Learn more about this presentation at: http://www.govloop.com/forum/topics/how-has-social-media-advanced-your-career

1. Accelerating Your Professional
Elevation with Social Media
Andrew Krzmarzick
GovLoop Community Manager
andrew@govloop.com
@krazykriz
GovLoop.com/profile/andrewkrzmarzick

2. Overview
• Imagine you could make powerful, professional,
network-building connections every day…
▫ You can!
• This session will help you:
▫ capitalize on social media tools like Facebook,
GovLoop, LinkedIn and Twitter
▫ accelerate the velocity with which you meet new people
▫ establish yourself as a go-to (gotta-hire) resource.

3. Objectives
1. Cast a vision for your future career destination.
2. Identify the types of people that will help you get there.
3. Leverage social media to accelerate your professional
connections.

4. Exercise 1: Where Are You and Where
Are You Going?
• In 7 words or less, explain your professional role
RIGHT NOW.
• In 7 words or less, state your vision for your
professional role IN 2020.

5. The Networking Process
How to Leverage Relationships and Referrals to Get a Job
Step 1: Get ready
1. Identify what you want to achieve from
networking.
2. Do some homework first—research the field,
read up on organization websites, and join a
professional association so you can be
conversant and professional with your contacts.
© 2011 Heather Krasna: http://www.heatherkrasna.com

6. Get Organized
• You will be doing a lot of outreach, visits,
emailing, and following up with people. Get a
system to track the details, using Excel, Act!,
JibberJobber.com or whatever works for you
• Check out an infographic of this process at
http://www.govloop.com/profiles/blogs/7-
steps-to-social-networking

7. Step 2: Identify Your Network
Identify your existing “inner circle” and
peripheral contacts.
• Inner Circle contacts are
people who know you • Tip: Consider the level of
personally and might be able connectedness your contacts
to recommend you. have—are they well connected
in general? Do many people
owe them favors? Do you
• Peripheral contacts know
know any “super-connectors”?
someone who knows you, are
people who “know of” you but
don’t know you well…yet.

8. Step 3: Research and Categorize Your Contacts
Categorize people by level of connection with you
• Innermost circle (references, family, friends)
• Inner circle (co-workers, classmates)
• Outer circle /peripheral (friends of friends,
people you’ve met briefly)
• Prospects (people you know of, but who don’t
know you)

9. Step 3: Research and Categorize Your Contacts
Categorize people by relevance to your job search
• Most relevant (currently in your • Tip: To help with research,
industry, job function, and geographic create a Linkedin and GovLoop
area, and/or in a position to hire or profile and connect with all of
refer you for jobs) your existing contacts, both
inner and peripheral. Identify
• Peripherally relevant (in related which contacts are best-
industries, job functions; same connected (sort by number of
industry, different geographic area) connections on Linkedin), and
identify which might be able to
• Less relevant (best friend in a help you in your specific search.
totally unrelated industry—still might
know people who can help you)

10. Step 4: Leverage Your Existing “Inner
Circle” Contacts
• Contact them via LinkedIn, email, or phone, with a
message reaching out to re-establish the relationship:
▫ ask them how things have been
▫ mention that you are soon launching a job search
• Be specific about your job target:
▫ specify the job title, type of organization (or specific
organizations), mission area, and geographic location you want.

11. Step 4: Leverage Your Existing “Inner
Circle” Contacts
Ask them to:
• Keep an eye out for relevant jobs, Tip: Don’t only ask
forwarding them to you for favors when you
• Introduce you to people in your area need a job -- ask
of interest / target organizations how they are doing
• Serve as an internal referral continuously!
(i.e. recommend you to hiring managers)
• Give tips on the hiring process for their
agency, revise your resume
• Recommend you on LinkedIn; and/or serve
as a reference
• Meet with you to chat and catch up.

