By CAREEREALISM-Approved Expert, Deborah Shane
I was asked to keynote at our Social Media Club. The topic, “social media in the boardroom.” I presented on “Building Actionable Relationships from Social Networking," a subject I have a lot of experience with the past three years. I took a little trip down “memory lane” in putting this together, and reviewed HOW I had built my current business, brand and reputation...from scratch!
A key few points to share about this story:
I career transitioned by choice a little over three years ago.
I moved and accepted a job to an area where I didn’t know anybody.
The job didn’t work out.
I launched an original business in Feb 2007.
I just celebrated 3 years in business.
There is a story and a process to “building actionable relationships.” For me it had to start locally and offline. Then it grew to nationally. Now it combines, equally, “offline and online communications.”
My Story
I built an original brand from scratch for my company, Train with Shane, identified certain niche’s I was going to specialize in, and set out to establish myself in a market where I had no previous contacts, connections or relationships. A dubious challenge I accepted gracefully and with guts, courage and belief.
I joined chambers, professional groups, networking groups, pro-bono’d myself as much as I could, and interacted in the communities I wanted and needed to be associated with. I needed to build a database of contacts to market to. It worked.
My Process
The website came first. I hired a media company to assist me in creating my brand, which would translate into everything else: cards, stationary, newsletters, ads.
Next was constant contact e-mail marketing, which allowed me to send out professional, clean e-mails to my growing connections on tips, tools, resources, my events, happenings, programs and services.
Then came The Metropolis: blog, newsletter and Internet radio show. These were my “media tools” to build, share, leverage, interact, and build my tribe.
This process of building relationships is iconic and timeless in business. Today, we have a huge reach and boundless technology to speed it up, but relationships take time to grow.
My definition of actionable relationships is, “Building a personal trust and commonality with people that opens the way for mutual benefit.”
Do I like you? Do I trust you? Do I respect you? How can we help each other?
I made some lists of local and national people I have met through social networking. I would never have met them otherwise. How fortunate we are today to have such enormous resources and opportunities to meet like minded, like purposed people.
The key is to seize the opportunity to reach out and GET PERSONAL:
Pick up the phone
Get together
Plan collaborative things
Connect people
Listen
Thank people
Acknowledge actions that benefit
Actionable: ready to go or be put into action, ready for use
Relationship: an (emotional) connection, association, or involvement
Are you social? What are you doing to build actionable relationships?
|Did you enjoy this article? You can read more articles by this expert here. Also, check out all of our FREE webinars!CAREEREALISM Expert, Deborah Shane delivers business education and professional skill development specializing in women in business, those in career transition, sales and personal and social brand strategy and integration. Follow her on Twitter and LinkedIn.CAREEREALISM.com provides the best career advice from proven career experts on a daily basis. How do you find a job today? You get career and job search help from us! Sign-up today to get our updates daily.The photo for this article is provided by Shutterstock.
Is your job search turning into a grind with no end in sight? It may be time to take a step back and reevaluate your entire approach.
In cold weather climates, the beginning of spring is a time to clean the house and get organized—a practice known as spring cleaning. Through the years, spring cleaning has taken on a larger meaning with people using the time to organize and declutter things in their lives.
For professionals on the job hunt, a little spring cleaning (metaphorically speaking) could be a great way to reinvigorate your job search. Here are a few strategies your job search spring cleaning should include.
Reevaluate Your Job Search Approach
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Make a list of the last handful of jobs you applied for and see if you can identify any positive or negative trends. Consider things like:
How did I learn about this job?
How did I apply for the job?
Did I earn an interview?
What was the ultimate result?
A lot can be learned about your job search approach just by answering these questions and identifying patterns. For example:
Negative Trends
You discovered five jobs through job boards, applied to all of them via the job boards, and never heard back from any of them.
The common pattern here is applying through job boards. This isn't to say that job boards don't serve a purpose in the job search process, but they have their limitations, and you can't run your job search entirely off of them. When you apply through a job board, there's a good chance that your materials will never get past the applicant tracking system (ATS) and never be seen by an actual person.
