Being Social: What’s It All About?

We’re accelerating toward a business world where the industrial age concepts and processes are being replaced by digital concepts and processes. This then of course requires a new set of skills for leaders of the future, as well as executive job seekers of the present.

So why social? You’ll open up new opportunities, build new connections and be able to approach any potential roles from a position of strength – they should have found you, if your social activities are right.

It’s hardly a stretch to connect the ‘hidden jobs’market (unadvertised jobs market) to the skills required in ‘social’, and by social I mean all of the skills involved in blogging, tweeting, LinkedIn publishing, podcasting, and even video production. Without developing new skills, candidates will be left focussing on advertised roles, and random emailing of their CV / Resume to recruiters. Not a good strategy.

I’m going to attempt to focus on c-level job seekers in this article, but the subject of social will definitely impact your next role(s) going forward. There is no escape; and neither should there be – social is a fantastic method for creating relationships, which can grow and develop not only during your job search phase but into your next role and beyond.

So the New (Job seeking) Networking can be summed up thus: It’s Not Who You Know, It’s Who Knows You.

In a world where recruiters and industry leaders are seeking talent who can drive their business to the next level, it is moving beyond CV / Resume requirements to added value and branding; what type of leader you will be can be gleaned, at least in part, from the content you are sharing with ‘the world’. It’s a new set of skills to acquire for many, but the acquisition of these new social skills and the learning journey will benefit you many times over, both as a current senior level job seeker, and moving into your next leadership position.

Part of this journey will be to understand today’s recruiters: How recruiters are finding talent. You need to plug in to the pulse of your industry, stay in touch with the market, while at the same time demonstrating your value, which incidentally isn’t about what you know; it’s about what you share. Businesses are now looking for leaders to take their organizations into the next phase of business – the digital age. An age where competence at writing, podcasting, social media, will all be required skills of the modern leader.

Just think for moment; how much easier would it be to perceive the value and style / approach you would take as a leader, from viewing what you have published vs looking at your CV/Resume? I know which one I prefer.

As one example of how you can raise your visibility as well as showcase your thought leadership. The LinkedIn publishing platform has been rolled out globally via LinkedIn now for quite some time, and if you have it available (via the home page (not profile page) ‘publish a post’ link) I urge you to start to use this facility, which incidentally will be one of many areas we’ll be covering on our forthcoming webinar where I’ll be interviewing Jim Claussen of The Executive Social Academy. The publishing platform is a great way to demonstrate your authority and credibility, not only as a job seeker but into your next role and beyond.

What you do in social and what you publish in digital is tangible and accepted. What appears on a CV is difficult to validate; your direct impact to the business difficult to correlate. Because of this, greater focus and increasing emphasis in being placed on what people can see and the social influence they can measure. Ask yourself how much easier it would be for a recruiter or hiring manager to glean something of your leadership style from viewing what you have published, vs what they can see from your CV/Resume? It’s a striking difference, and we’re in a recruitment market where right now candidates are being invited as preferred candidates to roles based on their published works.

Be findable. Be engaged in social. Be published. Be hired. That’s the imperative.

There are many more ways to help you increase and maintain visibility, which we will be covering in a forthcoming webinar, where I’ll be asking Jim a few questions on your behalf about ‘all things social’.

Executive Connexions is pioneering a new approach to social media in senior executive recruitment, providing a practical and effective toolkit which even the most technically inexperienced can learn from and use. To find out more about this, join us on our Be Found webinar on Monday 25th January 2016.

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Be findable. Be engaged in social. Be published. Be hired. That’s the imperative.