Improving Your (Social) Networking Skills

If you’re on the job hunt and not having much luck connecting with employers or getting opportunities to interview, it may be time to switch up your approach. A tool that you can use, but might have overlooked, is social media. While networking, in the traditional sense, has been thought of as face-to-face interactions, social networking can be done on-the-go and between individuals thousands of miles apart. According to Anthony Gaenzle, “in today’s job market, it’s critical that your social media presence paints you as a model citizen and someone a hiring manager would want to bring on board.”

Social media seems to be everywhere these days, so it is no surprise that it is being used as a factor in the job search. With more and more employers recruiting potential candidates on social media, creating and maintaining a strong presence can make or break your search. It is not enough to simply have a presence, however. When looking for a job, you need to take matters into your own hands to seek out and engage with employers.

In order to make the most of your social media presence and improve your chances of finding the right job for you, consider the following tips:

Connect on LinkedIn

If you are searching for a job (or already have one for that matter) and you don’t have a LinkedIn, it is time to get up to speed. A LinkedIn profile on this “professional Facebook” is considered a “living” copy of your resume. It can show details that your paper resume cannot, such as different examples of your work, certifications, projects, etc. You must stay on top of your profile and update it regularly to catch the eye of employers. Being active on the platform shows that you are career-oriented and driven.

The driving force behind LinkedIn is the ability to make connections with other professionals. You can connect with people whose career is of interest to you, you have worked with before, or are interested in working with in the future.

There are a few different schools of thought when it comes to LinkedIn connections. Often times people will shy away from connecting with individuals they do not personally know. However, the only way to get to know them is by connecting and setting up a phone call or informational interview. Some people connect with any and everybody in hopes of opening doors to future opportunities, while others prefer to limit their connections to people they have worked with in the past. LinkedIn differs from other social networks in that it is perfectly acceptable to connect with a stranger and start a conversation about their life and career, whereas on Facebook, for example, it might not be appropriate.

Be Active on Twitter

While LinkedIn is the ideal network for professional interactions, Twitter is a way to take it a step further. If used correctly, this platform can take your career to the next level and open the doors to a lot of potential opportunities. According to Gaenzle, many companies are starting to have Twitter handles dedicated to recruiting, so you can follow these accounts to monitor a company’s hiring status.

Additionally, you can follow different executives at a company or employees and engage with their Tweets. It is recommended to start of slow and throw them a couple likes or retweets here and there instead of bombarding them. Once you’ve done that, you can reach out and start a conversation. While it is true that you will never know the answer to something unless you ask, you probably shouldn’t come out directly and ask for a job at their company. Instead, build the connection organically so when it comes time to apply to an open opportunity, your name will come to mind and they can recommend you.

Utilize Your Connections

We’ve all heard about the “six degrees of separation” phenomenon, but when it comes to social media it is especially true. On LinkedIn for instance, you can see individuals who are your “first,” “second” and “third” degree connections and how you are connected to them. When applying to jobs at companies that one of your connections works at, you are asked if you’d like to ask that individual for a recommendation.

Reach out to your network and ask them how they got to their role, what they like about working for their current employer, etc. If you don’t utilize your connections, then what sense does it make to have them?

Wrap Up

In today’s constantly connected society, if you don’t have social media you are likely in the minority. There seems to be a community or app for just about everything these days and the job search is no different. Finding a job is a difficult, competitive process, so finding a way to stand out to employers is key.

Simply having a social media presence is not enough. You must maintain and continue to grow your accounts if you’re going to utilize them for your job search. Make sure your profiles align with your current job goals and begin networking, socially of course.

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3 Ways to Get Ahead With LinkedIn

After a brief trip into the NexGoal toolbox last week, we have decided to return back to our “Three for Thursday” ways here in the content department. This week’s focus returns to a constant source of frustration for some job seekers—LinkedIn.

Commonly viewed as a “living resume” by some, jobs seekers do not seem to utilize LinkedIn to the most of its capabilities. Sure, it isn’t as “cool” as Facebook or Twitter, but creating and managing a top-notch LinkedIn profile could help you ascend to new career levels you never thought were a possibility.

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With the next evolution of LinkedIn on the horizon (I had the privilege of recently viewing the upgrade coming for users in the near future as part of an Influencers’ community), making sure your LinkedIn profile is updated and accurate is going to be of the utmost importance. With this in mind, let’s take a look at three ways you can create or update your LinkedIn profile to stand out from the crowd!

