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Posts Tagged ‘social networking’

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HireFinders, A Brand New Linkedin Group

Friday, July 24th, 2009

Yesterday we started a brand new networking group on Linkedin with the same name as our soon to be released job board. While we are working hard on testing the site before its beta release, we would love to have you join and network with Hiring Managers, Recruiters and Job Seekers in our new group. Here is the invitation link: http://www.linkedin.com/groupRegistration?gid=2141847

Hope to see you there! And if you have any suggestions you can post a comment here or join and post a discussion there. Thanks!

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Posted in Career advice, Job Interview Tips, New Job Board, Social Media Networking | No Comments »

Effectively Network in Your Underwear

Friday, May 22nd, 2009

Today’s post is once again written by guest blogger, Heather Gardner whose blog can be found at http://heathergardner.wordpress.com/. She is a Web 2.0 maven and recruiter.

It sounds like everyone’s worse nightmare…. You go to the office and suddenly realize you’re just wearing underpants, or worse nothing at all. I think we’ve all had that dream, am I right?

But, in reality it doesn’t really matter how you’re dressed to effectively present yourself in the best positive light. From the comfort of your home (wearing whatever), simply get involved and brand yourself as the expert that you want to be.
Here’s how I roll in my knickers:
LinkedIn:
With my recently updated profile I am branding myself as a professional recruiter, web 2.0 maven and blogger. By getting involved in the LinkedIn discussions groups that are geared toward my future career goals I am proactively building and adding to my professional network. I’m not done there with Q&A as my next stop on the cyber train. Taking it a step further will hopefully include endorsements to add to my credibility. You can keep up with my professional progress on LinkedIn by checking me out on my LinkedIn here: – and hey, let’s connect direct!

Facebook:
Reconnect with all those old friends from High School, old friends and even some foe. If you are like me, many of your friends are in the working world now and would love to catch-up. You’d be surprised where this site will take you so keep an open mind. Facebook is a growing in number of users and groups so there is always a wealth of opportunity to cyber network for those savvy enough.

Some of the Facebook groups are geared toward knowledge sharing while others post job openings, event info and other great knowledge. It’s a great place to find people outside of your LinkedIn network and have web 2.0 conversations.  Add me as your friend here and remember DON’T post those photos of you in your underwear.

Twitter:
There is nothing like a “little” chit chat here and there. I love having mini dialogues with professionals in my network. It’s quick, it’s easy and I can do it anywhere now with the Twitter mobile app. I am constantly amazed at the wealth of information shared on Twitter. If you haven’t been able to figure out how to make it effective, let’s connect here - give it a chance before discounting it as a generational thing. After all, Oprah & Martha Stewart are doing it.

Blog Comments & Discussions:
What’s a blog without comments? Really, it just becomes another publication. Blogging is all about conversations, commentary and creating discussions. Sign up for your favorite blogs and leave replies. Even if it’s just to say “good job” or add to the post, comment! Bloggers appreciate knowing that someone is reading and taking the time to add value to their posts. I personally love it! Give it a try and see what happens by posting a comment to this post below.
Meetup.com:
Haven’t heard of Meetup.com yet? Not enough people use Meetup.com. This is an excellent tool for finding face to face networking events AND create another mode of online networking. I see many people from my Meetup groups who post announcements and other great info without actually attending anything in person. It is however a real treat to meet online and then see the person at some point! If you don’t believe me, try it out for yourself! If you want to add me as a friend on Meetup.com, I can be found here:

So are you ready to start networking in your underwear with me?

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Posted in Career advice, Social Media Networking | 1 Comment »

@TheCareer100 Must-Follow Mavens on Twitter

Friday, May 15th, 2009

The following is a guest post from Ryon Harms, the founder of the http://thesocialexec.com/ and @TheCareer100. I thought it is such a cool idea and I am on the list! I have included his entire post which explains @TheCareer100:

On my last post, I offered 9 tips to get you started on Twitter. If you took my advice you’re probably reaching the, “So now what?” phase of your Twitter experience. A critical step beyond that all too common initial bewilderment is to quickly identify those powerful voices that can help you convert the overwhelming amounts of information on Twitter into a career-changing competitive advantage.

