The Monster Blog

Are You on Social Networking Overload?

Social networking can be integral to getting and keeping a job. But with social networking sites -- and invitations to join them -- coming fast and furious, what’s a career-minded social networker to do?

According to this MSNBC article, there is such a thing as social networking overload. Says the story’s author:

In researching this column, I signed up for as many of the networks out there as I could and what did I get? A headache. Suddenly my email inbox was flooded with friends accepting my invites for Plaxo, Twitter, etc., and I realized there was no way I was going to have time to do any of these sites justice. Especially since I’m already a member of LinkedIn and Facebook, and I barely have time to keep those up-to-date.

So which sites are best for the career-minded to focus on? For general job seeking, the author primarily recommends LinkedIn, followed by Facebook and Squidoo. There are also several highly trafficked, industry-specific networking sites, such as ThomasNet for engineers (40 million user sessions, according to the article) and ITtoolbox for those in information technology, which boasts 700 discussion groups.

I am a member of LinkedIn, Facebook and MySpace, and it is indeed a struggle to update all those profiles, send and accept friend requests, and troll the sites for new contacts. It seems when it comes to social networking, quality trumps quantity. But for best results, don’t forget to get off the computer and meet with the three-dimensional people as well. 

For more on social networking best practices, check out these resources:

• “Seven Tips for Social Networking Online”
• “Social Software and Your Career”
• From the Monster Blog: “Social Networking Resources for Professional Development”
• From the Monster Blog: “Become a Subject-Matter Expert with Social Media”

Your Resume … in 140 Characters

Stephen Baker from Business Week’s Blogspotting blog is asking readers to submit resumes for celebrities, business leaders … and themselves.

But there’s a twist: You have to do it Twitter-style, meaning no more than 140 characters.

Here’s my contribution: “Passionate about teaching individuals and businesses how to use the tools and technologies of the social Web to build strong communities.”

How about you? Care to share your Twitter-length resume?

Become a Subject-Matter Expert with Social Media

One of the primary reasons I’m such a champion of the tools of the online social web is that they enable anyone with an Internet connection -- not just the executives in the C-suite -- to position themselves as experts.

And what happens when you become an expert? You quickly become more attractive to potential future employers -- if not also to your current one.

So if you’re starting from scratch, how can you progress from anonymous to expert online? Here are a few suggestions:

Blog About Your Passion: It doesn’t really matter what that passion is -- knitting, traveling, the collision of marketing and technology, etc. Use the instant-publishing power of a blog to talk about subjects that drive and motivate you. If you can do that in a reasonably eloquent fashion, the readers will come -- and then they’ll keep coming back.

Connect with Other Bloggers: The most successful bloggers I know don’t just publish their own blog and call it a day. They also reach out to other bloggers who share similar interests. You can start by pledging to leave at least three comments a week on friends’ and colleagues’ blogs.

Maintain and Grow Your Online Network: Sites like Facebook and LinkedIn are good places to find and follow like-minded professionals and hobbyists. As you make new connections and catch up with old friends and acquaintances, make sure they know what you’re passionate about, what you’re good at, and how you might help them. Remember that Networking is just as much about giving back to others as it is about helping your own career.

Participate in Online Conversations: Whether it’s through posting short messages on Twitter, leaving comments on blogs or taking part in a message board community like Monster’s, demonstrate your expertise by reading and listening well, and then offering thoughtful contributions to a group.

Organize and Join Events: Sometimes you need to take your online skills to a face-to-face setting. Speaking at a community-driven unconference in your hometown is one way to do that. But if you want to take things up a notch, use free-event-management tools on Facebook, Upcoming or Eventbrite, and organize your own in-person meetup.

Anything I’ve missed here? If you have your own success stories of using the social web as a career booster, share them in the comments section below.

