Social Media And Your Job Search Part 1

Social Media and Your Job Search Part 1 To Facebook or to not Facebook? That is the question. How does social networking match into your common networking â€" and how is it different? If you’re not on social media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn, you’re lacking so much. Facebook has a status as a time waster due to the proliferation of video games like Farmville and foolish surveys (What Kind of Crazy Author are You?) But there’s some serious connecting going on, as nicely. Not just amongst classmates from high school and faculty, but additionally amongst professionals and between firms and their clients. On Facebook, you’ll see companies, political campaigns, publications and authors reaching out to start dialogues with their clients and prospects. It’s a fantastic place to watch how firms are influencing their stakeholders and trying to create brands that resonate. Even companies that you just wouldn’t count on. Take CSX. The railroad is headquartered here in Jacksonville, and its customers are different com panies who have goods to ship throughout the country. You might not count on a powerful Facebook presence, but you’d be mistaken. The CSX Facebook page offers firm history and news like CEO Michael Ward participating in a Milken Institute panel dialogue on infrastructure (full with video clips.) They also provide video of their tv adverts, which emphasize how shipping by rail reduces traffic and is healthier for the planet. They’re not talking to their enterprise prospects right here, essentially; they’re speaking to the general public at massive. The top 5 posts on the day I checked included information on how inexperienced CSX is, how the company honors navy veterans, and the way good their financial performance has been in the past quarter. See a sample right here? They’re talking to individuals who might need to work for the corporate, put money into their stock, or vote on an area referendum a few new rail line coming via their metropolis. By watching what a company is posting, you can see what they assume is important to their clients â€" and the public. How could you utilize this data in your job search? You can get many of the same information from an organization’s annual reports and its website, however it might be harder to search out. You additionally get a feel here for what the corporate thinks is most necessary to folks that matter (on this case, environmental issues.) Clicking on the web page’s followers will join you to former and current workers across the country. A firm will link to information and media mentions that you simply might not have entry to. On the CSX Facebook web page, an author posted a hyperlink to an article revealed in Railroad Examiner on CSX’s environmental efforts for Earth Day. The beauty of social networking websites is that they make seen and tangible the whole community that comes with a single person. When you sit subsequent to a parent at your son’s soccer sport, you may find out that her son is in the identical college as yours. But you’d be hard pressed to gain the information you might get from Facebook or LinkedIn: that she attended your former college, that she traveled last 12 months to a country you’re planning to visit subsequent 12 months, or that her husband is a director at a company you’re targeting for a job. Or that her greatest good friend works for the Jaguars and would possibly be able to get a signed jersey for your charity occasion. You get the point. You don’t have to publish your status ten occasions a day; you don’t even need to publish at all. But you ought to be on social networking websites if you want to join with more folks, study occasions and causes you are interested in, and analysis corporations. What have you obtained to lose? Published by candacemoody Candace’s background includes Human Resources, recruiting, coaching and evaluation. She spent several years with a national staffing company, serving employers on both coasts. Her wri ting on enterprise, profession and employment points has appeared in the Florida Times Union, the Jacksonville Business Journal, the Atlanta Journal Constitution and 904 Magazine, as well as a number of national publications and web sites. Candace is commonly quoted within the media on local labor market and employment issues.