To that end, I’m please to announce the launch of @TheCareer100, a hand-picked collection of the 100 most influential personal branding gurus, power networkers, resume and interview experts, job boards and fellow executives on Twitter. If you’re new to Twitter, I hope you’ll find this list an invaluable resource for quickly getting up to speed on the who’s who of career management. I expect that even veteran Twitter’ers will find some undiscovered gems.

@TheCareer100 is a dynamic directory, meaning that as new voices emerge they will replace existing members. In fact, moving forward I’ll be looking to all of you for recommendations on who to add next. To submit recommendations simply email them to thecareer100@gmail.com. New additions will be announced via tweets through @TheCareer100 along with monthly member highlights and retweets, so be sure to follow us too.

As the name suggests, @TheCareer100 will never follow more than 100 people. Capping the list will help keep it fresh and dynamic for years to come. Listing them on Twitter, rather than on this static blog post, also makes it easier to click “follow” straight down the list. I recommend following everybody and then filtering folks out if they aren’t relevant to your career goals.

If you still haven’t joined Twitter, this is your opportunity. Knowing who to follow is half the battle. Following this list of 100 career mavens will allow you to listen in on some of the masters before you decide to join the conversation. Click here to get started: www.twitter.com/thecareer100.

P.S. It’s been a month since my last blog post. In that time I’ve added a few tools to make it easier to share this blog with your friends and colleagues. I also spent quite a bit of time doing my due diligence on these 100 career mavens. I hope you’ll find it was worth the wait.

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Posted in Career advice | 3 Comments »

How Recruiters and Hiring Managers Use Linkedin, Part 6

Thursday, May 7th, 2009

So, you have joined a group or 50 groups on Linkedin, what is the next step?

Today’s Tip:

 Participate in your Groups and in the Answers section on Linkedin.

Take a look at the types of discussions in each of the groups you have joined. The rules vary from group to group, but try never to spam. Add value to the discussions and start some of your own. It is never a good idea to post something that just looks like an advertisement.

One question I asked recently, received many informed responses, but one person answered with one word and a link to his website that had nothing to do with the question. Some groups allow discussions that begin with “I accept all invitations to connect”, some groups consider that connection spam.

What I have just said about the groups is true for the “answers” section as well. You can go through questions and receive really helpful information. You can answer questions where you feel you can provide valuable information. You can ask questions, too. Now yesterday, Doug commented here and asked, “Has anyone seen their revenue opportunities increase by a significant amount through social networking tools like LinkedIn?”

Well, here are two personal examples: the web developer of this site answered a question of mine on Linkedin and we hired him. I answered questions on Linkedin and a company reached out to us and hired us to recruit for them. So, two examples in one year from one company.

Does anyone have any social networking success stories that would like to share?

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Posted in Social Media Networking | 4 Comments »

LinkedIn Tip - “Hey, Baby. What’s Your URL?”

Wednesday, May 6th, 2009

Today’s post is written by Irene Koehler and is another useful tip for LinkedIn. Irene and I have met virtually, first through http://MyVirtualPowerForum/ and then on twitter. She is the founder of http://almostsavvy.com/ ,a wonderful blog that teaches businesses and professionals how to improve their online reputation. She is an enlightening speaker on social networking as it is used today.

Here is her post:

You meet someone at a conference or a networking event and want to stay in touch. You exchange business cards and decide to connect on LinkedIn. She asks for the link to your profile on LinkedIn so she can send you an invitation to connect. If you reply begins with, “Uh, well…” don’t worry. Help is on the way.

Each LinkedIn profile is given a default URL, which is a combination of the LinkedIn domain and a bunch of numbers. Neither memorable nor impressive - especially when you can easily customize this in about 15 seconds. All you need to do is visit your profile page on LinkedIn and find “Public Profile”. Click on “Edit” to change the URL to include your name. A relatively small number of people use their business name here, rather than their own name, but I’d suggest considering this only if you own the business. Those with a common name may find that their desired LinkedIn URL is already taken by another member of the same name. In such cases, it is still better to find a version of your name than to use the default address. The result may include a middle initial or other similar tweak.