And if you’re looking for more Monster resources on social media and social networking, check out these links:

• "Seven Tips for Social Networking Online"
• "Social Software and Your Career" 
• "Audio: Care for and Feed Your Online Network"

To Get Ahead in Your Career, Start Blogging

If you’re a young professional, let me give you one piece of advice that could quickly catapult your career into the stratosphere: Start blogging.

Here are two guys who have done just that:

• Ryan Healy had been out of college for less than a year when he colaunched a blog for twentysomethings in the workforce called Employee Evolution in February 2007. Less than six months later, the well-known career author and blogger Penelope Trunk was so impressed with the expertise Healy was demonstrating through his blog that she started a company with him. At the ripe old age of 23, Ryan quit his entry-level corporate job and is now set to try his hand at running a career development company.
• Dan Schawbel, 24, writes the Personal Branding Blog. He’s already been hailed as a young turk of personal branding in Fast Company, has launched his own quarterly publication called Personal Branding Magazine and has been named the first-ever social media specialist by his employer, EMC.

Now could Ryan and Dan have landed their new gigs by following the traditional corporate path? Maybe. But it likely would have taken them years rather than months.

Thanks to the rapid adoption of social media tools in the workplace and the relative ease of connecting with peers and influential colleagues through online social networks and presence applications such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, a good blog can help you establish yourself as an expert and accelerate your career growth at a speed otherwise unthinkable as recently as a couple of years ago.

And what does it take to be a good blogger?

• Good writing skills.
• An interest or passion in a topic.
• The discipline to post regularly.
• A willingness to read and reach out to other bloggers and to engage in regular online and offline networking.

Start blogging, produce compelling content and build the right relationships, and you’ll be well on your way to creating a whole new set of career opportunities for yourself.

For more on making your way in the online world, check out these Monster career advice resources:

• "Social Software and Your Career"
• "Seven Tips for Building a Breakout Tech Blog"
• "Blogs, Podcasts and Wikis: A New Technology Primer"

The Value of Face-to-Face Networking

If you read my posts here on the Monster Blog with any regularity, then you know I’m an unabashed advocate for online social networking.  I believe sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Ning enable us to connect and engage in meaningful online conversations around shared interests.

But as helpful as these online tools are, there’s nothing quite like networking in a face-to-face setting.  Two events here in the Boston area over the past few weeks helped drive that point home for me -- a breakfast for two dozen social-media enthusiasts that I organized and a Tech Cocktail evening that brought together hundreds of entrepreneurial-minded professionals. Both occasions afforded me the opportunity to meet and better get to know several local passionate and talented colleagues in the new-media space.

So with those experiences fresh in my mind, here are a few suggestions on how to make the most out of an in-the-flesh networking event:

• Look for New Faces: While catching up with long-running friends and colleagues is always fun and is crucial to strengthening existing relationships, make an effort to speak with people you don’t know. These fresh conversations can lead to new business ventures and employment opportunities, too.


• Have a Plan: While there’s something to be said for serendipity at networking events, don’t leave everything to chance. If an attendee list is published prior to the event, spend some time studying it. Identify two or three people who you want to connect with, and prep yourself with a couple of talking points for each of those discussions.


• Netweave:  As David Cutler writes, netweaving “put[s] a spin on the traditional networking process. [Ask,] ‘What can I do for you?’ rather than ‘What can you do for me?’ The results are fantastic.”


• Respect Others’ Time: Remember that you’re not the only one looking to make new connections. Once you’ve spent a few minutes with someone, offer your thanks for their time, exchange business cards and move on.


• Don’t Forget to Write: Those sparks of conversations will fade quickly if you don’t follow up with the people you’ve met. Within one or two days of the event, plow through that new stack of business cards and start sending emails or making phone calls. A written message can be as short as a few sentences, but be sure to include a nugget of what the two of you talked about to jog your new contact’s memory.

Want more advice from Monster on the art of networking? Try these resources:

• "Audio: Learn How to Network Face-to-Face Like a Pro"
• "Networking for the Shy"
• "Six Steps for Successful Networking"
• "Networking Opportunities are Everywhere"
• "Be the Star of Your Own Network"

For more information on this subject, check out our Networking section. 

