How Hal Thomas used Twitter to find a job, the first Twitter Job Seeker

And then the last question is, Can he do the job? And I think what was so effective about this tweet here about the mock up was that Hal really did a nice job, showing all 3 of the questions. He showed competency with the blog and personality with his tweet and his creativity and definitely he was clearly motivated by the amount of work that he put into this.Hal, what I wanted to ask you, this is kind of a risky thing to do, put yourself on a cover of a top ten magazine and kind of with the name of the company that youre going for. Probably it would work with BFG but it might not work with another marketing company. How did you know where to draw the line? How did you know it was appropriate to do this? It was actually a good idea to do this whereas somewhere else it might not have been?Hal: I think a lot of that goes back to doing your research. You got to do your homework on the company that you are going to apply for.In a way, you might say this is the kind of a job application th at Ive always wanted to do for just about any job. Something that doesnt kind of pigeon hole you into simply a bullet point list of characteristics that kind of, I dont know, it kind of homogenizes you with everybody else.Its kind of hard to really showcase or at least I have always felt. But for me, I have a harder time showcasing who I really am on a 1-page word document. Possible but definitely a challenge.So I did a lot of homework on BFG. I think I read literally everything they have on their website. And when I saw things that they were doing, especially in-house, not only the fact that yes they have a blog and Ive had a blog for 5 years but I saw that they did a lot of projects with even some of their creative staff, some of their design staff. They do this thing whenever a new designer comes on board, they give them a blank skateboard deck and one of their first jobs is to basically create their own skateboard deck and then its actually just hung up in the office. It kind of said a lot about the personality of BFG and the type of people they want to have on-board there.So you might say in some ways by poking around their website and reading their blog, I was able to discover a little bit about the kind of personality of the BFG brand and when I saw that, I knew something like this, the chances that something like this would be really risky, were certainly minimized.Joshua: Now, you told me that BFGs culture was very creative-oriented. In fact they had projects that were completely non-billed just for the sake of exercising the creative muscle and that was something that you really liked and you discovered along your research.Was there anything else about BFG or any other tips that you might be able to offer the jobseekers about doing research and really targeting your message in your application?Hal: Sure, absolutely.I think youve talked about this in the jobseekers guide that the 2 biggest things that you can do is to understand who you are and unders tand the type of company that you want to work for.As I said, Ive always felt a little challenged with really selling myself in a traditional resume and so Ive always wanted to find the company that gave me the opportunity to break out of that and really just kind of be myself rather than who I thought I needed to be in a traditional resume.Then as far as  doing research on BFG, doing research on the target company, I read their blog, I spent time on their website and I had already been following them on Twitter for a while. And so as a matter of fact, I believe I was following Sloane on Twitter before I was even following BFG. She took a trip last summer and had been tweeting about that and somehow I got connected to that. So again, some of these just goes back to networking.And if youre in that space long enough, you show up, you contribute to the conversation, you contribute something thats funny, thats interesting, that’s memorable, thats of value. You basically get more than you ask for. You set yourself up to have a pretty successful future or at least to find your way to a number of opportunities.Joshua: One of the questions that I got here on the panel was, Is it an effective way to get seen by a company, to just start tweeting about that company and start using the name of that company in your tweets to show that youre interested? Is that something that you might recommend?Hal: I think its possible, I mean, certainly if youre on Twitter and theyre on Twitter, theres a way to make a connection there.You have to be really careful I think about just playing to the audience. You dont want to be seen as Im just in this to get your attention. You dont want to patch yourself off as being more involved than maybe you really are.Twitter and really all social media, theres kind of a generally accepted principle of a certain degree of transparency of people online being engaged in social media. So if Twitter applies that you would actually go and talk about c ompanies or to connect with people, then I think absolutely thats great place to get in touch with a company or to talk about a company that you really admire.I shout out companies on Twitter all the time that Im just big fans of and theyre not paid endorsements or Ive never really been contacted by any of their people but I kind of remember, Im a self-confessed caffeine addict, and so I talk about that problem quite a bit because I think probably half of my income every month winds up going to Starbucks.Joshua: Right.Hal: But thats a space that Im active in. Thats something that, Id be telling my friends how much I love coffee anyway. So again, these opportunities connect. But make sure that if youre in these spaces; make sure youre being genuine because sooner or later, if youre not, its going to come back around to bite you.Joshua: Its great advice. Its a really double-edged sword, isnt it? Its all about transparency and one way or the other any kind of inconsistency is going to come across, I think, as red flag.Sloane, you may have noticed this with some of your applicants; that theyre just either inappropriate or inconsistent. How did you handle applicants that were like that?Sloane: Yeah I mentioned