How to find a job using social media (Part one)

Posted on April 19, 2011 by Louise Jakobsen

So you have just completed your ITQ in social media, the next step is to find a job … but how are you going to do that? … Using social media of course!

In this article we investigate and show you best practices to find jobs using social media.

There are three very important social media tools at your disposal when it comes to using the Internet and social media to help you find a job.

We recommend that you use the following three tools to help build yourself a professional & reputable online presence, a blog or landing page, LinkedIn & Twitter

How to find a job using social media as part of reachfurther's ITQ in social media

Before you start looking for a job using social media you need to make sure that you are presenting yourself professionally with your digital identity through these online platforms.

This includes making sure you include an appropriate profile picture that is a true representation of yourself and having all the information filled in on your various social media profiles. You do not want your accounts to look dormant. What kind of impression would that give a potential employer?

Once your profiles look professional you can start to use some of the skills you have gained training for the ITQ to find a new job.

You have now entered the world of social media where things are done ever so slightly different. It’s not always the case of you finding a job, but people are also searching for you, so you need to make sure that you are visible.

Your very first port of call should be to get yourself a ‘landing page.’ Creating a landing page for yourself will allow you greater control of the page and make it more personal to you.

You could use free services to do this, such as http://flavors.me or http://about.me. Or alternatively you could write a page in static HTML such as this one and include a bio of yourself and link to some of your past projects; however this could perhaps be considered an old way of doing things.

You want to create a website on a platform that will be indexed by services such as Google. The better your landing page is indexed the more visible you become to potential employers.

One such platform we would recommend you to use is WordPress.

Below are a few landing pages created in WordPress

MyResume
SuperSlickvCard
BusinessCard
VisitingCard
Minisite
ElegantvCard
vCardProfessional

Make sure if possible to get the domain http://yourname.com as it will make it easier for people to search and find you.

WordPress is considered the most search engine friendly blogging platform that you can use to present yourself online as your landing page, and can easily link to your other social streams such as Twitter.

Posted in Careers in Social Media, LinkedIn, Social Media, Social Media Qualification, Twitter | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Have you connected LinkedIn to Twitter effectively?

Posted on April 7, 2011 by Louise Jakobsen

Reach Further Social Media Tube Map

Are you frustrated by the constant stream of tweet updates from your LinkedIn connections who have not fully understood how to link profiles together appropriately? Attending a social media training course about managing social information can ensure that you do not do the same!

LinkedIn first integrated the use of Twitter at the end of 2009 however there is still a lot of confusion around how & when to link different social streams together and how to increase efficiency in using them.

The LinkedIn Tweets’ Application allows you to control your Twitter account from inside your LinkedIn profile, enabling individuals to tweet directly to your Twitter from their LinkedIn account and have the option to share it to your LinkedIn status. So you now have the option to update only your Twitter account from inside LinkedIn.

To install the application follow these simple steps:

How to intergrate Twitter to LinkedIn - Step One - From reachfurther
Click on the ‘More Tab’

 


Select ‘Get More Applications’ from the drop down.

 


Scroll down the page and choose the tweets application.

 


Check your preferred settings and click ‘Add Application’

 


Click the ‘Add Twitter account’ button.

 


Sign in to your twitter account in the new window that has appeared.

 


Click the allow button.

 


Choose who you want your twitter to be visible to on LinkedIn and select how you will share tweets. Then click ‘Save Settings’

 


Check the twitter box (as shown above) to make your statuses post to twitter as well as on LinkedIn.

 


Check your Twitter account to see if you were successful.

 

Once added to your account you should be able to access it from the ‘More’ option on your homepage menu.

 

It is important to understand the differences between each of the networks you, your customers, and potential customers engage with and link them together appropriately so that messages appear more focused and relevant to different groups of followers and connections. Gaining a work based, practical social media qualification like the ITQ can help individuals and organisations evaluate and develop appropriate strategies for pushing out information via a range of social networks, which take into account the different demographic of users. The LinkedIn ‘Tweets’ Application enables this more easily as a user can choose to just post to twitter (from within LinkedIn) or post to both – by ticking under the status update box before sharing an update.

 

It is important, however, to understand the different options in the standard LinkedIn settings and ensure that the are set up as you want them. In most situations this would be to make sure that the tick box is selected so that only tweets (generated via Twitter or through a Twitter client) with the required hashtag (#in) appear as part of the LinkedIn updates stream – as it can become frustrating and annoying when all tweets display – regardless of the tone or content of the message – especially if you are ‘following’ some of the same people too.

The LinkedIn Tweets application allows individuals to manage many elements of their Twitter account including replying, re-tweeting and viewing recent tweets as well as encouraging additional connections via the ‘Connections to follow’ list, which shows people you are connected to on LinkedIn that you are yet to follow on Twitter.

 

LinkedIn have made things very easier to keep track of and control your Twitter account from your profile, and to identify new people to follow from your connections. So after you have analysed your existing use of LinkedIn, Twitter and other social streams as part of your social media training, will you start to use LinkedIn as your social media dashboard?

