Part One - Everyone you know is a potential business lead.

That's right.  Whether or not you are currently a job seeker, chances are that you will be at some point.  I apologize up front, this is going to be a little long.  But it's worth it.

As a recruiter, I consider everyone a potential job seeker, even (maybe especially) other recruiters.  I also consider everyone a potential client, future partner, or employer. 

You should too.  My point is that you never know where your next lead may come from. 

Suppose Suzy is a stay at home mom.  She might not be any of those things listed above.  But her husband, neighbor, or cousin could be.  And if she knows about you, or what you do, or what kind of job you are looking for, etc., because you have been verbal about it on social media, she may very well be able to refer you into your next great opportunity.

And the more people you have in your network, friends, family, business people or colleagues, who get to know you better because of your profile and positive things you post, the better your odds are of generating those leads on a regular basis. 

Part 2 - My Facebook Profile is Personal, Not Business.  Phooey!

I just returned from a conference in London where one of the interesting topics that came up was that of using Facebook for business or career gain.  Recruiters and other business people in the UK are very conservative about opening up their Facebook profiles for business use.  Most can't imagine connecting with clients or job candidates in such a private place.

I told my Brit counterparts that we were a bit like that in the U.S. about a year ago.  And we got over it.  Facebook is the largest social network in the world.  And everyone on it is a potential lead.  Why would you not take advantage of such a great platform on which to brand yourself and grow a community of people who trust you and are willing to refer business or job leads to you when find them.

"But there is all this stuff there I wouldn't want anyone to see!" is the typical response.  Phooey!  You need to get that stuff off of your profile anyway.  Do you really think, just because you don't accept friend requests from people who you don't want seeing your private stuff, or because you have your privacy settings a certain way, that the private stuff you have on there can never be discovered?

Part 3 - You've Been Hacked

There are people who sit around all day with the sole goal of breaking these barriers.  Go to Google right now and search on "hack a Facebook profile" and you will get hundreds of thousands results and how-to's.  I'm not giving away any secrets here.  And chances are that most of these hacks won't work right this second as Facebook is constantly trying to stay ahead of the hackers.

But when is the last time you saw a Facebook virus send you or your friends profile on a spamming spree?  It happens every week.  Guess what.  That profile has been hacked. 

Part 4 - Just Keep it Clean and Keep Your Secrets Offline

The only way to completely keep people from knowing all your dirty secrets is to keep them to yourself.  But there are a few things you can do to keep your Facebook profile cleaner. 

For one thing, set your privacy settings so that tagged photos of you posted by others are not automatically posted to your profile.  And any photos that you do find that are tagged with your name that you deem inappropriate (or just ugly), simply untag them.  They cannot be tagged again unless by you.

And just watch what you say and what you allow people to say back on your wall and other people's walls.  If you don't like a comment, just delete it. 

Super blogger, Rayanne Thorn, in her session on Social Media ROI at the TRULondon II event, said that her rule of thumb is to always assume your mother is reading everything that goes on your Facebook profile.  Good advice.

You can find a few more good suggestions like this in this article,  Keep your Facebook profile clean! | Facebook.

So I say clean up your profile.  It's not really that private anyway.  And grow your network.  Start posting positive material there that sometimes tells people about what you do in business as well as in life. 

No spamming please.  You can't build a good online personal brand if you beat down everyone you know with your home-based business or MLM opportunities every day.  But you can build a good reputation and gain trust if you interact positively with your network and post helpful information (not just inspirational quotes) on a fairly regular basis.

 

This post originally appeared on the Matrix Resources Blog.  You can find great posts about social media, job search, and hiring each week.

There is a problem with the hotels in London. 

All the hotels?

It seems that way.

Geoff Webb is fielding phone calls from disgruntled conference speakers who are flying in to London from the states and elsewhere.  They are not happy with hotel issues and more.  Geoff does not panic.  He stays on task and keeps the ball rolling on day one (sourcing) of TRU London II.

