Making Social Media Work For You

I love social media. I just can't help myself. It's so damned exciting, you know? I mean, as a communications tool, the Internet is practically limitless. From blogs to social networking sites and everything in between, we are capable of engaging the world in ways that our parent's generation could never have dreamed.

Of course, that has meant that we need to reevaluate a lot of what we put online. With hiring managers utilizing the web ever more frequently to disqualify potential job applicants, in some ways social media has become a liability. On the other hand, if you just use a little discretion about what you put on your Facebook or MySpace profile, you could mostly avoid that problem.

Being the glass half full kind of guy that I am, instead of focusing on the bad stuff, I'm going to share how to make social media work FOR you instead of AGAINST you. Or, more accurately, I'm going to share the work of blogger and communications expert Dave Fleet who's already written an extensive post on this subject.

I've picked my three favorite bits of advice from the post below. For Dave's full list of "13 Ways Social Media Can Improve Your Career", click here.

Enjoy!

1. Expand your network - Social networks like LinkedIN, Facebook and even Twitter are a fantastic way to get to ‘know’ people in your industry but it goes beyond that. Search out their blogs. Find relevant forums. Comment on their work and get to know them. Create your own high-quality, regular content and they will come to you, too.

4. Find jobs - Most jobs aren’t advertised - they’re filled through networking and recommendations. My job certainly wasn’t advertised - I got to know the team here at Thornley Fallis through social media tools and related events. When the time came for me to move, I already had that connection. Without that, I would likely not be in this job now.

11. Improve your writing - When it comes to writing, practice makes perfect. I’m told my writing has improved immeasurably since I started this site (although I still have a way to go). You simply can’t beat the benefit you get from editing your thoughts down to 140 characters for Twitter, or constantly structuring and re-structuring your thoughts as you write blog posts.