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How to network without begging. Learn how to leverage your network during a job search without begging for favors. [TWEET] Question: What is the best way to contact connections and ask them for an informational interview without making it sound like you need a favor? Most people think that the person just wants a job, so they do not reply. —M.R., Claremont, CA Answer: I am a big fan of conducting informational interviews as part of any job seeker’s networking strategy, especially if you’re new to the job market or considering a career transition to a new field or industry. They are a great way to grow your connections, promote your personal brand, learn about the job market in your targeted field and uncover unpublished job leads. However, they’re not about begging for favors. But before we talk about how to reach out to your connections, we first need to discuss who you should be reaching out to. Take a good look at your current network and prioritize your contacts based on their ability to help you.

Hi Bob, Best, Amanda. 17 Little Known Social Media Tools You Should Be Using (and Why) Everywhere you look there is social media. It’s in our homes, businesses, places of worship and schools. And everywhere you look people are using it and talking about it. And it seems that every week there is a new social site launched. To make matters worse, for every social site launched, there seems to be two or more services created to measure, track and monitor that service.

To help you cut through the clutter I thought I’d share with you 17 must-use social media tools that have helped my clients and their businesses. 1. An open source project led by Daniel Bachhuber, Mo Jangda and Scott Bressler, EditFlow is a WordPress plugin that allows you to manage your editorial team seamlessly. Get a snapshot of your month-to-month content with the calendar: Improved content status beyond WordPress’ default draft and pending review: Inline comments between writer and editor: And user groups to help you keep your team of writers organized by department or function. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Or a brand: 13 LinkedIn Mistakes You Should Avoid. Networking Advice: Leverage Your Best Contacts. I know two different rock-star business owners who have the types of access you and I would kill for. In their databases are the personal contact information for C-suite executives of the biggest companies, government agencies and influence peddlers in their respective industries.

Yet, these two are like the beauty queens stuck at home on Saturday night–they seem unable to translate those contacts into new business. What should they be doing and what can you learn? 1. Influence can't be delegated. The first mistake that I see made by these power connectors is that they try to delegate contacts into their organization too quickly. If you are the connector, you can bring an entourage to later meetings and discussions, but you have to be there–and you need to stay connected to your power contact. 2.

Your first point of entry? It's a soft ask; it's a sincere offer to help. 3. Being top of mind in the world of power connections is very important. The point is that power connectors are busy. 4. 10 Ways to Use Social Media to Get a Job. InShare637 Traditionally it was employers who had to make themselves visible when looking to fill vacancies – posting adverts in the press, then choosing a pool of candidates from a veritable tsunami of applicants. But not any more. There's mounting evidence that personnel specialists are now scouring social media sites and job boards for potential employees. If you're wondering how to draw attention to yourself in the right way on social-media sites, help is at hand. 10 expert tips on using social media to get the job you want: Step 1: Set up multiple accounts The first rule of successful professional networking is to keep business and pleasure strictly separate.

FRIENDFEED:You can update and manage multiple social media accounts via FriendFeed However, with Facebook and Twitter accounting for the lion's share of media attention and internet traffic, that approach will exclude access to a lot of influential contacts. LinkedIn Tips: 7 Things You're Doing Wrong. Today, LinkedIn is the No. 1 social media platform for professionals. Estimates of professional participation in LinkedIn are as high as 83%. But when I talked to one of my friends--social media expert Alexandra Gibson from OttoPilot Media--she told me that she sees too many professionals making a lot of mistakes. Here are the seven she sees most often. 1. You only use it if you need a job. I can usually tell when my friends are on the job prowl because all of a sudden, a barely existent LinkedIn profile is revived. The truth is that you'll be much better served by keeping your profile and connections current, rather than just reaching out to people when you need something. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

HOW TO: Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile for the Job Hunt. Dan Finnigan is CEO of Jobvite, a SaaS platform for the social web that companies use to find and hire people. You can follow him on Twitter at @DanFinnigan and read his blog -- the Jobvite Blog. About 120 million people now use LinkedIn, and 1 million more join every week. But how many users have a professional profile that’s actually attracting interest from hiring companies? Research my company has conducted shows that 87% of companies use LinkedIn for recruiting, so it’s a good bet that your next employer will look for talent there.

But how easy are you to find? Here are some tips to maximize the likelihood a recruiter with the perfect job contacts you first. 1. The headline is one line of text that appears underneath your name and in search results. Your headline doesn’t have to include your job title, but it should be clear and concise. 2. People will scan your profile just as they do a news story. Underneath the summary is a section for specialties. 3. 4. 5. The Five-Day Plan For Anyone Who Just Got Fired. Jessica McGovern Be glad you took the news gracefully and with dignity - even if it meant breaking something cheap and meaningless in private later.

Page 1 of 2 You have two degrees, speak three languages and have years of experience, but somehow you’ve just been let go. Layoffs and job loss are the norm nowadays — even at the top — and how you cope in the aftermath could shape your career for decades down the line. Follow this advice, and getting fired might turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to you. Day 1: Do nothing It’s important not to do anything today that you might later regret. Psychologically speaking, today is the day you need to be good to yourself. Day 2: Get your paperwork in order If you’re smart, you didn’t sign anything on the spot and can now negotiate a decent severance package in light of your job loss. While you’re at it, head down to the employment office and file a claim with your state unemployment insurance agency. Day 3: Reassess career goals. Avoid Looking Like A Hack On LinkedIn (+ A Recipe For Success) | A Recruiters Guide to the Universe.

