Friday, March 27, 2009

The 10 Best Jobs to Get through Social Networking Sites

We think you can get just about any kind of contract work or new job with the help of one or more social networking sites. Now you wouldn’t necessarily turn to MySpace to get your next job as an actuary. Then again, LinkedIn may not be as helpful to you if you were a musician looking for new gigs. But by using a combination of these sites we’re convinced you can land that next job faster. If that job happens to be one of the following, your task is even simpler. We present these in no particular order.

1) Public Relations Manager. Whatever you want to call it: Communications Manager, or PR Director, as a professional communicator you should really be able to make your online profile sing. Just about any company has someone in a PR role and may be looking for someone just like you. Even if a company isn’t currently in the market for someone with your skills, you can keep your name in front of the right people by careful and frequent networking through the sites we discuss in this book.

2) Social Media Strategist. Of course you can demonstrate how well you know this new field by skillfully using the tools that comprise it. Executives are just starting to realize how essential it is they have someone on board who can use sites like Twitter to provide customer service, seed the market with news about their companies, dispel rumors, and much more.

3) Musician. MySpace alone justifies including musicians in this list. Thankfully, for this group MySpace came along when it did. CD sales were steadily dropping, making life as a musician more challenging than ever. Thanks to MySpace, musicians (especially smaller independent artists), can find new work and contacts, and promote themselves in ways they never could have even imagined before.

4) Blogger. Everyone’s attention span is shrinking to that of a fly’s, and sites like Twitter don’t help. But we make time to read the words of someone who can help us do our jobs better, or maybe just better understand the world we inhabit. Whether your goal is to be an independent blogger, or blog for a website or corporation, social networking sites can help you promote your work to millions of people.

5) Copywriter. With so many sites offering you the chance to let everyone know your current status, or to microblog about what’s got your gears going, writers of all types have powerful new showcases for their talents. Copywriters are just one type, but a good example.

6) Consultant/ Freelancer. If you’re in business for yourself you should be spending a good part of each workday marketing yourself and your skills. An excellent way to do this is through LinkedIn’s Answers section, where you can demonstrate your expertise in a worldwide forum, and unobtrusively include your background information just in case you’ve inspired someone to hire you.

7) Information Technology worker. Many programmers, software engineers and their managers use social networking sites; they’ve always been early adopters of new forms of electronic communications. These sites should be one of the first places you turn when you’re looking for that next IT job, as if we had to tell you.

8) Comedian. We’re going to thank MySpace again, this time on behalf of comedians for making it easier for them to promote themselves and get new gigs. And we’re not kidding around, either.


9) Web Designer. Businesses of all sizes need web designers to help them get their sites up and running, and then webmasters to keep them going. You can demonstrate your skills in this area in many ways, using social networking sites. These include the design of your MySpace or Facebook page, the portfolio you include as part of your LinkedIn profile, or the questions you answer on those ubiquitous discussion boards.

10) Marketing manager. Prove that you can sell yourself and you may have an easier time convincing someone you can move products for them as well. Social networking sites make it much easier for you to sell yourself to a worldwide audience through your words and accomplishments, and reach people who would care.

Copyright 2009, McGraw-Hill, from the forthcoming book How to Find a Job with LinkedIn and Other Social Networks

No comments: