The Dead Company Club

I’m going to repeat that. Put away your excuses. Lack of computer savvy or “I’m getting old and don’t want to adopt these modern ways” are exactly that. If you’re unwilling to try new things, you can expect an extremely difficult job search in this market. So learn some new tricks and add online networking to your search strategy.

Set up accounts on Twitter and LinkedIn. They are very different services. Twitter is a micro-blogging community where you participate in real-time dialogue with as broad and diverse an audience as you want. LinkedIn is a community where everyone shares their little black books and posts their status.

Be bold. If you’re already on LinkedIn, set up your profile and link to everyone you used to work with. Use the Search feature by company name. Create a customized invitation and tell them you’re expanding your network. Yes, some people may say they don’t know you. Don’t let that deter you. Set a goal to expand your connections by 10 per day. Once you’ve set up your contacts, ask them to introduce you to influential people in their network that you don’t know personally. You might have to go outside your comfort zone. Remember:

“Courage is the power to let go of the familiar.” – Raymond Lindquist

Start following people. You can follow anyone (President Obama is the most followed person right now) and when they follow you back, they can see your posts. Use the search sites for Twitter such as Twitter Search and Monitter to find conversations about your industry, similar companies, and expertise. Start following anyone who tweets about the area where you want a job. Don’t worry if their profile description is flaky or unrelated to your profession. Some of the best connections aren’t obvious, and you never who their friends are.

If you don’t know where to start, follow me and check out some of my followers.  There are many good articles that tell you how to develop a meaningful circle on Twitter. One of the best is by Guy Kawasaki, who also has a job posting board. Follow CoachDeb for more great advice. I’ve made many mistakes early on and wish I’d read her blog before I made them.

Start Tweeting. Keep your posts professional. If you’re on Facebook or Twitter, strangers may look at your profile and previous posts before they decide to follow you. If you’re posting things like, “Going for coffee now,” they’re going to ignore or unfollow you. Let your lesser competition do that in order to drive up their online activity. It’s about quality, not quantity. Be sure to stay on line during the peak hours (for Twitter it’s about 9am – 7pm EST). If you want to post non-business status, set up another profile and let it all hang out.

Let us know when you find other approaches that work. Hey, if you’re working now, maybe you can help your former colleagues. Social networking is here to stay, and you’ll see how powerful these sites are, even in ways you never imagined. Go for it!

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