12. Step 5: Reach Out to New Contacts
• Using the introductions from your inner circle of
contacts, as well as other connections /
professional associations / alumni networks and
attendance at networking events

13. Step 5: Reach out to New Contacts
Start reaching out strategically to new people who are:
• In organizations on your target list
• Have job titles you envy/admire
• Might be in a position to (a) hire you, (b) serve as an internal referral for
upcoming positions in their organization; or (c) are super-connectors
• Are accessible and likely to respond to your request

14. Ask People for Informational
Interviews
Etiquette for these meetings is:
• be on time,
• respect the allotted time,
• offer to pay for the other person’s coffee,
• have a list of questions, and
• do your homework so you don’t waste time
on basic questions

15. Ask People for Informational
Interviews
Your goal with these short meetings is:
• Research—learn about the organization’s culture, possible new
opportunities, the person’s career trajectory, job search advice, and
ways you could be helpful to this person
• Referrals—ask for introductions to people at other organizations
or resources to explore
• Resume feedback—ask (without asking for a job!) for them to
review your resume to make sure it fits your target field
• Be remembered positively and convert the
person into a contact in your inner circle.

16. Step 6: Feed Your Contacts
• Maintain the relationship you have established with your
new and existing contacts (and do this on an ongoing basis, not just
when you are job-seeking):
▫ Send a thank you note after every informational interview. Not
just an email, but a card. If you can’t do a card—you don’t have a mailing
address—write a LinkedIn recommendation about how helpful the
person was.
▫ Let them know when you follow up with someone they referred
▫ Keep them posted from time to time about your job hunt and
asking how they are.

17. Step 6: Feed Your Contacts
• Refer other people to them; help people they refer to you
• Send them job leads, grant / new business opportunities, timely and
relevant news articles, speaking engagements, or other ideas or
resources that will either help their organization or help them
personally whenever possible.
• Retweet their tweets, publicize their organization, etc.
• Send birthday greetings / holiday wishes if you know ‘em like that
• Go back to steps 4 through 6 until you land a job, then go to step 7.

18. Step 7: Thank Everyone!
• Thank everyone who helped you get a job!

19. Exercise 2: Who Can Help You Get
There?
• Identify 10 contacts:
▫ 5 people you know
▫ 5 prospects.
• Designate them as one
of these four categories
èèèèè

20. Discovering Connections On GovLoop
How do you find people you know and prospects
on GovLoop?
• Click on “Members” from the GovLoop home page.
• On the following page, click “Advanced Search.”
• You can also go directly to
http://www.govloop.com/profiles/members/advancedSearch
• Search by Name, Title, Current Agency or Organization…or
even Educational Background.
• Once you find someone you know or that interests, send them
a Friend Request (private) or leave a note on their Comment
Wall (public).
• http://www.govloop.com/profiles/blogs/
government-resume-makeover-jacob-hoots-edition

21. Discovering Connections On GovLoop

22. GovGigs
• GovGigs: Find, Land, Keep and Leap
• As part of its “GovGigs” initiatives, GovLoop
offers four key services and tools to accelerate
your career advancement:
▫ Rock Your Resume
▫ GovLoop Mentors
▫ YGL
▫ Free Online Training/Resources

23. Rock Your Resume
• Over 100 people have received resume reviews!
• Secured the expertise of two top-notch expert reviewers
• Conducting 10 resume reviews each month
• Free service offered exclusively to GovLoop members.
• Here’s how it works:
▫ Become a member of GovLoop (if you aren’t already)
▫ Join the “Rock Your Resume Group” -
http://www.govloop.com/group/rockyourresume
▫ Submit your resume with some context.
▫ Get a review; post your edited resume so other
members can learn from the process.

24. GovLoop Mentors Program
• First-of-its-kind, government-wide program
• 50 Mentor Matches began August 22
• Pilot runs through mid-November
• Sign up now and get ready for 2012!
• Here’s how you become a mentor or mentee:
• Go to http://mentors.govloop.com
• Determine if you want to be a mentor or mentee.
• Complete your profile.

