7 Tips For Boosting Your Career Through Online Social Networks

Posted by Kristina Cowan

Online social networks are an excellent way for mid-career professionals to boost their careers, experts say--but workers should heed several tips before getting started.

Stephen Weinstein knows about the power of online social networks. He landed his current job, manager of marketing communications at Cooper Power Systems in Waukesha, Wis., through LinkedIn.com, an online social network for professionals. A recruiter at Cooper contacted him earlier this year, asking if he knew anyone interested in the position; after reading the job description, he pursued the post and was hired.

Of LinkedIn he says, “I swear by the site, and encourage my friends and colleagues to ‘get connected’ on the site. … I've expanded both my personal and professional networks as a result of LinkedIn.com, and have been extremely successful in connecting others who may not have had previous knowledge of each other, using the site.”

If you’re a mid-career professional wanting to ramp up your career by similarly leveraging the power of online social networks like LinkedIn, experts offer a wealth of tips for getting started.

1. Join online social networks!

“I think a lot of people don’t understand what LinkedIn is or the power it has for them. It costs nothing to join at the basic level,” says Marty Fahncke, president of FawnKey & Associates, a consulting and project-management company in Louisburg, Kan.

2. Establish goals and a strategy for online social networks.

Diane Crompton, senior career management consultant at Right Management Consultants in Atlanta, says it’s important to determine what your objective is and what you hope to achieve with joining online social networks—and in what timeframe.

3. Think through your personal and professional identities.

Determine how you’ll brand yourself on online social networks, and keep your personal and professional identities consistent with it, says Mrinal Desai, the California-based co-founder and vice president of sales and business development for CrossLoop, a new startup focusing on technology support and training. “A lot of younger people tend to not think it through. They write a lot of stuff on a blog or Facebook, [but] they don’t understand that everything online is visible,” notes Desai, a former business development manager at LinkedIn.

4. Develop and update your online profile.

Don’t expect to spend a few minutes setting up your profile on online social networks, experts say; take enough time to perfect it. For example, use the summary section of LinkedIn to craft a compelling introductory letter about yourself that gives people a reason to read the rest of your profile, says Christopher Penn, chief technology officer at the Student Loan Network in the Boston area. Fill out as much information as possible, including your work experience, education, and additional information, such as groups and associations you belong to and links to your blog and/or Web site(s).

5. Make connections on online social networks.

Once you develop your online profile, reach out to others on social networks. To make connections, Desai suggests starting by adding contacts in your e-mail address book. LinkedIn allows users to check their Web-mail and Outlook contacts to see who is already using the site. If a contact is on LinkedIn, send him/her a request to get connected. If a contact isn’t on the site, send an invitation anyway, prompting the person to register and set up an online profile, etc.

6. Join groups inside online social networks; ask and answer questions.

“See if there’s a group you want to join, or if not, start one—it’s a great way to network. Join alumni groups. They’re a great way to stay in touch,” says Weinstein of Cooper Power Systems. Fahncke urges LinkedIn networkers to participate in the question-and-answer section to get information from and gain exposure to the more than 23 million professionals using the site. “The more you show your expertise, the better you look to prospective employers,” he says.

7. Explore the Jobs tab on LinkedIn.

The site lets you search for jobs by variables like location, experience level, job title, company, job function, and industry. You can also sort job-search results by degrees away from you, which helps you determine potential contacts for a particular position. For example, if a job is posted by someone two degrees away from you, you could request to be introduced by one of your first-degree contacts who knows him/her directly.

Comments

[Jay Berkowitz]

Great thread Kristina,

I was interviewed for a newspaper piece on this topic today! With a recession looming (or here) it is critical to start your online networking IMMEDIATELY so if you need a few hundred friends 6 months from now you laid the foundation.

I told the journalist there were three key steps.

1. Get listed in the online social networks you get invited to the most. If you get lots of LinkedIn invites, your 'network' can be found there. You covered this extremely well!

