If you want a job, it’s not about WHAT you know…it’s about WHO you know.  And in today’s time-crunched society, if you want to know professionals, then you better own it and hit the social media circut!

Dan Schwabel’s smart Skip Job Boards and Use Social Media Instead article says:

“If you rely on job boards or corporate Web sites for your job search, you’ll find yourself unemployed for a very long time.   Instead, look to your networks, both in real life and in the virtual world.  A recent Jobvite
survey reflects this evolution in recruitment, noting that 72% of companies plan to invest more in recruiting through social networks.  By using LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, as well as your own blog, you have more outlets to communicate your personal brand and find a job faster than the competition.”

Take the five minutes to read the full article and let this serve as marketing motivation to help you help yourself to claim your dream job…

Jim – thank you for sharing your marketing savvy – I always love hearing from you!!

Use social media to connect, collaborate and accelerate!! 

What are people saying about you online?

In the past, we’ve recommended web marketing must haves for monitoring your brand, including free tools like Google alerts. This recent article in MarketingProfs gives us Six Free Tools for Online Reputation Management! Yes, SIX great tools- and they’re all FREE.

This is perfect for those of us with control issues. You can learn how to leverage sites like backtype.com, boardtracker.com, and Friend Feed to connect with your target audience and take your marketing strategy to a whole new level!

As Dan Schawbel points out: Part of your brand is in the hands of others, so it’s critical that you monitor it before a flame becomes a forest fire.

So get busy employing these great web tool in your online reputation management program.

Thanks for the great tips, Dan. I’m looking forward to your Spring release

Additionally, we also like to employ a little tool we call - Go Google Yourself!

It’s always good to know what’s coming up on your search engine results pages (SERPs). The question that most people come to me with is: What if I see something undesirable in the search results?

There are several things you can do. You can join in the conversation with the goal of educating consumers and clarifying your business services and/or products. You can also contact certain sites and ask that any defamatory statements about your company be completely removed. It’s been my experience that ethical consumer advocacy sites will take down false and libelous statements.

What if you are unable to shake an online blemish? The good news is that if you are already engaged in web marketing best practices, you can make sure your online reputation won’t be permanently impacted by continuing to create quality content that outranks any online imperfections in the SERPs. That’s the beauty of publishing content that you can control yourself via your web site, blog, social marketing platforms, online press releases, etc.  By using these tools to control and fill your SERPs, you can preserve your online reputation and make sure that any negative associations with your brand never see the light of day!