| Finding Your Networking Style |
Is all the attention to social media "much ado about nothing" or are these tools important to your quest for meaningful work. In the spirit of Shakespeare, we invite you to evaluate your approach to social media and networking.
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 Upcoming Teleclasses |
Wed, May 19
12:00pm-1:00pm Eastern
Mon, May 24
3:00pm-4:00pm Eastern
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For Coaches and Trainers | |
Join us for the next:
Starts Thursdays, Mar 25-June 3 from 10:30am-12:00pm Eastern
And now, we're offering the opportunity to sample individual modules of the program with the rollout of our "MeaningGuys Guides .... "
If you're a coach or counselor who is passionate and committed to the idea of meaningful work, we invite you to participate in this new teleclass series:
Thurs, July 8
10:00am-11:00am Eastern
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Contact Us |
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Greetings!
The month of May is filled with meaningful celebrations and observances - May Day, Cinco de Mayo, Mother's Day, Memorial Day - but we bet you didn't realize that May is National Moving Month.
In honor of America's mobile roots, NMM kicks off the busiest moving season of the year, when more than 40 million Americans pack up their belongings and relocate to new homes and communities. Historically, we've always been a nation of transplants and transients in search of new beginnings, purposeful lives and meaningful work. And this spirit of adventure continues today.
And so we dedicate this issue of Meaningful Careers News to the movers (shakers too). Our feature story "To Tweet Or Not To Tweet," explores the impact of social media on our personal relationships and sense of belonging. As we put more physical distance between us, how do we build meaningful networks that preserve a sense of community and connectedness?
Try our new assessment, Finding Your Networking Style, to see how well you apply and integrate new technologies with timeless relationship-building practices. Or join us for one of our informal, yet informative teleclasses.
Mostly, we urge you to celebrate this beautiful month in whatever way you find meaning -- dancing around a maypole in frolicking pursuit, marching in a Mexican mariachi band, pampering your mother or honoring our fallen heroes. Go for it! This is the month ...... but you better get moving!
Dan and Mark
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To Tweet Or Not To Tweet,
That Is The Question
by Dan King and Mark Guterman
Imagine if aliens landed here from another planet. They might think that all human interaction consists of texts and tweets. They'd be friended, linked, and captured on YouTube -- all in mere nanoseconds -- likely sending them scrambling to their spacecraft to transmit an SOS to the Mothership.
Really though, doesn't social media seem to be on everyone's mind these days? Nowhere is this more true than in the job search and career transition process. The web is awash in articles offering confirmation as well as caution in using social media to land that perfect job.
A recent cover story of Fortune reveals "How LinkedIn Will Fire Up Your Career," while CNN reports "How Social Media Can Hurt Your Career." Of course, such debates have led to a bumper crop of social media experts in the past year to help sort it all out.
Besides the obvious enabling aspects of social media tools and their particular strengths and quirks, one persistent question comes up again and again. Do these networking tools help us build strong relationships?
There is no question that these new tools, when used well and as part of a disciplined approach to transition, are powerful and help the process move along more smoothly and quickly. They can, however, lull us into thinking that our connections are as real and meaningful as those we have created through face to face meetings and interactions. The reality is that they are not.
While LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter may serve as helpful facilitators of communication, they do not automatically ensure the forging of a meaningful relationship any more than an online dating service guarantees lasting love and harmony. Their use is primarily transactional.
"Users are People," says Adrian Chan, a San Francisco-based social interaction design specialist who focuses on ways to make social media better. Foremost in his thinking is a reminder that people are endowed with their own perceptions, behaviors and motivations that shape their social interactions. But social medium transforms normal social encounters. The user's natural process is driven by psychologically-motivated behavior which best manifests in "user to user" interaction, not "software to user" interaction.
User-to-user interactions are built through personal chemistry and communication. Real connections take time to build, to nurture, and to grow. In our experience, it is the deeper connections that lead to rewarding careers and meaningful jobs. Science fiction writer and journalist, Bruce Sterling, says
"Using Twitter for literate communication is about as likely as firing up a CB radio and hearing some guy recite 'The Iliad.'"
Social media certainly has a powerful impact on how we guide and manage our careers - and we encourage the adept and savvy use of these tools to support and even accelerate a well thought out job search or career change. But overdependence on such tools can actually inhibit the building of a deeper relationship.
Some users seem to be on a quest to increase their "body count" without regard for the depth of each individual relationship. But Quality trumps Quantity every time. If you and your contacts know little about each other, is the relationship valuable? If you "friend" me, does that mean we've become close? What is my obligation?
Your career strategy must also include a vigorous commitment to "traditional" networking, with regular face-to-face and voice-to-voice connections with old friends, colleagues and new contacts. Otherwise, all the tweets and texts will not likely get you where you want to go -- on this planet or any other.
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| Recommended Resources | |
A Newsletter Guide to the Social Media Jungle
by Michael Stelzner |
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