Check out Little Miss Social Media

So I'm officially 'quitting' this blog. The content will remain here, but if you want to keep up with my writing, click on over to www.LittleMissSocialMedia.com to see what's going on in my career and in my head.

Networking Nightmares

**Update July 2** If you went to this post in the last 24 hours, I apologize - I linked the wrong site. I assure you the correct site is now linked up!***

I network, I have an unusual first name. On a regular basis I get my name horribly mashed in someone's pronunciation machine. I finally have a weapon to fight back!

Pssst....Hiring Managers: Why You Don't Want the 100% Fit.

I'm looking very critically at every job opening in my field - even before I consider submitting my resume. I'm only applying to jobs where I feel like the skills I have can quick start into the position, but where there is an opportunity for growth for me in the role. It's a smart strategy - my problem is the availability of jobs that fill those requirements and convincing a resume bombarded hiring manager to give me a shot. So here's my logic to the hiring managers: You don't want the candidate who fits your job description 100%.

Of course I have an explanation for myself. People are naturally curious beings! If you put opportunities in front of them to expand their minds - it is going to get you the best out of your employee and it's also going to get you an employee that will STAY with the company. My last job was an uphill battle for me - I admit - I had no idea the preconceived ideas I was up against, but I loved my job. I was learning about highly technical industries and getting stronger experience in two key industries in New England every day I showed up to work. Now my former boss had his company well established and it was my opportunity to establish his Marketing department. The challenge I faced was that my former boss had never had a Marketing department before and he had ideas of what a "Marketer" did...which were not traditional. That's where my uphill battle got a little steep for me - I was often defending standard marketing strategies, dealing with a piecemeal budget and often tasked with responsibilities that were not Marketing in any other company, but were branded as such by my boss. While it wasn't my ideal idea of establishing a Marketing Department it did give me a broader experience in this role. Unfortunately none of these newer skills have been much of a selling point now that I'm out in the market for a job. However, some day they will benefit me in some way. So I value those skills in spite of the roadblock they are for me now. So what do I mean by putting all of this out there? What I mean is that I performed tasks that were not in my job description - I added value elsewhere that was unexpected when I took my job.

Hiring managers need to look beyond the fit of the job descriptions matching to the resume and see the potential of the candidate before them in that interview room. Hiring managers may have a good definition of what they want in someone to fill their precious few job openings, but don't discount the resume that fits 85% of your skill requirements - you may be missing the best hire of your career. The economy is showing signs of a recovery and your ability to cherry pick candidates is soon going to decline to fewer 'great' candidates and many 'good' to 'pretty good' candidates. Now is the time to look a little harder through that stack of resumes and find the candidate that may not be 100% on your target, but has something that stands out in their resume.

Time is Equity for the Unemployed

To weather this extended bout of unemployment, I chose to start volunteering to keep myself relevant to the marketplace. I volunteer on two projects regularly and seem to have created my own volunteer project with my Social Media lecturing activities.

So now I find myself looking at a week packed full of my time going to other people and not getting a penny for it. While I know it's frustrating me mostly because I'm unemployed, I find myself wondering when I'm going to get some revenue drummed up from all this activity. Last weekend I was exhausted and I'm sure next weekend will be the same. When I look at all I have going on over the coming week, I wonder when I'll be able to sleep! It's given me an unexpected insight to just how valuable my time is to me. When people are employed, their time goes to their employer and no one questions what they are doing with it...and now that I am realizing the value of time - I really think a lot of people are underselling their time to their employers. (Not that I expect the hiring companies of the world to ever fully compensate people appropriately for the time they spend.)

So now that time is so valuable, let's consider just how much the value increases when an individual adds critical thought and expertise to the time they are spending working on a project. When I consider some of the people I have been working with during this layoff, the value of the time and skills is more than just important, it's a gift they are giving to me. People need to consider these things when taking time from each other. If they really gave thought to just how valuable time really is, then they might appreciate each other a whole lot more. Remember you can always earn more money, you can NEVER get your time back.

