How To Stay Connected When You Are Not There

July 9, 2018 by Marc Miller 3 Comments

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, The Best Time to Post on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Google+.

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!

Marc Miller

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Top 10 Googled Career Pivot Posts

Every year I like to highlight the top pages/posts that were found by people searching using Google. Check out last year’s list and you tell me what you see different.

The Career Pivot website was googled over 151,000 times in 2017 and that is up from 111,000 in 2016. Search traffic continues to grow at a healthy rate year over year.

Let’s look at the top 10 Googled posts to see what it tells us about what people want to know.

#1 Googled Post: “What If You Are Not Passionate About Anything? [Updated]”

What If You Are Not Passionate About Anything?[Updated] was written back in 2012 but is still googled at a whopping rate of 140 times a day. I updated this post just last week. This has been the #1 Googled post two years in a row.

When I originally wrote this post, I received two kinds of comments:

Don’t you have a pulse? You have to be passionate about something!

Gosh, I am not alone! There are others like me.

I am a multipotentialite, which means I have so many interests that I am not overly passionate about any one thing. You will find a post on this list about being a multipotentialite.

Multipotentialites make up 10-15% of the population, but society wants to say we are broken. We are not.

#2 Googled Post: “College Degree After 50 – Worth It?”

College Degree After 50 – Worth It? was written in March of 2015.

I wrote this post based on my observations of so many in the baby boomer generation who went back to college to re-invent themselves and who mostly gained nothing but student loan debt.

This post generates more comments and questions than any other on the website.

#3 Googled Post: “Talents versus Skills – Do you know the difference?”

Talents versus Skills – Do you know the difference? was written back in 2013, but was googled over 40 times a day in 2017.

So many of us who are in the 2nd half of life have no idea what our talents are or are able to differentiate our skills from our talents. Just because we can do something does not mean we want or should to do it.

#4 Googled Post: “3 Steps to Get the Hiring Manager or Recruiter to Respond”

3 Steps to Get the Hiring Manager or Recruiter to Respond was written back in 2015 and is new to the ‘Top 10’ list.

You are sitting around waiting to hear from a hiring manager or recruiter and it is nerve-racking. This post discusses clear, concrete actions you can take to get them to respond and hopefully relieve some of your nerves.

#5 Googled Post: “Are you a Multipotentialite?”

Are you a Multipotentialite? was written in August of 2015 and it dropped a notch from #4 to #5 in 2017.

Multipotentialites are people who have many interests, get bored easily and love to learn. I am one of these and, therefore, I have changed jobs or areas every 3-5 years throughout my career and took lots of lateral moves.

This article is directly related to the #1 post on this list, What If You Are Not Passionate About Anything?

#6 Googled Post: “What is Your Current Salary? How to Answer! [Updated]”

What is Your Current Salary? How to Answer! [Updated] was originally written back in 2014 and was updated in 2017.

This post has climbed the list significantly because the economy is getting better and this has become a hot legal topic as it relates to the gender pay gap.

I suspect this will continue to climb the list in 2018.

#7 Googled Post: “Perfect Fit for the Position? Expect to Lose! [Updated]”

Perfect Fit for the Position? Expect to Lose! [Updated] was written in 2014 and updated in 2018. This post was written based on a presentation given by a well-respected recruiter at Launch Pad Job Club, where I serve on the board of directors.

The presenter said, “If you are a perfect fit, we ain’t going to hire you. We want to hire someone at a lower starting salary but who can grow into the job. If you are a perfect fit, we assume you will leave when you find something better.”

This is even more relevant today than ever before.

#8 Googled Post: “Who is Really Making the Hiring Decision?”

Who is Really Making the Hiring Decision? was written in 2015 and is part of the Negotiators Job Search Series which is based on concepts from Jim Camp’s book, Start with NO…The Negotiating Tools that the Pros Don’t Want You to Know.

I take the concepts and techniques that Camp describes and apply them to the job search. In this installment, I discuss how you determine who really is the decision maker.

This is the first year this post made the list.

#9 Googled Post: “Re-entering the Workforce – Marketable Skills After 50 [Guest Post]”

Re-entering the Workforce – Marketable Skills After 50 was written in 2015. Along with the post, College Degree After 50 – Worth It? There must be a lot of baby boomers looking for information on how to prepare themselves.

#10 Googled Post: “3 Signs You Are Institutionalized Like Brooks at Shawshank”

3 Signs You Are Institutionalized Like Brooks at Shawshank was written back in 2015 and is one of my personal favorites.

I still run into individuals who have spent 25, 30, 35 or more years at companies and are so surprised when they are offered early retirement packages, or more likely, laid off. They have no idea what a career would be like outside of the company where they worked for so many years.

What Does This Tell You?