25. Free Online Training / Resources
• Free, hour-long, online trainings every month
• Guides & infographics with easy-to-read career advice
Archives of Free Online Training
• “Find the Right Gov Gig For You”
http://www.govloop.com/group/rockyourresume/forum/topics/
rocking-resource-how-to-find
• “Get That Gov Gig: How To Network in a Tricky Job Environment”
http://www.govloop.com/group/rockyourresume/forum/topics/
rocking-resource-networking-archive-and-slides
• “How Stunning Storytelling Can Advance Your Government Career”
http://www.govloop.com/group/rockyourresume/forum/topics/
rocking-resource-storytelling

26. Links to Guides and Infographics
Guides and Infographs
• “Building Your Resume on USAJOBS”
http://www.govloop.com/group/rockyourresume/forum/topics/
rock-your-resume-usajobsstyle
• “4 Winning Tips for a Successful Job Interview”
http://www.govloop.com/group/rockyourresume/forum/topics/
rocking-resource-4-winning
• “10 Tips for Letting Federal Employers Know Your Worth”
http://www.govloop.com/group/rockyourresume/forum/topics/10-
tips-for-letting-federal
• “New Hire Handbook”
http://www.govloop.com/page/new-hire-handbook

27. Jobs.GovLoop.Com
• Launching next week
(your sneak peek!)
• Goal: make it easier for ▫ acquisition,
▫ budgeting
you to narrow down
▫ communications
potential job matches. ▫ generalist
• Every week: receive 10 ▫ human resources
new jobs in one of ▫ information technology
▫ $100K+ jobs
several areas èèèè

29. On GovLoop: Learn from Experts and
Peers - Blogs
While there are scores of bloggers covering every issue
imaginable on GovLoop, these three people cover careers:
Dianne Floyd Sutton
President, Sutton Enterprises
Heather Krasna
Director, Career Services, Evans School of Public Affairs,
Univ. of Washington
Kathleen Smith
Chief Marketing Officer, ClearedJobs.net
View all of the top blog posts at:
http://www.govloop.com/profiles/blog/list?promoted=1

30. Candace’s Story
“Honestly,I was bored, unemployed, and
going through my morning ritual of
sending out about 25-30 resumes a day. I
did a Google search for something like
"Government Contract Administration"
and stumbled on a GovLoop blog post. I
dug through the site, including the job
board, and signed up!” – Candace
View all of the top blog posts at:
http://www.govloop.com/profiles/blog/list?promoted=1

31. GovLoop Forums
• Of course, one of the best ways for you to find
answers to your questions or position yourself
as an expert is to check out the Forum section
on GovLoop: TIP:
Be
sure
to
use
the
search
func/on
• Ask: in
the
blogs
and
www.govloop.com/forum/topic/new
forums
to
find
• Answer: content
most
www.govloop.com/forum/category/listByTitle relevant
to
you.

32. Top 7 Tips for LinkedIn
1. Make sure your profile is complete and up to date!

33. Tip 2: Search your Email Contacts to
Find Connections

34. Tip 3: Find Awesome People

35. Tip 4: Join, Create and Participate in
Groups

36. Tip 5: Recommend your colleagues
(and request recommendations).

37. Tip 6: Search, Save and Have the Jobs
Delivered to You

38. Tip 7: Integrate Your Other Social
Media Accounts
• Blog
• Reading List
• Slideshare
• Twitter

39. Jeffrey’s Story
• Started the Chief Learning Officers Network in
late November 2008.
• Goal was to get 20-30 folks over a period of a
year or so.
• I started the group because nothing was in
existence in LinkedIn and thought our
community needed something – a place, a
forum, something to communicate around
ideas.
• Today, 400+ members in the group

40. 5 Quick Lessons from Jeffrey’s
LinkedIn Success
1. Focused, active engagement leads to the greatest returns.
2. As with any endeavor, the more you give, the more you
receive.
3. Although the hallmarks of social media are openness,
transparency and participation, it is okay to limit access
to your network if that ties back to your ultimate goal.
4. Establish a clear set of outcomes and a vision for the
future.
5. Bigger is not always better.