Don’t Just Take Our Word for It: Check Out Our Updated Blogroll

From resume and interview tips to our insights on women at work, we like to think the Monster Blog delivers daily nuggets that will help you get ahead in your career.

But we know we’re not alone. There are hundreds of other career-related related blogs on the Web that offer pearls of wisdom on targeted topics such as personal branding, productivity, Generation Y, crazy bosses and how to work as a manager in HR.

Take a look at the updated Monster Blogroll along our left sidebar, and you’ll see a list of 32 sites that our blogging team recommends. (RSS readers: You’ll need to come to our blog for the links.) Visit a few of the blogs that are new to you, and discover talented voices in your industry or specific areas of interest.

Then, make sure you come back here and let us know if there are bloggers you enjoy reading that we’ve missed. We value your advice, too.

Become More Productive by Slowing Down

Confessions of a connected worker:

• I’ve responded to text messages while driving.
• I’ve checked emails through my mobile phone while lying in bed at the crack of dawn.
• I’ve logged into Twitter to follow the lives of new-media colleagues -- during a family vacation.

Depending on your own habits, you either think my behavior is completely normal, or that I’m a little too obsessed with staying in the loop. Steve Prentice would argue the latter.

Prentice is the author of the new book Cool Down: Getting Further by Going Slower and says knowledge workers’ addiction to speed is damaging our interpersonal skills, skewing our work/life balance and limiting our creative thinking. We’re distracted by nonstop requests for our attention and easily lose focus. We “feel [we] have to work more, just to keep up,” Prentice says.

Prentice contends we need to slow down to get ahead. Among his recommendations:

• Don’t Keep Your Email Open All Day: Your workplace isn’t likely to fall apart if you don’t see or respond to an incoming message for an hour or two. When you’re working on an important project, close your inbox or turn off new-message alerts to limit potential interruptions.
• Don’t Skip Lunch: Getting away from your desk and enjoying a healthy meal energizes you for the afternoon.
• Allow Creative Thoughts Time to Percolate: Make sure to capture new ideas as they come to you -- and then let them go for a while. Creative solutions will often come to you when you’re doing something other than consciously working on the problem that needs solving.
• Don’t Take Your Work Home: Leave your work at the office, and spend your time outside the workplace taking up hobbies and enjoying the company of your friends and family.

What do you think of this list? What is your workplace advice for staying focused, being productive and thinking creatively?

When Networking, Don’t Be Shy About Picking Up the Phone, Too

If you’re at all like me, you spend countless hours each month building and managing your personal and professional networks using a seemingly infinite range of online communication tools and Web sites, including email, instant messaging, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and LinkedIn. I could fill weeks’ worth of blog posts telling you about all the interesting people I’ve come to know as colleagues and true friends thanks to the power of a mouse, a keyboard and a whiz-bang series of tubes.

Face-to-face meetups are important, too -- and I’m not talking about the ones in Second Life. Connecting, brainstorming, inspiring and collaborating at impromptu geek dinners, conferences, unconferences and, yes, post-conference pub crawls ultimately have helped to cement many of the relationships I’ve started online.

But there’s another aspect of networking that’s often glossed over in this era of the online social web: Using the telephone. While sending an email to someone you haven’t been in touch with for six months is a nice touch, picking up the phone -- of, if you must go the online route, dialing via a VOIP service such as Skype -- and actually speaking to that person for a few minutes can lead to a more meaningful reconnection. As my friend and colleague Donna Papacosta likes to say, there’s tremendous power in the human voice. Tone, warmth and purpose are seldom conveyed in written form as effectively as they are through the spoken word, and, as a comfort-at-the-keyboard guy, I’m as guilty as anyone in overlooking this insight.

So to really ramp up your networking efforts over the next few weeks, start by making a few phone calls. The results might just surprise you.

