Top 10 Social Media Job Search Questions of 2009

What are the top 10 social media job search questions of 2009? Find the questions and answers in this week’s J2B Marketing blog!

As 2009 progressed, I often heard the same social media job search questions come up in various job seeker and career training sessions or networking functions. Most questions centered around using LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook to find a job. And, although the questions were often similar, I found that not all experts agreed with the answers.

In this blog post, I’ve attempted to capture some of the most popular, social media job search questions of 2009 and have included answers from a variety of different perspectives. (I’ll be adding a few more during the week.) I encourage you to add your own answers in the comments sections.

1) Do I have to put a picture on my online profiles? Why?

• “You should select one picture to use in all of your social media profiles, on your business card, on your blog and in other collateral.  This way it consistently portrays your brand as a professional in your field and so people can follow your digital tracks online.  A picture says more than a thousand words online, it says almost everything.  By not having a picture, it will be harder for people to have an emotional connection with your personal brand.”
  

Dan Schawbel | Author of Me 2.0 and the Personal Branding Blog

• “YES! Not including a photo can be just as damaging as using the wrong photo. Personal branding is about creating emotional connections. People believe content more when it’s accompanied by the author’s photo. An online profile with no photo is a missed opportunity to reinforce your brand and engage people.”

Meg Guiseppi, C-level / Senior Executive Personal Branding, Online Identity and Job Search Strategist, at Executive Career Brand, | www.executivecareerbrand.com

• “YES! Remember one of the important reasons why you’re involved with these communities – engagement. You come off far more approachable, and yes – professional, when you include an image that helps promote your personal brand. Words and information on a profile are just that – words and information. A good photo helps personalize the message, ties you more closely to your brand and helps promote you as an approachable professional.”

Chris Osborn | Senior Consultant – Talent Management & Career Transition Coach | BPI Group

2) How many recommendations do I need on LinkedIn?

• “It depends… on how many different companies you’ve worked for and how many different roles you’ve had. Quality is also more important than quantity, i.e. 5 very well written recommendations are more valuable than 10 generic ones. You also need at least 3, to make your LinkedIn profile officially complete.”

Marci Reynolds | CEO J2B Marketing | Job Seeker Internet Marketing Services

• “I’d say 30, but the more the better.  Get recommendations for whatever you can, not only from your last supervisor. “

David Barrett | “The LinkedIn Lawyer” | Boston Attorney│World’s Largest LinkedIn Lawyer Network│12,000+

3) If I set up a blog to help my job search, what am I supposed to write about?

• “Write about topics that will resonate with your target audience. Make sure you include relevant keyword phrases in your blog and page titles, so that recruiters and hiring decision makers searching these phrases to source candidates will land on your blog.”

Meg Guiseppi, C-level | Senior Executive Personal Branding, Online Identity and Job Search Strategist, at Executive Career Brand | www.executivecareerbrand.com

• “Well – let’s start with a preliminary question – are you willing to blog? And by this I mean, are you willing to write 4-500 words at least once per week about a topic you are passionate about? If not – don’t do it. If yes, then I suggest writing about things you are knowledgeable and passionate about. If that knowledge and passion tie to your profession, a blog can be a terrific job search tool.”

Chris Osborn | Senior Consultant – Talent Management & Career Transition Coach | BPI Group

4) Is it still worth it to post my resume on the job boards, ex. Monster.com or Careerbuilder?

• “Employers go to job boards often for a unique combination of skills and experience.  A client came to me with a very eclectic background, she had experience processing contracts, training, and managing projects and her resume was selected from the job boards and she was offered a position that combined all three.  Posting your resume on job boards is not the most successful job search strategy, but it is worth the few minutes it takes.”

Leenie Glickman | Job Search & Career Satisfaction Coach | www.ResumeMotivation.com

• “Yes, for several reasons. 1) It’s free, so you have nothing to lose, 2) As someone who used to work at Monster.com, I know that access to the resume database is one of the most popular offerings that Monster sells to recruiters and HR professionals. They pay a monthly or annual fee to have access to searching the database. And, Monster just introduced Resume Database Power Search to make their offering even more attractive.

Marci Reynolds | CEO J2B Marketing | Job Seeker Internet Marketing Services

5) Do I have to post my information online for job searching? I’m concerned about privacy.

• “If you want to be found by hiring managers and recruiters, you must be online.  If you are concerned about privacy, you can control how much information can be found when someone searches for you.  For example, when you create a public profile on LinkedIn, you can determine how much of your profile will be visible if someone searches for you on Google.  Similarly, you can set your Facebook profile so that you will only be found in Facebook and not in a Google search.  If you have a thoughtful profile that highlights your expertise, skills and strengths, visibility on social networking sites can only help to advance your job search.”

Susan Peppercorn | Career Outside the Cube | Career Coaching And Advisory Services |  www.careeroutsidethecube.com

6) Does Indeed.com include (aggregate) all job postings, or do I still need to go to separate job board sites?