41. Facebook
• Not Professional?
• Facebook is not usually seen as a professional
networking site. Yet few social networks can
cause more trouble for your career than
Facebook. You all know how to use Facebook to
connect with friends and family…so this section
focuses more on the fine line between fun and
infamy.

42. Facebook App: Branch Out
• Helps you expand your career
network to include everyone you
know on Facebook.
• You can expand your career network
through all of your friends on
Facebook.
• Key feature: Branchout syncs with
LinkedIn – a pretty sweet feature if
you don’t mind mixing business

43. Facebook App: Branch Out

44. Exercise 3: What Can Stall Your
Journey?
• Form a small group with 4-5 people around you.
• Select a scenario from the next two pages.
• Assign a spokesperson and a note-taker.
• Using the worksheet, take 10 minutes to address the
scenario assigned to your group.
• Be ready to share with the large group!
• We’ll address each scenario for 5-10 minutes.

45. Scenario 1 – To Friend or Not To Friend?
When Eva hears the news she has earned a spot at the prestigious State
Department International Fellow program, she is ecstatic as she prepares
to leave Latvia and travel to the US for one year. Her fellow students in the
program are from all over the world and want to know all about her -
where she is from, what languages she speaks, what her hometown looks
like. “Are you on Facebook?” they ask.
After much convincing, Eva decides to join Facebook and begins accepting
friend requests from everyone in the program. Since DC has a great
nightlife, she starts posting lots of pictures from outings with her new
friends. One afternoon, she gets a friend request from her supervisor. This
supervisor was the one who originally accepted her application into the
program, and will be on the panel to decide if she will be placed
in a select group of students to intern with a US company
when the program ends.

46. Scenario 1 – To Friend or Not To Friend?
Questions:
• Should Eva accept the friend request from her
supervisor?
• How can Eva ensure that she doesn’t miss out on
valuable connections while maintaining a comfortable
level of privacy and maintain her reputation?
• Should a supervisor send a friend request to direct
reports?

47. Scenario 2: The Office Offense
Dan and Jeff are like oil and water in the office. Despite sharing a
common mission, they can't seem to get along. They're always taking
not-so-subtle digs at one another in meetings and small camps of
sympathetic colleagues have formed around each of them.
The problem: they are both excellent performers overall, meeting
deadlines and accomplishing team goals. However, things really
seemed to have gone too far when Dan found an unflattering
personal photo of Jeff on Flickr, posted it on his Facebook page and
used it as his screen saver at the office.
Jeff spoke with Dan's supervisor and reported the incident to HR.
Dan was forced to take the image off his work computer but refused
to remove it from his Facebook page, stating that he could do what he
wanted with his personal account.

48. Scenario 2: The Office Offense
Questions:
• How would you handle this type of situation
from the perspective of Dan's supervisor?
• How about from the vantage point of HR?
• As a colleague?

49. Scenario 3: Venting in the Wrong Venue
Karla is a Program Analyst at an agency. After a
particularly difficult day, Karla is frustrated after an
interaction with a colleague in another agency and makes
the following comment on her Facebook page: “Had to
deal with difficult [insert position here] at [insert agency
here]. Typical bureaucracy! I’m sure glad I don’t work at
that agency…and especially not with her.” She makes the
comment after work hours from a home computer.

50. Scenario 3: Venting in the Wrong Venue
Questions
• What if this really happened? Would / should Karla lose
her job?
• What would be a fair policy in terms of how agency
employees should use social media during their personal
time?

