The Beginning of My Job Search Journey, or How I Tackled LinkedIn

How humbling (scary?) it is when you realize, after getting laid off from your longtime job as an executive, that this whole social media thing (which you maybe casually enjoyed as a Facetime buddy) is clearly one of the primary tasks to check off your job search to-do list. Will social media deliver my next job? Well, it sure can’t hurt… right?

Maybe you fall into one or more of these categories:

1. Bah! Social media … not for me … too busy doing “important” things.
2. OK, I have to do it, so I’ve got a profile on LinkedIn and maybe hundreds of connections inadvertently added over the years, but I’d rather “lurk” than be active. And no, I don’t really know everything I can do on LinkedIn … I’m too busy doing “important” things.
3. I have overall responsibility for social media in my company, but someone else does the day-to-day… so, as long as it’s getting done, that’s good.
4. I have my own Twitter account but mainly use it to follow politics, or sports, or other interests … it’s someone else’s job to use Twitter for business promotion.
5. I know everything I need to about social media. But don’t ask me any detailed questions about campaigns, lead generation, or any of that stuff.

I may be guilty of all of the above.

And today is the day all that changes. Because today I’m going to read (or at least begin), and begin applying, Judy Schramm’s Executive’s Guide to Social Media: How to Create a Strong Personal Brand & Use Social Media Towards Your Business Goals.

It’s 38 pages of social media goodness – advice and encouragement for people like us. And I’ll be letting you know how it goes, and sharing my adventure into the brave “new” world of social media for digital dummies. And Judy Schramm, of ProResource, will be there every step of the way, to gently guide my journey, because that’s what she’s done for years and built her thriving business around.

Want to see how Taly tackled the next steps in her LinkedIn journey? Check out how she mastered her LinkedIn headline and read her fool-proof tips for creating a winning LinkedIn summary.