Going Social
5 Top Tips
Contents
Top Tip #1: Creating the perfect profile………3
Top Tip #2: How to get found………..7
Top Tip#3: Network with the right people…the right way………....12
Top Tip #4: Become an asset……….15
Top Tip #5: Maintain your networks……….………….16
Top Tip #1: Creating the perfect profile
□
Complete to 100%
In terms of job searching, this point is most relevant to LinkedIn. Out of all social media profiles, your LinkedIn account, if completed to 100%, has a greater probability of appearing in Google searches – so, very important if you want to be found by potential employers! Equally on Twitter, you may miss opportunities if you do not provide a personal summary or email address, so ensure you have entered accurate, concise information into all the suggested fields. If you‟re not feeling inspired to complete your whole profile, try seeing it from a recruiters perspective – what does an incomplete profile say about you? Also, the information you fail to include could be that critical piece of information that the recruiter might need to select you.
□
Display an appropriate picture
The very first thing your potential employers will see is your photo...the saying about first impressions springs to mind here! Particularly on LinkedIn, your picture should look somewhat professional and approachable - people like dealing with friendly, welcoming faces. Remember, your photo will instantly reflect your brand, so try to use an image that sends the right message.
□
Create an informative headline
When job searching, your LinkedIn headline is one of, if not, THE, most crucial element of your profile. It is your 120 character hook to people finding you in a LinkedIn search. It is one of the three visible profile features that will appear in group listings, home feeds etc., so your headline should be about what you do, as opposed to who you are. It's the only customizable, personal information, so take time to make it memorable and enticing enough, in a professional context, for someone to click on your profile and not your competitors. To create your headline, think of it as your personal brand statement. You are essentially marketing yourself, so be sure to pepper your headline with the keywords that you think people will do searches for. Example:
Sarah Smith
Senior Piping Engineer at X Company | Conduct high-quality technical piping design to deliver revenue growth for oil and gas clients.
Aberdeen, United Kingdom | Oil & Energy
In Common: ► 34 shared connections ► 3 shared groups
□
Craft a professional summary
Your summary should define who you are, what (want to) do and why you are unique. This is also the section that allows you to highlight your position in the industry and what you can bring to a prospective employer. When writing the summary, keep in mind the following: If someone were introducing you to another person, what would you want this person to know about you and why? Mention the following: Your current role and what makes this important? What company do you work for and what makes them special? What have you accomplished? It may be tempting to list everything that makes you the perfect candidate, but do keep it concise. Select your top
3-5 points regarding significant jobs, training, and accomplishments. Goals that you would like to achieve in the future are also an excellent feature to include in your summary as it displays your ambition and drive for development. Above all – try to include industry keywords (see the theme yet?).
□
List all your skills, experience and areas of expertise
In the specialties section, list any industry expertise, experience, skills and qualifications, which you think you have learnt with some ability. This section is the most ideal for listing industry-specific
keywords so make the most of it. Doing so, will increase your chances of being seen by
prospective employers and illustrate to them just how experienced and qualified you are for the role. You never know what may stick out. Something like being a member of the same professional institute as the hiring manager could give you a distinctive unique selling point over the competition. Ensure you mention anything that portrays your knowledge and unique abilities.
□
Obtain and provide recommendations
Often, what other people say about you has a greater impact than what you have to say about yourself. This is why you shouldn‟t underestimate the power of recommendations. Recommendations on LinkedIn are references for your work, associated to your job. They‟re a great way of showing what your colleagues and clients thought of your capabilities in that position and give a lot more insight than your CV could. The best way to get a recommendation (aside from doing well in your job) is to recommend other people. Don‟t be afraid to ask for recommendations – they‟re a great record of your value and are more easily available to potential employers than references. Remember – they don‟t necessarily have to come from people who work above you, but do try to get recommendations from the relevant people you work with.
