Using Social Media as Part of a Job Search

Over the last few months I have continued to use multiple methods while searching for my new "dream job." Beyond the traditional search (looking at Craigslist.org, the Capitol Morning Report, Monster.com, CareerBuilder.com, Indeed.com) and attending Bayside Church's "Career Coaching," I have used social media sites to expand my reach and my networking, making lots of great connections and meeting leaders throughout the Sacramento PR and business community.  My search started off by expanding my social media network, I added new LinkedIn connections, started to follow additional people on Twitter and went through my address book (Google contacts to be exact, I currently have more than 1400), researched industries and companies and began my "search."

Although I haven't landed my job yet, I have used my "sabbatical" to learn new things by participating in Webinars, many hosted for free by companies like Careerealism and CirclePoint, attended events like Social Media Weekend, seminars hosted by the Social Media Club and American Marketing Association Sacramento Valley, networking events including Placer and Sacramento Tweetups, SPRA Mixers, Cal Poly and Jesuit Alumni events, and joined two committees ("Jamba Jump Day" and Citizen Voice/SafelyOut). I have also developed stronger relationships with reporters (something that is important in the PR/communications industry and now have contacts at many, if not all, of Sacramento's news outlets.

Yesterday one of those contacts, Suzanne Phan of KXTV News10 asked to interview me about one of the facets of my job search, using social media.  Suzanne came to "Fort Bradley" in Roseville, set up her camera in my "office" (aka converted dining room) and we were able to chat about some of the sites I use in my daily job search and how I use social media (in conjunction with traditional networking) to expand my network, after all in many cases it is not "what you know, but who you know."

Yesterday at 11 pm the story aired (see below) with my first ever on camera interview (I am very used to being behind the camera, just not in front of it) and included not only me, but highlights from the Social Media Club's event "Putting Social Media to Work" at Sacramento's Urban Hive.

Do you have contacts that I can meet with to discuss future opportunities? To expand my network? Let me know, leave a comment below, find me on Twitter or LinkedIn or e-mail me MrAndrewBradley [at] gmail [dot] com. Looking for a communications position that uses social media, can be at a PR agency, non-profit or within health care field.

Thrive 2010

Bayside and Thriving Churches International's "Thrive 2010" was another amazing conference, full of fun, learning, insight, growth, fellowship and discussion. Due to limited space (and because I know most of you don't like to read long posts ... well okay I don't like to read them when other people write them) I am going to try to be quick and to the point.

First I'm not going to talk about what all of the speakers said, if you want that, CDs are available of each general session, not sure about breakout sessions.

Second, these are the books I purchased (i.e. speakers I really liked and wanted to read more about what they had to say): "The Me I Want to Be: Becoming God's Best Version of You" by John Ortberg, "Scouting the Divine: My Search for God in Wine, Wool, and Wild Honey" by Margaret Feinberg, "Everyone Communicates, Few Connect: What the Most Effective People Do Differently" by John Maxwell, and finally a new way of reading the Bible (it takes away chapter and verse numbers) called "The Books of the Bible" published by Biblica. The book I will by when it comes out has a working title of "OPEN" and is being written by CJ Alvarado.

Third, this was the first non-social-media conference that I have been to where there was lots of tweeting going on during the conference and where the conference really embraced people using Twitter throughout the entire event. First they developed and promoted the use of a hashtag (#Thrive2010), second they had a specific Twitter user name (@thrivetweets) that posted new information and interacted with others on Twitter at the conference, third people used it and finally many people were rewarded (including me) with small prizes, I won a USB thumb drive. It turned out to be a great to find and connect with others at the conference, get additional insights into what people were thinking, learn about what some of the other break out speakers were saying and see what each person found most interesting. On a side note, during the conference I read two separate posts (one, two) about people using Twitter during church, I have to say although some may find it distracting at times, I do see merit in the practice, as long as the person doing the tweeting can pay attention to the rest of the message while typing something he/she just heard.

So what are your thoughts on using social media during church? During your company staff meeting? During an annual investors conference? During your child's soccer game (tweeting stats of course)?

Side note: I also got to see the exhibit "From the Dead Sea Scrolls to the Bible in America" currently being hosted at Bayside, if you are anywhere in the Northern California region over the next few weeks and care about the Bible and/or history you really should go see the exhibit. First it may be the only time you have to see such a large collection outside of Israel and second the display is museum quality.

Here are some pictures, many taken by Bayside's team of talented volunteer photographers.

River Cats

I try to go to at least one River Cats game a year and my trip this year was a special one.  On Wednesday afternoon I was having lunch at Costa Vida with a Bible Study that I am in and one of the guy's got an e-mail letting him know that the Smile Business Products Suite was available for Thursday night's game against the Portland Beavers.  Although the home team lost 5 to 4, the Suite was amazing.  First it wasn't in the sun (I normally sit on the third base side), second it had air conditioning, third it had amazing food (hamburgers, hot dogs, fantastic potato salad, rich chocolate brownies and of course peanuts and popcorn), fourth it was a Suite, fifth, well it was a Suite.  This now brings my Suite visits to about three, most of them in the Raley's Suite at Arco Arena, which begs the question if Raley's has a Suite at Arco Arena does Arco (BP) have a Suite at Raley Field? The one Suite I know I may not get, the Luxury Box or Sky Box upgrades at Bayside's Thrive 2010.