Using social media as part of your BA job search strategy.
Colleen Chan, “Business Analyst with a Difference” from Sydney, Australia, shares her inspiring story about her entrance into LinkedIn and blogging and discovering a true passion for social media all as a result of trying to find that “next opportunity”.
“Bridging the GAP – Out of chaos, we create order. Out of disagreement, we create alignment. Out of ambiguity, we create clarity. But most of all, we create positive change for the organizations we serve.”
It is the question I am continually asked. Yes, me, the beginner! I don’t believe it but I am. Suppose I am seasoned now in these very fast paced lives of ours, Data Analytics?!!. I actually called myself a social media person the other day .
Oh dear… we have this tragic love affair with our technology and it is having a snowballing affect on our lives everywhere. Now we need to social network to find a dollar. It is not what you know, it is who you know. But even now, it is not just who you know, you still have to be able to show the what you know or otherwise you are at a standstill. And social networking is the way people are doing it.
How do I do it? How do I social network? You are feeling very frustrated. There you are sitting in front of the computer, filled in your profile and connected to the colleagues you know. Then comes the question, how do I build up that network so I can reach out to people and people will reach out to me to help me in my situation?
Number 1. The most important thing is you must keep remembering, why am I social networking? Why am I here in this space? Am I here to find a job, to build up my business, to be an open networker, to find like minded people, to find a mentor, or just to stay connected with my colleagues and friends? And do consider why these people are networking as they may not be networking for the same reason as you.
Number 2.Your profile. No dodgy photos, we must be able to see your face and think about who you want to attract with your photo. If you are out to find a partner, then go for it but remember others are also looking at your photo and those connected to you who have to see your network updates all the time. Luckily for “hide network updates” and “stop following”, not that I have any of these on my network .
Fill in every section of your profile, do not leave any of the sections empty or missing. Summaries of your achievements in your jobs. There is no use just putting where you worked and your recommendations. What are you being recommended for? If you have other interests, include them. Tell people what you want them to know about you.
If these are not done then who are you? A slice of profile amongst the other 55 million you are competing against? I go into detail about building a profile in LinkedIn, The Campaign Begins and My Personal Brand. Read them, over and over again if you must. These are the questions you must ask yourself.
This will not take a day, a weekend or even a week for that matter. This will take time, you do have to do some deep thinking and maybe even some soul searching. Who do you want to portray and can you do it in real life. No use saying you are upbeat when you are a grumpy bastard . Focus on the positives and your achievements. Once you get there, there will be a clear direction and you will know .
Number 3.Invitations. DO NOT send generic invitations. I don’t know how many posts I have seen about this topic, it is sooo…boring but I have to bring the topic a front as well . Yes, I have been an offender but I have learnt and now I am teaching you. Do send these to your colleagues and your friends but nobody else. Think about it this way, would you want to connect to somebody without even knowing who they were? You may have nothing in common and may not fulfil each others needs. We are being social here, there is always give and take. Whether the satisfaction of reaching out to helping others or to have shared interests or a business relationship with monetary value.
So how do I connect to people? You can go in cold. Introduce yourself, why their profile interested you, why you want to be connected to them and how you can help each other. Many people will accept these invitations and will appreciate your initiative.
Recruiters. Aim only for those in the local area. Send them a note asking if they would preview your profile so you could send them your resume. Once you have been able to send the resume, ask if you can meet with them. Meeting is good, they are always going to remember you. And always remember if you have met a recruiter offline to ask if you can send them an invitation. If you cannot meet with them ask if you can send them an invitation and reasons for connecting with them.
Those who maybe able to help you on your quest. Interact. This why others are social networking, to connect to people of interest. If you don’t interact, how are people going to know that you are interesting? Send offline notes before asking if you could send them an invitation. You never know they may send you the invitation first. Or you find that you have nothing in common and lose interest. Hmmm, that’s probably why I have some unaccepted invitations, I don’t practice what I preach .
