It seems as though everyone is using social media websites, from celebrities and journalists to Prime Ministers and businesses.
They’ve evolved from nowhere into the most used sites on the web, with the likes of Facebook and Twitter consuming our lives and helping us to waste hours of spare time following the lives of our friends and favourite celebrities, sharing photographs and telling people where we are.
A lot of businesses now have their own dedicated social media accounts, helping them to interact with clients and customers and to stay on top of all the latest industry developments. However, we’ve heard a lot about how using social media can affect your job prospects and career in general when used the wrong way.
Using expletives, complaining about work and colleagues and even ranting about your football team have all contributed to people losing their jobs or missing out on vacancies, but what about using social networks to find a job?
vacancies, but what about using social networks to find a job? There are tons of jobs on www.jobstoday.co.uk and alike, but what about looking somewhere different to find your dream career – is this possible?
The simple answer is, yes. Finding pages and links on sites like Facebook and Twitter aren’t the only way to find yourself a new job. The company accounts can help you to find out more about a firm, to interact with them and to get in touch with the relevant people at the company who are in a position to offer you an interview or job.
Many people have started talking with businesses over social networks and through a series of conversations they’ve built up a friendship where they are in a position to be informed about work experience, internships or full-time employment opportunities.
Some companies will even go so far as advertising their vacancies on their website, linking to it on their social media accounts, without using recruitment agencies to fill the vacancies. In this respect, social media has proven to benefit the company and from your own perspective, social networks provide you with a platform to showcase your talents.
If you’re a writer, for instance, you can share links to your latest articles so that people looking for writers in particular niches are able to see them, like them, and contact you to offer you an opportunity to work with them on a trial or freelance basis, or even a more permanent role. Other sites, like LinkedIn, let you upload your CV to showcase your talents and experience for recruiters and businesses to essentially “come and get you.”
Studies have revealed that one in three employers search for employees by using social media. Along with search engines, social networks are the most popular resources for searching for content and people, so it’s down to you to ensure that anything you post is okay to be seen by prospective employers.
If you want to rant about your football team or criticize the clothes worn by a certain celebrity, set up a different account and keep one personal and one for business or professional matters… or reign yourself in!
It’s so refreshing to see this topic being covered – social media is so far-reaching that of course it can help people find a job, just as much as its misuse can help them lose one. At Meet The Real Me (http://www.meettherealme.co.uk) we firmly believe in getting to know potential employers as much as possible, if only to have something to say in response to the dreaded, ‘ So, do you have anything you’d like to ask us?’
Sharing so much of ourselves online has become the norm and yes, we must be careful what we reveal of ourselves. A great way for a job candidate to keep a firm control on what they want a company to know about them, while still making themselves available online is to create an ‘e-me’, or video CV. It takes just a few minutes to create one and upload it to social media. What you might call a ‘win-win’?