Most Job Seekers Fail to Employ Social Media
Wake up, job seekers. Sixty percent of you aren’t using social media in your quest to land a position, according to MicroTrain, a professional training and job services company.
That means the 40 percent of job hunters who are using social media—sites like LinkedIn and Twitter—hold a decided advantage over their behind-the-times counterparts. As James Ellis, director of professional services at MicroTrain, pointed out, many job postings on Twitter and LinkedIn never appear anywhere else.
Social media specialist and author Dan Schwabel noted recently that the old approach to finding a job—“developing a resume and cover letter, locating jobs on and submitting your resume to corporate sites and job banks, and crossing your fingers in hopes of receiving a call from a hiring manager—is, for the most part, a thing of the past.”
So, what’s the “thing” of the present and future? Certainly, nothing can replace job fairs, in-person networking and other traditional job-hunting tools. But social media definitely should be in your toolbox. As MicroTrain emphasizes, adopting social media tools helps build your personal brand.
What can you do to establish or enhance your social media presence?
- Create a profile on LinkedIn if you’ve haven’t already. If you already have a profile on the site, make sure it’s updated. Also, sign up for LinkedIn groups in your chosen field.
- Be active on Twitter. Follow folks from your targeted industry and engage them in online conversation. Don’t simply send tweets about your job search.
- Set up an online resume. Free sites such as Emurse.com and Weebly.com can help you accomplish this.
- Launch a blog through a platform like WordPress.org or Blogger.com. Ideally, your blog should concentrate on something related to your career. If you’re pursuing a job in health care, it may not do you much good to blog about sailing.
Holly Paul, U.S. recruiting leader at accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, recently told Medill News Service: “Social media is a great way to learn about different employers as well as build professional networks that will help create opportunities and open doors.”
10/25/2010
Most Job Seekers Fail to Employ Social Media - Technorati Blogging
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