Geoff, Bill Boorman, and Maha Akiki, the TRU Crew, are doing something that would normally require a large planning committee and sponsored staff to accomplish.  They are hosting a major international conference with speakers and attendees from all over North America and Europe.  It's a good trick.  I've hosted local events with more help, bigger budgets, and far fewer travelers, and it's still tough.

Rooming with Geoff,  I got a backstage view of what the they went through: logistical problems, sponsors who deserved more acknowledgement, and more.  I enjoyed unofficial TRU Crew status, along with Bill's very cool wife, Fran (love you!).  I have fond memories of carrying boxes and boxes of fish and chips for blocks in the rain to feed the grumbling conference masses at lunch - delays being not the fault of the Crew, but of the restaurant, trust me. 

 TRU London II brought around 200 great people from Recruiting and HR together for a truly special three-day learning party (err... unconference).  So many smart people from both sides of the pond made for valuable learning, cultural enlightenment, and intelligent conversation during the day. 

Then it was off to the pub, which was just as important as the conference room.  And the stimulating, albeit slightly less intelligible, conversation that took place at night was also immensely valuable. 

That's what Bill does quite well,  bring people together and let them roll.  Maybe even give them something to complain about?  Perhaps a good, if unintended, strategy.  We bonded nonetheless.

From a business perspective, there was real value and real learning.  Real partnerships and friendships made.  Real leads generated.  Real knowledge gained.   And a really good party - one of the best I've ever attended - all over London for several days.

The logistics must be smoother and sponsors must be appeased to ensure future success.  That will happen.  If they can pull off the party each time, I'm in.  In fact I'll be leading a track at TRU USA in April.  Hope to see you there.

Thanks again to Bill, Geoff and Maha.  And big shouts to all the lovely folks I met, led tracks with, drank beer with, and learned from.  Thanks for sharing with me.  I miss you already.  

Cheers, CF

 

Want to chat with me about some of the crazier things that went on there?  Or some of very interesting things we learned?  Let's catch up tonight on #TNL on Twitter at 8pm Central.

London?

London.

London?

TRU London 2, to be exact.  It has been 10 years since I last visited my favorite city in the world, London.  Much has changed (maybe more with me than with The Big Smoke).  I can't wait.

This dream of mine, I wrote about it in December: my prediction of, and quest for, more hand-to-hand networking with colleagues from around the world in the article Social Networking and Global Flesh Pressing in 2010.

And now, after some serious blessings from the schedule fairy, I am going to London to repay a gesture by my friend, Bill Boorman, who came to speak at our TalentNet Live conference in Dallas last September.  I will participate in a truly global networking event thanks to some help from Bill, Geoff Webb, and my favorite ATS, Bullhorn.

TRU London 2 will take place on February 17th, 18th, and 19th, 2010, in, you guessed it, London.  TRU stands for The Recruiting Unconference.  An unconference is an event that has no fixed structure and only two rules, no power point and no presentations.  TRU London had its inaugural run on November 19, 2009 in Canary Warf, London.  TRU London 2 will be held in the HQ of Twitter Job Search in Soho.

I will be helping to lead tracks on technology, branding, and more.  I will also be hosting a special edition of the TalentNet Live #TNL Recruiter chat on Twitter on Wed., Feb. 17th, and Tweeting from that hashtag throughout the event. 

Thanks to the TRU Crew for inviting me to be a part of such a great event.  I am also scheduled to lead tracks at TRU USA April 19-20th, 2010, in Madison, WI, with my partner in crime (business) Jeff Lipschultz. 

Wow.  I just confirmed that I am going to London next week!  I need to tell someone.  "Come, Watson, come! The game is afoot. Not a word! Into your clothes and come!"

See you on the other side.  Cheers, CF

Did you know that many corporate and staffing agency ATS's (Applicant Tracking Systems) strip your resume of formatting when the information is imported into your profile?  Or that when you forward your resume to a recruiter, they often have to copy and paste it into a new format that follows their protocol before they forward it on to the hiring manager?