□
Personalise your URL
To increase the professional results that appear when people type your name into a search engine, set your LinkedIn profile to public and claim a unique URL for your profile (for example:
www.linkedin.com/in/joebloggs). This will help your profile rank higher on Google and make it easier for people to find you. It also gives a great sense of professionalism. If the unique URL is taken, then try different variations with hyphens, underscores and middle initials. For consistency, you should also personalise your Facebook URL (if it‟s available).
□
Before you go live...proof read
Check, double-check and triple-check your spelling and grammar! You don‟t want to ruin your credibility because of a typo in your job title, or give the impression of a sloppy attitude.
□
Think before you tweet (or post, or update, or like)
Before you get going with commenting on discussions, posting links and liking statuses…simply think before you act. Is this appropriate? Is this in line with what you want to achieve? Is it in anyway damaging to your personal brand or job search? Do nothing in haste or in anger as there is no rewind button on social media. Although you can delete, any unwanted message or comment could already have been seen by hundreds, if not thousands, of people. So…think
about what you post (particularly personal photos and videos), who you share the information with, and how it reflects on your reputation.
□
Google yourself
Today, it is quite common for companies to do background research on their interviewees through social media, to learn more about them. With this in mind, the first step to getting an idea of what prospective employers will learn about you, in a social media search, is simply to Google yourself. From this, you will see exactly what any prospective employer will find in their own search. Now that you have the search findings, it is crucial you act accordingly, to help aid your online reputation. In some instances a search can return no results. You may think this is great, no results = no negative impact, surely? However, you should employers to find you so they can see what a brilliant candidate you are. Today, where social media is so far-reaching, it may be somewhat unnerving for potential employers not to be able to find any information – it may also look somewhat suspicious. If the search (most likely) does return some results, you should carefully assess these and identify if there is anything which you would not want your granny, let alone a potential employer to see. This will help lead you to the next point.
□
Manage your privacy settings
By this point you should be aware of exactly what can be seen, so if you want to make a good impression, it‟s time to clean up your profile (if it‟s a bit messy) and manage your privacy settings. Don‟t forget, unless you set your profiles to private, anyone can view all your personal status updates, photos, videos and groups. So, if you do contact potential employers through your social networking page, you‟re more or less inviting them to have a look at it.
There are several things to keep in mind when making your profiles employer-friendly, firstly increase the level of privacy settings on any photo albums that you don‟t want everyone to see and de-tag any photos, which cast you in a negative light. Your wall may have posts from as far back as the dawn of Facebook and these may not be the types of things that you want a potential employer to see. Make sure that your statuses reflect your goals and make that they are appropriate. Constant status updates on how bored you are and how many interviews you have had will not go down well.
□
Social (media) conduct
The way you conduct yourself in social networking can largely determine your online reputation. A crucial factor in maintaining a good reputation is to make sure your social media presence does not cause a negative impact! There are a few very important pointers you should take into consideration. An obvious point is to avoid posting negative comments. This is not to say that you can‟t express your opinions in a logical, civil and considered manner, but negative words about companies or people can have a bad impact on your personal brand…you never know who will read it. Even if you don‟t want a new job right at this moment, it‟s worth changing your online habits anyway as you will potentially be job hunting in the future, plus you wouldn‟t want to be doing anything that could negatively affect your current employer or company. It‟s important to find the right balance – you can equally annoy other networkers by being overly keen, for instance, it‟s not good practice to import your twitter feeds onto LinkedIn or liking every comment as this clogs up others home feeds and become quite irritating.
That said, it‟s just as possible to make a positive impression online as it is to leave a negative one. If you‟re looking for a new job in say, process engineering, be sure to actually list this as your interest so potential employers can see why you‟d be suited to the industry.
Top Tip #2: How to get found
□
Use your network
Now that you have your network, start to leverage it. You can‟t expect hirers to come straight to you; the hint is in the title „social networking‟ so, let people know that you are on the look-out. To make this approach somewhat structured, you could start by contacting the obvious people – so, hiring managers, influential people within the prospective company and personal contacts who you know can help.