2. Online networking is still networking. Give to get. What that means in online communities is answer questions, connect people looking for jobs and employees, participate in groups and forums (and comment on relevant blogs :) )

3. Build your own brand online. Create something in your area of business expertise or a personal passion area. A blog on Blogger.com or WordPress.com is free and it is your own website. With 3-4 posts per week you'll have a following and a presence in Google and the other search engines in no time.

[randfish]

I feel like a quintessential element of building a profile online is having a site or blog to reference in all of your profiles and activities on the social web. That helps to tie it all back together, so the personal branding you create helps to build the popularity of an online portal where you can best leverage that brand.

Great advice, Kristina!

[Christine Louise Hohlbaum]

Online networking is a great launchpad for connecting with many people. It has added speed and efficiency to our everyday business doings.

I will always prefer the face-to-face contact, however. The statement, "Just get me the meeting" comes to mind. There's nothing like actually meeting the real person behind the profile.

Thanks for the valuable advice, Kristina!

[Marcia Robinson - BullsEyeResumes.com]

Excellent synthesis as usual Kristina!

My favorite thing about using a social networking site like LinkedIn is "re-discovering" a friend or contact you had lost touch with.

Your invitation actually pulled me back into it a few weeks ago and since then I have reached out to recommend a fabulous former employee and reconnected with an old boss who I will see in a few days when I am in California.

Keep up the excellent work.

Marcie

[Lindsay Olson]

Krista, I saw your post on LinkedIn and checked here for the article. In addition to LinkedIn, I find Facebook and Twitter to be extremely for recruiting and networking. Each site has unique qualities that could help an active or passive candidate make their next career step.

[Jason Tullman]

About.com just released their Top 10 List of the best employment sites:
http://jobsearch.about.com/od/joblistings/tp/jobbanks.htm

Linkedin is of course on the list but there are other good ones too.

[Kristina Cowan]

Thanks very much to everyone for your comments and feedback. As you have shown, this is an evolving topic, with still-unexplored avenues and opportunities on the horizon.

I'm in the throes of crafting a follow-up post and survey. The follow-up will share additional information I've gleaned through reporting as well as responses to the initial post. The survey will ask you, my readers, pointed questions about how you use social media.

Stay tuned--there's more to come!

[Justin Foster]

My advice for any aspiring professional seeking to benefit from social networking is to concentrate on building a 'personal brand' for yourself. A personal brand is nothing more than creating a positive aura around yourself that is acknowledged and respected by your clients, managers, peers, competitors, and the external business world you are seeking to influence.

Many people fail to realize that in an age of LinkedIn and Facebook, individuals are more empowered than ever before to shape the way they are perceived by the outside world. Your positive aura is a key asset to any employer, so maximize it. Build a network with influencers and focus, always, on helping others before yourself, especially those that face similar problems. If you can do that, you won't ever have problems finding a job. Instead, you'll always be the person that's being recruited, not the one looking for a job. You'll always have options.

[Adrienne Graham]

Great article. I am a huge proponent of social networking. I am a recruiter who has managed to incorporate social networking into my repertoire. Linked In especially has been fabulous. But here is the difference between myself and othe recruiters. I don't use it with the intention of recruiting. I have a solid 680+ connection list that I keep up with. I make it a point to reach out quarterly to my network and let them know what I'm up to and vice versa. I also am selective about who I connect with and who I pursue for connection. Just gathering names for the sake of a big network is not a good idea. Keeping in touch with and in some cases making an effort for phone or face to face meetings takes the relationship even further because now you have something more to go on than just an email address or words on a screen. I even reach out to my international contacts via phone.

I teach course on using social networking for business and career success. The main thing I stress is that this is new age and social networking is dominating right now. If tapped into correctly, it can have a huge positive impact on your career or business. They key is to use it correctly and not abuse or ignore it.

Thanks for the wonderful article.

Adrienne Graham
Hues Consulting & Management Inc