Nicole Crimaldi is a Chicago native and Miami of Ohio grad working in the finance industry. She is the genius and founder behind Ms. Career Girl, a site aiming to help young professionals pursue their career dreams and get what they want out of life. When she’s not busy blogging, you can find her tweeting @MsCareerGirl or on her Facebook page here.
Let’s bust the myth right now: social media is not going to get you a job.
Nope. The “build it and they will come” mentality doesn’t apply here. So many people will tell me, “Nicole! I made a LinkedIn profile!” Then hurry up and wait for nothing to happen. Lord KNOWS your Facebook profile isn’t going to land you a job. Nor are your tweets about last night’s episode of The Bachelor.
In other words, while Social Media tools won’t get you a job, your strategic use of them might.
Let’s start here.
1. Google Yourself. What do you see? Usually people have one of the following responses:
1. Nothing. If this is the case, then you don’t exist to potential employers. This needs to be changed. Whichever Stone Age career center told you to be invisible to Google is bogus!
2. I see things that are irrelevant to my job search. I.E. my little league participation, my name on a list of as a member of an organization, and that I graduated high school. This also needs to be changed.
3. There is a lot of content about me and my passion, which has NOTHING to do with my college major and therefore has nothing to do with a potential job. Although you may be surprised, I think this is the ideal situation! Even if you don’t get hired to do work in your field of passion right now, you probably will soon enough. Kudos to you for building your credibility, putting yourself out there, taking a risk and connecting with others who share your interests. Give yourself 3 years in Corporate America and you’ll be real glad you did.
2. Stop thinking social media will get you a job. It won’t. You will get yourself a job. If you’re lucky, the people you meet via social media may introduce you to someone who knows someone who merely interviews you. See my point?
• Start by connecting on LinkedIn/online with 40 people who are in the work world that you may know through family, professors, bosses and family friends. Don’t be shy. Personal relationships are often the first to grow into professional ones, even through a referral.
3. Instead, think of social media as a sales tool. In sales, people refer to the sales cycle. That means the total amount of time it takes from prospect to close for a salesperson to close the deal. You are selling yourself. Closing the deal = accepting a job offer THAT YOU LIKE. On that note, please remember:
a. No one buys from people who talk AT them in a one-way conversation. Listen more than you talk.
b. Connect others in your network and expect nothing in return.
c. Use social media as a platform to connect. A sale is somewhat of a numbers game, right? The more people you have relationships with (no, not the # of followers/friends you have) the more likely you are to close the deal.
d. Ask a lot of questions. And be honest. It’s ok that you don’t know it all. Faking your expertise is way worse.
e. Answer more.
4.Grow some balls. Once you’ve started to get a hang of the above, pick up the phone, get on Skype or meet these people you’ve grown online relationships with. Email an author whose blog or book you love. Comment on blogs frequently. Send a linked in message based on someone’s great status update. Offer to guest post on your favorite subject. Nothing is better than putting a name/voice with a screen name. Umm and honestly? No one that is willing to talk to you is scary, so get over that.
With all that being said, start with me. I hope you will connect with me on LinkedIn and Twitter after you read this post. Maybe some of you will even comment on my blog or email me. Once you start meeting people it’s contagious.
If you follow this mindset, I bet my high heels you’ll get a job you like way faster than your careerbuilder.com and campus career center relying friends. Let me know how it goes!
{ 9 comments }
When I was coming out of college, Google was a brilliant mix of my hockey stats and random clippings from my college newspaper. Things have changed so much. Not only was the job market still hanging on at that point, but the way recruiters/organizations hired were completely different.
My careerbuilder search back then went swimmingly well. Started applying in April, lined up two interviews in early May, graduated May 15, went on a cruise near the end of may, then I started my first job in June. Done. Finished. Thanks Career Builder.
New grads today need to utilize social media to help make connections. No, just using social media won’t bring a job, but the connections from it will.
