Trends in Resumes and Career Marketing Communications

Where is the resume field headed? Get some insights on "Trends in Resumes & Career Marketing Communications" from Career Thought Leaders Deb Dib and Louise Kursmark.

I've been a resume writer since 1996. Certainly, a lot of things have changed in the careers industry during that time -- and things will continue to change in the future. But the need to assist job seekers with clarifying their job search goals and strategies and developing messaging content to fulfill that role will continue to be needed, both now and well into the future.

But even with changes in technology, the job search is still fundamentally about people. Connecting with the people with the authority to hire you. (There's a resurgent interest in networking -- both with and without social media -- which is interesting, because it's always been about connecting with other people.)

What NOT to Do On Your Facebook (& Twitter) Page

I am friends with lots of careers industry folks on Facebook. Some of them (Barbara Safani, Jason Alba, Dawn Bugni, Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter, etc.) do a fabulous job with their online brand.

Others, not so much. The screen shot on the left is from MJW Careers. I'm not sure who the resume writer behind this page is, but I do know that they write resumes for $50.

I am amazed they have 308 friends, since the majority of their posts are ... for lack of a better term ... spam.

For the past week or so, once or twice a day, they blast 3-4 posts on Twitter (that are automatically reposted on their Facebook page) about their cheap resume writing services. If you go back through the history, though, you find that they also apparently provide recruiting services. It actually was more interesting when they were posting "people needed" status updates for various *specific* positions versus the basic, blanket posts.

Some keys for resume writers to keep in mind with Facebook:

1) Remember the 80/20 ratio. Eighty percent of your posts should be content (resources, opinions, encouragement, links to good articles) etc. Only 20% should be promotional. And don't just rely on Twitter to update your status. Because of the way it's tagged, we can tell when it's a Twitter repost. Give us something original on Facebook every once in a while.

2) Think about your brand. For most resume writers, it's a good idea to set up a Facebook page for your resume writing business. While you can use your personal page to promote resume-related items, you're better off getting "Fans" (or "Likes") for your business page than to add friends to your personal page. You can then drive traffic to your business page by linking to items on your personal page.

3) Don't forget to have a personality. If you link to an article, provide some brief commentary. I always like hearing about resume writers whose clients are having success. But remember that -- like we advise clients -- anything you post online is totally public (even if you have your Facebook privacy settings locked down, there's nothing to prevent one of your "friends" from taking a screen shot of it.)

Seth Godin Says Folks Shouldn't Write Their Own Resumes

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog

While he doesn't suggest having your resume written by a professional, he does suggest job seekers don't write it themselves. See his post (dated 10/2/10) here.

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