http://www2.wspa.com/spa/news/consumer/article/online_shopping_risk/31671/

10/GUI from C. Miller on Vimeo.

I did a segment for the Channel 7 news last week!

By Heather Sullivan

If you’re looking for work, you need to be looking online. More and more hiring is done through online social networking. There are websites dedicated to helping you connect to jobs in your field. We’ll show you how to put them to work in your job search.

Nick Catto is not just the web developer for USC Upstate. He’s also a freelance web developer. He finds jobs through online social networking. And you can, too.

Said Catto, “You put your job experience, your resume online.“ Put it right on your http://www.facebook.com or http://www.myspace.com page and link to pages for your college alumni, professional associations, and companies you’d like to work for. They’ll not only link you to jobs, you’re resume will be scanned by recruiting sites like Monster Smartfind or Airs Sourcepoint. Explained Catto, “Their duty is to go through social networking sites to search for resumes.“

Make sure your resume includes key words of qualifications that will get you noticed. Said Catto, “So if you were a nursing student, they might go through keywords to search your Twitter, your MySpace, your LinkedIn profile for nursing.“

You can post your resume on http://www.linkedin.com, which has members in 130 industries, and connect to others in your field. Said Catto, “Once you connect with them, you’re connected with their friends and employers.“

LinkedIn also features a job board. You’ll find a http://www.jobangels.org page on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook that will link you to job openings.

Sign up for http://www.twitter.com and follow the tweets of companies in your field. You’ll come across some job openings … and they’ll notice you. Said Catto, “They know if people are following them actively, they know they are interested in the company prior to the job opening.“

But make sure your postings on these websites are professional. Employers will check them out. So it might be time to ditch those party photos. Said Catto, “Maybe only put them out to friends and family. There’s a option to do that.“

Also, don’t post personal information such as your home address, social security number, or a personal email address, or you may open yourself to fraud or junk mail. Establish a separate email address to use online.

“Nonprofits are often intimidated by the cost of web-related marketing, but I’ll show the participants how web sites can be created and maintained in-house or for very little in start-up fees, through innovative free software. Additionally, those who attend this seminar will come away with a better understanding of how to solicit online donations securely, how to make their site visually appealing, and how to formulate logical and easily navigable web pages,” says Catto.

Catto is the web developer for the office of University Communications at USC Upstate and, as the owner of www.MrCatto.com, is a freelance web site developer in his spare time. He has many years experience developing web sites for the nonprofit as well as commercial sectors.

Participants are asked to bring their own bag lunch to the event. Contact Dr. Dwight Lambert, director of USC Upstate’s Center for Nonprofit Leadership, for further information at dlambert@uscupstate.edu or by calling (864) 503-5754.

Spartanburg, S.C. – The Center for Nonprofit Leadership at the University of South Carolina Upstate will continue its monthly nonprofit information lunch series “Friday Focus” with guest speaker Nick Catto on March 21 from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. at USC Upstate’s Community Outreach and Education Center, 325 S. Church St. in Spartanburg. Catto will discuss how nonprofits can utilize the Web to reach constituents, donors, volunteers and other audiences in a cost-effective yet polished manner.

read more