4 Ways To Stand Out In Your Social Media Job Search

If you're looking for a barometer of how fast job seekers are taking to social networks, it's worth noting this: Three years ago, when Brad and Debra Schepp compiled the first edition of their book on the ways in which people were using social media networks to conduct a successful job search, they had trouble finding people to profile.
Three years on, Brad Schepp says, the couple had to turn away stories for the second edition, titled "How to Find a Job on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+."


 So many people are using these networks to find work, it's no longer unusual," he says. "It's almost becoming the norm."
That's especially true among younger job seekers, Schepp says. Moreover, Twitter and Facebook are being used differently than they were a scant few years ago. Job seekers are using Facebook, for example, to find people who may be able to help them get a foot in the door of a desirable employer.
"People really weren't doing that few years ago," he says.
The popularity of social networks is growing in part because they are succeeding in helping people manage their burgeoning networks of colleagues, friends and acquaintances.
Facebook, etc, recognize that such networks can become unwieldy and have provided users with tools to manage contacts. On LinkedIn, for example, the site's InMaps feature shows how others are connected to those within your own network. Those who are connected to many people appear larger than others, so you know they have more influence.
Maintaining a grip on all those you know is important, Schepp says. "If you don't have a good handle on your network, what's the point in having it?"
When it comes to searching for a job, Schepp says, LinkedIn is the one social media network that job seekers and working professionals have to be on. He predicts that it won't be too long before LinkedIn replaces conventional resumes, adding that many job sites now feature a button that allows users to apply using information from their LinkedIn profiles.

Though LinkedIn is generally the most useful of the sites for job seeking and connecting with career professionals, Facebook and Google+ do hold advantages for those involved in the visual arts, including photographers and graphic designers, allowing them to showcase their work.
LinkedIn is more text heavy, Schepp says, which perhaps makes it the best choice for writers, journalists, public relations professionals and information technology workers, among others.
Though Twitter may seem hamstrung as a communications tool because of its 140-character limit, Schepp nonetheless says it's a useful tool for finding jobs since many more companies are using it to post openings.
To simplify the job search, services such as Tweet My Job have been developed to aid in sifting through the openings posted on Twitter.
What's more, Twitter, as with LinkedIn, allows users to create customized lists -- say, employers within a 50-mile radius -- to help users find more useful information and contacts.
These giants of social networking also aid in job searching by linking with other sites. For example, SimplyHired.com, a job search portal, can be accessed from within LinkedIn. "And once you do that," Schepp says, "you can see who within your LinkedIn network can help you get more information about that job."
Looking for effective ways to use social media in your job search? Schepp offers these tips:

• Use all the networks -- Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn -- and complete your profile at each site. The more information you provide, the easier it will be for a potential employer to match your skills and talents with those the company seeks.


• Be consistent across all networks. It's been common practice among many social media users to present themselves more professionally on LinkedIn, say, while creating a more casual image on Facebook. But employers have caught on and it may raise red flags about you if you exhibit a different persona on each site. Employers want to know the real you.

• Be savvy about your recommendations. LinkedIn and Facebook's BranchOut app allow colleagues and former employers to post recommendations on your profile. But employers can easily spot a quid pro quo relationship. So make sure those you post are from those who know you well. Both also give you the ability to find others associated with your connections, though only LinkedIn shows you how you might know someone and how many connections you have in common.

• Master each network's settings. Let's face it, Facebook's Settings pages are a nightmare, but familiarizing yourself with them puts you in charge of not only the information you share -- including stuff you'd rather not broadcast to the public -- but others' information that shows up in your feed. And that can be a big time-saver. You might not need to know, for example, when a connection has changed his profile picture, but you may want to know when he's changed jobs. Other sites have similar features that allow you to control the kind of information you share and see.

Junior Ad Men Drop Off Portfolios In Bathrooms And Get Jobs

In most cases, designers don't want job recruiters to associate their portfolio with going to the bathroom. But for a pair of aspiring admen, it was their entire strategy. And it worked. After dropping off their "Toilet Book," Akos Papp and Laszlo Szloboda, both 24, Wednesday landed coveted jobs as a junior art director and a copywriter at the BBDO advertising agency in New York.