Take Advantage of the Summary Section

The difference between LinkedIn and an actual resume you send to an employer is you can personalize it more because you are not bound by the one/two page requirements of most resumes. The best place to do this is the summary section.

In this area, you have plenty of space (2,000 characters to be exact) to tell employers what you can bring to their company. Do not just reiterate what you have done at past companies, instead utilize industry jargon and keywords to draw connections to the skills you possess and help you stand out from the first moment they read this section.

In my personal summary section, I chose to let other LinkedIn users get to know me on three levels. The first level is in regard to my sports writing background, then the second is directly tied to my current industry experience. Finally, I put a short statement on what I bring to companies right there in the summary section.

You can obviously tailor this section to fit your industry and career desires, but make sure to put some thought and effort into developing something original for this section. The more you can stand out, the better chance you have of someone reaching out to you about a career opportunity.

Make Your Profile a Portfolio

Did you know you can add videos, images, documents, presentations and more to each of your positions on your profile? Seriously, it is a great feature that can help enhance your profile from just another resume to a small portfolio website that stands out from the crowd.

Pretend you are a hiring manager for a second. Say you are looking to hire someone for video editing and are searching on LinkedIn. How great would it be if you could actually view a video they have edited before reaching out to see if their skills match what you are looking for?

Well, that is exactly what LinkedIn allows job seekers to do—and many are taking advantage of it, so you should too.

Connect With People!

LinkedIn is all about connections, so you need to actually have some for the social networking website to be effective. You can connect with people you know in your personal life, former colleagues, those you have met at networking events and so many more. In fact, when you log on you even have the option to scroll through recommendations for people you may know based on your current connections.

Why is this important? Put simply, the more connections you have the better chance your profile shows up in search and recommendations for others. If your name and job title stand out to someone, that could then trigger them to reach out to discuss a possible opportunity for career growth. So go connect, now!

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NFL Draft Again Shows Job Seekers Need to Pay Attention to Social Media

Over the past few weeks, the staff here at NexGoal has stressed the importance of being cognizant of what is posted or what is available to be posted on social media and the Internet. After watching the NFL Draft this weekend, there is even more reason for job seekers to be concerned about what they are putting out on the web for the world to see.

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For those of you who do not pay attention to the NFL, allow me to catch you up.

Ole Miss standout offensive lineman, Laremy Tunsil, was widely considered one of the top three players in the 2016 NFL Draft class. According to many draft pundits, he was a virtual lock to be taken in the first six picks of the first round—guaranteeing him a sum of money most of us only hope to see in our lifetime. That was, until the video/image below went viral just minutes before the first round began.

Laremy Tunsil Video.

Screenshot from the Laremy Tunsil video that went viral before the NFL Draft.

As you can see in the video/image, a picture of Tunsil smoking marijuana out of a gas mask was released from his account. Even though it was deleted a few moments later, the damage had already been done—NFL teams began taking Tunsil off their draft boards.

According to Adam Schefter of ESPN, “Tunsil lost $7 million by falling seven spots in the draft.” The seven spots Schefter was referring to was the difference between Tunsil going No. 6 to the Baltimore Ravens and No. 13 to the Miami Dolphins.

After he was selected, Tunsil stated that his Instagram account was hacked and they were going to look into who released the video. But it begs the question, why take a video like this at all and give someone the power to control the fate of your job with the click of a button?

We are not going to get into a discussion of what Tunsil was doing in that video. Instead, the focus of this article is again how your social media posts can negatively impact whether or not you get the job of your dreams. And if you do not think hiring managers are vetting job seekers on social media, think again.

Staying in professional sports, Bucky Brooks of the NFL Network recently interviewed Ozzie Newsome (General Manager) of the Baltimore Ravens. When he walked in Newsome’s office he asked him what he was reading according to the below tweet. Newsome stated, “…Tweets from the college players. Some of these guys aren’t very smart. Part of our research.”

This was a powerful statement based on the draft process as a whole. If teams that spend so much time studying film, meeting with programs and working out players are going through the social media posts of players they are thinking about drafting, you better believe the hiring manager who is evaluating your resume and checking with your references is viewing your social media footprint as well.