□
M
ake people listen
However, this in itself needs to be done with consideration – as mentioned in Top Tip #2, you must take care not to be overly keen with posting comments and blocking up people‟s home feeds. If you your network contacts persistently see regurgitated posts or feeds from twitter about how you need a new job, it can easily make them switch off and ignore the posts, or worse, omit your posts altogether from their home feeds. So, if you do post updates about your job search, try to distance them a bit.
To really make someone listen to you, the best approach is a direct message – something that can‟t be easily ignored. Sending a direct message also gives you the chance to personalise the content to that specific person, thus giving you a greater sense of credibility. Potential employers or network contacts will appreciate the fact that you have taken time to send the mail, so hopefully will return the favour and respond to you with something constructive. Make sure any messages are well-thought and relevant. For instance, if you find the details of a hiring manager with a company you are interested in, briefly explain your current situation and why you are contacting them, in your message. Be careful about writing to someone who you do not know and who works in a division where they are unlikely to be able to help. Keep your written communication polite, concise and informative.
□
Make sure
your profile lets people know you’re searching
If you‟re actively and openly job searching, make sure profile headlines and summaries reflect this. Some people may not check their accounts daily – so make sure yours indicates you are searching in case they find your page.
□
Don’t be afraid to use Facebook
When it comes to job searching Facebook is not just for friends. To help you utilize all social media avenues, tap into your Facebook connections by informing them you‟re interested in a move or actively on the hunt. It‟s not only a good idea to keep people in your network informed that you are looking for a job, but also let them know what type of job you are looking for. If you keep them informed, they will keep you in mind and hopefully tell you as soon as a new position opens up.
□
Set up profiles on all big networks
So, if you want employers to find relevant information when they Google your name, you need to be active on all the previously mentioned social media websites including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Fill out your profile information on all these sites carefully including the industry-related keywords as well. If you have a completely filled out job profile on these sites, employers will find your profile information in the top Google rankings. If your social media profiles aren‟t showing up, and instead your search results are filled with irrelevant or negative results (or worse, results referring to other people), you are losing a huge opportunity.
□
Make your profiles SEO friendly
Finally, you have to get the right keywords on your profile or you will not come up in any searches. Yes you might come up in searches for your name but let‟s face it if someone already knows your name you already have a foot in the door. It‟s better to come up in the search for “Java recruiter
Manchester”.Use social media as your own SEO tools – use key words carefully
Making your profile SEO friendly - Make sure it‟s clean before you optimize before you start promoting a social network, it‟s important to remember that everything you post is public and can be seen by everyone. Utilize phrases/words used by professionals in the field and associated to the job.
□
Add your profile links where possible
Also remember to add the link to your personal profile on Twitter and LinkedIn. This helps employers to find your contact information if they are willing to get in touch with you. Don‟t add a link to your Facebook profile, as it is private available only to your friends. Keeping profile information on Facebook private also shows employers that you are internet savvy. Many employers appreciate this skill. Make sure you include a link back to your website and as many other profiles as they‟ll let you include. Links are an important factor in search engine rankings. The higher the number of credible pages your site links to (and vice versa), the higher each one will rank for your name.
□
Use your real name
When analyzing a link, search engines try to establish the most important keyword on the page so they know what to rank it for. Therefore, if you want your Twitter profile to appear at the top of the search findings as “Joe Bloggs,” make sure your username is “JoeBloggs,” not “Evertonfan1.” This reinforces your name as an important keyword. Tip: If your username is already taken, simply try a variation using a middle name, initials or underscore, like “JoeBrianBloggs” or “Joe_Bloggs.” This will help make your profile easier to find, ensuring recruiters or hiring managers don‟t lose patience in their search.
□
Complete your profiles to 100%
As we mentioned in Top Tip #1, a complete profile is crucial to your job searching success! In terms of enhancing your probability of appearing in search results, a complete profile is important
for two main reasons. Firstly, profiles that are completely filled out are deemed more credible by search engines than profiles that have several missing fields. LinkedIn is a great example of this – people and search engines are statistically more likely to view a complete LinkedIn profile.
