Social Media For Job Seekers
Although they might spend hours a day on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, or another of the myriad of social media sites, few job seekers are using social media to its full potential in their employment search, if they’re using it at all. Although LinkedIn is the logical place to hunt for open positions, just having a profile page isn’t enough. And all those other sites can be just as effective if they’re used in the right way. Here are six tips to help get your social media job search off the ground.
- Use your existing network. The first step is letting everyone know you’re in the market for a job, and what you’re interested in. And after all, people who know you personally will be more interested in helping you out. And those hundreds of friends also have hundreds of friends, and on and on…you get the picture. Most of your friends, and even acquaintances, will be happy to help.
- Update your employment-related documents. This is especially important for LinkedIn, but it applies to other sites too. Create some keywords that reflect your skills and position desired, your personal brand, and include them in your documents to help those looking for someone like you to find you in a search.
- Build your credibility. Posting articles related to your expertise shows an interest and a desire to learn more in your field. If you can write the articles and blog posts yourself, even better.
- Target your efforts. Join the groups and pages that are related to your work, and get involved in the conversations. When applying to specific companies, take a look at the profile pages of the hiring managers and craft cover letters with a personal touch. Linkedin is an especially good resource for doing this these days.
- Let your profiles reflect the real you. Be sure to include information about your personal interests, hobbies, family life, etc. A sincere and authentic profile that lets a potential employer get a feel for who you are will make a much better impression. It’s also a good idea to target pages centered around areas that you’d like to live and work. For instance, if you’d like to try living in Hawaii, drop some comments on pages that focus on subjects related to that region.
- Don’t neglect forums and comment sections. People sometimes forget that online forums and comment sections on articles are also types of social media. You’ll find plenty of forums relating to the types of jobs your interested in, and posting a comment on a related news story asking for advice will usually result in helpful information.
Make use of all the social media resources available. It’s free, it’s easy, and it’s probably already part of your daily routine. It can be a highly effective resource for finding the job of your dreams.