Now that you are the proud owner of a customized LinkedIn URL, use it for personal branding purposes. Include it in your email signature, making it easy for recipients to learn more about you by clicking over to your profile.

Side note: Unlike most sites, what you see in the address field of your browser when viewing your own profile is not the link to your profile. If you send this link to someone hoping they’ll view your profile, it won’t work. This link takes them to their own profile, not to yours. Trust me on this.

If you’d like to learn more about kicking your efforts on LinkedIn into high gear, be sure to visit http://almostsavvy.com/

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Posted in Social Media Networking | No Comments »

How Recruiters and Hiring Managers Use Linkedin, Part 5

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009

Do you want to have a larger network? You have written and received recommendations and connected with people you know. Look at your network statistics. That is how many people can find you easily on Linkedin. If you are job hunting, you may want to increase that number.

There is always a controversy on whether you should be an open networker, in other words, a person who connects with strangers as opposed to only friends and colleagues. There are pros and cons. The major pro is that more recruiters and hiring managers can find you to tell you about an opportunity. The drawback that many people fear is that they will be inundated with spam from all their new connections. As someone who has a few thousand connections, the spam has been very minimal and as a recruiter it has been worth it to me to be able to find potential candidates easily. Make up your own mind as to how open a networker you wish to be. I am just going to give you a tip to increase your connections if that is what you wish to do.

Today’s Tip:

Join and participate in the groups on Linkedin.

There are groups on Linkedin and you can belong to as many as 50 of them. Belonging to the groups will increase the size of your network as a whole. You can join groups related to your career, your hobbies, your school, former companies and other interests. To find groups, do a search under “groups”. If you pick “art” as a keyword, groups related to art will populate and then you request to join the groups that you have chosen.

If you would like to increase the size of your network, there are groups for that as well. There are the “Happy to Connect” group and the InvitesWelcome.com group, to name two. Look for groups related to LIONs, which stands for Linkedin Open Networkers. Most of these groups have rules saying that you will not IDK (hitting the I don’t know tab) on any invitation you receive from a member of the group. The archive button is always an option to ignore an invitation.

So, what groups do you belong to on Linkedin? What groups would you recommend? And have you had a very successful networking experience because of participating in a group there?

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Posted in Social Media Networking | 36 Comments »

How Recruiters and Hiring Managers Use Linkedin, Part 4

Monday, May 4th, 2009

So, you have connected to people you know on Linkedin, the next step is:

Today’s Tip:

Ask for recommendations on your profile.

Linkedin makes it easy to ask your connections for recommendations, but my advice to you is don’t spam all your connections. Ask only those who you know would genuinely give you a good recommendation, just like you would a reference for your job hunt. It is always good to have a few recommendations and also, write some of your own for others.

Bonus Tip:

This is something I learned last night. If you are a recent grad and don’t have a profile as yet, Linkedin is offering a free upgrade to your membership and it is definitely worth it. Linkedin is free, but there are additional upgrades that cost a bit per month. So, if you are a recent grad, check out the offer and the link:  http://grads.linkedin.com/

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Posted in Social Media Networking | 2 Comments »

How Recruiters and Hiring Managers Use Linkedin, Part 3

Thursday, April 30th, 2009

So, you’ve joined Linkedin, set up a great profile and the next step is…

Today’s Tip:

Invite people to connect with you.

Linkedin very strongly suggests that you connect with people you know. There are ways to be an open networker and connect with strangers, but I will save that for a later date. So, let’s start with inviting the people you know to grow your network. Linkedin offers you the option to import email addresses from Outlook, Hotmail, Yahoo and other email accounts you may have.

It is easy to import your contacts and send invitations to connect, but be careful. Do not pick select all and just send hundreds of emails. If your contacts are already on Linkedin, and they receive an invitation from you, they have three choices: they can accept, archive it or click the button that says “I don’t know”. This is important because you are only allowed 5 “I don’t knows” (IDKs) per account and you are really only allowed one account. Five IDKs will get your account suspended and you will have to work to undo that. I have read posts of people who have been IDK’d by people that they did know. Sometimes it happens accidently. Sometimes, people don’t realize how severe the punishment is for the person wishing to connect with them.

