When it comes to social networking sites, it pays to mind your “social netiquette.” Handle networking on these sites as you would during a face-to-face meeting or interview by showing interest in your contacts and following through with them.
The Ladders, a career-related site, has some tips about using the Web in your job search. Here are some additional pointers I have to offer:
- Build contacts on social networking sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter. When you communicate with these contacts, respond to their inquiries promptly.
- Avoid jokes that may be considered off-color.
- Be sincere and not overly self-promotional. Social networking sites can be a good place to moderately promote your work, though — through links on Twitter, for example, or by posting one of your articles, videos, blog posts, etc., on Facebook.
- Be polite and helpful to others by using that golden rule of “do unto others” …
- Be respectful when contacting someone you have not met but whose information you found through social networking. Let that person know how you learned about him or her and what you hope will come of your outreach.
- If you are building a network on a site, contribute to it regularly and make sure it has up-to-date information. Using social networking sites frequently helps show that you are well-versed in social media, which is a good skill to have at any news organization.
- Make sure recruiters can find you through Google searches and that what they find speaks well of you.
