Career Flux - Social Media

Why Job Seekers Should Have an Online Personal Brand

Social media can be a double-edged sword. Used wisely it can be used as a way of impressing prospective employers. Conversely, there can be times when information on Social Media sites can count against you.

Facebook

Facebook is a social media website that has become hugely popular because of the many ways there are of interacting with friends. These can include using the many applications that are available to using their chat service. What can really help or harm your brand is how much you reveal about yourself on your profile page.

The default privacy settings on Facebook mean that anyone can find you just by doing a simple search. If you’re looking for graduate jobs, then a potential employer may do a quick search on you.

The ‘Interests’ section on Facebook can be particularly revealing. A prospective employer may come to the conclusion that you will not fit in with the rest of the staff if your interests indicate that your political views differ from theirs. Your interests can have a more positive impact on a possible future employer, but they will rarely be enough to secure a job. The harsh truth is that a negative first impression can easily ruin your chances there and then.

Revealing as little as possible will not necessarily be beneficial either. A prospective employer may find more information on other profiles and decide to whittle down candidates from those profiles. If you are using Facebook to constantly further your career, but also want to use it to communicate with friends, then you’ll need to find a balance whereby neither friends nor potential employers feel alienated.

Twitter

On Twitter, you can protect your Tweets when you sign up, which means that only followers will be able to view your information. It is easy to follow someone on Twitter though and whereas Facebook users are more likely to use their real name, Twitter users are less likely to do so. This is due to the fact that you can follow people who aren’t friends.

If you choose to protect your Tweets after you have already tweeted, then some of your information will still be available for the general public to see. Old Tweets can be found just by using Google.

LinkedIn is a social media site that is probably the most important of all social media sites to use for finding graduate jobs or jobs generally. This is the social media site of choice for employers and those looking for work.

On LinkedIn you can turn your activity broadcasts on or off. Plus, you can select who can see your activity feed and who can see your connections. LinkedIn should be used for more serious social media purposes by building up contacts in your area of expertise. Having the right contacts can really impress a potential employer.

Conclusion

You should protect your personal brand and bear in mind, when looking for graduate jobs, that potential employers will Google you. Use all your social media accounts to make the best impression, but in a way where your own integrity is not undermined.

Filed Under: College Graduates And Interns, Featured, Guest Experts, Personal Branding, Social Media For Jobs Tagged With: college grads, Employer, employers, Facebook, LinkedIn, Social Media, Twitter

Using Social Media for Job Hunting

By Dave Peterson Leave a Comment

While the world economy is recovering, there is still a large amount of qualified professionals spending a multitude of hours job hunting, and struggling to differentiate themselves from the competition. Reports have shown that the increasing use of social media and internet resources is affecting the recruitment process, both from a job hunting perspective as well as a tool for employers to do background checks on potential candidates or even locate that perfect candidate for a replacement or to fill that newly created position. There is a wealth of tools that employers and perspective job hunters use, but the main three candidates used are the business networking site – LinkedIn, the most popular social networking site in the world, Facebook and the service similar to mass texting, Twitter. These social media job hunting tools can either make or break your opportunities to further your career.

How Job Hunting Through Social Media Works

For the job hunter, making sure that you have a Linkedin account with your full employment history makes a free resource for employers to pick the best of the best for recruitment. Make sure your CV is up to date and include all aspects you possibly can to improve your chances of being spotted. You can link your blog as well as your Twitter feed to your Linkedin Profile. Connect to all persons you have worked with before or that you have associated with on a professional level. Job hunting can be augmented by getting recommendations from persons inside the industry that you wish to further your career in and acts as recommendations in a digital form that recruitment agencies and employers will scour. For your Facebook profile, make sure that only appropriate material is available for public view and also like pages that can be affiliated with your chosen industry. It’s important that you also engage in meaningful conversations and debates regarding products and occurrences in your industry as these can often count in your favour. Twitter is another remarkable networking tool for job hunting as it allows you to remain in contact with a host of people inside the same industry as well as follow important happenings inside the business world. Remember when using any of the social media platforms to express yourself, always choose quality over quantity in your postings.

