using social media in your job search

www.BeYourOwnHeadhunter.com

www.MNHeadhunter.com

Using Social Media In Your Job Search

Paul DeBettignies, Managing Partner



Background and Experience

• Over a decade recruiting in IT• Prominent blogger on Recruiting/HR, Career and Business topics

• Co-Founder and Coordinator of Minnesota Recruiters

• Contributor to RecruitingBlogs.com• Creator of BeYourOwnHeadhunter.com



If you remember nothing else,

remember these two things

Doing a job search SUCKS

Finding a job is a job



Who Are You?

• Marketing of you• 10-second pitch or sound byte• 30 second elevator pitch• Business cards• LinkedIn profile• Email address, get a professional one



I love the GOPHERS!



Don’t

[email protected]

[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]




Where should I look?

• Big job boards• Niche and local job boards

• Newspapers• Trade, Professional, Association web sites

• Aggregators• Social Networking Sites• Your Network



Who is in my online network?

• Linkedin has 30M users

• Facebook has 150M users. Average age 25. Fastest growing demographic is 55+

• Twitter (following & followers)

• Ning groups



LinkedIn 101

The fastest LinkedIn presentation you have ever

seen



Getting started: Creating and optimizing your

profile



Headline

• Be specific about your location and industry

• Use the “Headline” as a way to attract visitors. Include what you do or what you are looking for



Real Time Updates

• This can be updated as frequently as you wish

• Say what you are doing similar to Facebook, Twitter

• This will show in your connection’s “Network Updates”



Add your online places

• Default is “My Company” “My Website” “My Blog”

• Edit to name your company, name of website, etc

• More click through’s when sites are named



Who are you and what do you do?

• Summary = 30 second elevator pitch

• Who you are, what you do, what you are interested in

• Specialties can be used as keywords and acronyms specific to your industry



Online Resume

• This is your resume but without the worry of 1 or 2 page minimums

• Be descriptive• Include keywords and acronyms (again) where appropriate



Education

• Be sure to list schools, majors, activities in and out of the classroom



What interests you?

• What are your hobbies, interests, volunteer activities

• This humanizes you• This gives others the ability to find common interests with you



Your Groups and Associations

• Include personal and professional groups



Honors and Awards

• Include personal, professional, and volunteer nominations and awards



How to get in touch with you• You may want

to add a message

• You may want to add your email address

• Interested In = who you are looking to connect with



Your Personal URL

• Personalize your URL

• Add this to your email footer

• When commenting on web sites, blogs, industry leave this URL for people to find you.

• Include it when signing up for events



Use Google to search LinkedIn

• Your reach is only so big• Google indexes most personal and company profiles

• Start with this search string in Google– Site:LinkedIn.com (enter keywords)– You will need to “play” with words, phrases, “”, like you would usually do on any Google search



LinkedIn Tips

• Create a specific email address for your LinkedIn account

• Archive unwanted or unknown connection requests

• 5 I Don’t Knows can get you in trouble with LinkedIn

• 3,000 Invitations allowed (can request for more)

• Personalize invitations or create your own templates. LinkedIn templates are boring.

• Write recommendations• Participate in Questions & Answers



Ask yourself. . .

Look at your profile, would you want to connect with you?



Social Network Sites

• Keep profile(s) updated• Take advantage of “What are you doing” on Facebook and LinkedIn

• Be conscious of the line between professional and personal.

• Engage others in conversation



Using Twitter For Job Search

• Tweet that you are looking (DUH)• Expand who you follow• Use Twitter Search, Twitterholic, Twellow or a Google search to find users by title and/or company

• Twitter Search: enter keywords, acronyms

• Pull RSS feeds into your favorite reader

• TwitHire• Complete profile with keywords and a link to something



Facebook• Connect with:

– Family & Friends– Join company pages, industry and location specific groups

– Current and former co-workers– Folks in your industry– Acquaintances you want to keep in touch with



Whew, Victory. Now What?

• Send an email to those you have been in contact with

• Is your new company hiring other positions?

• Start looking for your next new job

• Keep track of and nurture your network



Mistakes With Social Media

• Using industry jargon and acronyms with those not in the industry

• Profiles that do not include keywords that allow others to find you

• Not linking or adding widgets to/from your other pages (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter)

• Failure to move from online relationships to in person

• Not introducing your friends and connections to each other



It’s not the size of your network but how

you use it



Resources• JibberJobber – Career management tool• Alltop HR and Alltop Careers – Blog aggregator with lots of useful content

• Quintessential Careers – Templates, advice, articles

• Job-Hunt.org – Lots of local an national links• Dan Schawbel – Personal branding guru• Emurse – Can host your resume here. Search engines love the site

• LinkUp – Only jobs from corporate career pages• Indeed• Simply Hired• Twin Cities Business magazine – Lists of lists• Social Media Headhunter | @smheadhunter

http://www.jibberjobber.com/login.php



Thank You!

Paul [email protected]


http://www.facebook.com/people/Paul-DeBettignies/500810200

http://www.linkedin.com/in/mnheadhunter

http://twitter.com/mnheadhunter

http://www.minnesotarecruiters.com/

using social media in your job search

Technology

social media

email address

google search

elevator pitch

enter keywords

twitter search

include keywords

include personal