Quite a few new hashtags and Twitter accounts have popped up by those who want to share the experience of being jobless. While some people are using social media as an outlet for their frustration and complaints, others are turning it to their advantage and landing jobs by posting about their most recent adventures in job hunting.

Sharing experiences about job seeking can be therapeutic in that people have someone who has similar experiences to talk to. Some of the unemployed may not be comfortable talking to their family or friends about what they’re going through, so having a social outlet can be useful and helpful in getting through an emotional swings of unemployment.

What Could Go Wrong?

You do have to be careful when posting about your life as an unemployed person. Remember that potential employers will be searching for information about you and if you have posted something unfavorable, it could cost you the job. Employers use social media sites to get insight into your overall personality – hopefully their investigation leads to finding a well-rounded, interesting person. Unfortunately, many people use it to vent their frustrations, completely unaware of who might view it, sending out the warning signals to any potential employers (including those who might not be hiring, but could recommend you for a position!). Venting too much, posting disparaging remarks about your ex-employer or badmouthing a company that didn’t hire you could make a contact think twice about making contact about an open position.

How People are Using Social Sites to Connect

Twitter and other social media sites are ideal for finding like-minded people in search of a job. TwitJobSearch and TweetDeck have partnered to create JobDeck, a platform that not only finds jobs on Twitter, but also sprinkles in advice for the jobless from recruiters and HR experts.

Profiles like @NJUnemployed and @unemployedsucks offer a gathering place for those united in the search for a job. Facebook has groups where the jobless can meet up with each other and network, as well. LinkedIn Groups like “Unemployed? Get a Job” also provide support and resources for the jobless. All of these networks offer a chance to connect with others in the same boat and can be helpful both in support and advice.

Blogs are also pulling in those without jobs and offering them support and advice. Unemploymentality covers the lifestyles of those without work. Another blog that follows the life of an unemployed woman is Bureaucracy for Breakfast, which covers marketing and news.

Social media is a valuable networking tool. Know how the information in your profile is your shared and how a potential employer could view it. Use it to connect with others, both employed and unemployed, and share your experiences in a positive way. Future employers will appreciate the effort and will see that you are a positive person who makes the effort to get out there, all of which are good qualities in an employee.

Photo credit: Scott Beale / Laughing Squid

Like many people, when it comes to Google+ I’m wary of putting time and energy into another social media network, especially when there’s not a lot to be gained from doing so yet.  Unlike the major social networks Google is trying to unseat with Plus (such as Facebook and Twitter), Google+ isn’t attracting the masses and the folks who are attracted are scratching their heads once they join.

So, what is one to do?

First, have some perspective –Google+ got an impressive jump out of the starting gate with 25 million people signing up for it in the first month. Technology “geeks” and social media experts rave about it. On the other hand, Google+ visitors have dropped 37 percent in the last few weeks, according to Alexa and plenty of “ordinary folk” who got into the beta have expressed backlash for Google+.

Give Google a chance – Google+ is currently in a closed beta testing phase but Google appears to be betting heavily on Plus with impressive marketing expenditures.  Google has yet to introduce its Google+ pages for businesses, so it’s impossible to say what the business opportunity will be yet (though that isn’t stopping anyone from speculating)

Be patient – as Doug Haslam writes on the Voce Communications blog: “I ask the early adopters not to declare the service dead or the greatest thing ever- mere days into this limited launch. I share the naysayers’ concerns that it will be hard to move people off Facebook and/or Twitter, let alone other services we are used to using, to make Plus the center of our lives. We don’t even know what the services for businesses are going to be, so snap judgments on this new social network are meaningless. I also share the cheerleaders’ enthusiasm- for me, a hope, really- that Google Plus may actually take advantage of the fact many of use disparate Google services like Mail, Documents, even Buzz (guilty, and lonely).”

What do you think? Have you tried Google+?  What do you think it’s chances are?

Alison Kenney an independent PR practitioner with more than 15 years of PR consulting experience. She is based on Boston’s North Shore and has worked with organizations in the technology, professional services and consumer industries. She writes a bi-monthly PR column on LindsayOlson.com. You can find her at www.kprcommunications.com. Learn more about Alison Kenney.

What Not to Do

Networking on social media needs to start long before you actually need work. Just suddenly appearing and asking for a job is a sure way to turn hiring managers and recruiters off, even if you’ve done your research and know who’s hiring. You should have an established profile and some relationships built before you begin to job hunt. I like it when people approach me on Twitter, Facebook and my blog to ask about positions, the difference lies in how the person approaches me.

