How Much Time Should You Invest in Social Networking?

If you are unemployed, and you are not easy to find through a Google Search, then you may find it extremely difficult to find a job through Social Networking. Given the number of people I speak to weekly about their job search, I would highly recommend that you jump on the Social Networking bandwagon. Why?

• Gone are the days when you can grab a newspaper and circle jobs you are interested in, call on the phone and hope someone will talk to you about the job.
• Gone are the days when you can walk into an organization and hope to get an interview or a call back because you filled out an application.
• Gone are the days when you can sit down and send emails and resumes from your computer and hope that a recruiter or hiring manager will call you back within a week or so.

Today, the internet has become a critical tool in your job search. Connecting with people is a critical skill in the world of Social Networking. So, how much time should you invest in this new skill? In Social Networking? I honestly do not know so I did some research. I found an interesting article by Sarah Perez, Real People Don’t Have Time For Social Media. Though the title is somewhat contradictory to my topic tonight, the information in the article was very helpful to me as a blogger. And I believe to you as jobseekers, it will help you evaluate your online investment in Social Networking. Take a look at this “Real Person Scale”:

Here is a summary from Sarah Perez, Real People Don’t Have Time For Social Media:

1-5 Hours per Week = Participant

A participant is at the lower end of the scale. Participants can set up MySpace or Facebook pages and groups, run a Twitter feed, comment on blogs, and/or upload images to a site like flickr. She notes that the most time-consuming aspect of Twitter is not the broadcasting aspect but finding followers who will read your content.

5-10 Hours per Week = Content Provider

A content provider can start a blog or a podcast. Both activities require slightly more advanced technical skills and a larger time commitment. Bloggers should aim for a minimum of at least one post per week, but two or three would be better, she says. Podcasts can be as infrequent as once per month.

10-20 Hours per Week = Community Director

A community director is much more involved with social media. Here, her advice is more narrowly aimed towards museum staff, but still the overall suggestions hold up. Community directors can get involved in community web sites, work comment boards, and create projects in Second Life. Basically this category involves getting involved in larger scale activities, but, once launched and running, they don’t require full-time management.

Here’s my recommendation – If you are a job seeker, spending an hour a week won’t get the job done. As I have said in my previous post, if you are unemployed, your new job is to get a job. If that is true, then you have a responsibility to invest at least 20 hours per week in your job search if not more. 40 hours is better. You will not get a job just sending resumes out and hoping someone will call you. They won’t call. Invest in Social Networking. Add it to your job search activities.

Image Credit: Museum Two