As 2011 approaches it’s time to evaluate those habits and mistakes you constantly made in 2010 and vow to leave them behind as you enter the New Year. Start 2011 off without those negative habits that may be holding you back, bad habits such as hindering your job search process by allowing errors to happen on your LinkedIn profile!

Hey everyone! My name is Monica Karkhanis and I am currently a sophomore communication major with a focus in public relations at the University of Maryland, College Park. This is my first semester as an intern for Think Talk and I am really excited to blog about social media and how it can help your career. Find me on Twitter and be sure to continue following ThinkTalk!

Hello all of you ThinkTalker's! To continue my theme of the use of social media and networking I wanted to narrow in on one of the steps Dan Schawbel mentions in his article “HOW TO: Leverage Social Media for Career Success,” selecting the right outlet, or media tool.

In Schawbel’s social media guide, he elaborates on how you can use social media tools to create online profiles that represents your own personal brand and sells you to potential employers for careers. Seems easy, right?

Well the problem for many students, like me, is the overwhelming number of networking sites you can register on and use. Katie Eby, a sophomore sociology major from Frederick, MD., said, “I find it really difficult to keep up with all my social networking accounts, I wish I only had to have one tailored to my own career interests.”

Luckily, for students like Katie, Schawbel points out in his article that career-specific networking websites DO exist. These networking sites are created for connecting students and professionals to specific fields and careers.

Websites like Medical Mingle (a networking site for doctors) and Active Rain (a site for real estate agents) exist and their relevance to your specific field of choice is important to building your personal brand and creating an online resume that will reach potential employers. Schawbel’s reason for joining websites suited for your interests, aside from Facebook, is simple, “You’ll want to join these because you’ll meet people just like you.”

And he is right. For me, my interests lay heavily in the field of public relations, so joining a networking site tailored specifically for public relations students and professionals I now know will further help me in distributing my resume to the organizations and people who share the same interests.

I leave you with Schawbel’s three sets of criteria in choosing the right social networking tool to create your personal brand:

1) The volume of the social network is an important qualification because you want to market yourself where a lot of people are already searching for people that have your expertise

2) The credibility of social networks helps you consider only the tools that have successful individuals you would want to network with to help your career

3)The relevancy of the social network, as it ties in to your career and industry

So remember, there is more out there than Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn. Expand your possibilities and search for that networking site that will be helpful in finding you your next internship or job. Best of luck!

Hey everyone! My name is Monica Karkhanis and I am currently a sophomore communication major with a focus in public relations at the University of Maryland, College Park. This is my first semester as an intern for Think Talk and I am really excited to blog about social media and how it can help your career. Find me on Twitter and be sure to continue following ThinkTalk!

In my last blog I talked about how establishing a strong online social network is important both for companies and for yourself. Having Facebook or Twitter not only keeps you in touch and up to date with your friends and family, it makes is possible for future employers to find out more about you as well. Whether or not you choose to use your social networking profiles for more than just, the obvious- social networking- potential employers can take advantage of Web sites we all know and use to find out lots of little details about you.

Employers can (and most will) Google you, Facebook you or find you on Twitter. Sounds scary, right? Fortunately (or unfortunately—depending on how you look at it as) you do not have to be a part of the CIA to find out everything you want to know about another individual. All you need is access to the Internet and you’re ready to stalk.

Last summer, Careerbuilder.com released the results from a survey of employers and how they use social media that should be enough to scare some sense into college students. According to the results, forty-five percent of employers use social networking sites to research job candidates:

Job seekers are cautioned to be mindful of the information they post online and how they communicate directly with employers. Thirty-five percent of employers reported they have found content on social networking sites that caused them not to hire the candidate. The top examples cited include:

• Candidate posted provocative or inappropriate photographs or information - 53 percent
• Candidate posted content about them drinking or using drugs - 44 percent
• Candidate bad-mouthed their previous employer, co-workers or clients - 35 percent
• Candidate showed poor communication skills - 29 percent
• Candidate made discriminatory comments - 26 percent

This presents a problem for many college students who are currently searching for a job or an internship while being careless with their profiles. Photos from the weekend and status updates that are being used to blow off steam can easily influence a potential employer’s view of you—before you even had a chance to be formally interviewed. This does not always seem fair, but the truth of the matter is, employers and hiring managers are going to be looking for an individual who appropriately represents their company or brand. What better way to do so than to see how you present your self through the World Wide Web?

