Don't Like Social Media? It Could Hurt Your Job Search

How social media can help your job search.

Social media is still one of the best tools for finding and getting the job of your dreams, but many job seekers still aren't convinced. Even though they won't take the place of looking for jobs on a traditional job board, having a well connected social network and a lively online presence can help you find out about new job openings, get great referrals and even impress a potential employer when they look for information about you online.

In fact, many companies are now looking for new talent through social recruiting. You may not have heard the term before, but trust me, you'll be hearing it a lot more frequently. Recruiting employees by doing targeted web searches on social networking sites is on the rise. When you think about it, it makes perfect sense. Sites like Linkedin and even Facebook have huge databases of people who are sharing their resumes and talking about their job search.

Also, many companies are investing money in building up their social networking efforts. The companies who were always ahead of the social networking trend have been extremely successful (think Amazon and Zappos), and even large corporations are beginning to see the value of getting connected with their customers. Since this is where their attention is being focused, finding employees who are already familiar with how to use these sites is important. What better way to find them those people than through a social site?

This isn't just my opinion. A recent study by Jobvite, a recruiting company, found that 55 percent of employers polled said that they planned to increase their investment in social recruiting this year. In addition, 87 percent of them were already using Linkedin and 95 percent of them said that they hired a new employee from their social networking profile. Even the Bureau of Labor and Statistics agree. They estimate that 85 percent of career opportunities are unadvertised and found through social networks, both online and off.

In fact, if you don't participate in any type of social networking and have little to no online presence, it could actually hurt your job search. These days, if you don't have a website or something an employer can see, you may not be taken seriously. If you think about it, you wouldn't take a business very seriously if it didn't have a website, online menu or even a Facebook page. The same holds true for employers.

If you are looking for a way to really help your job search, get online and start connecting with people. Set up a few social networking profiles and start getting involved with others. If you aren't sure how to get the best results, read a few how to articles about social networking.


Have you used social networking in your job search? Why or why not? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
 

By Melissa Kennedy- Melissa is a 9 year blog veteran and a freelance writer for LogisticsJobsiteBlog and Nexxt, along with helping others find the job of their dreams, she enjoys computer geekery, raising a teenager, supporting her local library, writing about herself in the third person and working on her next novel.