The social network

Excel Recruitment recommends using the 75/25 rule when posting content on online social networks – approximately 75% should be professional and 25% personal

Barry Whelan explains how to cultivate a professional online image which will ensure prospective employers and clients don’t remain switched off to your potential.

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Advisor

With the average Irish Facebook user having 160 ‘friends’, it is a fact that our society has embraced social media wholeheartedly. Using Linked In, Facebook and indeed Twitter to advertise jobs, search for and then research candidates and connect to potential candidates has become the norm in the recruitment industry.

So how do you search for jobs via social media?

Three ways to go about doing this are to firstly build your online presence, secondly engage with the recruitment companies advertising the type of roles you’re interested in  and thirdly, link with the sort of companies or indeed individuals you would like to work with.

So firstly, your online presence:

Create an  account on Linked In, Facebook and Twitter
• Remember to allow yourself time for a learning curve. Each site has different user ability and takes time and practice to get to know
• Create your account, claim your username and design your background.
• Set goals for your job search: How do you want to use Twitter? As a source of job leads, for company research, to expand your network? Will Facebook be for personal or professional use? Will you publish your full career history on Linked In?
• Write your bio. This should identify what makes you unique and tell readers what you want. You may also want to mention a special  achievement or unusual accomplishment.
• Write 10 to 12 tweets offline. Then, tweet one or two of them each  time you log in to Twitter.
• Follow/make friends with/Link In  with 15 people you know who won’t be judging your account.
• We recommend the 75/25 rule: Approximately 75% of content should be professional and 25 % can be personal.

Secondly engage with recruitment companies or companies directly advertising the type of roles you’re interested in:

• When you engage with  recruitment companies, keep your settings private so that you won’t be publicly seen as obviously job seeking (unless of course you’re out of work and you don’t have a boss to keep job seeking from) 
• When we register new jobs, we immediately send out a Twitter alert. You can gain a wealth of advantages when turning to Twitter for help in the job search. You can research companies and organisations, uncover little-known job leads, connect with recruiters and employers and learn up-to-the-minute news about the industries and employers that interest you.
• Linking in with recruitment companies mean the job alerts get sent to you, avoiding searching job boards
• Subscribe to job feeds: a ‘feed’ is web content from a source such as Twitter that can be delivered to your phone or e-mail.

You can subscribe to a feed with services like Feedreader.com or Google.com/reader. You will automatically be sent each job that is advertised.

Lastly link in, follow or become friends with the type of companies or indeed individuals you would like to work with. By doing this you are alerting people to your interest in them or their business and highlighting your experience and skills to them without directly applying for a job.

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