The Power of Social Media | A LinkedIn Picture Map
The Power of Social Media has changed the way we do business. I’ve often heard it’s not how much you know it’s who you know. And to a certain extent this seems to be true. Here’s how my career path progressed from high school.
My first job was working as “joe everything” at my Family’s Restaurant – The Oriental Pearl. I was a shoe in for the job…my main connection was the owner of the company.
At age 18 I decided to get experience outside of the Family business.
Sold Webster’s Dictionaries door-to-door…I got this job by applying to and ad…I did have any connections. This company would have hired anyone with a pulse.
Sold Kirby Vacuums, again I had a pulse…a key trait required for getting the job.
Bicycle Courier, great job, got fit and got paid well to hustle. A family friend worked at this company and I got the job no questions asked.
Civil Engineering – Summer Help with the Manitoba Department of Highways and Transportation. A couple of my friends worked there and put in a word for me. But do university students pull any weight in the hiring decision? In this case – NO. My sheer determination to land this job got me in the seat.
Summer Student at Richardson Greenshields – this was a job posting at the Summer Student Job Board. I didn’t have any connections for this one…got hired with my charm. Although, I think that the fact the job was partly subsidized by the government had something to do with me getting hired.
TD Bank, this was my first job out of University and I landed this job based on their campus interview process. The TD Bank turned out to be a 10 year career with various job postings and career advancements. I believe most of my moves in the bank were based on a combination of reputation and who you knew. Most movers and shakers in the bank wanted to move up as well so they tended to be the ones that “got it”. Meaning…surround yourself with good high performing people that make you look good. If you performed and maintained good relationships with these upwardly mobile people – opportunity would come your way. In a sense, my career path was like surfing a wave…at almost 10 years it was a nice one at that.
My job at CJOB/POWER97 came as a result of a friend introducing me to the General Sales Manager of the station. My friend Blair put in a good word for me I’m sure…but I believe I got the job based on skills and talent.
My role at Pizza Hotline, came about as a result of being a client centric Account Executive at the radio station. If you focus on the client good things happen…and in this case I got a tremendous opportunity to hone my skills working with a market leader.
My current role as Sales & Marketing Strategist at Naida Communications came as a result of rekindled university friendship. His company worked on a marketing piece for Pizza Hotline…I got to know Jeff and his company better and made the decision to join him.
As you can see, my career progression has been largely shaped by hard work,good reputation and enhanced by people I know.
Your hard work and reputation can be further leveraged with the efficiency of Social Media. How? think more job opportunities, more joint venture opportunities, more sales opportunities. Having said this, you can’t just sign up for a LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter account and expect things to happen. Things happen when you engage, get connected and offer value. Improve your odds twofold by getting a warm lead in…it’s worked for me and I’m sure it would work for you too.
Check out my LinkedIn Map Network…it’s a cool feature that LinkedIn offers to help you see how your world is interconnected. First you need to be LinkedIn, then you need to get connected by reaching out to people, then you can get your MAP done by going here. What you see below is my ZOOMED out version but when you ZOOMIN…you see all the names beside the dots.
