Future of Work: Scoble’s Social Strategy for Finding a Job

We’ve found Robert Scoble’s recent post on how to social network when you’re laid off very relevant to our discussion regarding the future of work, and the emerging culture of perma-freelancing. The prolific blogger lays out 19 rock solid points of advice for anyone looking for work in this networked age. He emphasizes the need to focus all your online activities towards being the person who’s qualified for the job you’re looking for. This means maintaining a web presence with solid material based around your field – as he says: if you’re a plumber, post information about plumbing. He also recommends curtailing excessive messing around (no posting LOLCats all day, and no drunk photos on Facebook.) With big brother Google indexing everything that passes through the internet, you need to maintain your reputation on all fronts. Scoble’s advice is worth studying (and using) for both those actively looking for work, and anyone who wants to maintain a professional presence online.

Scoble’s first 5 tips:

1. Your blog is your resume. You need one and it needs to have 100 posts on it about what you want to be known for.

2. Remove all LOLCats from your blog.

3. Remove all friends from your facebook and twitter accounts that will embarrass you. We do look. If we see photos of people getting drunk with you that is a bad sign. Get rid of them. They will NOT help you get a job.

4. Demonstrate you are “clued in.” This means removing ANYTHING that says you are a “social media expert” from your Twitter account. There is no such thing and even if there were there’s no job in it for you. Chris Brogan already has that job and he’s not giving it up.

5. Demonstrate you have kids and hobbies, but they should be 1% of your public persona, not 99%. Look at my blog here. You’ll see my son’s photo on Flickr once in a while. But mostly I talk about the tech industry, cause that’s the job I want to have: talking to geeks and innovators.

Scobleizer: “If you are laid off, here’s how to socially network”

[image: SOCIALisBETTER]