Job Searching with Social Media For Dummies
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LinkedIn has opened its code up to developers who want to help augment the site for job seekers. Many of their new innovations are useful during a job search and have happened internally.

LinkedIn Today

LinkedIn Today is a social-network-empowered news reporting service. You see a mini version of LinkedIn Today as the very first screen at login as well as in your e-mail inbox (if your settings allow).

Today reports news items based on your chosen industry as well as their popularity in your own network. It’s a great way to discover trending news topics that are more likely to be relevant to you.

LinkedIn Resume Builder

Some people keep your LinkedIn profile more up to date than your résumé. With the Resume Builder, you can export your LinkedIn profile into a classy-looking résumé.

Just visit the Builder and link your account. Then you can choose which style of résumé you want.

LinkedIn Labs

LinkedIn continues to innovate its platform. When it develops a relatively stable version, it releases it for beta users on LinkedIn Labs.

Here are three great Lab features are:

  • InMaps: Creates an interactive color-coded network map of all of your connections, quickly showing you who knows who and what industries they are in.

  • Swarm: Displays a scrolling word map of current company searches on LinkedIn as they’re happening in real time.

  • Year in Review: Shows everyone in your network who changed jobs last year.

Bookmarklet

A bookmarklet is a mini-app that performs some function from the bookmarks area of your web browser. When activated, the LinkedIn Bookmarklet launches the LinkedIn Share feature for whatever web page you’re on. So if you’re reading a great article on how to win any ping-pong match and how that relates to project management, you can share it to your network and to your project-management groups.

To install the Bookmarklet, simply drag the icon to your bookmark bar.

Signature Wizard

Want to use a professionally designed e-mail signature to tell each person you e-mail to connect with you on LinkedIn? LinkedIn aims to please with its e-mail-signature creation wizard. After logging into your account, choose the design that most appeals to you. Then follow the on-page instructions for your particular e-mail client.

LinkedIn Mobile

In 2012, the number of mobile devices sold exceeded the world’s population. LinkedIn certainly knows the proliferation of mobile devices, which is why it has put so much effort into developing an award winning-mobile app (for smartphone only, of course — no flip phones allowed!).

Card Munch

Ever come back from a networking event with a stack of business cards? Then you have to type them all in, one by one. What a drag. Well, Card Munch lets you take a picture of a business card with your phone, and in a few moments will parse it out and create a contact record, look the person up on LinkedIn, and give you an option to connect.

LinkedIn Contacts

This mobile app unifies your contacts from all the various parts of your online life, including your phone’s contacts, your computer’s, your LinkedIn network, and Card Munch. By integrating with Gmail, LinkedIn Contacts can tell you your last three e-mails with that contact. You can set reminders to stay in touch. You can even leave notes about how you met the person and who introduced you.

About This Article

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About the book author:

Joshua Waldman, MBA, is an authority on leveraging social media to find employment. His writing has appeared in Forbes, Huffington Post, Mashable, and the International Business Times. Joshua's career blog, CareerEnlightenment.com, won the About.com Readers' Choice Award for Best Career Blog 2013. Joshua presents keynotes, trainings, and breakout sessions around the world for students, career advisors, and professional organizations.

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