The easiest way is to become an open networker or send invitations to open networkers and usually they will accept your generic invitations. These people are easy to find as they have their email address or LION as part of their headliner. If you want to expand your network quickly then go this route. I am connected to open networkers but these are people I have met.
I am a business analyst struggling to find that job and telling my story along the way, I am not trying to find other business. The satisfaction I receive from being in the social media is knowing I have been able to reach out to people in my blog with my story, my data analytics and my rants. This is my reward, if other things occur with my social media efforts then this will be a bonus.
Number 4. Interact. How do I find these people and how do I interact with them? Join groups, join as many groups as possible, doesn’t matter what size they are, actually the smaller the better, a more attentive audience. Follow the discussions. Get weekly email for updates from your groups so you can scan through the discussion list, you will eventually find a topic of interest.
You have searched for weeks, which means you have not tried hard enough, and you finally find a topic you can comment on but you don’t want to leave a comment. Think first what type of comment it is going to be. Are you going to agree with the author or disagree? If you agree with the author then reply privately. If you disagree, find somebody who has left a comment with the same conclusions as your own and reply to them privately. Then continue the conversation offline.
Please do reach out to people that have the same interests as your own. No good reaching out to business analyst if you are not one or you believe the person may be able to help you but they are social networking for their own purposes. You must have common interests and benefits that each can perceive. If you want people to reach out to you then you will have to leave a comment. Doesn’t matter if it is a failed comment like mine, Being Proactive. The connection I made then, this person still mentors me today .
The best way to have people reach out to you is to post your own discussions. But what type of discussion will I post? Think about what makes you passioned. I am passioned about finding that job so I am posting my story about finding that job and my data analytics to show people what I have been doing and can do. Doesn’t matter what you post, even if you are wanting to connect to like minded people, as long as you have passion for it. There are groups out there that cater for everybody’s needs.
Do not be afraid to post, do direct your posting to the correct group and the correct space, discussions, news or jobs section. Do not SPAM in one group, people will start ignoring your postings. If the group leader says something about your posting, shrug your shoulders and move on. There are so many postings out there that your one is not going to make a difference. Do not be disappointed if nobody responds. If you post in enough groups then you a bound to get a response somewhere.
I have been very lucky, I have had many, many people reach out to me through my postings. Each person has had a positive effect on my journey and I thank them all very much. Posting your own discussions will attract like minded people and those who are willing to help.
This is only a small glimpse into what I have learnt along this journey of mine. I could go on forever and I have gone well past my 1500 words. I am sure there is so much advice in the cyber world that this little post will also get lost in the many other postings but this is what I have experienced on my journey, some good, some bad.
Good luck with your social networking efforts. Enjoy this new journey you are on, there are so many interesting people out there ready and willing to reach out to you but you have to make the effort. No good putting a partial profile up and then just sitting there expecting something to happen for you. It doesn’t work that way, you have to be social and work hard at it. You will make mistakes but that is part of the learning process, in the end, all the pain will make this one of the most rewarding journeys you will travel .
Me? A Blogger? I didn’t read blogs, why would anybody want to read what is coming out of my head? Several months later I am still blogging and people are enjoying what I write about whether the story, data analytics or even my rants. Hopefully, I can keep this up and the sentences do not stop flowing out of my head. Does this surprise me? Very much so. This person who does not like words has strung together nearly 20 posts and has a small following which I never thought I would have, ever, so thank you again for all of your support. I must admit though, it has not been smooth sailing through this part of the journey but very rewarding.
I had problems from the very beginning with social media and I needed a good kick on the bum to get myself motivated to start (Online Presence). I had struggled with social networking and I had been an extremely private person. Blogging meant that I would be losing more of my privacy to the public domain. I would have to be really out there to promote my blog so eventually that job will be mine.
