Looking for a job on social media sites? Get 7 social media tips for job seekers and learn how to get a job using social media with these social media job search tips.
Were you ever asked to include the links to your social media profiles in your resume? If not, this doesn’t mean that the interviewer didn’t look you up on Facebook or Twitter when they received your resume.
We read a lot nowadays about companies checking out the social profiles of candidates they’re looking to recruit. But how prevalent is this practice in Indian companies?
Experts reveal that 92% of companies are using social media for hiring (not only LinkedIn) and 3 out of 4 hiring managers will search for a candidate’s social profiles.
A lot of new generation companies are actually looking at the social media profiles of prospective employees and using these as a filter along with your resume.
So, stop and think before you post another racy photo on Facebook or use foul language on Twitter. Your prospective HR manager could be reading those tweets or checking out your photo.
Inappropriate posts on social networks can harm your job prospects, as recruiters use social networks to conduct background checks and most of them use Facebook to screen candidates.
According to HR consultants, employers are especially interested in the recommendations and endorsements that candidates have on social media accounts like LinkedIn.
A fair amount of recruitment today takes place through recruitment consultants, who are mostly staffed by Gen Y operatives who are extremely savvy about social media and therefore use them extensively to filter candidate profiles.
Sure, this might sound a bit intimidating, especially if you consider your social media profile personal, but these days it’s more likely than not that recruiters scan your social media profile before calling you in for an interview.
Why is this so? Because the interviewers believe that your social media profile is able to tell them more about you than both your cover letter and the CV. And it actually can.
For example, if you claim to be serious and collected, but your Facebook account is filled with inappropriate jokes and photos of you drinking, this will very likely affect their impression of you, and not in a good way.
The same happens if you badmouth your previous employers on social media or do other things that could compromise the image you’re trying to project.
While you might feel a bit uneasy about this, this is important to know. Making your social media profile a tool as powerful as your resume and cover letter could greatly aid you in your job search.
This article in Forbes offers the following tips to land a job you love using social media:
- Google yourself in incognito mode and delete any inappropriate posts
- Focus on a few social media platforms and update them regularly
- Use social media to learn more about organizations you’re interested in
- Engage with industry leaders and brand yourself as a subject matter expert
- Personalise your messages and nurture genuine relationships
With social networking changing recruitment practices in India, here are some social networking etiquette tips to help job-seekers – especially women – portray themselves in the best light to potential employers on social sites.
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7 Social Media Tips For Job Seekers
Do you want to make your social media profile as powerful a tool as your resume and cover letter? So how can you use social media to aid your job search? Here’s how to go about it.
1. Tailor your profile
Just like a nasty social media profile could affect the interviewers’ decision to hire you, a good one could benefit you a lot. Of course, pay special attention to your LinkedIn profile.
Don’t settle for adding the recent job history only, even if you consider it the most important. Instead, fill in all the information pertaining to your job and educational history over the past 15 to 20 years (and do this in as much detail as possible).
Here are some best practices that HR professionals recommend to candidates applying for jobs as far as their portrayal of themselves on social media sites goes:
- Don’t use questionable language on your blog, website or social media account page.
- Don’t share links related to adult content.
- Don’t post updates about your drinking binges and related escapades on your social media account. If you do, restrict the audience that can view such information.
- Don’t make comments or start polls on sensitive topics related to race, creed, religion, gender, politics, etc. Your posts should not give the impression that you have such biases.
- Don’t bitch about your company.
- Don’t leak your company’s confidential information on social media sites.
Work hard to make yourself presentable, delete all the things that could compromise you, and instead focus on adding some information about yourself, your hobbies, interests, and skills.
- Post articles that trigger progressive thinking
- Talk beyond lifestyles and parties
- Express your opinions on important topics, rather than being a bystander
- Do share intelligent, relevant, thought-provoking links which portray you in a favourable light.
If you’re only male-bashing or making comments which demonstrate hatred against a particular gender, caste, or creed, it will reflect badly on you.
2. Network strategically
Let’s assume you want to contact someone or impress a specific person. Years ago it would be so hard to do: even contacting this person (especially if they are very important) could take a lot of time and yield few results.
However, now, when most important people have their own social media profiles, it has become much easier. For example, you can now easily contact even the CEO of a company on Twitter, simply replying to their Tweet or mentioning them in yours.
Of course, if you want them to notice you, your tweet needs to be well-crafted and showcase exactly why they should hire you. Check out these inspiring examples of 140-character resumes designed to wow potential employers on Twitter.
Remember, though, that’s not the only way you can benefit from social media. Social networks also allow you to establish contacts with other important people, who can teach you something, assist you with something, and even help you land a dream job someday.
Join groups on Facebook and LinkedIn and participate in group discussions on LinkedIn and Twitter chats. Create and publish your own blog related to your niche, and you’ll be able to make new important business connections and get noticed.
