If you are big into personal effectiveness then you are familiar with Steven Covey’s 2nd Habit: Begin With the End in Mind. Actually, this principle extends far beyond the realm of self-help and into all aspects of our lives.

A Sculpture is first conceived of in the mind of the artists, and then emerges from the stone. A symphony is first heard in the mind of the composer, and then written to the score.

Likewise, in your effective job search, your end result must be clearly defined because the tools you’ll use to get there won’t know what you want!

Let me put it another way, to use social media without being clear about what you want, would be like a sculptor relying on his chisel to produce the art.

Most social media guru’s teach how to get more clients or customers. To simply rely on their advice means you may not get that Job Interview as quickly as you’d hoped.

You mean you don’t need more customers!

So what makes the job search any different?

I’ve put together 3 major differences in how you will use social media for a job search versus how you would use the tools for prospecting:

1.Brand You: during your job search, you will not have a company to stand behind— all you’ll have is your name. This means the only way an employer will be able to learn more about you is through searching your name. The most common tools to do this are Google & LinkedIn. Are you managing what information they will get when they type in your name?

2.One versus Many: you only need one job, a company needs many customers. As soon as you get that job, your job seeking efforts will be over. Therefore, it isn’t important to “cast your net wide”. Rather, the job seeker must go deep, deeper than the competition, in order to answer the basic questions of “Will you fit into the culture of the target company” and “What kind of value will you add over a long period of time”. You can take the risk of customizing your online reputation to a single company. If it doesn’t work out there, then move on. But you can’t be all things to all potential employers.

3.Time and Money: businesses can afford to spend most of their time and money on advertising or online marketing. You can’t! You want your efforts to be as effective as possible in getting to the interview. The least amount of time in front of the computer for the most amount of interviews. Each LinkedIn connection, each email’s goal is to get you in front of an interviewer OFF-LINE. Make sure your communication strategy leads to this conclusion. If it doesn’t, then scrap it.