What social media tactics do you use when managing your career?
Let’s get strategic! When managing your career on social media you are primarily looking for visibility, but with whom?
Tactic #1 – Identify key individuals
Typically, there are three kinds of people who you want to be visible to:
- Those who can hire you. Hiring managers at your target companies.
- Those who have direct influence in hiring you. Future peers, key executives, recruiters or other influential people at the target company.
- Those who have indirect influence in hiring you. Industry experts, influential consultants or administrative assistants of the hiring manager. Do not discount the power of some of the lowest paid people in an organization!
Build a list of 5-15 people at each organization who you would like to notice you, follow you and want to get to know you. Identify key individuals in your industry who can give you visibility.
You will want to research these people on LinkedIn and plan on connecting. I wrote in a previous post that this is like dating! Be courteous, authentic, and follow good social rules.
Tactic #2 – Where do these key individuals hang out on social media?
For each individual you will want to look at his or her:
- LinkedIn profile
- Twitter account
- Facebook account
- Google + account
By looking at each you will be able to determine where they spend their time and effort as it relates to each given platform.
What do they post on their profiles? Which LinkedIn groups do they belong to and in which are they the most active? Do they own one or more LinkedIn groups?
How active are they on Twitter? How frequently do they post and do they post at specific times during the day? Who they follow? Who follows them? Are they on any Twitter lists?
Do they use Facebook and can you view their timeline? What do they post on their Facebook page? Personal, business or both? I typically discourage people from friending people on Facebook for business purposes. I look at Facebook as a personal medium. But if they leave their Facebook timeline visible, you can learn a lot about their outside interests.
Google+
Check out their account and see what they post. Google+ is a new platform that is growing. I have not used it enough to recommend any methods. Any suggestions?
Once, you have determined which platforms your key individuals use, develop a strategy to join LinkedIn groups, follow key individuals on Twitter, retweet tweets of your key individuals, and engage in conversations.
Be courteous and more importantly do not stalk! This is all about developing key business relationships online that you can then later take them offline so that you can manage your career.
What social media tactics do you use?
Author:
Marc Miller is the founder of Career Pivot which helps Baby Boomers design careers they can grow into for the next 30 years. Marc authored the book Repurpose Your Career: A Practical Guide for Baby Boomers, published in January 2013, which has been featured on Forbes.com, US News and World Report, CBS Money-Watch and PBS’ Next Avenue. Marc has made six career pivots himself, serving in several positions at IBM in addition to working at Austin, Texas startups, teaching math in an inner-city high school and working for a local non-profit. Learn more about Marc and Career Pivot by visiting the Career Pivot Blog or follow Marc on Twitter or Facebook.
