Chapter 2
Enlisting Social Media
IN THIS CHAPTER
Appreciating what social job searching can do for you
Tying into top-rated social networking sites
Creating profiles you’re proud of
The familiar adage claiming that the secret to landing a good job “is not what you know but who you know” is hereby officially stamped incomplete in this era of online social connectivity. Consider this revised version: The secret to landing a good job is what you know, who you know, who knows you, and who your friends know.
All this knowing is exploding on the web’s social networking sites, a big part of social media. The terms overlap in popular usage and definitions vary widely. Here’s my take:
Social networking sites are web venues with huge online databases of information that individuals have uploaded about themselves. They do it to mingle with other people in the site’s database — to put themselves “out there.” Their autobiographical information is public or semi-public and usually includes a description of who they are (a profile) or a short biography (a bio) or both.
Many social networkers just want to hang around with each other. Others aim to grow their circle of acquaintances and their ...