Embrace social media and hang on!

Welcome to the second week of the coping list in review and what helped me get back to work.
Social media, like it or hate it, must be embraced in today’s business world. I’m trying to impress on my new co-workers that the true meaning of public relations is “not about your boss seeing your company on TV. It’s about your buyers seeing your company on the Web.” (New Rules of Marketing and PR, David Meerman Scott, 2009)
And the same can be said about a job search. Apologies to Scott as I turn that quote into “the true meaning of getting a job is ‘not about the hiring manager reading your two page resume w/ history, bullets and objectives. It’s about your prospective hiring manager seeing you online active in the social media world.’”
Okay, confusing sentence true. But you must get online and tout your skills beyond that flat two-page resume with bullets and bold type that lays in an inbox on an HR reps desk (if it gets that far at all!). And before we dive into this, make sure you have a small jpeg headshot of yourself to use in your social media
Here’s what I did on my unplanned sabbatical.
BLOGGING: I started this blog on WordPress (well, duh, you are here!) At first it was general information related to stories in the news, the passing of Paul Harvey and the like. I started small but then felt that I needed to stretch it a bit and start talking about social media and its impact. But, before you start blogging, do some research. See what other people are writing about. Look at their copy, layout and content. But everyone likes something. I don’t care if it’s tea cozies or collecting ceramic cats, everyone has a blog in them, brewing to get out!
TWITTER: I am a late arriver to Twitter. I didn’t start tweeting until early summer 2009. It was after an interview with a defense contractor (never heard back from them..hmmm). Looking on their website, I saw that they had a Twitter account. To get into their good graces (and to learn more about the company), I signed-up for Twitter and I went a tweeting. Picked up a bunch of fellow Twits (tweets?) in no time. Good to use related to volunteering efforts or if you are just hanging out on the porch (like the commercial goes.)
LINKEDIN: A great service for getting online and associating with your former co-workers while learning about your potential new employers. LinkedIn is geared more towards professionals (as opposed to the social world of myspace and Facebook). The site allows you to build/post your resume, get references and more. This is a website that you must be involved in. It really helped me build a community of former co-workers and peers.
Bottom line, by putting yourself online in a dynamic fashion, you are showing potential employers that you are social media savvy. And by savvy, I mean you can set up an account and add content on a regular basis (I’m a great example of not having online prowess, but with a lot of mistakes and re-booting, I was able to get these social tools up and running in a short amount of time). And it is a great portfolio enhancer showing potential employers that you are out there, meeting people, accomplishing things and in-the-know.
These are just three things you can do to increase your online presence. Now, get out there and do something good.
NEXT WEEK: How to cut corners and save money.