Keppie Careers

Social media speaker, social media consultant, job search coach

How to make it easier to find you – in Google+ and via Google profiles

By

You’re starting to think Google+ may be a good use of your social networking time? If you read Kelly Dingee’s post on Fistful of Talent about why she’s excited about using Google+ and Google profiles for recruiting, you should be!

One of the big reasons to use social media is to help you find people you want to know. I wrote about how to find people on Google+. Be sure to take a look at my post, because it gives you the tools to figure out the next important piece of the social networking puzzle: How to BE found!

Your Google profile (which you probably own but don’t pay much attention) is important. If you’re not already on Google+, you can find your profile via Google profiles: http://www.google.com/profiles.

If you are already on Google+, you can start to test out how easy (or difficult) it is to find you via your profile by searching the various tools I listed in the “how to find people on Google+ post.”Think of the keywords you want people to use to find you. Are you a graphic artist working mostly in Atlanta?  Search, {“graphic artist” and “Atlanta”}. How many pages does it take to find your profile?

Identify the keywords you want people to use to find you. (Follow that link for advice about how.) Maybe your location is not important, but the fact you design custom Facebook pages? Decide your KEY keywords.

NOW – pack your Google profile with those words. Similar to LinkedIn, where it is easier to find you if you include keywords in your titles, descriptions, skills, etc., it appears Google will index you higher in search if your profile is packed with your keywords. List all of your titles. Include professional associations. List anything including keywords in your profile.

A trick?

Google doesn’t offer a “keywords” section to “tag” yourself in the profile, which would be similar to LinkedIn’s “specialties” section, where it is appropriate to list words and phrases relevant to you. Why not add one in?

In your “Introduction” section, add KEYWORDS: and then fill in all the words and phrases you think will help people find you in search. I did it, and it immediately impacted my search results in Google+. Take a look at my profile.

Try a “before” and “after” search to see if your rankings improve. Let me know how it works for you!

photo by Auntie P

How having your own website helps you

By

I always think one of the most frustrating aspects of job search is believing you’ve “done everything,” but aren’t finding an opportunity. I’ve never met a job seeker who actually has “done everything,” though, which I think is good news! Most people are very focused on out-dated tools and spend a disproportionate percentage of their time doing the same thing, over and over, without different results.

This month, the Career Collective (a community I co-coordinate with my colleague Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter) addresses the question of how to use social media in a job search. (Please click through to the links I’ll add soon at the bottom of this post to the other responses to this question.)

There are so many great ways to use social media in your search, most of which I address in my book, Social Networking for Career Success.

There’s no doubt social media tools offer an underutilized opportunity to:

  • Help you connect with new people and keep track of contacts.
  • Easily learn new things.
  • Share your expertise and expand your brand.

LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook all provide easy-to-use, free tools to get-in-touch (and keep-in-touch) with people who may be interested in learning more about you and what you have to offer. However, I think the best, and most important tool the majority of job seekers do not have is a personal website, or social resume.

Why have your own website?

  • Hiring managers will Google you. What will she find?
  • A personal site is a way to control how your name appears online.
  • Statistics show your online presence matters, and that employers are looking for personal and professional data about you.
  • NOT putting up your own site only gives people an incentive to look deeper in the web for information about you. Take a look at these sites to learn what the “deep web” knows about you: pipl.com, Polymeta.com.
  • Managing a site is important for career insurance and professional development. Showcasing your expertise online (even if it is in a new field) helps demonstrate what you have to offer, even when you aren’t looking for a job. An online presence can grow and change along with your career and help attract people to learn more about you. This could result in opportunities to speak at conferences or events, or even invitations to apply for jobs down the road.
  • Having a website suggests you have some technical savvy and understand how to use online tools to communicate. That, in and of itself, is an important skill many employers value. It’s known as “social proof.” You may say you know about technology on your resume, but actually using it to showcase your own information goes a long way to prove you have what employers want.

Especially if you are transitioning to a new job or an experienced job seeker who needs to overcome age discrimination, having an up-to-date online presence and maybe even a viable blog helps show prospective employers you’re willing to learn and are perfectly capable of keeping up with technology.

In my book, I suggest starting out using WordPress.com to try out an online presence. It’s a great resource, and it’s free. However, there are limitations to free tools — not the least of which is you don’t really “own” that online real estate. With some know-how, or an investment in someone who does know how, you can have your own site. If you’re lucky, you can even have “YourName.com,” which will help you rank high for your name in search and help direct people to find the information you want them to find about you.

I hope you’ll visit my site, GetASocialResume.com, to learn more about what you’ll want to include in your social resume. If you don’t want to figure out how to do this yourself, I can help. With a relatively small investment, I can offer you an online presence you’ll be proud to use as a hub for your social media activity, and help you create a site to tell a compelling story describing your background and experiences.

The following are posts from other Career Collective members answering this question

Make Your Career More Social: Show Up and Engage, @WalterAkana

You 2.0: The Brave New World of Social Media and Online Job Searches, @dawnrasmussen

How to Get a New Job Using Social Media, @DebraWheatman

Social Media: Choosing, Using, and Confusing, @ErinKennedyCPRW

How to Use Social Media in Your Job Search, @heatherhuhman

Updating: A Social Media Strategy For Job Search, @TimsStrategy

Your Career Needs Social Media – Get Started, @EliteResumes @MartinBuckland

We Get By With a Little Recs from Our Friends, @chandlee

Expat Careers & Social Media: Social Media is Potentially 6 Times more Influential than a CV or Resume, @expatcoachmegan

Social-Media Tools and Resources to Maximize Your Personalized Job Search, @KatCareerGal

Job Search and Social Media: A Collective Approach, @careersherpa

Social Media: So what’s the point?, @DawnBugni

Tools that change your world, @WorkWithIllness

HOW TO: Meet People IRL via LinkedIn, @AvidCareerist

Effective Web 2.0 Job Search: Top 5 Secrets, @resumeservice

Jumping Into the Social Media Sea @ValueIntoWords

Sink or Swim in Social Media, @KCCareerCoach

Social Media Primer for Job Seekers, @LaurieBerenson

 

 

How social media can help you change careers

By

Career change is usually difficult for the one doing the changing. There are always aspects of advertized jobs the applicant has not exactly accomplished, if only because he or she hasn’t had the chance! Highlighting transferable skills (the ones you can use in any job) as well as targeting your application materials for the positions in question are important pieces of a successful career change. Having a well-targeted resume that makes it clear why you can do the job (even if you’ve never done it before) is so important!