51. Scenario 4: Digging Up Dirt
Vanessa is a hiring manager for your agency. She has discovered
that Google, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are all effective tools for
rounding out the qualifications and determining the cultural fit of
potential candidates for position vacancies. One candidate is highly
qualified for an opening, but Vanessa discovers in her web search
that the individual belongs to a special interest group with which she
strongly disagrees. For that reason, Vanessa does not forward the
candidate's information to the supervisor for review and
consideration. Another member of the HR team learns about
Vanessa's decision and elevates the issue to the Office of the Chief
Human Capital Officer.

52. Scenario 4: Digging Up Dirt
Questions
• What kind of policy would you develop to protect
potential candidates from experiencing this kind of
discrimination?
• What if the person truly would not have been a solid
culture fit (i.e. could create significant tension among
team members) based on their affiliation?
• What if you learned that this happened to you in
applying for a job? How would you react?

53. Twitter Advice
12 COMMANDMENTS
FOR GOV on TWITTER
1. Thou Shalt Not Spam
2. Thou shalt not leave my profile
info blank
3. Thou shalt not forget the rules
4. Thou shalt not bite the hand that
feeds
5. Thou shalt not hide my affiliations
6. Thou shalt not Bait and switch
7. Thou shalt Tweet regularly
8. Thou shalt contribute to the
conversation
9. Thou shalt be selective about who I
follow
10. Thou shalt use lists
11. Thou shalt grow my followers
the right way
12. Thou shalt seek the greater Good

54. Twitter Links and Resources
• 6 Suggestions for Taking Twitter to Another Level
• Follow lists
• Don’t follow these people!
• Don’t do it this way!
Use listening tools (i.e. apps)
• http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/17-best-twitter-
apps-for-2011-930383
• http://tweeparties.com/blog/2011/08/08/best-twitter-apps-
for-your-mobile-phone/
• Follow hashtags.

55. Twitter Resources
“How to Win Friends and Twinfluence People”
Advice from Dr. Mark Drapeau (@cheeky_geeky)
WIN FRIENDS TWINFLUENCE PEOPLE
1. Be unique, but be yourself 6. Find the influencers
2. Participate in conversation 7. Become an authority
3. Provide value to a 8. Be creative
community 9. Reward with shout-outs
4. Attract loyal followers 10. Always have fun
5. Mix microsharing with
other outlets

58. Stephanie & Sonny’s Story
“I'm job hunting right now, and I've found social
media to be extremely helpful for networking
purposes. LinkedIn and Twitter in particular
have helped me connect with a bunch of
potential future employers.”
“I first heard about my current job vacancy via
Twitter :) So I can say without any reservation
that social media has helped my career in a
significant way.”

59. Four Fantastic Ways to Get Organized With Google
1. Search Yourself

60. Four Fantastic Ways to Get Organized With Google
2. Set Up Google Alerts

61. Four Fantastic Ways to Get Organized With Google
3. Get a Reader

62. Four Fantastic Ways to Get Organized With Google
4. Check Out Google+

63. Find Your Voice
• Got something to say and need a place to say it?
▫ Blogging gives your voice a written outlet.
▫ If speaking’s your thing, try podcasting.

66. Chris’ Story
“Social media allows me to network with
like-minded people in the areas I wish to
advance my career. This is huge. When
trying to look for that next step in my
professional career, it allows me to
integrate with companies, people in the
TIP:
Be
sure
careers I'm interested in, best practices,
to
review
this
etc. It has also given me a location to
infograph
showcase my talents and create portfolios
online
of my work.”

67. Exercise 4: So What Will You Do Next
to Hit the Gas?
• What are 3 actions you will take in the
next week?
• What are 3 additional actions you will
take by the end of September?

68. My 3 Actions for YOU!
1. Join GovLoop:
www.govloop.com/main/authorization/signUp
2. Friend Me:
www. govloop.com/profile/AndrewKrzmarzick
3. Find Me on LinkedIn:
www.linkedin.com/in/andrewkrzmarzick