There’s that word again – “network.” You could be the best, the greatest, the most accomplished at what you do – but unless you figure out a way to get the attention of the person who makes the hiring decisions, you just might lose out to a less qualified candidate. Why? Because that person knew how to get their name at the top of the hiring person’s list – while you relied on the “traditional” method of responding to a want ad and sending in your resume.

I don’t think it’s fair to say that that “traditional” system is broken – but face it: When you’ve sent out a couple of hundred resumes with nary a response, it’s time to take a good, hard look at the process. It certainly isn’t your fault that “they” changed the rules of the game in the middle; but now that they have, you’re going to have to learn some new tricks in order to get back in the thick of the game.

You probably know about the various on-line networking sites already, like LinkedIn, Ning, and FaceBook, also much-used by professionals these days). Networking works; I know several people who have had success in finding jobs using LinkedIn, for example, depending on how much work they put into it. It should be noted, however, that these people put a great deal of time and effort, fine-tuning their LinkedIn profiles, joined many groups, and built up a large bank of connections (500+). Building up such a large network could take awhile, though.

And while you should by all means nurture your LinkedIn presence, there’s a new kid in town you can use to get to the people who know where the jobs are: Twitter. Twitter, of course, is the Web-based SMS-type service where you can “tweet” (message) to all and sundry your latest adventures. That, at least, was how it started out, but Twitter has evolved – especially in the past couple of months, it seems, as people seek new avenues to beef up their business networks (check out http://www.tweetcruit.com/). And because of Twitter’s very casual and open format, you “meet” people online far more easily than with other services. It might take you a couple of months to build up a network of, say, 50 connections using LinkedIn – but you could get that many in an afternoon, using Twitter!

In Twitter, you don’t make “friends” – you follow people, with their updates streaming on your own Twitter home page. Often, these people will follow you, eagerly reading your updates as you post them (according to Twitter theory, the more people you follow, the more likely you are to get followers). All “tweets” are limited to 140 characters, and you see the whole stream of consciousness emanating from your network on your Twitter home page (mine’s http://www.twitter.com/newzgeek, if you care to check it out). Posts range from what the writer is actually doing right now (“Just got out of the meeting”) to links to interesting news or blog posts, to questions and answers or requests for assistance. Unlike on LinkedIn or FaceBook, which give you time to digest what’s going on, Twitter is very “of the moment,” and you can spend a lot of time watching the posts go by. It’s lots of fun!

But before fun, work. You’re here for a very specific reason – to build up a network that can help you find job opportunities, and the people behind them. It stands to reason that the more people you “know” – the bigger your network – the better. And more than any other social networking system, Twitter is the place to go for big network numbers. In the Twitter world, there’s only one standard whereby success is measured – the number of followers in your network. And when you follow, others follow you. It’s like being at a party – everyone wants to be the center of attention, but those potential attention-centers need you to pay attention to them. The more people you “know,” the more tweets you will be privy to, and the more connections you will make that can lead to “success,” however you define that.

That’s the theory, and there are hundreds of sites that will give you ideas on how to leverage Twitter in this way to get more clicks on your blog, sell more products on-line, or just enhance your reputation in an on-line community (hi-tech, of course, but there are many other industries where on-line buzz helps, like restaurants and hotels). If your goal is to enhance your reputation – your “brand” – for online success, you can just follow straight Twitter networking procedures and gather your followers.
Job-seekers, especially in a place like Israel, have to work a little harder, nurturing a network of locals, who of course will know better where the local jobs are. First, when you set up your Twitter account, put your “elevator pitch” in your Twitter bio (160 characters), so potential followers know who you are and what you can do. If that’s not enough room, integrate more info about yourself in your Twitter background, using http://www.freetwitterdesigner.com/. Also include a link to an online CV (the ones at http://www.visualcv.com are especially suited for something like Twitter).

Once you set up your Twitter account, it’s time to seek out Twitter users located in Israel and start following them, thus building up your network. Fortunately, there are a number of services that let you search for Twitterers in your area, in real time, such as http://www.twitterlocal.net/ (requires Adobe Air), http://twitsnear.me/, and http://www.tweetscan.com/. The latter can be used to search by location and keyword, as can http://monitter.com/, so you could try a search like “Tel Aviv Accounting” if you were looking for an accounting job, for example. But it probably won’t be that easy. You can also join directories of Twitter users, such as http://justtweetit.com/ and http://wefollow.com/tag/israel/ . And others (Google “Twitter directories). And don’t forget the plumbers – they’ve got a page at http://bit.ly/oDVJw (people in other professions may have more luck at http://twitter.com/jobangels and http://twitter.com/jobshouts).

Now that you’re connected, start tweeting – about yourself, your work, your skills, etc. If the usual tweet is a form of “microblogging,” as it’s been called, think of the messages you send out as “micro-resume-ing.” Send out interesting links about your industry, links to blog posts (you really ought to have one, too, but that’s another article), and the occasional “if anyone hears about openings in ___, please let me know!” The more people hear about you, the more they’ll realize what you’re capable of – and the more likely you are to hear about the jobs you’re after. With Twitter, “what you know” gets communicated directly to “who you know!”