You need to be aware of any and all content published to your pages—including photos, status updates, tweets, comments, groups you join and even pages you become a “fan of.” The second my mom friend requested me on Facebook was the second I realized I really needed to watch what goes up on my page. If you would not want your mother to see it, my opinion is to avoid publishing it to your website, because once you upload something it is online for more eyes to see than just those on your friend lists.

In an article about proper social networking etiquette in Forbes, Nancy Rothbard, a management professor at Wharton, emphasizes the damage you can do to your professional reputation by giving too much information away online:

Rothbard says that in face-to-face communications, people are much more careful about the volume and nature of the information they disclose. On the Internet, however, "there is a lot of lack of awareness--or obliviousness--about who is receiving this information." Someone using Twitter, for example, may think that only 20 people will read their message; meanwhile, millions of unknown people may stumble upon the information.

I know I’ve sometimes slipped up when I update my Facebook status, tweet my frustrations or forget to untag myself from unflattering photos that my college friends upload. We tend to forget that we are in a new hiring era now where our parents, professors and employers all use social networking as part of the hiring process.

You may be the most qualified for a position, with a laundry list of experience and well-deserved recommendations from college professors and former bosses, but if your Facebook page is stock full of provocative or questionable photos, you can be sure that your chances of landing that sweet internship or incredible job will be less than you would hope for.

On the plus side, because social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others are becoming increasingly popular, using your networking sites in an appropriate and mindful way can help you land a job. This article from the HRGuru gives a run down on the top networking sites employers use to find good candidates for open positions.

So next time you see a fan page labeled “Wasted Wednesdays” or you are sent a group invite to join a funny but provocative club, I would think twice. Stay tuned to find what things job seekers should be doing to their profiles instead.

Are you tired of parents and professors telling you that all that time you spend on Facebook and YouTube could be affecting your grades? Well, now you have some data to throw back at them. The Whitmore School of Business at the University of New Hampshire has released a new study on the correlation between social network usage and grades, and found that there isn't much of one (via Inside Higher Ed's Quick Takes).

Grades followed similar distributions for all colleges, with the majority of students earning A's and B's. The study showed that more students use Facebook and YouTube than any other social media platform. Blogs, Twitter, MySpace, and LinkedIn had significantly lower amounts of student users. Students from the business school had the highest percentage of users of blogs, Twitter, and LinkedIn while liberal arts students were the highest percentage of MySpace users.

The researchers studied 1,100 students across a variety of disciplines at UNH and found some other useful findings. Facebook is the most popular social networking site (duh!) with 96% of students surveyed using the site. What's surprising, however, is that only 10% of the students used LinkedIn. Personally, this is a bit disappointing. LinkedIn can be a powerful networking tool for your career, and should be fired up around the time of your first internship as a way to connect with colleagues, and form an evolving record of your employment.

For all of the data, download a summary of the findings here.

Jennifer Carpenter, writing over at Cheezhead, relates the results of a survey of HR executives conducted by Challenger, Grey, & Christmas. Among other things the survey looked at how HR execs were hiring new employees.

The most important results of the survey seem to be in regards to networking - both on an offline. The executives ranked 3.98 out of 5 in the level of importance (5 being the highest) with social networking coming up next with a 3.3.

This is important for a number of reasons, but what stands out most to me is the importance of cultivating both your ON and OFFLINE communities. Focusing on just one aspect of networking is going to put you behind other job seekers. You need a well rounded approach.

For more info on networking and social networking, check out the ThinkTalk Blog archives.

It's Monday, the start of another glorious week of The Links ...

