Everybody is used to using online jobs boards, newspapers and notice boards when looking for work but have you ever considered how valuable your social media profiles are also? More and more recruiters and employers are not only advertising on social platforms but they are also actively looking for suitable candidates for their vacancies on their too.
Below is a guide of the top 3 social networks to use during job seeking and how to best utilise them.
LinkedIn is by far the most prevalent social media platform used in recruitment. Dubbed the “Facebook for Professionals” it is specifically designed for you to showcase your skills and experience to viewers of your profile. You can get recommendations from colleagues and this will automatically make your profile more attractive to potential recruiters or employers looking at it. Joining groups specific to the field you want to work in will allow you view job discussions and posts by companies as well as keeping you up-to-date on industry goings-on.
Facebook allows you to add your current and past employment as well as your current location making it a great tool for recruitment consultants and potential employers to search for candidates and they do. With that in mind, if you have content on your profile that you think may dissuade an employer from contacting you, your privacy settings should be set to not allow non-friends to view your profile. You can also become fans of jobs boards, recruitment agencies and other pages that you think may share vacancies on their wall and use them as the first point of contact with the employers.
The best way to use Twitter for job seeking is by following the companies that you would like to work for. They are likely to advertise any vacancies they have on the micro-blogging site but it is also a good opportunity for you to start up a conversation with your would-be employers. If the company are on Twitter this means they are open to questions and comments from those interested in their company and this bodes well for you. As with Facebook, you can also follow the Twitter accounts of jobs boards and recruitment agencies in order to keep up with their latest vacancies.
It is probably best to use a combination of all three of the aforementioned social media platforms when jobseeking to make yourself as visible as possible to those who make be looking for someone just like you. The trick is to make your profiles as easy to find as possible and once found, ensuring there is material on your profile that will entice the reader to make further contact with you. Whilst social networks are another avenue to explore for job seeking, it is worth noting that they are probably still not as effective as traditional forms of job search.