Bait & Switch Interviews

I interviewed with a really good company recently. It was probably one of the single most disappointing interviews of my recent layoff. I went in, really liked the President of the company - a dynamic woman who is a fairly visionary professional. We also share a similar distaste for a company we both worked for at different times. For the first time in my professional career did I break with the protocol of "never saying a bad thing about a company". It was nice to trust a person - I virtually did not know - that quickly. That is where our like mindedness ended. It was really too bad.

This was an eye opener for me because it gave me a learning about myself and a learning about the market all around my favorite professional "journey" - the transition of my career to that of one with a Social Media centric marketing role. It's no secret, I'm aggressively pursuing a job where I can blend a traditional marketing program with social media. Measure the outcome of the campaigns, rinse and repeat!

So to get into this interview where the conversation that lead to my sitting in this room wondering if I really had talked with that woman two days prior - was to say the least - deflating. The president specifically told me that they needed to implement social media into their structured direct marketing program for their established product. I thought GREAT, this is an opportunity to help take a great product and define this company as an innovator in their industry. I had experience marketing their product for for the mutually disliked company, so I had a proven skill set for their need, but instead of finding someone truly ready to embrace social media integration, I found someone hesitant to change, give up the metrics so easily supplied through direct marketing and skeptical of the benefits for community-minded marketing with social media tools.

When I walked out of there after meeting with another group of anti-social media marketers, I knew it was not a fit for me to go to that company. And their behaviors towards me (not discussed in this post) let me know they are not interested in me either. Discouraging - yes, but also leaves me with the liberation of going to continue my quest to bring social media to a receptive company. Now if someone could only introduce me to that hiring manager....

Social Media vs Google

I've been thinking a lot about the strengths of Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn lately. I've been ignoring my google search a lot lately too. It occurred to me that I go to Twitter to search the topic burning a hole in my mind. I load up on the conversations there, then if it's job search related, I move on to LinkedIn. When I'm done, I go hangout on Facebook for a mini-class reunion. It's a cycle that probably just put my surfing habits on a number of Marketers short lists for behavioral Marketing efforts. (Sorry folks, nothing's gonna work until I'm employed again.)

The thing I realized is that I get a much more satisfactory view of a product or topic when I search it on Twitter first. I only go to Google when I hit a rare dead end or have another channel I want to investigate on the thought path. So considering my search habits and that of the rapidly growing twitterverse, is there a chance for Twitter to take down Google?

No, but it may be able to put a big dent in its keyword revenues. I'm an obvious fan of Twitter and if I were marketing a product which would have an appeal to the Social Mediaphile crowd I'd try my hand at creating a conversation to keep the topic current, relevant and on the flying fingertips of the folks dominating the tweet-worthiness of the product. While Twitter is not a category killing marketing tool, it may just be the traffic driver that will allow me to drop my SEM spend and try another marketing program with my savings!

My Advantage: Unemployment

I will admit, I much prefer to be working. But I also know it's not likely that I will ever have an opportunity like this in my life time again. It's been about seven months since that fateful day when I became a growing statistic: unemployed. I worked for a small firm where 80% of the staff is laborers and 20% is administrative. My boss who had been thrilled with the work I did for the year I had been working, learning and growing at his firm, eliminated the entire Marketing Department. I was awestruck, but not totally surprised.

It was days before Halloween and I saw myself able to finish out the semester at school without the added pressure of going to work. Not such a bad side-effect of a layoff. I also knew the "holidays" was a tough time to look for permanent work. So I kicked back, believing the new year and new President would marshall in the new job opportunities for me. Two months into the year, I was getting nowhere but depressed. Many days were drifting by me as I sat on the couch cruising the internet looking for jobs. Jobs that didn't fit. Jobs that didn't exist. I realized before the end of February that something had to happen and I had to make it happen.

I went to a networking group, I met people, I volunteered my skills. I took my interest in Social Media and turned it into a volunteer job for a local tv show. I created twitter accounts, Facebook identities and got them on-line. I got involved with Bentley University and helped launch a networking group. I learned new skills that will help me be better, faster and stronger for my next employer. Now all I have to do is FIND this employer and introduce myself.