Social Media Strategies for Job Seekers

The best time to start using social media to boost your career is two years ago. The second best time is right now. Here's some strategies to maximize your job search effort using social media.

You've got a solid CV/resume framework, your references are lined up, and you've got some great cover letter templates that you can customize for each position (you're customizing your resumes and cover letters for each position, right?)

What's next?

Your focus should be on developing relationships, not connections.

Social Media From the Employer's Perspective

It's common knowledge that the majority of job openings are never advertised. Some estimates peg that number at 80% or higher. If that's true, how do these openings get filled?

When they have a position they need to fill, many employers tap into their existing team for referrals. Some even give cash bonuses to employees who refer the winning candidate as a way to spread the word.

On the surface, this may seem like a great way to find new employees. There's a potential downside to this way of hiring, however, as new recruits are often weighted unfairly because of who they know rather than what they know.

Nepotism is the classic example of 'network hiring'.

As a job seeker, your first objective is to get that referral. When a friend or colleague says, "My company is hiring" or "One of our vendors is looking to bring someone on board", you've broken past that 80% "never advertised" barrier and now have an inside vector toward opportunity.

What happens if you don't have a large circle of friends or colleagues? What if your employment network is relatively small or your career is new and you haven't had a chance to grow your field of connections?

What if you want to change careers and your entire network is established in the field you want to leave behind?

This is where social media comes in.

Be prepared when someone you follow on social media asks, "Are you open to a new opportunity?"

If the current team doesn't know anybody they can recommend, employers will often scan their social media profiles looking for people they follow (or who follows them), either directly or indirectly, and reach out. "Are you open to a new opportunity?"

The best referral is from a trusted in-person source, someone who knows you personally and professionally. Somewhere behind that but still of value are people with whom you've built a rapport and history of communication via social media. These are the kind of people who have their own respected reputation and have chosen to interact with you in various posts and threads.

TIP: Focus on individuals in your field with a large and respected following. The key is to interact with these people, not just follow them. If you can get them to follow you, that's even better.

Developing rapport with respected people in your field needs to be genuine, not gratuitous, and this takes time. Trust is earned, so earn these influencer's trust in an earnest and honest manner.

Why does your social media presence matter to employers? Isn't that supposed to be personal?

For better or worse, many employers today will review a job candidate's presence on social media. They are looking for indicators the candidate is respected through their direct posts but also by the responses that candidate gets from others in the field.

When a well-known individual that has a large following on social media also follows you, that can be gold in your job search. This especially pays dividends when you have interactions centered around your career area.

Don't just do it for the LOLs.

On the flip side, employers also use social media as a way to screen out and exclude candidates from consideration.

Many employers, especially in a down market when unemployment is high, look for ways to take a very large pool of applicants and winnow it down into a select few that jump to the top of their list.

It's a hard yet sad truth that anything you say in a public forum may be held against you, even if it's not legal to do so. Some (many?) employers skirt the law by excluding candidates from consideration based on where they live, their political views, or even their ethnicity or sexuality. All of these characteristics are easily determined via social media posts — even though it would be illegal for the employer to ask about those characteristics during an interview.

It's nearly impossible to prove that an employer excluded you from consideration for a job opening based on a protected classification such as ethnicity, sexuality, etc. that they determined via your social media posts.

What you can do, however, is review your social media history and look for personal posts and pictures that portray you in a bad light, such as posting pics of your drunken bachelor party or videos of you beating up a cop on the steps of a federal building, etc.

TIP: Review all of your social media profiles and activity, whether you think it's publicly visible or not, and remove anything that can give potential employers a legal reason to round-file your application.

Seeing pictures of you drunk in Cancun gives employers a quick way to exclude you from consideration.

Social Media From the Job Seeker's Perspective

Build your network of connections. It takes time, but do it honestly by contributing more than you ask.

Social media has tremendous value for you as a job seeker. The connections and relationships you build via today's social media platforms can pay huge dividends, both professionally and personally.

Building your network in person is the most effective yet it's not very efficient. There is only one of you and there is only so much time in the day to attend local networking meetings or to travel to industry conventions and other events.

Connecting with others in your field, or those who work at the kind of companies where you are seeking employment, is of utmost importance.

If you are looking for work as a graphic designer and want to focus on the apparel industry, seek out those who work at places like H&M or Nike. Follow well-known designers and interact with them. Find those who have won industry awards and congratulate them.

Even though your primary objective is to find work or expand your career, keep your communications honest and genuine.

Even through the filter of social media, people can tell when you have selfish motives.

Be patient. In-person relationships can foster very quickly, sometimes developing initial rapport in a matter of minutes. Social media relationships can take much longer, sometimes years.

Many people, especially when they are higher up in the corporate food chain, have emotional and mental guards in place, almost to the point of paranoia, and are highly suspicious of the motives of others. They assume you want something from them — the more influential they are, the more likely that is true.

Contribute to the discussion and do it genuinely, even if your contribution is in the form of a question. Advance the conversation.

If you come out of the gate asking for favors right away, you'll get nowhere.

In the end, the network you build should be genuine. It will take time so be patient yet persistent.

You never know when a referral or connection will be made or from which source. Your focus should be on developing relationships, not connections, so that when an opportunity comes up where someone in your network can make a referral or recommendation, they won't hesitate.

To build a quality referral network on social media — and in person, too — be respectful, considerate, and appreciative. Contribute more than you ask, and above all, act honestly and with integrity.