3. Use a blog to land a job
This might seem like an option for only bloggers, but actually, it’s not. In fact, some personal branding experts recommend that candidates start a blog so they can showcase their expertise and knowledge to future employers.
When you publish a blog related to a certain niche and fill it with unique and valuable information, you can become a niche expert in your industry, but only if you do it right and invest some time and effort in blog promotion.
This way, you’ll already look impressive and professional to recruiters, and you might be surprised by how many recruiters actually pay attention to expert bloggers.
But do HR departments really give much credence to a candidate’s blog? And at what level in the organization does writing a blog give you a competitive edge over other candidates?
Blogs can be a big advantage if you’re in a senior-level role. C-suite and Top Management headhunters pay attention to a candidate’s blogs, as it gives the recruiter an overview of your thought process.
The benefits of starting a blog are that they:
- Show initiative on the part of the candidate
- Demonstrate discipline and ability to multitask if the blog author follows a regular publishing schedule
- Demonstrate openness to share knowledge
- Demonstrate the ability to communicate coherently and put their thoughts in writing
- Demonstrate the courage to take a stand – as can be inferred from certain blog posts
All of are the key competencies that HR professionals look for in senior management candidates, so a blog may help you showcase these qualities as an inherent trait, especially since you don’t get paid to write your own blog.
India is yet to catch up on this hiring concept, but we’re seeing a lot of senior-level candidates expressing their thoughts on blogs. Even mentioning a company’s name in one of your posts could benefit you when applying for a certain position there.
Moreover, the best way to make an impression on a company you would like to work at is to communicate with them directly – on their blog, for example.
You can comment and voice your opinion on some of their articles or posts. Just make sure that you have a backlink to your blog posts in your signature so it’s easy for them to find your blog.
4. Use social media to check out job offers
Many of us have companies we dream of working in. However, they aren’t always looking for new employees at the point when you receive an opportunity to change your job.
There are many advantages to using social media for your job search. One of the easiest ways to find out about new positions open in your dream organisation is to monitor their social media posts and subscribe to their newsletter if they have one.
Of course, most companies update such information on their websites too, but you’ll probably notice it much quicker when they post about it on Facebook or Twitter.
5. Learn about the company’s culture
Social media allows recruiters to find out more about you, but it allows you to do the same – find out more about the company you want to work for.
Of course, the best way to do so is not to gloss over their official pages on LinkedIn and Twitter, but to monitor them for a while, read anonymous reviews on Glassdoor, and pay attention to details of their corporate culture and work culture.
Sometimes people are so focused on a job’s benefits that they forget that corporate culture matters a lot too. You can be a consummate professional and still find the company’s culture unsuitable, so it’s better to find out about this as early as possible.
Moreover, following a certain company on social media will allow you to learn more about its values and working style. Without a doubt, demonstrating such knowledge to your interviewer could be of benefit during your interview, even helping to land the job.
6. Use LinkedIn to conduct job searches
Technically, any social media network can be used for job searches. LinkedIn, however, is specifically tailored to that task, allowing you to highlight your skills, get recommendations from your colleagues, and even look for a job secretly, without having to post your resume on job sites.
The only thing you need to know is how to fill in your profile properly, highlighting all your certifications, skills, and professional experience – and then you can start networking or looking for a job. You could also consider upgrading to a Premium Career LinkedIn profile for a few months.
According to LinkedIn, candidates with Premium Career get hired an average of 2X as fast. It also lets you move to the top of recruiters’ applicant lists and provides other benefits that can give you an edge in your job search.
7. Ask for the right sort of recommendations
HR consultants and employers take special note of the recommendations and endorsements that you have on your social media profiles like LinkedIn.
For women, especially, not all recommendations will create the right impression with recruiters. In fact, some are downright avoidable.
Here are some suggestions that HR professionals offer to women candidates in particular, with respect to their social media profiles:
- Update your profile.
- Get good recommendations from your former managers and colleagues, but watch out for the statements below – they are a trap.
🚫”She is a very pleasing person”
🚫”My best friend”
🚫”She was a great party organizer”
🚫”She was a fun person”
Instead, your recommendations should reflect your –
- Courage
- Drive
- Willingness to do things that would be considered impossible
Just as the free Resume Writing Tool in the Glow & Lovely Career Community can help you create a stunning resume, there are many benefits of using social media for job search.
Social media can help you make your job search even more effective and land you your dream job more easily. So don’t miss out on the opportunity to give your social media profiles a makeover right now.
If you need free career counselling and more social media tips for job seekers in India, connect with a career counsellor on the SHEROES app for women.
Author Bio:
Charles is a career mentor, motivational speaker & human resources consultant with over 10 years of experience in the HR sector. Charles is a lead expert at Professional Resume Solutions. Apart from career mentoring, he loves photography and football. Find him on Linkedin, Twitter, and Facebook.
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