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Monday, February 15, 2016

10 Steps for Online Career and Job Networking



         Let’s start with the big question.


Why?
What is the point of doing online networking for your career? How is it any better than simply keeping in touch with people you know via email or at meetings? Isn’t stuff like LinkedIn or Facebook a waste of time, or at least not worth the time you invest in it?


Online networking tools serve two purposes, really.

First, they make it easy for people to find you – or at least find the information about you that you want to be found. Once you set up a proper profile at a social networking site, it’s often the first thing that shows up about you on search engines. Thus, when people go searching for information about you, you can have a lot of control over the information that they find.

Second, they allow you to keep tabs on other people – and allow other people to keep tabs on you. Let’s say, for example, that you’re starting a new project that might interest a lot of people in your field – and you might want input from some of them. Is it easier to collect all their email addresses then send a blanket email to all of them or to just simply update your online networking tool?

Similarly, if you’ve set up such tools properly, you can effortlessly and automatically follow such news and updates about others in your field, which can automatically alert you to any interesting changes without having to hope that that person remembered to send it to you.

Together, these things add up to tons and tons of opportunities to connect with people without having to invest a ton of time continually tracking people down.

Tactic #1: Just Use Google

One problem that many people have with doing this is that there seems to be a giant pile of services available for people to connect to others. Should I use Twitter? Should I use Facebook? Should I use LinkedIn?


Really, though, there’s only one you need to worry about. And that’s Google.


When people want to find other people online, they turn to Google. They type in that name, click on the first few links, and see what they can find out.


That means your focus shouldn’t be so much on which of these services to use. It should be to make sure you’re controlling that top search result on Google.


How can you do that? You need to have a page that’s (a) fully open to the public and (b) linked to by a lot of other people.


Based on what I’ve observed, for professional purposes, the best tool for that is LinkedIn, so if I were just getting started with things, I’d use LinkedIn. Facebook has more users, but it’s a “walled garden,” meaning the general public cannot read your profile. If you’re focusing solely on professional material, that’s actually a pretty big disadvantage.


Tactic #2: Detail Your Profile
When you sign up for such a service, the first step is to add appropriate detail to your profile. The key word here is appropriate.


The purpose for doing this is to attract professional connections, so keep it professional. Describe your career. Enter all of the relevant information and include as much detail as you can, including past places of employment, organizations you’re involved with (that you’d want to share professionally), where you went to school, and so on. Make especially sure to describe your current work (again, in as much detail as you can). Be sure to share it all publicly, too, so that you can easily be found on Google searches.


The more information you provide – particularly interesting information – the more likely it is that people will take an interest in you, follow you, and contact you for further connection, which is exactly what you want.


Click here to read part 2 of this article

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    12 comments:

    1. Great and useful information!!

      ReplyDelete
    2. There is a big discrepancy in your title: 'Over the hill' and 'over 40' are made to seem like synonymous and at 44 I don't think they are at all. Perfect your young age is to account for this, but that's OK ... unless you are trying to teach and preach to folks over 40.
      Best
      Vladimir

      ReplyDelete
    3. Being a job seeker over 50, never mind 40, is a tough sell these days unless you remember certain cardinal rules...You are the one they need to hire, you're finished experimenting with life, you're steady and stable, you've been in all kinds of situations and know exactly how to deal with them unlike those that are untried, untested and still running around trying to figure out what they're capable of doing for longer than 15 minutes at a pop...

      Problem is trying to educate the HR people this when you're looking for work. Be proud of your accomplishments, awards and employment history. Be the exceptional one looking for the position and let them know that you are the individual for the position they're trying to fill. Most of all is be positive in all you do, whether or not you get the position or not. Face it, you're doing them a favor by working for them, not the other way around...

      DougB
      Motivational Speaker

      ReplyDelete
    4. This is a very good article about the value of social and professional networking. It sometimes takes people a while to see the value, but it is almost always very rewarding in the mid-to-long term:

      -ASB: http://XeeSM.com/AndrewBaker
      Providing Competitive Advantage through Effective IT Leadership

      ReplyDelete
    5. This is a very measurable article.

      ReplyDelete
    6. Thanks very much, Trip. Another great article!

      ReplyDelete
    7. Just enough information in each article, with similar articles below. Very smart. Great resource. I shared this with my friends looking for new careers. Thank you! Sheryle DeGirolamo

      ReplyDelete
    8. This is something we must have to remember always. I'm more than just glad that you've shared your post to us. It helped me a lot.

      ReplyDelete
    9. Valuable article and such information helps newcomers who trying to start career online
      Thanks

      ReplyDelete
    10. Successful job searches in this economy require more than the traditional resume writing and resume submissions.

      Thanks
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