While employment is an integral part of life, most people, including college graduates, still go about looking for a job with few tactics and no strategy. What emerged from our seminar held at the Speech Improvement Inc, is that a job-hunting strategy ultimately includes devising long-term personal goals. Strategy also has to do with personal branding.LinkedIn

1. JOB HUNTING THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA
March 2009
Table of contents:
Defining and creating a strategy for social media.
Pages 2, 3
Do’s and Don’ts of Social Media.
Page 4
Biographies:
Panelists: Kim Novik and Kathleen Sheridan
Page 5
Host and Director of New Media: Wahyd Vannoni
Page 5
Contact:
Wahyd Vannoni
Director of New Media / Coach
The Speech Improvement Company, Inc.
1614 Beacon Street
Brookline, MA 02446
USA
Phone: +1 617-739-3330
Fax: +1 617-232-9430
wahyd.vannoni@speechimprovement.com
Connect: http://www.linkedin.com/in/vannoni
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2. Seminar: Job Hunting Through Social Media
16 March 2009
The Following is a summary of a seminar moderated by Wahyd Vannoni, Director of New Me-
dia at the Speech Improvement Inc, in Boston, MA.
For the purpose of this document, the terms “social media” and “social networks” are inter-
changeable. They refer to professional sites such as LinkedIn and extend to Flickr, Youtube,
Facebook, Myspace and Twitter in no particular order.
Strategy
While employment is an integral part of life, most people, including college graduates, still go
about looking for a job with few tactics and no strategy. What emerged from our conversation
is that a job-hunting strategy ultimately includes devising long-term personal goals.
Strategy also has to do with personal branding.LinkedIn
1. Ultimate intent
Before you start a personal blog, launch your own website or start filling your own profile on
linkedin, you should ask yourself what is, as Kim Novik put it, your “ultimate intent”. This can
be centered around a proposition such as “I want to build peace” or “I want to contribute to
finding renewable sources of energy”. This is likely to change as time goes by but it is essential
to keep track of it throughout your professional career.
Companies do this already: we all know that Google exists to “organize the world’s informa-
tion”.
2. Personal statement
Your ultimate intent will help you devise a personal statement. While personal statements may
vary in length, think of it as the equivalent of an elevator pitch for a start-up company. What
can you say in a few sentences or a couple of paragraphs that will tell who you are, make you
unique and the outline benefits you can bring? This last concept can also be spun into a sepa-
rate and complementary “can-do” statement, depending on the situation you are in.
3. Find your own adjectives
“Each brand can only own
Think of someone or a company you have a high regard for:
one word. Each word can
what three adjectives would you use to describe this person or
company? Now think about yourself; given your ultimate intent, only be owned by one
what would be the three (perhaps up to five) adjectives that you brand. Take great care be-
would like your colleagues, clients, recruiters, etc. to say if they fore you pick your word. It
is going to be the god of
were to describe you?
your brand. “
This is the crucial step that will help you both devise your social
Lord Maurice Saatchi
media content and its design.
4.Establish, update and align your digital presence
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3. At this point there are two possible starting points: either you From a question posted on
have established a presence online, including through social me- Linkedin.com:
dia, or you haven’t. “Do you systematically
quot;googlequot; an applicant's
Most of you will already have an email address and have joined a
name to find out more about
social media site. In this case, you need to update and align your
that person?”
existing digital footprint with your ultimate intent, personal
“I've found a lot of stuff on
statement and adjectives. The best way to do this, is to first
LinkedIn, Facebook, Flickr
search for your name online and be aware of the results that ap-
etc. It tells me a lot about
pear.
the person and his/her per-
If you find any content that you think might be objectionable, sonality and interests.”
attempt to delete it immediately. This is particularly true for
Anna Paderna:
students whose Facebook and Myspace pages may contain mate-
rial that recruiters might consider unprofessional. Operations Manager at
Hunter Group
Whether or not links to your name make it to the top page, it is
worth to show these results to friends and professional col- “My clients do it and I want
leagues and ask for honest and open-ended feedback. to be the first to see what
they will see!”
Ideally the impression that your digital presence will make on
friends and colleagues is the same as the one you are hoping to Susan Caldwell:
broadcast. Consider yourself as the publisher of your own image
Digerati Search, Inc.
and brand. One way to do this is to ask specifically “when you
Sr.V.P. Client Services
look at my LinkedIn, blog or website, what adjectives come to
mind?”.
A crucial aspect of social media, is that your non-professional presence, (a blog on hiking for
instance), may give you an advantage over other applicants for the same position. Indeed, so-
cial media may allow recruiters to find you as opposed to you chasing them. Social media also
allows you to show the kind of person they might be hiring given that you have the right skills.
You may consider putting links to your blogs and personal website on your cover letter, de-
pending on the kind of job and industry you are targeting.
5.Where should you be online?
