I recently took an organizational behavior class where my professor conducted a strategic thinking exercise in which groups of students were to be a part of a scholarship committee. The purpose of our committee was to use strategic thinking on allocating a scholarship budget to reward several incoming freshmen to our university. I, along with some classmates represented freshmen candidates who would receive scholarship.

These candidates all had different strengths that would live up to standards and reputation of university. For example, my candidate was a high school senior who would not be able to attend college without a scholarship. Her strength was found through music and should she receive a scholarship to university, she would contribute to school’s music program. Another candidate was a gifted athlete who would be an asset to school’s basketball team. A third candidate was an intellect who would thrive in academic realm. Moreover, my argument on why my candidate deserved scholarship was among competing arguments from classmates who wanted same for their candidates.

We had a few options to consider:

• Are some candidates more in need of funding than others?
• Do some candidates deserve more funding than others?
• Should we evenly distribute scholarship fund so that everyone benefits?
• Should we give all scholarship money to best-rounded candidate who would make biggest impact on school’s reputation?

Are you in job market? Sick of every blog-byte cramming down your throat that you have to get out there and network? Feel like your traditional networking efforts have turned into a self-destructive waste of time?

Online Social Networking (OSN), a form of viral marketing, is a better way to hook up to opportunity. Done right, it’ll do wonders for your self-esteem and warp-speed your contact development.

Viral marketing is a marketing phenomenon that’s used to facilitate and encourage people to pass along a marketing message. Comparable to throwing a match into a parched forest, resulting wildfire rapidly propagates itself as initial targets pass promotion onto others. Achieve same results through OSN and watch your career search efforts heat up.

Online social networking has same element of exponential marketing. Used in a job hunt, OSN by its infrastructure eliminates many of your hassles of connecting with people of influence, and vice-versa, but not in way you think.

Andrea Connell, Director of Marketing for R.L. Stevens & Associates Inc, http://interviewing.com/ a leading international career marketing firm headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts, explains, “The viral capabilities of online social networking works best when it’s designed around your ability to give, not your need to receive.” You’ll reap better rewards when you share what you know with others and help them to succeed first and foremost. Focus on their needs over yours.

A seasoned contributor to several of popular online social networks, Connell regularly offers mini-bites of free job search advice to inquiring minds. Some of those people end up becoming company clients. “Online social networking is one of many multiple marketing strategies you should use to expedite your career campaign,” she says. “When OSN is used simultaneously with other personal marketing tactics, you position yourself as an expert in your field and widen your exposure to opportunity and decision makers.”