Secondly, the more places you can include information about yourself (and include the keyword “Your Name”), the more search engines will realize your name is an important keyword on the page and rank it accordingly.
□
Join relevant industry groups and pages
One of the best ways to be found by hirers and companies within your profession is to join relevant industry groups and pages on the key social networking sites. LinkedIn would be a great place to start as it hosts technically and industry specific groups such as Mechanical Engineers – an ideal forum to be found by the right people.
□
Hyperlink your CV
A further tip to help you get found on social networks is to include links to your accounts on your
CV. Presenting yourself to be transparent to potential employers, not only shows candidness and professionalism, but confidence in who you are as a professional and your willingness to make life easy for them. If, they are appropriate and will aid your job search, include your Facebook, Twitter and most importantly LinkedIn profile URLs along the top of your CV, next to your contact details. As
mentioned above, make sure the links are short and
memorable, ideally your
name, so the employer can easily find your profile to learn more about you, without having to do a lot of digging.
□
Identify what makes you unique
With more than 135 million LinkedIn profiles, it‟s no wonder that many of them look the same. So, identify and highlight what makes you unique. Ideally this is something to include in your headline as this can instantly grab the attention of a potential employee.
□
Get yourself noticed
The key is getting yourself noticed, and you get noticed by engagement and getting involved. Look for the online places that your targets visit or post in - this could be a potential goldmine for finding a whole list of relevant industry contacts. Get involved in the conversation, look at what your targets are talking about and contribute on both a personal and professional level.
□
List all your expertise
Following on from our Top Tip #1, make sure you list all relevant expertise, skills and interests in your field of work as this will make you a much more appealing candidate. Within your lists you should also included any skills which generally set you apart from others and which you feel are transferrable and useful for your desired job.
□
Highlight your achievements
Listing your achievements is a further point to help you stand out from all the other applicants. However, to give you that competitive edge, include a brief explanation as to how these were achieved – it is something the hiring manager would potentially ask and they‟ll be impressed that you‟re a step ahead.
□
Make use of advanced applications
Consider utilizing some of LinkedIn‟s advanced features such as adding the blog application; this would be particularly constructive in elevating your online presence and helping you to stand out as a significant industry player.
□
Be innovative
Do not settle for being a follower. Ask questions, create groups, and actively connect other people. These activities will put your profile in front of more people. They will frame you as a leader. And they will add more flavor to your personality that potential employers might remember. If you are not already a great networker, then some of this might be easier said than done. However, it is something to look for. Creating a group that gets good discussions going or starting a question that many people find interest in answering can be keys in helping you find the more active users that will help your job search reach a higher level.
□
Blogger benefits
Just as interacting in groups will show your interests, blogging too provides a medium through which to showcase your expertise, share your market knowledge and communicate your thoughts and passion. Blogs give you great exposure too. You never know; your blog may be spotted by key industry players you‟re seeking to connect with, before you even send your CV – putting you in a great position before the application process even starts!
Top Tip #3: Network with the right people…the right way
□
Who are the ‘right’ people?
The „right‟ people for you, includes anyone who can help you in your current and/or future job search. So, apart from the obvious friends and colleagues, there are a few other people you should consider networking with when it comes to searching for a new role. Firstly, draw up a list of
target companies that you want to work for and find out if you are connected with anyone that
works there. You can use advanced search capabilities on LinkedIn and „Branch Out‟ on Facebook to do this Ask yourself whether there is anyone among your connections that could facilitate an introduction for you? Using the degrees of connection, you should also search for influential contacts with whom you share group connections, extended colleagues and anyone from external businesses with whom you have dealt professionally. Recruiters are also a brilliant contact source to help with you job search. Many, like Primat for instance, will not only speak to
you about available vacancies, but they‟ll also provide you with valuable industry advice.
