This day and age, it’s becoming increasingly more difficult to stand out as a business marketing student when it comes to the job hunt. It took some considerable time to think, “What makes me different?” When I sit and evaluate myself I like to take a step back and think, “What have I always loved and what is it that I have always been good at?” Until you can figure out what your true passion is its hard to figure out what you want to do with your life.

I know I am a people person. I’m the type of person who enjoys meeting people and getting to know them. I like the idea of going to a place that is completely new for me and make at least five new friends. Networking has always been something I loved. I have one year left of college and now that it’s time to join the “real world” how do I apply this to my career or more importantly my near future in the job search? Well the advances in social media have provided me with an amazing venue for advertising myself and creating innovative ways to display my work.

I am not the only one that has found unique ways to market myself through social media venues but I have done some research and developed a base of useful tools to help me. Some websites I love are LinkedIN for its unbelievably professional approach to getting yourself noticed worldwide on a professional platform. Although I still advise cleaning up your facebook, having a LinkedIN profile and expanding that network is vital and becoming increasingly more important to the job search. I also like to focus my attention to two other tools used online that have helped me get where I am academically and in my career. Twitter and a software program called iFlyMobi.

Twitter is amazing because I can surf through twitter looking for contacts that have similar interests, can teach me something, and can share my work. The concept of micro blogging is genius in this fast paced world we’re all growing up in. I along with most Americans are only looking for the most important information and want it as quick as possible. Twitter provides me with the opportunity to explore the web and experience different things all while learning. I end up finding myself blogging more and exploring blogs because they come up in my Twitter feed. I’m learning and I don’t even realize it because I enjoy reading this stuff! I never thought in my entire life that I would say that.

The last tool I use because it is something that sets me apart from everyone else and I am only sharing it with you

because I think everyone should be doing it to promote themselves. iFlyMobi is a software developed by a company that I work with called interlinkONE. What they do is create a mobile optimized portfolio for you where you can display your professional image, bio, links, and a portfolio of your work. Scan my code to see what I’m talking about.

Once your personal mobile website is created you generate a QR code that I put at the top of every resume I have printed in the past year. I attended the SIFE competition in New York last spring and we visited a very largely attended job fair with hundreds of business students from all over this region. Each person I talked to was very interested in my QR code and put my resume right to the top of the pile because they knew how “cool” and unique it was. This little code helped me stand out because it was something that was new and innovative. I highly recommend anyone who’s looking to use this type of creative tool to get one today and start using it as much as possible. It’s a small fee but it’s totally worth it. Put it on a business card, your resume, or even your website, you never know what it could do for you because it surely helped me.

No matter how competitive the job market gets there’s always ways to help yourself stand out and whether you’re like me or not it is important to network and do it in the most unique way possible. With that being said listen to how other people market themselves and create a path that helps you stand out. You could be the next trend setter you just need to think creatively. You never know what’s going to be the next big thing. Who knows it could be you!

Check out some of my other work on Facebook Pages, YouTube and WordPress:

Camp Forty Acres- Facebook | Twitter | YouTube

Charlton College of Business- Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Blog

My Mobile Made Easy- Facebook | Twitter

Blogs- Grow Socially