Too many job seekers are failing to exploit social media. Some are worried about privacy and identity theft. Others see it as a confusing and ever-changing category of technology that they don’t have time to master.
They fail to see it for what it is: A new language that is rapidly becoming the lingua franca for 21st Century business culture.
“You need to embrace the new medium of the new era,” Gideon F. For-mukwai of XtraMiles Solutions told unemployed professionals at a recent ProNet general meeting. “You don’t want to be passive observers. Rather, you should be using social media to position yourselves ahead of other people looking for the same jobs.
Gideon For-mukwai
“Use social media to leverage the best minds in your field. Use social media to network with recruiters.”
For-mukwai knows a lot about learning new languages and adapting to new cultures. He grew up in an impoverished Cameroon community in Central Africa, and sees some parallels between his formative life experiences and people tackling social media today.
Building Social Capital
“Social media is a new language we all have to learn. And the best mindset to bring to this process is that of a missionary. Approach social media as if you were a missionary working overseas with a bushman.”
Beyond this, you must first identify an appropriate niche. Who are the people you want to be working with? What industry are you targeting, and what geographic region?
For-mukwai says there has been an unfortunate decline in social capital in America, as outlined in Robert D. Putnam’s Bowling Alone. Next, you need to be socially engaged. You must develop social capital, which consists of your friendships and connections. You use this social capital for your job search, by leveraging the knowledge, experience, and additional connections of all these people.
Ironically, this has happened just as businesses are shifting from closed hierarchies to relatively flat, overlapping networks. Social capital is the glue that holds these network structures together, so we need more of it than ever.
Bonding and Bridging
There are two basic types of social capital: bonding and bridging. You engage in bonding with family and friends. Bridging consists of reaching out to different people.
“You must make a conscious, consistent effort with this bonding and bridging,” says For-mukwai. “You need to get out there more often and build social capital. Then you will have more voices speaking on your behalf. You need to develop it offline and deploy it online.”
Social media doesn’t mean you can ignore real-world interpersonal connections. Rather, it enhances and builds on them. Studies show that the people who are most active on social media are more likely to meet people face-to-face and get involved in their brick-and-mortar communities.
“Besides building social capital, join tribal groups like a good missionary,” For-mukwai says. In social media, these groups include LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. “Twitter looks flimsy, but it really has some strength.”
Don’t make the mistake of joining groups of colleagues. If you are a marketer, don’t just join marketing groups. If you are an engineer, don’t just join engineering groups. If you are in HR, don’t just join HR groups. It is other groups that need your skills. Identify groups that need your skills and have the necessary resources to hire you.
Learn the Language of Keywords
Remember you are a missionary as you join these groups of bushmen. They don’t know you yet. You have to tell your story, and let them know what makes you special. And to do so you have to speak the local dialect—which in social media is keywords.
You must optimize your profile with a liberal sprinkling of the right keywords. Benchmark the leaders in your field, see how they are setting up their profiles, and copy them. In social media, “R&D” often stands for “rip off and duplicate.”
Also, read current job descriptions to find the right jargon—the specific buzz words that the people who need you are typing into search engines. You can refine your keyword selection with free keyword tools that give you statistics on the current search popularity of specific keywords. There are many such tools available, including Google AdWords Keyword Tool, Google Trends, SEMRush, Keyword Discovery, SEO-Digger, and SEO Book.
Master such tools—the tools the bushmen are using. To do so, engage the help of the digital natives. They know these tools, although they may not know how to optimize them for job search. You may have some of these digital natives among your family, or you can engage them online via forums such as LinkedIn’s Questions or Ask.com.
Once your profile is optimized, start sowing seeds far and wide. Do so by joining the conversations taking place in relevant social media sites, and commenting on relevant blog posts. Augment these digital seeds with some brick-and-mortar ones, by in-person networking and volunteering.
If this all seems a bit daunting, don’t go it alone, or reinvent the wheel.
“We all need comforters along the way—people who can help point us in the right direction, sums up For-mukwai. “Ask for help, and make full use of organizations like ProNet.”
Designed for and run by unemployed professionals, ProNet is a program of the non-profit JOIN Inc. There is no cost to the members. If you are an unemployed professional or an employer, call (775) 674-5408 today.
Filed under: Job Search, Social media marketing Tagged: | Job Search, keywords, social capital, social media
