This morning I had the opportunity to attend the February meeting for the Cincinnati Women Blogger’s Group held at the Red Tree Gallery & Coffee Shop in Oakley.  Jennifer McClure, Vice President at Centennial, Inc., spoke to the group about using blogs and other social media tools in your job search.

First, I would like to thank Jennifer for meeting with us today and the Red Tree Gallery & Coffee Shop for having us. I have seen the sign before however, never had the chance to check it out. If you are ever in the Oakley area, I recommend it because of it’s charm and atmosphere. I liked the different levels and areas along with being surrounded by paintings from local artist. A large conference like table in the back almost fit all of our mighty group. It was definitely nice to see such a great turnout of both regulars and new bloggers.

I enjoyed meeting Jennifer and found her thoughts regarding the topic as both informational and interesting. A lot of people misunderstand mediums like Twitter and Facebook as mere child’s play however, they fail to factor in the power of the web in whole as a tool. Using sites like those above can introduce you to contacts and friends that you may not have otherwise been able to make.

An important thing to remember is to be true to yourself and think about how you want to be portrayed to the public. As discussed in the meeting, some may wish to use FaceBook as simply a way for friends to keep in contact or as part of your social life. If used properly though, it could land you a job when needed or as I know in my own company, cost you your current job (not my own thank goodness). This is why one needs to pay special attention to what words come out of their mouth. Remember something that you say online is not like speaking one on one to a close friend but one on hundreds if not thousands,!

Don’t be afraid to ask for something you may need however, respect others privacy and don’t demand something from someone you don’t even know. You need to make connections and show desire to really know someone before you ask them to help you. Why should this person help you? A perfect comment made by a group member is that “you wouldn’t ask a dentist to clean your teeth for free”.

A great place to start is by reading others blogs that relate to you and commenting if you find their posts relative and interesting. If you run your own blog, be sure to thank the person and reply to a comment that they leave. Look for common interests through searches on Twitter and LinkedIn and tweet when you have something to say again watching how you want yourself to be seen.

Check the cincinnatiwomenblogger website for more details on the meeting.