RSS Feeds: Using Web Syndication To Help Your Job Search

If you're an active internet user - particularly for blogs, social media and job search sites - and you're not yet using web syndication to simplify your search and optimize your reading time, you're missing out on a fantastic tool!

Web syndication is most often found in the form of feeds, Atoms or RSS (which stands for Really Simple Syndication). It's a technical solution that allows published web content from one site to be dynamically and simultaneously posted elsewhere, whether it's another website, a desktop application or a web application. It's easy to recognize sites that use web syndication by buttons which read "Subscribe", "Follow", "RSS Subscription", etc., as well as the following icon:

Let's say, for example, that you read three blogs and two news sites regularly. To read them each day, you have to visit each one separately to see if there are new articles. However, if you subscribe to their RSS feed, you can make new results from each site all appear in one place, allowing you to check only one site (rather than five!) to read all the latest articles.

If you have an account with Google or Gmail, the easiest solution to start using RSS feeds is Google Reader. However, there are many other free applications providing the same service. In any case, to use them, you'll have to first go to the site to which you'd like to subscribe, find the link to their RSS syndication and copy the link address by right-clicking the link with your mouse and selecting "Copy Link Location". Next, go to your web syndication application (Google Reader or otherwise), where you should find a button or field to enter a new subscription. Paste the link location you've just copied, follow the steps to confirm and voilà! You've subscribed. From now on, to read the articles on the site in question, you'll simply have to visit your Google Reader (or other application) to read all the newest content rather than having to visit the original site. The more subscriptions you add, the more time you'll save yourself!

Many job offer sites, as well as numerous Facebook pages and LinkedIn company profiles posting job offers, offer their content dynamically via RSS feed. In some cases, you can even set up syndication results in real time for a specific search, such as "Montreal nurse". It's possible that there's no posted job in your field right now, but by subscribing to an RSS feed, you'll have quick access to all the latest job offers as soon as they're posted from your Google Reader account. This will allow you to optimize your job search.

Always be on the lookout for keywords and icons related to web syndication when visiting your favourite sites. For example, this blog has both a "Posts" and "Comments" button with the RSS icon in the right column. Can you find them? This will allow you to subscribe to our blog.

If you work in a community or employment centre with good web resources, you can also try using RSS feeds to post job offers automatically and dynamically to your website. Try talking to your web administrator to see if this might be feasible for your team.

You also can find a fairly extensive list of free, available RSS feeds on various websites, such as Feedzilla.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_syndication

http://annotatedgabbs.wordpress.com/2011/02/06/exploring-the-interwebs-part-1/

A Resource For Employers

Do you work closely with employers, trying to find internships for your immigrant clients for example? Today we'd like to introduce you to an extremely interesting website, www.hireimmigrants.com, a project created by Allies Maytree.

They've developed an interactive tool for employers (click to see it). While this resource isn't directly related to social media, we know that one of the primary hurdles to immigrants getting hired is the reluctance of some employers as well as a lack of resources for others. This fantastic tool can help you to fill the gaps in resources of some of the employers you're working with. You can also embed the tool into your own centre's website by copying the HTML tags found in this link.

Additionally, the site offers plenty of videos that specifically target employers to encourage them to hire more immigrant employees, along with testimonials from employers already succesfully integrating immigrants into their workforce. Among the many topics covered, here are a few that are particularly noteworthy:

Finding Talent
This training video was developed by TRIEC, who use a fictionalized approach to demonstrate techniques that will allow businesses to benefit from qualified immigrant talent.

Integrating Talent
This is another video produced by TRIEC, which again uses a fictional story approach to help businesses learn the best strategies to create an inclusive work environment.

Cross-Cultural Teamwork
Yet another video series created by TRIEC, this time showing us how cultural differences can impact team dynamics in a Canadian workplace and offering strategies to help maximize the contribution of all team members in a multicultural work environment.

You can also find additional information about Montreal in particular (in French) on the website of Maytree's local partner, Alliés Montréal. We also encourage you to check out the many additional resources found on the rest of the Maytree site.

Free Yourself From Email Notifications and Alerts!