So, what can you do today to make sure your social media presence doesn’t cost you a job your applying for?

Step One: Make Those Accounts Private

This is the easiest step you can take, but one most people forget to do. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter all have the ability to make your account private—I suggest you do it now. For Facebook, you can go to privacy settings and choose who can view your posts. But that is not all you need to do, you also need to make sure search engines outside of Facebook cannot link to your profile either. This can be found at the bottom of that privacy settings page as well.

For Instagram and Twitter, you can go in your settings and make people request to follow you. This ensures your posts are private and you can also vet who you allow to interact with you on Twitter.

Step Two: Think Before You Hit Submit

Even when you secure your account, you are still subject to what happened to Tunsil. People can take screenshots of your posts and make them public. Just because you think someone is your friend and you have allowed them into your social world, doesn’t mean they won’t one day turn on you the way someone did with Tunsil.

Now, I’m sure you are not posting videos of yourself smoking marijuana out of a gas mask, but you probably have posted one of you enjoying an adult beverage or two in your day. Those party pictures were fun in college, but it is time to stop posting them. Or simply, do not post the ones that show the drinking aspects. Pictures of you and your friends at a concert are perfectly acceptable, just put the drinks down first.

Step Three: Delete Any Questionable Posts Now

Not sure which posts are good or bad at this point? Delete them now.

Freedom of speech is a great right and privilege we have living in America, unfortunately hiring managers are likely judging your for expressing that right. This is why a personal social media audit should occur for everyone as soon as possible.

At the time you posted something, it may have seemed quirky or fun, but after the fact you may be looking at that post thinking, “What was I thinking?” If this is the case, just go back and hit delete on all of those posts now. It is better to be safe than sorry, and removing this digital footprint is only the first step to making sure that what you are saying in person and your potential job performance are the main reasons why or why not you get a job.

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Three for Thursday: 3 LinkedIn Tips to Jump Start Your Job Search

Changing a job or career is never an easy task. Many of you think about it all of the time, but never actually go through with it because of the perceived amount of work that goes into the process.

While it isn’t an easy thing to make a major change in your life (they say nothing worthwhile ever is), it is time to put your best foot forward and make the effort. As someone who recently changed companies, I have been where you are. I put off my own job search despite being unhappy with my role and career growth potential for over a year because I just did not know where to start.

Then one random night something happened, motivation literally woke me up in the middle of the night—seriously. I heard a chime on my phone, it was a text message from a friend who just landed the job he had been working to get for three years. His back story is incredible, and as a former athlete his story would be great for you to hear at a later time, but let’s get back to the motivation he provided me, which he gave me in the form of three easy LinkedIn tips.

Update Your LinkedIn Profile

This one seems like a no brainer, but many job seekers seem to ignore LinkedIn because of the perception that it does not have the immediacy of Facebook and Twitter as a social network. However, that is not the case—in fact I would not be here writing for you today if it were not for the great connections you can make through LinkedIn.

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What I want you to do this weekend (the sooner the better actually) is this. Remove one hour of scrolling through Facebook or getting into Twitter arguments this weekend, and take a look at your LinkedIn profile. Review your job history, read through those job descriptions and take a look at what you have done in your past. Pretend you are a prospective employer doing this, and ask yourself, “Would these things impress me if I was hiring someone?”

That is where I started when updating my personal LinkedIn account for a job search. Any prospective employer can Google your former company’s name and find out what that company did, they are coming to your LinkedIn to find out what YOU did. This is an opportunity to separate yourself from the crowd with data points, completed projects and a display of your work—take advantage of it!

LinkedIn photo

Do not use a “Selfie” as your LinkedIn profile picture…please.

Also, if you have a selfie as your profile picture—remove it now. Throw on some dress clothes for 5 minutes and have a friend snap a headshot of you. This really should not be all that difficult people, your phone is more advanced than most digital cameras on the market. If you do not think this matters, it does. The person who hired that friend I talked about before actually complimented him for having a professional LinkedIn picture in his interview.

Download the LinkedIn Job Search App

Stop whatever you are doing on your phone right now—whether that is sending a Snap to one of your friends, listening to Spotify or Tindering your life away. Don’t get me wrong, those are all entertaining apps but you need to add a more important one to your arsenal right now—the LinkedIn Job Search app.