earlier that its a great way to really get to know some of the applicants and it kind of goes back to this idea of personal branding and Joshua I know that this is something that you dig into a lot in your videos but this idea that you are kind of creating a public record of things that youre writing about or thinking about and someone can basically go back and see what you were tweeting about last week and if it happened to be something inappropriate or something that might turn off the hiring manager or whatever, something to consider and even outside of Twitter, thats definitely something to consider.I think a lot of people dont think about the footprint theyre leaving behind whether its Facebook and of course Facebook, changing their privacy standards and stuff. A lot of people are upset about that but Ive noticed a lot of people do that and maybe didnt really realize this was happening and they are treating it still like its a private space and they havent gone in and fix the settings. And so its just something to think about really wherever you are in the web is that you are leaving behind this digital footprint of who you are and its track-able. People can go and look back and it can work to your advantage and it can also work to disadvantage.Joshua: Yeah I think one of the biggest mistakes that a job seeker can make online is to just go out there and start filling their profiles, right? And being very flippant about their online presence and I think both of you would agree that really sitting down and looking inside, knowing who you are, and then being strategic about your personal brands and how you fill things out is going to be really important in how youre perceived online, when youre Googled what people find about you.Hal: I agree.Joshua: Go ahead Hal, Im sorry.Hal: Oh I was just going to say I completely agree with that and that takes you back on how risky was this.When I finished this wired cover and posted this tweet, I know for the first time I was really excited about applying for a job and I was really proud about what I produced. It was fun; it made me laugh and it brought a smile on my face. And so in that sense I felt like Ive been really true to myself. My guess was that this was not inappropriate for my audience but if there was the slightest chance that maybe they didnt get it, and then I had to be OK with going, OK if they dont get it then thats probably not the right place for me. And I had to be OK with that.Joshua: Yeah, thats a great point. I get that question a lot from job-seekers. What if this doesnt work?Some people have to lie or feel like they have to lie or put a picture that doesnt really represent them online and eventually theyre going to find out who you are and if theyre n ot OK with that then its better for you to know actually right up front, isnt it?Sloane: Definitely.When we talked about the cultural fit for someone joining our team and it really goes both ways. I mean for Hal or anyone coming into BFG, in my mind, I was in hope that I was a good fit for them too. And in the past and even in other jobs, either from myself actually joining the team or actually hiring someone, I’ve gone so far as to offer a freelance gig for a week just to see if both parties are truly making this work.In this case, I didnt need to do that because I think I already knew just from the whole social media, Twitter experiment that I know its going to be a cultural fit but it definitely goes both ways. You want to be able to be in a place where youre going to be happy and challenged on a daily basis.Joshua: That leads to a really nice question that Im reading here from Steven and I’d like to read it to you. Its a little bit long so bear with me.Twitter blogging seems to be very logical and appropriate for media for teeming employment and creative industries such as marketing, etc. but Im not sure how useful it would be for me. Im 60+, I have a LinkedIn profile and Im looking for a program manager or a project director position in more traditional organizations. Im looking to retire from a full time work. There are only so many hours in a day that I can devote to job search and obviously I want to create as much critical mass in my search as possible in addition to ensuring that my LinkedIn profiles the best that it can be.Should I use Twitter and should I start using blog? and I think the answer to the question is if youre not going for a marketing job or a creative job, such as engineering or project management, does Twitter, blogging and even in general, creativity in the job search still matter? What do you guys think?Sloane: I would say absolutely.I know weve focused a lot on talking about the creative world and the ad world just because th ats kind of where Hal and I live and breathe at the moment but the great thing about Twitter, or really the blogging sphere in general, is that its all about discovery and I think that while the blogs I follow probably wouldnt be interesting to someone whos an engineer or what have you, those sources do absolutely exist out there and people do check in and read those blogs on a daily basis or follow people like that on Twitter.Its all about finding where your interests lie, my interest is definitely in the creative sphere and a lot of people that I follow in Twitter are in that world but we were talking earlier and I am also really passionate about wine. I follow a lot of people on Twitter who talk about nothing but wine.There are all kinds of these things out there and I think that sort of social media world is becoming more and more a part of a lot of peoples jobs and just their own personal coming universe stage. Thats something I think that could help.Joshua: And follow up quest ion to that is asked by Jeff here is, I have political opinions which i share with my Facebook friends, am I putting myself at risk by sharing that with Facebook?Hal: Well, thats a really good one.Joshua: Yes.Hal: We had a discussion in the office, myself and another gentlemen thats on the content department a couple of weeks ago.Thats something that Ive struggled with. Ill be honest on that, and when it comes to certain other blogs that I might read that whether they have a religious or a political bent. I think thats where we