Here are a few helpful articles on networking:

• “Comfortable Networking”
• “Audio: Care for and Feed Your Online Network”
• “Hate to Schmooze?”

New Media Matters in Politics -- and in the Workplace

While you can certainly question whether Monday’s Democratic presidential debate took full advantage of the YouTube platform, what you can’t question is whether politicians are actually paying attention to new media communication channels.

They are:

• Hillary Clinton put her campaign theme song selection in the hands of YouTube voters.
• John McCain has created an online community for his supporters called McCain Space.
• John Edwards is sending and answering Twitter messages.
• Mitt Romney has photos on Flickr.

And many of the candidates’ Web sites feature groups and user-created blogs, too.   

So if politicians, who would seldom be described as cutting edge, have recognized that people are connecting in meaningful ways through online social media, what about your employer?

Here are some options that your company may want to consider for strengthening internal communications:

• A customized Facebook-like application, where coworkers can see photos of each other and learn more about each other’s personal interests
• A tool that enables employees to tag content on the company intranet (imagine a customized version of del.icio.us), making it easier for everyone to find relevant content quickly
• Employee blogs with open comments -- even if they’re behind a corporate firewall -- where workers are encouraged to write about challenges they’re facing on the job and offer suggestions for making the company stronger
• Internal wikis, both for brainstorming and project collaboration

None of these suggestions is revolutionary, but it may take an internal evangelist -- such as you -- to demonstrate how and why incorporating new-media tools will ultimately make your organization a better place to work.

Here are some Career Advice articles that may help you make your case:

• “Blogs, Podcasts and Wikis: A New Technology Primer”
• “How to Use Blogs Effectively in PR”
• “Social Software and Your Career”

Gen X? Gen Y? Doesn’t Matter to This Guy

I’m confused. I can’t figure out whether I belong to Generation X or Generation Y, and a search on the Web over the last few days is making me dizzy.

Here’s the easy part: I was born in 1976, which, as of last November, means I’m now a 30-something. But putting myself into a generational category based on that particular year is a bit messy.

An academic article from the 2002 book Mobilizing the Audience that I’ve kept from my postgraduate days in Australia says that author Douglas Coupland’s Generation X was about people born between 1961 and 1972, meaning I’m no Xer. But wait: This Generation X Wikipedia entry tells me that many view 1965 to 1976 as the more appropriate range. So, maybe I’m back in after all.

But then what about Generation Y, or that group of people born “immediately after Generation X"? Maybe I belong there instead. This eWeek story says Gen Y began in 1977, but Wikipedia says it was 1976. Other researchers mark the generation with the year 1982.

Are you getting a headache yet?

But what if there were a different way of looking at the question? What if your generation weren’t based on your year of birth at all but instead on the extent to which you use digital media -- blogs, IM, online video and social networking sites -- a notion posited by Margaret Weigel and expanded on by Penelope Trunk?

Trunk came up with a 16-question quiz that tests your new-media savvy and assigns you a corresponding generation -- ranging from the least plugged in (Baby Boomer) to most (Generation Y).

Using this measuring stick, I can answer my original head-scratching question in the mere two minutes it takes to complete Trunk’s quiz: I’m a Gen-Y guy, and that’s fine with me. 

New media has changed and will continue to change the way we work. Blogging, contributing to departmental wikis, following dozens of RSS feeds and sharing links in del.icio.us are all part of my necessary day-to-day work flow here at Monster.

I’d prefer not to be defined as belonging to any generation at all -- I often think the practice is one big sales and marketing ploy. But if I must have a label, then slap me with the one that shows I want to use the tools that make me the most productive, offer me the best means for collaborating with my coworkers and keep me connected to industry issues.

Here are two Monster stories that cover the generation question and our evolving approach to getting things done in the workplace:

• "Intergenerational Miscommunication in the Workplace"
• "The Workplace Generation Gap"