If you've recently joined several social networking sites, you may have found that email notifications are flooding your inbox to the point that you're having a hard time finding and reading your other important emails. Here are some solutions to help manage these notifications.

The most obvious solution is to simply log in to each social media account that you use (particularly the sites sending you the most email alerts) and modify your account settings to eliminate, or at least reduce, the number of notifications you're receiving. It's tempting to remove all email notifications, but be careful not to eliminate all types of notifications, such as those that don't appear in your email inbox but are sent to you directly on the site. This is particularly true for Facebook.

You may find it easier just to reduce the number of email alerts you receive - especially if you're new to social media - rather than eliminate them completely. These notifications serve an important purpose: to remind you that you created an account and that you should check it from time to time to respond to people trying to interact with you through social media. Creating a profile on a social network and failing to answer those who try to interact with you on that profile is considered just as impolite as never returning a phone call, email or letter, or refusing to say hello to someone who greets you. Besides, you'll never learn how to use your account if you don't log into it once in a while! It's important to find a happy medium.

In our opinion, when first starting to use social media it's important to keep the following email notifications:

On Facebook:

• when someone sends you a message,
• when someone sends you a friend request,
• when someone accepts your friend request,
• when you join a group,
• when someone tags you in a photo,
• when someone posts to your wall or Timeline.

(Click here to learn more about managing your Facebook email notifications)

On Twitter:

• when someone mentions you,
• when someone sends you a direct message,
• when someone retweets one of your messages.

On LinkedIn:

• when someone sends you a message,
• when someone sends you an invitation to connect,
• when someone accepts your invitation to connect,
• when someone recommends you,
• when someone asks you for a recommendation,
• when someone asks you for an introduction,
• when someone responds to your introduction request.

(You can learn more about managing your LinkedIn email preferences here on the site).

If you keep only these email alerts, you should receive a reasonable amount while maintaining an incentive and several reminders in your email inbox to go back to your social media profiles.

Once you've mastered the many social media sites that you use and have incorporated them into your internet routine, it's possible that you'll find (even with these limited alerts) that your email inbox is being bombarded with notifications. You may be tempted to get rid of them for good. There's actually a much faster way to do this without disabling all email notifications in each site's settings. You can simply create filters (in Gmail, Hotmail, etc.) or rules (in Outlook) that will place all notification emails in a separate folder from your inbox, which will allow you to have access to them at all times without polluting your inbox.

If you're comfortable with social media and create a profile on a new site, we recommend this approach as you get used to the site and its functions.

Facebook Searches Using Google

Have you ever tried to find a group or page on Facebook but haven't succeeded? Don't worry, you're not alone! You're one of the many to discover the limitations of the Facebook search engine.

Rather than get discouraged and give up, you can simply try searching the group or page on google.com, but by adding the keywords "site:facebook.com", you can limit your search results to that site. So, for example, a search for the Facebook page or group of Tyndale St-Georges Community Centre would look like: "Tyndale St-Georges site:facebook.com".

You can also use this method to search on sites other than Facebook by substituting the domain name "facebook.com" with whichever site you'd like to visit. For example, to find the Wikipedia article about pumpkins, try "pumpkin site:wikipedia.org".

To find our project's Facebook group, you can click on the link under Contact in this blog, or simply click here.

Managing Your Online Image & Visibility

Employers will often do a preliminary search of the names of job applicants. They use the internet to complete most of these searches: most will use Google and then have a closer look at social media profiles, images, anything out of the ordinary. Job seekers, then, should regularly ask themselves: "What is my online visibility and my reputation on the internet?"

1- Do a Preliminary Search

All that's required here is to follow a simple procedure, preferably using the same steps a potential employer might follow: go to google.com and complete a search by entering your name (as it appears on your CV) into the search bar. If your name on your CV says "Pat Smith", search for "Pat Smith". You should do this regularly, a few times a year.

