Four Ways to Use Social Media in your Job Search

September 21, 2016
Like it or not, you can’t avoid social media if you want to stay competitive in your job search. It’s now one of the most important aspects on a job search. In fact, over 90% of recruiters are now using social media as part of the hiring process- so you should too. If done correctly, your social media presence can help you stand out among the competition.

Clean up: This seems like a no brainer but it’s a step that a lot of people skip! Don’t. This is the time to hide or delete any status updates, pictures or videos that you wouldn’t want potential employers to see. You can also edit your privacy settings, but be careful with this one. Completely locking down your social profiles sends the message that you have something to hide. Your best bet is to set your privacy settings to allow non-friends access to only specific parts of your profile.

Consistent profiles: Build professional profiles that include your job history. While LinkedIn is the obvious choice for this, you should also think about doing some variation on your other profiles. An easy way to accomplish this is to keep your bio updated. Make sure it reflects who you are today, not three years ago. The overall goal is to make sure that your profiles and resume are consistent. Otherwise, you could raise a red flag to potential employers.

Show off your interests: The job market is competitive and there are hundreds of other candidates with your same level of education, work experience and job-related skills. Use your profiles to highlight that you are interested in a variety of things. Regular posts about your hobbies, attending sporting events and travel demonstrate that you are well rounded and have a good life balance. This will make you stand out and help employers make a deeper connection with you. Joining LinkedIn Groups, TwitterChats and Facebook Groups related to your interests is another way to join conversations and get noticed.

Stay Active: This doesn’t mean opening an account on every platform. It is better to have a great, up-to- date profile on a few platforms. Having a bunch of profiles that you haven’t updated in years could harm your personal brand.