Search traffic to Career Pivot continued to grow at a healthy pace in 2017. The growth continues in 2018 but it appears to be slowing. Search traffic was up 35% in 2017 and it appears to be up half of that in 2018.

Those of us in the 2nd half of life continue to search for answers to our career questions. Most of us will not be retiring like our parents did anywhere in the near future. We want to continue to work -but on our terms.

What does this list tell you?

Marc Miller

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Connecting on LinkedIn is Like Asking for a Date

June 14, 2017 by Marc Miller 2 Comments

My Connecting on LinkedIn is Like What?

Have you considered that when you are connecting on LinkedIn you should follow the same rules that you used when you asked for a date?

I have been married for over thirty years. My memories of dating are pretty vague but I do remember those awkward feelings when asking for a date. I remember that I did not want to be rejected, ignored or dumped.

When you are connecting on LinkedIn, consider the following:

How do you know this person? Did you meet at a conference or meeting? Maybe you read an article on their website or did you comment on their blog? Is it a personal or a virtual relationship?
Why do you want to create a connection on LinkedIn with this person? Do you want to network with this person? Do they work at a company that you are targeting? Can they introduce you to decision makers? Can they help you get your next job? Do you think they are doing interesting work and would like to connect personally?
Is there anything you can do for them? People rarely do this but if there is something reciprocal in nature to the connection – mention it.

Why are you asking for the date … eerr … the connection on LinkedIn?

How do you know the connection and why do you want to connect?

LinkedIn used to make you check a box on how you knew the connection. Too many people figured out how to get around that requirement by lying.

However, it is still important to think about how you found this person and what you expect from the relationship.

Writing the Connection Request

When you press the connect button on a LinkedIn profile (and that is the ONLY place from which you should initiate a connection request,) you will now get a popup like the following:

You should always select “add a note.”

I will write a connection request like the following:

Mary,

It was great meeting you at XYZ conference. (Notice I specify where we met.) I looked at your profile and see that we have a lot in common. I look forward to meeting you again and corresponding about EFG (whatever we talked about at the conference.) I would enjoy continuing the conversation. (Give Mary a reason to stay engaged.)

Please accept this invitation to connect.

Marc Miller

This invitation quickly tells Mary:

Where we met
What we have in common
Gives her a reason to stay connected
I am a real person and not just sending out SPAM

If I found Mary by reading one of her articles I will tell her.

How is this Like Dating?

This is using the same tactics that men have used for years. If you want to meet a girl, you hang around those groups, classes, clubs … where the girls you want to meet congregate.

I am dropping all of the little hints that I like you and would like to get to know you. I want to go out on a date …eerr … I want to network with you.

Blind Date

Sometimes you receive LinkedIn connections like the following:

I look at this kind of invitation as a blind date. Do I turn down the overture?

I take a quick look at the profile and if the profile looks real, i.e. the profile has a picture, there is some employment history, and it has more than a few connections, then I accept the connection.

I immediately go to the profile and send a LinkedIn message.

Dear Mary,

Just accepted your invitation to connect. How did you find me?

Marc Miller

Just because the person may be shy I do not want turn down the opportunity for a date. When I graduated from high school, I was 6’4″ tall, weighed about 140 lbs. and had a big head of red hair. I was also pretty shy around girls.

I was no chick magnet. Therefore, I understand when people send connection requests with no notes.

However, I want you to send a note to explain why you want to connect in every connection request.

Be Authentic

Be authentic, personable and most importantly tell me how we know each other!

If you want a date …errr … a connection on LinkedIn, then you should behave just like you are asking for a date!

Give it a try and let me know how it works!

Marc Miller

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Career Pivot Social Media Survey Results [Infographic]

February 24, 2016 by Elizabeth Rabaey Leave a Comment

Social Media Survey Results

A couple of weeks ago we published the following blog post: Social Media Goes Corporate – Are you Ready? In the post, we included a short survey for you to tell us what social media sites you use and how often. We followed up that post with a discussion about social media during the weekly Career Pivot Office Hours program.

Now it is time to share the survey results.

Women were more likely to use social media than men.

Does that surprise you?

The majority of the respondents used LinkedIn as their social media of choice, followed by Facebook and Twitter. Instagram and Pinterest are being used, but not as much as the top three social media platforms.

Women were more likely to engage in three or more social media platforms, where men, on average, used two social media platforms. Men primarily used LinkedIn and Facebook as their choice for social media.

Other social media platforms that were used by the respondents include:

WhatsApp – a messaging app
SMS Daily – a daily collection of short messages
Snapchat – a messaging app
Yammer – a social media network used by business for project teams
Glassdoor – a job search app
Google+ – a social media network for friends and family
Blog – a platform for people to publish a blog

The majority of the respondents use social media on a daily basis, and that includes both men and women.