Alison's Job Search Blog Provides the Most Useful Answers to Popular Interview Questions: No one wants to be stumped in an interview and come off like a mumbling, stammering, fool. Alison Doyle offers answers to questions like "what is your greatest weakness" and how to come up with your own questions for the interviewer.

My Global Career Offers a Few Words To Say If and When You Get Fired: I know, you don't want to think about that. But just in case: "try and paint a picture for your boss that portrays your remaining at the company in a positive light, and creates a vision of you as an employee determined to pull your weight, to excel, and be beneficial to the company? In other words, how can you–on the spot–change your boss’s mind and help her see that doing so will be to her advantage?"

The Career Doctor Discusses Career Portfolios: "I am a big proponent of career portfolios because they are just another selling tool in the job-seeker’s career toolbox. A resume states what someone has accomplished, but a portfolio can actually show it! There is nothing more powerful, in my mind, than pulling out a hefty portfolio of your work and placing it on the interviewer’s desk with a resounding 'thump.'"

Cheezhead Advises to Put Your Personal Brand Above Your Schools: Chris Perry points out (rightly, I think) that while it is important what school you go to, it will not make or break your career. It is just as important to prove what value YOU provide. "If you have attended what is considered to be a “top school,” do not make the mistake of being overly confident by believing that your school’s reputation will be the tipping point in getting you the job. Your personal brand must be even more impressive than the brand of your alma mater. Steer interview conversation to your personal achievements, strengths and contributions."

"Too Many Social Networks" courtesy M. Keefe via Flickr Creative Commons

If you are a college student or a recent grad, you almost certainly spend much of time on the internet - and a significant portion of that on social networking sites like Facebook (definitely), YouTube (You bet), Twitter (not too much) or MySpace (Whose space?). But, how do you spend your time on these popular sites?

Well, if - like most people - you use them to gossip, watch stupid videos or post inappropriate pics, you are wasting your time. The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that finally business are getting smart about Social Networks ... IBM has announced a Facebook Application to find mentors for students.

Through a Facebook application, which IBM plans to offer in a pilot program in the United States this fall, students like Mr. Vogt, a sophomore at Pace University, can find mentors to give them practical or career advice, or oversee student projects, said Tim Willeford, a spokesman for IBM.

“We have existing mentorship programs within IBM, so it’s a natural extension that we’re trying to connect experts of multiple disciplines to university students,” Mr. Willeford said. “It’s one of the next steps in education.” ...

“Facebook and MySpace are great places for social networking, but they don’t really have a goal. They don’t make the kind of connections you need to move forward,” Mr. Vogt said. “This platform is helping students say, Here are my ideas, and IBM is saying, Come work with us and we’ll help you.”

It's good to see companies getting smart about using the sites to reach out to students where they are comfortable. These sites have a lot of potential, and in a career-related function can be useful to extend and capitalize on your network to land a job. I hope to see more companies reaching out across multiple platforms to provide opportunities like this for students.

On to The Links ...

GradSpot Suggests Careers For Night Owls: Aside from the obvious jobs of Bartending, club promoting and hospitality (hotels/casinos) GS adds "many companies (at least the ones that don't outsource to India!) need people to handle administrative tasks before the daytime workers get to the office in the morning—look out for data entry positions at financial services institutions or copy editing gigs at daily newspapers, for example." I would include financial services that deal with Europe/Asia as well.

Your HR Shares How His Blog Landed Him a Job: He found a niche community, contributed to it and networked out a gig. Advice for you: "If you think of blogging like you do networking, you need to start a blog, contribute and become a part of the community before you can leverage it to help you find a great job (either by your choice or the company’s)."

The Washington Post Advises on Email Etiquette: Specifically, the all-important sign off. "Will Schwalbe, co-author with David Shipley of 'Send: Why People Email So Badly and How to Do It Better,' warns, 'You can really do a lot of damage, even with a careless closing. And one of the terrifying things about e-mail is: You may never know.'" This is why I end all my emails with "Get Bent" ... no confusion on that one.

