Networking to find a Job

This week Twitter has had a number of chats on "How to Find a Job".  #HFchat (@HFChat - HireFridayChat) is every Friday at lunch hour and there are some great professionals on here giving out advice for free.  Another good one was #NPRtwitterchat which was on Thursday, not sure if this one runs all the time or not.

The key point in both these chats is Networking.  Get out there and Network.  Stay home and Network.  Be active on all your social media sites.  The 3 most important sites mentioned were:

LinkedIn/FaceBook

• Set a goal to connect with at least 5 new people a week
• Join groups and be active in them.  These groups can be directly related to your profession.  But also join groups that are interesting to you, this way people that are searching you will find out things that are a little more personal.  But be careful there are groups out there that could offend a possible employee.
• Post every day, it can be related to your profession or a "quote for the day"
• Connect with Companies and follow their job boards.  
• Companies job alerts come out as soon as they are posted, so be diligent in checking your account every day.

Twitter

• Set up a professional twitter account.  Keep your personal one separate.  Companies or company representatives don't need to know that you can drink 12 beers in 30 minutes through a funnel standing on your head
• Follow, follow, follow - 
• other similar professionals, 
• companies you might like to work for, 
• recruiters (they put their job alerts up), 
• interesting news stories - let your followers know that there are road closures, weather warnings, things happening in the world
• Retweet, Retweet, Retweet
• retweet the company info and the recruiters, everyone likes to be retweeted, before you know it you may have formed a relationship
• Post original content that you have found on the internet that your followers may find helpful
• Post jobs that don't fit you but your followers might be interested in

So the bottom line is be socially active, keep your accounts up to date, be professional on the accounts you are using for job hunting and have fun.  There are some great people out there and some interesting stories.  You will be amazed what you will learn as you use your accounts more.

Good luck job hunting!!!