Now you'll have to take inventory of the results. Let's start by concentrating on the first page, which means approximately the first ten results. Do the sites listed talk about you? Do they lead to your social media profiles, to a blog or website talking about you, the site of a former employer, a school you attended, a newspaper article quoting you or talking about you, to a criminal record? Do they lead to pages talking about someone with the same name as you (a homonym)? Are there no results about you at all? ?

Now let's evaluate the results. You should take note, for each page that comes up, if they:

1. talk about you
   
2. talk about someone with the same name as you,
3. have no relation to you or your name at all.

You should now take the time to consider if an employer will positively or negatively interpret the information they find. If you think the results might bring up mixed responses (some viewing it positively but others viewing it negatively), for the purposes of this exercise let's consider that they will see it in a negative light. You should complete this exercise even for those sites that aren't about you specifically but in fact a homonym. You know that these sites are related to someone else who shares your name, but the employer can't be expected to know or guess this information. For them, the first impression (whether positive or negative) can be a deciding factor in their judgment of your credibility.

Finally, ask yourself how you could improve your image (if there are too many negative elements) or your visibility (if there aren't many sites that talk about you). To improve your image, you'll have to limit negative content and/or increase positive content. To increase your visibility, you must ensure that positive content referring to you (rather than a homonym) appears as high as possible in search results. Technophiles refer to this process as SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

2- Strategies to Control Your Image

If you feel that what is found in your name online doesn't reflect you in a positive light, you should take a few quick steps to resolve the situation. First, for all negative elements, if it's you that put them online, you should try to remove or at least hide them. If they're on a social media site, rather than remove them entirely, you could simply opt to restrict your privacy settings or block public search results on search engines. If you've lost your password, try to regain access to your account so that you can either close it or simply remove negative content (of course, you can always leave content online when it portrays you in a positive light!).

If ever you find negative content in your name that was put online by someone else (other than one of your homonyms), you could ask them politely but firmly to remove the content by explaining that it's harming your job search or your online image.

3- Strategies to Increase Online Visibility

If negative content in your name was put online by a newspaper, magazine or government agency, your chances of getting it removed without legal recourse are unfortunately pretty slim. The only way to hide the content is to increase your visibility (SEO). By focusing on positive content that will come up high in search results - specifically social media sites and blogs - you can rest assured that the first visible elements when completing a search in your name will be positive and controlled by you.

To increase your visibility, one of the simplest solutions is to create a LinkedIn account and complete it to 100% (or as close as possible). To do this, consult our training material. Another approach is to create a profile on Google+. We don't discuss this site in our material, namely because the uses for job-seekers are limited at this time with the exception of increasing visibility. Click here to find a detailed online resource discussing how to create a Google+ profile (as well as the functions of the site, etc.). In completing your profile, remember that the goal is to present yourself positively and professionally.

Finally, if you enjoy writing and are willing to commit some time to it, you could consider starting your own blog. To do so, have a look at the free resources on wordpress.com, blogspot.com, tumblr.com, as well as many other free blog platforms.

4- Additional Considerations

If ever, despite trying all of these measures, you feel you still have issues maintaining a professional image on the internet, you might want to consider including a link in your CV or email signature leading employers directly to your professional profiles online, or to the most positive elements of your online activity.

Once you've finished this, you should have a look at the Image results page and follow the same steps - identify positive & negative content, identify content representing you and not a homonym, identify content over which you have control, etc. A diligent, disciplined search would also analyze content found on search engines other than Google, such as yahoo.com, bing.com, etc. (though this goes beyond the needs of most people). This strategy is most often employed only for web sites or professional blogs.

Social Media for Immigrant Workers

Throughout our trainings and our teaching material, we insist on the importance of social media for job-seeking immigrants. There are several uses of social media that are of particular interest for immigrants. We've assembled these considerations here, for clarity and also to just as a reminder.

1- Facebook is already used by numerous immigrants

Facebook is used by families in order to keep in contact after one of the family members leaves their country of origin. Many immigrants keep in touch with family back home in several ways, including phone, mail, e-mail, Skype, as well as Facebook. And ever since Facebook has partnered with Skype to allow users to use Skype video-conferences directly on the social media site, this option has become that much more appealing.

