If you’re looking for a new job right now, you can expect to find an increasing number of opportunities via social media platforms.
Here are my 5 tips for landing your dream job through social media.
- Build your reputation and position yourself as an expert through social media
Once you’ve decided how you’re going to brand yourself or your company, create accounts at all of the major sites where you can brand yourself — LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook – obviously depending on who your audience is.
You can increase your visibility as an expert by consistently sharing tips and valuable content where your audience is most receptive to engaging with you. I use primarily LinkedIn and Facebook, but I also post videos with tips on YouTube.
For more tips on how to position yourself as an expert, click here.
- Use LinkedIn effectively
If you are a job seeker and are not using Linked In properly, you are missing out.
LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network and employers and recruiters including myself use LinkedIn on a daily basis to find the right talent.
However, if your profile isn’t completed, keyword reach or optimized, employers won’t be able to find you.
Here are a few ways you can use LinkedIn in your job search:
- Attract attention of recruiters by creating a strong summary section and an enticing headline
- Research companies you’re interested in. Whether you want to research a few target companies or a potential business school, such London School of Business and Finance (LSBF), LinkedIn will allow you to find and connect with decision makers in your target companies
- Post interesting updates related to your area of expertise. LinkedIn allows you to post status updates and linked your blog posts to your profile. Every time I post a new article on my blog, it updates on my profile so my connections know what I am writing about.
- Join a wide range of professional groups – e.g. SAP Consultants or Java Developers. There are often job opportunities available through these groups and recruiters also join the groups when looking for candidates for their open positions.
- Identify the right recruiter/HR person. You can use LinkedIn to find someone inside the company you want to work for, and send your resume that way. I get lots of people contacting me on LinkedIn every day and if their experience is relevant to the roles I am recruiting for, I stay in contact with them.
- Engage with a prospective employer instead of jumping straight in
In my recruitment job, I often get LinkedIn messages from job seekers asking me to find them a job, yet they clearly haven’t read my profile, as I have zero experience or contacts in their areas of expertise.
Social media is great for identifying and communicating with people in your target companies and for communicating your suitability and passion for the position.
However, engage with someone first before asking for job opportunities. You wouldn’t ask a stranger at a networking meeting to find you a job, so why do it online?
- Research the companies you want to apply for. Even if there are no vacancies now, you can identify the key people and offer an introduction to yourself and why you perceive yourself as a good fit for future positions. Don’t harass your contacts but keep an eye on what they are doing and how they’re doing it.
- Build online relationships with the relevant players so that even if they don’t currently know of anything that would suit you, they’ll remember you if something comes up further down the line
- Show curiosity and concern when connecting with contacts online – reply to your contacts’ tweets asking for help and contribute to the discussions they start.
- Build a recruiter friendly Twitter bio
You can make your Twitter presence employer-friendly by putting your job pitch in your Twitter bio, using a professional looking picture, tweeting about your job search and establishing yourself as an expert in your field on Twitter.
You can also use a tool like Visual CV to include a link to an online CV in your bio.
Twitter allows you to seek out potential employers and useful contacts – you can use a directory like Twellow to help you find people in your chosen field.
Remember to use appropriate hash tags (#) to have your tweets picked up by recruiters. E.g. if you are an IT professional, try using UKjobs or #IT at the beginning of each tweet.
You can also start following recruitment people from the companies you’d like to work for and you can then get in contact with them directly or respond to their advertisements.
- Look after your online reputation
I once spoke to the Managing Director who didn’t hire a PR person who sounded very impressive in interviews, after seeing hundreds of his drunken pictures online…
Remember that anything you put online can be seen by prospective employers when they Google you, so make sure you remove any inappropriate Facebook pictures or status updates.
Even if your settings are set to Private, some of what you’ve put online can be seen when employers Google you.
If you wouldn’t want your prospective employer to see what you’re about to post – then don’t do it!
Hope you’ve found the tips useful. Would love to hear your stories on how you’ve landed jobs using social media – please post them below!
Margaret Buj is an Interview and Career Acceleration Coach who specializes in helping professionals get hired, promoted and paid more.
She has extensive experience of interviewing professionals at all levels across a number of industries and has recruited for global corporations in the technology and e-commerce space across EMEA and the US.
Get her brand new FREE video training series which will show you how to access more job opportunities and how to get more interviews in a competitive job market.
