How to Get a Better Job Using Social Media

Social media is far more than just keeping in touch with friends and family. Today it’s becoming the key first step in networking and recruiting, which means integrating social media into your CV. Doing that effectively, however, requires you to follow a few basic guidelines.

Always be Current

Even if you are not looking for a new position, make sure your online CV is always updated. Add new skills and contact information as well as continue to update your current job description. As an example, one woman, who wasn’t working in her chosen field and had actually given up on finding work there, was hired by a recruiter who had searched on a job skill she was performing. She left the job she had settled for and took on the new position, which paid $20,000 more than she was making.

Mind the History

There have been enough news stories about people losing out on jobs or potential positions because a recruiter, after doing an online search, found unsavoury pictures or posts from their past. It is not enough to simply delete old posts and images from your social media accounts. Make sure you regularly search for yourself on multiple search engines, in text and as images, and request the removal of anything you feel no longer presents you in your best light. Often your name can be attached to an image that has nothing to do with you if the spammer thinks your search score is high enough to get them some attention.

Manage Posts to Highlight Your CV

By adding links to your online CV to the signature line on your emails and social media posts, you can generate more views from your target industry. You can also use regular posts that relate your CV links to a current industry topic as a means of getting your information in front of people who will be looking for someone well-versed in that area. It is important, however, that you properly manage the use of signature links. A signature link should never be included after the 5th email response in a thread. Signature links should also be absent from posts that are of a personal nature. This further underscores the fact that you are not blindly self-promoting but have a professional sense of boundaries and appropriateness.

Crossover to Print

Working social media into the print and presentation versions of your CV is frequently overlooked. Often, the links to your online CV, portfolio and/or examples can be listed under the general information beginning as “web presence” or “online access”. Make sure that underneath this heading you follow the protocol of the name of the social media, followed by a colon and then the full web address of the link. You should do this because many companies use an automated program that scrapes fields to generate scored reports for a reviewer. A CV with proper links will score higher and the reviewer is more apt to visit your online presentation before contacting you than if the links are written in any other way. Another good tip is to choose two primary social media networks and feature them on your business cards and as part of all your print headings.

Richard McMunn, runs the leading career website How2Become. His aim is to help as many people as possible secure the job they have always wanted. You can also connect with How2become on their Youtube channel.