Keppie Careers Discusses Online Transparency: And it's an important and relevant discussion; how much info to share. Share to little and you damage the benefits of Online Branding. Share too much, and you risk crossing a line that an employer might not appreciate. I think the best advice is to carefully consider each piece of information you put on the web, before you put it out there.

Jibber Jobber Laughs at the College Grad Suing Her College for Her Inability to Get a Job: "In summary, this person went to school, apparently got a BA degree in something to do with 'information technology,' and I guess couldn’t land a job. So she is suing saying her career services office 'didn’t [live] up to its end of the deal [by] offering her the leads and employment advice it promised.' This recent grad has lived at home with her mom, who is a substitute teacher and is 'the only one of the two who makes any money.'"

Jibber Jobber Explains How NOT To Spend Your Time When Unemployed: "What's scary, at least to me, is that on any given day only 20% are spending time job searching, mostly in the morning and early afternoon. I know job searching is hard work, and it can be easier to try and avoid it. However, you're not going to find a job if you don't work at it. It's that simple."

Twitter’s the new guy on the social networking scene, but has already taken off at an insane rate. This last week saw several celebrities and CNN in a media-hyped race to become the first Twitter “Millionaire.” Sally Falkow at The Leading Edge said:

This week several celebrities and mainstream media outlets raced to be the first Twitter user to get 1,000,000 followers. Ashton Kutcher won. CNN was second. Oprah featured Twitter on her show and started tweeting. In just a few days she’s got half a million followers. According to PC World unscientific estimates put the number of new users signing up in the post-Oprah days anywhere from 500,000 to 1.2 million. Those figures come from looking at the progression of user ID numbers assigned to new accounts.

According to Twitterholic.com, Brittney Spears, President Obama, actress Ellen DeGeneres, performer John Mayer, Shaquille O’Neal, Jimmy Fallon and Twitter itself are also in the top ten twitter feeds, each with more than 600,000 followers. Safe to say that Twitter is creating a good amount of buzz.

Just like warnings started flying as Facebook gained popularity, career experts are warning Twitter users to “watch what you tweet.” The ResumeBear just had a post about 30 Ways to Loose a Job on Twitter. There are a collection of dumb tweets posted by employees who obviously don’t get that there’s always somebody watching.

Rather than tweeting, “I am currently trying to decide what disease to fake so I can leave work early today. I have it narrowed down to lupus or scurvy.” (seriously?) try finding a job instead. Cheezhead clued me in to this great list about the top 15 job apps on Twitter. Take TwitterJobSearch for example. Cheezhead noticed they’ve posted 44,165 jobs in the past week. That’s nothing to sneeze at. I also liked the idea of NearByTweets, where you can search Twitter by Keyword and Location to find out if there are any jobs open in your area.

I heart Twitter, Oprah... and The Links:

ReadWriteWeb Announces: That you have a say is what Google says about you. Starting yesterday, you can type "me" in Google search and will be able to create Google profile.

The ResumeGirl Has: Still more last minute job tips for graduating seniors. When I graduated, I dreaded the inevitable "So what are you plans now?" questions. If there are any of these tips you're not using yet, they could help.

Jacob Share at BrazenCareerist Holds Out: That temping really is one of the best options right now. There have been a lot of posts about temporary agencies recently (see exhibit A and B). If you are struggling in your job search, don't be afraid to try it.

The Personal Branding Blog Offers: A simple checklist to ensure that you are ready for your next networking meeting. Dan Schawbel says, "There are two things people want to see in a networking meeting: enthusiasm or passion, and what you bring to the table. Make sure that you incorporate both these answers into your story about your history and your goals." If you are networking as part of your job search, this is a good article.

If you aren’t on Twitter, it’s about time. I mean, Oprah is on Twitter. You have no excuses left. And when you get on Twitter, make sure to check us out!

Welcome to the Daily Roundup. Each day at the ThinkTalk Blog we will post some links that we find informative, interesting, or just plain funny. The goal is to let you know what else is going on out there, and ultimately help you with the development of your career.