I had read a few blogs and most of the posts were less than 500 words. I can’t fit what I want to say in 500 words or less, what can I tell people? I write The Story Begins and I make it fit on an A4 size, 500 odd words. That was my benchmark, fit on an A4 size and it won’t be too long, those are the rules.
I was ready to post in all my groups and my networks. I was nervous. I timidly post onto my networks then to my groups. I had installed a flag counter on the website, I had my 4 friends in Australia and my connection from the US who knew about the site. I was looking at the flag counter and saying to myself, “This is going to depress me watching these flags not move”. As I login to delete the script, the flags start moving with additional flags! My first post and people are hitting my site, unbelievable! Though the data from the flag counter does not compare to the data coming from GA but from my understanding different analytics packs calculate data differently.
You have to post every week, I had been told. Every week! I don’t have that much to say, let alone write! I post the next 2 parts of my story in a very feverish state. Then I decide to build my own website, (Online Presence) it takes 3 weeks, which means something I suppose in social media circles, a long time between postings. This is my first posting in more than 6 weeks .
The next posting is JobCAMP, I also post my first rant, After Sales Service…. I only post details of the rant on my wall in FB, my one friend knew how I felt about hanging on the phone forever. I had not posted in the LI network, it was sitting there on my blog so I could get it off my chest. I receive my first comment for a rant on the blog then the comment from Sheryar, I could not believe my little rant had stirred someone to write such a conscientious comment. I was extremely flattered.
I’ve reached my 500 words, that’s it, no more words .
The next couple of posts, not much was happening, I was losing my engaged audience then The Campaign. I post in my groups, titled, “Social Networking and the faux pas of a Beginner”. I had just finished my postings and the visitors to my LI profile and my blog were incredible. My blog visits had surpassed any other posting by more than 10 fold, an overwhelming response. Yeah, I had 2 before, now I have 20 . When I woke in the morning, my mailbox was bombarded with comments from groups. I had never seen so many!
Since blogging, I have received online and offline comments giving me a pat on the back, saying I was brave for telling my story. This is all really nice but not what I am blogging for. I am not brave, I only assume everybody else would feel the same way if they were in my position. I just want to increase my chances of finding that job, if people can get a smile out of my story then all the better . I have also received notes from others who said that I had encouraged them to get their act together. This is always heartening. But all comments I receive, online or offline, make it all worthwhile as I have been able to reach out to someone who I would not have touched before blogging .
Where are the rough waters? Blog is running smoothly and I have all this attention. The Campaign ends with “But what now?”. I had arrived at another “but what now” moment, not only in the story but also in real life. I was not enjoying blogging at all. Communicatons had stopped from the first posting. I struggled from then on as I just did not know what I was doing. I was not enjoying the self promoting and I was not enjoying writing about myself as said before I had been an extremely private person.
I reached out because of my confusion as to what to do with the blog. Advice was given and I decided to stop blogging. I did not feel I had the passion. I started to write my final post, introduction, draft of the body and conclusion when I received one of these heartening notes. Which made me stop and think again, always dangerous . There is a reason why I am blogging, to increase my profile so I can find that job. I cannot stop, I haven’t found that job!
When I first started blogging, I did the Wikipedia lookup,
The personal blog, an ongoing diary or commentary by an individual, is the traditional, most common blog. Personal bloggers usually take pride in their blog posts, even if their blog is never read.
I wanted to take pride of my blog. I was not happy with some of my postings. I could see that I was not holding my new visitors so I went back and rewrote the one’s I had feverishly posted including the first one, more than 500 words now . After another 3 week hiatus, I wrote Online Presence and managed to keep the following I had achieved with the previous posting.
I have this sense of renewed energy and passion for my blog. I start writing my data analytics posts, same response but a different group people reading my posts. I said I was not going to rant but I am and another different crowd. With this new energy, my blog and I are now in harmony and my readership continues to grow with every posting. The blog is also recieving new visitors via direct entries, don’t know where these people are coming from as I only promote my blog in the LI network. I also decided that I was not going to post every week and not have a limit on my words as I would prefer to produce quality over quantity. Why don’t you subscribe to the blog using the above FeedBurner just enter your email addresss so you don’t miss out on any posts .
