It’s not all about the job search numbers

Job Search numbers. No matter what platform you are on in social media, you hear people complaining about numbers. They seem to think that if you have more Twitter followers or Facebook friends or LinkedIn connections, you will reach more of your market. The same is true of job search numbers.

We have a mass media mentality

With television and radio and even phone book advertising we’re trained to look for big numbers. Experts explained for years it isn’t the numbers but the relationships that make social media work. However, people from job seekers to entrepreneurs think it isn’t working if they don’t have high numbers of followers.

Content is king

Content, however, is critical. If you simply push out boring stuff without engaging, of course, the reward of interaction will not be there.

All of this is equally true for job search numbers

Volume is not the secret. I still remember a time, way back in my early career marketing days when I was still offering packages of resume prints with every order and someone had me print 200 copies. There wasn’t a global economic crisis back then, we may have had a slight recession at the time but nothing of the epidemic proportions of today’s job market.

Your resume and cover letter must sing, “I can do the job.”

Job search materials should resonate with value-filled metrics (numbers) that show exactly how you did the job (%, $, #s) or your resume will get lost in the shuffle. These are the job search numbers that count.

Successful networking means you do have to connect, online or in real life. You don’t have to connect in volume. Meaningful relationships start with you being the helper and helping someone else solve a problem. This opens the door to someone wanting to help you.

By the way, whining about your problems doesn’t work.

If you are constantly whine about not having a job or enough business, you turn off the very people who would help you.

It is easy in this day of mass communication on social media to whine or cry about your problems. If that is the only voice you use, your audience will tune you out or disconnect.