Stay Connected

I was asked, by a member of the Career Pivot Community, about how to stay connected to his remote network during a job search. He and his wife are living in an area where the economy is in decline. He is looking for a job halfway across the country.
I previously wrote the post, I Want to Be Hired Before I Move Dilemma. I share how to make it look like you are in the remote location without actually having to physically move there.
The Career Pivot member is currently making regular trips to a remote location for networking. The problem he is struggling with is how he can stay connected in between the trips. He wants to stay connected to the people he meets on each trip, but not be a pest. He does not want to email them every week or so, to check to see if they have heard anything. He knows that when people do that to him, he stops reading their emails.
My response was to become a resource to them on LinkedIn. Share targeted curated content to become a resource to them.
Share Curated Content on LinkedIn
Curating content is nothing new. Museums and galleries have been doing this for years. They have curators who select pieces to display or share.
He should do the same by curating content from the geographical location and industry he is pursuing.
Let’s talk about finding relevant content and then sharing it on LinkedIn
Finding Content to Share to Stay Connected
I always suggest subscribing to the Business Journal in multiple locations in the state where you want to relocate. In this case, he was targeting North Carolina. I suggested he subscribe to the Raleigh/Durham, Charlotte, and Greensboro/Winston-Salem Business Journals.
You might also subscribe to the email lists of relevant industry associations. You might want to check out Feedly, which helps you to locate RSS feeds and then filter the content based on keywords.
I use Twitter lists to organize the Twitter feeds of various organizations. If you are not sure how to use a Twitter list, check out my post, Twitter Lists, and the Targeted Job Search.
Schedule Content to Share
Once you have located content to share, you will want to use a tool like Buffer to schedule the content to be shared on LinkedIn throughout the week. There are other tools out there, but I am a big fan of buffer.com. The free version will let you schedule to a personal LinkedIn account for free.
For example, you might locate 4-5 relevant pieces of content on a Monday morning, and schedule them to be shared mid-morning and early afternoon for Tuesday – Thursday on LinkedIn. You may want to check this Hubspot article called,
You will want to check the engagement level for every post by checking how many clicks and likes each post gets. Buffer will provide those basic statistics.
Target Individuals in New Location
Now comes the important part to this strategy. After a post has gone live, make a comment in the post and specifically tag individuals.
You may be saying to yourself, how do I tag an individual in a comment. You do this by typing first an @ and then their name.
I posted a recent podcast episode where I was interviewed by Denise King. I wanted Denise to know I was using the recording. I typed in her name and a drop-down list appeared. I selected her name from the list and typed in a message.
Denise will now be notified that she was mentioned in a comment.
Be Helpful by Sharing Relevant Content
For each curated content you find, tag one or more individuals who you think would find it worthwhile. Pay attention to see who engages with the content by commenting or liking the post on LinkedIn.
If you consistently share relevant content once or twice a week, people will notice and want to stay engaged.
This strategy works whether the connection is local or remote. It is even better if you are sharing content that you produce, like a blog post or a podcast.
There are two themes I want you to remember :
- Be helpful
- Be consistent
If you do share relevant content every week at approximately the same time, people will come to expect your sharing.
This makes you memorable!
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Great advice Marc, and thank you for thinking of me and my quest! I truly appreciate it. I will begin using the technique asap.
Looking forward to our continued conversations.
All the best mi amigo!
Warren
Warren,
You are most welcome.
Marc
Marc,
Your question asked by someone about staying connected to his network when moving, not sure I would know what is his network. but since I am a Super Connector with LinkedIn I have contacts in most countries. If just in the US, most likely would not take me too long to have a Super Connector in that location provide me with contact names for him to contact. He/She would be able to help them find the person they are seeking. Various ways. Can’t build network infrastructure for him.
Just thinking outside the box. Tends to be an ENTJ thing, But if I can help the person, you can pass on my name and email. I dig people out of the dark web that recently stole money from credit cards. Citibank could not find them. Took me 10 minutes. The dummies wanted to know how I found them. Told them not going to tell you. (Also can see you from above, don’t do that again). Citibank a week later sends email to me letting me know they solved the problem. Such is life.