Whether you are on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn (or not) or are in a current job search mode (or not), you will want to make this book a keystone for your career advancement. Everyone – employed, unemployed, job seeker, career changer, new grad, retiree back in the job market, etc – now must manage their own career progression. Social media is the must-have vehicle to become visible, become credible, and become differentiated from your competition so you can land the job of your dreams.
Joshua Waldman, founder of Career Enlightenment.com and author of Job Searching with Social Media for Dummies, has just made it easier for you. He says this book is a “go-to reference for all kinds of tips and tricks that reveal how to use social media to find a job.” And he is not kidding! The book is comprehensive; here is a peak at some of the topics covered:
- social media’s impact on job search
- online networking
- marketing yourself with your personal brand
- managing your online reputation
- crafting web resumes, online profiles, video resumes and more
- using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other niche sites for your job search
- proactive social media strategies
- how to stay up-to-date with social media
- how to avoid the most common social media mistakes
My interest was immediately drawn to Josh’s chapter on Personal Branding. So often personal branding is misconstrued as marketing “spin”, just like what a corporate brand would do. However, Josh maintains that the true meaning of personal branding is being who you say you are and effectively communicating that.
As a Reach-certified Master Personal Branding Strategist and Online Identity Management Strategist, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Josh’s definition aligns with the Reach Personal Branding methodology created by William Arruda. In fact, much of the personal branding content in this book supports that methodology, including:
Brand elements: the way you act, talk, and appear both in-person and online. In Reach parlance, it is called Expressing and Exuding your personal brand. Express is everything you communicate (verbal, written, actions), while Exude is about your image (personal appearance, online image, color and font preference, videos of you, who you hang out with e.g., LinkedIn groups and Facebook friends).
360-Degree Feedback: getting the perspective of those who know you about your personal brand. We often cannot see our most important brand attributes and strengths, but others do. In fact, you have a personal brand already, whether you know it or not!
Josh walks you through how to construct feedback questions, how to make it quick and easy for your respondents to provide feedback, and even how to get anonymous feedback from them. This is the do-it-yourself (DIY) approach. However, he also suggests the 360Reach personal branding assessment which is fully automated, also captures anonymous feedback (which guarantees candid responses), and can provide you with data analysis and a summary in a detailed 20+ page report.
If you are determined to tackle your job search with modern tools and strategies, Job Searching with Social Media for Dummies should be part of your plan. For a DIY person, this book will provide you with the ideas and tips to begin implementing a more effective job search immediately.
For the rest of us who need a bit more guidance, and perhaps even accountability (if you are not terribly disciplined and organized), may I suggest augmenting this book with career coaching? Look for a career coach who is fully trained (certification is one indicator of that) in personal branding, online identity management, and proactive job search. Then you can boost your job search into kick-butt mode and see even faster results!
Social Media for Josh
Twitter: http://twitter.com/joshuawaldman
LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/joshuawaldman
Facebook Page: http://facebook.com/careerenlightenment
YouTube Channel: http://youtube.com/careerenlightenment
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