This is a guest article by Phil Rosenberg, who runs one of the largest LinkedIn groups for job seekers (Career Central group) and has one of the 20 largest networks on Linkedin globally. Phil is President ofreCareered.com, and hosts free webinars to help job seekers in the new digital job market.
It's critical to display your subject matter expertise when searching for a job.
Most job seekers would gladly do this, if they just knew how ... and where. So the way most of you display your subject matter expertise ends up being where few people will see it - your resume and social media profile. The biggest reason why nobody sees your subject matter expertise from your online resume and social media profiles ... is because, for most people, these end up at the bottom of Google searches.
If you can't be found by subject matter expertise, you're missing out on some of the best opportunities out there. Employers and recruiters search first by subject matter expertise, even for generalist positions - Employers with generalist jobs look first for subject matter expertise and determine generalist skills during interviews. When employers can micro-target skill sets through Applicant Tracking Systems, they can find many candidates who have already solved their priority problems - and then choose the candidate that's most adaptable to new and different problems for generalist positions.
The typical response I hear is "This can't apply to me - I'm looking for ___ type of job!" The odds are just as bad for executives using this approach as they are for rookies ... just as terrible for senior-level employees as they are for admins.
So how can you be found by subject matter expertise?
Spoke provides a great vehicle to promote your subject matter expertise, plus it's indexed and searchable by Google. The website provides a number of tools that can help job seekers develop, promote and be found by subject matter expertise. Best of all, it's free for job seekers.
For example, Spoke allows registered users to create Topic pages. According to Matt Maurer, Spoke's Product Manager:
"Creating a topic is a great way to highlight your domain knowledge. There's zero technical skill required, and the end result is a page that thoroughly explains a specific topic, full of what you think are the most important articles, videos, sources, people, companies, events, and social media threads that relate to your topic. Ultimately, you show that you know a topic like the back of your hand because you have curated the entire internet to bring readers the essential information.”
Oh yeah, Google loves Topic pages ...
Spoke puts your name and picture at the very top of the topic ("Created by Jane Doe") and links your name right back to your personal Spoke page (as long as you’ve ‘claimed’ it.) Then Spoke puts your topic into search engines for people to find when they Google things related to your topic.
Once you've filled out the basic information about your Topic page, it's time to start curating. It's simple ... when you read an article that you find important, it's easy to add it to your topic page, company pages or people pages, even topic pages. Spoke displays "Created by ____" next to the link, so that other users (like employers and recruiters) can see who found it and can click your name to find out more about you.
You'll want to make sure your own personal page clearly brands you as an expert in your field and include links to your resume, other social media profiles. In addition, it's a great place to list awards, research, white papers, slide presentations, multimedia, YouTube videos, where you've been quoted, articles or blogposts you've written. If you're using your spoke page Spoke to it's fullest extent, it provides a platform for an online portfolio ... linked to expertise, companies, key people and searchable by Google.
Want to see an example? Check out my Spoke Topic page (I created a few.)
Then register and go create your own Topic page, so you can be found by subject matter expertise. Spoke recently launched this capability so most topics are unclaimed.
It's a land grab right now.
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Want More?
Phil Rosenberg will be hosting a free webinar on Thursday 10/25/12 at 8:00pm ET/5:00pm PT titled “How to Keep Your Resume out of the Black Hole,” and explaining step-by-step how you can beat your competition using better information. Register at http://ResumeWebinar.com.
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