image by stoneysteiner

We all want to put our best foot forward, right? But in a world of social media, that’s starting to get more difficult than ever before.

I talked about Facebook No-no’s in this post, Could these 3 Facebook No-Nos make you lose your job? And I often speak about the importance of the right attitude both in job search and when you are working, as I talked about in 5 Reasons to check your attitude. You really have to watch your step when you have the whole world watching you.

Do you have friends who tag you in Facebook lists, like Your on a camping trip: First 10 people on your friends list? or perhaps Night of Trick-or-Treating… (first 8 friends on your left..NO CHEATING)? Sounds innocent, right? Just a bit of fun, maybe?

But you work in an office who monitors your online presence.

You are careful not to live in a way that would get you in trouble. You don’t drink too much or take risque photos of yourself.

But now your friend has tagged you and your name lands on: Drunk falls in campfire or  Caught egging cars

Or you are in a job search for just the right position in law enforcement

You don’t do drugs or break laws. You are careful to always buckle your seat belt.

But your friend tags you and your name lands on: Stuffs the pot under the seat

Or you run a small business and you use Facebook to connect with potential clients

You continually try to put your best foot forward but someone tagged you and your name lands on something you would never do.

Is it silly to be concerned? It is just a game. But in addition to the tag, there are comments from others tagged who often say things like, I would do that. or that sounds like me.

What will the person seeing that information on your wall think?

This is just one example of how something that looks like fun to you or one of your friends could potentially cause problems. Are you sure you are presenting the best impression?

Photo by Luca Venturi Oslo

I’ve been in business as Design Resumes for a long time. I’ve lived in Wausau, Wisconsin even longer. But until Sunday, for many people in Wausau, I was invisible.

Now for those of you who read this blog regularly or know me from Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or the many blogs I visit and comment on, I am anything but invisible! But when the story ran in in the Wausau Daily Herald and dominated both the front and the back page, I became visible in my own hometown.

All time records

Sunday set an all time record for this blog and Monday, I booked 5 new clients and answered 5 more email inquiries. The first new client came in last night and she is a nontraditional student at one of the local colleges. When she mentioned was going to have her resume written, the head of the learning center asked who she was going to see.

My new client replied that she was going to Design Resumes to see me and the other individual asked, “oh, is she the one on the cover of the newspaper?” When my client said yes, this person replied, “we cut out the article so we can post  it and recommend that our students consider using her services.”

Funny thing is, I have taught resume seminars at this college for 9 years and written resumes for both former students and management! Still, to most of the college and the surrounding community, I was invisible.

In the last year, my business expanded nationally and even globally with a strong reach via this blog and my social media presence. I can share job seeker success stories from clients throughout the United States and the world. My clients in Greece are now in new positions in Barcelona. But I was still invisible to most people here in Wausau.

Invisible job seekers

Job seekers are often invisible too. Despite a strong blog presence, people who didn’t use social media or Google didn’t see me. Many job seekers, even those who chose to have a professional write their resume and it overflowed with accomplishments and keywords, still stay invisible!

Why? They are assuming that they are visible when they use the only the online job boards to apply for positions. Unlike my invisibility caused more by people who didn’t know Wausau had a professional resume writer because they never Googled, these job seekers are hidden in the sheer volume of resumes sent to employers. They had an outstanding resume, perhaps, but no one could see it.

How to become visible

Job seekers who found me previously often came from Google and from referrals or networking contacts. A job seeker needs to commandeer their networks to increase their visibility. How?

• Start by building a network before you need it. Harvey MacKay in his popular book, Dig your well before you are thirsty, advocates:

A network replaces the weakness of the individual with the strength of the group. The idea of the group is to benefit members who have the same race, religion, gender preferences, ethnic background, business, trade and professional interests, economic interests, or personal interests. They are the basic building blocks of any networking system.

• If you think you need to wait until you need a network, you will not be able to successfully build one quickly. But if you have waited too long, you can still gain ground by making an effort to network correctly. MacKay also says:

A network can make you look good. To keep your network up and running, freshen up each entry at least once every six months.

• Work your way into a company through the back door, find out who you know either in the company, or who you know who knows someone in the company. This could be a college alumni, your next door neighbor, your fellow board member in an organization, or your hunting buddy. You don’t know if you don’t ask.
• When you find that answer, it is time to schedule an informational interview. Contact your desired individual and offer to buy lunch or coffee. Your goal is to gather information. You should always have your resume with you but it is not your goal to hand off your resume in the informational interview. If the individual is too busy to meet with you or on the other side of the country, ask if you can schedule a 10 to 15 minute phone conversation. If you get a yes, keep your word when you make the call, plan ahead what you will say so you can be clear what you are asking. Tell them you appreciate their time and if they have any leads for you, please  let you know. Send them a thank you (hand-written is a nice touch).
• Armed with your new information, make the contact in the company and get your resume to that person, letting them know that John Smith suggested that you might be a great solution for the issues that the company is facing. Be sure you ask John Smith for permission to use his name before you do this.

