The first recommendation I’d make is that you should think of Linked-In or Twitter or Facebook not just as a source of employment but as a source of conversations. After all, some people get work from people they meet at Church, or at the tennis club, but if you go to Church or play tennis solely because you hope to find a job, you probably won’t ever build the kinds of relationship that will result in a job. (This applies just as much to free-lance work as to full-time employment.)

But when you are laid off, it is probably good advice to get out of the house, go to Church more often or join some social clubs, rather than sitting at home moping. Get into new conversations, not with an ulterior gimme-a-job motive, but simply for the sake of learning what other people are doing and thinking. And exactly the same applies to conversations online – talk to people, share ideas like I’m doing here – just for its own sake.

Actually, one good reason for our friends to join Linked-In when they get laid off is precisely to keep in touch with all their newly ex-colleagues. It’s amazing how you can work in the next cubicle with someone for years, and find something interesting about them from their online presence, or perhaps a mutual friend, which provides something else to talk about, either online or offline.

And I’ve got some good new friends that I first met online before meeting offline. Like you for example. But you don’t make friends just by posting a profile and waiting passively for people to contact you. It doesn’t work like that at the tennis club, and it doesn’t work like that online either. Online networking is just an extension/amplification of offline, and vice versa.

At the very least, its some stuff to read on your first day or two of sitting on the bench! One extra thing I would recommend to anyone laid off – subscribe to the local paper (or read it online) every day. Find the local business rag that covers local businesses and either subscribe or read it online. I actually recommend subscribing, because stepping away from your computer to read a print edition will keep you a little more focused, and you’ll tend to read the “random” articles that may turn out to be useful.

At the very least, it keeps you well informed of local business happenings which will make you sound more informed when you talk to companies that might hire you. when they mention company X and you say “oh yes, i saw they just closed that deal with IBM” or “right, they just got new office space off of mopac” you sound a bit more relevant and with-it.