How You Use Social Media In a Job Search
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Next time you post something to one of your social media profiles, consider whether it’s something you’d want a prospective employer to see.
You might be surprised to learn that 93% of recruiters use social media to vet out potential employees whether that’s LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter. Social media has great potential for employers to see a glimpse of who you really are as a person outside the confines of your CV. Therefore, it makes sense that your social media content enhances your chance to be employable.
Anything we post on social media has the potential to become public, so you want to make sure anything you post is something you wouldn’t mind a potential employer or colleague seeing for the simple reason that online behaviours have the potential to turn prospective employers off. Here are just a few things you might want to consider!
Bad spelling and grammar have the potential to compromise your chances of employability. When you post an update to Facebook or Twitter ensure you have the correct spellings, particularly if you’ve chosen a career that requires high levels of accuracy and attention to detail. Let’s face it that would include most job roles!
Something you should never do under any circumstance! Everyone has a bad day at work from time to time, but never post anything negative about an employer on your social media. Work issues should be kept between yourself and your employer.
Sharing your personal, political or religious views is something you need to be careful about on social media. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but you might want to think again if you’re the kind of person who posts controversial political, religious or social views. You might hold strong views but you’ll need to be mindful that it could impact your chances of being employed.
You’ll need to be careful about the kind of photos you share on social media too. Prospective employers don’t want to see photos of you on your night out in town sprawled across the dance floor. You’ll have to be careful with this one since you may have been tagged in photos, so make sure you review these before you start your job search.
One thing you should be doing with your social media is creating value by posting content or even writing material about the field you are in or hoping to enter. By sharing and publishing content your building a personal brand for yourself. Make new connections online to people relevant to your industry particularly on LinkedIn. After all this is the platform that most recruiters use to filter good candidates
Social media isn’t about to go away anytime soon but if you use it in the correct way and follow a few simple guidelines it might just help you with finding your next role. If you need support and advice in finding your next role, contact Optima on 0116 303 3560.