Jumping into social media for the express purpose of contacting hiring managers will make you look desperate and is more likely to lose you potential jobs than give you a chance. Instead of starting when you’re desperate, get a head start on making use of social media by establishing visibility and relationships earlier. People are more willing to help and listen when they already know you.

Get Into Social Networking Early

Even if you don’t currently need work, make a point of being active on social networks anyway. This is the perfect time to build relationships and get to know people without needing something from them. Interaction is key when it comes to establishing a solid relationship, so make a point of talking with others instead of just at them. There are a few ways to create successful connections with other social media users, whether they are hiring managers or not.

Follow people who work for the company you are interested in working with. Don’t just watch them, however, take the time to actually talk to them. On Twitter, you can retweet their more interesting or useful posts, answer their questions or even ask them questions and discuss your mutual interests.

Other ways to start interacting with companies and their employees is to comment on the company blog and tweet or share the link on your favorite social media networks, or contact them via email. Once you get to know someone well enough on social media, moving to email or meeting up in-person if local is an easy step and could give you a leg up on the competition later when you need a job.

When You Need a Job

Ideally, you will have a well established social network by the time you are ready to start job hunting. If you are able, it may even be worth it to hold off on looking for a job for a little while in order to build up your network.

Once you’re ready, you can let your network know that you are in the market for a position. When reaching out, be specific and make it easy for people to help you. Let your network know about what kind of opportunity interests you, or even the specific companies. If you know that a particular hiring manager has an opening or if you are particularly interested in working for them, reach out directly to that person.

Some companies have very strong referral programs where existing employees can recommend you for an open position. If you know someone within the company, ask them about the opening. Asking for the recommendation is a big favor, though, so make sure you ask someone who has really connected with you and has some experience with your work.

Keep in mind that anyone you ask about work should already have a relationship with you. Unless you are reaching out to an industry recruiter or the HR department, people generally don’t respond positively being asked for favors by strangers, so make sure you know the person you are asking and that they know who you are.

It takes time to build relationships and these should ideally be relationships that will last even if they can’t help you find work. People tend to know when they’re being used, so keep it real and be genuine in your friendship. Even online, this matters and sincerity could make all the difference in whether you get a job or not.

Photo credit: David King

As a free service that lets its users set up an account in just a few seconds, Twitter has made it easy for people to take advantage of its system.  Plenty of tweets come from assumed aliases or posers.  Why would anyone do this?  And what role do fake tweets play in PR?

First, fake tweets can be really entertaining. Many of the fake Twitter aliases dispense pretty hilarious and well-thought out tweets.  Everyone from Forbes to Mashable has published a list of the best fake Twitter accounts. They range from crime bosses (there are about a dozen Whitey Bulgers on Twitter and even @Catherine_Greig is tweeting now) to celebrities(@FakeJeter) and from the cast of Star Wars to memes like @FakeAPStyleBook and@shitmydadsays, which seems to have spawned @oldmansearch. Often the entertainment value is in extending the life of a popular news topic, such as the creation of@Bronxzooscobra.

Faux tweets can also help brands engage with audiences in a new way and/or add a new dimension to the brand.  For example, the Mad Men TV show characters who tweet in their fictional voices would seem to be a brilliant branding move on behalf of AMC, the show’s creators, and a smart way to extend the brand and keep audiences engaged even when the season is not airing on TV. (The real story is more complicated.)

Another benign reason for skirting total transparency on Twitter is to establish and build authority.  For instance, Lindsay’s Twitter handle, @PRjobs, is an easy-to-remember and authoritative name for someone whose job is recruiting PR professionals.  Similar to the practice of grabbing up popular web domain names, some Twitter names become sought-after. @Massachusetts isn’t a government agency; it’s the Twitter handle for Trazzler, a travel deal site co-founded by Biz Stone, one of Twitter’s founders.

Twitter is also used strategically to influence audiences or perhaps attack an opponent.  This seems to be happening more and more in politics, with opponents creating fake Twitter names to tweet offensive comments about a candidate, as was the case for California State Senator and leading candidate for mayor of San Francisco Leland Yee says the New York Times.  In an unusual example of Twitter impersonation, a faux Rahm Emanuel, who presumably sought to entertain when he began tweeting under the handle @MayorEmanuelduring Emanuel’s run for mayor of Chicago, identified himself to the real Rahm Emanuel in exchange for a donation to a local charity.

