by
Eve Tahmincioglu, MSNBC.com careers contributor
There's a great scene from "The Brady Bunch" when Marcia --
just turned high school freshman -- is nervous about fitting in and making
friends so she signs up for every club listed on the school bulletin
board.
This is sort of what I see happening with many of you and all the
social networking sites out there.
I've been getting questions from
readers, colleagues and friends about the social networking explosion in
cyberspace. It seems like there's a new site popping up every day, and no one
wants to be left out of the latest and greatest group. The choices are endless,
everything from Black Planet, a site for African Americans, to Xing.com, a site
for professionals with an international flair.
But with all the choices
comes a digital daze.
Here's what people have been asking me lately: "Is
it enough just to be on LinkedIn and Facebook?" "I just got an invite from a
friend who's on Plaxo. What is it and should I join?" "Will I dilute my
networking effectiveness if I'm on MySpace, LinkedIn, Facebook and
Twitter?"
Marcia! Marcia! Marcia!
You can't be in every club. It's
just not humanly possible.
I know, there's a hint of desperation in the
air because of the tough economy, and everyone wants to have lots of connections
just in case layoffs are looming.
But beware. You might end up with
social networking overload.
Enhancing your brand
Trust me. In
researching this column, I signed up for as many of the networks out there as I
could and what did I get? A headache.
Suddenly my e-mail inbox was
flooded with friends accepting my invites for Plaxo, Twitter, etc., and I
realized there was no way I was going to have time to do any of these sites
justice. Especially since I'm already a member of LinkedIn and Facebook, and I
barely have time to keep those up-to-date.
So what's the best strategy?
"There are two purposes to social networks," says Jason Alba, author of
"I'm On Facebook, Now What?" and "I'm on LinkedIn, Now What?" "One is for
networking, and the other is to enhance your brand."
Neither will happen
overnight, he says, so you should take time to figure out your best networking
options.
First, you need to be part of at least one of these
networks.
Let's face it, these sites have helped many workers with their
careers. I hear great stories all the time about people being recommended by
their connections and ending up with dream jobs.
Greg Moore was a victim
of the mortgage mess and ended up out of a job when the San Diego bank he worked
for shuttered. But LinkedIn led him to new employment.
"I had heard about
LinkedIn through a guy I met at a golf tournament," he explains, He signed up
ASAP, created a profile and started making connections. Next thing he knew, he
got an invitation to link up from someone who worked at I Love Rewards, a
Toronto-based employee incentive company, who saw his profile and knew the golf
buddy.
"Now I'm business development manager for the company," he
says.
LinkedIn and Facebook
When it comes to professional networking,
most experts say, LinkedIn is probably one site you want on your
list.
"LinkedIn has carved out a strong identification within the
professional, job-seeking world," says William Madway, professor of marketing at
the Villanova School of Business. "It can offer more contacts and a
professional, trustworthy environment for career-related networking. So, if I
were attempting to advance myself professionally or career-wise, I'd be very
inclined to turn first and foremost to LinkedIn."
Dan Abelon, the founder
of SpeedDate.com, says he uses LinkedIn heavily for hiring. "It is extremely
useful for finding appropriate candidates based on skills and work history," he
explains.
If LinkedIn just seems too suit-and-tie for you, Facebook is a
good alternative and also on the list for many networking gurus.
I find
you can get a good feel for what certain companies are like on this site because
managers and employees seem to let their hair down a bit more, offering a
glimpse of what the corporate culture may be really like. Where else can you get
a cyber feng shui invitation?
Be sure to use Facebook's privacy settings.
This allows users to separate their party photos from the weekend from the
professional information they want prospective employers to see, says Adam
Ostrow, editor of the social networking news Web site Mashable.com.
The
best of the rest
Another site getting a lot of attention these days is
Squidoo, a favorite for marketing expert Penny Sansevieri.
She says it's
the best site for career enhancing because "you can upload a video of you, the
page is very interactive, you can add widgets, a blog, just about anything."
It's a useful way to "showcase your knowledge," adds Mashable's Ostrow,
because you set up something called a lens on any topic you're interested in,
and then create a section that's almost like a personal Web page that includes
links and news on the subject.
When a hiring manager Googles your name,
your Squidoo page can be a great selling point if your lens includes expertise a
company is looking for.
Pulse, a service launched last year by online
address book company Plaxo, is another great way to get into the social
networking space. It works as an aggregator, with a space on the site where you
can see updates on activity on many of your other social networks, Ostrow
explains.
It's a good idea to check out all these sites to see what they
have to offer, and then it's up to you to choose one or two. You can add more
than that if you have time to keep your friends and your profiles up to date,
but don't dilute your social networking juice.
It's not going to help
your career if you have a bunch of profiles, or pages on a bunch of sites, and
no time to check all the connections and news happening everyday. It's better to
focus your efforts and building a solid network on one site.
Once you
pick one main, general networking site, you might also consider finding a
network that targets your profession or industry.
Jon Ruiz, career
services adviser at The Art Institute of California in San Francisco, recommends
mainstream sites such as LinkedIn and MySpace to design students, but he also
points them towards industry sites like Real TV and Coroflot.
There's
also some value in joining online networking groups that are focused on a
particular geographic area, adds Mashable's Ostrow.
He recommends using
Meetup.com to find out about groups in your area. Just put in your topic of
interest and ZIP code, and you can find out about networking opportunities in
your town.
That way you can put away your mouse, bypass the tweets and
try your hand at the most effective career networking strategy: face to face.
And I'm not talking avatars, folks!
Eve Tahmincioglu writes the weekly
"Your Career" column for msnbc.com, aiming to tell daily grinders how to make
work life work for them by sleuthing out career-ladder secrets rung by
rung.
Copyright 2008 MSN Interactive. All rights reserved. The
information contained in this article may not be published, broadcast or
otherwise distributed without prior written authority. Story Filed Thursday,
August 21, 2008 - 4:08 PM
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