Beyond the resume and typical job search materials, I believe using social media tools can really help build a career changer’s bridge to a new occupation or vocation. In my book, Social Networking for Career Success, I explain how social media may help career changers who naturally have a difficult time proving they have what they need to succeed in the next job: How? It solves several problems:

  • It allows you to extend your network to meet people you otherwise would never encounter. Statistics show how important introductions and “warm leads” are to job seekers. Companies value referrals from within their organizations, and meeting new people you would not otherwise know via online interactions provides more potential for referrals. (Moving those social networking interactions to in-person or telephone conversations is a good next step.)
  • You have easy access to information and resources about your targeted profession. I like to think of social networks as offering a constant opportunity to learn what people in the field and thinking, saying, writing and sharing. Twitter is particularly useful in this regard. In the book, I describe how it’s possible to follow content from conferences you don’t attend in person via hashtags, and share tips from Mark Stelzner, of Inflexion Advisors, for live tweeting a conference. If you find and follow people like Mark in your field, you may be able to grasp the key problems your new targeted industry is grappling with, without leaving your home and without spending a dime! (I elaborate on all the details in the book for HOW to find and follow the right community online.)
  • Social media allows you to demonstrate your newfound expertise, engage in your targeted community, and make a name for yourself in your new industry. Social media can’t MAKE you an expert, but if you have what it takes to excel in your new field, you should be able to demonstrate it online. Show that you know what’s going on, suggest solutions based on your expertise in other industries or fields and be someone who contributes to the conversation in your targeted field.
  • Your lack of actual experience in the field may become less important once potential colleagues view you as an active contributor. If you’re good at sharing what you learn and know, the connections you gain and their willingness to promote you as a contributor will outweigh your actual lack of industry, paid work experience as a factor. (It won’t totally erase it, but it goes a long way to helping you get where you want to go.)
  • Being familiar with social media tools may be just the unique skill you need to help you land a job. Social media isn’t going away. Having an online profile, a Twitter feed and/or using LinkedIn to connect with prospective colleagues helps show you are staying ahead of the curve regarding technology. In and of itself, that may help you exceed another qualified candidate’s credentials.

In the book, I share career change success stories from several contributors, including:

  • Alexis Grant (@alexisgrant), social media coach and owner of Socialexis, who is now Careers editor for U.S. News & World Report.
  • Jessica Lewis, who transitioned to a non-profit career after 10 years in a different field.
  • Kate-Madonna Hindes (known online as @girlmeetsgeek), who used blogging and Twitter to launch an entirely new career as a social marketer and career columnist. (She notes, “Social media changed my life.)

Don’t let the competitive market discourage you from making a change. Dive into social media — I hope you’ll take a look at my book to teach you how to get on the right path — and you may be surprised by the results! Be sure to learn more about my book, Social Networking for Career Success, as I teach you how to use all the social networks you know about — and some you haven’t even considered — and Amazon has it for a great price!

photo by vistavision

 

 

How LinkedIn can help you find a job or a gig

By

I’ve been writing regularly on my book’s site, Social Networking for Career Success, sharing some tips and highlights included in the book and thanking the many contributors who share their advice and expertise in the manuscript.

I believe LinkedIn is the first social network all job seekers and entrepreneurs should use and master.

Here are links to recent posts about LinkedIn on my book’s site:

Craig Fisher, who provided some LinkedIn tips about using keywords in chapter 5, allowed me to highlight advice from one of his recent blogs about using LinkedIn.

Tim Tyrell-Smith, manager of a LinkedIn Success Story group, and Timothy Puyleart, who runs a very successful, niche LinkedIn group, offered excellent advice about the advantages and challenges of creating LinkedIn groups. Learn more in the post highlighting LinkedIn groups.

Stay tuned for more links to posts with social networking advice thanking contributors to Social Networking for Career Success. Take a look at the entire list of contributors and links to their blogs and Twitter accounts.

photo from LinkedIn Press Center

How to make it easier to find you online

By

Job seekers often hear how important it is to make it easy to find information about you online. Why? A Cross-Tab research study, Online Reputation in a Connected World, points out:

  • 75 percent of HR departments are expected to research candidates online
  • 89 percent of hiring managers and recruiters review candidates’ professional online data
  • 86 percent of employers believe a positive online reputation influences their hiring decisions—and nearly 50 percent say the influence is “to a great extent” and they expect it to increase

Further proving how important it is to be discoverable online is an ExecuNet Inc. research study, 2010 Executive Job Market Intelligence Report:

  • 90 percent of search-firm recruiters regularly Google candidates to help draw a complete picture of that individual—up from 75 percent in 2005

If you have a common name, it may be difficult to distinguish yourself online. About 2,000 people on LinkedIn share their name with someone on the FBI’s most wanted list, says James Alexander, founder of Vizibility.com, a company that creates tools to help professionals and companies stand out on the Web.

Read the rest of the post on my U.S. News blog….

photo by dunkr