Download the LinkedIn Job Search App for Android or iPhone

For a generation that spends more time looking down at their phones, the ability to search for and view jobs by opening an app is fantastic. On top of this, being signed in through your LinkedIn profile will provide you the opportunity (if the job has this function attached to it) to apply right there in the app with your LinkedIn account. Seriously, it is easier than swiping left or right on a Friday or Saturday night!

Did you find a job you want to apply for and cannot do through the app? That’s okay, just simply hit the save button and then head over to your computer and log into LinkedIn on there. Most people can spend days trying to find two or three jobs they are interested in to apply for, you can identify two or three in five minutes—that’s a pretty powerful tool if you ask me.

Connect to Others (Even Recruiters) Who Message You

Connecting and networking is huge on LinkedIn. Take advantage of it.

Connecting and networking is huge on LinkedIn. Take advantage of it.

I know what you are thinking right now, NexGoal is a corporate recruiting firm that places former athletes in jobs—of course they want me to respond to recruiters who message me. Well, you caught me, kind of. Obviously the team here at NexGoal is great and provides our clients and prospective job seekers with an advantage they cannot get through job boards (click here to find out more), but there are other reasons for this tip.

First off, LinkedIn provides you an opportunity to connect with people all over the country and world.

Let’s say you talked to a presenter at a conference for a couple of minutes but forgot to get his/her contact information, that’s okay. Simply look him up on LinkedIn and ask to connect, and then send a nice follow up message that is not intrusive. Some will not reach back out, and that is okay—but those who do could be a key asset in advancing your skills and career one day.

As someone who writes about sports as well, LinkedIn and social media has given me a platform to connect with and write with some great websites over the years. Honestly, I am not sure those opportunities would have been there if I did not take the time to reach out to someone to ask for advice on how to keep advancing my writing career.

Now, let’s get to the recruiting side of LinkedIn—because it truly offers an excellent opportunity for job seekers. On a lot of job posts, you can actually see who the contact person (recruiter) is for that position, and that offers a huge advantage to job seekers in today’s market.

Gone are the days of submitting a resume to human resources and then sending a follow-up email to hr@company.com hoping for a response. Now you can simply send the person who posted the job a message right there on LinkedIn to let them know you applied and ask what the next step is in the process.

So, next time you think that message from someone you do not know is spam, remember that person could hold the keys to your next job. Take the time to connect and spend a few minutes responding to their questions, you never know what opportunities are waiting once you hit the connect button.

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LinkedIn II – The Top Quarter Of Your Profile

be-preparedThe top quarter of your LinkedIn profile is your chance to make a great first impression – to grab the attention of hiring managers, recruiters, or fellow professionals looking to make a connection. Here are some tips to make the most of it.

The Header (what’s in the box)

  • Name: use your first and last name. And only your first and last name: adding keywords, job titles, etc. clog up searches.
  • Title: use your job title. Use the industry-recognized title in your summary and keywords in a brief description if your company is creative with job titles. A simple online search will provide a list of keywords specific to your industry.
  • The Industry You Want To Work In: if you are working in a field that you don’t want to be in, don’t list that as the industry in your title
  • Your Photo: select a professional photo — or take one. This is your chance to make a first impression. We advise against this.
  • Contact information: include your e-mail address and contact phone number both in the Contact Info, your Summary, and in the ’Advice For Contacting” areas of your profile. If you are looking to connect with people, make it easy.
  • LinkedIn Profile Link: personalize your LinkedIn profile link by editing out the random letters and numbers and use your name (ex: www.linkedin.com/in/ThomasDFranklin) You may need to include middle initials or numbers if you have a common name.

The Summary

You have 2000 words to tell your story, or give your elevator pitch. Make sure you’ve targeted your summary towards the audience you want to reach. We suggest keeping it around 250 words, keeping in mind that this is a quick overview of:

  • Who you are
  • What you do
  • What you are looking for
  • What you can do for someone (mutually beneficial relationships)
  • Why people would want to engage and connect with you

Use your summary to:

  • Tell your story
  • In first person
  • Use keywords conversationally – this isn’t a word cloud
  • Outline your goals
  • End with a call to action (“please send me an invitation to connect on LinkedIn” or “send me an e-mail at CTFrye@yahoo.com”) and your contact information.
Next week, we’ll review the bulk of your LinkedIn profile: your experience, including tips on how to list your athletic experiences.

 

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