□
Quality vs. Quantity
When it comes to networking with the right people, you need to decide what is more important – the quality or the quantity. Would you rather have fewer, more select and relevant contacts or a whole range of contacts and hope that some of them will be valuable to your job search? There is clearly an argument for both. The more people you catch in your net, the better the possibility of establishing far-reaching relationships and gaining secondary contacts through your connections. Yet, equally, if you place more value on quality, you have more time to nurture your professional relationships and network with useful industry contacts. If you‟re in a typically corporate role, having a vast quantity of contacts is fairly standard. Yet, as a jobseeker, showing 500+ contacts, with a number of irrelevant connections, could suggest desperation or lack of focus.
□
Build up a relationship
Once you‟ve found the contacts that are valuable to your job search, you must begin building a relationship. Be sure you don‟t take a gung-ho approach and just ask them if they know of any available jobs and then leave it at that – you don‟t want to give the impression that you‟re only after one thing from them. It‟s important to nurture a gradual relationship with the relevant players, so that even if they don‟t know of anything for you straight away, they‟ll remember you if something comes up further down the line. Comment on your contacts‟ posts or tweets when
they ask for help and contribute to the discussions they start in groups. Once you are on tweeting
or commenting terms with a target you can make an approach. People will be flattered to be asked for help or opportunities and this could open the door for you.
□
Personalise messages
There has been some research indicating that the boring, auto-generated text in LinkedIn‟s invitation statistically has a higher acceptance rate than a customized one. Setting expectations about why you want to connect and what you want out of the relationship is extremely important. If you just used the standard language, then got an accepted invitation, what are the
chances they will then be willing to respond to your In-Mails? Better to define the relationship up front; then they won‟t be surprised later when you ask them for an info interview.
□
Be concise
The best approach to take in your communication with potential connections is to be concise. You have to realize that the hiring manager you are targeting is extremely busy, so keep to the point and don‟t waffle. Here‟s a quick tip for keeping it short: take out the apology -what‟s left will be a concise and confident message.
□
Share
In most cases, you can‟t invite someone to your network unless you either have their email address (which isn‟t hard to find) or you share something in common (group, school, company). Always connect based on something you have in common. This lowers their defenses and aligns you as a friend. E.g. “I saw that you are also a member of Oil and Gas People group, and I‟m interested in learning more about your role at Primat. Shall we connect?”
□
Be smart
Social media allows you to follow and engage with influential and interesting people in your sector. This provides you opportunities to see what they think about things and follow the links they share. Be smart and use their links and comments to initiate discussions, but be sure that any information you post is accurate, especially if it involves statistics. Interacting with those people in an intelligent manner will get you noticed for the right reasons. Tip: Retweet the tweets you find interesting and reply from time to time; that way, the person you‟re following gets to learn more about you too.
□
Rules of engagement
As mentioned in Top Tip #2, the way in which you conduct yourself online is crucial to your reputation. Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter have very different customs when it comes to rules of engagement. For instance, it‟s perfectly acceptable to follow a senior hiring manager of a company you are interested in on Twitter. However, if you do not personally know them, it would be a bit of faux pas to send them a friend request on Facebook. The rules of LinkedIn fall somewhere in between – It‟s common for people to add others to their network, with whom they are not personally befriended, yet if they send a network invitation, it is expected that the message is personalized to include a bit of an introduction about yourself and a reason as to why you would like to connect with that person. Once you are on tweeting or commenting terms with a target you can make an approach. People will be flattered to be asked for help or opportunities and this could open the door for you.
□
Directories
Twitter has various types of applications you can use to seek out potential employers and useful contacts. Directories such as Twellow can help you find tweeps in your chosen field. Keyword trackers like Monitter can identify who is using phrases specific to your industry; and you can use apps such as Twitscoop to track trends and events related to your desired job.
□
Groups
One of the obvious places to look is in groups. On most of the top social networking sites, you can join groups categorized by your industry, profession and interests, which are ideal for finding relevant professionals. Within most of the groups the latter also offer a Q&A function where you ask and answer the questions that will draw you into a network of potentially useful contacts.A further benefit of groups is that they are indexed by Google, meaning you can do specific Google searches to find the most suitable for you. Secondly, the groups are a great place to interact and meet new and exciting individuals. There are discussions, emails and a lot of networking that happens in these groups and that is a great way to grow your network, which in turn, can help you land that new role.
