How to find a job using the social network (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Google+)?
Are you searching for a job or preparing for job interviews? ..
Check whether you have an optimized social media profile or not. Because your social media profile creates an impression about you and your skills among the recruiters which helps you to grab the job opportunity.
The evolution of the Internet and the social network has created different methods to search and secure a good job.
Among those methods, the social media play a crucial role in job searching and recruiting process.
The recent Social Recruiting Survey 2015 by Jobvite reveals that 92% of recruiters are using the social media like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Google+ in their recruitment process.
Why recruiters are using social media?
We have various social media networks and recruiters are using the social media in a number of ways in their recruitment process. As per the Social Recruiting Survey 2015 by Jobvite, the widely used social media networks associated with job searching and recruitment are
LinkedIn … 87%
Facebook … 55%
Twitter … 47%
Pintrest … 38%
YouTube … 21%
Google+ …14%
- It is a faster and cheaper method to find a qualified candidate than posting a job on the job searching sites.
- It helps the recruiters in “Background Check” before inviting the job applicant for the interview.
- Recruiters search your social profile to verify the facts on the résumé, to check your knowledge, attitude and communication skills.
- They also pick up clues about your personality and how you might fit into their corporate culture
Then how to use the social network like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Google+ to get a Job?
Here are the steps …
1. How to use the LinkedIn for Job Search
LinkedIn is widely used professional network among the employers in the recruitment process. As per statista, LinkedIn has over 450 million members where members can connect and interact with each other, take part in their favourite Groups.
Among all the other social media networks, LinkedIn is the most popular with recruiters and dominates in key uses.
According to a recent JobVite survey:
- 95% of recruiters use LinkedIn to search for candidates.
- 95% use LinkedIn to contact candidates
- 93% use LinkedIn to "keep tabs on" potential candidates.
- 93% use LinkedIn to "vet candidates pre-interview" (vs. 32% on Facebook and 18% on Twitter).
- 92% posted jobs on LinkedIn (vs. 48% on Facebook and 39% on Twitter).
Why it is so popular? Because it helps the recruiters to search for the qualified candidates very easily.
Here are the steps to follow in LinkedIn
1. Complete your LinkedIn Profile (All-Star)
The LinkedIn profile is more than your résumé. The world sees you through your profile and it provides a foundation for others to connect with you. The LinkedIn profile tells about yourself, your qualifications, your interest, and your activities.
While creating your LinkedIn account fill all the basic information like your name, your region, qualifications. And also whether you are employed, a business owner, looking for work, working independently or a student
95% of recruiters use LinkedIn to search for candidates (Jobvite) professional experience, Length of professional tenure and Specific hard skills.
What they look in your profile? Consider the following statistics.
- Professional experience – 97%
- Length of professional tenure – 98%
- Industry related posts -88%
- Mutual Connections – 93%
- Specified Hard skills – 95%
- Cultural fit – 80%
- Examples of work – 83%
A Profile which is not "All-Star" by LinkedIn's criteria is not as visible in LinkedIn search results as complete profiles.
2. Widen your networks
The LinkedIn allows you to connect with like-minded people. So expand your network by creating connections with the like-minded people who are very active related your job industry.
LinkedIn will prompt you to search for connections by crawling your email, which you used to get access to your LinkedIn account and suggest connections based on your education and employment details.
It allows you to create your own network inviting your colleagues, friends and even your family members and other like-minded people to become part of your professional network.
The more connections you have in LinkedIn, then you more visible.
3. Be Active and Engaged
Just creating a profile and establishing connections is not enough to get a job. You will need to engage intelligently and carefully in LinkedIn Groups to show a business-like online presence for yourself.
Recruiters and employers are increasingly depending on the social media to scrutinise the job candidates.
55% of recruiters have reconsidered candidates based on their social profiles and their posts, most of with 61% of those reconsideration being negative.
Biggest red flags in job profiles are
- Profanity – 63%
- Spelling and grammar – 66%
- Illeagal Drug reference – 83%
- Sexual posts – 70%
- Political Affiliation – 17%
- Alcohol – 44%
- Guns – 51%
So, attentively share posts in the groups related to your profession, industry, location, former employee groups, alumni of your college or university and groups for job search.
In today’s competitive world, LinkedIn has become essential for most of the jobs. Spend at least 15 minutes in a day on LinkedIn for learning, connecting, and updating. It will help you definitely in getting your dream job.
