New ways to promote yourself - Dirk Singer

1. Promoting yourself via social media
Dirk Singer, Twitter - dirktherabbit

2. Some stats to set the
scene

3. 1 - Facebook nation
Facebook now reaches almost half the
UK population
One in six Internet pages viewed is on
Facebook

4. The newspaper market in every OECD country shrunk 2007-2009, in the
case of the UK -21%
2) Newspaper death watch

5. Newspaper death watch
The newspaper
audience is literally
dying out - 32% of
under 25s read a print
publication every day,
compared to 60% of
over 55s.
By comparison, 80% of
under 25s use their
mobile every day and
79% PC+Internet

6. The rise of media stacking
83 minutes a day is
spent consuming two
different types of
media concurrently -
in particular TV +
Internet)

7. The social media boundary is moving beyond
‘boomers’
The fastest growing group on
Facebook is women 45+,
more baby boomers in their
50s are starting to adopt
social media, putting the
boundary at people in their
60s

8. Search in decline (for brands, not for news)
The total volume of searches is
down 16% in the US with social
media playing a part. But -
more people are searching for
news online

9. People believe their online friends - even if
they’ve never met them
Harris Survey from the US, %
influenced to use products by
different media. For the under
35s:
Social media friends 50%
Newspaper reviews 45%
Blog reviews 41%
Celebrities 17%

10. How can you take advantage of this
personally?

11. Promoting yourself online? Here is one way of doing it

12. The results?
• $6 in Google Ad Words for five
creative directors, resulted in:
• Four job interviews
• Two job offers
• 700k+ YouTube views
• Countless blog and online
coverage

13. My Google search profile
I’ve got an extensive digital
footprint, as you’d expect - I’m
also easily found due to an unusual
name. But I could do better, over
half the links on here point to
things from my previous job 6+
months ago
However, I’ve won at least one
piece of business when someone
Googled me (and a colleague from
Rabbit) to make sure we really
were active in social media

14. Where to find me
• Twitter - twitter.com/dirktherabbit
• Blog - liesdamnedliesstatistics.com
• LinkedIn
• Netvibes - netvibes.com/dirkthecow
• Slideshare - dirkthecow
• Flavors.me/dirktherabbit
• (Also Foursquare, Gowalla)
• I am on Facebook...but have enabled all the privacy settings, and encourage
anyone using social media professionally to do the same!

15. From Rabbit - we generally hire via social
media
Two people we hired via social media - @louisedoherty (director and founder Rabbit),
@zoewithdots (consultant, found when we were looking for a graduate - our starting point was
to go through our existing Twitter lists). We took people we already knew online - and will
probably continue to go so going forward

16. And we’re not alone...
Challenger, Gray and Christmas did a
survey on the most effective way of
getting a job among HR managers.
Bottom came the old school methods
of classified ads - classifieds having
once been the lifeblood of regional
papers - and turning up at a job fair.

17. And we’re not alone...
• A US survey from careerbuilder.com:
• 45% of employers will research a candidate via social media: 29% use Facebook, 26% use
LinkedIn and 21% use MySpace, the survey found. One-in-ten (11% ) search blogs, while 7%
follow candidates on Twitter
• 53% of survey respondents rejected candidates because they posted provocative or
inappropriate photographs or information.
• 44% passed on a candidate because they saw content related to the person drinking or
using drugs.
• 35% rejected candidates because they bad-mouthed their previous employer, co-workers or
clients.
• 24% rejected a candidate because that person lied about his/her qualifications.
• 20% did not hire a candidate because social media revealed that person had shared
confidential information from a previous employer

18. Why is a good online footprint important?
• It gives an idea of your personality - much more than a CV (or printed
document through the post) ever will
• It shows how you communicate and your interests
• It’s convenient - click through links to find out more
• If a job seeker - it shows you are proactive
• It protects your search engine reputation (which is your reputation)

19. But it’s important to get
what you say absolutely
right
(When looking at an online profile or website): “Customers make a decision within
50 milliseconds about whether or not they trust the firm, and want to do business
with them...or not.”
(Brandflakesforbreakfast)

20. A look at different
tools to use

21. Social aggregators and individual
networks

22. Examples of aggregators
Flavors.me Chi.mp Netvibes

23. Using Flavors.me

24. Using extendr

25. Using individual social tools

26. Blogging tools - good for expressing ideas, showcasing
expertise...but update at least once a week
Tumblr - Online
scrapbook
Posterous - Light,
easy to use
blogging platform
Blogger and
wordpress -
blogging tools

27. Using Twitter
Disproportionately
used by so-called
‘influencers’
Unlike Facebook,
acceptable and
normal to connect
with strangers
Use of lists - a very
powerful
networking tool

28. • Create a biog and profile that tells people a bit about yourself with link
• Select 50 people you’d like to follow - mix of industry influencers (use lists)
and people you know
• Grow your follower / following list organically - don’t (e.g.) follow 500, and
only have 50 following you back
• Listen but say something too - people won’t follow back a blank page
• Start by responding to what people are saying (means they will see you),
then move onto to posting links / interesting news
Starting a Twitter profile

29. LinkedIn
• Bottom line - make sure you have a profile. It can serve as a substitute CV
(send out the link)
• Fill in all the career information, find people from previous jobs / companies
• If a small business, claim it on LinkedIn
• Don’t be shy to ask for recommendations - what people say can be used in
future job applications
• Link to blogs, presentations etc on LinkedIn
• Join the special interest groups

30. And what about
Facebook?
In a word - don’t.
By all means, like
Facebook fan pages, or
create your own. But
when it comes to yourself,
think about ticking all the
privacy settings
Go to http://
www.reclaimprivacy.org/
to check your Facebook
settings

31. Thank you for your
time!
Contact me - email dirk at therabbitagency.com