Posted in Careers in Social Media, LinkedIn, Managing Social Information, Social Media, Social Media Training, Twitter | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Develop a social media policy for your organisation

Posted on March 29, 2011 by Louise Jakobsen

As social media becomes an essential tool in the work place and for employees themselves, it is more important to be aware of use and any impact it could have on an organisation – both positive and negative. Time should be taken to consider how employees should or should not be using social media, both inside and/or outside the workplace. If an organisation has just begun to use social media, it is important to develop an appropriate policy for the organisation and employees. If social media is being used to market an organisation, guidelines and terms of use need to be established to make sure that social media is being used appropriately and effectively for the organisation.

Social Media Qualifications Policy

By attending a social media training programme and/or completing a social media qualification an individual will be able to develop policies suitable for their own organisation or others. When developing or updating a social media policy it is essential that all aspects of social media are understood because many elements need to be combined to produce effective and suitable guidelines. Company brand, how employees could represent that brand, existing use of social media and location of existing and potential clients, are just some of the key elements to understand and factor in to any decision / policy. A social media manager needs to be aware of what individuals may be saying about the company online. Whether organisations want employees to use social media a lot, or not at all, it is essential that policies are clear about both expectations and limitations in relation to engaging with social networks.

Having an informed policy can impact on organisational structures and roles, with additional social media specific elements being added to job descriptions and responsibilities. The advantage of being / having a key member of staff who has attended a complete social media training course and achieved a social media qualification is that changes to job requirements can be made with support from a firm foundation and understanding of how social media marketing works and what steps are needed to ensure effective and consistent use. Practical advice on protocols that could be followed; like allowing subject matter experts to respond to negative posts and discussing press requests internally before responding or engaging in communication can also be provided. New elements include expectations like ‘being a scout for compliments and critism’.

Many big organisations, including the BBC and CocaCola understand the importance of social media in their organisations and how, just like in any other work activity, a policy is needed. In fact they often develop clear and different policies, procedures and guidelines for staff who are directly responsible for representing the company brand online, and those who represent the company indirectly, simply by being an employee. For example the American Red Cross provides an extensive social media handbook for all of its local units, that sets out their national social media philosophy, encouraging the units to participate in their national social media presence and create their own local social media presence. It covers the social media strategy of the organisation and how it should be implemented, the measurement of success of the strategy and which tools should be used.

When putting together a social media policy for an organisation existing policies, a policy template or sample could be considered and analysed for appropriateness. As social media is such an important marketing tool and continues to grow at such a fast rate, it becomes more important to establish guidelines for employees. It is essential to decide how social media fits in to the job roles of your staff and how you want your staff to use social media for the benefit of the organisation.

A qualified social media manager can relate social media use policies to overall organisational social media strategy so that staff understand exactly what the company wants to achieve by using social media, rather than just having a list of Dos and Don’ts. Much like the Coca-Cola policy, which has ‘five core values of the Company in the Online Social Media Community’ that the staff are expected to adhere to.

Whether organisations want their employees to use social media as much, or as little, as possible, it is a sure bet that they are already using it in some way. Which makes it all the more important to have a social media policy.

Do you have or know how to develop a social media policy?

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Should I get qualified in Social Media?

Posted on March 21, 2011 by Louise Jakobsen

Over the last few years the number of roles requiring the understanding of social media has increased; from personal assistant to Marketing Assistant and Communications Officer this change will continue to impact on different levels of organisation. However the number of individuals claiming to be social media experts has also risen dramatically; so how can a potential employee prove their knowledge and how do organisations know they have employed someone who can do what they have asked?

Social Media Manager The question Is your Social Media Director qualified? was raised by Olivier Blanchard in a post about individuals without the required social media skills and knowledge asking for ‘help’ from existing connections on Twitter. Now, while I agree with the feel of the post; that individuals should have the skills required for the job they have been employed to do and it includes a great checklist for organisations looking for someone to manage their social media programme and campaigns; using social media to learn and stay up-to-date is one of the best ways of harnessing the vast, constantly evolving information on the web.

One of the keys is; If you work in social media you need to be active in social media. By immersing yourself in social media networks and engaging in conversations you will find yourself contributing to the growing online landscape of knowledge and understanding. Reach Further are a social media training and consultancy organisation with 5 years social media experience and over 15 years experience of developing and moderating online communities and were using key online tools before the term social media was even used – so are well placed to provide social media training and assessment including real time examples of social media in action.

Many people see themselves as social media experts (or claim to be) already, so you need something extra to make yourself stand out from the crowd.

If there is so much uncertainty about social media and how to tell if an individual is genuinely social media savvy the question Should You Hire a “Certified” Social Media Consultant? is raised.

However there has been scepticism about the range of social media certifications and diplomas advertised. Aliza Sherman highlights the growing trend for organisations to offer individuals the opportunity to achieve a qualification in social media, though it is often unclear about the history and social media experience of the organisations running them and how they will deliver training.

The City & Guilds ITQ in Social Media is a social media qualification that is assessed holistically and requires actual analysis of and engagement with a broad spectrum of tools over a minimum of four months for successful completion.

To answer the question posed in the title of this article you should get a social media qualification if you are working in an industry that once used more traditional skills, but has seen a switch to using digital & online tools. You would also find it beneficial to get qualified in social media if you are looking for a job as a social media director or consultant as there are many people engaging with these online tools but you will have the edge to demonstrate your knowledge to your potential employer.

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