• New Beginnings Social Media Connection

  

  Facebook announced last year that they have 1 billion users worldwide, and may double that soon. Twitter boasts that 345 million “tweets” a day come through their site. Facebook and Twitter both achieved triple-digit growth in 2009 with social networking now accounting for 15% of all time spent online. As of January 2013, LinkedIn reports more than 200 million acquired users in more than 200 countries and territories.

  The site is available in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Romanian, Russian, Turkish, Japanese, Czech, Polish, Korean, Indonesian, and Malay. Quantcast reports LinkedIn has 21.4 million monthly unique U.S. visitors and 47.6 million globally. In June 2011, LinkedIn had 33.9 million unique visitors, up 63 percent from a year earlier and surpassing MySpace, and is the first major social networking site geared towards professionals interested in staying connected with their peers.

  I recall in 2002 being invited by a client to join LinkedIn. My reaction was, “No thanks – I don’t want to be bothered by being a part of an on-line network!” Peer pressure eventually made me succumb and I am now on LinkedIn and Facebook, although I limit my time on both. When it comes to enhancing your career development or recruiting new talent, though, how do these sites work? Well, establishing a profile is the place to start. A profile is a summary with information that you want people to know about you or your agency, division or workgroup. (Of course, be sure to check with your IT department or agency leadership to determine specific policies regarding utilizing social media for professional purposes.) When using social media for personal career development or networking, let me first provide a word of caution: make sure your profile, especially on Facebook, is marked “private.” This means that only those you invite as “friends” are able to see your on-going communications with others and your personal pictures. Horror stories abound with employers seeing information or viewing pictures on sites of current or prospective employees that, to say the least, do not enhance their career development! Sites like Linked-In are geared more towards professionals and the content and purpose of the site is career related. The emphasis for your profile on Linked In is focused on your professional experience, current and past job functions, and skills. The updates you provide alert your on-line network of career moves, and gives you the ability to send a broadcast message to your entire network.

  After you establish your profile, you invite others to become a part of your network. Ostensibly, the networks of those you have invited become a part of your larger network. You can now use these “expanded networks” to ask for information, recruit others, or seek opportunities. Many of these sites also pull contacts from your email address lists and suggest linking up. More and more of the state agencies have a presence on these sites. Locating state employees who work at agencies or in functions you are targeting can help you connect with key people and functions that you are interested in exploring. This can be particularly helpful for career changers who want to stay with the state. Using these sites for recruiting can also be both cost effective and expedient. LinkedIn allows employers to post jobs on the site. The jobs are usually high quality, professional jobs. As a manager, exploring how social networking sites can enhance attracting quality workers to fill your jobs may really pay off! We can help you with a go to market planner and help build your marketing outreach plan. New Beginnings will support your every effort to be successful. Call us today.

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• Paul Brown Show with guest Annette Goodman

  SUMMARY of COUNSELING EXPERIENCE

• Provide individual and group guidance services relative to problems of scholastic, educational, and personal-social nature to teenagers and adults, substance abuse, and mentally disabled clients.
• Administer medication, which involves documentation of pills taken.
• Suggest remedy and corrective actions when clients have communication conflicts.
• Apply knowledge of my life experiences and graduate counseling courses to solve problems.
• Assist clients in making better adjustments and in planning intelligent life goals through using the theory of Person Centered goals.
• Initiate and conduct group home meetings.
• Maintain close personal contact with director of house.
• Investigate reports of misconduct and attempt to resolve and eliminate causes of conflict.
• Demonstrate consistent record of documentation of daily activities.
• Maintain medication log, point sheet, documentation log, write ups records, and produce reports for case managers and all parties involved.
• Demonstrate skillful communication and negotiation skills.
• Counsel individuals and provide group educational and vocational guidance services.
• Assist individuals to understand and overcome social and emotional problems.

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