Paul Weston was made redundant in February 2010 and decided to use social media as a way of proactively raising his online profile to find work. And before you say anything… I’m not calling Paul Weston a ‘Tool’ 
but the way he has been utilising online tools in order to find a new job is an example of how other people in the same position as Paul can do to make themselves more visible.
Paul Weston’s Background
Paul wrote a post on Rob Cameron’s blog ‘The power of networking…2‘ explaining the situation, if you haven’t read it yet – read it now as it explains in full what has been happening. But the following excerpt gives a little sneak peak:
I am a 34 year old married father of 2 lovely little boys. A month ago, life was sweet, happy as a pig in the doo doo! Since the end of February 2010, I have been unemployed. I worked as a Senior Estimator (Head of Pre-Contracts) for an interior fit-out contractor. Basically carrying out commercial and high end residential refurbishments and fit-outs.
Adding to the conversation
‘So what has the effect been online?’ I asked myself… Well finding out has never been easier now with the help of Radian6, and this is what I’ve found:
481 mentions over the last 30 days
Graph showing increased chat ('buzz') of Paul's job hunting campaign
conversation cloud of chat reltaing to Paul and Treehouse Appeal - click to enlarge
…And finally
And here’s a link to the complete list of all the conversations that have taken place, twitter and blogs, with links to them or if you prefer a PDF I’ve uploaded it to my Scribd account. Remember to follow Pauls blog or/and follow him on twitter
And please spare some change for ‘EACH’s’ appeal to raise £3 million to build and equip a new purpose-built children’s hospice in Ipswich. You can follow EACH on Twitter and find out more about the fantastic work EACH are doing here.
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Hi Lee,
Thanks for publishing these. They evidence a number of important points about using social media to increase visibility.
Firstly, you have to have a cause people want to help out with. Paul’s job search is one, but its also been enhanced by the fact that people who don’t know him identify with his situation, especially at the moment. Paul needs to get his name in front of many prospective employers of an estimator at a time when there are few jobs available.
Then there is the second cause, the East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices Treehouse appeal to build a new hospice in Ipswich. EACH are a small charity relatively new to twitter, but you only have to read about the wonderful work they do or watch one of their great videos to realise that the tiny bungalow they use at the moment, whilst indispensable now, does not help them do their job.
So there are two worthwhile causes people can identify.
Secondly there is collaboration here. People who want to help can do what they are best at. For example, I know Paul and I’m working on the Treehouse project, so he’s helping me by supporting the #treehouseappeal.
http://barefootgilles.posterous.com/treehouseap…
Meanwhile, I’ve got a lot of contacts in UK Construction, particularly online, and I’ve been able to tell them about his situation and several have made a supreme effort to help him get interviews.
Then there are the folks doing their runs and swims, including @PhilipRoss and @Dreamwalls Hannah. We’ve helped them get support for their efforts, they are fundraising for the appeal and helping Paul further.
On top of this, exposure across the internet gets you greater visibility too. Bloggers like Roberta Ward, Rob Cameron, Keith Kelly are spreading the word. All these techniques together are giving Paul the wide exposure he needs. I know you can take these data and drill down using Radian6 to see what caused those peaks, and I imagine they correspond to new audiences being reached when new people get on board, particularly with blogging.
So if you want to raise your profile in Social Media, you have to give people a good reason to help you, and if you do, they really will, each in their own way. We’ll keep encouraging people to share the causes in new ways until we get Paul a job and raise the £3m for the new hospice, because we want to, and because we know that together we can do it.
Nice use of Radian6.
Thank you for sharing!
Lauren Vargas
Community Manager at Radian6
@VargasL
You're welcome Lauren
Thanks for commenting 