Employers are Watching too

For those who are in the vetting side of the recruitment process it is said that an amazing 89% of companies will be using social media as a process of recruiting and therefore job hunting through these channels is highly recommended. Costs are reduced by using tools such as LinkedIn instead of recruitment agencies as they cut costs of hiring tremendously. Facebook investigations will give a true view of what type of ethos an employee truly holds and how they conduct themselves in the world. It is said that one in three employers will reject a potential employee on the basis of what they discover about that person online and it is said that over 92% of hiring management make use of social media as a vetting tool. With all of this at stake and 6 persons for every job available in the US alone, how can you not make the most of job hunting opportunities by shaping up your social media interaction?

Dave Peterson is a freelance writer with a keen interest in technology and business. Dave has extensive experience in recruitment while working from office space manchester and working through social media to staff a company with serviced offices Bristol by using LinkedIn and Facebook.

Filed Under: Guest Experts, Social Media For Jobs Tagged With: employers, Facebook, Job Hunting, LinkedIn, Social Media, Twitter

5 Tips for Leveraging you Social Network in Your Job Search

By CareerAlley Leave a Comment

Author Byline: CareerAlley
Author Website: http://CareerAlley.com

“Social media is just a buzzword until you come up with a plan.” – Zach Dunn

You know what they say – “It’s who you know, not what you know”. While I’m not so sure the second half of the statement is true these days, the first half of the statement is definitely true. Your network of friends, family and acquaintances is by far your single largest asset. While many people worry that “leveraging your network” means you will need to “cold call” your friends and relatives and ask them to help you get a new job, this is not the case. The Internet combined with your Network makes for a very powerful tool in your job search. Knowing how best to leverage this tool is not always obvious, but if you know what to look for it is quite easy to do. And then, of course, there is your extended network. Before the Internet, it was difficult, at best, to know who was in your extended network. With sites such as LinkedIn, your extended network is immediately known. =>> Ten ways to leverage professional networking

Build Your Networks to Suit Your Needs: In order for Social Networks to have any benefit in your job search, you need to build them in a way that complements your professional background. Search out former colleagues that you’ve worked with and add them to your network. Don’t limit this to “employees”; also look to add consultants you’ve worked with as well. But wait, don’t stop there. Also add former college classmates and friends to further build out your network. =>> Nine Ways to Build Your Own Social Network

Leverage Social Network Sites: The number one site for networking in your job search is, of course, LinkedIn.com. If you are not already a member, now is the time to join (and it is free). Enter your career profile, skills and add your links. Once you’ve entered the basic information, LinkedIn will help you find additional links. Once your profile is up, you and your experience becomes searchable by others (this is a great way to be “found” by others looking to hire). When you identify a lead, use LinkedIn to see who in your network is either working at your target company or who in your network may be linked to someone who can help you. =>> 20 Social Networking Sites for Business Professionals

Leverage Professional Associations: In case you don’t know, Professional Associations are a type of social network that links members based on expertise or functional experience, such as accounting, engineering, etc. There are professional networks for just about everything and most of these will have websites where you can leverage your contacts and make new ones. =>> List of international professional associations

Leverage Alumni Networks: Your college or university is one of the best resources you have (yes, even after you graduate) and your Alumni association is a powerful tool as you can leverage not only your graduating class, but all of the graduating classes. People stay connected to former schools so the depth of experience and connections in your alumni association is likely to be large and deep. => Leveraging Your Alumni Network In Your Job Search

Join Several Networks: There are so many social networks out there, and LinkedIn is not the only site you can leverage in your job search. You will want to be selective and limit the number of social networks you work with as well as the content. Do some research before you join and ask some of your friends as well. You should designate several social networks as your “job search networks” and only post work related information and (generally) no pictures. =>>Key Social Networking and Bookmarking Sites for Job-Seekers

Good luck in your search.

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.

Filed Under: Guest Experts, Job Search, Networking For Jobs Tagged With: Job Search, networking, Social Media, social networking

3 Ways Twitter Can Enhance Your Executive Job Search

By Jessica Hernandez Leave a Comment

Author Byline: Global resume authority Jessica Hernandez of http://www.greatresumesfast.com is a former HR Manager who partners with professional- and executive-level candidates to create authentic, branded resumes and cover letters.
Author Website: http://www.greatresumesfast.com

A whole new world of job search is open to candidates through social media and is booming like never before. It’s already been established just how beneficial this medium can be for individuals conducting professional job searches, especially when LinkedIn is a priority.