have to investigate, especially with a medium like Facebook. Number one, what are the privacy controls that you have in place? And number two, how are you using Facebook?I have recently, I kind of revamped my Facebook, my personal Facebook strategy in that Ive actually kind of, nobody wants to use this word but Id actually trimmed down my friends list on Facebook quite a bit, so that I really only have friends with people that are truly closed connections tha t I have.And Im choosing to make most of my data private and this is just my take on that but I think the over-all point was whatever level of privacy controls you use or whatever you decide to put on Twitter or Facebook, you have to realize that number one, it is out there. Ideals of freedom of speech aside, just because youre free to say anything in an environment doesnt necessarily make it appropriate to say in an environment.So again, that goes back to determining what do you want to use the medium for? And then choosing the appropriate privacy controls and kind of self-editing as appropriate for that audience.Joshua: Right and in other words, have a strategy and stick to that strategy.Know what youre trying to accomplish with the tool that you have your hands on. I think of it as a sculpture right? Anyone can take a chisel but not everyone can create a beautiful work of art from a block of wood.And its really how you use the tool thats going to make the impact, not the tool its elf.I think theres an over-emphasis on social media as a paradigm shift as a sort of this huge revolution in the way we communicate and I really have to defer from that. I think theyre just new tools that we have to learn how to use effectively and as job-seekers I think theyre very effective.One of the questions that Im getting over and over is, we keep talking about Twitter and blogging, does that mean LinkedIn isnt as important or Facebooks not as important? Or how do we choose the right social medium as job-seekers? This will be the last question and Im going to take a quick tour of the inside of the video training. So I want you guys to take a quick 30 seconds thought with that question.Sloane: Yeah I think LinkedIn and other tools are definitely still really important but it kind of goes back to what weve been talking about throughout the conversation which, from a job-seekers perspective is really kind of doing your homework and doing your research, and if you have a dream jo b or a dream company out there that youre interested in pursuing, maybe its a good idea to see where they are in that social sphere and how theyre using these different tools.Or the alternative is to really pick one or two of these areas and really own it and if you are going to be in multiple places, make sure you are being consistent and the messages that you put out there and its the age of the personal brand. I think thats the bottom line.Joshua: Yes it is. And Hal, how would you answer that question about choosing the medium?Hal: Sure, really I just would confer with just about everything Sloan has said.A lot of these goes back to the question that gentleman asked earlier about the need to get into Twitter and blogging and all this and really dive head-first in social media but theres so many hours in a day that you can devote for your job-search.It just goes back to what are the types of companies youre looking out and what spaces are they in. BFG does have a LinkedIn profile but, Ive interacted even before I was an employee here, I got far more interaction with BFG and with people who worked for BFG through the blog and through Twitter than I did on LinkedIn. That may be not the case for every industry or every company so again we can go back to whats your target company, where are they at and invest your time and resources there. If theyre on Twitter, if theyre on Facebook, then jump on-board, jump in.The learning curve is pretty forgiving.As the saying, Give more than you take. Listen a little more than you talk. But if your industry is not really active in that space right now, unless its just a hobby, dont waste your time. Dont look at it as a primary means of job search. Know your audience.Joshua: Exactly right.So its not about having the prettiest LinkedIn profile, its about knowing where they hang out online and then going there and interacting with them. Thats a really great point Hal.Well come back to you guys in a second. I just want to take a moment and show everyone the inside view of the job-seekers guide to social media and so when you get into the product and when you get access to the course, this is the first page that you come to and what Id do is Ill have a quick 25 minute video, which gives you tips that you can use right after that.Were getting a lot of questions today about how do you use Twitter, how do you follow topics, how do you find people, how do you get started if youre a real newbie and this course actually takes you through step by step of how to do that.So basically each of the 5 modules here has between 4 to 8 videos associated with each one and each video lesson has a downloadable sheet and its pack of resources. So we talked a lot about strategy Hal and not just going out there and flippantly putting stuff online but to really know what youre trying to say and to whom, and thats all about finding your brand, looking inside and then looking at your target audience.And then we look at online resum es, online reputation for when you get Googled not if. And theres actually an entire module dedicated to Twitter, because I think its more than just what you had for breakfast. Thats important too but theres a lot to it and so for newbies with Twitter, this will be a really valuable lesson and then we get into interviews  and actually go into the steps that how Hal and other job-seekers took and Ive spoken with to use social media to do that.So when you get started, you come here into the first module which is personal branding and you get access to these 6 videos and navigation here on the right. And then when you drill down into the video itself, you can watch it here and every video comes with a downloadable action sheet. So what happens is by the time you finish the course, youll have 25 pages filled with notes of your