As a first step, try to keep your Facebook and Myspace presence private. Facebook allows you,
to keep all contents available to your network only.
Secondly, for most people using a professional network such as LinkedIn will allow you to see
and be seen. As for all websites, make sure that the content you post is reviewed and consistent
with what people might find about you in other places.
Thirdly, do not hesitate to establish your own presence either through a personal website, a
blog, or both. These online presences can be about your hobbies (traveling, poetry) or your
profession (give your perspective on your industry). What is crucial, is to be original and pro-
vide value-added to your readers that they will not find anywhere else.
Finally, you might want to go the extra mile by publishing webcasts and or personal videos.
Again, as long as the technical and content quality is acceptable you might be able to generate
a lot of interest.
6.Tying it all together
If you are going to engage in social make sure that your presence supports your ultimate intent
and that all your media cross-reference.
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4. Do’s and Don’ts
What you should and shouldnʼt do online.
Opinions provided by the panelists and host.
Do Donʼt
•Be online because everybody
•Keep in mind your ultimate else is.
intent.
•Start a blog or join a network
•Search your name periodi- and then disregard it.
cally.
•Post content that people might find offen-
•Opt for quality and originality when you pub- sive.
lish your own content.
•Post contradictory information in different
•Keep your content updated, whether blog places. Beware of cross-referencing.
entries or profile
•Apply to several jobs at the same com-
•Try to be published by independent third- pany in too short a time.
parties
•Post misleading information.
•Keep track of your professional network and
•Comment negatively on previous em-
contact them periodically. Ask them how they
ployers online.
are doing and whether you can do anything
for them. •Comment negatively on current clients,
colleagues.
•Make contact between people in your net-
work who do not know each other but might •Take rejections personally.
benefit from each other.
•Act as though you would take any job or
•Review books and articles relevant to your are desperate for employment.
profession. Post those reviews.
•Be proactive, establishing your brand is an Tip:
ongoing endeavor not something that starts
when you are laid-off or when you happen to
need help.
•Join professional associations and relate to
them online. Show that you are involved and
busy.
•Ask for referrals and testimonials.
•Show what you can bring to the organiza-
tion. Ask and answer pertinent questions on
LinkedIn.com.
•Be genuine.
This will let you know who is in your field and help
•Establish your reputation.
establish your reputation.
Do some or all of the above and offer help to
those who needed.
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5. PANELISTS: Kim Novik and Kathleen Sheridan
Kim Novik
Kim Novick is a strategist, creative director, and executive producer with expertise in brand
experience and the face-to-face space.
Kim¹s roots are in theater. He was an observer at the Actors Studio under the guidance of Lee
Strasberg, Elia Kazan, Shelly Winters and Arthur Penn. He has 8 production-related OBIES
with The Second Stage theater, and has quot;worked with them allquot;.
In the late 80¹s Kim began producing ³industrials² and large-scale events, and moved to Boston
in 1992 to work for Jack Morton Productions. He went on to establish Intermedia Services, a
full-service production company. Other engagements include Consulting to IBM on worldwide
event strategies, membership on the seminal team at BzzAgent, and brand strategy work for
Captains of Industry. Touchstone projects include half-time shows for the NBA, Coca-Cola¹s
Centennial Celebration, and Major League Baseball¹s first FanFest.
Kim's practice now concentrates on quot;thought leadershipquot; programs that change the world and
improve life for the under served. He is involved with PopTech, the Personal Democracy Fo-
rum and is developing a conference,quot;Profits of Peacequot;, exploring sustainability quot;beyond greenquot;.
He lives in Concord, MA with his wife, 2 children, dog and cat.
http://www.knovick.com/home.html
Kathleen Sheridan
With nearly 20 years of combined experience as a management and recruitment professional,
Kathleen Sheridan brings expertise and perspective from both sides of the hiring process.
Having lived through the transition from quot;traditionalquot; hiring to today's social media, network-
ing and technology-based job hunting, Kathleen has utilized virtually all means of sourcing and
recruiting.
As a staffing firm and corporate recruiter, Kathleen has interviewed literally thousands of can-
didates via telephone and in person. She has supported hundreds of hiring managers for such
firms as Reed Business Information, Genzyme, Fidelity Investments, Digitas, and most re-
cently, Kenexa Corp., sourcing and placing professionals in positions across the spectrum from
administrative, financial, IT, Sales, Consulting, Human Resources, Marketing, Creative, et.al.
A talented researcher and writer, Kathleen has read, reviewed, edited, and helped write count-
less resumes and job descriptions. Currently, Kathleen lends this expertise to job seekers with
resume writing assistance and as a consultant on panels and in workshops.
Wahyd Vannoni
Wahyd is Director of New Media and Coach at the Speech Improvement Company. He has an
extensive international background in media and corporate communications.
His areas of expertise include communication strategy, personal branding, social media, mes-
sage generation, interview skills public speaking and presentation skills.
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