There are two ways to look in to this topic. Firstly that an employer will be attracted to a new employee who has social media skills to bring in to their business and secondly it’s a new way for employers to find you so building a strong profile on social media for yourself could in fact land you that all important new job!
Some basic social media skills are being taught at school now days so it is without question that this growing form of marketing and communicating will form an important part of someone’s skill set for the future. I am sure many readers of this blog will remember that they were once bought the Britannica Encyclopedia volumes and this set of chunky books held a wealth of information and practically everything and anything was covered – You had the knowledge of the world on your bookshelf and you spent days flicking through the pages. Now days, children are being brought up with social media and use it for research in coursework, carry out course work on the topic of social media and even take social media as a course in higher education. Information is available online so we’ve gone from the need of Britannica Encyclopedias on to the web and the Google search engine with now days the latest and recent news coming out first on social media.
So, if you are leaving school and want to be spotted then what better way to showcase who you are and what you have to offer then by not only sending a CV, but also links to your professional profile on LinkedIn, maybe your blog / website too and even if you are very keen you could look at video CV’s and clever marketing across platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.
We recently advertised for a new member of staff for our office team and though most applications were either basic CV or CV and covering letter, the one of two that stood out also gave links to what they had been doing for coursework that involved social media. One applicant had amassed a high volume of YouTube views for their videos as well as high following on their Twitter account from delivering relevant industry news and information.
A Strong social media knowledge / profile can simply get you in the door for your first ever job, promotion within your own company or land you a new position in a new company. Some companies will look to try and control your social media activities so make sure before you take on that new job that if the company is social media savy that they realise that you’ve already established yourself a presence – They may restrict you from using company branding or communications with company clients.