No Job, Now What?

I found a helpful job search article online today - check it out:

No Job, Now What?

Author Randall Craig looks at job networking through the lens of viral marketing, a key strategy in the battle for online marketing success. Craig rightly suggests that job seekers can and should use viral marketing for to market themselves. He notes:

Passive selling means getting your network to do your work
for you. Think of it: if you have 25 people in your network, all listening for opportunities for you, then you will be 25 times more effective than if you did all the work by yourself.Even more amazing is when you get each of these 25 people to actively help you look for a position.

Imagine that each of these people spoke to 25 people in
their own networks. This would mean that a total of 625 people would have their ear to the ground for you. If you have a network of 100 people, and they each have that many contacts, then you will have 10,000 people on your side. In class you may have heard this being called “viral marketing”.

Craig goes on to suggest that job seekers should take a "Give to Get" approach to networking; that is, offer your prospective networking colleagues something before you ask them for a favor. For example, peruse blogs or trade magazines and forward a copy of a helpful article to someone in your network.

This is the essence of the referral-building, relationship management approach executives and mid-career professionals should take to networking these days. Don't bombard your network with haphazard requests. Rather, give information, referrals, linkages, and resources to them liberally so you can, in turn, expect them to want to help you with your career search.

Great idea that, isn't it?