Job seeking from a hunters perspective Blog

Social Media and the job search September 13, 2010

Are you using social media in your job search?

If so which ones are you using?

LinkedIn Twitter Facebook MySpace etc.?

Do you know how to properly use them?

Do you  know the power they can have if you do use them correctly?

I am amazed at how many job seekers do not know the power of LinkedIn or how to use it to their advantage. I have a lecture that I provide on the very topic and the look of amazement that I get and the comments that I get after the lecture are mind boggling to me. But people are are grateful for me providing them the information.

One of the most powerful job alerts that I have found does not come from the job boards. It comes from Twitter. Well not directly, it is called TweetsMyJob and you have to have a Twitter account to use it. You can get it from TweetsMyJob.com.

There are books out there on the subject of using various social media and the job search. Some are good and others just glance over the topics without getting into much detail.

I think the detail is needed as to why you should be using this and how to use it and why it is important to use it correctly.

The one thing about my lecture is can be used for job search and then doing business after you land. It is about the power of networking and how it fits into todays and the future way of doing business.

So which do I use and why should I be using them? Well that is a personal preference as I see it. I can tell you that the top three as of this post are LinkedIn Twitter and Facebook in that order.

HR and recruiters are using these three more and more to find qualified candidates. Why? Because it is cost effective for them and easier to eliminate thousands of unqualified resumes. So shouldn’t you be learning how to use these three?

LinkedIn:

LinkedIn(LI) is a professional networking site for business and people in business. The language used and the discussions should be kept in a professional manner. There is an etiquette to networking and it adds to the power of this site.

Use all the features of LI in a way that adds to your value. How does one do this? Join groups relative to your profession. Select discussions that you are a SME at and provide alot of detail in your discussions. In the answers section you will want to do the same thing. In the books read section it shows that you are keeping your skills current by reading up on books related to those skills and your profession. Do not forget to select recommend, do not recommend or no comment and add your comments about the book. The ease of reading or the difficulty. Why you liked or did not like the book.

Applications that you will find useful. If you have a WordPress Blog you can easily link it to your profile through the WordPress application. You can use Slide Share or  Google Docs to share documents or presentations.

Twitter:

Twitter is not the same as texting to your children on your smartphone. You have the ability to follow who you wish and to control who is following you. You have the ability to connect to people you never thought would be possible.

The advantage of Twitter is that it teaches you how to converse in a 140 characters or less. It teaches you to be brief concise and to the point. Ah! but you will be surprised in just how much you can say in 140 characters.

Twitter is a vast number of communities and like all online communities it takes time for everyone to get comfortable with you and to learn who you are. So how can  you help them? You can help them by retweeting the tweets that you agree with or that you think make a point along with your way of thinking. You can help by ensuring that your Tweets have intellectual content to them.

An example of this would be that if you Tweeted a message that really didn’t have much meaning it sounded like a statement to be making a statement. As a reader you say what does that mean? Does it really mean anything?

I say use intellectual content because without it it is just words for the sake of words. Intellectual content gives your words power and this will attract people to you and they may want to follow you.

Ask questions or start discussion. You will have to learn to use  hashtags (#) for this. You can search subjects using hashtags. Search for people you know or want to connect with.

FaceBook:

This to me is more social than professional but HR and recruiters are using it to find candidates as well. There are business pages that if they are a target company you can like those pages so you can keep up with what is going on.

If you are job seeking you may want to make your profile both family & friends and professional.

So I suggest to job seekers who are not using these or are not using them to there fullest potential to find out how to. As this is where you will be found and your next job may very well come from.