Job Hunting with Online Sites

    Does the name Chris Crocker  mean anything to you? Well, if you’ve been following the recent exploits of singer Britney Spears in the tabloids, you know Crocker is the obsessed fan who posted a video on YouTube and MySpace declaring that people should “Leave Britney alone!” Crocker’s rather bizarre and emotion-filled video caused him to become famous – virtually overnight. In fact, more people have seen Crocker’s videos recently than have watched some top-rated network television shows. Go figure?!?            

Many other everyday people from around the world have also found fame as a result of blogging, videocasting and using online social networking services. William Sledd,  for example, has taken his over-the-top personality and passion for fashion, and has not only developed a huge web-based following, but has landed a television series production deal with NBC/Universal. Meanwhile, countless artists, musicians, actors and other creative professionals are currently using online social networking services as powerful promotional tools to advance their careers. If you’re an ordinary, recently divorced person, and you’re looking to make new friends or advance your career, but not necessarily become famous, you too can benefit from joining and participating on one or more of these innovative and relatively new online social networking services.  

BENEFITS OF SOCIAL NETWORKING  

If you’re looking to meet new friends, perhaps find love, or would like to meet people in your industry who could potentially help advance your career, you’ll quickly discover online social networking is a fun, free and beneficial tool – but there are some definite pitfalls to watch out for! Millions of savvy web surfers have discovered a new way to meet and communicate over the Internet, by taking basic principles of social networking on expanding them into cyberspace. The concept is simple – you start with a handful of your existing friends. Each of those friends has multiple other friends and professional contacts whom you might not know. Those friends of friends also have an abundance of friends and contacts you could potentially benefit from meeting. An online social networking service makes finding and meeting friends, friends of friends, and entirely new people a relatively quick and easy process. Through online social networking Web sites, like MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn, it’s possible to meet and interact with your existing friends, plus make new friends and professional acquaintances who share common interests, or with whom you already share a mutual friend. The process starts by getting yourself online and choosing an online social networking service to join. Then, simply create an online profile (or persona) for yourself using a pre-designed template and by answering a handful of questions about yourself. Once your profile is posted online, you can become active within that online community by making new friends and corresponding with them through public and private email-like messages, and by sharing photos and videos, for example.            

Many people enjoy using services like MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn because they’re free of charge, available 24-hours-per-day, and allow people to be “social” without ever leaving the comfort and safety of their own homes.

NETWORKING SERVICES AREN'T ALIKE              

According to Sunil Saha, a senior product manager at LinkedIn, “LinkedIn is a professional networking tool where people can create their professional persona online and then connect to other professionals. LinkedIn is very different from MySpace or Facebook in terms of what it offers and how people use it. MySpace is like a virtual bar where people go to be social and meet new friends. It’s not typically used as a professional networking tool.”            

Saha described Facebook as being more of an online social networking tool for interacting with your existing real-world friends. “Facebook, like MySpace, is more for socializing and entertainment. LinkedIn is dedicated 100 percent to helping people network professionally, although there is a social component to it,” he added.            

Before signing up for an online social networking service, figure out what your goals are, then determine if that service offers the tools necessary to help you achieve those goals, whether it’s to meet new friends, find dates, seek out advice, entertain yourself while online, or advance your career.  


YOUR PUBLIC PROFILE OR PERSONA              

Using a service like MySpace, Facebook or LinkedIn, it’s possible to create a free account and develop your online profile in a matter of minutes. However, some people spend hours, if not days or weeks fine-tuning and constantly updating their profiles with new graphic designs, additional personal or professional information, blogs, photos and even videos. How elaborate your profile becomes is a personal decision, based on the amount of creativity and time you choose to invest. Many people use their online profile as an outlet for creative expression.

Your online profile is like a mini web page about yourself, although absolutely no programming is required. Using a pre-designed template and a series of basic questionnaires offered by the online social networking services, the goal is to tell people about yourself, including where you’re from and what your personal and/or professional interests are. Ultimately, you want to use your profile to help you find other people online who share common interests and whom you’d enjoy interacting with, initially in cyberspace, but also in-person if you ultimately decide to meet.            

The online profile you create might contain only basic information about yourself, or it could reveal your deepest and darkest secrets, plus offer a truly revealing look at you as a person – it’s entirely up to you. All information you provide is optional, although people with photos of themselves within their profile tend to meet more people faster.            

The important thing to remember is that anything and everything you post within your profile, as well as some online correspondence you have with others, is all potentially available to the general web surfing public. In fact, many of the online social networking and blog services automatically add profile data to the Internet search engines, such as Google, making it even easier for people to discover information about you and find you online.