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Thanks to Joshua Waldman, I was lucky enough to get an advanced copy of Job Searching with Social Media For Dummies. I don’t usually do book reviews on this blog, but this is an important topic. Social media has completely transformed the world of recruitment and job searching in the last 5-6 years. Any modern job seeker needs to at least be aware of the social aspects of job searching… and mastering these tools can be key to landing the right job quicker.

Job Searching with Social Media For Dummies is aimed at the average job seeker. It assumes that the reader has at best a medium understanding of the internet. It assumes you at least know what blogs are and probably have a LinkedIn profile. So, if your mother wonders “what a blog is” then this might be a bit advanced for her.

But if you’re familiar with social sites, Google, Twitter and all that, then this book offers some comprehensive strategies that are key for a social media job seeker. It will help you understand how to:

• Manage your on-line reputation, which can be key, key, key. Do you just assume, “Well, I’m a nobody, so I’m not on the internet.” Big mistake! You need to know what an employer will find if they search for you.
• Effectively utilize your existing online networks.
• Use LinkedIn as the driving force to manage your professional online professional brand.
• Make Google work for you, not against you.
• Use Twitter to build an online reputation.
• Manage your time online.

All in all, the book is comprehensive and pretty excellent. In it’s more in-depth sections, it goes into social tools even beyond LinkedIn and recommends advanced strategies like keyword marketing and CRM contact databases. I think the book could have touched more on the more advanced tools that are out there (especially for creative professionals and those in the media) such as Wix, Weebly and portfolio repositories like figdig.com. But all in all, this is a “For Dummies” career guide that has been sorely needed for some time now.

You can order it from Amazon here.

Related posts:

1. Kickstart – Social Networking For Jobs?
2. Social Networking Sites As Job Search?
3. Why Job Searching Is Like Dating
4. Don’t Sweat That Year End Performance Review
5. Job Hunting Tips: Ideas For Undercover, Stealth Job Searching!