Brad Rizza speaks with personal branding strategist and author Jason Alba about the relationship between online social networking and offline relationship building for today’s job seekers and career builders.
Brad Rizza
Media Program Analyst
The internet effectively revolutionized the job search with Monster and Yahoo Hot Jobs the pioneering leaders but as Jason Alba tells us in this EyeTraffic Interview, such job search databases may already be passed by new technology. Can one really use social media to get a job?
Jason, your first book, “I’m on LinkedIn—Now What???,” focused on maximizing the benefits of the popular business networking website while your second book, “I’m on Facebook–Now What???: How to Get Personal, Business, and Professional Value from Facebook,” took the concept to the social network giant itself. How has the job search process changed since you finished up college in the late 90’s?
Alba: I’m not sure what the job search was like back then, really. About 18 months before I graduated I started an awesome internship which led to my full time job. Not at that company, but because I was in the right place at the right time and had the internship behind me. In other words, I networked my way into the job.
I think back then it was all about using Monster… just like what many new job seekers think today. Unfortunately, people spend too much time spinning their wheels on what worked a few years ago without realizing what is working today. Social tools can play a significant part in today’s job search, but too many people don’t know how to use them.
Having said that, realize that the technological differences are stark, but the principles around networking and relationships are not. Many jobs are filled because astute job seekers are meeting people and developing relationships – online and offline, and learning about opportunities that never get posted which are usually referred to as the “hidden job market.”
How does/can social media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn converge with offline networking and alternative job search tools such as JibberJobber.com to create an effective job search?
Alba: What they all have in common is networking, which includes finding relevant contacts and developing relationships with them.
You can find contacts in a variety of places – online or offline. Then you want to work towards a professional relationship, which includes helping them understand what you do (think: personal brand) while trying to figure out what value you can bring to them.
Ultimately I recommend you get outside of the technology and have phone calls, meet in person, exchange emails, etc. Being connected on a social platform does not constitute “networking.”
JibberJobber is the glue that ties it all together. Regardless of where you met the person or how you communicate with them, or when you need to follow-up, you’ll need some kind of system to help you track all of the information about the relationship. That’s where JibberJobber fits.
As your job search gets longer and longer, these tools help with a variety of tasks and help keep you on top of the job search.
Having already covered LinkedIn and Facebook in your previous two books, is “I’m On Twitter…Now What???” an eventual next step or could you see yourself covering a number of emerging social platforms? And how does the concept behind “8 Lunches” fit into all this?
Alba: I was planning on writing a Twitter book but I started at about the same time I was working on the second edition of my LinkedIn book and thought I was crazy to start another book that would have to be updated about once a year.
Instead, I decided to do videos, which are easier to keep current – I now offer Twitter for Job Seekers, Blogging for Job Seekers and a number of other videos on my website. I’m passionate about using these tools in career management, which is more long-term than the job search, but the book process was just too much.
I started “Eight Lunches” as a way to share what I’ve learned as an entrepreneur, especially since so many people are seriously looking at starting their own business in this economy. The only reason I decided to make this a book is because it will have a longer shelf-life than my technology books, which can quickly start to feel outdated.
Regarding the emerging social platforms, believe it or not, I’m not an early adopter. I like to go to where the people are – that is, the hiring managers and decision makers. If there is a new platform that is the greatest things since…since the last greatest thing, I tend to stay away until I hear sufficient buzz from users. I’m not easily brought in by shiny features … if no one else is there you don’t have much of a chance of meeting the right people.
Jason Alba is a personal branding strategist and career and job search guru. He has written two books, “I’m on LinkedIn — Now What???” and “I’m on Facebook — Now What???” and is in the process of writing two more. Jason is the creator and CEO of JibberJobber.com and is a leading consultant and speaker on all things social media and personal branding.