In typical fashion, campaign managers and PR strategists simultaneously deny involvement with fake Twitter accounts and discount any influence the fake tweets have.

Of course the most infamous fake tweeter so far is @BPGlobalPR, which took advantage of BP’s slow reaction and lack of communication in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill to generate negative attention for the BP brand.  The creator of @BPGlobalPR shares his thoughts with PRSA in this interview.

Twitter doesn’t endorse phweeters (phony tweeters) or parodies but openly accepts their existence and attempts to help its users identify real versus phony accounts by verifying certain accounts and publishing these guidelines.

Alison Kenney an independent PR practitioner with more than 15 years of PR consulting experience. She is based on Boston’s North Shore and has worked with organizations in the technology, professional services and consumer industries. She writes a bi-monthly PR column on LindsayOlson.com. You can find her at www.kprcommunications.com. Learn more about Alison Kenney.

There are several ways to use search engines and social networks to help you find the best job for your talents; all you need to do is start searching. Here’s what you should be looking for:

• Search for job listings.
  Chances are, you’re already doing this to some extent. If not, you should be. Don’t get stuck looking at just the large job boards. Check out the niche job sites in your industry. Hoojobs, for example, has agency and in-house listings throughout the United States for public relations, communications, and social media professionals (disclosure: I’m a co-founder of the site). Search hashtags in Twitter. Some of the popular ones include #happo (Help a PR Pro Out) or #prjobs. You can also search Google using phrases such as “wanted” and “seeking” along with the position you are interested in. This will turn up help wanted listings that you might not otherwise see because they are on sites you wouldn’t think to check.
• Find companies and make cold calls.
  We tend to shy away from cold calling because it has a higher chance of rejection, but if you want to uncover the hidden job opportunities, you really have to leave your comfort zone. If you are focusing your search for PR agencies in San Francisco and you’re not sure where to start, use Google Maps to quickly list agencies in your area. A simple search for “public relations” will yield pages of results and points on the map, complete with address, phone number, and website. Once you have your short list, contact them to see if they have any positions open.
• Find out who to contact.
  Once you know which companies you are interested in, take the time to look for the correct person to contact about a job. Your chances of success will go up considerably if you contact the right person, as opposed to simply sending an application out into the ether. Start with a LinkedIn search for all the people within that company. If you are applying for a PR Manager role, write down all the names of the people who it could report to and contact the person who is most likely to be the hiring manager. You might also find this information in the “About Us” or “Contact Us.” Some companies offer a list of key staff members and may even include contact information such as a phone number and email address for each.
• Research the company.
  It’s not uncommon to get the job you wanted only to discover that it isn’t as pleasant as you had imagined. The boss may be more difficult than anticipated, or the company may have policies that you can’t stand. The best way to avoid this is through research ahead of time.Before you apply for any job, be sure to look online for any comments about the company. Previous or current employees may have written about their experiences and this can give you a good idea as to whether or not you want to work there. Glassdoor is a site that allows employees to write honest reviews about their company and is a good starting point. Of course, keep in mind that a few negative comments shouldn’t deter you completely from pursuing an opportunity. The information shared could be outdated and the company’s policies have changed. It’s also important to remember what doesn’t work for one person might be perfectly fine by another.
• Research the staff.
  Some people aren’t shy about sharing their opinion for someone online, and this can work to your advantage. Check out the more important staff members by Googling their names and see what comes up. Use http://blogsearch.google.com/ to check for blog posts, too.  You can take it step further and search a site like SocialMention to check other social media sites or Backtype to set up and view alerts in blog comments.  A little bit of cyberstalking could quickly uncover information you wished you had known before making a decision to work for the company – and don’t think for a second they aren’t doing the same for your name.

Job hunting is a challenge, but with the power of the Internet, we have more options than our parents did. These tools allow extensive research on a job and the key members of any company long before you submit your application.

Photo credit: Bart van de Biezen

This is a post from PR columnist, Alison Kenney.

At a recent social media seminar I attended the moderator closed the session by asking the panelists what stage their social media programs are in. For answers, he gave the following options: infancy, adolescence and adulthood. The choices suggested that social media programs are meant to grow and evolve.

For instance, if your social media program is in its infancy, this could mean that you’ve begun building it and are working to attract followers and “likes.”  You may have built a Facebook page, developed a blog, started a YouTube channel, used Slideshare to share presentations, claimed a Twitter ID name or started a group on LinkedIn and started curating your followers. If you’ve done this and are wondering “what’s next?” Lee Odden offers some food for thought in his blog post “Five Ways to Electrify Your Social Network.”

