Using Social Networking to Find a Job
The statistics are getting grimmer by the day it seems. Unemployment is at levels not seen in 30 years. Banks have crumbled sending white collar workers scrambling looking for work. The auto industry is battered and suppliers are shutting down factories with blue collar workers hitting the bricks to find work.
Intellectual industries are not immune; every major media company in Canada has announced layoffs in the last 60 days. It’s a scary time to lose your job. These tough economic times call for new and innovative means of job hunting. Social networking is one of the latest methods of extending a job hunt.
You do have a social network, don’t you? If you don’t you need to join one NOW and start networking. I am a social networking junkie. Every time a new network pops up I join. Not so much to participate but to squat on my name, newmediaMike.
When I found out at the end of August my position was being eliminated I came up with two plans of action. My main plan was to find a full time salaried position to replace the one I had just lost and my “Plan B” was to freelance as a consultant, in one of three areas. SEO (Search Engine Optimization), Social Media or Web Video. My company, Videozine was still operational and fortunately I had some small jobs coming in as I always had. Never enough to live off, but enough that it made it worthwhile to keep the company open.
My main plan was to find a project management position in new media. I have many years of producing interactive projects and I thought it’d be a snap to land a job. A sub-set of the main plan – not quite plan “B” but a fall back plan was to find a sales job. After all I have been in sales for the last 20 plus years.
To find the jobs I was interested in, I subscribed via RSS to all of the major job boards and MediaJobSearchCanada (MJSC) as I wanted to stay within the media production industry if I could. I also signed up for Friend Feed and HelloTxt, two means of distributing the same message over multiple social networks. I then started sending out resumes to positions I was finding on Workopolis, Monster, kaboom and MJSC. Fulfilling the main plan was my ultimate goal but I knew I also had to keep working on Plan B.
Getting Social
I announced on Facebook that I was hanging out my “Social Media Shingle”. I figured I’d try and find work as a Social Media Consultant or an SEO Consultant. I updated my Plaxo and Linked In profiles and I announced to my followers on Twitter I was looking for work. Within a few hours I had people sending me messages asking me what kind of work I was looking for, I had some Twitter followers give me leads on potential Social Media jobs, it was great. I was flooding the market with resumes for my main plan and Plan “B”. I saw the potential in my Social Network and I started to tap into it.
This blog is a big part of my social network, but I didn’t blog as much as I thought I would what with so much time on my hands, sending out custom resumes was actually quite time consuming. I did check Facebook and Twitter on a regular basis though.
In addition to this online social networking I made sure I attended off line real world events which were directly tied into the online world. I attended WordCamp and passed around a very crudely thrown together business card identifying myself as newmediaMike. I talked to a lot of people about SEO, Web video and social media. Several people said “Oh you are newmediaMike! I read your blog all the time and I love your SEO Tips”.
I made sure I attended interactive Ontario events to network in person. I also made it out to the monthly TwitterBrunch in October.
One of the attendees at this brunch was Alex DeBold. In August I wrote a post about Alex and Ali’s website Chick Advisor. When he found out I did SEO he said he would keep it in mind as he might need some help in the future.
A month later Alex called me and asked me if I was still looking for work. He was consulting for Direct Energy and they needed some SEO work done. I sent in my resume, interviewed and as they say the rest is history. I am now consulting on SEO for Direct Energy and working alongside Alex.
Since then a blog post of mine resonated with a former client who is now looking to get his website optimized. A former co-worker who has his own consulting firm has asked me to perform SEO evaluations for a few of his client’s websites. One of my Facebook friends and Twitter followers whose path I keep crossing recommended me to a friend of his who also needs SEO for her website. One of my other Twitter followers has recommended me to a friend of his to optimize his audio studio site. Finally someone I met at WordCamp introduced me to one of the sponsors and I’m going to be doing some SEO work for them possibly.
The point I am laboriously getting to is this – social networking can work for you to help you find a job or work. You need to get yourself out there as much as possible. Update your Plaxo and LinkedIn profiles. Add people with like minded interests on Facebook and Twitter. Participate in discussions, blog about what you are passionate about or a subject matter related to your chosen field. Declare yourself a consultant and an expert. Prove you are by broadcasting it to the world on your blog and your Twitter posts. Be visible and let everyone and anyone you come in contact with know you are looking for work. Your immediate network may not know someone, but someone in their extended network just might be looking for someone to fill a position you are right for.
Social networking works if you work it.
Have you successfully used social networking to get a job or contract? Do you know of someone else who has? Share your stories with us.
