Ten Tips To Land Your Next Job Using Social Media : Chapter One

Social Media Job/Career Guide:

Social Media Chapter 1: Tips One, Two, Three

In the current climate it is perhaps more typical to hear stories about people loosing a job rather than finding one. However, it is certainly possible to buck this economic trend and make yourself hyper-employable even in kamaron_social_media_job_career_guide

today’s market. Moreover, it’s not all doom and gloom as far as the economic situation goes, there are an increasing number of positive signs about the state of the world’s markets. For example, France and Germany are recently reported to have emerged from recession.

Social media is the most exciting aspect of the Web 2.0 revolution, and it is, indeed, revolutionary. Big companies are increasingly becoming aware of the opportunities that social media offers. This in turn provides you with opportunities to engage with those companies as potential employers through social media networks, such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

This three part guide provides you with ten tips on creating your personal brand and how to land the job that you want using social media. We have even provided you with a key to the sites relevant to each sub-heading. This really is job hunting made easy. Follow these steps correctly and you may find that potential employers find you, rather than vice-versa.

Ten Tips To Find A Job Using Social Media: Tips One, Two, Three

Create YourPersonal Brand.
Secure Your Domain name.
Establish A Social Media Voice.

Personal Branding: Create Your Personal Brand

The modern world makes brands out of us all. It’s brand – you. Your name is your brand and your skill-set is what you are trying to sell to potential employers. To this end you should look to emulate the marketing strategies of more traditional brands.

The first step is to place yourself in the marketplace, which is, in this case, social media websites. Establishing a profile on Facebook, LinkedIn and others means that you are more easily found by employers looking for someone with your expertise.

However, registering is not enough in itself. It is important that you completely fill out your social media profile details. To employers blank spaces in your profile read as question marks – it is the equivalent of having an unexplained break in employment on your résumé.

In a straight choice between approximately equally qualified candidates, employers will choose to interview those that they know most about and are, therefore, most confident about. In short, empty boxes raise question marks which reduce employer confidence in your personal brand.

2. Secure Your Domain Name

Web domains or ‘URLs’ are commonly thought of as the online equivalent of real estate. With the advent of social media profiles, and sites within sites, this is perhaps less true. However, in order to integrate your approach to finding a job online through social media it is useful to have a central hub that links out to your various social media profiles.

This central hub should take the form of a traditional standalone website or blog site. Selecting the domain for this website is easy – your parents came up with it - just use your name! That is, after all, the brand that you are hoping to promote to potential employers. If your name is taken try a respectable variant, perhaps including qualifications that you have obtained. For example, instead of JohnSmith.com someone with a PhD might try JohnSmithPHD.com, JohnSmith.info or something skills specific such as SocialMediaManager-JohnSmith.com

Establish a Social Media Voice

Establishing a unique voice is an essential part of your personal branding campaign. It will help you to stand out from the crowd as the ideal candidate for that dream job, acting as your USP (unique selling point). This may sound like an extremely arduous task; however, effective use of the power of social media comes in handy.

Blogging in all its forms (i.e. macro-blogging, micro-blogging and video blogging) is particularly relevant. You should create a blog using as service such as Blogger for longer posts and articles establishing your credibility in your field of expertise. Twitter, the most famous of all micro-blogging services, can be used to dispense short snippets of information, and will enable you to show that you are capable of conveying valuable information coherently and concisely. (Warning: when using twitter do not resort to text-speak in order to stay within the 140 character limit – it will undoubtedly come across as unprofessional.)

Some people are not as adept at communicating through the written word as others. This needn’t be a stumbling point. Visual presentation skills are equally valuable and sought after in today’s hi-tech market. In order to showcase these skills to employers you may consider posting instructive videos on sites such as YouTube. It is important that you present yourself well in these videos, dressing as you would if you were attending the office. Also, remember to post links to these videos on your various social media profiles and on your main website.

If you can write well but are suffering from writer’s block, rather than wasting time waiting for inspiration to come to you, it may be worth logging onto a site such as LinkedIn, visiting the ‘Questions & Answers’ section, and answering questions there that are relevant to your knowledge base. This will not only establish your credibility in the eyes of potential employers, but also in the eyes of the wider community, perhaps helping you to develop profitable connections, expanding your network.

To be continued.... Chapter 2...Top 10 Tips For Landing A Job Using Social Media...

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Contact: Margaret Ross is President and CEO of the Kamaron Institute, a leading business management consulting, marketing research, and staff development firm.