The Power of Networking!

Over the holidays, I have been listening to friends and family talk about how they have found new opportunities through the power of networking. I thought that this would be a good tip to share  as it a powerful tool for specifically for job seekers. Networking is tough, but it does work if you are looking for a new job, a way to market yourself or a business or just looking for advice. A few tips are:

• Join LinkedIn if you are not on it yet. This a social networking tool that is for professionals to stay connected to co-workers, colleagues that you may meet at conferences, meetings, etc. and to have conversations about the working world. 
• You do not have to be super active on this site for this tool to work for you.  It is a bit cumbersome to set up the profile so I recommend that you set up your profile when you have a good amount of time and are not rushed.
• Connect to people you have worked with in the past, present and future - don't be afraid to connect people who you may think may not remember you. 
• Ask questions to recruiters that are on LinkedIn at the company's you are interested in working for.
• Join groups that are specific for your industry. Recruiters will often post to these groups as it is free for us to do that!
• You do not need to post a picture - it is totally up to you if you want to do this or not! 
• Follow Twitter feeds that are for companies you are interested or people that you may know "tweet" - Twitter is instant and there are many feeds for specific industries. 
• Library Jobs: http://twitter.com/#!/ALA_JobLIST
• http://twitter.com/#!/webbyslist - aggregates job board postings into a long list