Social Media Doesn't Have to Rule Your Life

Social media is taking over our lives in so many ways.  Just this week, I learned how I can use it (instead of it using me) to find opportunities thanks to Barbara Barde of Barde Career Solutions.  Barbara facilitated a session at PCC Climb about how to use social media to find work.

We all know about the biggies:  Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.  Personally, I used the first two in my work but, ironically, did not use LinkedIn very much at all.

My biggest question is how to manage it all!  Well, here is a list of some possible tools to help keep you a little bit sane (thanks to Barde Career Solutions for assembling the list):

1.  HootSuite
2.  TweetDeck
3.  Seesmic
4.  SocialOomph
5.  CoTweet (this service no longer exists)
6.  Ping.fm (may be part of Seesmic)
7.  TwitterFeed
8.  SpredFast

One of the biggest take aways I walked out with was how important and robust Twitter is in a job search.  It can help with searching for opportunities and connecting with the people and organizations making a difference in the community.