Before you know it, you will be celebrating your successful job search and you will no longer be fighting invisibility. Invisibility is never fun. But the good thing, is that it can be removed and when you remove that invisibility cloak, your talents and accomplishments will take you to the next level in your career.

Photo by sammydavisdog

We have more tools than ever before in history to communicate our value and connect with others. But we don’t always use them correctly and that can have disastrous results to our job search or business marketing strategy.

Consequences of using wrongly social media in the job search

1. I asked: Could these 3 Facebook No-Nos make you lose your job?
2. One of my most popular posts asks: Jobseeker, are you invoking the law of Subtraction?
3. And in Have you Googled Yourself Lately? I remind you that employers do.
4. And we touched on it in 5 Reasons to Check your Attitude.

Red Riding Hood had her own issues with wolves but the boy who cried wolf is what I want to talk about today. What happens to your own well-cultivated network when you “cry wolf?” In the story of the Boy who cried wolf, people stop believing him. He initially thought it was fun to get the villagers all excited and have them come running when he cried wolf but the end result was that when a real wolf attacked the flock, he was left to try to defend the flock of sheep by himself because they didn’t believe him.

Using Facebook as a text messenger

Some people tend to use Facebook as a text messenger, letting their whole network know whenever they need help with something. The difference is that Facebook stays there unless you hit delete to your posts and even then you don’t know how many people read whatever you said or complained about before it was deleted.

Mobile phones make it easier to post on Facebook when you are overtired or perhaps have been drinking. You may not realize the impact your chronic complaints or pleas for help have on your network.

Carry this through to Twitter and other social media and you start hurting your credibility and reduce the desire your connections may have to help you.  Your goal in using social media in your job search (and all of this also applies to entrepreneurs and those fully employed) is to build positive networks willing to help you if you need help.

The turnabout is, of course, also true. You need to willing to help others when they have needs. But assuming you already get the concept of nurturing a network and cultivating it by sowing seeds of helpfulness, then you need to also be careful of whining in public, labeling groups of people, calling people out, or in general, continually looking negative in your status updates.

Make some changes in how you update your status

Take a moment today and look at what you said in your stream recently. Start by deleting anything you wish you hadn’t said and then resolve to think before you post, tweet, or blog.

Photo by webtreats

Yesterday, I mentioned that I am trying out a new networking service, Quora. I have been known to be very visible on social media, I don’t sign up for every new thing that comes along. A tweet from Jason Alba made me check it out.

I remembered Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter (ValueIntoWords) mentioned Quora in her Career Trend 2011 Possibility+Accountability = Sustainability post:

Social Media Sites (Where You Should Publish Your Career Story)

• LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook | About.me | Quora

Two mentions of Quora in one day by people I trust led me to go look at it. I decided it was worth giving a try for a short time to see if I found value.

What did I do first? I read information about how to use the tool by Lucretia M. Pruitt: Welcome to Quora. Do Yourself a Favor & Slow Down. She suggests multiple steps to get acquainted with Quora.

Take some time to understand how the network works

I took her advice and slowed down. I looked at profiles from other people that I know take their networking and social media presence seriously like Miriam Salpeter. Miriam completed her profile and headline. Anyone could know her brand and understand what she brings to the table. Miriam also expands on Quora in her post, Consider using Quora to enhance your professional profile with more information.

Set up your Profile

I then formatted my own profile and headline to define who I am and what I do as a  career marketing strategist.

When people get started in social media, whether to use it for job search or marketing, this is one of the top areas that they miss. I can’t tell you how many job seekers that I find on LinkedIn with LinkedIn profiles that tell and sell nothing.

No matter where you are on social media, if you are using it to be found, you need to let people know who you are.

As I explore Quora, once again, I have many people connecting with me who have no profile or headline. You may be just trying out the tool, but for anything in social media to have value, you need to complete the bio or profile section. Your name is not enough!

Quora doesn’t have obvious links to your blog or LinkedIn profile or other information so you have to weave it in to your about section. They do allow Tumbler or WordPress blog connections as well as Twitter and Facebook but I haven’t figured out how to connect a self-hosted WordPress blog yet.

If you are thinking about starting in social media to build your network for your job search (or your business), take that first step of defining who you are, writing a clear summary and headline, and then make sure you use it to clarify who you are to encourage people to connect with you on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, or Quora.

Your experience will be better because you look like you spent some time figuring out the tool and people will be more likely to connect with you. Loved the value-added comment in the retweet Dawn Bugni sent to share this post: Would you walk into a room full of people & not say a word?