Whilst Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and the like are all tools we use in our everyday lives to catch up with friends and family, they have also become important in our career development, particularly when it comes to looking for new jobs.
With the whole internet and social media sites at a potential employer’s disposal, it’s easy for them to find out all about you by doing a little bit of searching around. This way, they will be able to see whether they think you would be a good fit for their organisation. For this reason, it’s important that your ‘findable’ online presence is optimised towards portraying you in a professional manner.
Of course, there are some who haven’t even reached the stage of getting themselves online. This is equally as important – if you aren’t up to speed with using computers then see here to find some tips on how you can do something about it, or read on for some further advice…
Brand “You”
Establishing an online presence for yourself is an important marketing and branding exercise these days. With powerful search engines such as Google and Yahoo allowing employers to find people with your name, you want to ensure that you are appearing for the majority of the results at the top of the page. It’s estimated that as many as95% of recruiters are using the internet these days in their candidate shortlisting process, meaning it’s more vital than ever to make sure you can be found.
Stand out from the crowd
Whilst it’s important to have an online presence, you need to learn how to use it to your advantage. Having an interesting range of profiles and interests can help you to stand out from the crowd of applicants. Therefore, look to host some great pieces of work you have done that highlight your achievements (provided you are not under any client disclosure agreements), or perhaps make your own personal blog with your name as the web address if you want to write some thought-lead pieces regarding news and updates in your industry.
Profiles to use
With so many social media profiles available, it can be difficult to know how many, and which ones to set up for yourself. LinkedIn is the obvious one and has always been set up for business purposes, but here are some of the other platforms and what they should be used for:
Facebook – traditionally a more ‘social’ profile, you should spend some time cleaning it up to remove any potentially offensive posts or pictures. Alternatively, create a separate profile for work and edit the privacy settings on your personal one so it cannot be found. Use Facebook to join relevant groups in your industry, interact with companies and network with peers.
Twitter – can act as a professional, business-card and front for your industry comments. You can interact with companies you would potentially like to work for and share posts from industry
leaders. If you run your own blog, tweet the posts with a link back to your site to increase your reputation.
Pinterest – a very image-based platform, use this to display examples of your work to impress potential employers. Also, create an aesthetically pleasing CV – you have far more features at your disposal with Pinterest than what is offered with LinkedIn, and it is a chance for your personality to shine through.
There are of course many more besides – have you had any luck finding a job by using social media? Or are you and employer who has any tips for job searchers