The blog has three channels to increase my profile and find that job. I now call myself a blogger and even have a business card noting that I blog . I have received leads and many more leads since I started posting data analytics on the blog. I am really, really enjoying reaching out to people and knowing people are enjoying my blog. I am now at the stage of my story where I am today, a business analyst and blogger, still looking for that job. I know there will be more stories to tell of my journey and hopefully, soon, I will be posting the day I got that job .
LinkedIn is the first social network I joined but not the only one I have joined since then. My public profile is not only LinkedIn, it is what a person finds when they do a search on your name, this is what I learnt at JobCAMP.
I do a Google and Yahoo search on my name. There are so many Colleen Chan’s but nothing on me. The only Colleen Chan in Sydney ran in the City to Surf fun run. Anybody who knows me would laugh as I do not even know the word exercise! Colleen Chan the business analyst does not have an online presence.
At JobCAMP we were taught that if we hit our own links enough then eventually increase your ranking during the searches. But I am nowhere, the only online profile I have is my LinkedIn. I now realise my LinkedIn profile will never rank above any other Colleen Chan’s in LinkedIn in the Google search as my public profile URL is colleenchan and Google searches on ‘colleen chan’ so does not even recognise me as Colleen Chan but Yahoo does, I’m nowhere in Bing.
We were told to create profiles in all social networks and make sure that we create a public URL as it is all free to join. So many social networks out there that it is hard to know where to start. I had read that XXXXX is “to connect with people you do know but don’t want to know”, (probably why they have lost 50% of their market share in the past year). Facebook is “to connect with people you do know and do want to know” and Twitter is “to connect with people you don’t know but do want to know”. I join Facebook and Twitter since then I have also joined Naymz and Plaxo.
Since joining all these networks, I must say I am not a big fan of Twitter, it is all too much for me, can’t keep up. I watch all the tweets and the thousands of followers people have. I am usually a quiet person, I don’t have that much to say, some may disagree , and these Twitterer’s tweet so much, so much to say. The only tweets you see from me are when I am posting on my blog. My little voice gets lost in the thousands of tweets already out there. It is a different way of reaching out to people by giving their connections short assiduous pulses of information. Many have grown their brand successfully using Twitter as part of their marketing strategy. I am sure there are many people that I do and probably need to know out there but it is just not for me .
Facebook is a totally different kettle of fish. You must realise the only social network I have seen is LinkedIn which is very straight and no bright lights flashing at you when you press buttons. I start connecting to people I already know who are on FB as these are the people telling me I have been missing out. Yes, I have been hidden from the world of social networking, I did not know that if somebody wrote on your wall that a) Everybody on your network sees and that b) you are suppose to reply via comment and not by writing on your wall again, , it’s like ignoring a conversation. Sorry friends.
I start getting these notifications and every time I start something, I have to send to a group of friends. I mean some of this stuff is really stupid, more fool me I answer everything and send to my friends as well. But eventually I realise my friends don’t want to see all this stuff and I see a skip button amongst all the flashing lights. During this time somebody sends me a kiss. So I think which friend of mine is playing silly games with me? When I get through the flashing lights, the name that appears is laughable. Ignore. I go to my wall 2 days later and there it is, I have inadvertently joined a dating site and the application had posted it automatically! . Mind you it was not the only time I had been fooled by spam, I had also gone into depth about my friends to a new connection as the spam said this person is new so introduce your friends. Duh! I basically ignore everything now, I don’t know where I might end up. FarmVille?!
