You can pump up your online presence through branded storytelling in a variety of venues. But, it’s not the means of delivering an online presence that is most important; it’s the content, and specifically, the story-supported personal-branding content. Deb Dib notes that “companies and recruiters are looking for passive candidates and active candidates with strong brands - clearly defined value propositions and differentiators. They are looking for fit. They are looking for authenticity and passion - the courage of a candidate to be real.” What better way to be real than by telling your own compelling story? Following are just a few media in which you can do so:
Social/Business Networks, Micro-blogging. Many recruiters and job-seekers connect though online business and social networks. The big three are:
- LinkedIn, with at least 25 million* registered users, the most business-like of the three; average user is age 39.
- MySpace, with at least 114 million* registered users, the most social of the three and especially popular with users over age 25.
- Facebook, with at least 500 million registered users, falls between business-like and social and is wildly popular with college-age and new-grad users but growing rapidly among those age 25+.
(*These figures are outdated.))
Recruiters, who cite these networks along with the people search engine ZoomInfo, like these venues because they can learn about prospective candidates, as well as find out who else knows these prospects. These and other social-networking sites are exploding. Wikipedia lists more than 100 social-networking sites, and those are just the “notable” ones. Recruiters are using them to find candidates, while job-seekers are using some of the sites to get “found.” Another trend is micro-blogging at tremendously popular sites such as Twitter - telling folks in no more than 140 characters what the user is doing at any given moment. Candidates that recruiters actually source from social networks still represent a small percentage of the total, but as Kevin Wheeler writes on Electronic Recruiting Exchange, “Recruiting is moving rapidly from a find ‘em and screen ‘em, to a court ‘em, stay in touch with them, and sell them profession. These networks will power that charge.”
Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers, Quintessential Careers Press, ISBN-10: 1-934689-00-9. Find out the ways you can own the entire book.
