Social Media: Leverage Social Media In Your Job Search
Written By Miguel Cancino | May 28, 2009 |
Getting a job has never been easy, but in today’s economy it is worse than ever - even for highly qualified candidates. While many job seekers continue to rely on sites like Monster.com and Career Builder, there are a wide range of social media tools that can help you expand your search and increase your chances of landing a quality job. 
Most people know that getting a referral from someone inside a company is usually your best shot at an interview. Social media offers today’s job seeker a faster, easier and more efficient way of making those critical personal connections that will lead to interviews.
However, leveraging social media in this way requires a thoughtful, focused approach to the way you build and work your network.
Know Your Networks
You want to begin by determining where people in your industry of interest spend their time online. There are a wealth of social networks out there, some even dedicated to job seekers. But when I hear stories about people successfully landing jobs via social media, three popular social networks are always mentioned: LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Though these networks might seem obvious, one has to use these social tools in the right way for them to prove successful.
LinkedIn is perfectly suited for leveraging your existing personal relationships to gain access to a much wider network of individuals, many of whom probably know of job openings or are even responsible for making hiring decisions. You would be amazed at how wide your network is once you start building it out. For example, I currently have roughly 200 connections on LinkedIn. These connections consist of friends, former classmates, current and former coworkers, as well as contacts with whom I’ve done business. If you expand my network beyond my direct contacts, those which are two or three degrees removed, my network now consists of nearly 23,000 and 1.8 million individuals, respectively.
LinkedIn provides a great way to get “introduced” to these individuals. The LinkedIn platform allows you to “request an introduction” via your direct connections, meaning you can send a message to your former colleague and ask them to forward that intro onto the person with whom you’d like to talk to about open positions.
You might not expect it, but the number of job posts that are circulated around Twitter is astounding. Both startups and major corporations are continually posting job openings via Twitter, often times before they ever post them on their corporate websites. Unlike sending off a resume to some e-mail alias on Monster.com, when you reply to a job posting on Twitter, you can be relatively certain that your message is being read by a decision-maker. The benefit, again, is that this provides additional visibility when it comes to the screening process, not to mention the person tweeting about the job will probably give you a bonus point for being “up to date” on emerging social technologies.
Though Facebook is less likely to get you directly connected with a decision maker, it can be a great way to stay up to date on the latest opportunities with prospective employers. Becoming a “fan” of your favorite brands or places you would like to work will keep you up to date on the changes that are taking place within a company, including job openings. Reprise Media, for example, regularly updates job opportunities via Facebook.
Build a Presence
If you plan on using social media to chase after job opportunities, you first want to make sure you’ve built a solid presence for your own brand. The last thing you want to do is reach out to a hiring manager via Twitter with only one tweet and one follower to your name. Spend some time over a week or two building out presence: build out your LinkedIn network, gather a Twitter following, and make your Facebook profile interesting and appropriate. Make sure to cross-link your profiles so that you have a network of profiles working in your favor, instead of just one. Post links to samples of your work, blog, resume, etc. Keep in mind that the same way that an employer might take 30 seconds to scan a hard copy of your resume, there is a good chance that they will only take 30 seconds to review your online presence as well—so make it interesting!
Engage
Start engaging through all your social profiles. On Twitter, for example, converse with your followers or people that you’re following. Make insightful commentary, share useful links, and overall just participate in online conversations. On LinkedIn, start answering questions in their “Q & A” section. If the person asking the question selects your answer as the best, you’ll received a nice little badge on your LinkedIn profile that says “Expertise In” and then the name of all categories that you’ve been selected as having the best answer. It can’t hurt when an employer checks out your profile and it says you have expertise in Viral Marketing or Search Marketing. The more you engage, the strong your online presence will be and the more you will get noticed.
Active Your Network
When you feel that you have a solid social network through your profiles, you can start to activate this network and have it work in your favor. Let people know what your expertise is and that you’re looking for a job. Allow others who want to help you to participate in your search with you. I know that when I see that a friend is looking for a job in NYC, I reach out to people I know to see if there are any opportunities for them. Of course, you should always be proactive as well, doing regular search on Twitter or other networks for people posting about job openings.
Bonus: Stalk Your Future Boss
Okay, don’t really stalk him or her. But find them online and try to engage with them in an appropriate and effective manner. For example, if you find a job posting on Monster.com and it asks you to submit resumes to “Jane Doe,” then see if you can’t find Jane doe on Twitter or another network. Chances are, a simple search of Google or Twitter will turn up that person’s online presence and give you a way to get in touch with them other than e-mail. As I mentioned before, there’s something about Twitter and other social networks that makes people more open to reading your message and responding to it. Of course, be careful because you don’t want to make a bad first impression, but highlighting the fact that you saw this posting on Monster and wanted to reach out to him/her directly with your resume probably won’t hurt and it will show how interested you really are in the job.
It’s as simple as that! Well, not really, but these tips will put you a step ahead of the rest when it comes to standing out to future employers. These techniques might not prove fruitful over night, but they will help you generate more leads and get more interviews than you might otherwise. And that’s what you’re really hoping for, right?
And of course, don’t forget that Reprise Media is hiring! If you have an interest in search or social media, we want to hear from you. You can find all job openings on the Reprise Media Career’s Page. And feel free to “stalk” us via this tour of some of Reprise Media’s most active Twitterers.
Do you have any other tips for how someone can use social media to find a job? If so, let us know in the comments.
1. Chris Perry [ May 29th, 2009 at 12:49 pm ]
This is a great post!
LinkedIn is such a great tool! Join as many relevant LinkedIn groups in your areas of interest or industries as possible as group membership provides you more permission to message potential contacts who would normally be restricted. Find contacts in whom you’re interested, and request informational interviews. This can often lead to them helping you in your job search.
Also, build your brand consistently across all channels and across everything you send out. If you can’t start a blog, comment on blog and news articles on relevant topics. Answer questions on LinkedIn’s Answers section and/or help fellow LinkedIn group members with questions etc. posted on the group discussion boards.
Definitely directly engage as many people as possible whether through LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or other online communities you have joined. It’s not who you know, it’s who knows you, for they are the ones who can help you and must know you enough to be willing to do so, so networking in person and on the phone is essentially the key to success. Use these networks and tools to facilitate and move toward in person and phone connections.