personal job-search strategy actually right there in front of you.For those of you who like to skim, there are always bullet points about the topics that are cov ered in the video and additional notes, oftentimes, I think of something after Ive recorded the video and I want to emphasize it where there are some points within the video that I want to make sure are emphasized. And then every video has resources, sometimes theyre free, sometime theyre not but theyre here for you to find.This particular video is about keyword research, which is often overlooked when creating online profiles. So theres an entire lesson on how to actually get your keywords so that youre ranking number one on at least 3 of them to help you get found.The lessons on Twitter are here. There are 5 videos. Each one comes with of course the downloadable action sheet, the summary of what you learned and these are resources. people are asking, How do I communicate with recruiters? I actually have a list of over 100 different recruiters here that you can follow.So they are are just packed with resources that Im giving away to do this, and its now open.So this is sort of the culmination of a lot of exclusive training Ive done around the Portland area for the last year and people have been asking me to make this available to them regardless of where they live and so if you have been following my blog, youve noticed that i havent been blogging a lot and thats because Ive been focusing almost exclusively on developing this content and really refining it so that you guys can get jobs as quickly as possible.And Im giving away a lot of free stuff so just by signing up, youre going to get a free LinkedIn profile audit so youll sign up, youll send me your LinkedIn profile and Ill actually do a professional audit on it to give you steps to improve it and just as part of signing up.So as much stuff as Im giving away, I can only keep this open for 1 week. So this is going to close on January 11 at midnight. So if you do have questions about using Twitter and social media and really creating a strategy for your job search, this is the only product or training cours e available that is completely comprehensive and its just for job-seekers on using social media.So also, Im giving away 2 live calls so if youre going to the course and get stuck and questions always come up, I want to make sure that Im there for you so therell be 2 calls starting next week and then 2 weeks after that so if you guys get stuck during the course, I am available to answer any questions live and there are bonuses that if I get questions a lot about a particular technology, Ill actually do a screencast and just put it in bonuses for free so theres a lot of questions that I answer in this course. So definitely worth taking a look.Were coming up on the end of the hour here. We got about 5 minutes left and we do have more questions but I want to leave this space to let you guys, Hal and Sloane, end with any last words for job-seekers out there. Maybe theyre not in the creative industry such as you guys, maybe theyre new to social media, what would you recommend as a first s tep, at least if they are to walk away with one thing from todays conversation, what would it be? Sloane why dont you go ahead first on this?Sloane: Sure yeah, I think some of what youve been talking about, Joshua, with regards to social media kind of being a new tool among many, I think thats really important.Face to face networking and interaction is definitely still important its not going anywhere.So I would recommend really using a combination of different tactics, if you are in the job market, social media is a really great way I think to get yourself out there and to potentially stand out a little bit from the crowd, people with social media knowledge and skills I think are becoming more and more in demand and thats only going to increase as time goes on and ore people start getting involved in this space.But definitely dont discount some of the offline things too and every community that Ive ever lived in, theres always something going on with groups of professionals or some times theyre a very highly targeted groups. We have social media clubs here in Savannah for people who are in that industry but there are so many other groups that get together and meet after hours. So I would just encourage people to take advantage of those things as well as the social space and really find the right mix.Joshua: Right, get out there and meet people as well as develop your online reputation. Hal, what would you leave folks with?Hal: More of the same really. Definitely know who you are and what youre looking for in a company.The reality is wed all have to take jobs because we have to pay the rent but at the end of the day, we should all be able to describe the type of job and the type of environment that we want to be a part of and we know that. When know what youre looking for, its surprisingly easier to find it and then find ways so not only you know who you are but you want out of a company that you want to make sure you know as much as you can about any job or an y company that you apply for.And so depending on whats appropriate, where that company is or where the people who work for this company are active, whether its online, whether its offline or both, just show up and interact. Show up with consistency and contribute something of value and sooner or later opportunities are going to open up for you.Joshua: I love that. Stop spraying and praying. Be specific, focused and targeted. Thats really great advice. Im getting questions about if people want to get connected with you Hal and Sloan, so would that be alright if I sent out an email out to participants with your Twitter handles?Both: Sure, absolutely.Sloane: Wed be happy to answer any questions after this.Joshua: And Hal, Sloan, thank you very much for your time today. I really enjoyed the conversation and I think everyone on the call here got a lot of really fabulous information for their job search. Thank you both very much.Hal: Thank you.Sloane: Thank you for having me and thanks fo r all the great questions, to the audience.Joshua: Thank you too. Yeah thanks to the audience for participating and have a great week.