• “First let’s define Indeed, Simply Hired, Juju and other like companies as job listing search engines. They capture the majority of listings that are posted online with job boards.  Overall, they do a pretty good job and we would not recommend spending any significant time surfing job boards if you have correctly established alerts within their systems.

However, when evaluating your job search campaign time management, we think it is important to reference a 2008 Weddles survey that determined that less than 15% of all jobs are actually filled through online classified ads.  For 2010, we believe, it is much more important for job seekers to use a service that provides organized data mining and leverage’s social networks to find your next position.  Corporate use of social media in recruitment has doubled in the last 24 months and we think it will double again in the 2010.  Candidates will be best served to align their job search strategy to match corporate recruiting behavior.”

Ian Levine | CEO CareerBrander and Outplacement Tools

7) Do I have to use Twitter for my job search? Isn’t it just for celebrities?

• “I highly recommend Twitter for job hunting! Using Lists or a Twitter tool (TweetDeck is my favorite), job seekers can customize Tweet streams to create personal news sources, with the latest information from industry/profession sources plus target employers, even job postings. With a keyword-rich Bio plus on-topic Tweets, job seekers can carefully attract employer attention in return.” (Note: Susan’s quote is included in the new eBook, “How To Use Twitter For Your Job Search“)

Susan P. Joyce | Online job search expert and editor/publisher of award-winning Job-Hunt.org | @JobHuntOrg

• “It’s true that there is a lot of useless information on Twitter.  Following celebrities may be fun but it won’t get you closer to a job.  There are valid reasons why job seekers should use Twitter.
  • First, Twitter is a great way to follow subject matter experts and find out what’s on their mind from a business perspective.  By following their tweets you can find out what leaders in their fields are reading, and writing about.  Many use Twitter to link to their own blog posts.
  • To find experts in your industry on Twitter you can search for keywords related to your industry or search for an individual by name.  Third-party sites categorize Twitter users by profession, industry and geographic location. The most popular are twellow and WeFollow. Both sort Twitter users into industry categories and most influential users. Companies and job boards post job openings on Twitter. Two popular job resources on Twitter are jobshouts and Twitterjobsearch.
  • Last but not least, if you are an expert in a particular area, let the world know about it by tweeting!

Susan Peppercorn | Career Outside the Cube | Career Coaching And Advisory Services |  www.careeroutsidethecube.com

Isn’t Facebook just for personal use? Why and how can I use it for job search?

• “There are countless ways you can use Facebook to search for a new job. You can include your resume and other background information in both the Notes and Info sections of your profile page. You can add separate tabs for both SlideShare and YouTube, which you can use to showcase your own PowerPoint presentations and videos. If you write a blog, you can share your posts with your Facebook friends via an RSS feed. You can connect Twitter to your status updates and refer to your expertise in your tweets. And finally, you can become a fan of the company you’d like to work for as a way of learning more about it and possibly even networking with employees there.”

Bob Cargill | Copywriter, Creative Director and Social Media Marketer | Cargill Creative

9) Do I have to sign up for other social networks beyond LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, e.x. Plaxo?

• “If you use LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, you have the bases covered as far as business networking is concerned.  There is a downside to belonging to too many networks.  For one thing, each time you join a new network, a learning curve goes along with it. Also, since managing your profile and contacts on each social networking site takes time, belonging to too many networks may stretch you too thin and results in diminishing returns. One thing to keep in mind is that social networking does not replace face-to-face networking.  It is a tool, not an end in itself.”

Susan Peppercorn | Career Outside the Cube |Career Coaching And Advisory Services |  www.careeroutsidethecube.com

10) What email domain (ex. verizon, yahoo, gmail) is the best to have and why?

• “If you can set up your last name as a domain it looks great – so David@Barrett.com, but popular last names may be taken.  I’d say Gmail still has a bit of smarty-cache vs. yahoo and hotmail.”

David Barrett | “The LinkedIn Lawyer” | Boston Attorney│World’s Largest LinkedIn Lawyer Network│12,000+

• “There are a few things to consider when choosing a job search email address.
  • First, regardless of the provider, you want to choose a professional handle, which is ideally your first and last name. Save the cutesy, RedSox223 for personal use.  I agree with David Barrett, that using your own domain name equal to your first and last name is best.
  • Second, the provider you choose can send a message about how technically savvy you are. When you see AOL, you think of old technology and baby boomers. When you see Gmail, you think of Google and new technology. Services like Comcast and Verizon are somewhat neutral.
  • Last, there are some email providers that are more likely to end up in a spam filter than others. I recently surveyed “tech  guys/gals” on LinkedIn about this topic, and the experts tended to agree that Hotmail, AOL and Yahoo were MORE likely to end up in someone’s spam file, while GMAIL was less likely to.

Marci Reynolds | CEO J2B Marketing | Job Seeker Internet Marketing Services

Copyright December 2009, Marci Reynolds, All Rights Reserved