You spent hours developing your CV, applying for jobs online, walking door to door, and still no luck. Yep, you know the story. Job hunting costs you time, job hunting costs you money. Thankfully, modern technology has meant we have been able to move away from extensive paperwork and public transport fees, yet knowing exactly how to tackle it from your laptop or mobile phone is key to ensuring success.
Welcome to the crash course in finding work through social media. With 1.23 Billion active users on Facebook, 317 Million on Twitter and nearly 450 Million people on LinkedIn each month, it’s no wonder social media is now marked as the go to tool for networking. Used in the right way, you can reach out to the right people at the right time, and land yourself that dream job.
The question is, how? See below 7 fantastic ways to exert your presence and connect with your future boss.
- Keep your profiles relevant and professional – Make sure you are wearing professional attire in your profile image and list short, sharp, topical information in your about section. Use this platform to show off – after all it’s yours! Make yourself come across as an expert in your field of expertise or interest, and try to demonstrate passion for your industry.
- Network – Try to find as many sites, pages, people and articles about your particular industry. Connect with knowledgeable individuals, post frequent articles and be informative to others. This will assist you with growing your network, and will attract publicity as your presence will seem interesting and intriguing.
- Use as a learning platform – The beauty of social media is that it’s all in one place. Modern technology allows you to saturate yourself with information from all over the world in the same time it would take you to listen to one guest speaker at a networking event. Make sure you follow, connect with and befriend the right people and learn from them. Remember, social media provides everyone with a say.
- Be known as a resource – Answer questions and be accommodating. We know your end goal is to look for work, but enhancing your presence will give you the publicity to be found by interesting people, some of whom may be looking for their next electrician, marketing manager or maths teacher.
- Treat it like face-to-face – You may be behind a screen, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be professional. Use sophisticated language and be polite, or you’ll never have a chance of landing anything.
- Allocate time – Your job hunt might seem endless and tedious, but that’s probably because you’re chasing your tail. Try to set aside an hour or so a day to focus on developing a neat, professional social media portfolio. Begin thinking of ways to grow your presence and start shaping the person that you want to become – preferably this should be someone who is an expert, knowledgeable and of assistance to others within a specific field.
- Go one step further – If you follow the first 6 steps, you should be well on your way to being a go-to-guy or girl when it comes to your job industry. You’ve hopefully attracted lots of followers, have become a point of reference and are building a name for yourself. Maybe there’s scope for a business of your own here? For example, if you’re a self-employed plumber, you’ve already developed your client base, right? By marketing yourself, your brand and your expertise on social media, it may just be the first step to marketing your future company. Now it’s up to you to give it a try!
