Joshua Waldman's "Job Searching with Social Media for Dummies"

It’s a Dummies book, with that trademark black and yellow cover. Its title is Job Searching with Social Media for Dummies. And it is what it says it is – author Joshua Waldman delivers with 322 pages of resources, strategies, explanations, guidelines and suggestions for finding a job using social media.

But it’s also a lot more. It’s one of the best summaries of how to use social media that I’ve seen (and I’ve seen a lot – my job is leading a team to manage online media for a Fortune 500 company). It should be valuable for a job seeker – and it should be valuable even if you’re not looking for a job but need help in creating a network, building a personal brand, building a platform and a host of other things people use social media to do.

I learned something new or found at least one useful resource in every chapter – and I’m not looking for a job.

Waldman founded the website CareerEnlightenment.com, which is all about using social media to find a job. He knows what he’s talking about – he’s done it himself.

In simple, straightforward language, you will read about the key social media – Linked In, Twitter and Facebook – how they function, how to utilize them, how to customize your information on them and basic social etiquette for operating within them.

You will learn the basics of personal branding – what it is, how it happens, why it’s important, and the thing you can do to do it yourself.

You will read how to manage your online reputation, with online tools that will help you gain an understanding of how visible you are (or aren’t) and what that visibility means. You’ll see the basics about social media search engines, how to repair a bad reputation, and how to build a better one.

You’ll find out why a personal blog is important, how to create a social media resume (I’ve heard of social media news releases but this was introduction to social media resumes), why you should have a video resume, and a host of online sites that can provide information about people, companies and industries.

And then Waldman tells you how to stay up-to-date with the constant changes going on in social media.

Job Searching with Social Media for Dummies may be targeted at job seekers, but the information it contains is valuable for anyone involved with social media on a regular basis. I was expecting a “digital” version of What Color is Your Parachute? and instead got a social media primer and bible.