I couldn’t find any hard statistics on how many people have been able to find jobs using Twitter, but there are plenty of stories online. And it makes sense that you have a better chance of finding something, depending on how well known you are in the community. At least for now, Twitter is “the place to be” on-line, and users actually read the communications the people in their network send out (they’re only 140 characters, after all) – as opposed to not reading the resumes piling up in their e-boxes. Finally, a case where the short attention spans most of us have actually work to your benefit!

IMHO, they’re wrong: It’s a very useful service, but not necessarily for the reasons its boosters usually cite.

LinkedIn, as you may know, is to business networking what Myspace is to social networking. Actually, it’s difficult to really compare the two, since Myspace is much larger (the largest) as far as registered users go. In fact, LinkedIn is among the lesser of the social networking communities, with only 17 million users, according to the ever-accurate Wikipedia people; there are plenty of sites with far more users. What distinguishes LinkedIn, however, is that it is the only “trusted” site for business contacts, considering the jam its closest rival Plaxo got into not too long ago.

Thus, while you might find teenagers dominating Myspace and “party people” college types hanging around Facebook (not that either haven’t been courting other groups), the LinkedIn crowd is more of a practical, down-to-earth, get-it-done-now type of user – i.e. they are investing their time and energy in building up a network of users to somehow benefit materially at some point in the future. One reason adults like LinkedIn is its policies regarding whom one can link to (adopted now by many other sites); you either have to be invited personally by a user and/or introduced to him/her by someone in your network.

LinkedIn user-profile pages often read like a resume, with users listing their work experience and education, along with noteworthy accomplishments, Web sites and other relevant information. You choose how much data you want to share (you can close yourself off to invitations as well); there is also a listing for recommendations of your work by others, or recommendations by you for others (more on that below). And, there are various tools, such as people and job search, questions and answers to people in or out of your social network, and social networking groups you belong to (ditto). And, of course, the all important contact list.

One interesting phenomenon I have noticed with this service is what I call “LinkedIn fever.” One person in an organization joins the site and starts contacting his or her co-workers in the office, inviting them to join. Chances are the invitee has heard of LinkedIn; that it’s a “good” site to join and can “help you get a job or something.” Very quickly they learn that the measure of success in LinkedIn is the number of contacts on their list, so they start inviting other people in the organization – the easiest people to invite (since they already have the invitee’s e-mail address, usually the only free way to “cold call” potential contacts).

The “fever” sweeps through the organization and within a week or so, everyone is connected. That’s it for most people; they occasionally visit their profile (LinkedIn is very good about sending out subtle reminders, telling you when other people in your network have updated stuff), but rarely look beyond that list of contacts. The more competitive among them may dun friends and acquaintances outside the organization to build more contacts. But for them, too, it stops there.

So, just what is LinkedIn really good for? Will it help you get a better job? According to most users I have met, the answer is no – even though they may have used the job-search function on their profile page (many of the jobs listed, by the way, claim to be “exclusive to LinkedIn”). But even that, I believe, is not the raison d’etre of LinkedIn – although it can be used that way if you have very high-in-demand skills. (But then again, potential employers are probably knocking your door down anyway if you do.) Plus, if you live in Israel, you’ll find that while there are some jobs available, the pool is very limited if you’re not a mid- to high-level programmer for Web 2.0, or a former CEO.

So, I ask again – what is LinkedIn good for? Here’s my answer: LinkedIn is an excellent tool to enable you to focus your career goals, advertise them to others inside and outside your industry, and get you noticed on the Web. If you use it properly, it can help create a “buzz” about you, which probably will lead you to opportunities you would not have otherwise been exposed to.

Here’s how I see LinkedIn working for you: Building a social network of people you know is a fine thing. However, since these people are probably already in your address book, the idea would be to leverage people you know professionally to “virtually” meet others whom you don’t know, but who have a profession or industry in common with you. The point of building a connection portfolio is to build a reputation among people who might know someone, somewhere, who can help you find information, potential customers – or even a new job. Used properly, the LinkedIn tools can help you build your reputation and enhance your professional standing.

Lest you think I am “on” something, let me elaborate. Honing your LinkedIn profile page is your first mission. It’s like a resume, but much better because people with whom you hook up will actually look at your profile. (LinkedIn provides information on how many people from which industry checked out your profile.) So what do you want to say about yourself? Remember: Your LinkedIn profile page gets picked up by Google, meaning that non-LinkedIn users may come across it as well. If for nothing else, LinkedIn is useful as a tool to help you focus, to get you to consider how you want others to see you professionally.

And once you organize your image, other aspects of LinkedIn’s usefulness fall into place. Presenting and answering questions is a great way to build up a portfolio of contacts and getting to “know” a wide range of people – as well as building up a portfolio of recommendations, another LinkedIn “power tool.” You could also start a LinkedIn group, another way to build contacts. Your name gets into other’s contact books as well, building your name and reputation. With this approach, many of the “100+ Smart Ways to Use LinkedIn” become relevant.

With the right attitude – i.e. looking at it as a way to get your name out in front of people who count professionally for you (otherwise known as networking) – LinkedIn can be of great service. After all, it is a networking site, and the tools it supplies do just that. And like any other tool, LinkedIn is what you – and only you – make of it. Maybe a LinkedIn job search won’t find you your dream job on the first try, but if the person who has the keys to finding that job is on the site too, you’re already halfway to your goal.