Over the last few years LinkedIn has really become a ‘go-to’ resource for networking for many, many people. During that time some have mastered its use while others are doing good just to login. From a recruiters perspective it’s an absolute goldmine and there are a few sure-fire ways to make sure you look like a good candidate and not a ‘hack’. Never tell someone that LinkedIn is a job-board or that your afraid your boss will see that you are on ‘there’. This is rule numero uno. If you tell people that you do not have a profile on LinkedIn because you don’t like job-boards or that your boss could possibly find out there you will never grasp the concept of online networking and should probably spend the next five minutes reading another article.

Learn how to use LinkedIn without having to ask someone. Make sure your profile is 100% complete. Create a vanity URL. Get to 500+ connections. Install AND USE some of the applications that LinkedIn offers. Join AND PARTICIPATE IN Groups. Nine Ways To Use LinkedIn To Advance Your Career - Susan Adams - Getting Ahead.

5 Steps to Game-Changing Relationships. Part of my work involves figuring out why some women succeed and others do not. Yet I’ve worked mostly with men in my career, and I’ve always heard that men have bigger, stronger, bolder, and all-around better networks than women. So when I meet wildly successful women, especially in the male-dominated tech industry, it seems only natural to ask them about the importance of their networks. These women often answer me by talking about relationships. At first I thought this was a fluke: I’m asking about networks, so why are they responding by talking about relationships? Eventually I realized that men build networks, but women foster relationships. So how do you go about building the relationships you need for success? Step 1: Assess where you are today What do you need to learn? Step 2: Set goals. Are there specific people you need to know in order to reach your goals?

Step 3: Create a relationship map. Within your current contacts, who can help you reach your goal? How To Work A Room Like You Own The Place. 6 Job Networking Tips for New Grads. InShare813 Job networking events are often intimidating for college students and graduates. These events are often places where they feel out of place - but that shouldn’t be the case. Networking events are places were job hunters can make contact with prospective employers and show them just how strong they are as job candidates.

More often than not, the issue with networking for a college grad is not about whether or not they know how to tie a Windsor knot or how to pick out the right business card, but what to say to company representatives and how to say it. Below are 6 tips we hope will help recent grads out with networking. 1. New grads normally do not have much relevant work experience, but can impress potential employers with passion about the company and the industry. A) The top 3 competitors in this industry b) The company’s strengths/weaknesses c) The company’s vision and values d) Industry trends (social, economic, etc.) 2.

. | 1 | 2 | 3 | Next Page. Build a Stronger Professional Network with These Tips from LinkedIn's Founder. Networking is a key skill to have, especially when you're looking for a new job. Not all of us are great at it, though, and some may think of networking as simply schmoozing with people. LinkedIn's Reid Hoffman describes how to invest in your relationships now as a way to build a truly helpful professional network. With co-writer Ben Casnocha, Hoffman writes in The Start-Up of You (excerpted on Fortune) that the best thing to do is to maintain an active, up-to-date network, and that most professionals have five to ten active alliances—people you can consult with, collaborate on opportunities with, promote, and defend. Invest in that network and think of it as an "interesting people" fund.

His suggestions for nurturing your network: In the next day: Look at your calendar for the past six months and identify the five people you spend the most time with — are you happy with their influence on you? In the next week: Introduce two people who do not know each other but ought to. INFOGRAPHIC: Here's How To REALLY Use LinkedIn. What To Say On LinkedIn When You've Been Laid Off. The Monster Blog. « How to Invite Contacts to Join BeKnown | Main | Overcoming Job-Search Hurdles » July 13, 2011 Should You Connect to Your Boss on Professional Networking Sites? In recent weeks, there has been a lot of buzz about BeKnown, Monster's new Facebook app that allows you to establish a professional network on Facebook. This new network -- which lets you connect to career-related contacts, without leaving Facebook and without showing those contacts all your more-social Facebook activity, pictures, and so on -- is adding new users rapidly, and there have been a lot of very positive reactions from career experts.

(For a how-to, check out "How to Use BeKnown," by About.com's Alison Doyle.) But amid all the excitement, a note of alarm has sounded. Well, what about it? And all joking aside, I would add that if you’re already friends with your boss on Facebook, you should think about asking him or her to join you on BeKnown after you’ve joined. Trouble? What about you? TrackBack Comments Whoa C00lio. 60 Percent of Jobs are Filled through Referrals. That’s the latest feature from one of the leading automatic online job application software packages, SilkRoad Technology’s OpenHire.

Thanks to a software update SilkRoad introduced last spring that is being adopted by many HR departments, once you’ve submitted your resume to a job site using OpenHire 5.0, you’ll be able to view potential connections between the organization and your existing professional network. OpenHire5.0 connects to your LinkedIn account to show you who in your network may be connected to someone at the organization; that lets you follow up your job application with an e-mail to a colleague to request a referral or set up an introduction to someone who can. Referrals matter, even in the world of automated Applicant Tracking Systems like SilkRoad.

Studies have shown that more than 60 percent of jobs are filled through referrals. Most ATSes are sophisticated enough to know this. Share, ’cause that’s fair In other words, apply.