Resumes that are heavily formatted with tables and graphics don't translate very well when they are pasted into a new document.  Your best bet is to use the 97-2003 version MS Word (not my favorite either), minimizing tables and graphics.  A Rich Text Format version works well too.  Here is a test.  Take your resume, select all, copy, and paste it into a blank Word doc.  How does it do?

Some ATS systems will translate fancy formatting seamlessly.  But many companies, unfortunately, have systems that don't.  And your resume is most likely going to be viewed in a browser or system window of some kind, versus on a printed page, or as an attachment (which many companies see as being vulnerable to viruses).  Also consider the preview or cached version of your resume, which many recruiters and hiring managers will view to save time or to keep from having to open an application to view your document.  Fancy formatting doesn't translate in this instance either.

The information in the resume is far more important than a flashy style.  If the info is presented in a professional, straight forward way, you are ultimately better off and will have a portable resume that can be effective in multiple instances.

One of main considerations for your resume should be SEO.  That's right, search engine optimization.  Each company you apply to, be it corporate or staffing agency, will store your resume in a database of some kind.  And the way your resume is retrieved, when someone is searching this database for viable candidates, is by keyword search.  So make sure your document contains the proper keywords, that are specific to your skill set, throughout your resume.  Also make sure that your name and contact info are not embedded in a header (this also doesn't translate well in some systems).

Think of the world wide web as one big collection of databases.  Job seekers should have their resume stored somewhere on the Internet so that it can be found outside of a company's internal database.  Again, keywords are the method by which it will be retrieved.  And be specific.  Not "Manager", but "Six Sigma Program Manager".  Use the words that will set you apart in a keyword specific search.  And repeat these keywords where they apply in each job description so that the reader will have some context  as to where and when you used these skills.

Many resume writing services encourage fancy formatting to "set you apart".  Using color in a resume is a popular trend.  This is all fine.  There is nothing wrong with having a pretty version of your resume.  But if you are going to pay a resume service to help you, you might consider asking them for an html version that looks just as nice.  This can be the one you keep on your web site or blog. 

Also ask for a version that is in Rich Text Format, or MS Word without so much table formatting.  These can be the docs that are easily translated in corporate ATS systems and online job boards.  Put a link on there to the "pretty" version online if you like.  But also put the functional version online somewhere if you want it to be easily found and read.

A note on .PDF formats.  Many systems still don't translate .PDF resumes well or at all.  Some systems will but require a costly add-on.  And if a recruiter is tasked with converting your resume to a different format to comply with company guidelines or branding, yours may very well go to the back of the line if the busy recruiter is in a time crunch (which is often the case). 

Some candidates will complain that they don't want their resume altered in any way.  All I can say to that is that these candidates also don't want a job very badly.

Here are some additional articles you may find helpful.

Resume SEO: Get Your Resume to the Top

Top 10 Things to Leave OFF of Your Resume

Best Modern Resumes

About the Author

Craig Fisher is Co-Founder and Principal of A-List Solutions, an Information Technology Staffing, Executive Search, and Social Recruiting Strategy firm in Southlake TX.  His fifteen years in recruiting also include positions as an award-winning Account Manager and Sales Director with Stark Technical Group, and as a top-performing Senior Recruiter with MATRIX Resources.  Craig started his nineteen year sales career as a pharma and medsurge rep with Glaxo and Smiths Medical.

Craig is also a speaker and trainer for Social Job Search, Social Recruiting, and Social Branding strategies.  He hosts the TalentNet Live social recruiting forum on Twitter, featuring big names in recruiting and social media on the last Wed. of each month from 9-11PM Eastern at #TNL.  See www.talentnetlive.com for details.  Craig blogs at http://www.fishdogs.com and tweets at http://twitter.com/fishdogs.