You wrote a brilliant Facebook status that garnered a dozen “likes” during its first 10 minutes of life. Success. Your number of Twitter followers is growing steadily, and you have a brilliant LinkedIn profile replete with all your pertinent work information. You’re pretty happy with your social networking world.
What if you could tweak your use of these social networks to land your dream job? Capitalize on the connections you already have and put your DSL to good use to jump-start your career.
Facebook might be your main source of communication with friends, a way to keep up with long-distance relatives, or a living scrapbook of your adventures—or all three. But it offers a wealth of resources for professionals, too. It’s just a matter of optimizing your use.
- Keep your profile clean and smart. Employers do, in fact, stalk potential employees on Facebook. Monitor what you post. If you needed a reason to delete that photo of yourself passed out in front of a beer keg, this is it.
- Use the power of a “like” to follow companies you’re interested in working for. You might be surprised how many companies have professional Facebook pages. Staying on top of events in your field and knowing something about a company before writing your cover letter or going in for an interview impresses potential employers.
- Check out Facebook Marketplace. It’s not as complete as some other Craigslist-type sites out there, but there are thousands of jobs listed, and you’ll find a bit less competition than on some of the other large marketplace sites.
Snagging a job in 140 characters or less might seem unlikely, but your Twitter account can be a powerful asset in the job search.
- Professionalize your profile. According to Forbes, your Twitter profile should be set up kind of like a business card—something to showcase your qualifications as a professional in your field.
- Follow relevant people and businesses. What you see will let you know whether or not you’d be interested in working with the company. It also opens a line of communication that could lead to a job.
- CBS’s Money Line encourages tweeting job seekers not to tweet for the sake of tweeting. Wait until you’re in on relevant conversations in your field to tweet at the company or a specific hiring manager.
The quintessential social network for professionals and job-seekers, LinkedIn makes it easy to set up a personal profile and connect with your coworkers and professional organizations. But there’s more to an effective LinkedIn profile than just collecting connections.
- Join LinkedIn groups. They’ll give you insight into your field and get you in touch with others who have inside information on job openings.
- Don’t overshare. It’s even more essential to keep LinkedIn posts relevant and professional than it is on other social networks.