It all started last winter, when the two students at Miami Ad School in New York began job-hunting and were brainstorming ways to get their portfolios seen. "We heard [agencies] receive hundred of thousands of books. So maybe their desks shouldn't be the place where they see our book," says Papp in an interview with AOL Jobs. "So we thought about the toilet."


So earlier this month the duo quietly raided nine top New York ad agencies, leaving "The Toilet Book" -- a portion of their portfolio -- in bathrooms stalls. They got in by asking the agencies' security guards if they could use the bathroom or pretending that they were there to see people whose names they knew from prior internships. (BBDO was one of the agencies the duo interned with.)

Anyone who opened their 16-page book was greeted with this: "To break into advertising, we need five minutes from your busy schedule to look at our work. Well, you have five minutes now, and let's face it, you're dying to read just about anything.... Let's get this shit started."
Papp and Szloboda were contacted and interviewed by six of the nine agencies. And several others reached out after hearing about "The Toilet Book" through Twitter and other online sites.

 "There was no negative response at all. All the directors were laughing, and they were happy that we understood one of their problems, which was looking through all the portfolios," says Papp. "We both have done a couple of internships, and we knew the really big guys use the same bathrooms as everyone else."
(Their manager at BBDO was out of the office and couldn't be reached for comment.)
Of course, getting the creative directors' attention was only half the battle. Turning the page after the welcome message, the reader is shown a campaign that the two worked on while at advertising school. Assigned to design an ad campaign for the Penguin Group, the two created posters featuring stark land- and cityscapes accompanied by one-word taglines like, "Invasion," "Seige" and "Resurrection."

"We wanted to remind people how fun reading is," says Szloboda. "Our strategy was to compare them to movies. and we wanted to show how a book is like having a movie in your hands." The movie-poster-style ads were followed by a selection of game board-like displays, including a bingo card featuring the Pantone color scheme used in the manufacturing of fabrics.
"We wanted it to be a tease to our portfolio site," Szloboda tells AOL Jobs.
"The book illustrates their type of humor," says Mihai Botarel, their instructor from the Miami Ad School and also a copywriter at Tribal DDB in New York. "This self-ironic approach shows they've got to be able to take a joke if you put their work in a toilet. They made their portfolio into a portfolio piece."
Should other job-hunters consider adopting the scatological strategy? Not necessarily, says Penelope Trunk, the founder of Brazen Careerist. "This kind of thing only works for entry level," she says. "You risk looking like an idiot, but it does show you have guts for wanting the job that badly. You don't want to be in a position where you have nothing to lose for too long."

The Hungarian-born Papp and Szloboda will have their chance once they both iron out their visas before starting work.

 http://vimeo.com/38205794

Effective Communication: Talk With Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime

