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As we move into another new year, social media will continue to grow and have a large presence in the job market. In today’s world, employers have the ability to learn as much or little about you as you’d prefer before you even meet them in person. If done properly, this can be a huge advantage for you as a candidate. Maintaining the right online presence can be very hard. You want to use social media to share your personal experiences with friends and family, but you want to look professional to your current and future employers. I have the unique opportunity to speak from both points of view on this. Not only am I consistently engaged with employers in conversations about this topic, but I also recently went through the process of finding a new job. I hope my personal set of guidelines will provide you with some tips and help you in your job search. In part 1, I want to provide some strategies to use LinkedIn in your job search. Part 2 will cover controlling your online visibility and part 3 will discuss maintaining professional relationships online.

How do you leverage social media to find jobs and connect with employers?

I would primarily use LinkedIn for job searching. They have a lot of great resources to help you get connected to new opportunities. A few ideas:

• Treat LinkedIn like a resume database. Make yourself searchable by using keywords and updating your skills. Put yourself in an employer’s shoes and ask, “If I were hiring for this position, what searches would I do to find a good candidate?”
• See if you have connections to a job before applying. You can do this by looking up a company’s profile and locating any 1st or 2nd degree connections. It’s always easier to get an interview when you know someone on the inside and can go through him/her.
• Join groups. Recruiters are always joining relevant industry groups just to mine through their member lists and post jobs. While in these groups, it is a good idea to post occasional discussions or comments as well. You never know who may be impressed with your knowledge or recognize your name when you submit your resume.
• Follow potential employers’ company pages. Taking this step will keep you informed of positions that may be open at that organization and show a company that you have interest. If the hiring manager tracks their company’s page and sees that you have taken that step, they may elevate you above others that have not. If you already applied for a position at an organization and are not following them, I would do so afterwards. In today’s job market, you really need to stand out from the crowd any way you can.
• Ask for endorsements. Everybody is naturally going to say great things about themselves, so employers take that with a grain of salt. If you have endorsements from others, it carries a lot of weight. It means that someone took the time out of their day just to help you and say good things about you. Don’t be shy in asking the right people to endorse you, just be sure to endorse them back; it’s proper etiquette.

I’d love to hear your feedback on these thoughts. I encourage you to comment as this is a great and important topic of discussion in today’s job market.