SPEAKER’S CORNER: Dan Beldowicz’s Job Search Social Media Strategies That Work
By Frances Chaves
Dan Beldowicz’s dynamic January 7 presentation to PSGCNJ illustrated the philosophy that has generated massive results for his Internet Market and Social Media Marketing clients: Create strategies and put them into action.
In “Social Media BS: Business Strategies that Work,” (a free download on Dan’s website), Dan says that social media is nothing more than a new communication medium. “It is critical to get out in front of the right people, at the right time, in the right places. Find out where they are, what they are doing, what social networks they are using.” The key to a successful transition is to think like a hiring manager.
How to decide which social media to use? Follow your “dream” companies; they decide where you must market yourself.
And remember: First impressions are everything.
Facebook:
- Start a professional site, using a professional email address. Keep your personal and professional Facebook profiles separate.
- Use Groups (research by industry and region to find the most appropriate to your search); listen, learn and leverage.
- Use the “Branch Out” app on the search bar to find out where your friends work and which companies have job openings.
- “Like” companies where you want to work.
- “Tag” the company that you want to get noticed by.
- Create your own page (see the tool bar on the left hand side, under your name).
- Add notes
- Link to your website page
- Provide enough information to get them hooked and to your webpage
- Facebook requires that you’re out there and actually networking with people.
LinkedIn – the place to go to influence
- Use the Search function
- Add connections from past companies and traditional networking connections
- Search by Keyword, Job
- ID contacts in the companies that interest you and ask for introductions
- Find quality referral partners
- Use advanced people search
- Identify and connect with who is in front of the companies that you want to be in front of such as consultants, lawyers, etc.
- As with Facebook, LinkedIn requires that you’re out there and actually networking with people. Twitter: It’s who you know that’s important
- Put your job pitch into the 160 characters allowed by Twitter
- Tweet about your job search
- Tweet about your industry
- Use hashtags
- The # symbol, called a hashtag, is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet. It was created organically by Twitter users as a way to categorize messages
- Comment on others tweets
- Twitter requires that you are actually updating it and trying to talk to people
- Benefit of Twitter is reach. Others’ followers are available to everyone; you can go in and converse with whoever is someone of interest to you
- 90% of the people on Twitter stay on for, at most, four times so it important to convert them to your blog or webpage
- Most people on Twitter are marketers and people who are putting out content
- Tweet to provide information; share things that are positive
Video: Get a YouTube channel
- YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world
- “If you use video, remember ‘If a picture is worth a thousand words; you can’t believe everything that you hear; and seeing is believing,’ then video is huge because you’re hitting different senses. People can see you and hear you. In doing that, you have many more outlets as far as how you connect with somebody.” (From: “Social Media BS: Business Strategies that Work”)
- Explain why you are an expert in your field or industry. What have you done in the past to actually claim expert status
- Edit in YouTube by using the “drag and drop” function
- Video resumes
- Make sure your video is appropriate
- Do not read your resume
- Keep it short and sweet (approximately 30 seconds in length)
- Sell the interview
- If you have a Gmail address then you already have a YouTube channel
- Movie Maker is a free Microsoft software for making and editing your own movies
- Video requires that you’re actually on screen, or you’re using your voice over a presentation to get your point across and become the expert at things
Blog
- The term blog comes from Weblog, a technology that allows you to manage or organize content online; basically a blog is just a website
- Your name at the end of an article gives you expert status and content
- Your articles can be found by search engines. Then post a tweet about it, post it up on Facebook
- Establish yourself as an expert by addressing key issues in your industry
- Case studies are a great way to go in creating an article
- If you are not a writer, a blog is NOT the way to go
Control Your Brand: Know what’s out there about yourself!
- Set up Google.com Alerts so you are notified whenever your name appears online
- Type your name in parenthesis followed by your email address
- Google yourself regularly
- Create a page about yourself using about.me, a way to create a simple and visually elegant splash page that points visitors to your content from around the web
Successful Social Media Campaigns:
- Attract attention, friends and followers
- Get people to know, like and trust you
- Influence and persuade people
- Get recommendations, referrals and Introductions
Dan Beldowicz is currently the Vice President of Business Development at Single Throw Internet Marketing. Before coming to Single Throw, Dan was the owner and developer of thirteen websites. He also worked as the Business Development Specialist at Red Flannel Design Group, in the marketing department of Hardesty & Hanover, LLP, and as a freelance Organic Search Engine Optimization Specialist. Dan graduated from the New Jersey Institute of Technology with a Bachelor’s in Management and a concentration in Engineering.