Your Private Information and Social Media

This article is primarily targeted at employment counselors, but contains information that could be useful for all social media users.

When giving a training for the Networking 2.0 project, it's understood that the counselors we train will re-transmit the content we provide in a way that best suits their workplace and clientele. To teach this content, it's important to use it and, at least at some level, master it. This means that you should be using social media in order to teach it to your clients.

Not everyone wants to have a social media profile. Many people, employment counselor and job-seeker alike, are hesitant to learn these tools for fear that their personal information may be shared or used against them. It's both normal and smart to have these fears.

That being said, it's essential for job seekers to have access to important skills and resources for their job search (as demonstrated in other blog posts and documents created for this project). Even though we strongly encourage you to familiarize yourself with social media, we understand that it is within each person's right to protect their private information in the way that best suits them, including abstaining from sharing them on social media entirely. As the final decision rests on each individual to do what's right for them, rest assured that we've considered many facets and approaches to this important subject.

A. Considerations for Protecting Your Information: What Are They?

1. Data-Mining (Collection and Processing of Personal Information)

Social media sites collect information about you. It's true. However, it's not all that frightening considering you're the one who decides what you share and what you don't in the majority of cases. How do Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn collect and use your personal information?

First, by the information you provide when filling in your profile. For example, when you list the city you live in or the school you attended.

Second, when you authorize a third party with access to this information to share it, such as your email provider or other social media site. A third party is a person or organization other than you (first party) and the social media providing you with a service (second party). An example would be if you were to grant Facebook access to your Twitter account, or vice versa.

Third, in documenting how you use the services they're providing, by monitoring your comings and goings (who do you communicate with, what pages do you visit most often, what subjects interest you, etc.). If you join the Networking 2.0 Facebook group, for example, the site can determine that you're interested in employment and networking.

Finally, if while connected to a social media site you consult other websites as well, and these sites use "social modules" of that site, it's possible that they share information with the provider of the social media (when did you visit their website, how long were you on it, etc.). You'll know you're embarking into a social module when you see a Facebook or Twitter button on a site other than Facebook or Twitter, for example.

2. Why Do Social Media Sites Collect Data From Their Users?

This is a common and legitimate question.

First, because a social media profile is nothing more than the kind of information about ourselves that we share with other users (friends, followers, connections) through the intermediary of a service that collects them (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn). Your name (or username), the city you live in, your job, what you talk about, etc. - a certain amount of basic information is necessarily collected for the service to function.

Second, because social networks are often more interesting when they're adapted to the user. It's in collecting your information that personalized suggestions can be made to you. For example, someone who has five or six friends in common with you will be suggested to you as a friend because they're probably someone you'd be interested in connecting with or may know already. Or if you read many articles about rock bands, a site could suggest that you have a look at an account dedicated to this subject.

Third, and for most sites this is the primary reason, because the revenues for these sites - which provide extremely sophisticated services at virtually no cost to the user - are generated almost entirely by ads. Ads found on social media (as well as on sites like Google) are targeted to your use of the Internet. Ads for magazine subscriptions or newspapers are targeted specifically to those who read a lot of articles, while ads for a band's new album would be targeted to those who listen to a lot of music online. Thus, data is collected from your personal information to target you with ads, products and services that will most likely interest you rather than those that are unlikely to appeal to you. Everyone using these networks will be exposed to ads, whether they share little or a lot of personal information. Either way, we generally suggest that you ignore ads while using social media. Thus, this use of your personal information will have a relatively limited impact on your privacy.

3. Sharing Information with Third Parties and The Use of Your Image in Social Advertising

Social networking sites have various policies regarding the sharing of your information with third parties. Many people are afraid that Facebook is sharing personal details about them with these parties, however that's very unlikely. First, it's hard to conceive of why Facebook might want to do this. Their livelihood comes from just that - their privileged and unequaled access to your information; as long as they don't reveal it to others, they're the only ones who can profit by selling specially-targeted ads to their individual users. Further, it's stated in their privacy policy that they won't share this information without your consent. Thus, for this exact reason, it's very important to review all your privacy and account settings on the site.