Finally, there were two respondents that said they use social media for work. One said that LinkedIn and Twitter were used for work and Facebook for personal use. Another said that they were using Yammer, a business social media platform, at work. I am sure many more of the respondents are already using social media in their professional lives.

Will the social media that we use in our personal life be the same as our corporate social media?

Probably not. But it looks like social media will be used in both our professional and personal lives, and that will be the new normal.

Tell us what you think about social media in the corporate world.

We want to hear from you.

Check out past Career Pivot survey results here.

This post was written by Elizabeth Rabaey, a Baby Boomer herself, is a creative with a love for details. She has spent over 20 plus years working for environmental engineering and consulting companies providing project management and technical assistance on many innovative engineering projects. She has applied creative, literary and scientific skills to these projects to help the client maintain a profitable business operation and protect humans, health and the environment. Connect with her on LinkedIn and Twitter.

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Social Media Goes Corporate – Are You Ready? [Survey]

February 10, 2016 by Marc Miller Leave a Comment

Social Media Goes Corporate

I recently read an article from the CEO of Hootsuite, Ryan Holmes, titled 2016’s Biggest Social Media Trends for Business. He highlights 5 social media trends that you cannot ignore.

Yeah…I know you have been thinking that social media is a fad. Some of you think you do not have to participate.

Well, social media is going corporate. If you want to advance your career, you will have to be proficient on social media. If that ticks you off—get over it.

Let’s talk about those 5 trends.

Social media at work is on the rise

Ryan states:

For years now, we’ve been promised that a new generation of internal social networks—for use inside company walls—will spell the end of email. No more hunting through your inbox for information. No more group email threads from Hell. And yet email has lumbered on in the workplace.

He is so right! I know you have received way too many e-mails where someone replied “copy all.”

Slack and applications like it are rapidly moving into the corporate space.

Facebook for Work is in a pilot phase!

Social media is moving behind the firewall and onto corporate networks. How you interact with your colleagues at work is changing.

Are you comfortable with those changes?

Are you going to insist that the only way to have true relationships is to meet face to face?

Companies turn to their own employees for bigger social media reach

Ryan states:

Nearly 80 percent of businesses now have a dedicated social media team. But many still struggle to reach an audience. 2016 will see companies turn increasingly to an underused resource in the effort to get the word out: their own employees. Employee social advocacy programs, which encourage staff to share updates about the business on their own social media accounts, have grown by 191 percent since 2013 and are due to take off in the year ahead.

You are now expected to be on social media promoting your company. This is particularly true as it relates to hiring.

Yeah, I know you hate Facebook. Well—get over it.

Companies start paying attention to social messaging

Ryan states:

Here’s an eye-opener: Globally, there are nearly 4 billion active users of messaging apps, from WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger to WeChat and Kik. The top 5 apps in the world in terms of frequency of use, in fact, are all messaging apps: users are popping them open more often than even Facebook or Instagram.

This is an area that I admit to being behind. Messaging is exploding. It is not just texting on your smartphone (you do have smartphone, right?), but it is using a variety of messaging apps. The only one I use is Facebook Messenger, and even that is infrequently.

Social media advertising (really) takes off

Ryan states:

Haven’t noticed the exponential increase in ads on your social media feeds? That probably means they’re working. In contrast to old-fashioned banner ads, the new generation of “native” social media ads like Facebook and Instagram sponsored posts and Twitter promoted Tweets look and act a lot like normal social media updates from friends and followers. They’re also targeted with an uncanny degree of precision: Advertisers are able to drill down not just by age and gender but by interests, location, company affiliation, role and more. So the ads you get are probably the ones you actually want to see.

Advertising on the Internet will never be the same. Facebook recently announced that their mobile advertising has surged. This is a big shift in the advertising space. Have you noticed? You do have a smartphone, right?

Social video takes over

Ryan states:

In case you missed it, social video is exploding. Last year, Facebook more than doubled its daily video views to 8 billion, reportedly overtaking YouTube. Twitter launched native video of its own in 2015, while Snapchat now reports 6 billion daily video views in its own right. In total, adult users now consume a total of 66 minutes of online video, each and every day.

Have you watched a Periscope broadcast?

Soon, video will become the norm. Are you comfortable being on camera?

How are you using Social Media?

Well, are you actively using social media in your personal life?

Are you actively using it in work life?

Are you actively using it in your job search?

Please take our monthly survey Tell Us What Social Media You Use. This survey is closed but you can view the survey results here –> Career Pivot Social Media Survey Results [Infographic]

You can see the previous survey results here on the Survey Results Page.
Marc Miller

Be sure to check out the Career Pivot Client Testimonials Page

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