May 28th, 2009 | 8 comments | Social Media

Part One of Many

I’ve told the story of how my use of social media has jump-started my career. But for those of you that don’t know me personally and haven’t been here for most or all of the steps in this journey, you don’t know what I’ve actually done to make this dream of mine happen. So here it is. You can find the stories about what started the madness here, where the dream really got focused, and the process afterwards that got me to this point I’m at today.

If you’re here, and reading this, I’m assuming you have some grasp on social media. You know what blogging is, (obviously) and you probably even have a Twitter account. I’m going to assume you have an account set up, and you’ve played around with it for a bit. (If you don’t have a Twitter account, go set one up. Please.)

In this series, I’m going to tell you how I started this journey and all the steps along the way. How to build your network to get the connections you need to get a job, and how to maintain and add value to that network. Also, since I’ve accepted a position in Chicago and am relocating, how I used social media to get the opportunity to jump-start my career in a new city. Since I don’t know anything about the housing market in Chicago, I’ve been using my Chicago network (and building on it) to get an idea of where I’ll be able to live when I get up there. (And I’m visiting next weekend to view apartments that I got leads to from Twitter!)

If you’re reading this and have done something similar and would like to contribute, feel free to contact me and we can use your experiences in the series as well.

Let’s start the first part of this series:

Using Social Media to Build Your Network

I interviewed Aaron Strout for my “Tips for the Almost-Grad” series and you can read the post here.

Aaron Strout’s One Tip For Almost Grads from Sydney Owen on Vimeo.

Aaron brings up a good point. Build your network – but give before you get (and this post goes into that deeper). Like Aaron says, it’s a lot like dating. (Really, read the linked post, it’s awesome and helps networking make sense).

So, assuming you have a grasp on Twitter, and you now believe me when I say building your network is the first step to success, let’s continue.

1. Search for people in your field. The first thing you should do is a search for “nursing” or “PR” or “graphic design” or whatever your field is. In TweetDeck, you can set up a column for your search to monitor what is being said about your subject, updating in real time. Also, if you go to search.twitter.com you can get the same results. You can also do this for a business you would like to work with. For instance, I searched for all of the major PR agencies and monitored what they were doing, what people were saying, etc. This is a good way to find people that work for that company.

2. Follow Mr. Tweet. Based on your Twitter profile and the content of your Tweets, Mr. Tweet will organize a list of people that you aren’t following that you should follow. Every two weeks he updates the list of people outside of your network. This is how I found a lot of the PR people I’m following.

3. Ask about your field (or company you’d like to work with) frequently. It’s safe to assume that you aren’t the first person using the search tool for their field. That being said, ask questions. Use keywords. Somebody, somewhere, is searching for what you’re asking about. That is the glory of Twitter. It becomes a very powerful human-based search engine. For example, I was in the Houston airport and was stressed out about WiFi and the PR guy from Boingo contacted me and told me how to get set up. 

4. Build relationships. So someone is listening. You asked a question, they answered, and now you have a contact in your field (or at the company). Build a relationship. Ask them questions. If you’re still in college this is especially easy, do what I did and just say “hey, I’m about to graduate, do you have any tips for me about the industry?” or something along those lines. If you aren’t, you can still make that conversation happen. “How did you get into the field (or start with the company)?” Obviously you have to get to know the people, get an idea of what their role is in the industry (or with the company) and just let the conversation flow. 

5. After you have established a relationship, give before you get. Then ask for what you need. Going back to Aaron’s post, it’s like dating. Don’t ask the person to marry you after 24 hours. You have to let it grow. Post links to articles you think are interesting, share your conversation with other people, etc. Obviously you don’t want to talk to someone for 5 minutes then ask if they’re hiring. Ask for an informational interview. Ask to meet up for drinks. Ask to have them review your resume and critique it. All of these things create conversation and build your relationship.

Be Appropriate. Watch your mouth.

We’ve been told time and time again that what we say online isn’t private. We know that. That employers are checking Facebook and MySpace to see what we’re up to. If you’ve already had the pictures of you doing keg stands every weekend plastered all over your wall, they’re out there. But consider cleaning up your profiles to be a bit more professional. If someone really wants to dig for dirt on you, if it’s out there, they’ll find it. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t present yourself in the best light possible. We’re in college. A lot of us party. They know that. It’s a part of growing up. But the picture of you with one eye open at IHop isn’t going to help your case any when you’re reaching out to employers.

Also on that note, everything you tweet is Google-able. So watch your mouth. Think twice before you get into an inappropriate conversation. You don’t want to be seen as high-risk to employ. Pick your battles wisely and you’ll end up okay.

If you’re out there searching for companies to work with, chances are they might be searching for candidates. So think before you Tweet. Is this something you would say at an interview? In front of your mom? (I know the mom card is over-played, but it works.)

Coming up next: Relationships? Check. Now find yourself a job!

Tags: gen-y Getting Started Learning Social Media Twitter