I love your points about Linkedin. I’m a huge advocate of Linkedin and what it can offer to folks. With that said, Linkedin is only as good as the connections you make. I urge all college juniors and seniors to start adding in all of their respected peers, professors, internship supervisors, etc. They should even add in family members and neighbors. Linkedin should be your social media career connections hub. More is better on Linkedin. When making solid connections on Twitter and Facebook, reach out to folks to ask if you can add them to your Linkedin profile. People will be amazed to see how connected they are to the world once they have even just 100 people in their connections list.
Lastly, I like how you say “No one that is willing to talk to you is scary, so get over that”. Most people want to help others. I think people subscribe to ‘helping others, brings positive back into their lives’. Never be scared to talk to someone, especially someone that wants to talk to you.
Great guest post, Nicole!
Couldn’t agree more with the point – “Stop thinking social media will get you a job.” When you look at social media as a tool you sbegin to realize the different benefits of it and instead of being a constant self promoter you use it the right way. I told a friend of mine to use Linkedin during his hunt for an HR job and initially he didn’t get it. I was away for a week and came back to find is Linkedin homepage filled with status updates about his personal life and constantly saying “I NEED A JOB.” Simply put, I was rattled!
So I told him to take some time and read a few blogs and truly understand social media and how it works. The way it works is simple – Create relationships. Its just networking on steroids. You wouldn’t yell at a potential employer “I NEED A JOB” but you would have no problem sharing with them a solid link about SEO or something related to their field. Great post – I think it will definitely help a lot of grads out there and I will be sure to pass it along to a few of my friends.
Nice Post.
Like I say, Those who reach outside of the online world, build true community. True Community is where you will find jobs.
Reach out anytime shane@shanemac.me
Thanks
Shane Mac
@shanemacsays
First time I’ve seen a girl say “grow some balls” when giving advice. Awesome, Honest, and “real”. This is a great post (nice choice of writers here Samantha). I used Social Media, and maybe more importantly my blog, to leverage myself as a “professional” in the online web-marketing world, and it without a doubt helped me land a job when I moved to Chicago. Now, due to recent events, I plan to leverage it once again as a networking platform, and hell, within 24 hours of getting the boot at my old job, I’ve had TEN people reach out about potential interviews and openings, all from online connections. It’s a powerful tool that takes time to develop, but once you have – you bet your ass it will open up some doors for you.
Great post Nicole! I completely agree. Yes, social media can HELP you land a job, but it’s important not to assume that companies will be calling as soon as you setup a Twitter account. The key to social media is learning how to use it to your advantage. Research, participate, develop relationships. I recently got a job as the New Media Manager for a Minor League baseball team and obviously without social media the job wouldn’t even be necessary. But I didn’t get it simply because I was on Twitter and Facebook. I got it because I understand social media, know how to leverage it, and have created a presence online. Like anything else you have to work at it, and when using social media to land a job, patience is key!
Hi, Thanks for this post. It articulates some of the things I’ve heard before and adds some new points in a very to-the-point manner. I especially appreciate your suggestion to “listen more than you talk”. This is important in many modes of life, especially job searching.
I think the part that I’ve been struggling with in past months is the “Grow some balls” part. I have been intimidated throughout the job search process. But it’s mostly due to a pessimist sitting on my shoulder whispering negative things. What vlogger Jay Smooth calls the “Little Hater”. I’ll try to put myself out there a little more boldly.
Hi Nicole,
Great post, correct voice. You have the confidence to make people listen.
I particularly like the parts about your relationships not being your number of followers and telling people not to talk AT people. I also really think you hit the nail on the head when saying that SM won’t get you your job but it could be the avenue to open the door.
Luke
Glad you guys found this post useful.
@Brian: I’d be happy to help coach you on growing some balls. It’s way fun and easy. You’ll become addicted once you start.
@Megan: Congrats! We met last spring when you were looking for a job in the sports industry. I found your card the other day and it’s sitting on my counter right now
Glad to see you’re following this stuff!
What does it really mean to “grow some balls?”
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