It’s inevitable in this day and age that by the time any cultural phenomenon truly arrives, doubters will be counting the days until its downfall. You know you’ve made it when you’ve inspired a backlash.
That’s what happened lately with social media. A cynical streak has crept into the cultural conversation over Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and the like. The most common complaints relate to “information overload,” the kind Christy at Quirky Fusion describes:
I’m predicting that we’re going to start seeing some backlash. We already are in platforms like Twitter. We’re going to start seeing more and more people pretend to listen (followers and friends are status points and resume builders in the social media world), while really tuning out. And if no one is listening, why should we continue to talk? In my wishful-thinking world (a lovely place, really), people will start reining in on their over-sharing and choose their tweets, updates, whrrls and posts with a little more restraint. In reality, I think that’s less likely to happen.
Blowing off steam is all fine and good; no one would argue that social media in any of its current incarnations is perfect, and it’s natural for emerging technologies (which many people forget that all of these platforms are) to bring their share of frustrations.
What’s more worrisome is when prognosticators begin ignoring social media’s relevance, and advising others to do so, as well. We’re beginning to see some of that advice dished out to job seekers, at a time when Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites are more important than ever.
This is not a good call. Panic over “overnetworking” is not a wise response to the complexities of social media, at a time when it is such a critical tool in recruitment, outplacement services and job search.
Much smarter is to figure out how an admittedly complex and rapidly changing social media landscape work for you. Tara Weiss has some great basic tips on how to make Twitter work as a job-search tool, as well as some stories that underline why all of this social-networking stuff—far from being sinister or empty hype—can actually make your life and job-search easier in the end.
Consider Kyle Flaherty's story. He left a marketing position in Boston determined to find an in-house public-relations job. He tweeted about his decision and included a link to his professional blog where he described the kind of work he was looking for. Within days, his tweet was retweeted. That is, an acquaintance forwarded it—to his current boss. "I don't think I would have gotten this if not for Twitter," says Flaherty, who moved from Boston to Austin, Texas, for the new job with a pregnant wife and a two-year-old son.
Obviously, that’s not the typical Twitter job search story, but the point is that social media has given jobseekers a whole new set of tools. Weiss recommends following the right people, as Twitter can connect you to important people in your field that you might otherwise have no access to. Maintaining a profile and a feed that shows how engaged you are in your profession is important, and so is looking for companies and even hiring managers who may tweet their job openings. Best of all is this quote that I think sums up social media’s potential for employment opportunity: "’There is nothing revolutionary about this stuff,’ Flaherty says. ‘It's evolutionary. Back in the day, we would have sent out cover letters, a few years later e-mails, and a few years later we updated our blogs. The beauty of Twitter is that it's as if you're at a networking event all the time, in real time.’"
Oh, and before you get in too deep, absolutely look at this rundown of social media mistakes that can ensure you don’t get the job you want.
The most important thing is to figure it out now, if you haven’t already. Because, guess what, social media’s not going anywhere.
Tomorrow, we’ll take a look at how social media’s importance for businesses has changed, too.
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