Twitter has also been deemed a useful tool for job seeking, especially for entry- and mid-level professional job seekers. But should it be utilized at the executive level? The answer is yes! In fact, you might be surprised by just how beneficial it could be for your search. It may be able to …

1. Support Your Executive Brand

There’s no doubt that executives need to work harder than professionals further down the corporate ladder to build and maintain a strong brand. Employers expect you to be highly respected in your field. This can be difficult to prove if your brand doesn’t back you up.

In the online world, the first impression recruiters and head-hunters will receive when entering your name in a search engine depends highly on what your name is connected to—and even how often your name is mentioned in the engine.

By creating a Twitter profile under your name (or your name and executive title), you are making the statement that you and your profession are one—this is how you’re identified. You are creating one more entry in the search engine that ties your expertise in a particular field to your name.

2. Cement Your Reputation as an Expert

What’s great about creating a Twitter account is that you now have the opportunity to build a following by sharing your expertise. As we all know, the Internet is filled with millions of online users looking for free information. And as an expert in your field, you should have plenty to share.

From a recruiting perspective, companies want to know that the executives they headhunt are highly knowledgeable about their fields. Usually, this information has to be acquired via a seeker’s resume, cover letter, and a series of interviews. So just imagine how much more confident they can feel in your ability to deliver when they’re given a front-row seat to your wisdom before they even contact you.

3. More Easily Accessible to Executive Recruiters

As mentioned previously, recruiters and employers are looking for candidates all the time, and Twitter works wonders in making you more visible. But even when you’re not being recruited, you can make yourself known to recruiters by following them. Engage in a conversation, share info, and even send them candidates if you know of any to build great networking relationships that could move beyond Twitter.

Twitter seems like a fun land for kids and young adults—nothing that could benefit executive job seekers. But if utilized correctly, this medium could work wonders in improving your job search.

For additional tips and advice on resumes and cover letters, follow us on Twitter @GreatResume or visit our blog.

Filed Under: Guest Experts, Networking For Jobs Tagged With: Executive, Job, Job Search, Recruiter, Social Media, Twitter

Think Before Posting Online About Your Employer

By Sandy 2 Comments

Let’s face it. Most of us dive into our Facebook or other Social Media accounts as soon as lunch hour starts at work and sometimes in between too. While at home, we might be inclined to communicate to friends on such forums about a game or movie or other normal stuff. But at work, if you have just been given a gentle dressing down by your boss, the temptation to post expletives about him/her online becomes too great. If you succumb to it, trouble may be brewing for your job longevity. I am sure you might have seen or heard plenty of stories by now about somebody getting fired or at least disciplined because of such impulsive actions.

Christopher Nelson of the Tribune Media Services has examined the emerging gamut of consequences and fall outs from such misadventure on an employee’s part in his thought provoking article “Should online comments about work, boss be grounds for dismissal?” in the Los Angeles Times. He cites the examples of two employees in separate incidents who got the marching orders because they vented their feelings about their boss online. While, according to the article, one mentioned his boss as a “jerk” the other had posted something similar about her boss and her job.

A very pertinent question raised by Nelson here, however is, whether in the light of Social Media revolution, and the still emerging norms relating to it, employees should be seen as human beings subject to anger and frustrations, and likely to vent their feelings while sharing with friends online and should the employers give a reasonable leeway to them? Or, it is suggested in the article, should a clear cut guideline should be made available to employees as to how far they are allowed to go without fear of being disciplined? In one such case mentioned by him, the company agreed to make clear cut rules with the help of National Labor Relations Board.

In the end however, I would go with Nelson’s advice that “common sense should keep employees from posting scathing comments about their boss on their friend’s wall”.

To read this informative article in full please visit:

“Should online comments about work, boss be grounds for dismissal?” by Christopher Nelson of the Tribune Media Services – Los Angeles Times.