Using social media to find a job

The start of a new year usually brings about a rush of job seekers, keen to ring in the New Year with a whole new career. The employment market is becoming increasingly tough and you need to have your wits about you to be one of the first to hear about new jobs as they become available and make yourself stand out as a star candidate. This is where social media comes in, as it can easily make your job search more efficient and has now also affected the application process itself. If you know the right tools and places to be, social media can help your CV stand out from the crowd. Some of these tips won’t apply to you if you’re secretly looking for a new job and don’t want your current employer to find out, so remember that on the internet, people can see everything.

Using LinkedIn

This is obviously the social network for you if you’re looking for a job and there’s a few ways you can use the site smartly to be on the lookout. The first place you should go is the vacancies section, to search through available positions, but there are other places to go that could just as effective and a bit less crowded.

The questions and answers section can be valuable. I’ve often seen questions or discussions started for people looking for new talent, but why not start one yourself? If you’ve no need to be secretive about your job search, start a question asking if anyone has/knows anyone who has, positions available in your area. Remember to sell yourself here too. This could be the first place you have contact with your new employer.
You should also remember to check your settings to see that you’ve opted for ‘looking for jobs’ in the about you section. Use your status update too, to say that you’re looking for a position in xyz. The more people know about your job search, the more likely they are to recommend you to organisations or alert you of vacancies they’ve come across

Twitter

You can use Twitter to help you in your job search, whether you’re being clandestine about it or not. An obvious win here if you’re being open, is to post a tweet to say that you’re looking for a job and where/when. I’d recommend doing this more than once (without looking desperate!) so that you’re alerting different people each time. You can also update your bio to reflect your employment status.
Start following new people. Many job sites now tweet their vacancies and this will help you be the first to know about jobs as they become available. You can sort these into lists or groups to allow for more streamlined alerts. Also target your dream companies and follow the key people in there. If you do land an interview there, striking up a relationship before hand is never going to hurt.

Search for recruiters you can follow as well. There are many recruiters now turning to Twitter to source and place candidates and you can find them either by searching for keywords and location, or using directories such as We Follow to find them by category. Make a bit of contact and make sure they notice you.

Twitter Search

Tweetdeck (or Seesmic etc..) can prove very valuable for your job search and will help widen the net for your potential vacancies. Running keyword searches will help massively here. Don’t forget to include location filter keywords (if it really matters to you) or using the location option in the advanced options on Twitter Search. Also run searches for keywords that include ‘freelancer’ for example, as people often turn to Twitter for small one-off jobs they made need doing. Every little helps if you’re unemployed at the time of your search and it’s a good way to establish contact with potential employers.

Stellar CVs

As someone who’s posted job ads before, I can tell you first hand that sifting through CVs is an ugly job and nowadays, there are plenty of things you can do to make your job application stand out from the crowd. Why not record a video CV and upload it onto youtube? You’ll probably be able to sell yourself a lot better through video than you will through plain text and it will certainly make a difference to the employer.
If you think a video CV might be a bit too ‘out there’ for your target organisation, a slideshare presentation might work better. Keep the text on the slides eye-catching, highlighting the main points and try and keep it as short as possible. The effort will certainly be noticed and appreciated, especially if you’re saving the recruiter time!

Starting a blog

Keeping a blog in your area of expertise is a great way to establish your authority and credibility on a subject. It will help you get noticed by a new audience and build a name for yourself in your industry. While it may be a less direct route to employment, it will help stand you in great stead and build a community of people that could all be potential employees or colleagues. You can use your blog smartly, for example by stating that you’re currently looking for employment in your ‘about’ section. If you’re a freelancer, include this in the tagline of your blog and definitely make sure you’re providing clear links to either a CV (video or otherwise!) or a portfolio of work. Make it easy for people to see why they should be interested in hiring you.

Comment on blogs

If you’ve been smart enough to draw up a list of companies you’d like to work for, go to their sites and see if they have a blog. If they do, get active on it and start commenting on posts. This will help you in two ways. Not only will it get you on their radar, it will also arm you with knowledge about the company that will be good interview fodder and help you learn more about where that organisation stands on particular issues, which might avoid awkward answers in the interview room. Be smart about where you’re linking to in your comment as well. If you’ve got a public LinkedIn profile, that might be the best place to link to in this case.

Use your social media profiles

As well as your credentials and work experience, potential employers also want to know about the kind of person that you are : this can be just as crucial as your skills. By providing links to your Twitter profile, Friendfeed etc.. employers can get to know you first and see if you’re right for them. Believe me, if you don’t provide them with this information, they’re going to find it on their own anyway, so better to be upfront about it!

Use Google Alerts

Although the main job sites will list all the latest jobs either by RSS feed or email subscription, there are plenty of other places people post job ads, for example on forums or blogs. By running smart Google alerts (I’d go for the ‘as it happens’ frequency of updates here) you can find out about new jobs from a wide range of different sources and your search will become a lot easier, with regular emails fed into your inbox or via RSS.

Crowdsource your next job

While you’re on the job hunt, if you’re looking to earn money in the meantime, you could take part in crowd-sourced projects. Popular sites such as 99designs allow designers (budding or actual) to submit designs for free, for people that are looking to commission projects. If your designs don’t get picked, then you’re still building your profile and experience in the meantime and your pro-activeness will reflect well on your CV. Crowdspring is another good site for designers. Photographers might be interested in earning money for their images in istockphoto , or you can solve a range of technical and business issues over at Innocentive. This is used by big firms such as Procter & Gamble, for problems that stump their own R&D departments. There are some issues around whether people are adequately compensated for their efforts on crowd-sourcing projects, so I’d look at this more as a CV-booster than a real money earner. Though at Innocentive project rewards range from $5,000 to $1m the projects suitable for you may be few and far between.

The tools of social media are there for you to use to your advantage in an increasingly competitive job market. These few tips should help you get started, but the only limits are your creativity.