GET SOCIAL WITH YOUR SEARCH
Today's job seekers spend on average 3 hours each day on the quest for a shiny new career. A third of this time is spent on social media. It's no surprise the social world has become much more than a place to post our latest lunch pics or beachfront brags. 92% of companies are currently using social media for recruitment, so it's the place to be for social savvy professionals ready to find their next role.
The king of professional social networking is LinkedIn, though businesses are now engaging with potential recruits via Facebook, Twitter and even Instagram, thanks to intuitive new features for specific target marketing.
So how can you use social media to improve your online job search? We take a look...
- Follow brands you'd love to work for to keep an eye on any opportunities that might suit you. This is a great way of educating yourself on the business prior to an interview, and also keeping an eye on any job adverts that crop up, ready for you to pounce on.
- Engage with brands. Comment on their posts, ask questions and interact so that they know you're there.
- If you have a way with words, use your blog to leverage your position of expertise online. Share blogs relevant to your industry on your LinkedIn profile.
- Join groups to position yourself as an expert in your field. Add your own content to groups to share news, tips, blogs or opinions on your sector.
- Contribute to ongoing conversations in industry-aligned groups. It shows your passion for your sector and will generate awareness of you as an individual, perhaps even an industry influencer if others like what you have to say.
- Follow recruitment agencies that specialise in your sector and connect with the consultants that work there to let them know you're on the market.
- Share your own work. A portfolio, a video, projects you've worked on or even shout outs to yourself on smashing team targets (leave out the financials and anything confidential)
- Ask for endorsements and recommendations. LinkedIn endorsements are a great way to build your online CV. The most common way of getting a recommendation is to recommend someone else. Ask for recommendations from people who know your work well and who you know will speak highly of you.
- Update your social profile to include your current job title and that you are currently seeking out new opportunities. You never know which of your contacts might recommend you to another business.
- Add keywords to your LinkedIn profile to help recruiters and companies find you, based on your skills, experience and how well they match what they're looking for. Consider what hiring managers will be searching for and make sure you cover as many as possible to be seen.
Take a look at our tips for getting your LinkedIn profile up to scratch.
- Make use of Twiter's search tools to find professionals in your sector and in your area.
- Follow brands you'd love to work for to keep an eye on any opportunities that might suit you.
- Engage with brands. Comment on their tweets, ask questions and interact so that they know you're there.
- Share blogs or articles and tag in relevant business professionals and online influencers to start a conversation on these. By positioning yourself as an expert in what you do, you'll build a following of like minded people... and dra the attention of recruiters.
- Search hashtags such as #Hiring #Recruitment #Sales #Retail #Manchester to find any current vacancies you might love.
- Follow recruitment agencies that specialise in your sector.
- Share content you've read online, with positive opinions to the author to showcase your understanding of the subject. Tag in the author to credit their work, or tag others in your industry as a 'something you might like to read'.
- Share great feedback you've received. A quote from a happy client, a picture of your team celebrating a successful project... something that says professional and passionate.
- Update your Twitter profile to include your current job title so that recruiters can easily find you based on keywords.
- Create Twitter lists of brands and agencies to follow for an easy to see snapshot of any new roles coming in.
- If you are currently unemployed, or have already informed your current employer that you plan to look elsewhere, share visuals that summarise your experience, successes and examples of your work so that recruiters can see that you're available.
- Like the business pages of companies you'd love to work for to keep an eye on any opportunities that arise. 51% of businesses now use Facebook to advertise vacancies.
- Engage with brands. Comment on their Facebook posts, let them know who you are and ask to be considered for ay relevant roles.
- Share blogs, motivational business quotes, articles on industry news and anything that positions you as a business professional. Recruiters will look at your Facebook page when considering you for a role. Make sure it reflects your fun side, and your professional one too.
- Join groups on Facebook to position yourself as an expert in your field.
- Search Facebook for groups and pages based on location or industry sector. Follow these pages for updates on potential new roles as they come in. E.g. Jobs In Manchester and Retail Jobs are both closed groups that will allow you to job search without you curren employer checking out your Facebook group activity.
- Follow recruitment agencies that specialise in your sector.
- Share content you've read online, with positive opinions to the author to showcase your understanding of the subject. If the author is a business or publication, tag them in your post so they'll know you've shared it.
- Share your own work. A portfolio, a video , projects you've worked on or even shout outs to yourself on smashing team targets (leave out the financials and anything confidential)
- Update your status to include your current job title and location so that you'll crop up in recruiter searches.
- Add your work experience to your profile. You could either list it in the About Me section or use Facebook milestones to showcase your career successes.
- Use your connections by searching for companies you'd love to work for, and using the search bar to view “My friends who work at X Company.” This is a great way to then look at their connections and widen your network. Just don't go stalking through profiles... it's about making connections, not discovering the dirt on people's personal lives.
Is your profile up to scratch? Take a look at our social media etiquette to be sure you look perfectly polished online.