There have been many reports of people losing a job because of social media, whether by lambasting a boss on a publicly accessible profile or posting compromising photos. But on a more positive and productive note, sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn can, with a little planning and extra work, be useful tools in finding gainful employment or improving your position within your own particular field. There are no guarantees but with the job market becoming increasingly competitive, any extra edge is an edge worth having.
Of course it isn’t quite as simple as creating a profile and waiting for opportunities to come to you, or of changing your status to ‘Looking for a job, lol!’ Follow our tips below and you might just be able to land that elusive new position.
Find the most relevant sites
As a business orientated site with a professional networking slant, LinkedIn will probably be at the top of your list, but other big players on the social media scene, including Twitter and Facebook, can also play their parts.
In addition there are many smaller niche sites with forums, blogs, and resources. Some even have dedicated employment sections and, depending on your field, it may be worth investing a little time and energy creating and maintaining a presence on these. Some will be focused on the industry in a particular country or area, while others will be more general, but a quick search should turn up the most relevant to you.
Examples include:
Fashionising – Fashion
Nurses Network – Nursing
Designers Network – Design
Active Rain – Real Estate
Create a professional looking profile
When using social media for job-hunting purposes, your profile will often be the first thing a potential employer sees, so it should look as professional as possible. LinkedIn profiles can be designed using the same principles as CV or résumé writing.
For other platforms, you should include more personal information and pictures (you don’t want to look too desperate or as if you have no life outside work) but work in your skills and don’t go too wild with the other stuff – employers might like you to be human, but they don’t need to see images of that toga party last New Year’s Eve.
It may be worth setting up more than one profile – one for the job-hunting and others exclusively for friends. Bear in mind however that some potential employers will actively search for your (other) social media profiles, so pay attention to your privacy settings or simply don’t put any embarrassing content up there to begin with.
Connect with the right people
Enter as many professional contacts as possible to make the most of LinkedIn’s ‘connections’ features. It’s basically a ‘friend of a friend’ approach, opening an avenue to approach your contacts’ contacts (termed ‘second-degree connections’) and even your contacts’ contacts’ contacts (or ‘third degree connections’).
On other platforms, target companies you’re interested in and search for relevant individuals within those organisations. Join groups connected to your industry or area of interest and focus your efforts there, but it might also be worth casting your net wider when it comes to sites like Facebook. You never know when an old acquaintance or school friend might be able to help you out.
Find the most relevant jobs for your experience
It’s not just job-hunters using social media platforms. Employers are increasingly using them to advertise positions and, as well as approaching companies directly to pro-actively search for positions, you should be keeping an eye out for existing jobs that match your abilities and experience. Search the job listings on LinkedIn and on Twitter and keep an eye on the hashtag #jobangels, as well as the regular tweets of every company and organisation you’re following.
Promote your own services and abilities
It can be worth mentioning the fact that you’re job hunting on Twitter or Facebook on the off-chance that one of your contacts will approach you, but you should also take a more pro-active approach. Once you’ve identified contacts, interact with them by responding to their tweets or message board posts or via private messaging.
You’ll want to display your knowledge where appropriate but don’t over-do it – you want to establish contact and make yourself known, not come across like a stalker. A personally branded blog can be a good way of highlighting your skills and if you do invest time in this, make sure you link it to all your social networking profiles.
Finding the right job, or sometimes any job at all, can be tough. Social networking sites don’t offer a magic solution but they can provide opportunities and shouldn’t be overlooked.
This was a guest post from:
Christian Arno is the founder and Managing Director of professional translation agency Lingo24, experts in the foreign language internet. Launched in 2001, Lingo24 now has over 140 employees spanning three continents and clients in over sixty countries. In the past twelve months, they have translated over 46 million words for businesses in every industry sector and their turnover for 2010 was £5m. Follow Lingo24 on Twitter: @Lingo24.
This is a great post. One thing that i wish you would have touched on more would have been how to give yourself a more professional looking profile. Even if you have the accounts and are using them to network, you need to be cautious of how they could appear to potential employers. Your online brand is important so you may want to make your profiles private or untag certain photos.
Social Media Networks are of great help for people today….be it for searching jobs or connecting with people or else market any product.One should make the most of it when possible…