Second, there are legal considerations. If a judicial authority provides a search warrant requesting access to information in a person's social media account, it's possible that Facebook or Twitter would provide police with access for investigative purposes. Twitter will alert a user that their account is under surveillance, but Facebook won't. In either case, it's best to consider that all information published on a social media site (including in private messages) is considered "public" in terms of the law, and so one should refrain from sharing information that could harm their reputation.

Finally, there is always a chance that hackers could somehow access and steal your personal information (without your consent nor that of the social media site in question). Nothing is perfectly safe online - much like in real life - and social media sites have bugs and security issues just like any other website. There are several ongoing lawsuits trying to force Facebook as well as other social media companies to better protect client information. In general, your information is relatively well protected, but perhaps not to an extent that will make everyone happy.

B. Options for Secure Learning

If you're unsure about using one of the social media sites discussed here for personal use, even with the many possibilities presented for managing the amount of personal information you share, it's still possible to use social media while sharing only a limited amount of personal information (virtually none).

However we must insist that some of these options are only a last resort, because should you later choose to create more engaging profiles on these sites, you may have to do everything twice.

The first thing you could try is to create accounts in your name from the get-go, maintaining strict privacy settings and maintaining a very small network. You can use our guides while you get to know the interface and master each site, but much more slowly than how you might be using them already.

The second option is to create corporate accounts for your organization. An official Twitter account, a company profile on LinkedIn or even a Facebook page can all be created for your company or community centre without requiring any personal input from you. This way you can kill two birds with one stone - learning the interface of these services while increasing your organization's visibility. However, if you choose this option, you'll have to get informed on the professional use of social media before making any major errors (we're working on an upcoming blog article that will discuss this subject in greater detail).

A third option is to create accounts using pseudonyms, with no relation to your real name, company or person. These accounts will allow you to explore the interface of each site without risking your reputation or that of your organization. Of course, if you find yourself interested in using social media more and manage to overcome your fears, you can stop using these pseudonyms, delete the related account and start fresh with real social media accounts.

C. Conclusions

Concerns regarding confidentiality, your personal life and access to your information are valid and important concerns, both for your internet use and life in general. It's important to stay informed, to form an opinion and express it, and to speak up and try to change practices when we find them unjust. There are several proposed bills in the works in Canada, the US and elsewhere that could give more power to either corporations, the government or individuals in terms of control of power of information in the near future. Some social networks, most notably Path or Diaspora, are more respectful of their users' private lives than Facebook. However, their applications for employment are limited - not to mention their user base, which consists primarily of technophiles who can easily juggle several social media accounts. Facebook has a more tarnished history in terms of confidentiality issues, compared to Twitter and LinkedIn. If you prefer to abstain from Facebook and teach only Twitter and LinkedIn to your clients, you will still be providing them with a great service. But you will be in an even better position to help them if you're able to teach them to manage their privacy and account settings on their existing Facebook accounts.

Best Practices
We recommend that all users follow some general guidelines when sharing personal information online:

• First, refrain as much as possible from sharing information that could easily be used to steal your identity: address, postal code, birth date, ID numbers (social insurance number, driver's license, passport, government ID, etc.), telephone numbers, credit card and bank card numbers, etc.
• Next, carefully read the privacy policies of any sites or services you use, and update your account and privacy settings accordingly to choose the degree to which you want to engage in sharing of your information.
• Third, think carefully before you share any private, personal, confidential or delicate information online, or if you engage in a conversation that might be questionable or controversial.
• Fourth, always use HTTPS (rather than HTTP) when this option is available to you, most notably on Facebook and Twitter.
• Fifth, install an anti-virus on your computer (not necessary if you're using Linux). Many free programs exist (AVG, Avast, Microsoft SecurityEssentials, etc.).
• Sixth, choose secure passwords (as long as possible, mixing types of characters such as letters and numbers or punctuation).
• Further, you can limit social media applications' ability to access your information by blocking cookies or installing plug-ins on your web browser.
• Finally, always sign out (disconnect, log off, exit, etc.) from any service protected with a password as soon as you've finished using it.