Yes, FB is different and I am still trying to get the hang of it. So much advice about who you should be connecting to in this network. I am still struggling, as I have been told every connection is a good connection, but FB is for friends so where do I stop accepting invitations on networks. Is there not a space where I can keep private? Or does social networking mean that I have to be open to everybody? I want a job, I know having a lot of friends is good but a lot of friends verses a group of friends you know personally? I would prefer a group of friends I know personally and I am sure most people would feel the same way.
I open a Wordpress.com account but do nothing with the account for nearly 8 weeks. I don’t even know why I opened the account as I do not know how to write, I did poorly in English at school and had not written anything creative since then but it is to increase my online presence. I struggle for weeks. Do I want to be the 1% of internet users that becomes a content creator? I have nothing to write about, I needed a tag line and I needed a theme. I ran past my ideas across many people but I did not seem to be getting any traction. Everybody was telling me I had to write about data analytics but I can’t write and then trying to put my numbers into words is basically impossible, I needed someone to write my resume, I had to win a competition to get my personal brand done. How can I write about numbers and who wants to know about data analytics?
What I did receive was a good swift kick on the backside by one of my connections who had answered one of my group discussions during the campaign. And for that same person to agree that writing my story would be a good to start for my blog and move onto data analytics when I get the confidence in my writing. All I needed was somebody to agree with me and I was ready to go. So here I am communicating to you through my blog another way of reaching out to people.
I want to look at the numbers from my blog but to do this I have been told to use Google analytics but to do this I need to build my own website. Sigh… This is after I had started blogging. I had already been told I had the skills to do it but I didn’t know where to start. I put up a discussion in a couple of my IT groups to get help. The feedback I receive is very encouraging with new connections happy to help me through my process.
I start building this website, it takes me 3 weeks to get it together. In those weeks I was looking at words and acronyms I had never seen before, extreme headaches and my chiropractor said my body had not been that stressed since I had been out of work. More accounts, usernames and passwords and lots and lots of learning. I now know how to setup my own website and understand all the different layers I have to control and still learning about new layers .
Building my own website for my blog increased my online presence without even knowing it. My blog did not rank in the first few pages before I built my website but once the blog was running from my own site, the blog is ranking on page 1 in Yahoo and sometime makes page 2 in Google. The numbers? I have been told by connections to ignore the numbers as 1. all cool websites do not get massive traffic and 2. I should not be worried about the numbers but an engaged audience. But I do look at the numbers, I can’t help myself. My traffic against benchmarks in GA show the blog is doing above average and I do have an engaged audience. So thank you all for your support.
My online presence is now there. My LinkedIn profile has made No.1 using Yahoo search and my “Check with Chan” advertisement has made No.1 using Google search. With all the other social networks I have been able to make more than 2 of my links to be on page 1 using both search engines. This is due to the blog without the blog my rankings would not be up there.
You are digitally distinct! This is the nirvana of online identity. A search of your name yields lots of results about you, and most, if not all, reinforce your unique personal brand.
There are many social networks to join and many different ways to communicate with your connections. Some of my social networks do not even get touched as they are all linked some how to the handful of accounts that I use regularly. Creating my online presence has been an important part of my personal brand, people can do a search on my name and find me easily. Now all I am waiting for are my long lost friends to find me .
.
.
. Focus on the positives and your achievements. Once you get there, there will be a clear direction and you will know 
.
. Yes, I have been an offender but I have learnt and now I am teaching you. Do send these to your colleagues and your friends but nobody else. Think about it this way, would you want to connect to somebody without even knowing who they were? You may have nothing in common and may not fulfil each others needs. We are being social here, there is always give and take. Whether the satisfaction of reaching out to helping others or to have shared interests or a business relationship with monetary value.
.
.
.
then 
. Mind you it was not the only time I had been fooled by spam, I had also gone into depth about my friends to a new connection as the spam said this person is new so introduce your friends. Duh! I basically ignore everything now, I don’t know where I might end up. FarmVille?!
You are digitally distinct!
Recent Comments