Digital Networking

You use Facebook to connect with friends from high school, keep track of what people in your network are doing, and creep on your cafeteria crush. Why not put some of that connecting (and creeping) to use?

There is a social networking site dedicated to helping you connect with former co-workers, keeping track of current colleagues if you go through a job change, or expanding your network by linking with your contacts’ contacts. It’s called LinkedIn, and if you’re not on it yet, you should be (this article explains why and offers some best practice tips). Recent grads: check out the LinkedIn ‘09 Grad Guide. See 5 Top Tips for LinkedIn for more information.

The second best tool for digital networking is Facebook itself. The site is increasing in size every day and most of its new members are over 35 (read “Why Facebook Is for Old Fogies”). Not only does this mean that Mom and Dad are getting on Facebook, it means employers, colleagues, and recruiters are getting on, too. This does NOT mean that you should delete your Facebook account. Clean up your digital dirt (perhaps by making two separate profiles: one personal, one professional) and start using the site to your advantage. Join groups affiliated with your professional interests and friend professors, classmates, and co-workers. Facebook isn’t just a great way to organize a bar crawl; it can also be used to maintain a dialogue with someone who just may be able to offer you a job in the future.

Third, there is Twitter. Twitter has been all over the news lately. In case you haven’t heard, it is essentially a site dedicated to Facebook status updates—you have 140 characters to convey your message. You can follow the updates of whomever you want (Ashton Kutcher was the first Twitterer to reach 1 million followers), and others can follow yours. Some say it’s the next big thing on the web and may even ultimately replace Facebook, while other sources claim its fifteen minutes of fame are over. Twitter’s ability to help you network may be limited, but it can help you in your job search. For example, you can follow leaders in the industries that you are interested in to get an idea of what they do, or help pass along messages of people you want to connect with by “retweeting”—placing “RT” in front of their message in your status update. Experiment with the technology and see if you can get it to work for you! Also, Twitter Job Search is a search engine that sorts through tweets to find job postings, based on job titles designated by you, the searcher.