One simple fix is to research who the hiring manager or recruiter is that posted the position and email your materials to them directly.
The more efficient fix would be to take a proactive approach by putting together a bucket list of companies that you want to work for and start making connections on LinkedIn with people who work at those companies. You may already know some people who work there or have connections that can refer you to some individuals.
This is a great way to network your way onto a company's radar.
Positive Trends
You applied to three jobs via referral, were invited to two job interviews, and made it through multiple rounds of interviews for one of the jobs before being passed over for someone with a little more experience.
The pattern here is that getting referred to a job by a professional acquaintance is a great way to land a job interview. This indicates that you're leveraging your network well and you should continue to focus on your networking efforts.
The next step is to review the interview process and determine what went well and what needs to be improved. Sometimes the interviewer will provide feedback, and that feedback can be valuable. However, not everyone is comfortable with giving feedback.
Chances are you probably have a good idea about areas of improvement and the skills you need to gain. Put together a plan for addressing those shortfalls.
The good news in making it deep into any interview process is that it indicates that the company likes you as a potential employee (even if the timing just wasn't right) and the experience could be a roadmap to a job with that company at a later date, or another similar opportunity elsewhere.
Give Your Resume & Cover Letter Some Much-Needed Attention
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Are you continuously sending similar resumes and cover letters to each job opening with only minor adjustments? If so, your strategy needs some serious spring cleaning.
The reason why it's so important to tailor your resume is that throughout your career, you acquire numerous skills, but the job you're applying for may only be focusing on 6-8 of those skills. In that case, those skills must rise to the top of the resume with quantifiable examples of how you successfully used those skills at previous jobs.
Remember, recruiters go through hundreds of resumes. They need to be able to tell from a quick glance whether or not you're a potential candidate for the position.
While updating your resume, you could also spruce up your LinkedIn profile by highlighting the skill sets that you want to be noticed for by recruiters.
As for writing a good cover letter, the key to success is writing a disruptive cover letter. When you write a disruptive cover letter, you're basically telling a story. The story should focus on how you connect with the particular company and job position. The story could also focus on your personal journey, and how you got to where you currently are in your career.
If your resumes and cover letters aren't unique, now is the time to clean things up and get on track.
Build Your Personal Brand
Just because you're looking for work doesn't mean that you don't have anything to offer. Use previous career experiences and passions to build your personal brand.
Ask yourself, "How do I want other professionals to view me?"
Pick an area of expertise and start sharing your knowledge and experience with your professional network by pushing out content on your LinkedIn and social media accounts. Good content can include blogs, social media posts, and videos.
By sharing content about your experiences and passions, you slowly build your personal brand, and others will start to notice. The content could lead to good discussions with others in your network. It could also lead to reconnecting with connections that you haven't spoken to in years, or making new connections.
You never know when one of these connections could turn into a job lead or referral. The trick is to get on people's radars. So, when you're cleaning up your job search, be sure to build a plan for personal branding.
Maintain Healthy Habits During Your Job Search
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Your job search is important, but it's even more important to know when to pull back and focus on personal health and spending time with family and friends.
There are actually things that you can do for your own enjoyment that could help your job search in the long run, such as:
Grab coffee with a friend - It's good to engage in light conversation with friends during challenging times. And if your job search does come up, remember that most people have been through it themselves and you never know when a friend may provide you with a good idea or lead on a job.
Volunteer - Volunteering is a great way to get involved in the community and help others. In addition, if you develop a little bit of a career gap while looking for a job, you can always talk about how you filled that time volunteering, if you're asked about it during a job interview.
Continue to focus on other passions - Are you a fitness nut? Blogger? Crafter? Continue to do the things that bring you happiness. And if you're in a position to profit from your passion through a freelance job or side hustle, even better!
Spring is the perfect time to clean up and improve your job search so you can land the job you want. If you're struggling to find a job, follow the tips above to reinvigorate your job search—and watch your career blossom!
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This article was originally published at an earlier date.