The adolescent social media program is one that isn’t afraid to experiment and take risks, probably because it has developed a sense of what it takes to keep an audience engaged, established savvy listening techniques and makes use of advanced measuring tools. Sometimes this is also the stage where social media experiments are abandoned.

Adult social media programs have the wisdom and experience gained from a period of experimenting and can look at the program in terms of its business value to the organization. Social media programs in adulthood are mature enough to understand that trying too hard to shape social media doesn’t work; it’s most important to be authentic. Organizations experienced with social media also use it at multiple points in the organization to enhance sales, HR, customer service and other functions beyond marketing.

Valerie Maltoni, who blogs at ConversationAgent, wrote awhile ago about the lifecycle of a social media program and described the types of actions that resulted in higher and lower levels of buzz and engagement. Maltoni’s post is interesting because it infers that the effort you put into your social media program is not constant and ongoing but rather waxes and wanes over time.

Hmm…I wonder what retirement will look like?

Alison Kenney an independent PR practitioner with more than 15 years of PR consulting experience. She is based on Boston’s North Shore and has worked with organizations in the technology, professional services and consumer industries. She writes a bi-monthly PR column on LindsayOlson.com. You can find her at www.kprcommunications.com. Learn more about Alison Kenney.

Hi, I’m a political scientist in Washington, DC working on and writing about political new media and online advertising. Reach me: derek.pangallo(a)gmail.com

Stand Out

No matter the industry you seek to get ahead in, you want a resume that makes a splash. In this post I’ll share some practices I’ve come up with that make you more appealing to the recruiter, and let you get some passive feedback from them. This isn’t an article encouraging you to add your twitter profile to your resume. In fact I’ll make a point to discourage it. The focus is leveraging technology to make your resume work better.

Every hiring manager has a different process, so we must acknowledge that some people read the resume before the cover letter. It’s also likely you’re resume will never be printed unless you get called in for an interview. For these reasons, the first overall impression of the resume is of utmost importance.

Micro-Managing Perception

The best way to control the first-impression experience of your resume is to use the PDF format. Word documents look messy with all the rulers and toolbars, plus on a foreign computer’s dictionary, your ethnic last name will get the dreaded red-squiggly underneath. No point in racial profiling yourself.

What’s really great about PDF: using Adobe Acrobat professional, you can set the initial view properties of a document point-by-point. I have my resume set to “fit to page” upon opening, so the recruiter gets a bird’s-eye view before ever deciding if I’m worth scrolling down for. Even though you can’t actually read any of my experience or skills, you have to admit it’s a damn sharp resume. Interest acquired, awe accomplished.

You can also set options on the document like “full-screen viewing” and “hide all controls”; don’t do this. When opening a PDF like this up, Adobe gives the warning “this document is trying to take control of your computer” or something — that’s not the first impression we’re looking for.

Link Click Tracking

There are a couple ways to get feedback once your resume is in the figurative hands of a hiring manager. The easiest is to shorten the links in your resume using http://goo.gl. Add the shortened URL as your link, leaving the display text as the actual destination. On my resume it looks like this:

Blog: www.derallo.me

If you hover with your mouse, you can see the link points to http://goo.gl/cTRpE. For the end user, there is no difference after clicking, but we can now track when and how many times the link was clicked. Just add a “+” symbol to the end to see a link’s analytics: http://goo.gl/cTRpE+

You can use this method regardless of where you are directing your visitors. Periodically checking the “all-time” clicks on your links will give you an idea of how many recruiters bothered to click through to your blog, Linkedin, or portfolio.

If you want even more data about outbound clicks on your resume, you’ll need to be directing traffic to a site you control and have a Google Analytics account associated with it.

Google Analytics

Using Google’s Free analytics tool, we can massage out even more data about the appeal of your resume. We can see exactly which job recruiter did the clicking, what city they were in, how long they stayed on your site, and much more. I’ll presume that you have a Google Analytics account and have it installed on your site.

This time around our desire isn’t to make links shorter, it’s to make them longer. You may have noticed longer URL’s with “UTM” codes in them. These are codes that tell Google Analytics where you were referred from. Organizing for America and Twitter both use this prominently in their emails.

For your first tagged URL, use the Google Analytics URL Builder. You enter the URL you will be redirecting to, then enter a campaign Source, Medium and Name (somewhat overkill for our purposes, but all three are requires.) I use one character, “r”, for source and medium, and change the “name” field for every resume I send out. Now you can  tell exactly which resumes earned you clicks, drill-downing into that data.