7 Steps to Effective Communication
Everything You'll Ever Need, To Get Anything You'll Ever Want
How often have you said the wrong thing to the wrong person? Have you lost your temper with co-workers in front of a group? Have you ever thought of the right thing to say at a critical moment, ten minutes after the moment?Here are 7 quick tips to assist you in becoming an effective, influential communicator.
Step 1: Think before you speak
This is the BEST tool to stop you from being fired, embarrassed or simply developing a bad reputation in your personal and business network.
Even when you feel confident at work or home, when interacting with others, we can say the wrong comment at a critical moment. Remember, difficult or angry people are experts at pushing your emotional triggers or buttons.
When you are going to contribute or say anything at a key moment, Take a Breath and Think Before you Speak.
What are you going to say? What's the goal? Is it an additional comment? Is it sarcasm? Are you agreeing, disagreeing, or just talking. Think of George Costanza in Seinfeld? That is not the reputation you want.
Now, many people ask, How do I appear to others while I ma thinking? Great questions: When you are stumped, and therefore thinking, you can say "Great Questions, Thanks for asking, let me think for a moment." Now you appear competent, thoughtful, and graceful in communication.
Step 2: What is there style?
What is the style of the person you are talking to? Are they fast paced, slow paced? Direct, harsh, easy going and friendly, or talking and you do not get a word in?
There are four core styles of people. Direct, Relational, social and logical. Match the style of person or people you are talking to. This takes some practice, yet the benefits are huge. If you are talking at a slow pace to people who are fast paced, they are screaming in their head..."Get to the point!"
Social people drive logical people nuts. They jump from topic to topic.
Step 3; Become a wordsmith! (Be great at vocabulary.)
What is the language at your workplace? Is profanity acceptable? Is it an easy going pleasant communication style, or are people driven and we talk in short bullet points. The better you can match the culture at work, and the words, the better your reputation will become.
Step 4: How am I perceived? Check In to find out
Have you ever asked a trusted source how you are perceived at work? Or, have you found out at performance review time? Have you come to your husband or wife and they have been upset at your from and event three days ago?
We all settle into routine. We tune out the familiar. It's important to "check in" after a difficult communication, or in general with others. "How are we doing? What can I do for you? If you have had an incident with someone, do not hide. Deal wit the situation and people will accept you.
Step 5: Avoid Sarcasm, Use Humor
Sarcasm is humor with a sharp, cutting edge. If you are at work, you may think "these people know me; sarcasm will not be an issue." Then, later, you are called into a meeting with the boss. Avoid making fun of specific people. Avoid sarcasm on the phone at all costs. It is usually misinterpreted and, "you can't take it back."Use you natural humor. Poke fun at common events that happen to everyone.
Step 6: Avoid potholes
Often, we are trapped by others into awkward moments. We might feel compelled to pile on when making fun of someone else, or trying to get the last word in with our colleagues. Just like in sports, the second person gets the penalty; you will be remembered for the last mean insulting reward.
Be the designated communicator: Remind people to be their best, and you can stop the pile on, or falling into the pot hole effect.
Step 7: Listen more, talk less.
When at work, or networking, or business events, have your guard up. Be clear in what you want to say. Rehearse your tag line at home. What are three things you do well that you can offer others?
Ask questions to other people. Get them talking. People's favorite topic is themselves. Ask them about their issues, their work, their fun, and listen.When you hear a connection that you can offer your expertise, jump in. People connect with others best when they feel they were listened to, and not told too much.
Dr. Brian teaches techniques that allow professionals to tap into their own style of communication to accomplish goals and to say anything to anyone, anywhere anytime.

Dynamic Online Marketing Strategies are a Must in Today’s Internet Marketplace

Today most small to mid size companies’ websites are designed and utilized primarily for informational presentation. I’ve even seen many larger publically traded companies utilizing informational only web sites never using a social media strategy or seeing the need to hire one of the search engine optimization firms that are experts in these strategies. What I am basically referring to here are web sites that only show company information in a static format; much like viewing a company brochure, only the content is on-line. Many companies feel that by displaying company information and contact/phone number details is enough. Clearly these companies are falling behind in fully exploiting their existing web site and the lack of using the newest online marketing strategies. Company web sites will, for the foreseeable future, continue to be the primary means of displaying product and service information to customers and prospects. However, as can be seen with the growing dominance of smart phones, social media web sites, such as Facebook and LinkedIn; as well as micro blogging sites like Twitter, many companies can and must begin to reach out to their target market utilizing a more functional dynamic approach.
If a company really wants to drive sales higher they must consider where and how their targeted market compares brands, reads product and service reviews as well as comparing and listening to a friend’s experiences. These conversations are currently occurring in the social media space. In order for companies to be more competitive; they must become a part of this conversation taking advantage of the exposure to their products and services that a Social Media Strategy offers.
All of this activity requires companies to dramatically alter the way in which they have marketed and sold their products and services. Most marketers seem to have embraced the idea that their company content needs to live in many places outside of their web site in order to be most effective. Company CEO’s and other senior executives must be willing to commit time, energy and resources to think outside the confines of their web site in order to influence their target market earlier in the sales discovery process. Not doing so will make it much harder for these companies to participate and drive sales earlier in the sales process thus causing brand erosion and lost opportunities.
For the first time in 2011, sales of smart phones with the ability to see a mobile website will surpass the combined sales of PC desktops and laptops. Customers are becoming more mobile as part of this transformation from the desktop computer to smaller transportable devices. Again, companies must think and then market outside their normal boundaries in order to remain competitive in the future. It appears thus far that many companies have not adequately prepared for the coming shift in mobile computing and social media strategy. For example, Dot Mobi reports that only 29.7 % of the web’s top 10,000 sites are currently optimized for mobile. Clearly many companies need to step up their efforts taking advantage of the new Dynamic and Mobile Internet Marketplace that is available at a moment’s notice from any consumers Smartphone 24/7.