2. How to use the Facebook for Job Search
Facebook is the largest social network operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. Facebook had 1.71 billion monthly active users (Statista) and it is the second largest network used by the recruiters in the recruiting process.
Facebook allows the users to add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to tell friends about themselves.
Here are the steps how to use Facebook for job search?
1. Clean up your profile
If you want to use Facebook to get jobs, then the first step is cleaning up your profile so it does not have any personal content.
Fill up all the educational information, your professional information like what you have done and your achievements. Choose a suitable profile picture because it represents your page to the entire Facebook community and it also affects your job prospect.
The research found that a suitable profile photo could increase chances of interview by up to 40%.
By using your Facebook page settings, you can control who can view your wall, status updates and pictures. So use it properly so that only your friends can view your wall and status updates.
2. Like Company pages
Another important step in this process is like the companies in which you want to work and other key persons.
So that you can get the recent updates of those companies which helps you to gather the information about the organisations which helps you while preparing for job interview.
You can also interact with the employees of those organisations.
Like some other job and locations specific pages so that you have a greater chance to find a job in your local area and your area of ability.
3. Participate in related groups in respond regularly
Groups are the most important feature of the Facebook.
This feature helps you to create different groups related to work, family or friends. Creating groups allow you to send messages to just one particular group.
Participate in discussions regularly in groups or communities by your occupation, and You can also search Facebook for people who work at your dream company and join those groups so that they know about yourself in advance and respond to the posts related to the your area of ability.
3. How to use the Twitter for Job Search
Twitter is another social networking site which used by the recruiters in their recruitment process.
Twitter is a free social networking and microblogging service. The primary purpose is to send text-based posts of up to 140 characters length by the user. These text-based post are known as tweets and displayed on the author's profile page and it is viewed by the followers of that particular user. But now Twitter has become one of the tools for job search.
Let's see how to use twitter for job search?
1. Create your Twitter account
If you want to use Twitter for Job search, then create your profile in a professional way. Because it shows you to the entire community. So, fill up all the necessary information in your profile and upload a suitable image to your profile.
2. Follow the people and organisations
After creating your twitter account, now create your own network by following the other people and organisation of your interest. After creating your own network, then be active in the network by posting relevant tweets.
If you find any interest article related your core areas, then tweet a line about that article along with its link and a couple of relevant hashtags.
This way, you show you're up to date and following and sharing the latest in your field. You gain visibility for yourself with the smallest effort.
3. Find the job opening by following the companies
At present many organisations and recruiters are posting their high-priority job openings on Twitter. So follow the recruiters who specialize in your industry and job type, as well as target companies where you would like to work.
It helps you to get the information about recent job openings and other jobs related information. And also use the twitter search option for job searching by using the relevant Hashtags.
4. How to use the Google+ for Job Search
Google launched Google+ in June 2011. The main features of Google + are, It enables the users to post photos and status updates to the stream or interest based communities, can create different type of groups called Circles based on relationships (and not simply "friends") and he can send instant message to these circles. He can carry out text and video chat called Hangouts.
But now it became one of the social network tool used for both career networking and for job searching.
Here are the steps...
1. Create your profile
To use Google+, you have to create a profile and remember that fill out your profile as completely as possible. It will include a photo, so be sure to use a professional photo if you're using Google+ for professional networking and include your educational background and your employment history and links to your other profiles (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, your blog, if you have one).
So recruiters or hiring managers can view the other accounts you're using for professional networking and collect some information about you before calling for an interview.
2. Create your circles
The Circle is the most important feature of the Google+. It enables the user to organize people into groups or lists for sharing information.
The key part to Google+ Circles is that you are in control of your profile and in control of who gets to see what from your posts.
Unlike Facebook, which allows you to decide who can see your complete profile, with Google+ you can control who gets to see what part of your profile.
So, that separate your professional contacts from your personal contacts by creating different circles.
3. Google+ Streams
While posting anything to your Google+ account, Select specific circles who can see that post or video.
This feature is important in maintaining your professional appearance and controlling what a potential employer sees about you.
Conclusion
Each social network has its own unique characteristics and best practices. Your profile, what you are sharing and how you interacting is most important in your job searching process. Because, these are having a great impact on how recruiters and hiring managers view you as a viable candidate.
