Social media is incredibly powerful in your search for the right job.

A very high percentage of companies are now using social media as part of their recruitment strategy.

Rather than relying on job boards or waiting around for candidates to apply to open advertised vacancies, recruiters are on the lookout for suitable candidates by searching social media.

Whether you like it or not, recruiters will be looking at all your social media accounts – not just LinkedIn. LinkedIn is the social media equivalent of the face-to-face interview – you’re on your best behaviour! So, recruiters or hiring managers will be looking at your Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts as well.

The Facts and Figures:

LinkedIn: Approximately 450 million accounts.  A business orientated platform used for making connections and virtual networking.

Facebook: Almost 2 billion accounts.  Originally set up to connect with friends. However, now businesses have company pages and groups you can like or join in with the discussions.

Twitter: Approximately 974 million accounts.  Twitter is a great source of real-time data. Whether you are interested in music, sports, politics, news or celebrities.

Instagram: approximately 500 million accounts and growing fast. Instagram is a fun app that enables its users to share photos and videos. Every account has a profile and newsfeed.

Here are a few tips and suggestions to increase your presence and maximize your social media accounts in your job searching strategy.

Start connecting and networking

Start building up your contacts on LinkedIn and other social media sites. Social media is an easy way to start building relationships with key contacts in your sector or industry.

I’ve been found many times from a Google search because I’m active on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and of course my own website:

  • Landed a big contract with a Management Consultancy from being tagged on Facebook.
  • Have worked as an Associate & Trainer with the Career Transition Partnership for the last few of years from a Google Search
  • Found on LinkedIn by an HR Management Consultancy and about to join their Outplacement Team as a consultant
  • Private coaching clients have found me from a Google Search (Interview Coaching Colchester, Interview Coach Essex!) or by following me on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

Set up Lists

It’s easy to get distracted on social media and spend hours and hours viewing funny videos! I should know, I’ve burnt the toast a few times whilst engaging on Twitter or Instagram!

It’s so important to get organised when looking for a job. Set aside a reasonable amount of time per day and then focus on networking, conduct job searches, and posting relevant updates and sharing on your status.

Create lists on Twitter. You can set up several lists for company’s you’d like to work for, news in your industry or sector, following the relevant experts or specific job sites. This will save you a lot of time searching for these companies and information every time you log in.

Get Visible & Get Found

Remember everything you do and say online is visible and depending on what you are saying and doing this can be either a good thing or a very bad thing for your reputation and credibility. That’s why some of you will need to do some cleaning up!

When you’re on the hunt for a job, you’ll want to get known as the “expert” and demonstrate your knowledge. So join in the conversations on Twitter, Facebook groups, and LinkedIn groups or company pages. People are watching and every time you contribute to a discussion it’s not just your first line contacts and connections that will see the conversations online.

Research & Interview Preparation

Social media has made it so much easier to research the company and prepare for the interview today.

Twitter is a great source of news, information, trends, and real-time updates. Again the big corporate companies will have teams or departments looking after their communications and all their tweets are by design.

For more information about maximising your LinkedIn account click here.