Drea Knufken
Most Internet users find Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter pretty intuitive. Sign up, make connections, comment, respond. If you need extra tips, they’re readily available online.
There are, however, some users who are unfamiliar with social networking websites, and prefer to learn about them by reading a book on how to use them. Author and publisher Steve Weber has created just that kind of book. In Wired for Work: Get a Job Fast Using LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter, he details how to use LinkedIn, Facebook, and two other networks for finding a job.
Wired for Work is a brief, informative guide on how to use popular online networking tools to find job opportunities and get hiring managers to notice you. In a little over 100 pages, Wired for Work introduces you to social networking for your career, using LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace for job hunts, and common legal issues.
Weber provides basic details about each of the four networking websites mentioned above. He holds your hand through the process of signing up, building your network, using its features, and other essentials. He mixes in the occasional screenshot and success story to make things more understandable. He also adds little tricks you may not have heard about before, if you’re already familiar with the software (for example, I didn’t know that I could put my Amazon reading list on LinkedIn).
The first and last chapters don’t show you how to use a social networking site, but offer other useful information. Chapter 1 gives a good overview of where we are now vis a vis social networking for your career. You learn details on avoiding scams and a little bit about personal branding. The last chapter covers common legal issues like copyright, defamation, and trademarks.
This simple, easy-to-understand book is laid out the way a lot of online writing is, with subtitles, bullet lists, and boldfaced points. In fact, you can read an online PDF version for free here.
In sum, I’d call it a quick and dirty guide to basic social networking for job hunters. The book targets anyone who’s not familiar with today’s social networking technology, specifically Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and MySpace. I’m not sure why the author included MySpace—maybe he should include a disclaimer that it’s not as big (at least for non-musicians) as those other websites.
I breezed through it and, as an experienced user of all the sites he mentioned, found Weber’s information thorough. I wouldn’t hesitate to give it to someone unfamiliar with modern gadgets or computers, eg. my mother-in-law.
Disclaimer: We received a free promotion copy of this book.