□
Blogs
Blogs are a brilliant source for finding industry leaders. Try to identify the influential people in your sector and listen to what they have to say. Learn from them and provide your insight in return. Being aware of current issues and understanding them from an insider‟s point of view will really help you stand out. No matter the sector, businesses everywhere are using or seeing the need to use the likes of social media to engage their audience and achieve their goals. By demonstrating your online prowess, you‟ll be identified as someone who knows what they‟re doing and who can help the company progress in the online sphere.
Top Tip #4: Become an asset
□
Engage & Interact
Just as you “like” Pages on Facebook, you can join groups on LinkedIn. These groups help you in two ways, the first being to provide you with a forum to discuss matters relevant to you and the second being to enable you to showcase your expertise and network with like minded professionals. You should join and interact in groups which are relevant to the line of work you are in or looking to move into. Showing you are aware of current issues and generally interested in the industry will help you stand out from other candidates and also give you something to talk about in your interview. Following other people‟s blogs and commenting on them is another way to get benefit from blogs. Try to identify the influential people in your sector and listen to what they have to say. Learn from them and provide your insight in return. Being aware of current issues and understanding them from an insider‟s point of view will really help you stand out.
□
Share market knowledge
Sharing your market knowledge can be a critically strategic move in your job search. By sharing your expertise on the industry you operate in, you can gain traction as an expert and position yourself as a valuable resource to potential employers. It is an opportunity for you to showcase your knowledge and demonstrate what a potential asset you could be to a business – so make sure the information you post is accurate, relevant and appropriate. Sharing industry knowledge may also help to develop relationships with key contacts and can also be used to initiate new connections.
□
Show interest in prospective jobs/companies
There‟s nothing a prospective employer likes more than an individual who shows a genuine interest in their business and who has clearly done their homework. What they would like even more is someone who adds value to the business before they even work there. Through social media, you can easily position yourself to achieve this. By this stage, you should know if your prospective business has a group page, blog or discussion forum set up and now‟s the time to fully utilize this knowledge. See what the general point of discussion or issues are, do some research (if need be) and provide some valuable input or advice. Maintain your level of communication and soon you could be a key contributor and asset to them.
□
Show willingness to learn
Although it is important to show that you have both interest in and knowledge of your chosen industry, it‟s also important to demonstrate your willingness to learn and to build up your skills. Ask industry players for advice about your job search, use group discussions to clarify points you‟re not sure about, and listen in on others‟ conversations. Use social networking to build up your experience and skills set offline. Even if none of your online friends know of any paid jobs going, press them for information on volunteering or work experience opportunities. If you‟ve actually set out to get some voluntary work experience before seeking gainful employment, connect with the voluntary sector experts that can sort you out with opportunities suited to your desired career path.
Top Tip #5: Maintain your networks
Hopefully by the time you‟ve made it to Top Tip #10 you‟ll have a good idea how to utilize your social media presence to help you in your job search.
If you‟ve landed the new role – well done! Your efforts have paid off, and you can switch off from social media, right? Wrong. You wouldn‟t want your hard work to go to waste would you?
Maintain your networking and expand your connections to continue building your personal brand and relationships with industry players. Not only will this maintain your position in peoples‟ minds as an industry leader, but it will strengthen your credibility and help you for any future ventures. You never know when you may need to get in touch with one of your contacts!
Maintaining your social media network doesn‟t mean you need to be commenting and posting 24/7, however, it does require a little commitment. Your involvement can be minimal yet still constructive. For instance, try spending 10 minutes in the morning, whilst having your first coffee, simply making a comment on a discussion, or posting a link to an interesting news article. This way, very little, if none, of your time is taken away, yet you are still seen as a proactive and valuable industry professional and member of the social media community.
