. Once you find your unique voice, writing your profile becomes easier. Facebook and Twitter are more of a streamlined platform of communication but just the same, they need to have a good profile developed that represents you in the best light.

Get involved in the conversation – Find companies in your industry and connect with them on LinkedIn. Add them to your contacts, follow them or like their page on Facebook, which will also get you connected. It's also a good idea to follow industry related publications, bloggers and even industry leaders. This will ensure that you hear about new and interesting changes in your field before others. Having cutting edge information makes it so much easier for you to do the next step.

Share thoughtfully – If you share information that is interesting and of value to others, you'll begin to develop a reputation as a valuable resource. The people that you've connected with will look forward to your posts and will be more likely to make comments about them. This will allow you to get more involved in conversations and will lead to people trying to connect with you, which will expand your network and look impressive to a potential employer.

Also, you should not let your personal views get in the way of your career development. That means that you don't want to share graphics and anything that isn't professional on your profile. Everyday, I see people doing this and it can really ruin your image in the eyes of a potential employer. More often employers are searching social media sites of candidates to get a pulse on what they think and do socially. You don't want any information to look unprofessional and for that reason, it is important to have a separate social media profile for your personal life especially on Facebook. Keep your personal settings for friends only and not to be shared or viewed by the general public. Facebook and Twitter are minefields of thoughtless moments that can really paint the wrong picture if you aren't on top of what you put out there.

Have a clear strategy – Set aside time each day to work on your social media accounts. Spend one day looking for new connections and reading blogs and another day for posting. Not scheduling your tasks will make it much more likely that you'll network in fits and starts, which will make it more difficult to build a good reputation. If you make it a priority and take things slow, you'll be able to build your social network without getting overwhelmed.

Make social media part of your job search. Expand your knowledge and enlighten your mind with the tools you need to excel in your life! Work with a Business and Life Management Coach with over 20 years’ experience empowering people to attain self-defined success in their professional & personal lives. Book a free session at www.denisedema.com today.

Are You A 'Social' Business?

Looking at all the ways companies have been marketing their products and services in the past, we now know based on current statistics that a new direction and strategy is critical in capturing new clients and business. Social media has been the number one activity on the web and brands are following the crowd by going ‘social’ and joining millions of people online.

Many companies have set up Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, listed their products/services on web based directories that provide interactive customer reviews and use Google+ and LinkedIn to make professional and personal connections. Some also start blogs and create YouTube channels to share information through videos that now appeals to the masses.

Even so, many businesses are still trying to integrate social media into their old ‘marketing mix’ rather than understanding the whole purpose of social media. This traditional, one-way marketing doesn’t work anymore. Consumers are already bombarded with thousands of marketing messages on a daily basis but the majority of them are ignored. Newspaper circulations are down, television commercials are easily skipped, nearly half of all direct mail is never opened and there are over 200 million Americans on the ‘Do Not Call’ list which prevents any outbound telesales calls. Even the best banner ads are only getting about 1% click through rates now. So what else can you do to get your business out there?

Today, we are all connected and smart companies make business personal by becoming a 'social business' rather than applying the same old marketing techniques to the new medium. They realize that ‘social’ isn’t a new way of marketing, it’s a new way of doing business and they use an analytics culture to shape and adjust their strategy on the go. This is quite different from the traditional ways of brand building in the past.

Companies that get it right by becoming social see great success. Nearly two thirds of businesses have acquired a customer through their blog and a quarter of B2B firms have gained a client through Facebook. Company websites that have a blog get more visitors than those who don’t. Web visitors from social sites often have higher conversion rates than those who aren’t communicating directly with their customers.

It’s not just about going social it’s about becoming a social business. Creating the right presence, exposure with a Call To Action on the web is critical in branding your company to gain new business. It’s realizing that marketing doesn’t work like it used to and today, successful companies have to become social ones. Diversifying your web exposure and keeping your online presence filled with new and interesting content is the key. Just by having a website, blog and web profiles will not produce business unless you drive traffic to them and encourage engagement.

Living in this socially connected, real-time and mobile-enabled world, creating a compelling web based presence is critical for success. Even if you are a small company or entrepreneur with limited finances, cost effective marketing strategies can be implemented to help you achieve a social media presence.

Achieve your full potential and get the tools you need to excel in your business. Work with a Business and Life Management Coach with over 20 years experience empowering individuals, entrepreneurs and business owners to attain self-defined success in their professional and personal lives. Book a complimentary session today to discuss your goals and objectives at http://www.denisedema.com