Social Networks Work: Tapping the social-media groundswell is one of the best ways to launch a new career.

From The Wall Street Journal | Feb 28, 2010 By ALEXANDRA LEVIT

When
I do a seminar for prospective career changers, I always ask the
audience how many people are using LinkedIn to communicate directly
with contacts in their new industries.

Typically, only a handful of people raise their hands. But given the
fact that tapping the social-media groundswell is one of the best ways
to launch a new career, active participation in sites like LinkedIn
should be 100%.

In
2007, Laura Fitton of Boston was a struggling presentation consultant
who had just survived two difficult pregnancies, a stroke and a
complicated move from Pennsylvania to Massachusetts. Ms. Fitton
initially used Twitter to build a business network in her new city. "I
was just my goofy, enthusiastic self, and I used the site to connect
with interesting, like-minded people," she says. After a while, though,
Ms. Fitton started getting messages from people who wanted to hire her.
"Because they had been following me, they felt like they knew how my
mind worked."

Ms. Fitton was so successful in Twitterville that she was soon being
asked to make public-speaking appearances. She quickly left
presentation consulting for a career as a social-media consultant, and
then launched a start-up, OneForty.com (oneforty.com), a Twitter application store that has so far received over $2 million in funding.

When you're making a career change, social-media networking is
better than traditional networking for several reasons. First, social
media enable an exponentially larger network. "Once you know what you
want to do, you can start blogging, posting YouTube videos, and
tweeting about it. And instead of talking about it in a small circle of
friends, you get connected to friends of friends of friends," says
Charlene Li, founder of Altimeter Group, a strategy consulting firm,
and the author of "Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by
Social Technologies."

Online networking also saves time and is much more convenient. "The
old networking involved commuting to a hotel and spending six hours in
a business suit just so you could meet one or two valuable contacts,"
says Ms. Fitton. "Online, you can do so much more."

How else can reinventers tap the power of social media? The most
effective strategy can be boiled down to one word -- sharing. "If
you're going into a new career, then you should be doing a lot of
research," says Ms. Fitton. "Post what you're reading so that others
can derive value from it. People who consistently share useful content
have the largest followings in the social-media universe."

When conversing, the cardinal rule is to be authentic. "Just be the
best you can be," says. Ms. Fitton. "If you let your guard down a
little and stop worrying about what your competitors are doing, you
will attract the right type of people."

To that end, after you've done your part giving back to the
community, you can leverage social networks to get in touch with
potential mentors who have reached the level you are trying to attain.

"Use a service like LinkedIn [linkedin.com] or Xing [xing.com] to identify these people and ask for 10 to 15 minutes of advice," says Ms. Li.

Write to Alexandra Levit at reinvent@wsj.com