What is your policy?
Most of you know my background is in Business Operations/Management and Human Resources and the systems and discipline learned over the years have served me and those I serve well. One of those disciplines is to regularly review practices and policies to determine if they need updating and when there is a policy or acceptable pattern of behavior that needs updating to update it. Times change and you must to this or your practices and policies get outdated.
Okay, before you say WHAT? – “I’m looking for my next gig and will worry about policy stuff when I land.” Not looking at what you do and how you handle business and your search day in and day can be costly. Your personal policies and practices drive your results and help you be effective. Stop, think, and review at least one area a week, if you at not getting the results you want. This week look at social media. Think about and review what you doing. Doing so should help you be more effective.
Social media is changing. This week I am looking at my practices for LinkedIn and Twitter. I would encourage you to do the same. Here are some questions to help you.
Do you have a policy or a practice?
Do your practices (or habits) help ensure you are effective and use your social media time wisely?
How much time do you spent connecting via social media?
Is the time productive and focused?
What are your goals for using each type of social media?
Can you quickly explain how you use social media?
How is social media helping you reach the goals you set for your search?
Can you measure the results?
Now use your answers to review what you do, your habits and what, if anything you should change.
Not being a social media expert, I depend on experts to help me understand, learn and be effective with all the tools and systems I use. Nancy Marmolejo is one of the experts I trust to help me with social media. On January 11, Nancy posted a great tip where she talk about the “spin cycle” and shared great information. Her tips are geared to business owners, but they also apply to job seekers. After all you are the owner and marketer of your talent, skills and experience. Read Social Media Tip: Go Micro, worth reading.
If you review your practices and need some help to refine how you use social media to accelerate your job search, do two things. 1) Leave a comment below about what you are doing that works and what you need help with or have questions about, and 2) contact me directly if you need help.
It seems that the approach you use is worth following. There are so any people who have been going the same route for so many years. It hardly positively influences the job they do. So, if there is an opportrunity to change and update soemthing in your routine, it should be certainly done.