Using Social Media in Your Job Search

Brightwater Recruitment

With the advent of social media, job hunting just got easier! Or did it? We take you through the minefield of social media channels to secure your ideal job......... Read on

LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter are the main social networking sites. Google+ is also increasing in visibility. These sites offer ways of tracking the industry and companies that you are interested in and also give terrific opportunities to get in touch with people that would be of assistance in your job search.

LinkedIn

Probably the most professionally orientated networking site, purely focusing on your career.

Create a profile – this is your work and education history, skills and experience. Make sure it is as thorough and professional as possible. HR professionals tend to look through LinkedIn for talent. Mention any awards and make sure you use key words to describe your profile.

Connect – build your network by sending out an "invitation to connect” to everyone appropriate. Search for former colleagues or professional acquaintances and also look at your connections to see if they know anyone at a company you are targeting. Ask them to make an email introduction for you. This is a professionally focused site, so members tend to trust introductions coming from other members.

Recommend – post recommendations on profiles of former colleagues, suppliers, clients and anyone whose work you rate. You can also ask them to give you a great recommendation which will make you attractive to potential employers.

Join groups – there is a wide variety of groups you can join such as: university alumni, professional association and industry specific groups. Some companies have LinkedIn pages, some of which have both a public profile for non-employees and a private profile for employees. These groups share advice and leads on jobs, hold online discussions and are a great source of information.

Facebook

Facebook is more a social networking site (rather than professional), but can still be valuable in your search.

Use the “Status Update” feature to say “looking for a job”. A word of warning however, if you are employed and just looking to change jobs, be careful what you say here. Some companies regularly check their employees’ profiles to ensure that their company is not being defamed. If they see you actively asking for job leads, you might just end up having to look for a job sooner than you think!

If you are unemployed and you put “Looking for a job” on your status update feature, make sure your profile is relatively banal. Many HR departments screen potential employees’ profiles and they don’t want to see anyone too hungover to go to work or criticising bosses or colleagues! We have all seen the emails of people being caught out pulling “sickies” and stating it proudly on their Facebook page. It’s not so funny if you’re hauled in front of your boss or miss out on a potential new job!

Ask your Facebook friends to send on leads to you, you may just get a great job out of it.

Twitter

There are some great features in Twitter that can be very useful in job searches.

Follow me – follow the posts of anyone you are targeting from individuals to companies. Because of the length allowed, it’s easy for people to respond quickly.

Follow your next employer – if you are targeting a specific company, you can read what employees and their clients are saying. It helps to understand the company culture. Many companies also post their jobs on Twitter – this is popular with HR professionals.

Specific Tools – you can check search.twitter.com which allows you to search by keyword, person’s name or employer. Another tool is tweetmyjobs.com which allows you to search for specific jobs by industry.

Be concise! – Each tweet is limited to 140 characters.

HOT TIP! Keep your profiles, Twitter updates and comments entirely professional.

Social networking is really just another online tool in job hunting but bear in mind that employers can be influenced by what your online profile says about you. Type your own name into any search engine and put yourself in any potential employer’s shoes – would you be happy to employ you?

For further advice on your job search, talk to your Brightwater Consultant by contacting our office on: 

Dublin | +353 1 662 1000 | [email protected]
Cork | +353 21 422 1000 | [email protected]