Intelligent Use of Landing Pages

A quick word about where you’re actually directing traffic: make it count. Have a custom page on your blog just for talent-seekers. Also, optimize your LinkedIn profile make an impression. One way to do this is to rearrange profile elements so your recommendations are at the top. And definitely make sure LinkedIn users outside your network can see your photo — this is not the default setting.

What I’ve found

I’ve been utilizing these techniques for a few months now, and here’s what I know for sure: most of the jobs that call you for an interview still only clicked on one of your links. The lesson is that your resume only needs one link. Make it count. Depending on the job you’re looking for, link to your LinkedIn, your blog, or your portfolio. Don’t make it your twitter account unless you’re applying to work at Twitter, or your last tweet is always the first thing you want a prospective employer to see.

Questions/Improvements? Leave a comment or reach me on twitter, @derallo.

I got an inquiry from a reader the other day after posting the article about Twitter to find a job article.

His question:

Using LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc. does not seem to help find me leads. I have profiles posted, but no one contacts me whatsoever. What’s up with that?”

LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook aren’t the magic solution to your job search. The leads will not come pouring in because you have a profile up. You need to work at developing your network and improving your online visibility – before you need them for a job search. Social sites are a component of your job search toolbox. You must be proactive to make them work for you.

That’s what I talked about in my  post on US News & World Report this week. 6 Ways to Boost Your Job Search on LinkedIn. Check it out!

Photo credit: Dean Meyers

This is a guest post by Alison Kenney.

I’ve heard Foursquare referred to as the hottest new marketing tool.  But personally, I’m not a huge fan.  In fact, according to this Fast Company article, I’m in the apathy stage.  I just don’t feel the need to compete for badges and mayorships — and not enough contacts in my personal network use it to make it a useful communication tool.  However, I am intrigued by its marketing and PR potential.

Here’s why Foursquare matters to marketers:

Your audience is game. This CNN story on Foursquare creator Dennis Crowley illustrates the appeal of Foursquare to a certain type of consumer — someone such as Crowley — who enjoys playing virtual contests, or someone who loves the challenge of new e-games.  Foursquare can be a new way to connect with your target audience or even a way to reach a new audience.

Foursquare can reinforce your brand loyalty. Retailers like Starbucks and Dominos (in the UK) are testing Foursquare as a way to identify enthusiastic customers by rewarding them with coupons and discounts based on the number of times they “check in” using Foursquare.

Mobile and geo-location technologies are the future. According to Yankee Group president and author of the book, “Anywhere: How Global Connectivity Is Revolutionizing the Way We Do Business.’’ Emily Nagle Green says that Google’s decision to put mobile first in their business is a telling indicator.  Yahoo! also seems to be throwing its hat into the geo-location ring with its recent purchase of Kropol.  A recent report from Juniperstates that all mobile location-based services may contribute a total revenue of $12.7 billion by 2014.

Location-based services are a natural fit for tourism and travel related brands. More than ever people are turning to the Web to plan their travel itineraries, find recommendations and map their trips.  Foursquare can be a fun way to engage travelers and tourists during the process.  The city of Chicago’s tourism office is encouraging people to recreate a scene from the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off using Foursquare.   The state of Pennsylvania is leveraging social media to promote tourism too and has created special Foursquare badges just for Pennsylvania sites and uses Foursquare to provide tips for visiting Pennsylvania destinations.

Content generators now have another medium to reach their audience. The NY Times has aggregated its content for a new free iPhone app for visitors to Manhattan and Brooklyn and also offers integration with Foursquare for convenient check ins, i.e. convenient links to NY Times content.

Event marketers use Foursquare to drive participation. In addition to allowing users to know who is nearby or attending the same event, Foursquare can help event marketers increase participation.  Last week fashion designer Cynthia Rowley launched the Cynthia Rowley Bridesmaids collection with the help of Foursquare and gave attendees at its launch unveiling a special gift if they checked in on Foursquare.  (Visitors who check in at the store Lovely Bride during the week after the launch also receive 15% off their bridesmaid dress order.)

Whether Foursquare is here to stay, or not, smart marketers and PR pros are considering location-based social media as part of their integrated marketing plan.  Are you?

Alison Kenney an independent PR practitioner with more than 15 years of PR consulting experience. She is based on Boston’s North Shore and has worked with organizations in the technology, professional services and consumer industries. She writes a bi-monthly PR column on LindsayOlson.com. Learn more about Alison Kenney.