So, what you should do is either call or email the people you want to connect with and network with them outside of Linkedin first. That’s always a good idea, anyway. Give them a heads up that you would like to send them an invitation on Linked in. This way, you will keep your IDKs to an absolute minimum.

You can also invite people who are not on Linkedin to join and connect with you from the same page. This action won’t penalize your account, but people will have to join to connect with you. They may already be members, but use a different email address than the one you have for them.

Why would you want to grow your account? Let’s say you have 4 connections, if you look at your network statistics, you will see 4 first degree connections, maybe something like 450 second degree connections and 4 thousand third degree connections. That third degree amount is the number of people who can see your profile when searching for someone with your skills and talents. Whether you are searching for a new position or just open to the possibility, you want to be visible. So, the more people you connect with, the more hiring managers and recruiters will be able to see your profile. There are ways to search Linkedin profiles on Google, but the point is, the larger your network, the greater the possibility of someone reaching out to you with a new opportunity.

If anyone has any other tips to add on connecting on Linkedin, I would love to hear them.

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Posted in Social Media Networking | 14 Comments »

How Recruiters and Hiring Managers Use Linkedin, Part 2

Wednesday, April 29th, 2009

So, you have joined Linkedin, the next step is:

Today’s Tip:

Fill out your profile completely.
Filling out a profile on Linkedin is easy and should not be skipped. In most cases, you can cut and paste descriptions right from your resume.
If you go to the advanced people search on Linkedin, you will see how recruiters can search for keywords, location and other variables. If I were looking for a Lotus Developer with Perl Scripting experience (which I am right now), I would put Perl and Lotus Notes in the keywords field. If someone were a Lotus Notes Developer and only put a job title, they wouldn’t turn up in my search, even if they had years of Perl Scripting experience. So, your profile is the place to put your skills, your achievements and certifications. When I was recruiting for a Cisco Engineer who had to have a CCIE, that was the only keyword I used. So treat the profile exactly as you would a resume.

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Posted in Social Media Networking | 6 Comments »

How Recruiters and Hiring Managers Use Linkedin

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009

(And Why It Matters To You)

When a recruiter, Steve Cancel, told me about www.linkedin.com a few years ago, I had him spell the name to me. He said it was great for recruiters. I joined and didn’t get the site at all. Then I joined a group on Yahoo that has since changed its name to http://myvirtualpowerforum.com/ started by Vincent Wright and slowly began to understand the business networking site. My Virtual Power Forum is a truly great and free networking site on Ning and Yahoo, by the way, with thousands of members. (I am sure I will get another post out of that.)

In today’s market, recruiters and hiring managers are looking for candidates more than ever on www.linkedin.com. One, there is a perception even in this market, that passive candidates are best and Linkedin is one of the best places to find candidates who are not on the job boards. Secondly, compared to the major job boards, Linkedin is a great bargain for headhunters and everyone is looking to save money. Third, are the search capabilities that Linkedin has built into the site.

So whether you are happy with your current position or actively seeking work, you want to be found on Linkedin. If you are happy, you can use your network to pay it forward and help others and enhance your reputation for the future. If you are currently seeking a new or better position, you will want to let your network know. So follow this blog for simple tips on using social networking to shorten your job search or just solidify your reputation. I am starting with Linkedin, twitter and facebook posts will come later on.

Today’s Tip:

If you haven’t already, join Linkedin and use your real name.

I am an open networker on Linkedin, which I will explain later, but I am connected to someone named Eddy V. That is not how you want to appear to your connections. I have a neighbor who was concerned that his employer would assume he was looking for a new position if he created a profile on Linkedin, but unlike the job boards, this is not the case. Having a profile with your real name is just a professional thing to do and shows some knowledge of Web 2.0.
That was a really simple tip, but there will be some things I post that will be new for you. If you have had a great experience from using Linkedin and having a profile, I would love to hear from you. Oh, ok, if you have had a terrible experience, I might want to hear about that, too.

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Posted in Social Media Networking | 14 Comments »

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